Starting from Ainz Ooal Gown, simultaneously traveling through time

Lu Mingfei's first live stream was a bumpy and unpredictable affair.

Facing the dark camera, he was so nervous that his palms sweated profusely, and his mind often went blank, unsure of what to talk about with the audience.

In the end, all he could do was bury himself in typing away on the keyboard, focusing all his attention on the game controls, turning into a "silent gaming machine."

Fortunately, Lei Lin had someone tidy him up beforehand and changed him into some clean clothes.

Her hair was neatly styled, and her face, which had been covered by droopy hair and a lack of energy, now showed a touch of elegance.

In addition, his focused attitude when playing games, and his sharp skills that occasionally blow the audience away and elicit cheers from knowledgeable viewers, more or less make up for his shortcomings as a "silent streamer".

These days, people who aren't bad-looking and have a real "special skill" can always attract some attention in the online world.

Sure enough, not long after the broadcast started, a number of people began to enter the live stream.

Lei Lin sat in front of the computer next to him, handling his own affairs while distractedly looking at the backend data and interaction list.

Several IDs that appeared one after another caught his attention; judging from the IDs, they seemed to be from girls.

Leylin glanced at the interaction list, and a few IDs made him raise an eyebrow.

He vaguely remembered the ID: "Loves potato chips".

Immediately afterwards, Zero and Sister is the Queen also jumped out.

Lei Lin thought to himself: Could these three be... the logistics "dream team" that went online early? They started "paying attention" so early?

As he was pondering this, he saw that the ID "Loves Potato Chips" started showering him with gifts without saying a word.

A series of cool "giant rocket" special effects instantly filled the screen.

Even Lu Mingfei, who was still engrossed in fighting the BOSS, was startled and looked up at the bullet screen assistant in a daze.

"Wow, that's pretty extravagant." Lei Lin couldn't help but laugh. Was this way of showing concern a little too direct, a little too "nouveau riche"?

Immediately afterwards, a Japanese ID caught my eye—【小さな怪獣】 (Little Monster), with the IP address indicating it originated from Japan.

Leylin stared at the ID, his eyes thoughtful, and stopped swiping his fingers across the screen.

"Big brother! Look! There are foreign friends! They're Japanese!"

Lu Mingfei, on the other hand, was very excited. He pointed at the ID and exclaimed in a low voice, as if this was some kind of extraordinary international cultural exchange event.

"Oh? Why don't you try saying hello to them?" Leylin snapped out of his thoughts and deliberately encouraged him.

"Huh? Greet them? I... I only know a few phrases in Japanese, which I learned from watching anime. They're not very fluent, what if people don't understand me?" Lu Mingfei scratched his head, a little embarrassed.

"I see you have quite a lot of Japanese manga on your computer hard drive, and a lot of 'study materials' too."

Lei Lin gave him a half-smile: "With all that exposure, your skill level can't be limited to just 'Yamete,' can it?"

Lu Mingfei's eyes widened instantly, his face flushing red to his ears, looking like a cat whose tail had been stepped on: "Big brother! You... how could you peek... no! How did you even know that?!"

"I use the company's spare computer to browse certain websites, and I never clear the browsing history." Lei Lin shrugged, looking completely innocent.

"It's hard for me not to see it. Next time, I'll remember to have some professional ethics, or at least learn to clear the records."

Lu Mingfei wished he could disappear into a crack in the ground. After stammering for a while, he finally said, "Then... then I'll try sending a text message? Video chat definitely won't work, they won't answer..."

"Give it a try, what if?" Lei Lin encouraged, though he had a premonition in his heart.

Lu Mingfei mustered his courage and sent a video call invitation to the Japanese ID.

To his surprise, the invitation was accepted just seconds later!

The connection was established, and a fair-skinned, delicate young woman's face appeared on the other side of the screen.

She had unusually long, wine-red hair and wore a simple shrine maiden's outfit. She sat there quietly, like a doll.

Seeing this face, the last bit of doubt in Leylin's heart dissipated—it really was Uesugi Erii.

But at the same time, an even bigger question arose:

Given the original circumstances, how could Uesugi Erii, who was strictly controlled by Tachibana Masamune (Herzog), possibly be allowed to own a computer that could freely conduct cross-border video chats?

Is it that the world line has shifted in some way, or... is there some other reason?

On the other end of the screen, Lu Mingfei had already begun to "communicate" in his broken Japanese.

Fortunately, Erii didn't seem to speak, but just listened quietly, sometimes typing quickly in the chat box, and sometimes picking up the small whiteboard that was prepared next to her and writing simple words or short sentences on it to show him.

One couldn't speak fluently, and the other didn't speak at all, but the two of them actually chatted quite enthusiastically through words and gestures.

However, the good times did not last long.

Not long after, a young man wearing a black trench coat and with a cold expression appeared in the background behind Erii.

He saw his sister video chatting, his brows furrowed immediately, and he quickly walked over. He first whispered something to Erii in Japanese (Erii visibly shrank back).

Then, his sharp gaze fell on the camera, and he asked in a deep voice, with an accent but still relatively clear Chinese, "Who are you? Why are you chatting with my sister?"

Lu Mingfei was startled by the other party's imposing manner and the sudden appearance of the "parents," his mind went blank, and the Japanese he had barely managed to organize vanished instantly.

In a moment of panic, a sentence in Japanese blurted out unconsciously: "I, my name is Lu Mingfei! I... I want to be friends with her!"

However, due to extreme nervousness, Lu Mingfei's grammar and word choice in this sentence were completely messed up, and the meaning was entirely different.

The young man in black (whom Lei Lin recognized as being Genjiro) seemed to grow even colder after hearing this. Without saying anything more, he reached out and cut off the video call.

The screen went black instantly.

"Uh...why did it hang up?" Lu Mingfei was still a little confused, turning to look at Lei Lin. "That Erii-san's brother...seems a bit unhappy?"

"It's understandable that I'm unhappy." Lei Lin rubbed his temples. "Mingfei, do you know you misspoke in Japanese just now?"

"Wrong? Where did I go wrong?" Lu Mingfei asked, bewildered.

"What you mean is 'I want to be friends with her,' right?" Leylin looked at him.

"But what you actually said just now was closer to 'I want to be her boyfriend (彼氏になりたい)'."

"Although the grammar is a mess, the other person will definitely understand the keywords."

"Wh...what?!" Lu Mingfei was struck dumb, his mouth agape as if he could fit an egg in it. "Boy...boyfriend?! I...I didn't mean that! Oh my god!"

"What's even more coincidental," Leylin continued slowly, a hint of amusement in his eyes, "is that, according to my observation, after your 'confession,' that Miss Erii seems to... have nodded in agreement."

"You nodded?!" Lu Mingfei's voice suddenly split, and he instantly jumped up from his chair.

He then slumped back down, utterly exhausted, his face contorted with a dreamlike sense of collapse, wondering, "Who am I? Where am I? What did I do?"

"Congratulations, Lu Mingfei." Lei Lin finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"My first time doing a live stream, and I found myself a girlfriend from another country, and she's such a beautiful shrine maiden."

"However, judging from your brother-in-law's expression just now, he seems to be very, very dissatisfied with you, his brother-in-law who fell from the sky."

"Brother-in-law...brother-in-law..." Lu Mingfei was so overwhelmed by these words that he was unable to think straight.

"So, you might have to be careful from now on." Leylin patted his shoulder, his tone "heavy."

"I don't think your brother-in-law has a good temper. If he gets really angry, he might fly over from another country and break your legs. It's not impossible."

"Break his leg?!" Lu Mingfei was so frightened that he almost knelt down before Lei Lin, clasping his hands together and wailing.

"Big brother! Big brother, help me! You have to explain this to me! I didn't mean it! I really didn't mean it!"

"I'll try to contact them and explain."

Lei Lin suppressed his smile and tried to contact the Japanese ID through the live streaming platform's backend or other means, even hoping to contact Genjiro.

But all messages went unanswered, and the other party seemed to have completely cut off this temporary communication channel.

"No, they've completely blocked us. Unless we find a top hacker to break into their network, we can't get in touch with them," Lei Lin said, shrugging.

Upon hearing this, Lu Mingfei's face turned ashen, as if he could already see his future lying in a hospital bed with a cast on his arm.

"Well...it's not certain they'll really come," Leylin said, trying to calm him down when he saw how terrified he was.

"It's quite costly to beat someone up across borders, but as a friendly reminder, you'd better not travel to Japan in the next few years. If you really do get 'bumped into' on the street, I won't be able to stop my brother-in-law from his rage."

"No way! I'd rather die than go to Japan!" Lu Mingfei shook his head like a rattle drum, immediately putting Japan at the top of his life's travel blacklist.

"Don't be so sure of yourself," Leylin teased him again. "Your 'girlfriend' is still in Japan. Can you really bear to keep her waiting?"

"Brother! Please don't mention the word 'girlfriend' anymore!" Lu Mingfei was almost in tears.

"I just wanted to make some ordinary friends! Who knew it would turn into this misunderstanding! And... why did she agree to it?"

This was something he found particularly perplexing, and he even felt a sense of overwhelming flattery and trepidation.

"Maybe she just finds you interesting and fell in love at first sight?" Lei Lin teased.

"Impossible!" Lu Mingfei denied it outright, a wave of inferiority washing over him.

"Someone like me... how could that be? But," he lowered his voice, admitting somewhat embarrassedly, "that Ms. Erii is indeed... very beautiful."

He didn't say it aloud, but he couldn't help comparing them in his mind. "She's even prettier than Chen Wenwen."

"Oh? Even prettier than your white moonlight Chen Wenwen?" Lei Lin could easily see through his thoughts and directly exposed him.

Lu Mingfei's expression changed, he hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded, his voice muffled: "If we're just talking about looks... yes."

"But you still prefer Chen Wenwen's 'artistic temperament,' right?" Lei Lin said knowingly.

Lu Mingfei remained silent, offering no denial.

That kind of long-standing yearning and habitual admiration is like an imprint etched in one's heart; even when one sees something more dazzling, it is difficult to shift one's mind for a while.

Seeing his conflicted expression, Lei Lin sighed softly, "Sigh, this pretentious 'white moonlight' filter is really hard to deal with."

He stopped talking about it and instead tapped the table, saying, "Alright, stop overthinking. The live stream went well; we'll do it regularly from now on."

"As for Japan... let's leave it alone for now and let nature take its course. If anything happens, I'm here for you."

Lu Mingfei looked at Lei Lin, and although he was still feeling uneasy, he finally felt a little more at ease.

However, the shadows of his "boyfriend" and "brother-in-law" will likely linger in his mind for quite some time.