Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(Vol 5)

Vol 5/ Chapter 76: The Superpowered Streamer

"Wow, smartphones are really useful! You can find so much good info on them, and it's so easy. No need to go all the way to the library anymore," Adrian said, impressed that this former Earth person had to admit defeat.

We bought this phone last night from a secondhand seller for 1000 bucks. It's not top-of-the-line, but it's way better than that useless old phone we had before.

Once you got a phone, everything else is easy to sort out. I showed Adrian how to use the phone to look stuff up online for the first time.

Adrian's been around Earth people for a while now. He worked hard to learn the H-country language in the army camp and light elf village. He's smart and has awakened Battle Qi, so it wasn't too hard for him.

He can't speak perfectly yet, but Adrian can understand normal talk okay and read some simple books. If he gets stuck on tricky words, I can help explain.

First thing we needed to know about was that "gang fight" at the Aurora Entertainment City. Cyra and Nicola must have come back to Earth there, so maybe we could find some clues about them in eyewitness reports online.

"No way! Such a big incident, but there's not a single report?"

It was real strange - we both searched for ages but found hardly any info online. We couldn't find any useful leads. Even the major news sites were completely quiet about the "angel and demon fight" from last night.

"Did the H-country government block the news again?"

That was the only reason I could think of. H-country is famous for strict internet control. I couldn't figure out any way around it.

Luckily it had only been one night since it happened. On some small forums, people were still secretly talking about this hot topic. But those posts didn't last long before the mods deleted them.

"If it's not in writing like you said, I found an interesting place. I'm not sure, but I feel like it might be related to Cyra..."

I was about to go out and try my luck when Adrian suddenly stopped me. Looks like he found a new lead on the phone.

It was a short video app called "TikTic " that's super popular in H-country. Loads of people use it to record and share little funny moments from daily life.

I actually had this app before I came here. I never uploaded anything, but it was fun to watch other people's videos sometimes.

Adrian showed me a video by someone calling herself "Superpowered Pretty Girl". Like the name says, she's uploaded lots of videos using "superpowers". She doesn't have too many followers, only about 10-20 thousand. But as a promising newcomer, she was featured on the app's front page. The most recent update was from yesterday, filmed outside.

The video title was: "Recreating the super strong move from famous anime XXX - Spirit Bomb? Let me show you!"

It was filmed in a wasteland on the edge of the city. At first it copied the classic scene from the anime title, building up the atmosphere. After about 30 seconds, the main character finally appeared.

Spiky blonde hair, orange martial arts outfit - looked just like the original anime character. But when I saw the face clearly, I almost spit out my drink.

"What? A girl dressed as a guy? Isn't that Cyra?!"

No doubt about it, I recognized her right away.

"It does look like her. But the outfit is so weird... I'm not totally sure," Adrian said.

He wasn't sure because Cyra was wearing an over-the-top cosplay outfit to match the theme. Of course he wasn't used to seeing that! But even with makeup, I could still recognize Cyra's super pretty face. No way to hide it, even dressed as a guy!

The rest of the video was pretty simple. She acted out the classic "powering up" pose from the anime. Then she pushed out her hands, and a big beam of light shot out, hitting a huge rock in the distance and making it explode.

"This..."

I started to get a headache. To be fair, it did look a bit like the tired character's spirit bomb in the original. But the important thing is, these special effects probably weren't fake - it was likely real footage!

Modern Earth has really advanced "Photoshop skills". Normal people can learn to add all kinds of crazy effects to videos with special software. But Cyra didn't need to go to all that trouble. Others might not know, but I knew her background well. With angel magic powers, she could easily do this for real!

"Is she using magic to pretend to have superpowers?"

Can't believe she goes out to fight "monsters" at night, then comes out to be an internet celebrity and make short videos during the day. Living the good life!

"The streamer is a bit amateur! She looks good, but needs to work on her skills~"

Looking at the comments, that's what the top viewer said. Clearly those internet folks are used to all kinds of special effects. This real magic display seemed low-quality to them.

Of course there were different opinions too.

"Don't listen to those haters above. The girl is so pretty, great cosplay, and really good special effects. Keep it up!"

This was clearly a supporter. Funny that such a small streamer already has haters! You learn something new every day. Lots of people replied below.

"Yeah, but I think this outfit doesn't really suit the streamer. The angel cosplay from before was way better!"

"This is boring, when are you gonna do a Diao Chan cosplay?"

"Agreed, I wanna see Mai Shiranui! With the streamer's skills, I'm sure she can do those special effects!"

"Tifa! Tifa!"

"Alice! Alice!"

...

Wow! One after another. Just looking at the comments, you'd think this was a streamer selling her looks...

"Thanks for watching everyone! If you're interested, don't forget to click follow and like below. I'll be streaming live on TikTic tonight as usual. Hope to see you all there!"

At the end of the video, Cyra struck a big pose, winked flirtatiously and said this.

So smooth! Does she even remember she used to be a guy? I couldn't help frowning, almost doubting my own eyes.

Well, with her personality, she might really do this! After all, she's basically just a pretty-face streamer now. Maybe she's already totally into it!

"Where did she film these videos?"

Now I didn't feel like looking through her old content anymore. The most important thing was how to find her in person through this account!

I logged into an old account and sent her a private message, explaining who I was. But after waiting a long time with no response, I started to doubt if I'd really recognized the right person.

If it was really Cyra, she should definitely react to me! Maybe it's just a normal streamer who looks very similar?

Just waiting at home wasn't going to solve anything. Now that we had a lead on Cyra, I decided to try my luck in the south part of town before the sun set.

The south has always been where the rich people live in this city. It's a beautiful area with mountains and water, where lots of fancy houses and apartments are built.

If Nicola also fell to Earth with us, the most likely place to find her would be the south side home where she lived before I came here.

But since it was still daytime, we couldn't just fly around. We decided to take public transport instead.