Chapter 27
The duration of the qualifying round is indefinite, and the competition is usually declared over when only one winner remains.
Not long after the competition began, many contestants died. Some were killed by other contestants, and some were attacked by various poisonous insects or wild beasts lurking in the tropical rainforest. Jiang Fei had read the summary of the selection competition. There would be three waves of death in the competition. The first was within half an hour after the start of the competition, the second was two days later, and the last was a mutual slaughter between the few remaining champions.
The first wave of deaths in this competition lasted for about twenty minutes. During this period, the production team kept switching the screens. The flashing screens showed contestants in various states of death. Jiang Fei stared at the screen intently. Fortunately, she did not find Lucian, Unica, or Alice on it.
Despite this shocking scene, Nona managed to eat her meal with a normal expression. She said, "Don't you think most of the people who died just now were ugly?"
Well, she didn't notice it. Besides, how could she tell whether it was beautiful or not after the person was dead?
"There is no distinction between beautiful and ugly dead people."
Nona disagreed. "You're wrong. From the very beginning, the requirements for the contestants showed that this competition was held solely to select a beautiful and powerful pet for that noble young master. Beauty comes first."
Hill had come over at some point. "Yeah, even though Lucian isn't as strong as me, he's really good at hitting the face."
"This is not the time to joke." Jiang Fei curled her lips.
"I'm not kidding. Just looking at his face, I think that noble young master would like him too, right?" Hill said. Jason walked over and patted his head. "Don't say that."
Hill dodged his brother's hand, "Stop rubbing my hair!"
Jiang Fei withdrew his gaze and then looked at the screen again. At the same time, the staff behind the selection competition were also counting the number of deaths and serious injuries.
"Is everything going well?" the general manager walked into the office. "Pull out the death list so I can see it."
"Yes." The staff quickly pulled up the death list. The monocle worn by the person in charge reflected the cold light of the screen. He quickly read through the list and said, "Very good. Keep up the pace. Be careful to leave the good-looking contestants to die later." This was not only to satisfy the young noble, but also for ratings. After all, the audience of Sky City is also visual animals, and they prefer contestants with superior looks to fight each other.
Moreover, leaving the contestants with pleasing appearance to the end can also ensure the subsequent ratings.
The bodies that fell in the tropical rainforest and the seriously injured and eliminated contestants will be transferred outside the stadium by the psychics who simulated this environment. The choice of the tropical rainforest as the venue for the competition was an unexpected decision for everyone. Sure enough, the number of online viewers exceeded six figures not long after the live broadcast began.
[As usual, a lot of people died at the beginning, but the rainforest looks much more interesting than the mountain forest.]
[I even bet with my friend that it would be a forest!]
[Is there any imagination in the above? Mountains and forests have appeared so many times. If they appear again this time, I'll be aesthetically fatigued.]
[Why would you mind that? You own the channel, why are you so involved? ?]
Besides the online audience, as an important figure in the early stages of the selection, the noble young master walked into the control room with a matter-of-fact attitude. The general manager bowed respectfully upon seeing him, "Master Youer, why are you here?"
"This tryout was held for me anyway, so why can't I come and watch?" Yoel sat directly in the main seat, crossed his legs, and tapped the table lightly with his fingers. "That one looks okay. Don't let him die too soon."
He pointed at the blond man on the screen. There were a few blood spots on his cheek. His blue-green eyes seemed to sense something and turned back to look directly at the camera. Yoel suddenly smiled. "He's quite camera-savvy. He even knows how to find the shot for himself."
The boy seemed to be watching some interesting reality show. For the audience, it was an entertainment program to kill time, but for the contestants, it was a bloody and cruel competition.
As Hill said, Lucian's face is indeed very advantageous. At least he made many viewers watching online feel pity for him with just a few pictures.
[This blonde is pretty good looking! And she’s also very smart.]
[Blonde lovers, stop yelling at the sight of a blonde. This is a competition, not a beauty pageant.]
[You're just jealous that she's prettier than you, right? What a pitiful shady guy (laughing)]
[Are you crazy? How can a Sky City person like me be jealous of this cheap thing from the Underground City? ? ?]
[The other party has been banned due to extreme remarks.]
Lucian raised his hand to wipe the sweat off his face. Not only could the psychic simulate the terrain of a tropical rainforest, but the weather was also hot and humid, typical of a rainforest. He ran and walked briskly all the way, and soon he began to sweat. His skin became sticky, and the sweat soaked his hair, making it stick to his forehead.
It was too hot, so hot that even the breath people exhaled was scorching hot. This would not be good. Lucian felt that his condition was not right. He struggled forward. He had to find Unica and Alice as soon as possible, and then be seriously injured and eliminated as planned.
In the control room, Yoel narrowed his eyes unhappily in front of the screen. "He did it on purpose. He has been moving towards the edge, and he seems to be planning something. Get me his information." He ordered the person in charge in a commanding tone, and the latter just did as he was told.
Yoel read through the information quickly, resting his hand on his chin. "Hmm... He's from the North District, and he was nominated by the base. He was forced to participate. No wonder he's so determined to escape. But he doesn't seem stupid. What exactly does he want to do?"
"Maybe it's just to avoid the first wave of deaths." said the person in charge.
"No, that doesn't seem to be the reason." Yor glared at the general manager. "You really have no imagination." He had just seen Lucian's name. He stared at the screen, his voice light but like the scarlet tongue of a lurking venomous snake. "Lucian... what are you going to do next?"
At this moment, Lucian certainly didn't know that the eyes behind the screen were watching him. He found the reason for his dizzy head. Just now, when he was on his way, he passed by a flower forest and accidentally inhaled too much pollen, which probably had a knock-out effect. Fortunately, he didn't inhale too much, but even a little bit made his head feel heavy.
To avoid dying before reuniting with Unica and Alice, Lucian found a secluded cave, unscrewed the water cup he had snatched from the man, poured out a little, and splashed it on his face. This sobered him up a little, and he patted his cheek.
Wake up quickly, he told himself.
The people outside the stadium were not having a relaxing time either. Jiang Fei was halfway through the game when she was called out by Jason. She didn't understand why, but Jason didn't try to be secretive and said directly, "You went to investigate the pattern, right?"
It turned out to be about this matter. She had thought that she had been discovered when she had sneaked out to answer questions in the tower alone. She had already prepared herself mentally, "Yes, this matter was also approved by Coin."
Jason sighed helplessly, "When you get stubborn, your temper is very similar to Hill's."
"But I'm not your brother." Jiang Fei said, "So you already knew about the Redemption Society?"
"I can't say I know them, but I've come into contact with them before. They're a group... I don't know how to describe it. Although they didn't show any malice in the few times I've met them, I still find them very strange."
"What's so strange about it?" It was rare for him to bring up this matter on his own initiative. Jiang Fei wanted to dig out some more information from him, preferably to get some clues about the pollutants behind the Redemption Society, but she looked calm.
"The idea they talk about saving the world is very strange. In this world, no one can protect themselves. What is the founder of this organization thinking? Can this really be done?" Jason and Jiang Fei had similar thoughts.
Jiang Fei said, "I'm also curious. Sky City won't allow people from the Underground City to be on equal footing with them. They can't tolerate something so-called inferior to them being on equal footing with them. So how can the Redemption Society achieve its goal of redeeming the world? Unless it can overthrow Sky City."
Speaking of this, Jiang Fei is wary of the Redemption Society while also thinking about whether he can use this power to achieve the goal of saving the world.
Jason looked around cautiously, as if on guard against something. He was used to being cautious. "Who else have you said this to?"
"What? You mean overthrowing Sky City?"
"right."
"Counting you, there's only Lucian. As for him, he's very tight-lipped, so there's no chance of him leaking any information."
Jason frowned. "Don't say this to anyone else. Even if most people are dissatisfied with Sky City, you never know who might betray you. Furthermore, if you show your dissatisfaction too obviously, Sky City will notice it."
Jiang Fei agreed with his opinion, but she was very clear that she would inevitably embark on a path of confrontation with Sky City in the future. "As for that organization, they will take in people who have nowhere to go, and then develop them into their own members, and then use these members to further expand the organization. In the past, it was just a small hidden organization, but..."
She continued, "But now they've begun extending their reach to the leaders of the bases. There's a possibility that the founder of the organization has already reached a consensus with the leaders of one of the bases."
While large bases, such as Class A bases, offer far superior living standards than Class D bases, would anyone really willingly live underground their entire lives? Have those base leaders truly considered becoming the controllers of Sky City? The answer is definitely not, after all, human nature is inherently greedy.
"Although the example of D-1 base failed, I always feel that they will not give up just like that." According to her past experience, villains are often well-planned and will not be defeated by a setback, so soon, a second example will appear.
Jason said, "Are you thinking of anything dangerous?"
"Ah? Is it obvious?" Jiang Fei came back to her senses. She shouldn't have shown all her mental activities on her face, right?
"I guess. I've seen members of their group before at the Ghost Market, always buying weapons or poison." Jason recounted his past experiences. He'd been ordered by the former leader to go to the Ghost Market to gather intelligence or purchase contraband. "I even ran into one of their gatherings once. That was the time I almost thought I'd never make it back."
"Rally..." Jiang Fei's mind flashed with a picture of a group of people in black gathered in a circle and talking in low voices.
"Yeah." Jason glanced at Jiang Fei's face and suddenly felt a little regretful. "Forget it, I shouldn't have told you this."
Having accomplished her purpose of asking questions, Jiang Fei gave him an awkward smile, "Now that things have come to this, why don't you say something more?"
"Let's talk about this later. Aren't you worried that Lucian will die in the qualifiers?" Jason changed the subject.
Of course she was worried. Lucian was her original teammate after all, and he was smart. As for his personality... although he liked to be sarcastic, he was generally kind. Besides, she couldn't save the world by herself.
Convinced by his reasoning, "That's right, let's wait until the trials are over before we talk about it."
When Jiang Fei returned to the restaurant, before she could ask what happened, Nona spoke first, "Lucian seems to have been poisoned. Now he can only hide in the cave. Fortunately, no other enemies found him."
"Poisoned?" Jiang Fei asked in surprise.
Hill had just used his computer to record the footage of Lucian, showing it to her frame by frame. "His complexion started to look strange from that point on. At first, we thought it was the humid, hot rainforest weather, and he'd been running a long way beforehand, but his behavior has only gotten stranger since then."
Lucian in the picture looked a little dazed. He blinked slowly and shook his head as if to regain his composure, but it was no use. Finally, he used all his strength to find a narrow cave, crawled in, and splashed water on his face.
"No... Rather than being poisoned, it's more likely he's been under the influence of something and has developed hallucinogenic effects." Jiang Fei dragged the image forward, finding the scene of him walking through the flowers. She stopped there, "If my guess is correct, that's where the problem lies. The pollen of these flowers has hallucinogenic effects."
She was worried that Lucian would be discovered by the enemy, but at the same time she was glad that it was just a hallucinogenic effect and not a poison.
Even though his mind was in chaos, he was smart enough to find a hiding place, otherwise he would probably fall into the river and drown after falling into hallucinations.
"Then did you see anyone else? Unica? Alice?" Jiang Fei asked again.
Nona looked embarrassed. "No, I guess they were hiding from the cameras. Otherwise, why didn't I see them?"
However, the truth is that Nona was only half right, because Unica was indeed avoiding the camera. As for Alice, it was not her who was avoiding the camera, but the camera that was avoiding her, because not long after the game started, she had already beaten up no less than five cameras. Her movements were quick, accurate and ruthless, and her behavior gave the staff a headache.
"What's wrong with this contestant? She smashes the camera as soon as she sees it. Is she here to participate in the competition or to ruin the event?" A staff member was so annoyed that she kept complaining.
"Tell the technical department to replace the damaged cameras, otherwise what's the point of filming?" "The technical department said it will take a while, not so fast."
"He failed at the critical moment."
Just as the staff were busy and exhausted, the attention of the audience watching online was also drawn to the frequent damage of the cameras.
[Haha ...
[Hey, stop laughing at our little sister, the King of Destruction!]
[What the hell? The competition just started and they've already picked their nicknames!? Don't bring your circle's tricks here (annoyed)! !]
Even Joel discovered that Alice was special. The cameras installed in the competition venue were specially made and of high quality, so Alice often couldn't break the camera at once. She first smashed the lens, and the picture was also cut into many irregular pieces. The woman's face in the picture was aggressive and beautiful.
Joel smiled and said, "It looks like a big cat whose claws haven't been plucked yet." This was a compliment coming from his mouth. After all, it was an honor to be his pet.
The general manager smiled apologetically, "But there can only be one champion in the selection competition."
"Yeah, I know. Are you teaching me how to do things?" He tilted his head and raised one eyebrow.
"No...I didn't mean that."
Sizzle——
Another camera failed, but Yoel had an excited smile on his face. "We need to pay attention to this one too. We can't let her die too early."
The boy may show sporadic kindness because of his good looks, but ultimately, he is a naive and cruel person.
On the other hand, Alice was dropped into a very remote place at the beginning, with not many contestants around. As a result, when others were frantically running for their lives or fighting, she had not found any other figures except herself. This made her very unhappy, as she had originally planned to beat up others for fun.
She took out her anger on every camera she saw, destroying about ten cameras along the way. Her emotions finally calmed down, but her expression was still as grumpy as before.
According to the plan, she should have gone to the edge of the arena to look for Unica and Lucian, and in fact, she was doing so. However, halfway through, she encountered a roadblock. This was a literal roadblock. She rolled her eyes at the beast with fierce eyes and muttered, "I didn't see any people, but I did encounter a beast. Tsk, this is really troublesome."
She waved her arm and a long knife suddenly appeared in her hand. The beast also crouched down and made a move as if it was about to attack. Alice stared at the beast's eyes and launched the attack first. She dodged in front of the beast, avoided its bloody mouth, and then flipped over to sit on its back. The blade of the long knife flashed with a sharp cold light.
The beast sensed something and began to struggle. Alice let out a cruel smile and said, "Resistance is useless." She tightly grasped the fur on the back of the beast's neck with her left hand, raised her hand and slashed with the knife. Most of the long knife was embedded in the beast's neck, and a circle of blood oozed out from the edge of the wound.
"What the hell is this thing? The bones and flesh are so hard." It was difficult for her to pull out the long knife, and the beast became furious under the stimulation of pain, shaking its body desperately. Alice was almost thrown off.
At the critical moment, she took all her strength to draw out the long knife, and without any hesitation, she stabbed the beast's most vulnerable eyes with the knife, first the left eye, and then the right eye.
The beast howled to the sky with a roar that shook the rainforest. Alice rubbed her ears and said, "You're going to be killed by me even if you roar so loudly." As soon as she finished speaking, she picked up the bloody long knife and jumped off the beast's back. The dark red blood dripped down the long knife.
She put her braids behind her head and looked at the beast in front of her. Both of its eyes had been blinded by her, and even its eyeballs were cut in half. The scene was bloody and weird, but she could still smile at such a scene. This was the first smile she showed since the start of the game. When the beast was exhausted and its heavy body fell to the ground, the whole ground shook a few times.
"That's a bit interesting." Alice walked to the dead beast and wiped the blade with its fur. She was so busy dealing with the beast that she didn't notice that the camera in the bushes next to her recorded the whole process, and it was also seen by everyone through the live broadcast.
Nona and Jiang Fei also saw this scene. Nona's tone was stiff, "I always feel that... she seems a little scary. Will she really not betray us halfway?"
Jiang Fei said: "It's just killing a beast, and her character is just like that."
Nona looked hesitant to speak, but Hill said, "Maybe she can really become the champion of the selection competition."
"Her personality isn't suited to being a champion, and if she really went to Sky City, she'd easily offend people." Jason saw the problem more clearly than his brother Hill. "That's why she'd rather stay in the dungeon than go to Sky City."
While Jiang Fei and the others were discussing Alice, the others naturally saw the whole process as well. The number of people watching online increased. Yoel stared at the woman with blood on her cheek and fierce eyes in the screen. His expression was a bit excited, "Look, what a strong vitality, she solved the beast with just a knife." You know, this beast had just eaten two contestants and seriously injured five contestants.
Such a ferocious beast actually died at the hands of this seemingly weak contestant.
"This tryout was quite interesting." It was rare for Joel to express his satisfaction so directly. He was already imagining the gift he would receive after the competition. Would it be that clever blond man? Or that fierce, beautiful woman? A fierce personality wasn't a problem; he could just slowly reduce her claws.
Regardless, he was looking forward to it.
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