Five children, with tremendous effort, finally hauled Bai Youwei up out of the pit.

Bai Youwei untied the rope from around herself and saw that the children were still staring at her — their eyes carrying no small amount of wariness and curiosity.

Especially the little ones. They were practically drilling holes through her with their gazes, desperately wanting a full 360-degree view.

“Why are you all staring at me?” Bai Youwei patted the dust from her skirt and fired off three questions in a row. “Who are you? Where is this place? What are you doing here?”

Her tone was so matter-of-fact that the older girl bristled and shot back, “Who are *you*, then?”

“Me?” Bai Youwei thought for a moment. No matter how she tried to introduce herself, it didn’t seem quite right.

She simply answered, “I don’t know who I am either. Hmm… I might have amnesia.”

The girl frowned slightly at that, then leaned over and murmured to the boy beside her, “She says she has amnesia…”

Bai Youwei observed their expressions and continued, “I probably ran into bandits or something, and they thought I was dead and dumped me in a place like this… Hm? What’s with this number?”

She noticed a number on her wrist that hadn’t been there before: 14.

While she was staring at it, she watched the number 14 change to 15 right before her eyes.

The girl blurted out, “That’s your follower count.”

Bai Youwei looked completely lost. “…What’s that?”

“It’s like a fan count — I have one too!” Another little girl stretched out her arm to show Bai Youwei.

The small girl’s wrist displayed the number 78.

The other two little ones eagerly thrust out their arms as well. Everyone had a number; the only difference was the size.

By now, the number on Bai Youwei’s wrist had already jumped to 23.

On top of that, Bai Youwei noticed comment barrages had appeared in the sky above! — Real barrages, actual comment barrages! Lines of text with absurd expressions streamed past without mercy!

【The girl’s looks aren’t bad, exactly my type.】

【Following, roaaaar……】

【Following. Among this new batch, she’s actually decent-looking.】

【I’m just a check-in machine~】

……

What on earth was all this nonsense?!

“You must be a newcomer to this world, right?” The young boy spoke up to explain. “Don’t be afraid. Everyone here is the same as you — no memories of anything before, and people here survive through livestreaming. You should currently be on the Newcomer Rankings. The exposure is high, so your follower count is rising quickly. Make the most of the Newcomer Rankings window.”

Bai Youwei listened to all of this, completely dumbfounded. Livestreaming? Followers? Newcomer Rankings? This bore almost no resemblance to the doll world she’d imagined.

Seeing that she was genuinely bewildered, the boy kindly reminded her, “Um… if you’re uncomfortable, there should be a control panel. You can turn off the livestream. Try it…”

Bai Youwei blinked, and after he mentioned it, she really did find a digital panel — like an innate skill, it activated with a single thought, floating in front of her eyes —

She saw the livestream toggle, an points bar, and a grid of squares like a game inventory.

Her points were at 0, the inventory squares all empty. She had no time to investigate any of that for now, so she switched off the livestream without a second thought.

The girl said, “You need to adapt quickly and start streaming soon. The Newcomer Rankings only last 72 hours — counting from when you arrived yesterday, 10 hours have already passed. Don’t waste the remaining time.”

“Do I have to?” Bai Youwei’s skin crawled at the thought of all those eyes watching from the sky. “What happens if I never stream?”

“You’ll die,” the smallest girl said in her small, soft voice. “No followers means no fans, no fans means no gifts, and without gifts you’ll starve to death!”

“Gifts?” Bai Youwei found it absurd. “Who are the people watching the livestreams? Who gives you gifts? Who are they?”

The five children fell silent in unison.

After a long pause, the young boy looked up, gazing at the star-filled sky, and murmured, “No one knows who they are… All we know is that as long as those stars are there, they’re watching.”

—