After sending the message, Jiang Qiuqiu used the student ID and password she had received to log into her Federation University student portal.

After her interviews, callbacks, and potential assessment, the university determined she had two paths to choose from.

One was to go to the Mecha Academy and become an outstanding Mecha Soldier.

The other was to go to the Spirit Healing Academy, study hard, and become an outstanding Spirit Healing Master.

After mulling it over for the past few days, she had already made up her mind, but...

’I still really want to play with a ’Gundam’ and get my fix!’

After carefully reading the notes below, Jiang Qiuqiu decided to indulge herself just this once.

’After all, I’m only twenty this year. In this day and age, that still makes me a kid with the right to be a little spoiled.’

’And just like that, the happy decision was made!’

Meanwhile, as Jiang Qiuqiu was filling out the forms, Xiong Xin was overwhelmed with self-blame.

After the competition ended, his editor called him. But at that moment, Xiong Xin was so consumed by shame that he didn’t dare to answer.

He had lost. He had actually, truly lost.

He had lost to some random nobody who, just a week ago, had less than a fifth of his followers.

He still remembered, before the competition was even arranged, stumbling upon one of Jiang Qiuqiu’s broadcasts in the gourmet section. At the time, he had even thought, ’For a streamer doing so well in the food world to have a mere one billion followers is a huge waste of talent...’

He had wanted to have a competition with her, to give her a little boost from his own fanbase.

Xiong Xin had thought himself magnanimous. But now, he realized he wasn’t magnanimous at all.

Apparently, his magnanimity only extended to people who couldn’t possibly pose a threat to him.

Just as he was about to spiral into obsessive thoughts, his terminal rang again. He figured it was his editor, and with a pained expression, he prepared to ignore it. But when he glanced down, he saw it was his teacher.

His heart leaped into his throat. "Teacher."

"Why aren’t you answering your editor? What’s wrong? You lose one time and fall apart? Can’t handle it?"

"I... I’m not."

"I don’t care. Get yourself together, you’ve got school tomorrow." The teacher rattled on, "It was just one loss. You just have to win next time."

"Besides, if she’s stronger than you, isn’t it perfectly normal that she won? What’s the point of dwelling on it! If you’ve got the energy for that, use it to get stronger!"

Once you’re stronger, you’ll naturally win next time.

The man was gruff and didn’t know how to comfort people, but somehow, Xiong Xin felt much better after hearing his words. ’That’s right, if I can’t win, I’ll just have to keep trying! Maybe I’ll win next time!’

-

By the time Jiang Qiuqiu finished filling out all the forms for Federation University, it was already a little past seven o’clock.

It was dinnertime. Feeling a little hungry, Jiang Qiuqiu took a portion of the beer duck with rice she’d made that afternoon from a temperature-controlled container and began to eat.

She was only halfway through her meal when Sister Mingmei sent a message: in half an hour, Little President Qian was holding a company-wide meeting in the virtual conference room.

"Why the sudden meeting?"

"It has to do with you. Little President Qian wants to motivate everyone," Sister Mingmei explained. "It’s also a celebration. If our branch gets just a few more mainstays, the whole company’s ranking will go up."

The Federation Live Broadcast Company had many branches, each with its own grade. They were ranked from S to E based on their overall strength. Before Little President Qian took over, this place was just a D-rank branch with terrible resources, streamers, and staff. Aside from its decent location, it had practically nothing going for it.

Over the past six months, however, the branch had developed at lightning speed and was now on the cusp of breaking into the C-level.

With a few more streamers on Qiuqiu’s level, even reaching B-class wouldn’t be difficult.