Chapter 113 - Key
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
The night wind was a little cold.
Wu Jin woke up and looked at the locked bedroom door, his consciousness struggling between a half awake, half asleep state.
His muscles tensed up. He subconsciously wanted to turn the terminal on for light, but his arm was suddenly held down by the big boss.
“Nightmare?” The man asked in a low voice.
The youth stilled, then slowly curled up again, spreading out and relaxing comfortably in the big boss’s arms. His heart beat gently in his chest, and sleepiness rose up again. He spoke vaguely, “Mm… door, locked…”
The memory of the dream receded like the tide. Wu Jin smacked his lips, and his brow finally smoothed out.
“Want the door open?” Wei Shi observed the subtle changes in the youth’s expression in the darkness.
“Yes…” Wu Jin turned over and rubbed contentedly against the pillow, “Want to eat a handheld wrap…”
After saying so, he gave a small snore and pa.s.sed out again.
Wei Shi paused.
The man slowly turned Wu Jin so that he was face up, his arm reaching over the pillow to pull him close, “Go back to sleep.”
“I’m keeping watch.”
Late in the morning.
Wu Jin woke up after a night of drinking and didn’t remember anything except that he had just gotten a good night’s sleep.
The big boss was already gone without a trace. He flipped through the terminal while brushing his teeth––Wei Shi was currently overseeing a thorough investigation at the Floating City base.
On the desk, the card slot machine inside the dormitory beeped, “You have [1] visitor waiting at the door.”
Wu Jin pattered over to open the door, and Red chattered loudly as he carried a rabbit lamp inside, “Little Witch, set up a voice command, and the lamp will light up at night when you call.”
Wu Jin hurriedly thanked him. Red dusted off his b.u.t.tocks, then looked at the list that Brother Wei had given him and crossed out an item. “Let’s go have breakfast!”
Caesar was still snoring in his bedroom, and the Floating City base was bustling. Wu Jin queued up from the end of the line all the way to the front, and when the canteen robot swiped his card, it immediately stuffed two handheld wraps at him.
Wu Jin bounced up in delight and was enveloped by the fragrance of the wraps.
After breakfast, Red continued to clear out his list, ordering two small robots to help carry things around, “Hey, the lychees should be chilled before they’re delivered. There should be a box of yogurt ice cream…”
Wu Jin opened the door to the training room, and his brain almost crashed.
Snacks were piled up everywhere. 3000+ entertainment channels were all on and blasting from virtual screens, and the original shabby lounge chair was nowhere to be found. Instead, a small sheepskin sofa had been left in its stead.
A robot opened up a bag of popcorn for Wu Jin, inserted a straw into a carton of milk, and handed it over respectfully.
Wu Jin felt that he was about to be corrupted by this evil materialistic society!
Outside, Red was still pondering, “Give Little Witch another box of lychees. That one with the Tang poem about a visit to the world of mortals…”
Wu Jin, the concubine of the hegemonic city Lord, opened the door.
Red waved at him as he nibbled on a lychee, “Is there enough to eat? We don’t have to do jokes today. The task today is to ensure that Little Witch has fun playing!”
Wu Jin quickly expressed his thanks and vaguely stated that he would once again become a salted, fish flavored fool once again. Wouldn’t it be better for them to simply go to the Floating City base to find the big boss?
Red agreed right away and ordered the robots to move the lychees straight into the car, “Sure, just let me visit a training room first. I’ll bring you over after I finish the targets for today!”
Wu Jin happily agreed.
Ten minutes later, Wu Jin arrived at the team meeting with an armful of snacks. Zoe was in the process of telling Caesar off, “You took Little Witch to a nightclub? Little Witch, at a nightclub? Hm?”
Caesar cried, “d.a.m.n it, it wasn’t me that took him there, it was Ming Yao! And, Little Witch was really smart, he just hid under the table! Next time we go to a club, we can also stuff Little Witch under the table…”
Zoe lamented, “Couln’t you simply not bring him? Take a look at Contestant Wei, at least he knows to bring Little Witch back and even sent me a message when he had to leave early. How sensible! Ah? You should learn from him!”
Wen Lin was smiling broadly as he opened the door.
What greeted his eyes was a pile of cotton candy, potato chips, and yoghurt popsicles, followed by the small curls that struggled to peek out over the pile of snacks. Wen Lin helped him carry some of it, and the bedroom was soon filled with the noise of snacks being opened.
Zoe was eating melon seeds as he offered solemn advice, “Little Witch, you’re still young. Don’t go out and get in trouble with them.”
Wu Jin opened his eyes wide, “Ik2026;”
Zoe ate the melon seeds so quickly he left afterimages, “Particularly during this period of time. White Moonlight is in the spotlight, and Little Witch, so are you. If you can’t make your debutk2013;k2013;or in the long run, you don’t make it into the Star League, everything, including your nightclub hangover, the exposure of your love lifek2013;k2013;”
Wu Jin quivered.
Zoe: “I’m talking about Caesar. Of course, Little Witch, you should listen too; it’ll be useful later. Remember, any kind of variable can become a reason for others to attack you.”
“Although we don’t belong to the idol industry, we’re still in the entertainment industry. The company doesn’t place restrictions on the trainees’ private lives, but it’s only when you have made real achievements that the audience will respect the details of your private life.”
“When the vice-captain of our battle team was secretly photographed on a date by the paparazzi, it was during the decline of White Moonlight’s achievements, and the girl’s Star Blog was spammed by haters until she deleted the account. R-Code’s Captain Shao is different, he can f*cking close up with a bunch of boys for a night, and fans would call it ‘relaxation between matches’, and say that ‘the need for romantic affairs can be understood’…”
Wu Jin nodded.
If this was a thousand years ago, survival show contestants would be positioned between artists and athletes, but their ‘compet.i.tion performance’ was still the most important measure for success.
If he wanted to go public with the big boss… he needed to be able to obtain a debut position, become a reserve player, or go even further than that.
The Crosson Show was just the starting point.
When he thought of the future, Wu Jin couldn’t help becoming a little absent minded, his small curls floating quietly in the wind. Yesterday, before he’d fallen asleep, the big boss had brought up getting a marriage license! In his mind, the Crosson forum threads bubbled up to the surface… He had to do his part and take precautions! Be technically prepared…
Zoe wondered, “Little Witch, why aren’t you nodding like Caesar? What are you doing over there rubbing your face?”
Wu Jin: “!!!”
After summing it up, they projected up the voting interface for the Crosson Show.
Everyone, with the exception of Zoe, all dropped their mouths open wide.
The hall of mirrors in the Palace of Versailles was resplendent and luxurious. The arches, floor to ceiling mirrors, and candles created layer after layer of brilliant light. Chibi, miniature contestants dressed in pure white linen played around in the corridors, the little angel wings behind them fluttering, and the halos on their heads dazzling with light.
Zoe moved the cursor, picking up the little Caesar angel who hadn’t shaved his beard and was running around everywhere, and tossed him to the side. Beside a sparkling fountain, a group of harp-playing fairies came into view.
Wu Jin: “Fe-female contestants!”
The trainees from the Hyacinth Show had actually joined the scene. They leaned against the fountain to sing in sitting or standing postures, gentle smiles on their faces.
Wu Jin looked at the ones who were placed in the most prominent positions.
Ning Fengbei. Long, straight black hair, a Silver Thread Roll trainee.
Vera, an Azure People’s Entertainment trainee. Her flaxen curls were voluminous, and she appeared to have stepped out of the annals of Greek mythology.
Chu Chu, who had a power b.u.t.ton logo tattooed on the back of her neck and was a trainee from the Empire’s Silver Entertainment…
The fairies beside the pool were dazzling. Wu Jin shifted his gaze and soon found himself in a corner.
The chubby little Wu Jin angel was playing with the little Wei Shi angel. Wu Jin was hugging a red, heart-shaped pillow in his arms.
Wu Jin bounced up and threw the red heart in his arms to Wei Shi.
Wei Shi caught it and fluttered his wings to give Wu Jin his own heart. At this time, the little Caesar angel who’d been tossed aside by Zoe’s cursor pedaled his feet and ran over, reaching out and wanting to steal away the toys––Angel Wu Jin and Angel Wei Shi both reached out their little chubby hands, and the three of them turned into a ball of fists and legs everywhere.
Off screen, Wu Jin watched the scene without blinking.
Captain Zoe’s voice seemed to be coming in from a distance, “… According to the current vote statistics, Wei Yan is first, Little Witch is second, and Zuo Botang is third. Contestant Wei, that coquettish man, and I are all close behind. The final vote determines the order for the team formation, but players can express their intentions ahead of time through the voting page…”
“In that case, let’s start with the one with the most votes.”
“Speaking of which, Little Witch, do you want to manage your own Star Blog?”
Wu Jin immediately said that it was fine to hand it over to the company. Based on his own lyric writing skills, he might lose fans if he wrote his own Star Blog posts.
Zoe: “Alright. In that case, I’ll help you pick one at random.”
Wu Jin asked curiously, “Pick what?!”
Zoe: “A red rose, or a white one?”
Wu Jin paused and thought of the champagne rose that the big boss had sent him, “White… a white rose then!”
Zoe sent a message to White Moonlight’s PR team and soon replied, “It’s done.”
The voting page changed slightly.
Angel Wei Shi and Angel Wu Jin had just driven Caesar away and were currently leaning together warmly and fiddling with the pillows––suddenly, Angel Wu Jin stood up. The chibi big boss was stunned and tugged on Wu Jin’s clothes, but Wu Jin insisted on taking away his red heart and striding forward.
The little Angel Wei Shi hurriedly followed behind him, holding up his own red heart, but Wu Jin walked to a female contestant and gave her his own heart with a flourish.
Zoe nodded in satisfaction, “With that, Little Witch’s team formation intention has been set. Next…”
Wu Jin’s eyes were dark, “Wait, wait a minute, can I withdraw it?!”
Zoe glanced at the interface, “There’s no cancel b.u.t.ton!”
At the center of the screen.
Vera, the Azure People’s Entertainment trainee, politely accepted Wu Jin’s little heart.
Wu Jin smoothly inserted himself amongst the fairies.
There was a crack, and Contestant Wei’s red heart broke in half. He looked silently at Wu Jin, then silently went to a corner, borrowing a needle and some thread from Thin Fire to mend his red heart…
Wu Jin was going crazy: Who the h.e.l.l wrote this AI ahhhh!!!
Ten minutes later, the White Moonlight team dispersed. Wu Jin walked out of the dorm building with a heavy heart and light steps, latching on to the Red who had just finished washing up.
Red stuffed him with a lychee.
Wu Jin was caught unprepared, “Wuwuwu––the lychee’s too big––”
Red shook the car key in his hand, “Are we going or not?”
Wu Jin quickly finished off the lychee, “Going, going, going, let’s go right now, I have to explain––”
The suspension car shuttled through the fog.
When Wu Jin arrived at the Floating City military base, the big boss was still having a meeting at the top floor. Zhou Nan, the psychologist who was eating watermelon under the shade of the tree, noticed Wu Jin with a glance and led him back to his office for a follow up consultation.
“Your recovery is going well.” After looking at the instrument printouts, Zhou Nan’s tone was a little emotional.
Wu Jin nodded several times, then vaguely tried to imply that he didn’t have any psychological trauma at all.
Zhou Nan smiled slightly, “The emotional lock isn’t as simple as you think. Back then, several hundreds of people at the R-Code Base were all helpless against it. In other words, everyone’s reaction to the emotional lock is practically the same. Only Little Witch is a special case.”
Wu Jin grew curious.
Zhou Nan pulled out a piece of paper to ill.u.s.trate, “The average person’s psychological endurance is like a water container. The negative emotions are like water that fills up the s.p.a.ce––if there’s too much, it needs to be channeled away, or else it will overflow.”
“In the case of overflow, it manifests in the form of emotional collapse or personality destruction. The only way to prevent the overflow in genetically modified humans is to provide psychological support. There are many ways to do this, such as the MHCC awareness drug commonly used in Floating City, or the Imperial method––binding the genetically modified human to a psychological support.”
“It’s similar to pouring water from one container into another.”
Zhou Nan looked at Wu Jin, “As for Little Witch…” He thought about it, “The water that was poured into the container has disappeared.”
Wu Jin made a blind guess, “The negative emotions were digested?”
Zhou Nan shook his head, “It’s very difficult to digest this kind of artificially transferred emotion, like golden needle mushrooms in hot pot.”
Wu Jin: “……”
Zhou Nan: “Fine, let’s use another example. There are very few ‘enzymes’ in our minds that will break down these emotions. Another possibility is that Little Witch’s emotional capacity is very large, so it doesn’t seem like the water level is rising––but it doesn’t seem like it from a brain volume perspective…”
“……” Wu Jin puffed out his cheeks angrily: My brain capacity is clearly fine! I’m not dumb!
Zhou Nan spread his hands, “There’s one last possible explanation. Little Witch’s emotional container has no inside and outside, no boundary. There’s an infinite surface, so it can never be filled with the water of negative emotions.”
Wu Jin paused, “A Klein bottle.”
A non-directional plane construct proposed by the German mathematician Felix Klein.
Zhou Nan tsked and marveled, “You even know about this. Do you want some watermelon?”
Wu Jin was left stunned by the psychiatrist’s rapid change in topic. A few minutes later, he and Zhou Nan finished splitting up the second half of the watermelon.
“The Klein bottle… it doesn’t exist in three dimensions.” Wu Jin spoke earnestly.
Zhou Nan used a strip of bandage to wipe off the watermelon juice and shook his finger, “The consciousness isn’t three dimensional. For the genetically modified, the most ideal container is a Klein bottle. Enough, go up and find Brother Wei!”
The watermelon-flavored Wu Jin pedaled his feet and went upstairs.
The mist of Floating City shrouded the upper levels of the base tower. Red lurked in the corridor eating lychees, and Mao Dongqing nodded to Wu Jin while Researcher Song waved to him from downstairs.
The door to the top floor was half open.
Wu Jin’s eyes brightened.
Wei Shi caught the rabbit in one stroke and lowered his head for a watermelon-flavored kiss.
“Very sweet.” The big boss evaluated.
Wu Jin was very attentive, “There’s more downstairs!”
Wei Shi: “I’ll eat from here.”
The breeze that blew in was mixed with the fog, moist and dense.
Lips and tongues gently intertwined.
When the two headed downstairs, Wu Jin had one hand on his messy small curls, and the other was holding the big boss’s hand.
Researcher Song made a tsking noise.
Red was currently baring his teeth, “It hurts… a mouth ulcer, how did I get it?!”
Researcher Song: “You ate too many lychees.”
Red was anxious, “I’ll go get some medicine. Big brother, save me some watermelon!”
Mao Dongqing was expressionless, “Go from that direction. Don’t drip watermelon juice on the guinea pig.”
Wei Shi set aside the watermelon after a few bites and took Wu Jin with him to the equipment room.
A small chip was implanted in Wu Jin’s terminal. Wu Jin read through the chip description and found that it held tracking, early warning, intelligent life-saving capsule opening functions, physical examination, self-protection, and many other features. He couldn’t help but lament over how it was even more advanced than White Moonlight’s child loss prevention system.
The big boss looked over the report that the psychologist had just sent over and gestured for Wu Jin to come over, “After your recovery, I’ll tell you about R-Code Base.”
Wu Jin nodded repeatedly.
Besides, he also planned to tell the big boss…
Although it sounded very strange and incredible! However, being the main dancer for a boy group was still a proper job and means of livelihood! There was nothing to be ashamed of!
Exchanging their deepest secrets––Wu Jin touched the chip and giggled foolishly. He was so happy he immediately forgot where he was and what he’d come to do, losing track of time.
After dinner.
Caesar and Wen Lin’s one week of training was coming to an end, and they were about to go to the underground survival show in Azure Cosmos to finish their graduation examination. Wu Jin went back to the training camp to support his teammates.
In Floating City’s military base.
The clues were coming together.
Arjun played back the surveillance video and reported, “The intruder is 29 years old and held an Imperial e-pa.s.sport. They arrived at Azure Cosmos 12 days ago, and entered Floating City the afternoon of the same day…”
Wei Shi looked at the surveillance, then glanced at Mao Dongqing.
“Shao Yu.”
A long time later, Arjun spoke up, “Shao Yu… six years ago, when the R-Code Base was disbanded, he went on to serve in R-Code Entertainment. After that, he defected to the Empire, and now he’s coming back to haunt Brother Wei. What exactly is he after?”
Wei Shi knocked his knuckles against the table, “The emotional lock.”
“He’s looking for a way to unlock it.”
The man raised his gaze, “Did you find what information Shao Yu copied?”
Researcher Song replied immediately, “Shao Yu stole three pieces of information. One was about treatment equipment, one was about the drug use report of the genetically modified in Floating City, and the other one… it’s about the R-Code Base’s emotional lock and the missing ‘key’.”
Juurensha: ….I think WS isn’t going to like the Versailles instance that much.
xiin: i know that me and wiki and google are going to have ongoing, extended dates for this arc…