Editor: Elanor
The two Killing Show players studied the invitation letter for a while.
This kind of show was very common in the Upper City. They were smaller in scale, the duration was not long, and with a variety of content, giving full play to one’s imagination. It wasn’t uncommon to see a show with the Zone N Massacre as the theme, and this was obviously a lightning show with a large investment. It had invited many stars, and the level of gore was also particularly alarming and horrifying.
The interview about District N7 that Xia Tian did at the banquet previously was a big hit, and a follow-up program was still being added. Now it was just in time for the commemorative show, how could it not be used for the next article?
Xia Tian looked at his name on the invitation letter, clicked on it, and his “classic videos compilation” clip appeared. Even the interview from yesterday where he had mentioned Bai Lin had been already added to it.
Making it to the Upper City would never end anything. Even the role to be played was still the same. He was from Zone N, so he just had no choice but to pull this shit for those bastards from the Upper City to see.
Bai Jingan stared at the holographic screen for a while, then suddenly opened another program in the terminal.
“Honey Pavilion’s ‘Anything Can be Taught‘ has mentioned this show,” he said.
Xia Tian was stunned. Bai Jingan stretched out his hand and marked out a few paragraphs, and continued, “It’s somewhat vague, but this is what is said.”
In the highlighted message, ‘Anything Can Be Taught‘ had said, It’s the anniversary of a major event. I’ve temporarily set it in the vicinity of 75-7, a bit off.
“75-7 is a planning term,” Bai Jingan said, “refers to the location of the arena the Killing Show is responsible for.”
Xia Tian continued to read on. ‘Anything Can Be Taught‘ said that if he did a good job, he would have the opportunity to meet some of the more powerful people at the top. It would open up new worlds, and for this kind of fun job, doing anything was worth it.
He always liked to brag at great lengths, and one of the paragraphs read, “And I am someone who always likes to see things up close.”
Xia Tian realized what he was implying.
There were often guest NPCs in the Killing Show, mostly contract staff who could come and go as they pleased, stars from other circles, Killing Show stars who were lucky enough to retire, or people from the planning team.
It was not safe, but that couldn’t hold back someone who liked excitement. Sometimes he wondered if there were a lot of people in the Upper City who were stoned out of their minds and lacked the concept about death or life at all.
And these days of monitoring let him know that “Anything Can Be Taught” was an avid Killing Show fan, and he had a theory about how all the Killing Show stars should be taught and how they should die. He wrote a paper about Xia Tian, and there were some extremely outlandish misunderstandings about him.
Xia Tian turned his head and found Bai Jingan looking at him.
The man always had the “keep a low profile” look, but Xia Tian was sure that he had a “want to do something” look right now.
He flashed a big smile at the tactical planner and said, “Then we have to go see it.”
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.
The eighth anniversary show of the Massacre was a solo-play game, and the specific plot was to enter the encapsulation area of the Massacre and have a close encounter with the various kinds of mutant creatures.
The organizers had pulled Xia Tian and Bai Jingan to engage in several promotional activities, and these two good comrades were now a hallmark of healing in the team competition.
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Xia Tian had also talked to the host about the tricks of baking bread by following the cue cards. Come on, how could he even know that stuff when the Lower City didn’t even have flour.
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Xia Tian received more invitations to interviews, shows and commercials, and got more and more busier with work.
Although he and Bai Jingan became busy bees, and were away from home almost all day, they didn’t have to worry too much about Dee Dee. The service industry was well developed in the Upper City, and rich orphans were usually looked after by fully functional robot housekeepers. Companies also offered corporate childcare services, but once you accepted these services, you might soon find that your child had begun to take drugs, and had promiscuous relationships and hit-and-runs that dominated the headlines every day.
It was unlikely to happen to a six year old, right? No, age was not an issue.
Huitian said it would take some time to find a reliable babysitter these days, and Xia Tian said that Dee Dee could take care of herself.
She had grown up in the Lower City so she was already used to taking care of herself.
Xia Tian added three more assistants, two makeup artists, and two (image) public relations people in his team. The group of people followed and even prepared their own floating cars, as if they were armies crossing the border even though they were just going to participate in a show.
Then he stopped and looked at the promotional stage at the front of the hall.
The entire hall was the promotional stage, to be precise. A view from the street corner of District N7 was used here. Looking up, there was a sky dome made of construction materials. Fluorescent lights were always on but it was never bright enough to light the corners. The gutters and shadows of the corners were hiding the blood and the bodies.
The stage was also filled with holographic mutant creatures crawling down the street with hungry faces, passing by the audience like ghosts. These were indeed the ghosts of the Massacre, twisted and mutated again and again, to be presented on the stage of the Upper World.
The scene made Xia Tian shiver a little and his stomach twisted into a ball, but he tried hard to appear like he didn’t care at all and could still smile, as if there was nothing to be afraid of.
With countless cameras pointed at him, he felt like he was facing some immeasurably huge monster that was famished and showing any vulnerability in front of it would be fatal.
The invited players would be interviewed in a holographic arena of a similar size. The host would introduce the highlights of the show in a brisk tone, and recall the tragic events of the year, accompanied by a replay of the corresponding video.
Xia Tian sat on the wasteland style sofa at the polite request of the assistant. From the moment he sat there, he stared at the area 75-7 on the floor plan of the arena, where a repair shop was located. The image was simple and vague, but that was the first place he would go after he went to the arena.
He fiddled with the craft knife placed by the sponsor on the table. The blade was cold and deadly, ultimately the only thing that was reliable.
The host walked over toward Xia Tian, ready to make a joke that he felt was particularly funny, but Xia Tian’s expression caused him to forcibly swallow the words, and he turned around trying to maintain his composure, and aimed at the next player. He even lightened his footsteps a bit as he did so.
The big screen gave a new round of explanations about the Zone N riots.
The riot originated from a conflict between local people and the administration department. Such conflicts were often seen in the Lower City. Only that time, it happened to involve Bai Lin from District N7.
The local chief executive took a fancy to Bai Lin’s sister and forcibly captured her. The child was only thirteen years old.
Bai was the family name used by many people in that locality. In that kind of place, the cohesion of the clan was very strong. And, Bai Lin was the kind of person with brothers and friends everywhere.
He clashed with the local government while trying to rescue his sister, which led to the death of two people.
As a show of disciplinary action, those people killed his family, nine in total, and hung their wretchedly twisted corpses on the outside wall.
Today, no one could tell what kind of person Bai Lin was, but if such an incident happened to a young man’s family, what kind of person he would turn into was basically certain.
He became a loner, whose heart was filled with bitterness and a deep-seated hatred, and he did not hesitate to retaliate. He was a person with first-class skills and had the power to rally supporters.
This was a situation that any authoritative figure would try hard to prevent.
One night, this group of people—that is, a group of young people under the age of twenty—hacked the security system, broke into the chief executive’s residence, and killed everyone including the security team. The blood had dyed the whole building red.
The thirteen-year-old girl was not mentioned in any news, but everyone knew that Bai Lin could not save her. Some people said that he vented out his anger by killing everyone.
The riot started at that moment. They occupied the mansion, hacked into the system, and controlled the power supply and resources. The process went surprisingly smoothly.
The Lower City was filled with fuel, and Bai Lin’s behavior was the match.
Bai Lin was promoted to the throne amidst the chaos and frenzy. People in the Lower City believed that he was a hero, but what they didn’t expect was that the Upper City was the main force behind his deification.
The Upper City was so obsessed with the Zone N Massacre that they made movies, TV shows, games, and wrote essays based on it. They interpreted the massacre from all angles, including the commemorative show, of course.
During the pre-match promotion, the organizers took the opportunity to advertise the recent remake of “Leaving the Darkness”, which also talked about the events in Zone N.
According to the host, the original movie was based on a world of depressing darkness with no way out, while Bai Lin was the ray of light that pierced the darkness and was an unbeatable God of War. The original version also won seven Grand Master Floating Gold Awards.
Throughout history, whichever authority that had won against the rebel army must have tried its best to discredit the image of the opponent’s leader. Weirdly, the people here were different, happily promoting and packaging the propaganda, just trying hard to create a generation of heroes, a golden indicator of ratings.
Xia Tian looked at the thrilling trailer on the big screen, where the legendary Bai Lin was sitting on the stone steps, streetlights shining upon him from above like a spotlight. There was only the background in the shot, as if one simply couldn’t capture the face of such a legend.
Xia Tian clasped his hands tightly together as he sat there motionless, staring at the darkness.
The footage that was filled with symbolism lasted for a long time, foreshadowing that something very big was about to happen.
The trailer was followed by a director’s voice-over, with beautiful and breathtaking film clips.
A deep male voice said in an off-key tone:
Over the years, the Upper City has continued to ask this piece of history some questions. What drove them to make that decision to rebel? Was it regret? Anger? Pride?
Was Bai Lin a visionary who knew this day would come, or was he just a young man suddenly struck by disaster? What did he learn in the end?
There must have been something. After all, it was a real resistance that led to millions of deaths.
What could we learn from this? It must be something more than just spending some time sitting in front of a terminal holding a glass of wine or a snack, watching other people die horribly, and continuing to live such a muddled life, right?
Just like how everyone naturally turns to stories for help, we asked this massive story that has caused the deaths of more than three million people.
But everything we got out of it seemed too trivial and not powerful enough compared to such a massacre.
The narrator’s tone was slow, sad, and touching.
The entire venue was bright like it was daytime, with light haloing over high-simulation holographic screens, jewels, fancy clothes, and the sharp edges of weapons. The music was rousing, burning the venue like fire.
The director was a guy with severe dark circles and the expression in his eyes was like that of a lunatic. He had spent the entire time watching the gorgeous battle scenes and the handsome male protagonist. He looked like he was out of his mind.
The halo accumulated from the deaths of millions of people had shrouded the world, and the Upper City would pile up more blood and bodies to make the halo shine even brighter, and no one could escape from it.
Xia Tian thought to himself, this is the halo of the Zone N Massacre.
The 8th Anniversary Commemorative Show of the Zone N Massacre started at midnight and ended at midnight. For the Upper City that never slept, late start time was never a problem.
Drugs and high-level medical care allowed people to turn their days and nights upside down and live a life of freedom and entertainment.
The number of participants was nearly three hundred. Most of them were players who performed well in team competitions, as well as newcomers that were entering from different channels, and death row prisoners who added to the bloodshed on the field.
In order to be “realistic”, everyone changed into clothes that matched the style of the Lower City Massacre—there was actually a brand called “Bloody Style”. Bai Jingan wore an original gray shirt with, in the words of the sponsor, a “distracting” waistline. He had an expression of bitterness and a deep sense of hatred.
Xia Tian’s clothes weren’t any better. The pants… forget it, anyway, they had nothing to do with the style of clothing worn in Lower City. They were model outfits. The players were here to show off their bodies.
Before the game, he turned his head and looked at Bai Jingan, who was standing beside him. His face was a little pale.
Although he looked quite normal, with his usual air of boredom, and could casually say a lot of official answers that were better than nothing, Xia Tian just felt that he was not quite right.
He touched the other party’s arm. Bai Jingan turned his head to look at him. His pupils were slightly dilated, and his eyes were tight with tension, but none of that was visible in his face.
Xia Tian said to him earnestly, “I will look after you.”
Bai Jingan smiled at him, looking very sad.
Aw, so sweet
Thank you for new chapter
Yeah, no matter how fucked up the world is, at least these two are sweet <333
Poor Bai Lin and everyone involved.
Xia Tian, Bai Jingan and Dee Dee are totally in contrast to this dark world! They are like fireflies emitting light in a place engulfed in darkness.
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter ❤️❤️