Virtual Idol in the Beast World: Five Clans Fight Over Me

The entire Central Continent, home to the Beastmen, along with the Sea Area, comprised twenty major urban zones. The Sea Area, however, only contained two of these zones where Ocean Beastmen and Land Beastman coexisted, not the other islands in the sea.

These twenty zones were divided by the Beastmen into the Upper, Central, and Lower Districts based on factors like population, economy, and environment.

Zone 19, where Gu Ning lived, was, needless to say, in the Lower District.

The Upper District consisted of five major zones, Zone One through Zone 5. The Central District was comprised of Zone 6 through Zone 15, and the rest were in the Lower District.

Except for the Upper District, the rankings of the other zones were always subject to change.

Zone 15, which Gu Ning had previously considered moving to, was a city that had only recently been promoted to the Central District.

But even the lowest-ranked city in the Central District was far better than Zone 19.

Now, Gu Ning had a better option.

Gu Ning stared at her terminal’s search screen, where a loading icon that looked like a spinning wolf’s tail kept turning. The tail spun for nearly two minutes before an introduction to Zone 5, complete with text, images, and videos, finally popped up.

The light from the terminal made Gu Ning’s eyes sparkle like stars as she carefully examined the various descriptions of Zone 5.

Zone 5 was named the Fertile Forest Land. It was a developed city with vast forests, abundant resources, and a pleasant climate.

Its architectural style, a fusion of city and forest, was like something out of a fairy tale—a complete departure from the solemn, cold, and chaotic Zone 19.

The more she looked, the more Gu Ning liked it and yearned to be there.

She felt she could definitely find a suitable job for herself there.

’Even if I can’t make money from making videos anymore, in a city that big, I can find something else to do. If worst comes to worst, I could survive by climbing trees and picking fruit in this forest city. After all, my ancestors lived in trees; I’ve never lost at climbing trees.’

’If worst comes to worst, I’ll just be a monkey again.’

Gu Ning joked to herself, setting the lowest possible expectation.

’As long as I have a safe and stable living environment where my personal safety is guaranteed, it won’t be hard to make a living.’

She could survive in Zone 19; there was no way she would starve to death in a developed, resource-rich city.

Looking at the living conditions in Zone 5, Gu Ning’s heart was filled with both anticipation and anxiety. She opened her account to check her balance: just over 670,000 Beast Coins.

’This should be enough for me to get settled in Zone 5 and live there for a while, right?’

Although Gu Ning had earned a lot of money recently, she had spent it so quickly that she was starting to lose her sense of its purchasing power.

Gu Ning immediately tried to search for the cost of living in Zone 5, but the network was unstable, and the tail on the search screen just kept spinning.

After waiting a while longer with no response from the network, Gu Ning reached out from under the blanket covering her small heater and pulled a can of preserved fruit from the snack box beside her.

This box of snacks had been prepared for her by Alex to keep her from getting bored while she was alone. It contained various flavors of jerky, preserved fruits, chips, and even a large jar of honey. The packaging was slightly fancier than what Barto had prepared for her, and she wondered if Alex had brought it from Zone 5.

Gu Ning ate the sweet and sour preserved fruit and drank the warm, sweet honey water, patiently waiting for the search results.

After a long while, the webpage finally loaded. The interface intermittently displayed a number of posts related to Zone 5, but most of them were posts and videos from Beastmen in other zones complaining about Zone 5, as well as flame wars between different clans within Zone 5. Many posts even required a password and clan verification.

Gu Ning had seen enough Beastmen cursing each other out and wasn’t very interested in these posts. She didn’t find much of the information she was looking for, and since the network was so bad, she gave up searching. She opened PawPress and asked directly in the comment section:

[Can anyone tell me the current cost of living in Zone 5?]

Gu Ning’s finger paused over the send button.

’No, I can’t ask this kind of question in the comments.’ The comments under her videos were polarized. Those who liked her virtual female videos were always calling her "Yuanbao this" and "Yuanbao that," while those who didn’t like them competed to see who could be more vicious with their insults.

For example, a comment from a certain Bird Clan Orc under her latest Cat Clan female video had started a flame war.

He said she was deliberately discriminating against Bird Clan Orcs and then cursed her out. The words were so harsh that even Gu Ning felt a small spark of anger ignite in her heart.

Frs (Zone 9):

[The Beast Alliance should just ban virtual females. Otherwise, we’ll just be raising a bunch of morons who do nothing all day but get horny over a virtual character.]

The Beastmen in the comment section instantly went up in flames like dry kindling.

[*=&*F**K YOU, ￥#Bird Clan scum#%U]

[Who’s the real moron here? If you hate virtual females so much, why do you keep popping up under our Yuanbao’s videos? (disdain)]

[If you don’t like it, can’t you just get lost? Are those wings of yours just for decoration?]

[Fly away, kid. Fly as far as you can. I give you permission to spread your wings and soar.]

[This Birdman is just jealous of us. Seeing Yuanbao come out as a Cat Clan, he’s probably seeing red behind the scenes. (meow meow, licks paw)]

[Haha, the Bird Clan can’t stand you Cat Clan folks. Of course he’s pissed.]

[Meow meow meow? We’re the clan that’s friendliest to little birdies.]

[Friendly? Then why is it that every time little cats see me, they either roll their eyes or walk the other way? My coworker even scratched me the day before yesterday. (pouting)]

[Who isn’t annoyed by you dogs? We’re cursing out this bird right now, so you dogs should know better than to jump in and get yelled at too.]

[If Yuanbao came out as a Bird Clan female, this Birdman would probably build a nest in the comments section.]

[Hey, person above me, delete your comment. Don’t let Yuanbao—no, don’t let Gu Demiao Ning see it. I don’t want this Birdman to get his wish.]

[Can you guys show some respect? Stop being so nosy. I’ll love Yuanbao no matter what clan she is.]

[The person above is sucking up again. Your so-called "Yuanbao" is a big burly Beastman behind the screen. You really think she’s a real female? How disgusting.]

[Another stinking Birdman. I’ll watch what I want, what’s it to you? I suggest your entire Bird Clan moves to Sky Watch Point. There are no virtual females there; it’s your happy place.]

[Don’t give these Birdmen too much credit. Would they even dare to go? The lunatics at Sky Watch Point would probably tear them to shreds.]

[Forget virtual females, Sky Watch Point is almost out of real females too, isn’t it? Be careful, they might come to snatch our females again.]

[We don’t need a bunch of morons like you, who have never even seen a real female’s face, worrying about the safety of our females. We’ll protect our females with our actions.]

[Oh yeah? What actions? Killing a few Mutant Species makes you so great?]

[It’s better than you guys fawning over a virtual female and engaging in Bird Clan discrimination along with this idiot vlogger.]

"..."

Gu Ning scrolled through the popular, argumentative comment thread that had over ten thousand replies. She was baffled. How was she discriminating against the Bird Clan?

She actually quite liked birds and used to film videos of them often.

She really couldn’t understand the thinking and logic of these Beastmen.

However, she didn’t see that husky in her comments this time. The main person insulting her had been replaced by this Bird Clan Orc named Frs.

Frs seemed to be an abbreviation of a name. The rigid translation system on Gu Ning’s terminal couldn’t translate abbreviations correctly.

She found the Bird Clan Orc’s account somewhat familiar. It seemed he often argued with people in her comment section, his combat prowess no less than that of the little dog, Leo.

The main reason he looked familiar was that his profile picture was different from other Beastmen’s. It wasn’t a selfie in his human or beast form, but a pair of white wings with tips that faded into a light blue.

’He must be a pretty little bird,’ Gu Ning thought to herself, ’but he sure loves to curse people out.’