Editor: Junyans
Rain poured heavily for twenty minutes, extinguishing all the flames before sensibly coming to a halt.
In the east, the sun peeked through the gloomy, tattered clouds, the golden rays translucent and brilliant, spilling golden beams on Earth. It resembled a scene from a religious painting.
Xia Tian held onto the stone sculpture and tried to stand steadily. The corpse of a white specter which had just made a mess of him hung on the stone protrusion next to him.
Half of his body was numb, he could not feel the wounds on his body, and his gun was out of bullets. In the end, he’d resorted to clutching the monster’s neck, pressing its head on the stone spike until the sharp edge pierced through its right eye socket.
It was a primitive, savage and utterly unrefined fight. He heard someone behind him laugh nervously and say, “They’re completely shameless.”
While climbing up from the blood-soaked corpse, Xia Tian slipped a little. The sun was shining again. The blades of grass were beaded in a layer of glinting crystal-like water droplets. Either that, or they were coated with droplets of blood.
He stood cautiously, lifting his head to gaze at a group of people emerging from the billowing smoke.
He saw Angus.
He walked in the front, cutting a sorry figure. Disheveled hair, a face smudged with black ash, bruised corners of his forehead, and a deep shoulder wound with embedded shrapnel. Perhaps, he hadn’t endured such harm since receiving the amnesty.
He saw Xia Tian at first glance and stared viciously, and Xia Tian returned the stare defiantly.
From among the large group of followers behind Angus, one person cautiously stepped forward, walked to the side, nudged aside the gun closest to Xia Tian with the tip of his foot, and swiftly returned to the formation.
Angus scrutinized Xia Tian. While his expression had been menacing before, a hint of something else began to surface on his face now.
Xia Tian was drenched through and through, his hair dripping with water. His coat was nowhere to be found, and his shirt clung to his body, outlining his form. The recent skirmish had torn off several buttons, exposing his chest.
Angus’ gaze swept over his body meaningfully, and Xia Tian immediately realized what the other person was thinking about. He was quite familiar with this kind of gaze. It was just that there were corpses all around their feet, and the air was filled with the horrible stench of burning flesh… He couldn’t believe that anyone could be thinking about that kind of thing at a time like this!
“You should take your clothes off,” Angus said softly towards him. “After all, there are no real monsters to kill in this world. Your job is to let people have some fun. At a time like this, what you should be doing is taking off your clothes and showing off your body to the camera.”
He looked at Xia Tian with presumptuous and explicit eyes.
He continued in a relaxed tone, “Some of the bigwigs have fucked you, haven’t they? Even if they didn’t before, they will in the future. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s your first year in the Upper City and you don’t understand what this place is yet.”
He wore a faint smile, but his gaze towards Xia Tian was cold and filled with a mixture of hatred, contempt, and lust, making it difficult to distinguish between them.
Xia Tian suddenly smiled at him.
He was thoroughly soaked, but his smile was amazingly wide, as if it came with its own spotlight. It was the kind of arresting smile you gave when you wanted to hook up with someone.
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.
He held his hand out and said, “Come and help me take it off.”
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Everything is because of this damn ugly victory planned by the planning team! Angus thought.
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Those people controlled the whole world. They were supposed to be the gods who decided fate in the arena. Hadn’t it been like that for so many years?! But now, everyone can see Xia Tian pressuring them and throwing them into chaos.
Responding with weakness, excessive caution, completely stripped bare of dignity, confused, defeated, and laying bare flaws for all to see.
They were never gods. Even with such advanced technology at their disposal, they were just a group of staff addicted to drugs. They were without any self-esteem and had no position to make the simplest of decisions.
Thus, the whole story that had been woven over the years about how they were divine, invincible and in control of the web of fate of the players, turned into a joke.
As a result, Angus also became a joke.
Angus stared at the smiling little bastard on the opposite side and suddenly said, “I can ask An Xiaoyin to help you take it off…”
He regained his genial smile and continued, “There has to be a scene with something like that, no? It’s a show. A show in which, in addition to a cool battle scene, there has to be a passionate kiss followed by a sexy bed scene. She’s beautiful, and you have nothing to be picky about.”
An Xiaoyin stood there with a pale face, and the lawyer in charge was satisfied to see that the smile on Xia Tian’s face had ebbed away.
Bai Jingan had just finished a fight.
His opponent was a bizarre creature with octopus tentacles, and the way it had fought by wrapping itself around the players was extremely obscene. The planning team had deliberately created this thing. To these people, everything was just a gimmick to increase the ratings.
When he slayed his opponent and had subconsciously turned his head to confirm Xia Tian’s safety, he saw that the latter was pressing a monster’s head on the stone protrusion and looking up at him as well. They exchanged a confirming look and moved their gazes away. Bai Jingan turned his head and continued to get rid of the tentacles that hadn’t gotten loose even when the monster had already kicked the bucket.
Xia Tian struggled to stand up. When he died, he wished to die standing.
Wei Xi was miraculously unscathed. In the midst of all the mayhem, he had gotten his hands on an immersive interaction device from who knew where. A huge VR headset covered the upper half of his face. He sat cross-legged among the corpses, concentrating on calculating something. He looked like a man who had gone to the wrong scene, yet he somehow fit perfectly.
Eric was finishing off the corpses at his feet. Bai Jingan left the water—the octopus monster had dragged him six or seven meters into the water—and scanned his surroundings. With about half the people still alive, it was clear to see that the organizers were irresolute. It had only been a week since the start of the game, and there were still a bunch of programs planned for the future. To make the show’s ratings climb up to the stratosphere, someone had to keep struggling and the death rate should not be too high.
It was at this moment Bai Jingan heard the words of the lawyer in charge.
“Dead people, kisses or sex scenes are not much different.” The man said to Xia Tian, ”You are especially suitable for some emotional scenes right now. The scenery is nice here, and the planning team will come up with a beautiful clip.”
He made a gesture of looking forward. The dark clouds above them had completely dissipated and a rainbow was hanging in the sky, contrasting the black smoke and dead bodies on the battlefield.
“No one can escape from this world. Whether it’s you or her, it’s the same,” Angus continued, reaching out to grab An Xiaoyin’s arm.
He was injured, so he was not very agile. She took a step back, and he failed to catch her.
Angus was a little surprised. He had probably thought that she would stand there obediently and let him grab her.
He turned his head and said to An Xiaoyin, “Come here.”
She shook her head, her face frighteningly pale. Only when you experienced these things yourself would you realize how humiliating and frightening they were.
Xia Tian glared at the NPC lawyer in charge.
He looked like it took some effort to stand still, and though he tried to straighten his back in front of the man, he looked a little at a loss.
Bai Jingan was well aware of this powerlessness. There were too many faces like Angus’… Countless eyes and endless desires. So much so that it became something larger and more terrifying, shaping the sky, the earth and the storm itself and infusing everything with malice, leaving you trapped in a beautiful world with no way out.
Only, at this moment, what they saw was a man’s malicious smile and a girl’s pale face.
Encountering a simple scene, you feel utterly hopeless and desperate, and you wonder why you feel like that when there’s not even an opponent in sight.
“This world has never had monsters to kill. We created them and all we want is the fun of killing them.” The lawyer in charge said to An Xiaoyin, “What you are going to do is no different from those fighters who put their lives on the line, and it is more popular.”
At this moment, the wind blew away some of the smell of scorch and gunpowder smoke. If one ignored the corpses, the scene was really romantic.
He looked at An Xiaoyin very kindly, and what he said was almost a kind of friendly advice. In this world, this was indeed a simple, inevitable and inescapable path. And his eyes shone with excitement, happy to see others completely crushed without dignity. It was a look that couldn’t be more common in the Upper World.
Xia Tian glared viciously at Angus, trying to find the words to retaliate, but he was unable to find them. Angus was telling the truth.
Bai Jingan didn’t know what to say either. There was nothing you could say to an Upper City pervert, so he just walked over towards Xia Tian. He didn’t know what he could do, but he just wanted to stand and stay beside Xia Tian.
Bai Jingan looked like a mess. He was soaked to the bone, and his clothes were ripped to shreds, revealing the hideous wounds beneath. Seeing himself in the mirror earlier, he felt as if his entire being had been torn apart and pieced back together.
For the many years he had returned to the upper city, Bai Jingan had never thought about removing it; he simply concealed it beneath his clothes. However, at this moment, he couldn’t be bothered to hide it, especially when there was nothing to be ashamed of.
Xia Tian fixed his gaze on Angus, searching for ways to counterattack. Standing still was not an option; he had to emerge victorious in the verbal battle.
As he was thinking this, Bai Jingan felt Xia Tian grab him by the collar, pull him over, and kiss him hard on the lips.
The kiss lasted for three or four seconds. Bai Jingan froze in place, still maintaining the previous posture of raising his hand, not knowing what else to do.
Someone behind him said “Fuck me.” Bai Jingan tasted blood, gunpowder smoke, and anger from Xia Tian. When Xia Tian turned his head towards him with that smile, Bai Jingan knew the man was going to do something, but what the fuck was going on?!
Xia Tian let him go, turned his head towards Angus with a provocative smile, and said, “Did you like it?”
A group of people next to him turned their heads to stare at them, and those who were far away turned back curiously, and someone next to them let out a laugh.
Bai Jingan thought to himself, Xia Tian really took an unusual path, which was so stupid that it made people speechless.
He licked his lips, and the taste of blood filled his lips and teeth. There was always the taste of blood on the battlefield, but this time it belonged to the “God of Destiny.”
He also turned his head to look at Angus who was glaring at the two of them. In this arena, he was undoubtedly a “Spokesperson of Destiny,” and at this moment, the spokesperson’s expression that should have been calm was extremely wonderful. He didn’t have time to care about An Xiaoyin.
Xia Tian smiled goadingly. On the messy battlefield, as the sun shone on him, he looked like he was born with the ability to gather light.
They did win something.
Bai Jingan scanned the battlefield, gazing through the smoke and landscape at their huge opponent.
He suddenly remembered that long, long ago, when he had looked up at the sky in the Lower City, he must have thought, no matter what others say about how crazy this thought is, my enemy is the whole world!
Eric said that the game was “simply a brake failure,” but Bai Jingan knew what they were doing.
They were challenging the “God of Destiny.”
They tore open the gorgeous and orderly curtain of the Killing Show, exposing the tattered and messy insides. “Destiny” was no longer invincible. It was just an insatiable and confused face wearing a dazzling mask.
Destiny would also get confused, make mistakes, be in sore straits, or be teased by mischievous pranks.
Angus looked at them coldly and suddenly said, “Two hours later, in the main banquet hall, I have an announcement to make.”
His voice was still smooth as he delivered the character’s lines, but the way he stared at them was fraught with naked malice.
“I just got word that some Avengers have infiltrated us, and we have to find them out no matter what. Those who find them will advance straight to the end of the competition.”
These words finally made a few gloating players lift their heads and look at him. He was very satisfied with everyone’s reaction, and then said, “I will send you invitations.”
He dropped a wintry look and turned to leave.
An Xiaoyin stood far back and turned her head to look at Xia Tian. The lawyer in charge yelled, “An Xiaoyin!”
She smiled at them both before following the lawyer in charge. Her face was still pale, but her footsteps were lighter. Some of her heavy fear had receded, and she looked a bit like the girl who had whistled while pruning flowering branches.
Behind her, Bai Jingan and Xia Tian exchanged a glance. Eric limped up to them, and they realized what Angus was talking about: the Joker card.
Thinking about it now, that thing was originally a tool for the organizers to increase the risk and excitement of the third sub-arena. Who would have thought that the third sub-arena would be overly exciting, and the Joker card would become a thing that would restrain and punish them.
The players were all silent. The footsteps of the departing NPC party was still within earshot. The pungent smell of flesh and blood had not yet dissipated, and the deliberately light chirping of birds came from the distance.
It was at this point that Wei Xi lifted his head and said, “I’ve found something.”
