Editor: Junyans
Looking at the map, the transmission tower seemed to be located near a hidden underground river.
Of course, it was impossible to have a natural underground river in the Upper City, but one could be made artificially, and there was nothing in the Upper City that couldn’t be artificially made.
The group of players followed the route map provided by Wei Xi. Soon, the terrain ahead began to descend, and there was a noticeable increase in the number of streams and lakes.
The surrounding scenery was extremely beautiful and resembled a paradise. The surroundings were adorned with wild flowers, which were blooming everywhere, swaying in the breeze and soaking up the rays of the sun.
The organizers were not shameless enough to let the white specters haunt in broad daylight. Occasionally, the players saw monsters that had failed to enter the shadows in time. They were either spasming in the sunlight or had fallen unconscious, as if they were enduring great pain.
There were also some mutant creatures that had escaped into the shadows on time, but under such intense light, they could only curl up together, drooling and emitting unconscious roars. Some of them resembled humans, evoking thoughts of the undernourished children in the Lower City.
The players killed them one by one.
The stone path gradually faded into the grass, and the group felt their way forward, which was very consistent with the setting of this place—an ancient laboratory.
When walking through the shade of a magnolia tree, Xia Tian suddenly felt a stab of pain in the back of his neck, and he reached out to touch it. At the same time, almost everyone around him stopped and did the same thing.
Several people were talking about breakfast, but all of them turned quiet all of a sudden, and the air was filled with a cold and gloomy atmosphere.
Needless to say, everyone knew what this was.
Control chip interference.
Except for Bai Jingan and Wei Xi—the former had been confined into a Killing Show contract as soon as he was born, and the latter was a cyber criminal—everyone here was a serious criminal, having killed more than three people before joining the show. After signing the contract, the first thing they had to do was undergo a chip operation.
As the requisitioning party, the Floating Gold TV Station certainly knew that it was not safe to play this kind of game with vicious murderers. The control chip was the chain that tied the murderous beasts to make them obedient and at the same time entertain everyone.
Xia Tian didn’t know how many times he had been told that once he threatened the safety of innocent citizens, the station had the right to punish him or simply execute him. The first time he had heard it, he had immediately tried a punishment as a demonstration. It was… quite unpleasant.
In the windy and sunny garden, a group of felons exchanged glances, their expressions dimming the sunlight around them a little. The situation of the control chip interference undoubtedly showed that the tower was very close.
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.
High frequency remote control technology worked similarly, regardless of the subject. In the final analysis, the players were no different from the monsters they killed. Beneath the vast mechanical structure covering the sky, all creatures were mere toys in a malicious game, nothing more.
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The group of people held their guns tight as they walked cautiously into the shadows.
Once they set their foot onto this place, they only had one choice left: to move forward.
They made their way down the cave and crossed the underground river. There were visible traces of remodeling all along the way. The floor had been slightly evened out, and the walls were embedded with downlights. These lights were so hidden that they could not be seen at all. Only when it became dark and a few lights lit up the path could their presence be noticed.
In addition to lighting equipment, they also began to see traces of some unknown pipes, which were complex and old-fashioned and had been transformed with a steampunk-style artistic sense. The technology in the Upper City had always been professional in this regard.
Pallid monsters could be seen everywhere in the water, fallen unconscious and caught in a nightmare, which was very commensurate with the overall sense of antiquity and abandonment the surrounding was giving.
The group of fighters seemed very familiar with this environment. Some parts of this place resembled the Lower City. Only, the Lower City was not as beautiful. They were similar only because both didn’t see the sun in the sky.
They killed the monsters they saw without fail, leaving them to sleep forever.
As they continued forward, the surrounding space widened, the ceiling reaching great heights, and the traces of people’s activities around became more apparent.
Old-fashioned instruments and shelves that were randomly placed began to appear around them, and glass vessels filled with monstrous creatures could be seen. These things were mixed with several parts of different animals, like a colored clay doll made by a child with intellectual disability, chaotic and whimsical.
They turned a corner, and that was when they saw the view.
A piece of the ceiling had collapsed directly in front of them. The sunlight poured down generously from above, and dust and petals were flying like snow.
A tall tree grew towards the light, bearing scattered pink flowers, and last year’s withered fruits still clung to its branches. Lush vegetation surrounded the area, dotted with scattered wildflowers exhibiting diverse and vibrant colors.
A fighter in the back told his companion some popular science, “This is an apple tree.”
“It doesn’t look like an apple at all.”
“There are many kinds of apples,” the man said, “I can’t remember what its name is, but I remember it sounds pretty good…”
“I think it’s an orange tree.”
A heated discussion ensued. People from the Lower City often turned into half-assed plant experts when they got to the Upper City.
Meanwhile, the lab vessels around them grew larger and larger, and the monsters inside were more and more monstrous. They were all genetic creations of the laboratory. Occasionally, people who were as pale as mutant creatures could be seen, the two mixed together as one.
They were suspended in the preservative solution, vessels beneath labeled with time, type, and the number of experiments. There were no species names, as they were just transitional organisms. The labels also contained records indicating the code for the “extreme experiments” they had been subjected to, as well as the graph depicting the time of death. Everything was just a string of numbers in a forgotten place.
Mr. Shi had an extensive collection, and obviously thought that all the creations he had put together were worth seeing.
On the stone walls, the eccentric billionaire had added technological settings which were aesthetically pleasing as well. He had spent a fortune to carve out horizontal seams about a meter high and closed it with glass, creating an aquarium that horizontally encircled more than half of the cave. This way, he could enjoy viewing monsters he raised at any time.
These monsters must have been lying there during their whole lifetime and never been allowed to stand upright. However, when the fighters arrived, most of the creatures inside had starved to death. Only a pair of them were devouring each other, the remnants of their ghastly white limbs trembling from time to time.
The group surveyed this bizarre and brutal scene with expressionless faces, which was in stark contrast to the unbelievably beautiful scene full of lush vegetation on the other side of the lab.
At nine in the morning, the sun was the natural light source of this giant cave. The air was fragrant with flowers. A few butterflies were busy flitting around on the flower heads. The peaceful sound of water flowing filled the surroundings, and the river was ice-cold.
Under the light, they walked to the beautiful fruit tree, and when they stepped into the light, the depth of darkness in the recesses of the cave only deepened, and the undertones of blood reached even deeper still.
The space must have been precisely designed for the great battle at the end of the show, reserved for rocket launchers, cruel monsters, physical combat, plot twists, and all kinds of dead bodies.
A few twitching white specters were faintly discernible among the wildflowers beneath the tree, which the fighters finished off without sparing even one.
Wei Xi followed and walked over to the underground river where numerous small transparent fish gathered, lush blades of grass brushing against his feet. He lowered his head and saw a monster in the corner that had lost consciousness.
Wei Xi stiffened, and for a moment he thought it was a person.
It possessed strong human features, and it was almost possible to tell who it had been: less than twenty years old, freckled, monolid, and with a look of ignorance. The soft shade of the trees covered him. He bared his teeth unconsciously, and his eyeballs were constantly trembling; he was mired in a nightmare that he could not wake up from.
“I think this… used to be a person,” Wei Xi said.
He leaned over a little and saw the tattoo on the inside of its white wrist. He couldn’t see it clearly. It seemed to be thorns wrapped around each other with a girl’s name in the middle…
Xia Tian walked over to take a look, raised his hand, and shot the guy in the head.
Wei Xi shivered. The shot was so thorough that the guy’s head instantly blew up.
Xia Tian turned around to finish off other monsters, but stopped after taking a step to look at the gun in Wei Xi’s hand. The fighters had taken all the large-caliber ones, and what had fallen into Wei Xi’s hand was a .32-caliber pistol. Wei Xi didn’t care; he had no use for it anyway.
Xia Tian took a high-frequency concussion gun from his waist and gave it to him. Wei Xi subconsciously took it, and Xia Tian said, “Kill such things on sight. Treat it as doing charity.”
He spoke softly, then turned and left to find another monster to kill.
While the sunlight poured over Xia Tian, gilding his long hair with warm light. However, Wei Xi couldn’t help but recall the gloom in his eyes as he subconsciously touched the back of his neck.
In that casual sentence, he felt more violence and terror than from seeing the bloody head in front of him.
Bai Jingan took a look at the natural beauty of the “office” and averted his gaze to survey the vast underground hall.
There were countless instruments and samples scattered around. One could see the divisions of the various experimental areas, but there were no doors and buildings in the middle, as if it were a huge and mysterious factory.
The experimental area was in power saving mode. It had been running at the lowest power consumption for many years, but still dominated all creations. Even though it was from the previous century, it still exuded an unparalleled grandeur.
Behind the workbench, facing the sun, there was a huge conceptual poster, which was the original advertisement of the Floating City. The city was high above the clouds, the blue sky was endless, and the land below was a poor and violent garbage dump.
Above it was written with brilliant characters: City of Paradise.
The panoramic design was really a work of art, Bai Jingan thought to himself, and said to a group of fighters who were either fascinated by the scenery or were busy cleaning up monsters, “This is it.”
The group turned their heads to look at him, then looked away, took their large caliber weapons, and walked towards the darkness beyond the picturesque vista.
This place was so large, and in the darkness, they themselves were as pale and thin as the corpses in the vessels.
“The tower should be somewhere here,” Wei Xi said, “Although it is said to be a ‘transmission tower,’ it may only be a small instrument. The specific appearance depends on the mood of the Technology Department.”
He then added, “But there is too much interference…”
Before he could finish his sentence, the light dimmed.
The sky was overcast.
