Chapter 50 Huaning TV Station 10
A square studio of about 100 square meters, with the door closed, the four walls were completely covered by large screens filled with ghostly words, forming a bloody stage. Under the gaze of three judges and evil ghosts, the trainees stepped on layers of blood, some pretended to be dead people's facial features, some dissected their own skills, and tried their best to make them laugh and beg for their lives.
In the end, there were only 12 trainees left in the lower group.
Xia Bai, Zhong Zicang, Zhang Runyue and four people who had plastic surgery passed the assessment. Of the remaining 17 people, only 5 completed their creative programs under high pressure and passed the assessment.
The remaining 12 people all died, including 6 volunteers.
Including Song Chenkai from the medium group, there were 13 volunteers here, 7 of whom died, leaving only 6.
"Today's performance was wonderful." Amid the extreme exhaustion of the trainees, the producer stood up in a good mood. A drop of blood splashed on his mouth, and when he smiled, the corners of his mouth that drooped down were stiffly pulled up, and his smile was creepy. "The individual assessment performance has ended successfully. Thank you all for watching."
After the four screens disappeared, all the extremely exhausted trainees breathed a sigh of relief. The bloody smell was still strong, and they all seemed to be covered in it, but their nerves, which had been tense for five or six hours, finally relaxed.
Several trainees from the lower group who had been standing all the time, had legs that were numb from standing and suddenly went limp. They supported each other and avoided collapsing in front of the three judges.
The producer held the list and began to announce the results of this assessment: "For this individual assessment performance, there are three people in B grade, namely Yang Mei, Ling Changye and Xia Bai. One person in C grade is You Mohan. One person in D grade is Shi Danfeng. Congratulations to the above trainees."
"The remaining 21 trainees are all E-level. I hope these trainees will keep up the good work. After all, all E-level trainees will be eliminated in the next individual assessment, and the next evaluation will be stricter."
The trainee who had just been able to catch his breath under the high pressure suddenly felt painful again, feeling extremely depressed and unable to breathe.
"Currently, all members of the top group have passed, and there are still 7 people. Six people in the middle group have been eliminated, and there are 7 people left. Twelve people in the bottom group have been eliminated, and there are 12 people left."
"We will have a team competition next Sunday. We will discuss the rules of the competition tomorrow morning. You have worked hard this week. Let's take a rest today."
This may be the only warmth shown by the production team so far. They did not announce the specific competition and scoring rules, so that they can have a good rest for half a day.
The assessment was completely over and it was already past three in the afternoon.
None of them had eaten lunch, but the restaurant was not open at this time. Many exhausted trainees did not have the energy to go downstairs, and sat directly in the studio, staring blankly at the blood-stained stage. Some of them did not want to smell the blood here anymore, so they dragged their tired bodies to the practice room next door.
"Brother Xia Bai, you performed really well today." Yang Mei came close to Xia Bai and praised him generously, "The captain and I were stunned."
Xia Bai turned to look at Ling Changye, and Ling Changye said, "Congratulations."
Xia Bai stared at him and said in surprise: "Are you still stunned?"
Ling Changye smiled and said, "He's talking nonsense."
“…”
Xia Bai said "Oh", as if he didn't want to talk anymore. As he walked, he moved closer to him.
"Captain, you're right. I shouldn't have told them that they used dead people's parts for plastic surgery." He said, standing half a step behind him.
Ling Changye slowed down half a step and turned to look at him. He saw that he was no longer simply dazed, but there was a layer of dim trance in his eyes.
He knew who Xia Bai was referring to. Wang Wei, who was originally in the same volunteer group as Xia Bai, could have had plastic surgery yesterday. If she had, at least she would not have died in this assessment. For some reason, she did not have the surgery.
Xia Bai probably thought that her decision not to have plastic surgery had something to do with what he said.
Ling Changye didn't say anything to him directly, but said: "I think your president feels very guilty."
After hearing this, Yang Mei hurriedly handed him a bracelet and said, "Wang Wei used it to exchange for milk from me. You can give it to your president."
"Wang Wei said at the time that she believed in your captain and she would not get plastic surgery. She didn't know how to express her support for the president, and didn't know how to comfort him. When she saw that he had lost a lot of weight and his lips were peeling, she wanted to find him a bottle of milk." Ling Changye added to what Wang Wei said at the time.
Nothing added, nothing omitted, just an objective retelling.
Yang Mei nodded repeatedly. He was used to seeing death in the game, but he still found it hard to get over Wang Wei's death.
When Wang Wei came to him to exchange milk, she was a little nervous. It was just a bottle of milk and he could give it to her directly. Seeing how nervous Wang Wei was, he was afraid that she would be embarrassed, so he readily agreed to her request and thought about leaving the game and then returning the bracelet to her. He didn't expect that he would have no chance anymore.
He felt that Wang Wei liked Zhong Zicang, but this love was just born in the most difficult situation of death, and it withered before it could be expressed.
This bracelet, which has not been returned yet, is the most meaningful to Zhong Zicang.
Xia Bai looked at the bracelet and quickly figured it out. He was a very emotional person, and when he took the bracelet to find Zhong Zicang, he had returned to normal.
He handed the bracelet to Zhong Zicang. It was a star-moon bracelet, with a moon in the middle and small yellow diamond stars on both sides, shining with twinkling light. Zhong Zicang held it in his broad hand, as if he was holding the light of the Milky Way.
Zhong Zicang sat on the floor of the practice room, staring at the bracelet with his eyes lowered, the emotion in his eyes unclear.
Xia Bai didn't disturb him and left without saying anything.
He knew that Zhong Zicang had held Wang Wei's hand, but he never knew whether Zhong Zicang liked Wang Wei.
Because he is really a good president who cares about and takes good care of his classmates.
But he must have remembered the bottle of hot milk.
After Xia Bai got Grade B, he had a separate room and took a hot bath in his room. Only then did the bloody smell of the studio really leave him.
After taking a shower, they went to have dinner. Tacitly, no one talked about anything related to the game during the meal. It was a rare moment of respite.
The few conversations in the restaurant were all about things other than games. Xia Bai also saw Shi Danfeng and You Mohan holding photos of their children, smiling as they talked about reminiscing about something.
Seeing Xia Bai looking at them, they not only did not hide, but also came to their table with the photo, said a few words politely, and then gave the photo to them, mainly to Ling Changye and Yang Mei, "Have you seen him?"
Xia Bai was slightly stunned when he saw the photo. He said nothing, lowered his head and ate two mouthfuls of rice before looking at Ling Changye.
Ling Changye didn't seem to react and asked, "What is this?"
You Mohan said: "This is our son."
Ling Changye shook his head, and Xia Bai was stunned again after hearing it.
The person in the photo looks a bit like You Yue, and the president’s surname is You, but he said he is their son.
Ling Changye didn't react at all. He had indeed never met You Yue. When You Yue came to their theater, Ling Changye had already entered the movie. After You Yue entered the movie, the two of them never met again. They might have met once when they left the theater, but You Yue often lowered her head, so Ling Changye might not have seen her face.
Xia Bai was not sure, and the person in the photo looked only eleven or twelve years old. He didn't know the two people from the Half Moon Group, so he lowered his head to eat his rice and said nothing.
Although they didn't get the answers they wanted, You Mohan and Shi Danfeng didn't show any disappointment. They just smiled and left.
This reminded Xia Bai that now was a good time for him to ask Ling Changye and Yang Mei about his grandfather. One of them was the captain of the assault team, and the other was a player who had entered the game many times and ranked first in the points ranking. Even the president of the Half Moon Group came to them to look for someone. How could he waste such a good resource?
After dinner, Xia Bai invited the two into his room.
Ling Changye asked directly: "If you have anything to ask, just ask directly?"
Xia Bai saw through his thoughts and didn't find it strange at all. He took out the Corpse Suppression Talisman and the Corpse Controlling Talisman and handed them to them, "Have you seen them in other people's possessions before?"
"I have seen it! I have seen it!" Yang Mei said excitedly.
Xia Bai immediately looked at him, "Where is it?"
Yang Mei: "From Hua Haoming, he said he bought it from a fool!"
Xia Bai: “…”
One hundred thousand yuan per ticket is indeed a bargain.
He looked at Ling Changye again, and Ling Changye shook his head, "I haven't seen it in anyone else's possession. Whose is it?"
After being caught lying to him last time, Xia Bai behaved himself this time and did not hide anything anymore. He told them about his grandfather and the God of Joy.
"If your grandfather is the God of Happiness brought out from the game, then he is definitely not a simple person. The Tourism Administration should have records of such a person. It's a bit strange that there are no records at all." Ling Changye said.
Xia Bai: "My grandfather is very low-key. He has always lived in Minshi Village and may not have entered many games."
This makes sense.
Ling Changye nodded, and slowly stroked the corpse-suppressing talisman with the tip of his middle finger, analyzing: "If the God of Joy was brought out of the game by him, since he was able to bring it out alive, it means that the game has been cleared and there is no way to enter again. If the God of Joy returns to the game, he should return to the game world they originally stayed in, and you can't enter."
Xia Bai sat down on the edge of the bed, feeling a little lost.
Ling Changye sat on the sofa and didn't say much.
He knew that Xia Bai should have thought of this, but just didn't want to accept it.
Ling Changye glanced at him. Xia Bai lowered his head and sat on the edge of the bed. His face showed a dull look as if his soul was not at home, but a little sadness leaked out when his soul ran away from home. At home, he lowered his eyelashes and left another shadow.
Ling Changye looked at them for two more seconds under the shadow of her eyelashes. "There is another possibility. They are NPCs in the game. Some NPCs are mobile. Their original world is gone. In order to make the best use of them, the game may let them go to other games."
"Huh? Maybe they are working in other game worlds?" Xia Bai immediately raised his head.
Ling Changye nodded, "If the game doesn't continue to use them, why should they be recycled?"
"Yes!" Xia Bai stood up, and it seemed as if his soul had returned home. "I still have to work hard to find them."
Yang Mei immediately said, "I'll help you find it. Do you have any photos?"
Xia Bai took out the family tree and said, "There are no photos, but I drew portraits of them. Look."
“…”
Xia Bai told Yang Mei about his family tree, and Yang Mei was amazed at it again and again. The more he looked, the more he couldn't take his eyes off it. He suddenly murmured, "I'm so envious."
Xia Bai was stunned. Seeing him staring at the family tree in silence, he suddenly asked, "Yang Mei, can you give me your body?"
Yang Mei was stunned for a long time, then smiled and said, "Sure."
Unexpectedly, he agreed directly, and Xia Bai was even more stunned.
"But it's hard for me to die. What should I do if you may not get my body in your lifetime? Otherwise..." Yang Mei turned to look at Ling Changye and shook her head again, "Forget it, he is an old man who will never die."
“…”
Ling Changye played with the ring on his hand and said without turning his head, "It is because it is difficult for you to die that you agreed so quickly. This promise has no weight, just like me who cannot die. If he asked me, I would agree."
Xia Bai asked casually, "Ling Changye, are you willing to give me your body?"
Ling Changye turned around and looked at him with a smile, "Yes."
When he said "yes", it was like saying he was willing to go drinking with Xia Bai.
Yang Mei: "Sure enough, it has no weight at all."
However, what they said was deemed valid by the game. Xia Bai touched his phone with a dull expression. He just signed the captain of the assault team and the top two bosses in the points ranking?
They said a few more words and then went back to their rooms.
Xia Bai stared at the two extra prepared corpses on the game app for a long time, clicked on the chat software, and after the phone entered the game, there was no internet, so he could only open the game app.
Xia Bai thought about it and took out a treasure.
Ling Changye finished taking a shower and was about to lie down on the bed when he suddenly stopped.
He lowered his eyes without changing his expression and saw a gray-purple ghost hand reaching out from under the bed. The cold breath gave him goose bumps on his ankles.
Just as the weapon was about to be called out, the ghost hand opened, revealing a small note inside.
“…”
Seeing that he didn't move, the ghost hand tugged at his pajamas and asked him to take the note and read it.
Ling Changye picked up the note, which read: "It's effective."
He knew what worked.
He took out his pen and replied with a “hmm”.
After a while, the ghost hand came again, "You don't seem to be having so much fun in this game."
Ling Changye was stunned for a moment, and after a few minutes he replied: "The first time I played funeral music, and the second time I read a eulogy, can you be happy?"
The ghost hand rustled again, "I didn't expect you could play the suona so well. I've heard of the "Funeral Music"."
Ling Changye stared at the note for a long time and replied, "I learned it by chance."
Xia Bai also stared at the note for a while. Ling Changye often looked like a leisurely nobleman, and he really didn't look like someone who could play the suona.
The ghost hand reward from the Harmony Cinema was very useful. He turned to Yang Mei's room and asked Yang Mei, "Has any of the Captain's relatives passed away?"
Yang Mei quickly replied: "Dad, you don't know?"
Xia Bai replied blankly: "Should I know?"
Yang Mei didn't care about Ghost Hand's hard work at all, and just replied: "..."
Xia Bai blamed him wrongly, so he replied with a long piece of paper, answering all of Xia Bai's questions at once.
"You didn't know? The captain's mother is the richest woman. Have you never called her mom on the Internet before? Haven't you seen the news about the captain's father's death? The captain's mother was originally just a beautiful wife. The family business belonged to the captain's father. About seven years ago, the captain's father disappeared. No trace of him was found for half a year. Later, he was determined to be dead and a funeral was held. Many relatives were eyeing their property. Unexpectedly, the captain's mother, who everyone thought was a beautiful wife, was more powerful than the father. Not only did she keep the family business, she also became the richest woman. The captain has always been skeptical that his father is dead, and he has not given up the search until now."
Xia Bai lay on the bed, staring at the cluster of light shining on the wall.
Shi Danfeng and You Mohan are looking for their son, he is looking for the god of joy in their family, and Ling Changye is looking for his father.
So many people are on the road of searching in this difficult world.
That night, the trainees fell into a deep sleep, even though nightmares still occurred.
Some people remember very clearly things that often appear in their dreams.
There are also some people who gradually forget a lot of things in their dreams, and things that were once familiar begin to become blurred.
Hu Yihang sat up again in the middle of the night, sitting on the iron bed in a daze. After a long time, he turned his head to look at the bed opposite. It was empty, and his eyes became even more confused.
Liao Manni was woken up in the middle of the night and saw the bald man who moved to the middle-level dormitory drinking water. She stared at the bottle of water for a long time and licked her lips blankly.
Feng Sheng kept sniffling in his sleep. In his dream, his mother took him to the park and asked him, "Do the osmanthus flowers in the park smell good? Mom loves the smell of flowers the most."
As his mother was anxious, he squatted down with his head in his hands.
He seemed to feel something was missing from his body, something very important, an important part of his life.
What does your mother love most?
Five o'clock on Monday morning.
All the trainees woke up at the ringing of the bell, ending their short break.
【All trainees, please gather in the studio. 】
On the way to the studio, Xia Bai was bumped by Hu Yihang, who immediately apologized to him, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't see anyone in front of me."
After apologizing, he left, walked to the basement level, and looked around.
Xia Bai said to Ling Changye and Yang Mei: "He's a little strange."
"Yes, I saw him bump into you." Yang Mei said, "He got a dead man's eye. Is there something wrong with him? Can't see anymore?"
"He can see it." Ling Changye looked at Hu Yihang who walked into the studio hesitantly, "He just doesn't seem to recognize Xia Bai, as if he has never been to the studio."
"Not really." Ling Changye shook his head, "He should know the studio, but it seems strange to him."
The three of them deliberately slowed down their pace and observed the players who had undergone plastic surgery. They saw more or less confusion in them.
Seeing Feng Sheng coming over, Ling Changye took out a bottle of perfume and sprayed it several times on the stair railing in front of him. When Feng Sheng passed by, he sniffed it hard and a look of confusion appeared on his face for a moment.
He still had a sense of smell, but he was also confused by the smell.
Yang Mei: "What's going on? Their vision and sense of smell are still there, but they can't remember? Or is their vision disordered?"
Xia Bai thought of what Zhong Zicang said about ghosts invading with the help of the five senses. "It is the vision of the owner of the eyes that has replaced Hu Yihang's vision. Now Hu Yihang's head is full of what his eyes have seen in the past, and what he saw in the past is gone?"
Yang Mei couldn't help but let out an "ah".
He couldn't imagine what this would turn out to be like.
For a person with normal vision, life is made up of everything he sees. Everything he obtains is inseparable from the window of eyes, including knowledge, feelings, everything.
If someone is replaced by another person, which person is he?
"No." Without waiting for Ling Changye to speak, Xia Bai denied his guess. "According to our guess, the facial features they replaced on their faces are likely to be those of previous trainees. Would previous trainees be unfamiliar with the studio? Would they be so confused by the smell of perfume?"
Ling Changye: "The producer is here, go in first, we'll talk later."
Just like last Monday morning, they gathered in the studio to talk about this week's game.
The producer was still standing in the middle of the judges, with the talent instructor on his left who had impeccable looks and smile, and the body shape instructor holding a blood whip in his right.
"The first team competition will be held this Sunday. Let me first explain the rules of the competition. The team competition will be held between three groups. All trainees in the three groups must participate. They will go on stage to perform in the order of the top group, the middle group, and the bottom group. After each group performs, the judges and the audience will score the group's performance. After the three groups have finished performing, a new top group, middle group, and bottom group will be formed according to the scores."
"I have already explained the elimination rules for the three groups. The new lower group will eliminate the bottom 30% of the group and no less than two trainees. The middle group will eliminate 10% and no less than one trainee. The upper group does not need to be eliminated."
"As for the scoring criteria for the team competition, the basics are still appearance and talent. Appearance, needless to say, still accounts for 60%. Talent is the score of your group's program. I believe you have already seen it this time, including the creativity of the program, the completeness of the performance, the team competition, and the coordination of the group, etc."
After the producer explained the rules and schedule, he asked as usual: "Do you have any questions about this Sunday's game?"
A trainee from the bottom group asked: "If our group is third in the team competition, and is still in the bottom group, 30% means 3.6 people, how many people will be eliminated?"
Producer: "Round it off and eliminate four."
"How are the trainees at the bottom of the group eliminated? In the group competition, are there individual votes or ratings?"
Producer: "That's a good question. It is. A large part of the results in the team competition is the summary of individual results. Undoubtedly, 60% is appearance, and the remaining 40% is talent, which is the team cooperation effect."
"So, basically, when your team's results come out, your individual results will almost be out as well. In addition, the audience's popularity that I mentioned before will also be reflected in the results. At the end of the show, the audience will choose their three favorite trainees based on your on-site performance, etc., and each trainee will get one vote. The individual's appearance score and the number of votes received are the only two factors that affect the elimination order within the group."
All the trainees were stunned. For some reason, the producer explained it in a complicated but detailed way. The scoring criteria for the team competition can be summarized in one point: appearance is more important.
The item of "individual appearance" directly affects the group's results after being summarized. It is also a separate determining factor in the fatal elimination order that the trainees are most concerned about. Not only that, it actually also indirectly affects "audience popularity". It is difficult for the audience's vote not to be affected by appearance.
"That talent show..."
The producer interrupted the trainee who spoke up and said, "Talent performance accounts for 40% of your group's performance score. At the same time, the audience votes are based on your live performance. Isn't it mainly about your talent?"
As if they were fools.
Only Yang Mei didn't understand. He said it was so complicated just to make the actual increase in the proportion of appearance sound more reasonable, right?
"If there are no problems, go and prepare for the group performance," the producer said, closing the door to their doubts.
The rules of the game were not something they could change, so the trainees returned to their respective practice rooms helplessly and angrily. The bottom and middle groups were particularly troubled, as they all knew that elimination would happen in their two groups.
In the practice room of the lower group, Zhong Zicang organized everyone as he did before, "Everyone should think about whether there are any good program ideas in the morning. After breakfast, we will discuss them together. It would be best if we can finalize the program before lunch and start training in the afternoon."
He was still steadily boosting everyone's morale, "I know the top group is very strong, but the individual assessment has proven that we are not much different from the middle group, not to mention cosmetic surgery. Our elimination rate is lower than theirs, so there is a high possibility that we will at least surpass them and become the middle group, which will save us three eliminations."
At this point, everyone had no objections and wanted to cooperate and practice the program well, but things changed after breakfast.
While having breakfast, they noticed that two E-level trainees from the medium group were absent. Upon asking, they found out that they had gone to their body shape teachers for plastic surgery, including one who had already had surgery last week.
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