Chapter 5: Measuring the Rebellion Index

There are many versions of the interstellar neural interface. The government-issued model is the most basic, with functions comparable to a mobile phone from over a thousand years ago. To access more advanced features, one must pay a premium to purchase them.

An Ze Yu is a B-class male, but his family has done reasonably well on Azure Planet. Besides, he earns money through livestreaming and occasionally takes on tasks. His life is relatively comfortable, so naturally, he uses a high-quality neural interface. Among its features is a function that constantly measures his agitation level.

He aimed his livestream camera at his neural interface and activated the test.

“I measured my agitation level this morning, and it was at 57%,” he said.

[Hiss? How is that possible?]

[Brother Yu, are you sure you didn't misread it? Your agitation level this morning was 55%, right?]

An Ze Yu himself looked incredulous. “That can't be. I have records of the agitation tests here.”

He tests his agitation level almost daily. Even if he’s busy, he never goes more than ten days without checking. The neural interface clearly records that for months his agitation value has remained steady at 57%, unchanged for a long time.

After all, he rarely goes outdoors or fights; he mostly lies low, so the value doesn’t spike quickly.

So why did it drop by 2% today?

That would be equivalent to spending two hours with a C-class female who soothed him personally. But he hadn’t done that.

His agitation level isn’t high enough to require pursuing females.

The only female he had contact with today was Jiang Qin.

Could it be that singing as a method of soothing really works that well?

Not only he doubted it, but his viewers in the livestream chat did as well.

“Don’t bother watching. Isn’t this obviously staged? Nowadays, streamers will lie about anything for money.”

“If he was soothed privately by a female, I wouldn’t doubt him, since his agitation is low and thus easier to calm. But this was group soothing.

Everyone knows that group soothing in a bar, even with the most expensive inhibitors, only reduces agitation by about 1% per level difference.

And this streamer only bought a regular inhibitor bottle after entering the bar, right?”

“Streamer, this is fraud. Don’t you owe your fans honesty?”

Most of An Ze Yu’s followers are low-tier males and half-beast males from the lower rungs of society. They follow him mainly to learn about cost-effective places to visit. His livestreams mostly feature explorations of bars—not the high-end ones. He has covered most of the bars on Azure Planet.

Fans have learned which bars offer discounts on inhibitors and which females provide stronger soothing.

That’s why they suspected An Ze Yu of taking bribes from Moonlight Bar and fabricating records to lure them into spending money.

Seeing the barrage of accusations accusing him of fraud, An Ze Yu grew angry.

“Have I faked anything? Why don’t you try it yourselves and see? It’s not just me saying it—surely you’ll believe what you see for yourselves, right?”

Coincidentally, the bar owner, You Wei, had just informed them that Jiang Qin would come for another soothing session in one hour.

She performs two soothing sessions every night.

“The female’s next soothing session is in an hour. If anyone nearby wants to come watch in person, you’re welcome.”

[Great, I’m nearby. I’ll come and expose the fraud myself!]

[We understand you need to make money, but we won’t tolerate being treated like fools.]

An Ze Yu was furious at being slandered. If he had taken money, that would be one thing, but he hadn’t accepted a single benefit!

“Fine, fine, come quickly. Today I want to clear my name. Since I started livestreaming, I’ve never taken a cent from any establishment! Every word I say is fair and honest.”

***

Jiang Qin was still unaware of the livestream. She was backstage, examining a program that had suddenly appeared in her mind.

[Damaged system activated. Reputation points enabled.]

Indeed, a damaged system had suddenly appeared in her mind!

It was damaged because it was bound to her just before she died in her previous life—and she passed away immediately after the binding.

The system automatically switched to protection mode, expending all its energy to send her back to age eighteen.

Having exhausted its energy, the system was now defunct, leaving behind only one module:

Reputation points and the system marketplace.

All other functions like tasks and rewards had vanished.

Reputation points were simple enough to understand—they represented fame, but not infamy. Only genuine admirers of her work could generate reputation points.

The system marketplace was essentially a cultural repository from Earth.

Any knowledge from Earth could be purchased here using reputation points.

In other words, even if she sang all the songs she remembered, it wouldn’t matter—she could buy any work she wanted.

The system had already paid for the Earth-side fees long ago.

Jiang Qin looked at the familiar songs and films displayed and felt her anxiety ease considerably.

She was confident she could live better this time!

Whether in her first or second life, people always attacked her academic background.

It wasn’t untrue—her cultural foundation was weak.

In her first life, she lived only until thirteen and was constantly exploited for money, leaving no time for schooling beyond elementary-level courses.

In her second life on a barren planet, school was out of the question. Every day, she worried about whether she could scavenge anything edible from the junkyard—and if she did, how to protect it from being stolen.

Back at the Jiang family, they never considered sending her to school.

Jiang Yulian had mentioned it once, but Jiang Rumeng quickly dissuaded her, saying classmates would discriminate against Jiang Qin because she came from a barren planet and she’d be bullied at school.

It was better for her to stay home, with Jiang Rumeng herself responsible for teaching her.

Besides, for a female, schooling wasn’t that important. Once she found a partner, someone would support her, and she could just live happily.

Jiang Yulian agreed. Jiang Qin was only a C-class female with limited soothing ability; there was no need to send her to school.

Once she turned twenty and found a partner, she could just stay home and soothe males. Learning more wouldn’t help.

So they gave up on the idea and hired a etiquette teacher to come to their home and teach Jiang Qin, to avoid embarrassing her outside.

At that time, facing her long-awaiting mother, Jiang Qin compromised, thinking she could self-study, as she had in her first life.

Many child stars balanced work and self-study; it wasn’t unacceptable.

But many things happened afterward that finally cooled Jiang Qin’s heart.

To reject the males her family arranged for her, she left the Jiang family at twenty and died at twenty-two.

So she truly never lived a long life in any incarnation, nor received a proper, systematic education.