Miss Witch, even if we're poor, we can't sell ourselves!

South of the Central Hospital, the skyscrapers were piled up like snowmen by the Winter Fairy.

In one of the activity rooms on the first floor, the heating was on full blast, and a thin layer of mist condensed on the floor-to-ceiling windows, blurring the leaden sky outside into a hazy gray-white.

Miao Mu sat in front of the makeup mirror with her legs crossed, her short purple jellyfish-shaped hair shimmering with a pale purple halo under the ring light.

A tablet computer was set up in front of her, with her own MikuFans homepage on the screen.

The number of followers is 732,800. Yesterday it was over 733,000, so it dropped by a few hundred.

She scrolled through the backend data page expressionlessly, readjusted the angle of the fill light, tilted her head at her reflection in the mirror, and gave herself an even brighter smile than before.

"Okay, let's begin."

I pressed the record button, picked up a tube of lipstick, and started recording today's beauty video.

"Konnichi Meow Meow Meow~ Today I'm recommending a new limited edition color that just arrived. It's really flattering and makes your skin look brighter!"

During the recording, her expressions changed smoothly. She smiled sweetly and spoke in a friendly tone in front of the camera. But after saying the last sentence, the sweet mask was removed from her face, and she put on a look of indifference with a hint of weariness and boredom.

"Remember to like, comment, and subscribe! If this video gets over 5,000 likes, I'll be adding an extra makeup removal tutorial tomorrow!"

"Damn, I'm exhausted."

She pulled out a wet wipe to clean her freshly applied lipstick, checked in the mirror to see if it had smudged, and then picked up her tablet to browse MikuFans.

On the sofa next to her, Mu Zimi was curled up in an oversized cotton coat, her long green hair peeking out from under her hat and hanging down to her knees. She was holding a half-eaten cucumber and staring intently at the new anime series "Dream Limitless" on her phone screen.

The sound of her biting into the cucumber was rhythmic, crunch, crunch, crunch, but her face remained expressionless.

Outsiders couldn't tell what she was doing, but those who knew her well knew that Xiao Mu was really engrossed in watching.

At the innermost conference table in the activity room, Fengxiang was sitting amidst a pile of printed official documents.

Her long blue hair was tied into a high ponytail at the back of her head, and with her furrowed brows, she looked even more unapproachable than usual.

She stared at one of the rules several times, then took a deep breath.

"What kind of ridiculous rules are these? They're so complicated."

Upon hearing this, Miao Mu continued scrolling on her tablet without turning her head.

"Read it aloud and let me hear it."

Fengxiang glanced at Miaomu, who was still slacking off, and cleared her throat.

"They said that all players participating in the first closed beta test need to wear the official masks throughout the game. The masks cannot be removed or adjusted by the player, and the mask styles are randomly assigned."

"The game system will replicate all of the player's abilities in the real world one-to-one, including but not limited to various panel data such as mana capacity, vitality, stamina, and agility."

"The core gameplay is as follows: After entering the game, each player needs to open an independent live stream room. By killing monsters lurking in various parts of the city, players can earn points. These points can be used to purchase live stream views. The higher the views, the greater the probability that the live stream room will appear on the Mikufans recommendation page. Gifts earned can be converted into [popularity points]."

"The first test period will last for one month. The team or individual with the highest accumulated [popularity value] by the end of the first test will qualify to perform on the official stage of this year's Kohaku Uta Gassen."

"It's worth mentioning that witches can attack each other and plunder points."

When Fengxiang finished reading the last sentence, she slammed the document on the table, her face turning dark.

"We don't need to worry about popularity in our team, but those invited witches and monster newbies in the game are all incredibly skilled. Have you thought about how to balance the livestream's entertainment value with actual combat efficiency?"

Fengxiang turned to look at Miaomu and found that the latter was touching up her eyeshadow in front of the makeup mirror. She clearly hadn't heard a word of what she had just said, so a nameless anger surged up in her heart again.

"You're still filming that lousy video! The event officially starts tomorrow, can't you at least get some proper preparation?"

Miao Mu slowly put down her eyeshadow brush, raised her hands in a gesture of surrender, and looked so innocent that you wanted to punch her.

"Oh, don't be fierce, don't be fierce. Our wise and mighty captain will figure it out. I'm just a lowly cat, I can't do anything fancy."

"Look at Xiao Mu, she's slacking off too. Why don't you say anything to her? You can't target me just because I'm pretty, meow."

When Mu Zimi heard her name called, she peeked half her face out from behind her phone screen.

She was still chewing cucumber, her long green hair swaying. She didn't speak, but her eyes conveyed a very clear meaning: Why are you dragging me into this?

"Xiao Mu has been practicing guitar all morning, for more than three hours. Why don't you take a break now?"

"And you—you spent the entire morning searching for yourself! Don't think I didn't see you just checked your follower loss data again! You checked it seven or eight times for every few followers you lost!"

Miao Mu pretended to be shot in the heart and leaned back in her chair, her finger trembling as she pointed at Feng Xiang.

"Captain, you're so ruthless... You always hit my sore spots, meow."

Fengxiang rolled her eyes and was about to continue scolding people when her manager, Little Witch, quickly came over with a water glass to smooth things over.

She was a young-looking little witch with short, dark brown hair, round-framed glasses, and a miserable smile on her face.

"Alright, alright, Fengxiang, don't be too nervous. It doesn't start until tomorrow, so it's not a bad thing to rest today."

"Meow Mu, you too, stop scrolling through the homepage so much, the more you scroll, the more anxious you get about losing followers."

Miaomu snorted, turned back to continue fixing her hair in front of the mirror, and muttered to herself in a low voice.

"I'm not anxious."

Fengxiang rubbed her forehead and sat back in her chair, silently reorganizing the document.

She didn't really mean to curse, but Miao Mu was just being a bit too pretentious.

With a thousand participants in the first test of the game, and as a specially invited team, Midnight Under the Night naturally received more attention than others, and the fans' expectations were also at their peak.

If they perform a little better this time, they'll definitely qualify for the Red and White Song Festival. But Miao Mu's carefree attitude always manages to hit her sore spots perfectly.

Just as Fengxiang took a deep breath trying to calm herself down, Muzimi on the sofa took the last bite of cucumber, then stood up, walked to Fengxiang, and waved her arms out, like a cat beckoning someone to come quickly.

Fengxiang looked up at her, her expression somewhat blank.

"what."

Mu Zimi didn't speak, her arms still outstretched, her green hair hanging over her shoulders, her face expressionless, her eyes quietly watching Fengxiang.

The two stared at each other for a while, and Fengxiang finally softened.

She pushed her chair back half a step, reluctantly stood up, and walked to Muzi Rice Noodles.

Mu Zimi hugged Fengxiang tightly, one arm around her waist and the other on the back of her head, as if she were comforting a cat with its fur standing on end.

Fengxiang buried her face in Muzimi's shoulder, and her originally taut shoulders slowly relaxed.

From Miaomu's perspective, Fengxiang's ears were already bright red.

Miao Mu covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably. She quickly picked up her tablet, aimed it at the scene, and pressed the shutter twice. Then, she hid the tablet behind her back as fast as she could.

Suddenly sensing the killing intent, Fengxiang lifted her head from Muzimi's arms and accurately caught the smile that Miaomu hadn't had time to retract. Her face was still buried in Muzimi's shoulder, but her eyes had already shot out a murderous glint.

That look meant, "Look at me again and I'll kill you!"

Miaomu wisely turned back to continue scrolling on her tablet, still trying to keep herself in check.

She casually refreshed the MikuFans homepage, and a post marked as a trending topic popped up in the waterfall layout.

The thumbnail shows a jacaranda tree in the hospital's backyard, covered in blossoms. In the center of the image are two girls: a girl with long white hair is being led by the hand by a little witch wearing a cat-ear hat, standing among the flowers. The background is filled with blue-purple petals and white snowflakes dancing in the air.

Miaomu's thumb paused on the screen for a moment.

The composition and lighting in this picture are excellent, and the model is also very beautiful.

The poster's ID is an ordinary user with a double-digit number of followers, but the photo has already received over 100,000 likes, and the number of comments is still soaring. It was probably just a casual snapshot that went viral.

Miaomu opened the comments section and glanced at it briefly.

Is this level of beauty even real?

[Please debut soon, I'll be your first fan!]

[That cat-ear hat on the left is so cute! Does anyone know her account?!]

Miao Mu silently saved the photos to her tablet's photo album, thinking to herself that she would take a similar set tomorrow to ride the wave of popularity.

Then I closed the photo and habitually opened my homepage for a quick look.

My follower count has dropped a little more.

Ugh.

Miao Mu pouted, slammed the tablet onto the sofa, stood up, and walked towards the break room.

"I'm going to make some coffee, anyone want some?"

"I want milk."

Mutsumi raised her hand.

Black coffee, no sugar.

Fengxiang's muffled voice came from Muzimi's arms.