Editor: Junyans
After they finished eating, Xia Tian cleaned the dishes—well, threw them into the dishwasher—then wiped the water on his hands, spun around, and looked at Bai Jingan.
Bai Jingan stared back steadily. He was wearing a white shirt, and his hair was still a bit wet. They had just finished eating and were sitting in the kitchen, but there was no trace of domestic tranquility.
After a warm meal in their opulent mansion, the two stars of the Killing Show sat with stoic faces. The warm light from the chandeliers didn’t reach their eyes. The glittering lights of the Upper City never brought warmth to anything or anyone.
“Lil’ Bai,” Xia Tian said, his voice slow, clear, and ice-cold. “We cannot let this matter end like this.”
He stood in the warm, orange glow, watching him, but all the warmth seemed to end around him. This wasn’t Xia Tian’s usual fiery rage, but something cold and still, far from a momentary impulse—something frigid, silent, and irreversible.
“We will kill them,” Xia Tian said, “all of them.”
“Every one of them,” Bai Jingan said, “has to pay a price.”
Xia Tian smiled at him, Under the kitchen light, the killing intent was like a lethal blade. The warm light felt cold and sharp, as if refusing to be tainted with any warmth. His dazzling sharpness was something Bai Jingan was familiar with.
They locked eyes for a few seconds, pure hatred and destruction burning in the warmly lit kitchen. Bai Jingan reached out and handed Xia Tian a blue cartoon hair tie.
Xia Tian took it and tied his hair.
“Let’s discuss the details,” he said.
They went to the living room, which had automatically switched to night mode. The single-pane glass was drawn, making it look like a fortress in the night, impenetrable to outsiders.
Bai Jingan sat on the black sofa, which was so soft that it could make people sink in at once. It was a custom-made piece from some luxury furniture brand, but for them, this “home” was just another unfamiliar place, like a car stolen from the roadside. Only when they were both present did everything make sense.
He turned on the holographic screen, and the media attention program had already lit up red, rising all the way to a deep crimson. There were no more extreme warning colors available.
During their week trapped in the Guest Show, Wei Xi and Eric had been invited to participate in a reality show called “Dark Escape.”
Such shows rarely took place before the official end of the game—even in the fourth round, there were still matches in two sub-arenas that had not ended—but they made it work anyway.
The difficulty of the show was unprecedentedly high, and the contestants suffered horrific misfortunes. Wei Xi fell from the concrete cliff-like platform in the show and entered a territory of crazy mating mutant creatures. Eric followed and spent five hours in that hellish place, but at least they survived.
Both of them were in the medical cabin now and wouldn’t be able to get out for a while.
Bai Jingan was familiar with this behavior pattern. He had no doubt what would have happened to their teammates if they hadn’t behaved well in the Guest Show.
This was one of the countless bloody and “bemusing” warnings from the bigwigs. Even knowing that Bai Jingan and Xia Tian couldn’t see it at the time, they still did it. Because they had the power.
The two Killing Show celebs skimmed through all these crises with expressionless faces. The world was like a bottomless nightmare, with no bottom line and no purpose.
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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One day in the future, the elites would also sell their nightmare-like bed scenes separately, which would then earn another wave of popularity. People would consume their flesh, blood and soul, then leave in droves in search of new food.
But at this moment, the homepage of the God of War Temple was still filled with a murderous aura.
Holding a heavy gun, Xia Tian looked exhausted and his eyes were lowered, while Bai Jingan stood behind him, half of his face in the shadows. Both of them were covered in smoke and anger.
The upper world was still trapped in the dream of war gods, rebellion, and heroes, and the entire land was burning in the dream.
The offerings were still increasing at an astonishing rate, and the gods created by capital were sitting in the temple, counting weapons.
The elites had obviously noticed their illicit powers, and several departments had sent investigation letters, but the two didn’t bother. They were busy examining the offerings and exchanging opinions.
Their tone was restrained, their efficiency top-notch, and the killing intent was palpable. Both of them were familiar with this routine, and they instinctively knew how to cooperate, how to kill and destroy. This kind of cooperation was reassuring.
The stone walls in the main hall were solid and the light was soft, but the shadows cast in the corners were as dark as an abyss.
Xia Tian found a list of all the guests in the Guest Show among the offerings, and his whole body was about to burst into flames. He obsessively arranged the pictures in order without stopping, his eyes clouded with gloom, pierced only by a faint glimmer of white light, as he meticulously calculated the steps needed to kill them. His fingertips trembled slightly, finding stability only amidst the fiery intensity of slaughter.
Bai Jingan had previously set a reminder for the number of sacrifices, and now a rapid bell sounded as a notification, as if a momentous occasion was about to arrive.
Bai Jingan glanced at it and said to Xia Tian, “Compared to ten hours ago, the offerings have increased by one hundred percent.”
Xia Tian turned to look at him.
In his hand, he still held a long whip—it was the full authority of the Ministry of Defense’s Abyss series satellites. The whip seemed to be constantly wriggling as if it were composed of countless tiny tentacles, but he held it firmly in his grasp.
What they possessed were no longer knives, guns, and rocket launchers, but something even more massive and deadly: the core of the Upper City’s power. And the Killing Show players never found the weapons in their hands too powerful; their purpose in the Upper City was destruction.
Xia Tian stayed silent. Their eyes locked, a wild intensity crackling between them.
They always found something similar in each other’s eyes, as if even when they leaped into the unknown, they could always find a foothold in the other’s eyes.
“We don’t need to kill them one by one,” Bai Jingan said.
“Yeah,” Xia Tian said, “we can make it… really big.”
“Really big.” Bai Jingan repeated, playing with the golden dagger in his hand, and suddenly smiled at Xia Tian. “We’ll be in big trouble.”
He saw his own reflection in Xia Tian’s eyes, smiling like a burning white flame, which looked somewhat unfamiliar. Xia Tian also smiled back at him and moved his right hand, but did nothing.
“I like trouble,” he said.
Then his gaze shifted away to look at a longsword.
His gaze was deep, hard to articulate. Bai Jingan subconsciously touched his own hair and found a tuft of hair sticking up. He pressed it down a couple of times before feeling that such behavior in a virtual space was simply foolish.
After a moment’s thought, he reached out to ruffle Xia Tian’s hair, wanting to regain the familiarity and ease of their old interactions. The other person instinctively tried to dodge, but Bai Jingan’s movements were swift, determined not to let him evade.
Of course, he managed to touch him. He was familiar with the soft texture of the man’s hair. He vigorously messed it up and accidentally pulled the hair tie off with his fingertips.
Xia Tian’s long hair cascaded down, strands slipping through his fingers. Xia Tian didn’t move away anymore and just let him tousle his hair, just like before.
He was wearing a black T-shirt—he had probably just rinsed off in the shower and grabbed a piece of clothing from the closet with his eyes closed, not bothering to see what it was—from one of the top luxury brands in Upper City, the fabric outlining his perfect figure. Fiery dark patterns occasionally flashed with his movements. With his hair loose and hormones raging, he exuded a sense of sexual aggression that made one feel…
Bai Jingan quickly retracted his hand.
Xia Tian bowed his head, his long hair hanging down, his expression indiscernible, his body tense.
Bai Jingan thought for a moment and returned the hair tie to him.
Xia Tian took it, tied up his hair, then raised his hand to check his weapons, and Bai Jingan also went back to business.
They occasionally exchanged opinions, and everything seemed to be as calm as before.
Bai Jingan woke up with a start, opened his eyes wide in the darkness, and breathed rapidly. For a while, he felt that there was no air at all.
That bed had haunted his dreams. He’d even dreamt of cameras, just like the ones he had seen in the Lower City. Those round lenses felt like countless empty eyes staring at him.
At that time, he had been heavily injured, crying his heart out because someone had died… He would never forget the feeling of holding his dying comrade’s body in his arms, the warmth of blood, and the irretrievable coldness of death.
But this time, he lay naked on the bed with his legs spread wide for those people to see—
He forced himself to stop this thought. It’s just a dream, and it’s over!
He found himself lying on the living room sofa, covered with a blanket—probably put there by Xia Tian—having fallen asleep while taking inventory of the weapons. His body still hadn’t recovered. He felt a bone-deep weariness, as if he’d been hollowed out, an emptiness that seemed impossible to fill.
The moment he awoke, his fingertips trembled as he reached out, an unconscious desire to touch something—
He knew what he craved. It was a habit formed over the past few days—perhaps a month.
He wanted to touch Xia Tian.
The man was always lying by his side, breathing steadily. When he touched him, knowing he was still there, it would soothe his fear, almost allowing his wounds to begin healing again.
He shifted, scanned the room, and found Xia Tian sleeping nearby. He was curled up in the other corner of the sofa, looking like he was guarding him carefully.
His long hair was loose, his face pale under the moonlight. Yet, he was still beautiful, making one want to reach out and tuck the stray lock behind his ear… Bai Jingan averted his gaze and curled back into the blanket.
At this moment, he couldn’t touch him… he would always remember those…
But it’s okay, Bai Jingan thought. It’s over. Time will heal everything. This is just one of the many unfortunate things we have encountered.
He lay on the sofa, listening to Xia Tian’s breathing not far away, and fell asleep again.
When Bai Jingan woke up again, it was already daylight.
He was still on the sofa, not wanting to move. Xia Tian was cooking in the kitchen, and he could smell the aroma of fried eggs.
He woke up because Xia Tian’s cell phone that was placed on the table beeped. Those people had given him the latest model, as if the one that was thrown away could be considered non-existent. He unconsciously picked it up and looked at it, and found that a package had arrived. It was a priority delivery, so even if the phone was muted, it was useless.
He threw the phone back on the table, lay there for a while longer, then slowly got up and walked into the kitchen.
Xia Tian had just brought breakfast to the table, and it looked pretty good. His hand injuries had also healed quite a bit.
Seeing him come in, Xia Tian smiled at him in the sunlight. Bai Jingan instinctively returned the smile.
He sat down at the table and pulled his food over, feeling famished.
Holding his own plate in his hand, Xia Tian sat opposite him before skillfully placing it on the table. The kitchen had excellent lighting, with sunlight shining in from behind him, casting everything in a peaceful warmth.
The cold, terrifying things retreated to the corners. Bai Jingan knew they would always exist, but at this moment, everything seemed peaceful and serene, as if enough to soothe everything.
After having a decent breakfast, Bai Jingan remembered the priority delivery—surely something important—so he went out to retrieve it.
As he stepped outside, he was greeted by a beautiful sunny day. A large patch of red poppies bloomed in the garden, which he didn’t remember from his last visit. They were newly planted, and he didn’t know why…
He suddenly remembered when Xia Tian had first escaped from the cage, they had caught him in a place with a large patch of poppy flowers.
He remembered how the long golden snake had dragged Xia Tian through the vibrant red flowers, the orange-red light shining on him. He looked extremely disheveled and utterly sensual… Someone had later licked the alcohol off him…
He clenched his fist for a moment, forcing himself to push aside this thought. Each of them would pay for their actions.
After opening the mailbox, when he stared at what was inside, he remained frozen.
For a moment, he thought it was a snake.
A snake-shaped data storage device in gold, silver, dark red, and black lay in the parcel, wriggling in a serpentine manner, reflecting malevolent light under the bright sunlight.
He looked at the sender’s name: “Floating World Paradise.” They would certainly have many of them. The white castle and blue sky lit up on the mailbox, like a void hell lighting up in the real world.
Bai Jingan knew what it was. The complete set of videos from the Guest Show.
They had sent a copy.
I can’t wait for their revenge