Editor: Elanor
Doug and Feng Shan killed a few monsters that rushed over towards them. Since the Boss was already dead, they didn’t know what would be the next thing to do. To be precise, the planning team was at a loss for what to do next.
Bai Jingan dragged Xia Tian to the front of the prison, which had now become a row of temporary cells. There were some worn-out encapsulators hanging outside, and he didn’t know how many of them were still functional.
In addition to the one where he was held just now, there was another cell that was also in a sealed off state. It also used the same type of encapsulator. The surface was made of reinforced alloy, and needed a password to open. It was a model typically found in Lower City.
Bai Jingan walked over, ripped off the shell, and rewired two places, causing the energy net to flash twice before going out.
He shut the alloy cover after dragging Xia Tian into the cell. Eric was sitting inside, next to the seriously injured man who had lost both his legs. Even under such critical circumstances, he had actually managed to drag this person in.
While Bai Jingan was helping Xia Tian lie by the wall, Doug and Feng Shan also stepped in. Two seconds later, the encapsulator’s circuit activated and the energy net flashed once before closing again, blocking the explosions, smoke and monsters from the outside.
Prison cells were always a good place to hide; it was a useful little tip for living in the endless darkness of the Lower City.
Outside of the prison, the Hellfire Repair Shop seemed to have become a real hell. The explosions continued, with countless mutant creatures, dead Killing Show players, pieces of equipment, and the pervert’s corpse burning and turning into ashes.
Eric lifted his hand and threw a simple medical kit over that was stained with a lot of blood. He hadn’t used it, probably thinking that he wouldn’t live long.
But by now, the planning team also had nothing to do. Everything fell silent and the show was finally coming to an end.
Bai Jingan squatted down in front of Xia Tian to help him deal with the wounds.
Doug wanted to help, but seeing Bai Jingan look completely different now, he thought it was better to not meddle. Anyway, since he was partnered with Xia Tian, he should be very skilled in dealing with injuries.
Xia Tian sat against the wall and didn’t fall down. People like him always tried to avoid falling down, and probably even wanted to die standing.
There was still a chain around his neck. Bai Jingan’s expression was extremely frigid as he inserted a knife and pried open the lock, and threw the chain away.
Then he cut open the left side of Xia Tian’s trousers and examined the wound. There was still a half-broken piece of iron left in the man’s left leg. Bai Jingan carefully pressed the other party’s ankle and glanced up at him again, indicating that it would hurt a little.
Xia Tian’s eyes were dark, and Bai Jingan couldn’t see what he was thinking.
When Bai Jingan pulled the iron piece out, Xia Tian’s body tensed up and he raised his head. He didn’t make any sound, only the back of his head hit the wall, making a slight sound.
Bai Jingan put a healing bandage on him as lightly as possible. In this kind of injury, it could at most stop the pain, but the effect was limited.
While he was cutting the trousers’ other leg, Xia Tian called, “Lil’ Bai.”
Bai Jingan raised his head to look at him.
Xia Tian said, “It hurts.”
His voice was very soft and nasally, like he was acting spoiled.
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.
Bai Jingan felt that his chest was stuffy to the point of suffocation, but he didn’t know what to do. He said, “Weren’t you a tough guy just now?”
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After helping Xia Tian deal with the wounds, Bai Jingan sat down beside him.
After a while, he felt a weight on his right shoulder—the other party had tilted towards him. Bai Jingan’s breath stiffened until he felt Xia Tian’s breath on his skin, then he slowly let go of that breath.
Of course Xia Tian wouldn’t die. It was illogical to be so nervous. But he didn’t know if it was because of the electric shock or the previous battle, his body was trembling. His hands were clasped tightly, as if he was still eager to hold a gun or a knife and destroy something.
There was silence in the cell. Bai Jingan looked outside. The flames had burned out, and the show was about to end.
Then he would usher in strong wind and heavy rain.
Xia Tian was carried out, the same way as he was carried at the end of the third round.
The whole arena was lit up and the music was blaring, making both the corpses and the disaster seem illusory. But Bai Jingan had just been through the situation and was sure it couldn’t have been more real.
Medical personnel, reporters, image planners, and franchise fans swarmed into the arena, and walked among the wreckage and the corpses. Their faces, that were like the shiny dust of the Upper City, were filled with excitement and fanaticism.
Several medical staff checked Bai Jingan for a while and said that the electric shock could be either a big or a small problem. Considering his old injuries, they recommended him to undergo some detailed tests. Bai Jingan claimed he was fine; he just wanted to leave quickly.
He felt exhausted. The hustle and bustle of the Upper City that was mixed into the remains of the massacre, the bodies that were being collected in an orderly fashion, the kicked aside blown up stuff, and all the incoming people who were dressed in bright and well-ironed clothes… The whole scene made him sick to his stomach.
The medical department carried away Eric and the seriously injured guy. Doug was also being treated next to him. Feng Shan stood next to Doug as requested by the image planner. The two people didn’t look at each other the whole time.
Bai Jingan had been paying attention to Xia Tian. The man had lost consciousness. He looked pale and was covered in a blanket. Bai Jingan couldn’t look away from him at all, as if Xia Tian was the only fulcrum of this absurd world.
He watched as several people from the medical department worked hand in hand to treat Xia Tian’s intensive injuries, and one girl broke down in tears as she treated his leg injuries.
But they didn’t send him to the medical cabin, saying there was an on-arena interview.
Meanwhile, everyone was crowding around Bai Jingan to ask questions. Most of the questions were about the final attack. It seemed that the officials had exaggerated his injuries. They probably wanted the effect of a fallen hero.
Huitian arrived in a hurry. Her dark circles were very prominent. It seemed that she hadn’t slept for a long time.
Bai Jingan stood by Xia Tian, as he listened to her as she quickly briefed him on the situation. He felt that his expression was too murderous, but he couldn’t restrain his expression for a while.
“The theme of this show has been changed from ‘The Dark and Bizarre Things That Happened in the Zone N Massacre’ to ‘The Battle of Revenge,” Huitian informed.
According to what she said, the previous script of the planning team “The Dark and Bizarre Things That Happened in the Zone N Massacre” was completely unusable. All the previous promotions were going for the dark and bizarre style to match the previous script. And now, the script didn’t follow the cruel teaser at all. Instead the result was completely opposite.
As a result, all of this laid out a path for another powerful theme that went beyond the arena: Revenge.
After all, every fan of the Upper City knew the tricks of the planning team. Whether it was temporarily changing the structure of the building or seemingly accidentally getting rid of the players, nothing was new. Anyway, it was to let the plot develop in the direction of planning at all costs.
And anyone with eyes could see how much the organizers had pitted Xia Tian and the others at the Hellfire Repair Shop. The show had a Boss that couldn’t be beaten, a classic “dark fable” monster. It was a malicious reality that no matter what kind of power, motivation and virtue you possessed, you couldn’t fight against it.
And such a monster was actually killed!
People’s immense satisfaction when the “bad guy” was punished was simply immeasurable.
Taking advantage of the situation, the planners quickly changed their publicity strategy.
As long as they could bring out the glory of the hero and let the audience pay for it, they didn’t mind tarnishing their own image at all.
The whole plot line which was about the persistent struggle in the face of darkness looked passionate and heroic. Especially in the end, Xia Tian and Bai Jingan were riddled with scars, and the part where they killed the Boss with a bullet from a .32 caliber revolver made people’s blood boil in excitement.
These days, nothing should try to get in the way of the Floating Gold TV carnival float.
“Principle of revenge” quickly became a buzzword, and the phrase could be heard all over the Upper City. The show’s purchase rate exceeded expectations by thirty percentage points and it was still rising even now. The organizers were counting their money with a smile on their faces, not minding being treated like a demon king.
For hundreds of years, the behemoth of capital had moved blindly towards profit and had continued to do so until now. Everything else was irrelevant in the eyes of the people of the Upper World.
Death was like a game. Lovers who were madly in love were probably just reciting scripted lines. Moreover…these days, if you weren’t even just a bit cynical about the world, you would find it embarrassing to be in front of others.
The incredible thing about Xia Tian and Bai Jingan was that they had it in their bones.
These two men changed the entire story line of the show with their fucking amazing force value and extreme paranoia!
Bai Jingan was always paying attention to Xia Tian who was receiving treatment next to him. The show was over, but this was the Upper World, and God knew what would happen.
He stared intently at the people who were cleaning up Xia Tian’s wounds, checking the condition of the bones, and injecting drugs. When someone took out an injection, the group of reporters suddenly got active, and Bai Jingan asked, “What’s this?”
“Energy agent…” the medical staff said and winced under his gaze. Then he immediately pointed to the people next to him and said, “They have some questions to ask him.”
“He needs rest,” Bai Jingan said.
Those people looked at him and then at Xia Tian. Bai Jingan put his hand on Xia Tian’s shoulder, with a “strangers do not approach” look, and said towards the group, “What do you want to ask?”
Under Bai Jingan’s gaze, the medical staff was startled for a few seconds, then he carefully placed the injection aside and said to the people of the program group, “Xia Tian is very hurt and it isn’t suitable to use an energy agent on him.”
A group of people looked at the way Bai Jingan was standing beside Xia Tian, guarding him and were speechless for a moment.
The planner standing at the back also looked at them, and suddenly said, “Then no need. I wanted to ask him some questions. I also know that he’s not in a good condition right now… I’m sorry, sometimes we are just like this…”
He suddenly smiled at him and said, ” You guys did great.”
He was a gloomy-looking guy who was addicted to drugs, who Bai Jingan knew as Xu Changxin, the chief planner of Sky Viewpoint.
When he laughed and revealed a bit of his inner brightness, people realized that he was not very old.
When Huitian was talking to Bai Jingan about the manuscript, he glanced over and saw the video paused on her phone. The frame had him and Xia Tian sitting against the wall. Xia Tian was leaning on his shoulder, and had passed out without any worries.
And Bai Jingan’s head was turned to look at Xia Tian, his expression…
Bai Jingan thought that this should be what he was afraid of. In the end, something still caught him. The terrible thing was that he didn’t want to escape at all, and he unrealistically wanted to fight the world for this.
Huitian felt a little embarrassed and showed him a slightly sad smile.
“I think the Killing Show on Floating Gold TV has turned me into a paying viewer,” she said, “I’ve never been moved by anything in the Killing Show. This is just a game of capital, and feelings are just numbers when it comes to entertainment. I don’t have many people whom I consider close. For me, life is nothing but a muddle. I have never really thought that some people would be willing to go so far for others these days… but some people really do that, don’t they?”
Her smile got a little bigger, revealing the slight innocence of the old days.
She looked down at the video and said, “Do you know what this means?”
When Bai Jingan looked at her, she said, “A reminder of what we have forgotten.”
Until now, Xia Tian’s relationship with Bai Jingan was still continuing to develop in the direction originally set by Jakowski, the chief director of the team competition.
They began as mismatched comrades, slowly got to know each other, became the best partners in the third round, and then naturally their relationship evolved into that of a “familial” one.
After the third round, the image planning department asked Xia Tian to live in Bai Jingan’s house because “the company couldn’t vacate a house for the time being”, and added the role of Dee Dee.
Now, this “familial” relationship was shining brightly under the enormous pressure of the dark Killing Show.
In Jakowski’s words, the essence of stars was to emulate. People looked for emotion and meaning in the players of the Killing Show. Therefore, you had to find the setting that had the greatest emotional resonance.
There was no greater market than the demand for the set of needing loved ones, healing, support, and help. After all, these were the basal emotions rooted in the human heart—to have a real connection in the human world, to have a ground to take root, to have something in the dark to lean on, and also to be the support of others.
One must know, most people in this world were groping around in the dark, looking for relationships that had real meaning to them.
In this chaotic and huge world, how could you survive without real meaningful relationships?
It was just that Xia Tian and Bai Jingan were no longer just “surviving together in a chaotic world.”
They stumbled in the darkness, yet they both were God of Killing. They protected each other at all costs, until they completed an utterly crazy revenge.
Jakowski’s “mutually protecting each other is like a glimmer in the dark” had undergone a change of tone and the glimmer had turned into a strong beam of light, which was bloody but brilliant in this flashy world.
It directly turned the commemorative show towards another direction.
No one could ignore this temptation. This product was bloody, but radiant, exuding an irresistible charm.
Jakowski, the chief director of the Killing Show team competition, said, There are some products that people have to buy, no matter what.
As an alcoholic, he could sit on the top throne of reality show planning for good reason.
Link to an illustration is here.
Ty for the chapter ❤️
Thanks for the chapter