Chapter 64 Shengjing Entertainment "We'll try our best to lose, won't we?"...
The quiz announcement was broadcast at 11:55 PM yesterday. Shi Yu wondered if the quiz announcement would be broadcast at the same time tonight. So he and Yun Yi didn't sleep at all last night. They discussed a few ways to lose without being identified as passive by the system, and then waited for the quiz announcement. However, the quiz announcement did not come on until midnight.
Therefore, it seems that the quizzes, like the performances, are conducted randomly at unspecified times.
This rule seems to give players a lot of freedom, but in reality, it hangs the sword of Damocles over everyone's head. Nobody knows when the next performance or mini-test will be, what the rules will be, what will happen if they win, what will happen if they lose, or even if someone dies.
It makes people constantly on edge.
The theme of this instance is talent shows, but there are no selection criteria. What kind of talents does Shengjing Entertainment want to choose? It leaves them wondering which direction to focus their efforts on.
And why does a dungeon take so long?
"Have you ever encountered a dungeon that takes this long before?" Shi Yu asked Yun Yi. After spending the past two days together, he could tell that Yun Yi was a veteran player who must have run many dungeons.
Yun Yi thought for a moment and said, "I haven't encountered a 90-day dungeon, but I have been to a 30-day dungeon. That dungeon was called 'Countdown,' and it was a mid-level dungeon with an apocalyptic theme. The dungeon's background was that the planet would end in thirty days, and players had to escape the planet within thirty days, or they would be destroyed along with the planet."
"There were 200 players in that instance. We found Noah's Ark on the 29th day. At that time, there were less than a third of the survivors left in the base. We gathered all the survivors, boarded Noah's Ark, and left the planet on the last day."
Shi Yu then asked, "How's the pace of the dungeon?"
Yun Yi said, "Although it's a 30-day instance, the pace is not slow at all. Because it's a post-apocalyptic theme with zombies, each player has a role to play. Players who play soldiers have to go out to fight zombies every day, and the risk of death is relatively high. My role is a base researcher who assists the professor in his research every day. When I'm busy, I may not have time to sleep for several days."
"To be honest, the pace of this dungeon is indeed a bit too slow right now," Yun Yi sighed. "But it might also be because it's a newbie dungeon."
Speaking of this, Shi Yu was a little curious. He didn't hide his curiosity and asked Yun Yi, "By the way, why did you enter this instance? I mean, you don't seem like a new player."
According to normal thinking, new players should enter newbie dungeons, while veteran players should go to higher-level dungeons. Isn't it a case of veteran players bullying new players to come to newbie dungeons?
However, Yun Yi's answer was completely different from Shi Yu's guess.
"Actually, I was being punished." Yun Yi smiled, not bothering to hide it.
"Punishment?" Shi Yu was slightly taken aback, but not for long, because this wasn't the first time he had heard of a punishment mechanism in the game. Wasn't Qin Ke in the last dungeon also punished and thrown into the dungeon as an NPC?
“That’s right, it’s punishment.” Yun Yi thought for a moment, then asked Shi Yu, “Have you thought about why we were pulled into the game? Have you thought about what the purpose of this game is? How it works? And… how can we get out of the game?”
This was exactly what Shi Yu was currently thinking about and preparing to investigate, and he nodded slightly.
"It seems impossible to leave the game now. In fact, a few years ago, a player left the game, but he was the only one to leave the game over the years. According to the players at the time, before leaving, that person posted a sentence in the world chat saying, 'Go up and you will find the answer.' Everyone interpreted his sentence as—that a way to leave the game could be found in high-level dungeons, because that player had been frantically grinding high-level dungeons in the six months before leaving."
"To this day, many players still believe in this statement, but it may be because they have no other choice but to believe. People always need to have some hope in life."
"However, a series of subsequent system operations also indirectly verified the truth of this statement."
"You've probably noticed that when your streamer level is low, there are very few dungeons to choose from. But as your streamer level increases, the number of dungeons the system opens up to you will also increase. There are newbie dungeons, low-level dungeons, mid-level dungeons, and finally high-level dungeons... But actually, in the past, players didn't have so many restrictions on choosing dungeons. New players could enter high-level dungeons as long as they weren't afraid to die, and even veteran players who were afraid to die could keep refreshing the newbie dungeons."
"I don't know when it started, but the system began to restrict players from accessing advanced games. It sets levels for players, sets conditions for unlocking intermediate and advanced games, and sets a penalty mechanism. If you meet the conditions, you can unlock advanced game privileges, but if you make a mistake, your privileges will be turned off."
Yun Yi sighed, "I was originally just two more intermediate dungeons away from unlocking the advanced dungeon, but because I burned down a building in the dungeon, I was punished and had my intermediate dungeon closed. Now I can only start grinding from the low-level dungeon again."
"Some speculate that the system did this because it was worried that players would find a way to leave the game after accessing high-level dungeons, since someone once successfully left the game using this method."
"That expert is Jiang Liuyue, who was ranked number one on the skill leaderboard. Although he is no longer here, I don't know why his name is still on the list. It is said that Jiang Liuyue and Mo Rugui were friends. You seemed to have met Mo Rugui in the last dungeon, right? I remember that Mo Rugui was also always running high-level dungeons before. Maybe he made some mistake and his access was restricted."
Shi Yu originally had no clue how to find the truth about the game.
After listening to Yun Yi's explanation, he understood that to find the truth about the game, he needed to access high-level dungeons, but his current streamer level only allowed him to access beginner and low-level dungeons.
"Do you know how to level up your streamer level quickly?" Shi Yu asked.
Yun Yi said, "There are many ways to do this. For example, you can perform well in the dungeon, complete all the main and side quests in the dungeon, and have a high dungeon completion rate. If you can get a new ending in the end, your score should double. In addition, there is the audience's reaction, the popularity of the live stream, the number of new fans during the live stream, and so on."
Shi Yu nodded: "Okay, I understand."
Yun Yi nodded, but froze for a second. He turned his head sharply to look at Shi Yu: "You wouldn't be going to...?!"
Shi Yu did not speak.
But from Shi Yu's expression, Yun Yi probably knew the answer.
From the moment Shi Yu and Yun Yi started discussing why they were dragged into the game, their live stream was muted.
Why is there no sound? What happened? Is there any content that my VIP membership doesn't allow me to listen to?
What did they say? Can someone with expert lip-reading skills translate this for me?
Even someone with expert lip-reading skills couldn't read lips through a mosaic, thank you.
In my experience, the reason "it" usually doesn't show us content is because the content mentions "it".
The last person who spoke recklessly is dead. Is Shi Yu, the newcomer, so ignorant, and is Yun Yi also ignorant? Doesn't he know what he should and shouldn't say?
【Ahhhhhh, honey, please stop talking!!!】
[Are you overthinking it? How could a new player like Shi Yu possibly be thinking about such deep topics? They're probably talking about SeSe, since SeSe and Mosaic are a better match.]
[...I'd rather they were talking about the system.]
...
The truth about the game is another matter; what they need to consider now is how to clear the current instance.
Is it possible to clear the game ahead of schedule?
After all, 90 days of game time is a huge waste of time for Shi Yu, who is eager to grind dungeons and level up.
“Perhaps we can start with the entertainment company?” Yun Yi suggested. He continued, “The reason I was able to complete the apocalyptic scenario I played before was because of my identity as a researcher. It allowed me to move around the base smoothly, which led me to discover the base’s secrets and find Noah’s Ark on the ninth underground level, ultimately carrying everyone away.”
"If we want to know Shengjing Entertainment's selection criteria, perhaps we should learn about the other artists in their company?"
But other artists from the entertainment company may not come here.
This requires contacting the president of Shengjing Entertainment.
Who is more likely to get close to Lu Chengjing?
it goes without saying.
“Let’s divide the work. You explore the stadium, and I’ll contact Lu Chengjing,” Shi Yu said.
In any case, all three side quests are related to Lu Chengjing.
Shi Yu was doing a side quest at the time.
Yun Yi had no objections.
Three more days passed, and there was still no notification of a performance or a small test.
Shi Yu met Lu Chengjing twice in the past three days, once by chance in the corridor and once by chance in the restroom. Both times, Shi Yu greeted Lu Chengjing politely and tried his best to chat with him without compromising his image. Lu Chengjing enjoyed chatting with him, but his favorability towards him did not increase at all, and he was unable to extract any useful information.
Yun Yi explored the entire stadium over the past few days and learned that it was built with funds from the Lu family. Apart from Halls 1 and 2, which were used by their own company, the other empty venues were intended for rent, but it seemed that they hadn't been rented out in the past few days.
Besides them, many other teams have also been exploring around these days. However, some players, after being tense for the first two days, relaxed after finding the dungeon to be slow-paced. Later, they discovered the existence of the entertainment hall and spent all day there, probably thinking that since there are 90 days to play, it doesn't matter if they waste a few days.
At 11:55 p.m. on the fifth night, the broadcast of the mini-exam finally started.
Practice makes perfect.
Shi Yu and Yun Yi remained calm when they were teleported into the cage.
However, the rules for this quiz are different from the last one.
This time, the stage wasn't completely dark, and there were no wild beasts or other monster NPCs inside. Instead of two pairs of players being in separate cages, there were two teams of four players locked together in one cage.
Is this going to be player-versus-player combat?
As if sensing the players' confusion, the mechanical female voice on the loudspeaker spoke up at the right moment: "The rules for this mini-test are very simple. After five days of getting to know each other, you must all be very familiar with each other. Today we will play a 'Name the Person' game. Each round, two teams will be matched and take turns saying each other's names. The team that correctly says the names of two trainees from the other team first wins. After the winner is determined, the two teams will immediately be matched to enter the next round, as per the rules above."
"The team that wins ten consecutive times will pass the mini-test."
"Teams that fail to clear the level after more than 20 matches will be penalized."
Yun Yi has been wandering around the base these past few days, and he has basically recognized all the trainees, but he can't guarantee that he remembers them all.
However, Shi Yu had previously mentioned wanting to see the punishment scenario so that they would try to lose the next quiz.
Winning is not easy.
Isn't losing easy?
"Let's try to lose as much as possible, shall we?" To ensure everything went smoothly, Yun Yi confirmed with Shi Yu beforehand.
"No." Shi Yu slowly shook her head, her gaze firm. "I'll try my best to win."
Yun Yi: "?"
Yun Yi: "???"
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