CHAPTER 36
In a flash, Sheng Qing summoned the power of the water element, barely managing to control the erratic flow of the water, creating a thin vacuum zone around his body.
However, before he could catch his breath, perhaps due to his fear of water or the lingering effects of the black mist, Sheng Qing's mind became chaotic. After only a few seconds of respite, the icy liquid enveloped him once more.
Splash! Water sprays everywhere. Has someone fallen into the water again?
In her confusion, Sheng Qing clearly felt herself being embraced by a pair of strong hands, her body floating upwards, and the long-lost air rushing into her chest, making her feel alive again!
Is it Meng Yunxi? Sheng Qing tried to turn his head to confirm who had saved him.
"Don't move." Meng Yunxi's calm voice rang in my ears.
Her heart was still pounding, but remembering the precautions she had taken when rescuing drowning victims, Sheng Qing immediately relaxed her body, stopped struggling, and let the other person drag her in a certain direction.
After an unknown amount of time, Sheng Qing finally felt solid ground beneath her feet; she had reached flat ground.
Although it was just a small island floating on the boundless sea, it was more like a reef than an island. In just a few seconds, the entire island's condition was clear, but at least for the time being, there was no immediate danger to their lives.
It's a bit embarrassing, but who knew that the secret realm would drop so easily?
Sheng Qing looked at Meng Yunxi guiltily, but the latter had no expression and calmly picked up the seaweed, shrimp and fish off her body and threw them back into the sea.
"Uh, I swear, I really didn't mean to," Sheng Qing said softly, her eyes darting around.
"Now do you believe me?" Meng Yunxi finally glanced at Sheng Qing.
"How are we going to get back?" Sheng Qing sighed, casually summoning fire elemental power to dry his soaked clothes.
"Wait!" came Meng Yunxi's slightly anxious shout.
Before he could react, Sheng Qing felt the hidden reef beneath his feet suddenly move, moving so fast that it instantly teleported him several kilometers away in just a few breaths.
Sheng Qing was dragged out of sight and then plunged into the water again.
There was no suffocating feeling as she had imagined from falling into the water. Sheng Qing opened her eyes in confusion, only to find that Meng Yunxi had already fallen onto a soft object at the bottom, which looked like a sofa, before her.
Where is this?
Just as a thought flashed through his mind, a muffled thud was heard the next second as Sheng Qing's forehead collided solidly with Meng Yunxi's chin.
Ouch! The two of them took a deep breath and simultaneously rolled over and sat up from the sofa, clutching their sore spots.
"Yes, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." Sheng Qing glanced at Meng Yunxi, who frowned slightly, gently rubbed her chin, and then looked at Sheng Qing's forehead.
"Are you alright?" Meng Yunxi asked after a few seconds.
"It's nothing." Sheng Qing chuckled dryly, then looked around. This seemed to be an indoor location, the layout and furnishings resembling a temporary television drama set. "Have we fallen into another secret realm?"
"It should be." Meng Yunxi nodded.
Huh?
What is that?
Sheng Qing noticed some strange things appearing out of thin air on the open ground not far away. Just as he was about to take a closer look, they quickly disappeared.
"Captain, look!" Sheng Qing tugged at Meng Yunxi's sleeve.
This time I finally saw it clearly. The words "Captain, look" appeared out of thin air, like subtitles at the bottom of a TV screen, appearing and disappearing.
"Shh!" Meng Yunxi made a shushing gesture, raising her chin to indicate that Sheng Qing should look at the upper right corner.
The number of viewers was 5, then suddenly jumped up to 15 before stopping.
At the same time, a line of comments popped up above the subtitles that had just appeared.
"What are they broadcasting, [censored]?"
As if responding to the previous question, new comments soon appeared.
"Wow, is this even allowed to be broadcast?"
"Hey hey, come check out @AnonymousID!"
...
The number of viewers in the upper right corner jumped again, becoming 25.
This is like accidentally stumbling upon a live stream, and it seems that I and Meng Yunxi are the main characters in this live stream.
Sheng Qing exchanged an awkward glance with Meng Yunxi, who seemed to have never been exposed to similar information, but roughly understood the situation.
The two awkwardly looked away, moving about casually, trying to find something to cover themselves.
Fortunately, it was not controlled by any third-party force and could still move freely.
"What do we do now?" Sheng Qing asked softly.
At the same time, the subtitles were displayed faithfully.
Upon realizing what was happening, Sheng Qing frowned and covered her mouth.
Meng Yunxi pulled Sheng Qing to a table to the side, water ripples danced between her fingertips, and words appeared on the table.
"The conch shell won't work; some condition must be met before we can leave."
Fortunately, the elemental power can still be used, but what is this conch shell he's talking about?
"conch?"
Sheng Qing wrote down two characters and looked at the other person with a puzzled expression.
"Something that could have left the secret realm." Meng Yunxi's answer appeared on the table.
Beep beep beep! A warning sound suddenly rang out.
A special string of bullet comments floated by.
What are you two whispering about?
Is there anything our esteemed members cannot hear?
"Are you just being mysterious? If you don't start the show soon, I'm leaving!"
...
Could it be? An ominous thought flashed through Sheng Qing's mind.
As if in response to her question, a number 10,000 appeared below the number of online viewers.
Oh no, does it mean they need 10,000 viewers to allow me to leave?
Sheng Qing and Meng Yunxi looked at each other again, seemingly realizing the crux of the matter. They both saw deep helplessness in each other's expressions.
Beep beep beep! The warning sounded again, and the number of online viewers rose from 25 to 80 before starting to drop again, finally stopping at 44.
Something has to be done!
But what can be done to retain the audience?
At the top of the screen, comments were popping up.
"Boring, let's go!"
"Are you two putting on a pantomime?"
"A waste of time!"
...
The warning beeps rang incessantly, and the number of online viewers dwindled to a paltry 5.
I don't know what these five audience members were thinking, that they were able to keep going.
Could it be a supervisor of this program?
"Thank you so much!" Sheng Qing silently rolled her eyes.
Since magic isn't prohibited here, why not make good use of it?
Sheng Qing took Meng Yunxi's hand and wrote the character for "fire" on his palm. After a pause, he wrote the character for "earth" on his palm.
Sheng Qing focused his mind and summoned a small cluster of flames, which quickly died out within seconds, but the number of viewers watching online began to rise.
The lights in the live broadcast studio were suddenly turned off by an external force, plunging the entire studio into darkness.
Almost simultaneously, countless clusters of flames lit up one after another, like starlight in the night, but the eerie blue light seemed particularly strange.
Let the flames burn even brighter!
The thought had barely crossed my mind when the fire suddenly escalated, engulfing the entire studio in flames and sending waves of heat crashing in.
If we can't live without it, then let's set it on fire!
Just as the flames were about to pierce the hem of Sheng Qing's clothes, something rose up to block them. It was an earth elemental summoned by Meng Yunxi, which separated the two from the flames.
As the two disappeared from view in the studio, the alarm sounded again, as if this was an unacceptable act.
Just before his vision disappeared, Sheng Qing glanced at the rapidly increasing number in the upper right corner, which had already reached 1000+.
Great, this method worked!
The two hid in the space created by the earth element for a few minutes, estimating that the fire should have burned the studio to a near-destruction level before deciding to disperse.
"Or could we do it for each element?"
"no problem."
The two reached an agreement.
Sheng Qing and Meng Yunxi had just emerged from the barrier created by the earth element, and the air still smelled of fire. The entire scene was a mess.
Almost simultaneously, a dense barrage of bullets burst forth like bullets.
Are they still alive?
"What kind of magic trick is this?"
"It's magic!"
"Shut up! Magic is not allowed after the founding of the nation!"
"This is the first time I've seen a studio burned down. Interesting!"
"It's a pity that burning it wouldn't have helped. A studio isn't something that can be destroyed so easily by a single fire."
"Exactly, even if it's burned down, they won't get out!"
"If they go this far, the difficulty will definitely be increased. Hehehe."
...
Sheng Qing frowned. Why did these comments seem so contradictory? On one hand, they were about supernatural phenomena and strange phenomena, while on the other hand, they seemed to have already figured out the rules behind the secret realm?
It took Sheng Qing a lot of effort to vaguely make out that the number 2222 was the current number of viewers.
Not bad, a small achievement. Having gone through each of the five elements one by one, we are closer to meeting the conditions for leaving.
Before a smile could even bloom on her face, Sheng Qing was startled by the number below the number of online viewers.
Huh?
It was clearly 10,000 just now, how did it become 20,000?
Am I hallucinating?
"Captain, look!" Sheng Qing nudged Meng Yunxi with his elbow. "How did it change? Am I seeing things?"
“Perhaps this secret realm doesn’t allow attracting viewers through violence.” Meng Yunxi frowned. “We can verify it one more time.”
As soon as Meng Yunxi finished speaking, a transparent air bubble appeared, enveloping the two of them.
Then, a stream of water suddenly appeared and filled the entire studio in an instant, freezing solid a few seconds later, causing the temperature to drop sharply. Even Sheng Qing, who was inside the air bubble, felt a bone-chilling cold.
The comments section is filled with pop-up messages.
"This must be magic! Even the Heavenly King himself would be no match for magic!"
"Where did they find this extraordinary person?"
"@Anonymous ID, come and record this screen!"
"They really know how to have fun."
...
The number of online viewers surged to over 5,000, but unfortunately, the number below also jumped to 23,000.
"How can we possibly complete the mission if it keeps growing endlessly?" Sheng Qing said indignantly. It was obvious that they weren't going to let anyone leave.
“This time, we only added 3,000, which is probably because we haven’t disappeared from the audience’s view,” Meng Yunxi said. “We can try to start from this point.”
The comments section is filled with pop-up messages.
Bingo!
"Tsk tsk tsk, what a pity, there's another reason I didn't think of."
"Shut up, do you have a death wish?"
...
Three ordinary bullet comments flashed by, only to be covered by more meaningless bullet comments.
Next, the power of the wood element appeared, and the entire studio was filled with lush greenery once again.
Then the earth element also showed its strength, transforming into winding peaks and valleys, or into towering skyscrapers.
Finally, there's the element of gold, which, with its high attack power, completely transformed the studio. The once relatively smooth floor instantly became a scene of a meteorite impact, cracking open with countless fissures.
The comments section is filled with pop-up messages.
"Haha, you're quite the entertainer!"
"It was like a circus act."
"Hehe, haven't you noticed the problem yet?"
"Why don't you do one yourself if you dare?"
...
question?
The number of viewers had already exceeded 10,000. Sheng Qing, who was feeling smug about the ever-increasing number of online viewers, was stunned for a moment.
What's the problem?
It'll be over soon... wait a minute?
Why did that number change again?
Sheng Qing counted the 1 followed by 0 several times. Did it become 100000?
"What's going on?" Sheng Qing asked, her tone filled with surprise and doubt.
"What have we overlooked?" Meng Yunxi asked in a low voice.
"time?"
"more than."
The two looked at the devastated studio and realized what had happened at the same time.
First, the main character cannot leave the audience's sight.
In fact, it is necessary to capture the audience's curiosity within a limited time.
Last but not least, the integrity of the program must not be compromised, including the setup and arrangement of the program's facilities.
The number of online users has reached 30,000+ and is still slowly growing, but it is still a long way from the 100,000 threshold that allows users to leave.
Sheng Qing chose a relatively intact spot on the ground to sit down, rested his chin on his hand, his expression numb, and then sighed deeply.
Meng Yunxi approached and sat down next to Sheng Qing, gently comforting him, "Don't be discouraged. Let's try to restore the studio first, and maybe that number will come down."
Sigh, what goes around comes around.
Huh?
Sheng Qing turned around and looked at Meng Yunxi suspiciously. Meng Yunxi actually knew how to comfort people?
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