Chapter 26
"This is the information about the selection competitions over the years, including text and video materials." Coyne distributed the text materials to the other people present, and the video materials were thrown into the air.
Jiang Fei lowered her head and flipped through a few pages. The selection competition started not long after the establishment of Sky City. Jiang Fei noticed the time, it was the second year of the new calendar in Sky City.
Wasn't it... that the selections started after the death of the first Archon? She had heard an introduction to Sky City's first Archon on the radio before, but since she didn't hear the whole thing, she later found time to research her. As expected of someone who founded Sky City, there was an ocean of information about her, and she read selectively.
The information mentioned that she unfortunately passed away due to illness in the second year after the establishment of Sky City. Did the selection competition start right after her death? Isn't this too much of a coincidence?
Jiang Fei continued reading, her attention drawn to the video footage. From the first session to the previous one, every audition was recorded in full. It was more like a reality show than a competition. This reality show was extremely cruel and bloody, but for the people of Sky City, it was a very exciting program.
A scene flashed across the screen of a person tearing off another person's arm with his bare hands. Blood even splattered onto the camera, and the picture instantly turned scarlet.
Jiang Fei couldn't help but frown, while Lucian beside her remained calm and composed.
"The location of the trials changes every time. According to statistics, three times they were held in the desert, four times in the mountains and forests, and even once on the sea," said Yunica.
"How is this done?" The environment of this world has been destroyed. There is nothing but yellow sand in the sky. Where do the mountains, forests and seas come from?
"One of the four pillars of Sky City can change the terrain and environment by himself, but this is only temporary and cannot be changed permanently." Unica replied. Jiang Fei remembered what Lucian had told her. The leader of the investigation team sent out at the beginning was the All-Seeing Eye, one of the four pillars. So the ability of this person who can be on par with the All-Seeing Eye will not be much worse.
"I have a question. This is that person's ability. So is the changed environment real? Or is it just an illusion?"
"I think it should be real. Creating the same illusion for hundreds or thousands of contestants would be too difficult." Lucian rested his chin on his hand. "By comparison, it's easier to just change the environment."
"So based on the frequency of past appearances, the most likely scenario is that the competition site is in the mountains or forests," Coyne said. "We can't rule out the possibility of it appearing on the sea again."
Lucian nodded in agreement. "We still need to make multiple preparations."
The video materials also include interviews with the champions of the selection competition and clips of them appearing on various programs. The hosts asked the champions about their feelings during the competition and about how they felt about killing their close friends. It is more like an attempt to gain ratings by peeling off the champions' inner defenses than an interview.
"Even if you become the champion, there's no guarantee of a good ending. Most people are treated as mascots, mascots for the Sky City to show its pity to the people in the Dungeon. Their symbolic meaning is greater than their existence." Lucian calmly stared at the screen, which also displayed a video of Bill being interviewed after becoming the champion.
"Excuse me, what were you thinking when you were left with just your best friend at the end of the game? I heard he was your childhood friend. It's strange that you didn't even cry when you killed him." The host asked with a look of curiosity and innocent cruelty, "Wasn't it sad for you?"
It was clearly Sky City that held the auditions, and it was clearly Sky City that caused all this, but in the end, the victim was the one being questioned for having no sympathy.
Bill in the picture had a numb expression, "No, there's nothing to be sad about."
The host sighed with a hint of regret, "Ah... This is truly a cold-blooded champion, but that's also the hallmark of the dungeon." As he said this, he smiled at the audience to liven up the atmosphere. The audience laughed, and the suffering of others became the nourishment of their entertainment.
Bill forced a stiff smile blindly, facing the camera and the audience.
The video ended here. Coin and Unica were discussing how to contact each other during the game. Lucian occasionally said a few words. By the time the meeting was coming to an end, they had almost come up with a general idea.
*
Jiang Fei did not focus all her attention on the selection competition. She checked her collection progress again. The two existing bases were gradually developing, but what was worrying was the progress of pollutant collection.
She couldn't help but ask the system again, what are the standards for saving the world?
【Create the ideal world in people’s minds.】
"Isn't the ideal world too difficult?" Jiang Fei muttered as he looked at the system panel.
[For the people in this world, restoring the world to its original state is already an ideal world. ]
It may sound simple at first, but if you think about it carefully, you will find it difficult, unless you unify all the bases and rebel against Sky City. This is the only method Jiang Fei can think of at the moment. Top-down reform is generally impossible.
It seems that he has to survive first. Jiang Fei plans to wait until the two existing bases have developed to the level of B or even A before considering collecting pollutants. The two pollutants on hand are enough now.
Thinking about it, she opened the information of the two bases. Because of the sufficient supplies, the strength of the two bases has actually reached the C-level. The equal-level bases of each base can apply for re-evaluation every year, but Jiang Fei does not intend to expose the true level of the base too early. It is also good to keep pretending to be a pig and eating the tiger.
She arrived at the research institute, where Leon had just started working. The key points Jiang Fei had written not long ago were still on the whiteboard in the office. She not only broke down the high school political philosophy section in detail, but also talked about the cultural life section as well.
"Hey, you don't have to come to class today." Leon adjusted his glasses.
"Nothing, I just came to see how you are doing with your studies."
"No matter how much I learn, I can only help you. You're still needed to answer the actual questions." Leon pulled a chair over for Jiang Fei to sit down. "Lucian learns quickly, but learning quickly doesn't mean he can get high scores on the questions."
"I've always been curious about where Sky City's supplies come from?" Jiang Fei wondered every time she saw the brightly lit Sky City at night. Isn't this world short on resources? People at the bottom of society fight over a few supplies, while those at the top can enjoy themselves every night.
"In addition to the taxes paid by each base, I heard that Sky City also trained a team to go to the tower to answer questions. They have even passed the 25th floor of the tower."
As for how many floors the tower has, no one knows, but reaching twenty-five floors is already beyond people's imagination.
"And the technological advancements in Sky City are also due to the answers. They say the higher the tower, the more valuable the items inside."
She could probably imagine that as the floors increased, the rewards would begin to include some black technology.
"But why are you asking these questions?" Leon realized belatedly that there was something wrong.
"I was thinking that things hanging in the sky will eventually fall down." At the same time, she was also thinking about the possibility of clearing the tower in one go. If she didn't pursue high scores and only pursued passing, it seemed that it would be possible?
Coin had previously transferred almost half of the power of the base to her. In fact, even if she left the base alone, she didn't need to apply. The last time she submitted the application form was only because she wanted to take Lucian with her.
Jiang Fei drove to the familiar tower. She had already figured out the tower's answering mechanism. She could answer questions on the floors she had already passed to obtain supplies, or she could skip and answer questions on a new floor. Last time she passed the second floor, and now she was standing on the third floor looking at the familiar tables and chairs.
She moved her arms and neck, just like a warm-up before any exercise. She took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and then walked straight to the chair.
She knew the answer in her mind after just one glance at the question. This time the test was about the relationship between theory and practice, and it was a very simple question. It only took her ten minutes to finish it, and she checked it once before submitting the answer sheet.
The score came out quickly, and it was still above 90 points. She ignored the prompt sound in the tower and pushed open the door of the reward room. The layout inside felt similar to the first and second floors. She walked around and didn't find anything new. She just found a few small eavesdropping devices on the shelf of digital products. They were only as big as buttons. She thought they would be useful so she put some in her pocket. She didn't take anything else.
When coming with teammates, the main purpose is to collect supplies, but when coming alone, the focus is on finding the differences between the reward rooms on different floors.
Then she went to the fourth floor, answered the questions, and walked around the reward room. This time, she got a few miniature bombs, which she put in her backpack.
Five floors.
Sixth floor.
Seventh floor.
As the floors get higher, there are more and more technological products in the reward rooms.
She even found a laser gun on the shelf on the eighth floor. She picked it up and took a closer look. It was silver-white in color and had a fingerprint recognition function. She had to enter her own fingerprint to use it. Jiang Fei studied it for a long time. Only after seeing this did she feel a sense of reality in the science fiction world.
She rudely cleared out all the laser guns on the shelves and came to the tenth floor with a heavy backpack. The tower has a critical point every five floors. Jiang Fei, who is familiar with the difficulty of the questions, can clearly feel that the difficulty will increase a little every five floors. By the tenth floor, the question type has changed from short answer questions to material questions.
But it was still not difficult for Jiang Fei. The key points and keywords in the materials were easy to find. She circled them with a pen, then combined the knowledge in the book to discuss them, and finally gave a summary. The whole set of movements was very smooth and silky.
However, after reaching the tenth floor, if you want to go up further, the system will pop up a prompt.
[Your current base size has not yet reached the standard for unlocking higher floors. Please work hard to expand your base size! ]
Jiang Fei, who only lit up two bases: That’s fine.
This trip of answering questions was very rewarding. The backpack she brought was filled to the brim. She felt it was too heavy to carry, so she asked the black cat to help carry it.
She didn't intend to tell anyone else the secret of the tower she had discovered. It was enough for her to know it alone.
Coming out of the tower, the black cat followed her. Jiang Fei rubbed its head and wondered how the preparations for the auditions were going.
It's not just Jiang Fei who is worried about the selection, but also the countless staff behind the scenes.
"Isn't the number of participants this year too large?" Several staff members sitting in the main office wore headphones, and the screen in front of them displayed the information of the contestants participating in the selection competition.
"So we need to screen out some of them. How about this? We should kill the ugly contestants with lasers at the beginning?" another freckled staff member suggested half-jokingly.
"Huh? Aren't you afraid the production team will call you for a talk? Even if they approve, discerning viewers will immediately notice it's deliberate." The staff member wearing headphones rolled their eyes. "They're really hard to please. That young master wants the winner to be good-looking. Isn't that a surefire way to keep us in the dark?"
The black box of other programs is very simple, but the selection competition is too uncertain. No one knows whether the contestant who was alive and kicking in the last second will be killed in the next second.
"Forget it, let's first see which contestants are more in line with that young master's taste."
One of them tapped on the keyboard, and dozens of photos of contestants instantly appeared on the screen. They scanned them one by one, commenting, "This one seems okay."
"That should be suitable, right?"
"Ah... that? She doesn't look like she's going to be very obedient."
Someone else walked into the office and said, "The location for this tryout has been confirmed."
"What is it?" "Tell me quickly!"
"Are you two making another bet?" the newcomer narrowed his eyes. The other two grinned. "Isn't this inevitable? This is a tradition at every tryout."
The man with freckles said, "I'm betting on the forests, because they were always in the mountains several times before. This year should be about the same, right?"
"I'm betting on the sea. How many times has your forest appeared? I'm tired of seeing the audience coming to the forest, and you know how high the ratings were for the previous sea trials!"
"Ahem, the answer is: tropical rainforest. You both got it wrong."
"A mountain forest and a rainforest aren't that different, are they? My bet paid off this time."
My friend retorted, "That's a huge difference. Don't try to change the subject!"
"Okay, all of you, be quiet and quickly pick out the right champion. You don't want your salary to be deducted, do you?" the man threatened.
The two men finally quieted down for a while and said in unison, "It's really hard to make money."
*
The time for the tryouts arrived in the blink of an eye. Lucian left without making any noise, and everyone thought he was just leaving the base normally. But before he left, Jiang Fei stuffed a few technological gadgets into his pocket, such as eavesdropping devices. "I went to the ghost market again, and I found these. See if you can use them."
Lucian observed the items and said cryptically, "There are such new things in the Ghost Market?"
Jiang Fei curled her lips, "Yeah, I'm lucky."
Lucian, as clever as he was, must have guessed something, but he just didn't point it out. He put away the eavesdropping device and said, "Thank you in advance. I will try my best to come back alive."
"People who say this usually never come back." This sounds like a promise!
The third door of the base has been opened. Anna turned around and called Lucian, who shrugged at Jiang Fei and said, "I never believed this." Then he turned around and left.
Jason and Hill also came to the base gate to see him off. Hill said, "A smart guy like him could easily survive the trials. I wonder where the competition will be held this year."
"We'll only know when the live broadcast starts," Jason replied.
The Sky City trials are equivalent to a large-scale event. Not only the audience in Sky City can watch it, but all the bases in the dungeon can also watch the live broadcast.
Jiang Fei received a message from Lancer that the person nominated by D-1 base was Alice. Before this, the base where Jiang Fei was also contacted D-1 base, and finally the three bases reached an agreement to cooperate. But unlike Unica and Lucian who preferred to mind their own business, Alice was very keen on beating up others in the game. In her own words: I am so happy to have so many free sandbags for me to play with.
I can only pray that Alice doesn't get so busy punching sandbags that she forgets to cooperate with other bases.
Lucian's back disappeared at the gate of the base. Inside the base's restaurant and office building, screens were playing the opening credits of the trials. The restaurant was already packed with people, some of whom were watching the excitement, while others were worried about the players from their own base.
Jiang Fei ran into Nona at the restaurant, who was having brunch. She had spent most of her time in the greenhouse, and her unkempt appearance made Jiang Fei not recognize her at first. It was Nona who greeted him first, "Hi, Jiang Fei, are you here for the auditions?"
"Well, let me take a look."
Nona found an empty seat and sat down with Jiang Fei. The view from where they were sitting was not very good, and Jiang Fei had to crane her neck to see the screen clearly.
The opening credits of the auditions were playing on the screen, and the first image was the Sky City logo.
"Sky City is a symbol of the top of the world. Here you can realize your dreams. The environment is beautiful, the economy is prosperous, and everything is so vibrant."
"The selection competition is a tradition that has been established since the founding of Sky City. As long as you pass the selection competition, you can become a resident of Sky City."
"The 25th Sky City Trials are about to begin!"
Jiang Fei looked at the sloppy editing and the unrealistic images, and felt that this video must have been hastily edited in post-production. The quality was too low. But everyone around him was staring at the screen intently.
"Let's countdown to the start of the game."
"Ten, nine, eight... three, two, one!"
After a flash of white light, the screen revealed the venue of the competition, lush trees that blocked out the sun, moist soil, and the occasional sound of mosquitoes in the air. This was neither a mountain forest nor a sea, but a tropical rainforest.
Nona said, "It's a location we've never seen before. My brother and I were wondering if it would be a forest because it was in the mountains several times before. Maybe the production team preferred this type of terrain, but now it seems we were wrong."
"As for the tropical rainforest...what's more dangerous than the wild beasts are the poisonous mosquitoes and the extremely humid and hot weather." Jiang Fei thought of the wilderness survival programs she had watched before. The various poisonous insects in those programs alone gave her goosebumps.
Because there are a lot of contestants participating in the selection, about several hundred people, it is impossible to leave shots for everyone. At this time, the camera will be cut to the good-looking contestants. As expected, no matter which world you go to, people will still prefer good-looking people.
Time was limited, and in just over ten seconds, Jiang Fei saw more than a dozen people. Among them, he saw Unica and Lucian. Both of them had very calm expressions on their faces. Lucian even noticed the presence of the camera and glanced in that direction covertly.
"The picture flashed too fast, right? It hit my eyes. Did you see Lucian?" Nona blinked.
"See, he's safe now."
But that was only for now. The sound of a competition prompt came from above the tropical rainforest. Although the tropical rainforest was large, it could not withstand the large number of participants. So when the prompt sounded, the rainforest was full of rustling noises. Before being able to figure out the situation, no rash action could be taken. Thinking of this, Lucian used his keen hearing to avoid the surrounding players and ran away from the center of the game to the edge.
Passing through the dense woods, the branches and leaves of the trees in the rainforest were very huge. He lifted a leaf and suddenly stopped. The person standing five or six meters away from him also stopped and put his hand into his pocket. The selection competition prohibited the carrying of large weapons, but small weapons were still allowed. Lucian slowly raised his hand, "I have no ill intentions." At the same time, he threw a small button-like object to the ground. It was the electric shock robot given to him by Jiang Fei. It was small in size but very powerful.
The small, black, button-shaped robot shuttled across the ground, and the various vines around the trees perfectly concealed its whereabouts.
Lucian immediately raised his other hand. "I don't intend to kill you. On the contrary, I just want to withdraw from the game."
The other party didn't believe his words and had already reached out for his gun, grinning and saying, "Do you think I will believe it!?"
However, the next second his smile froze on his face, and his whole body began to tremble violently and exaggeratedly, "Ahhhhhh——!"
Lucian lowered his hand and smiled. "I knew you wouldn't believe me, idiot."
He had originally planned to stay away from the center, but unexpectedly, he had an unexpected reward. After the man fell to the ground, Lucian walked over to him, searched his backpack, and took out all the useful items inside. "I'll happily accept these things."
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