Su Yuan died. There were no surprises; his life simply came to an end, though it only lasted a brief twenty years. Then, in the pitch black, Su Yuan met a goddess. "The world needs you..." Her voice was ethereal and noble. The goddess smiled sweetly and continued, "Go and become a hero who saves the world!"
Before Su Yuan could reply, the goddess's form dissipated, and a powerful suction pulled him in. He fell unconscious once more...
...Eighteen years later...
Modu (Shanghai), China.
"Hello everyone, I'm 'Luyou!'" Su Yuan sat in front of his computer, fiddling with the latest NINT game console, the NS. "Today, we're continuing our journey in Mario Kart. Let's try to break 13,000 points!"
"Thanks to 'Is Luyou-sensei still single today?' for the super rocket!"
That's right, Su Yuan was a gaming streamer and a popular content creator on Bilibili. As for the name "Luyou"... that was a story from before he became a big streamer. He was trying to connect his new NS console to the internet. He was terrible at naming things, so his network name was just "luyou," which means "router." However, a viewer jokingly asked, "Is your name Luyou?"
Even though Su Yuan seriously explained it to his audience, the "Luyou" joke stuck. His viewers stopped calling him by his original ID and instead just called him Luyou. Since the nickname wasn't going away, Su Yuan simply changed his ID to Luyou. This "mix-up" led to a lot of passersby coming to his stream out of curiosity.
With his excellent game sense and unique commentary style, the incident actually helped him gain many fans, and he became moderately popular. After that, it was unstoppable!
"Thanks to 'Did Luyou-sensei eat fried rice today?' for the plane!"
He rubbed his nose. Su Yuan was already used to these strange IDs. "You guys care more about me than I do about myself." Someone asking about his love life, someone about his meals—anyone who didn't know better would think his viewers were all his distant relatives.
"Alright, let's get down to business!"
Su Yuan picked up the controller and focused on the game screen. The game he was playing was called Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. While not as famous as the world's biggest IP in this universe, its popularity was still comfortably in the top three.
"The score in this room is a bit low..." A low score meant that if Su Yuan finished with a bad rank, he would lose more points than usual. Conversely, even with a good rank, the points he gained would be significantly less.
"But that's okay, right now I'm the boss of this room! Getting first place every time is my call, isn't it?"
Su Yuan's confident voice was broadcast to every viewer. Looking at the selected track, a smirk appeared on his face.
"Princess Peach's Castle? Isn't this just a free win?"
"If I don't get first here, can I even justify it?"
The viewers in the chat exploded with laughter.
"It's starting! Luyou-sensei has activated his 'Moxie' ability!"
"Luyou-sensei used the move 'Parting Shot'!"
"Oh no, I just finished eating, I'm gonna explode!"
Su Yuan's gaming talent and skill level were very high. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to get his score to 12,900 points so quickly after getting a new console. However, as good as he was, his luck was... well, let's just say it was always a bit off!
The entertainment value, or "disaster-level" of his streams was always off the charts.
"Here it is! My chance is here!" Su Yuan excitedly shouted. A Mario Kart race usually only has three laps, and his character was currently at the beginning of the third lap.
"A mushroom and an invincible star, how can I not get first place???"
The moment the words left his mouth, Su Yuan successfully activated his special ability, "Terrible Luck."
"Agh!!!"
"Who used the lightning!!!"
The sky darkened, and a bolt of lightning struck, leaving Su Yuan completely disoriented. "My mushroom! My invincible star!!!" A character struck by lightning shrinks, slows down, can be run over by other players, and drops their items.
"I'm done for today!"
"I'm not going to play anymore..."
Then, Su Yuan secretly peeked at his ranking.
Ninth place...
Su Yuan picked up the controller again. "Even if I said I wouldn't play anymore, I still have to. At least ninth place is damage control." Immediately, the chat was filled with a wave of laughter.
"This is the perfect example of 'speaking it into existence'!"
"The ultimate damage control player."
"Luyou: You know what I mean, this is called 'creating good content.' It's not because I have bad luck."
After some maneuvering, Su Yuan's rank improved to fifth place. The finish line was in sight! "Fifth, fifth, fifth, fifth, fifth..."
If nothing went wrong, fifth place would be his. Fifth place wasn't acceptable; he'd just consider it damage control. Gaining even one point was still a gain. As long as he didn't end with a negative score, it was a success!
Bang!
Before Su Yuan's heart could settle, a red shell-like object suddenly flew from in front of him and collided with his character.
"Oh my goodness!"
"You're at the finish line, and you're still throwing items backward! That's so low!"
In the end, Su Yuan's final ranking was twelfth.
"I'm ready to eat three big bowls of rice!"
"The boss of this room!"
"I'm already thinking about my next bowl."
The chat flooded with comments, along with a few gift notifications.
"Thanks to 'I ended up last, and my rocket was struck by lightning' for the super rocket!"
"Thanks to 'I came in first, but it was just big talk' for the super rocket!"
"Thanks to 'The distorted space-time is restored' for the giant super rocket!"
"Thanks to 'Luyou-sensei, when will you play Pokémon?' for the plane!"
After thanking the last gift, Su Yuan replied, "After I get to 13,000 points today, I'll show you a 'cute and cuddly' team."
"Oh no, it looks like we won't be seeing any Pokémon battles for a few days!"
"My girlfriend and I have been waiting for Luyou-sensei's Pokémon videos to eat too!"
"A cute and cuddly team? Oh no! Luyou-sensei is probably going to play dirty again!"
"It might sound 'cute and cuddly' but it's not."
"It's still the same 'Beware of the cute and cuddly' thing."
Su Yuan scratched his face as he looked at the chat. Although these people were all full of antics, their loyalty as fans was very high, and he quite liked that feeling.
In truth, his main game was Pokémon Battles. Eighty percent of his fans came for his Pokémon content. Mario Kart was just something he wanted to play for fun. However, the entertainment value of his Mario Kart streams was so explosive that his popularity didn't drop but instead soared, securing his spot as the number one streamer.
By the way, his streaming section was listed as the Pokémon section...
Yes.
The number one streamer in the Pokémon section, who doesn't play Pokémon. Makes perfect sense.
Ability: Defiant activated!
"Brothers, I, Luyou, always say this: I was able to climb to world number five using a rental team, so getting to 13,000 points in Mario Kart today is no problem."
That's right. As the goddess's chosen hero, the things Su Yuan had "achieved" in the past eighteen years were probably only reaching world number five in the Pokémon Battle game and becoming a streamer and content creator with millions of viewers.