Bai Youwei immediately asked, “What option?”

“Like us… collecting the subsidy.” The boy said it quietly, a little ill at ease. “As long as you maintain a daily livestream length of 8 hours, regardless of whether anyone is watching, you receive 600 points. That covers basic survival.”

Bai Youwei nodded slowly. “I see…”

— It was like certain web novel platforms, where as long as an author updated 4,000 words a day, they’d receive a full attendance bonus of 600 yuan, whether anyone was reading or not.

Bai Youwei then asked, “But with five of you, just from the subsidies alone you’d collect three thousand points. That should be enough to live reasonably well, shouldn’t it?”

“It’s not that simple…” Yi Zichu looked ahead, his dark eyes shadowed with worry. “Once you go live, if the audience doesn’t like what they see, they’ll unfollow. And when your follower count hits zero… we die.”

He glanced at Bai Youwei. “So when our follower count drops below 10, we turn off the stream. That keeps the count from falling further — but it also disqualifies us from receiving the subsidy. Those dolls in the pit back there, the ones piled up in that massive hole — they’re all people whose follower count fell to zero.”

Bai Youwei stared. “Then… you all went there for…”

“Scavenging.” Yi Zichu kept his head down as he walked, his reply muffled. “The weather’s about to turn cold. The clothes on those dolls can still be used.”

Bai Youwei recalled the scene — the children had indeed been loaded down with bags when she found them.

Yi Zichu had already moved ahead. “Come on, we’re almost there.”

Bai Youwei watched his retreating back, glanced up at the sky, turned something over in her mind, and then quickened her pace to catch up.

……

She had expected the service station to be a proper service hall — or at least something resembling a bank, with consultation windows lined up in rows. Instead, Yi Zichu brought her to a convenience store.

It looked like a convenience store. But it wasn’t quite a real one.

Because there was only the storefront. Through the glass window you could see shelves full of merchandise inside — but the moment you stepped through the door, you realized it was all an illusion.

Bai Youwei entered a white space. Before her floated all manner of digital interfaces: a goods trading section, a public forum, event sign-ups, and the rankings Yi Zichu had mentioned.

Not just the Newcomer Rankings, but also a Big Spender Board, a Seasonal Rankings, and more. Bai Youwei didn’t study them closely — she first noticed a gift box icon blinking in the upper right corner.

She reached out and tapped it. The gift box leapt forward and snapped open with a pop!

“Congratulations! You’ve received a newcomer reward of 600 points. Please use them wisely~”

Cheerful music played, and Bai Youwei heard the sound of funds arriving.

She checked her points. Sure enough: 600.

Bai Youwei stepped back out of the “convenience store” and said to Yi Zichu, visibly delighted, “It gave me 600 points.”

Yi Zichu nodded. “That should be the newcomer gift package. You can use the points to buy food and water — the service station has everything.”

Bai Youwei asked, “Can you buy clothes and shoes too?”

Not wanting her to blow through her points without understanding the value, Yi Zichu patiently explained:

“Generally we buy a month’s supply of food and water first, because you might go a whole month without receiving any gifts. Always plan for the worst — at minimum, you need to last 30 days. After 30 days you can collect another 600 points.

Drinking water is 2 points per bottle. At 2 bottles a day, that’s 120 points for a month.

Among food, instant noodles are the most cost-effective — 5 points per pack. At two meals a day, that’s 300 points for a month.

Don’t forget to buy toilet paper — 20 points per roll, enough for a month.

The weather’s cooling, so you don’t need to bathe every day. Once a week at the public bathhouse comes to 40 points a month.

Setting aside any other expenses and considering only the absolute bare minimum, you’d spend at least 480 points per month.”

Yi Zichu sighed softly and continued, “Living on instant noodles alone, your body will give out eventually. And there’s toothbrushes, toothpaste… Those’ll have to wait until you have points to spare.”

Bai Youwei: “……”

Life… it really was this hard?

—