In unison, Xia Tian and Bai Jingan turned their heads towards the voice and saw the dangerous boy, Minkov Jr., who had tried to commit suicide just a little while ago. He was sitting on a display cabinet next to a half-dissected specimen of a mutant dog that had tragically died. He was wearing an uncontrollable smile on his face, but it wasn’t a happy smile; it had a whiff of insanity that would make anyone nervous when they saw it. It looked as if the person smiling would pull out an axe and start chopping heads off in the next second.
Xia Tian didn’t know since when he had been hiding there, but given that this was his home, it was only natural for him to be familiar with all possible hiding places.
The future bigwig gave the corpse a cursory glance that was indifferently curious, like a carnivorous bird discovering a dead animal.
“Ah, Honey Pavilion, they’ve been looking for death for a while now,” he said as he sprang off the display cabinet.
Xia Tian stuffed the gun back into his pocket, indicating that he was not going to return it.
He had a natural aversion toward the powerful, but he didn’t find this kid intimidating. There was something familiar about him, something similar to an outlaw. With guys like that, you just had to hold your gun and talk carefully.
“I like blowing up houses,” Minkov Jr. continued cheerfully as he walked up to the two murderers, unconcerned about potential danger.
He asked, “How to blow it up?”
“If you want to help,” Bai Jingan said, “you can delete the video.”
“But I like blowing up houses,” the kid said again, “It just sounds so exciting. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”
Even when standing in the middle of countless bloody specimens, he looked quite good with a smile on his lips, but his smile seemed to distort the space around him.
Bai Jingan sized him up and said, “You look like you want to do more than just blow up houses.”
A crack suddenly appeared in Minkov Jr.’s smile, as if he had suddenly fallen into the deep pit of these words. The boy put his hands in his pockets and stood by the wall and clenched his fists.
Then he said: “Oh, what do you think I want to do?”
Suddenly, Xia Tian realized that despite standing in his own home, Minkov Jr. appeared like a trapped animal that had nowhere to go. He was familiar with this type of people; they were always standing at the edge, desperate, as if something extremely terrible was pushing them—
The most dangerous thing about such people was that they couldn’t wait for the whole world to disappear, because they saw the world itself as their enemy.
After Minkov Jr. finished speaking, a hush descended on the room for a while, and no one spoke. His surname was Minkov. He was not some small gangster in the Lower City bar, and hence they had to be careful with every word when speaking with people like him.
Finally Xia Tian said: “How am I to know? Why don’t you think about it yourself?”
The boy glared at them viciously for a few seconds. Although he was young, his bones were already beginning to reveal the danger and ruthlessness of the powerful.
He suddenly called out, “Jurgen!”
Xia Tian was startled, but what appeared was a cleaning robot, which skillfully stuffed the corpse into the cleanup box… He didn’t know how, the box was not big, but the dead body just disappeared after entering the cleanup box; it might have some advanced decomposition program. Then it separated out a sub-machine to clean up the bloodstains using a high-end cleaning agent that was incorporated within it.
After five minutes, the place became spotless again, as if nothing had happened there. The life of the rich was indeed more advanced.
After watching how the corpse vanished into the box, Xia Tian said, “Who was this guy anyway?”
Minkov Jr. shrugged: “I don’t know. Someone insignificant, I guess.”
He leaned against the wall and looked at Xia Tian and Bai Jingan, while stroking the wounds of a mutant specimen—the way it looked when it was dying—with an eerie intimacy for those wounds.
“I can delete the video for you,” he said, “I can also help you get the identities of the other members of the Honey Pavilion. My hacking skills are so-so, but… what’s the saying, ‘There’s always someone who can get whatever they want‘, I’m that kind of person.”
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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Then Minkov Jr. suddenly flashed a smile at them, revealing some of the bright and joyful characteristics of youth.
“I like you guys,” he said, as if making a decision, “They’re portraying the two of you as leaders of the resistance or something. I know the whole ‘building an image’ thing, but I still wanted to meet you guys. I didn’t expect… wow, you guys are a real pair of spree killers—”
At this moment, he suddenly froze for a few seconds as he looked at a certain position in the air. Xia Tian knew that he was looking at the icon on the virtual contact lens that would ensure you were always online, keeping up with the latest trends and not falling off the wagon.
“I’m going. Zeus is calling,” Minkov Jr. said. He turned around and walked a few steps, then stopped, and walked over to Bai Jingan.
“You still haven’t told me about how to blow up the house.”
Bai Jingan told him the clear steps on how to blow up the house, and the feasibility was first-rate.
Xia Tian wondered if Bai Jingan had observed such a set of things after entering the house today, or if he had just thought of it when he had killed someone earlier. He was almost a little sorry for not blowing the house up—Bai Jingan’s plan was to turn the specimen room and core control room into rubble and let them crash right to the ground, cleaning the data without the use of explosives. When you stopped to think about it, it was really amazing.
He was such an excellent tactical planner, full of destructive power with the ability to handle anything.
But when Xia Tian came out, he suddenly remembered that although Minkov Jr. had the authority to delete videos, if he used it, the administrator would know that he had deleted one… Then he immediately realized that this concern was silly.
When someone knew that he deleted it, that was the end of the matter.
He didn’t need to hide it deliberately, everyone would help him to cover it up, because his surname was Minkov. This was the life of the rich. You could destroy as much as you wanted, and the city would help you cover up all traces, just like a private cleaning service.
After that day, Xia Tian ran into Minkov Jr. on two more occasions.
This upper-class figure never attended large parties, but only occasionally appeared at small gatherings of some powerful people, looking like a gentle and good boy. He had his own small circle, and when he chatted with joy, he danced like all the other children.
For the time being, his house was still intact, but given that he had mastered the technique of blowing up the mansion, Xia Tian wondered how long it would stay standing.
Once Xia Tian and Bai Jingan ran into him at a party where the main screen was displaying an escape show for death row criminals. The chase was brutal to the extreme, a bloody hunt played out in a modern city.
They exchanged a few ideas about how to escape in the Upper City. Minkov Jr. also shared an anti-camera program with Xia Tian. As per his explanation, this thing’s working principle was quite strange; not only did it not impact the recording process in any way, making it undiscoverable from the flicker caused by video jamming devices, but it also didn’t get detected by any search programs.
To put it another way, the Floating Group could film you, but couldn’t separate you from the huge volume of camera data. Considering the number of cameras in the Upper City, it was not much different from a stealth technique.
Xia Tian scrutinized the code. The code was very core, and it was worthy of being shared by the top dignitaries.
“With this thing, can we disappear into the city and escape the video surveillance?” Bai Jingan asked.
“If they really want to find you, it’s useless. I have tried,” Minkov Jr. said, showing him a gloomy and a slightly crazy smile. “They have people who can follow you frame by frame.”
He fiddled with the messy programs on the floating screen, his gaze shifting from the hustle and bustle in front of him to the cold, empty corner.
The Upper World was still singing, dancing, and rejoicing.
Floating Gold TV’s 199th Killing Show Asaijin Team Competition soon ushered in the first draw of the fourth round: drawing new teammates.
By this point, every teammate had a certain standard; no matter how bad they were, they weren’t too bad either. After all, if they had managed to survive this long, they’d have to have a few tricks up their sleeves.
The organizers provided ample time for bonding and organized a variety of interactive programs to capture the sparks and clashes between different teammates.
The players sat awkwardly on the sofas in the training room of the program group, engaging in all sorts of weird interactions. The scenes of them trying to get to know each other were often used for laughs. They said it was quite similar to an awkward blind date back in the day.
Some of the interactions were excruciatingly painful—like Doug’s team. Throughout the broadcast, Doug and Feng Shan sat at the farthest ends of the sofa, silent, with serious expressions, making the atmosphere in the room depressing and terrifying. The two guys who had formed a team with them felt very awkward, and were desperately trying to find a topic, but it was just these two talking to each other. It looked pitiful.
So the ratings were high.
But this was not a blind date program, this was the Killing Show.
The first teammate drawn by Xia Tian and Bai Jingan was actually Eric, which had to be deliberate on the part of the planning team.
This person’s registered profession was sniper, but looking at the way he killed people and monsters alike everywhere with a rocket launcher, he could easily pass for a fighter.
Their second teammate was Wei Xi, a network logistician. He was only 19 years old, but he had stolen confidential information 759 times already and that was how he got into the Killing Show.
Just like Xia Tian, it was his first time in the Killing Show. He had obviously suffered a great deal of trauma in the previous three rounds and hadn’t recovered yet. He sat in the corner and remained silent unless talking was absolutely necessary.
Xia Tian thought he looked a little familiar, but couldn’t remember who he was for a moment. He must be a well-known figure in the field of network logistics.
Since they were all well-known stars, their group had a special show, and the host cracked jokes to liven up the atmosphere. The show they participated in that day was called “Emotional Impact”. One of the segments of the show was to watch the “classic videos” of their former teammates to let the members “get to know each other better”.
Eric was the first person they targeted on.
During the Commemorative Show, Eric’s team had accidentally wandered into an area where mutant creatures were densely packed. They could have escaped smoothly, but another group had tricked them into the monster gathering area and bolted the door from the outside in order to maximize their chances of escaping safely.
It was an extremely tragic life-and-death battle, and all three of Eric’s teammates perished there. If it hadn’t been for one of his teammates blasting open the reinforced wall before he died, Eric would have also died inside.
In order to “get to know each other better”, the program team broadcast the complete set of scenes of the destruction of Eric’s team on the large, bright screen.
They were sitting on a soft sofa, watching the scenes of the Commemorative Show unfold in the Lower City. Eric’s team members were walking towards the express station, unaware of the impending disaster that would befall them. Some of them were still joking; it was obvious that their friendship was very close.
Eric watched the video expressionlessly. At times like this, you had no choice but to hide yourself desperately and not let others have fun at your expense.
Wei Xi glanced at the scene, and quietly opened a small holographic terminal, and changed the operation mode of the virtual contact lens.
Within twenty seconds, a large area in front of him was already filled with numerous private floating screens, and Bai Jingan joined in with him. After watching for a while, Xia Tian also went to join in the fun.
—The moment he saw the code, Xia Tian realized that this new teammate of his was hacking the program’s backend, and seemed quite well-versed. It was definitely not the first time he had done it.
Bai Jingan went over to help, and Xia Tian also went to lend a hand.
The bloody holographic screen in front of them flickered for a while before suddenly shutting down.
The room was silent, but one could almost hear the planning team swearing. The host didn’t know what had happened, and tried to make jokes to smoothen things over.
The screen struggled to flash back up twice after that, and several people joined hands to shut it down once again.
But the next time, it was unusually difficult to shut the video down; the planning team had likely sought assistance from some expert. Xia Tian gloated as he saw Wei Xi calmly give up the program group’s backend and change the direction of attack. This guy was unquestionably a first-class master at sabotage.
Five minutes later, he had switched off the power grid of the program group.
The light in the room dimmed, and the afterglow of the setting sun penetrated the room, its color a pure orange-red like oozing blood. Wei Xi sat at the junction of shadow and light, his attractive face showcasing a murderous look. This was the world of network logisticians.
“Uh, can I trouble you guys to stop for a while and finish the show?” The host said dryly.
Wei Xi gave the host a quick glance before reaching out to adjust the screen. Since the start of the show, he seemed to have no place to vent his anger, and now he had finally found it. He was acting as though he had already made up his mind to go against the camera crew.
“You can stop us by using force,” Xia Tian told the host with an enthusiastic smile.
After staring at them helplessly for a bit, the other party lowered his head, pulled out his phone, opened an app, and began playing the game.
Across the sofa, a few members of Xia Tian’s team began chatting about the program’s code using technical language that only network logisticians understood. Listening to them, it was clear that they were very knowledgeable about how to hack into the various systems.
Eric listened to them talk, and after a while, he also opened his mouth and joined in.
The program that day did not actually meet the original plan, but the group’s ratings nevertheless attained astounding heights. Perhaps it was rare to see someone fight the production team when they were filming a “blind date show.”
The TV station was overflowing with money and smiles, and everyone started playing the bad guys with enthusiasm after receiving bonuses.
The show was very widely broadcasted, which must have been something to do with the star effect—broadcasting anything stars do, even if it was just them having breakfast, always garnered high ratings.
And although the show’s plan to “make the players cry until they lose their voice” terribly failed, the team members actually got to know each other well.
In this Upper City, the city of entertainment, fame spread quickly. The planners were desperate to turn the stars’ fame into money by making it as ubiquitous as sunshine.
As his schedule grew increasingly busy, Xia Tian suddenly realized that he had already joined the ranks of Killing Show’s first-line stars. Everyone wanted to meet him, ask him some questions, and hear from him.
Regardless of what Xia Tian answered, the fans would come up with some theory of their own. The majority of them made him sound like a lunatic who was planning to end the planet.
Even if Xia Tian didn’t feel like he was particularly mentally sound, those fan theories felt a bit too exaggerated even for him.
They even made a premium fee-based information package called “Holy Book of Resistance”, which had all his famous dialogues, pictures and videos and this became a signature product of the special planning team that got sold widely!
Xia Tian complained to Huitian that he was portrayed as a crazy person in it, and what he said together would be enough to get him sentenced to death a hundred times over. Although some of the things he said were true, they truly had nothing to do with him.
“That’s what star-making is all about,” Hui Tian explained casually, “making you stand out from the crowd, making people think they can get answers to some awesome questions from you, and that seeing you will put them in a good mood.”
She fiddled with the manicure knife, took another look at Xia Tian, and said, “You don’t need to worry about it. The company is aware of it. It’s a part of the publicity… But they can’t come forward personally. It isn’t ‘rebellious’ enough.”
She also hinted that the company would profit from it, and she told him to unwind a bit because the Floating Gold Group would invest in everything that made money in the Upper City.
“At the end of the day, the Upper City is a giant reality show,” Huitian said, “Your role is to be the hero and the rebel, and all the excitement, theory, and anger are just a game.”
“But they’re not all fake, either,” Xia Tian said, “What I committed in the Lower City… Later, I realized that it was unnecessary. Nothing was wrong with what he said. My sister was indeed a bitch and I was indeed a bastard… I was just pissed off and well, he is now dead.”
He shifted his gaze to the infopack on the screen. Inside, he was claiming that society was rife with suffering and that everyone had the right to be angry. The pain would never go away, and the alcohol would only make the wounds worse, so it was only natural to wreak some havoc to release the pain.
He said: “The money is real, but the anger that’s been stirred up is also real.”
Thank you for the chapter 😁❤️
Waaaaah I loved this so much 😍😍 thank you for translating, can’t wait for the following chapters!
Thanks for the chapter
Thank you!! (๑ت๑)ﾉ