Livestream Conflict-solver: The Whole Internet Begs Me for Justice!

14: Brothers, let’s chat for a couple of cents on a live stream.As soon as he entered the Digital Mall, the neon signs of various brands dazzled his eyes.

Enthusiastic salespeople swarmed him like cats smelling fish.

”Handsome, looking to build a PC? The latest 5050 graphics card—no stress with PUBG, carry girls to Challenger rank!” A guy with greasy hair leaned in, spitting as he talked.

Zhang Ze activated [Lie Recognition].

”Our shop definitely has the lowest prices in the whole mall, no cheating customers!”

A slight stinging sensation hit him.

Zhang Ze smiled.

He bypassed the guy and went to a counter that looked more honest.

A young salesman wearing black-rimmed glasses, who looked like a college student, greeted him.

”Hello, I want to build a PC. My budget is around six thousand. I’ll mainly use it for streaming and video editing. It needs to run smoothly without stuttering,” Zhang Ze said, getting straight to the point.

The young salesman adjusted his glasses and began to explain professionally: ”With a budget of six thousand, we can use the latest i7 for the CPU, pair it with a good motherboard and RAM. For the graphics card, at this price point, we can get a decent second-hand mining card. The price-performance ratio...”

”No mining cards,” Zhang Ze interrupted him directly. ”I want brand new ones with a warranty. Just build me the most stable and reliable setup within my budget. Don’t play games with me.”

The young salesman was stunned, then looked at Zhang Ze with some admiration and nodded: ”Alright, you know your stuff, Brother. In that case, let’s use a brand-new mid-range graphics card; the performance will be enough for your streaming. We’ll put the remaining money into maxing out the CPU and RAM to ensure you can run multiple programs without lag. This configuration is absolutely conscientious; I won’t make a single unfair cent off you.”

When he finished saying ”I won’t make a single unfair cent off you,” Zhang Ze’s mind remained calm, without the slightest stinging sensation.

”Fine, let’s do it your way,” Zhang Ze said, satisfied.

This [Lie Recognition] skill was practically a dimensionality reduction strike when used in this kind of place.

Assembling, testing, and paying—it was all done in one go.

In the end, Zhang Ze left the Digital Mall, hugging a brand-new PC case with over two hundred yuan in change in his pocket, feeling satisfied.

The balance on his bank card returned to two digits, but he felt more at ease than when he had six thousand yuan.

Back at the rental apartment, he couldn’t wait to plug in the new computer.

He pressed the power button.

”Whoosh—”

The colorful RGB fans spun up, and in less than ten seconds, the familiar desktop appeared before his eyes.

Zhang Ze casually opened several pieces of software and then opened a high-definition video, dragging the progress bar back and forth—silky smooth, without any stutter!

”Hahaha! Awesome!” Zhang Ze slapped the table in excitement.

This is the equipment Brother Pingshi should have!

The cause of justice now had a more solid hardware foundation.

He leaned back in his chair, watching the night view outside the window, a smile playing on his lips.

”Tonight’s stream is ready to begin!”

After a hot shower, Zhang Ze felt every pore in his body relax.

The fatigue from the day and the fierce energy from that brief conflict were washed away, leaving only a sense of total comfort and satisfaction.

Bare-chested and wearing only boxers, he wiped his wet hair with a towel and sat on the edge of the bed.

The brand-new PC case breathed quietly on the desk, the light from the RGB fans casting psychedelic halos in the dim rental apartment, full of a cyberpunk vibe.

”This is what I call life.”

Zhang Ze chuckled, feeling that his life, just like this new computer, had completed a hardware upgrade and was ready to take off at full speed.

He leaned against the headboard, picked up his phone, and skillfully opened the Music Note APP.

”System, start streaming.”

[High-tech phone-free panoramic streaming has been enabled.]

He changed the stream title to—[Brothers, I’m back, let’s chat for fifty cents.]

The moment the stream started, the number of online viewers shot up like a rocket, instantly breaking through one thousand from zero, then three thousand, five thousand, ten thousand... The numbers were still jumping wildly upward.

The recorded clips of the ”Kung Fu Tea” incident from the day had already been edited into various versions online and were spreading everywhere.

Now, countless new viewers who had heard the news and old fans who had been eagerly waiting were crowding the entrance of the stream, waiting for him, the main character, to appear.

The chat instantly exploded, densely covering the entire screen.

”He’s here! Catch a freshly showered Zhang Ze alive!”

”Holy crap, Zhang Ze, did you just come back from a romantic bath with Miss Sera? (Dog head for self-preservation)”

”The guy before me has dangerous thoughts! But I like it! Please elaborate!”

”Zhang Ze, putting everything else aside, that ’Tieguanyin’ followed by the ’Foshan Shadowless Pot’ move this afternoon was so cool I peed in two streams! Please open a class; I’ll pay whatever it costs to learn!”

”Streamer, I heard you brought glory to the country today? Quick, bring out the foreign wife and let us see!”

”To be fair, the stream quality seems much clearer today; I can even see the water droplets on Zhang Ze’s chest... *slurp!*”

Looking at these wild comments, Zhang Ze didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

He cleared his throat and lazily greeted the camera, which was really just the air: ”Ahem, good evening, Brothers. Have you all eaten yet?”

”Ate, ate! I ate two extra bowls of rice while watching the video of you beating people up!”

”Zhang Ze, you’re asking if we’ve eaten? How was your candlelight dinner with Miss Sera?”

”Stop bullshitting, Brothers. Don’t you see Zhang Ze has lost weight? That’s from working hard for us fans! My heart aches for Zhang Ze! Brothers, gift some planes, let’s help Zhang Ze nourish his body!”

As soon as he finished speaking, a cool plane animation flew across the screen, followed by various small gifts being spammed non-stop.

Zhang Ze quickly waved his hands: ”Hey, hey, hey, stop, stop! Brothers, if you have money, buy yourselves something good to eat; don’t gift me. I just bought a new computer—no lag in the stream today, right? I did it just so you guys could watch comfortably, but now I’m broke and have to eat instant noodles tonight.”

His words were half-true and half-false; the money was indeed gone, but the smug ”I’m poor and I’m proud” expression on his face showed no sign of the misery of eating instant noodles.

The [Lie Recognition] skill gave him a timely nudge, and a slight stinging sensation hit his temple.

Sure enough, the fans didn’t believe him at all.

”Hahaha, Zhang Ze is at it again! The classic ’crying poor’ segment!”

”I don’t believe a word of it! Would Miss Sera let you eat instant noodles? She’s probably already made a love-filled bento and is waiting downstairs!”

”Zhang Ze, stop pretending, just come clean! Have you already bagged that blonde beauty? Be honest, Brothers won’t laugh at you; we’ll only envy you, be jealous of you, and want to smack you to death with a slipper!”

Zhang Ze looked at the chat, his grin stretching to his ears.

”I’ve said it before, that’s an international friend; we have a pure friendship,” he said righteously. ”She was in trouble, and as a good citizen of our country, I helped out—it was the right thing to do. Why are your minds so dirty?”

As he said this, he was happily reminiscing about the soft kiss on his cheek.

”Boo—!”

The chat was filled with boos; clearly, no one believed his nonsense.

Zhang Ze didn’t try to explain further; he leaned against the headboard, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of bantering with his fans.

This feeling was much more fulfilling than beating up a few thugs.

This was the empire of Brother Pingshi!

Even though the fans said that, various planes and rockets were flying all over the screen.