Killing ShowCh1 - Unspoken Rules

Editor: Elanor

Warning: This chapter contains graphic description of violence and gore. Proceed at your own risk. wJSkLu

Wearing a rented tuxedo, Xia Tian stood on the balcony of the Upper City hotel, staring at the stars.

The night sky was sprinkled with stars, and the Milky Way spanned across the sky like a giant jewel box.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

The balcony was too windy and a little cold, but he still felt very happy. And even though things weren’t really any better, he had finally left the darkness of the Lower City and had come to the Upper World to see real stars and sunshine.

Right now, he was at the celebration banquet of the second round of the 199th Asaijin Team Competition on Floating Gold TV Station. iHWg7F

As a criminal from the Lower City, the Upper City had recruited him three months ago to participate in the Floating Gold TV’s program, the Killing Show. This show was the biggest entertainment event in the Upper City, with a long history of enlisting criminals as players. This was the only chance the residents of the Lower City had to see the real sky.

From the moment he had arrived, Xia Tian had been busy wolfing down the food in his mouth.

Now, for the first time in his life, he had finally eaten cake, cream, chocolate and candy, until he was full and was satisfied like never before.

He snuck some food into his pocket, and took a participant’s wallet. The guy was swaggering with his wallet exposed outside, so it would have been a waste if he didn’t take it.

He looked around again to see what else he could take; the Floating Gold Group wasn’t short of this stuff anyway.

As a giant company, the floating cities of the Floating Gold Group were all over the sky. And among the acquaintances that Xia Tian knew, the one who lived the farthest away still couldn’t escape the shadow of the cities.

The moment he entered the Upper World, the sunlight seemed to splash down, like a bright, clear yellow liquid, covering the whole world. Xia Tian was badly sun-burned, so much so that he couldn’t even sit in a place for a long period of time. But he still stared at the bright sunlight, unable to look away, thinking that he wouldn’t mind dying here.

But he still survived. So far, Xia Tian had been living in the Upper City for three months as a novice in the Killing Show. He had narrowly survived the first two rounds, and his performance was quite decent. s3lA4q

He had killed a total of four people, barely clearing the rounds—the reason for barely passing was because of Bai Jingan, who thought they should stay where they were and not move around. He was really annoying.

—Bai Jingan was the one who was drawn in the same group as Xia Tian in this show. Although in terms of configuration, he was a tactical planner who could balance the situation, he was just a boring coward.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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According to him, the industry bigwig, Mr. Zhi Leng saw that Xia Tian had the potential to become a Killing Show star and wanted to talk to him alone to discuss and plan out his bright future.

One must know that in the Upper World, the stars of the Killing Show were the real kings of the entertainment industry, the one who called the shots. Once they became famous, it was not just money and bed companions, but the entire Upper City would prostrate itself at your feet. You were the god on the top of Mount Olympus.

Xia Tian’s heart was ecstatic. He was flowing with happiness at everything he saw now.

He and the assistant entered the lobby, heading towards Zhi Leng’s suite. Before entering, he looked back at the starry sky again, which shone coldly in the distance. It was a price and privilege that people in the Lower City couldn’t imagine. 1sM8Zm

Zhi Leng was exquisitely dressed and was quite thin. It was said he had been undergoing a protracted weight loss program.

His house was located on the top floor of the hotel, with an expansive rooftop and stargazing room, and a living room large enough to host a fashion show or any other non-large-scale group combat game at any time. It was said that he did engage in such entertainment from time to time.

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Xia Tian sat on the sofa, trying to look as relaxed as possible, holding a wine glass, pretending to be a part of the crowd who frequented such occasions.

He was tall with slender hands and feet. As a member of the ruthless Lower City, he had long been accustomed to a life that involved killing without any remorse. He had been a really dangerous person since he was a teenager. That was what landed him in jail, and then he was recruited by the TV station that thought he would be a good candidate for the Killing Show. 9tmYCL

He had a smile on his face, a gentle and polite smile. He was very good at pretending to be well-behaved, just as he was good at pretending to be obedient, pretending to like, and pretending to be knowledgeable. This was a basic survival skill. He even had a look that was considered to be a good-boy face, and he could completely fake a smile and make it look like a totally genuine one.

His profession in the Killing Show was a fighter. But they didn’t even call him a fighter anymore, and directly called him a killer. The reality show really liked to use exaggerating titles.

“I just saw you in the monitoring program and thought your image was very good,” Zhi Leng said, “This year’s Asaijin team competition needs heroes, and you’re a good choice.”

He walked back and forth as he spoke. At this moment, he walked behind Xia Tian and put a hand on his shoulder. VR6AyX

“That… that’s great,” Xia Tian said, “I am very grateful…”

Zhi Leng’s hand stroked his hair, then untied the leather cord that bound his hair.

Xia Tian’s hair fell out, and he momentarily paused while speaking, and didn’t continue the second half of his sentence.

Xia Tian lived in the District N21 of the Lower City, where men had the habit of growing their hair long. He wanted to cut it when he came up, but a third-rate image planner told him that if he wanted to be noticed, he had to have his own characteristics, which might be the place of residence, religion, ethnicity or personality, but the most important thing in this business was—to not conform to the masses. So he kept his hair uncut all the time. jV7PeH

But it kept coming in the way during a fight, so he always pulled it up, tightly tying it behind his head.

Zhi Leng picked up a lock of Xia Tian’s hair and stroked it in his hand, saying, “Opportunity comes to those who fight.”

It took five seconds for Xia Tian to realize what Zhi Leng was trying to do.

He sat still, letting the guy play with his hair, thinking to himself that he had heard of this kind of thing in reality shows; that it was difficult to avoid the unspoken rules, that it was no big deal. He didn’t mind selling his body, his mother sold it, and so did his sister. He was a criminal himself, and everyone around him thought that he would soon be dead on the streets and become protein feed. yUXaRA

It was just getting laid, and he was perfectly capable of making that sacrifice.

“I’m more than willing to fight for it,” he said, turning his head toward Zhi Leng and smiling as nicely as he could.

Zhi Leng smiled back, looking very pleased with his understanding. He put the hairband in his pocket and said, “Follow me to the bedroom.”

“Okay,” Xia Tian said. Au6EeL

He was a head taller than Zhi Leng when he stood up, and really didn’t understand what this guy saw in him. But rich people had strange interests.

He walked into the bedroom with Zhi Leng, his hair still loose, feeling really awkward to be like this in front of others. However, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. He thought to himself that it was a rare opportunity to come here, and nearly a thousand people died in the first two rounds of the competition, with most of them just on the whim of the planners.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

It was rare to get a big shot’s protection so he had to grab this chance no matter what.

Xia Tian walked into the bedroom and glanced around. In addition to noticing its astonishing luxury, he also subconsciously determined where to escape, where to hide, and what could be used as a weapon to kill. This was an occupational disease in his line of work. 1nxGCB

Zhi Leng lifted his chin in the direction of the bed and said, “Pants off, kneel down and lie on the bed.”

Xia Tian felt himself smiling, and his smile would be later described as a predator-like smile, or “bright as sunshine, cold as ice” or something, saying that he had a smile of a true killer.

He said, “Okay.”

Zhi Leng began to take off his pants. Zp0dx2

Xia Tian turned his head to look at a golden sailboat sculpture on the table; the prize for a sailing competition.

Floating City, also known as the Upper World, was originally just a small anti-gravity zone. Some rich people lived on it, saying that they could get closer to sunlight and pure air. Then, it grew more and more, getting bigger and bigger, spreading in the sky like a cancer, and rich people built houses on it one after another until they covered the entire sky.

They put down the lights as if they were the sun. There were countless civilians living below in the Lower City, unable to rise to the sky, like livestock kept in a cellar.

Neither his parents nor his siblings had ever seen the real sky in their lives and these people had built huge lakes in anti-gravity city for sailing competitions. If it weren’t for him seeing it, this luxury would simply be unimaginable. RS0l7C

“I want you to pretend as if you are scared,” Zhi Leng said, “and call me ‘master’ in the process…”

Xia Tian picked up the sailboat, weighed it, and slammed it heavily on Zhi Leng’s temple.

The chief planner of the Killing Show instantly lost consciousness and fell down. Xia Tian leaned over him, took the sailboat in hand, and repeatedly bashed it into his head.

The murder tactics was thought through in an instant, but the process was too fast to recall, so much so that it became an instinct and impulse to crush everything. JWUPSG

He almost smashed the man’s head completely. With brain matter scattered everywhere, and eyes smashed out, it was a real masterpiece. There was a special term for this in the Killing Show—overkill.

Some people said that this was the result of an adrenaline rush, and others said that it was a gimmick, but Xia Tian felt that it was human nature. Sometimes anger just flowed through your veins, like gasoline, and it couldn’t be controlled when it hit a spark.

He had left his hometown and came to the Killing Show only because someone had slapped his sister, calling her a bitch and telling her to stop pretending to be innocent. He had walked over and pushed the man, and then the scene had gotten very ugly… In fact, what the bastard had said wasn’t wrong, but he just couldn’t stand it.

He didn’t know why he couldn’t bear this kind of thing. Most people endured it. Weren’t they all living well? FpRv6P

With a cold face, he used his bloody hands to pull out his hairband from Zhi Leng’s pocket, pulled up his hair, and tied it tightly.

Then he put down his hand and found himself trembling.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

His hands were covered in blood, soaking through the cuffs and almost staining till his elbows, and at his feet was a pantless corpse with its head shattered and splattered on the expensive carpet.

He stood up and went into the bathroom to wash the blood off his hands. h 7dz9

During the whole process, he was expressionless and behaved quite calm, but now that the adrenaline had receded, he realized that his hands were shaking.

His body had already reacted first. Something—perhaps reality—soaked him like ice water, his stomach crinkling into a ball that made him want to vomit.

There was a sense of fear and feeling of being done for.

He was familiar with this feeling. FNRjTx