Chapter Ch201.1 - Execution
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
15.
The scarlet, handwritten Arabic numerals were written with thick paint that had obviously been painted on in a frantic manner. The last stroke of the ‘5’ was long and winded downwards. The visual impact was shocking.
The training room was dead silent––
Wu Jin abruptly turned back.
The trainees stood in distinct groups. In the dim lighting, tense veins bulged on their foreheads, and their faces were shocked and pale. Starting from Silver Armor and counting on, 1, 2, 3…
15.
Wu Ji’s breath caught briefly.
There were only 15 people in the training room.
The trainee who’d disappeared was a middling ranked trainee. His name was ‘Lin Qingshan’. Wu Jin didn’t have much of an impression of him and only remembered that he was one of the trainees in the large group that followed Leica. Wu Jin narrowed his eyes slightly as his gaze swept across everyone at the scene.
Leica’s expression was as heavy as water, and the ‘supporters’ behind him who’d felt that they would be safe and secure by grouping together looked even worse. Silver Armor looked silently at the words on the wall, his lips pressed tightly together.
Wu Jin’s three ‘roommates’ stood at the back of the crowd. The leader of this new small group was a trainee named ‘w.a.n.g Shu’ who was near the bottom of the rankings. w.a.n.g Shu was currently also observing the subtle expressions on everyone’s faces carefully.
Wu Jin and w.a.n.g Shu’s gazes gently overlapped, then soon separated.
Finally, there was Nicholas. The mouth of this beautiful waste was agape from fright, and after the collapse of his expression management, he looked both unattractive and useless.
Wu Jin’s gaze lingered on Nicholas for two seconds. Finally, someone spoke up in the silent training room.
Leica spoke coldly, “Where is Lin Qingshan.”
16 people had dropped to 15, and the wrist watch had prompted that one person had been eliminated. The answer was just around the corner. For a moment, countless pairs of eyes gathered on Leica.
It was in line with Wu Jin’s conjecture. The first who would take the initiative to speak would be Leica.
There weren’t many commander position players amongst the trainees, but their survival depended on the support of their allies, their strategies, and the protection of other trainees. Leica was one such person. Lin Qingshan, who’d originally belonged to the ‘Leica faction’, was the first one to be eliminated, which was about tantamount to a public slap to his face.
No one in the training room answered him.
Leica waited for a skillful pause and then spoke again, “Let’s change questions. Just now, when that contestant was eliminated, which is, when the watch vibrated, what were all of you doing?”
“In order to set an example, I’ll go first.”
At this time, the dignified and heavy atmosphere in the training room finally lightened up slightly. There were many trainees who followed Leica. After the rap training just now, most of them claimed to have been wandering around the training room––even though Wu Jin didn’t believe it. However, they all had companions who supported each other.
After that came Wu Jin and Nicholas. Wu Jin spoke concisely, “We went in the direction of the playground.”
Rap Cla.s.s 2 was located in the southeast corner of the entire factory camp. The direction of the playground was where the canteen and the other cla.s.ses were. They couldn’t be blamed for exploring the map.
As for Nicholas, neither Silver Armor nor Leica cared about Nicholas. This person seemed to be famous for doing nothing in the Stardust Cup training group. He could easily be recognized even without a mask.
This detail and Nicholas’s account of his whereabouts mutually corroborated. In the Stardust Cup, the existence of the k2018;wild card teams’ was required by the Star Alliance for the sake of k2018;political correctness’. As for the wild card team players themselves, as k2018;compet.i.tion diplomats’, they were basically super weak.
Then, there were Wu Jin’s three roommates.
Finally, there was Silver Armor. The player only said two words, ‘map searching’. Silver Armor had always been proud and acted like reporting what he was doing was an act of charity.
As expected, Leica’s brows twisted together.
After going round, everyone was in a state of ‘not knowing where Lin Qingshan had gone’, and ‘they had all been doing their own thing when the incident happened’.
Silver Armor was the only one who’d been on his own.
Leica turned to Silver Armor, “Well, can anyone provide an alibi for you?”
The atmosphere in the training room suddenly cooled down.
Leica’s tone was gentle, and his words seemed to be disguised as a routine question. Unsurprisingly, Silver Armor remained cold and distant. The arrogant trainee looked around, his gaze stopping on Leica.
Silver Armor spoke coldly, “No. I’m not used to spending time with the weak.”
Wu Jin’s eyes widened imperceptibly. He quickly pressed down the feeling of having gossip to watch. This sentence was like a sudden spark, and Leica’s expression twisted further. Silver Armor raised his chin and looked away, towards the ‘15’ on the wall. It seemed that Leica wasn’t worth his attention, and his real opponent could only be found on the wall.
Leica quickly adjusted his mood, “Do you think that you’re the King of Hearts?”
Silver Armor sneered, “You’re scared of the King of Hearts?”
Leica asked again, “I still have a question, who was the last to leave the training room? Was it… you.”
Seeing that the two were about to quarrel, Wu Jin finally jumped out of the crowd and broke the stalemate. He asked Leica modestly, “About that… is it possible that trainees from other cla.s.ses made a move?”
However, Wu Jin was just a little transparent n.o.body ranked 97th. His aura was weak, and his extroversion was low, so he was soon ignored by the two of them. Only w.a.n.g Shu and Nicholas looked at Wu Jin a few more times, and Nicholas explained kindly to Wu Jin, “Brother w.a.n.g, our cla.s.s dormitories are so far apart. The King of Hearts probably didn’t specifically run over just to attack…”
Wu Jin: “……” This compet.i.tion n.o.body was already quivering like this, yet didn’t forget to name the King of Hearts with respect. Was this a special tribute to the King of Hearts who might be hidden in the crowd?
In the middle of the crowd, Leica continued to control the stage, refusing to let off Silver Armor who didn’t have a witness. Silver Armor remained silent at first, then suddenly went over to Leica––
Leica’s pupils contracted, and his muscles tensed up slightly. He was ready to defend and counter attack.
However, Silver Armor bypa.s.sed Leica and went straight to the white walls.
14 pairs of eyes swept over to look at Silver Armor.
Most of the crowd were gaping in amazement, and n.o.body knew what he planned to do. What Silver Armor did was to dip his hand into the red paint and swipe it across the wall.
The blood red number ‘15’ was wiped away by Silver Armor. n.o.body could see his expression clearly.
Then, the male trainee turned back coldly. The red paint dripping from his right hand made him seem like a sinister figure, like a demon with his hands covered in blood.
The wall was now red, and there were no more numbers.
Silver Armor enunciated every word, “It’s just some characters on the wall, yet you guys are already this scared?”
“Are you guys scared of the King of Hearts?”
Silver Armor sneered, “How unfortunate. I’m not scared.”
The training room seemed to have been hit by a huge block of ice that suddenly shattered apart, bursting into numerous panicked whispers.
On Wu Jin’s side, Nicholas burst into swearing out of fear.
This guy practically glued himself to Wu Jin, “Brother w.a.n.g, it’s over! This is a rule that the King of Hearts set. The King doesn’t like people who don’t follow the rules. Silver Armor is done for…”
Wu Jin could feel his brain swelling in confusion from all the noise, “How do you know that it’s the King of Hearts––”
Nicholas wanted to cry but had no tears, “Who else could it be! Say, what can I do to make the King overlook me?”
The confrontation in the training room finally broke up. Wu Jin fell to the back of the group, wandering around and not letting go of even the smallest detail.
From the time when the players left the training room one after another, to the first time the wrist watch had vibrated and the 100 people had changed to 99, there had been over half an hour of unaccounted for time in which anything could have happened.
Wu Jin lowered his gaze and calculated silently.
Half an hour. If someone made their way from other training rooms across the camp, it would leave them no more than 7 minutes to kill anyone. It absolutely wasn’t enough time for them to find a specific target and make a move. Most likely, the suspect ‘killer’ King of Hearts was lurking in Rap Cla.s.s 2––
Wu Jin’s steps paused suddenly.
The moonlight penetrated through the corridor. Silver Armor stood at the corner of the corridor up ahead.
There hadn’t been much communication between the two people. At most, Wu Jin had interrupted his speech in the training room, but that was purely due to Leica’s poor control over the scene.
Nicholas also stopped his steps, waiting for w.a.n.g Ping’s orders.
Silver Armor glanced at Wu Jin and suddenly spoke up, “Hey.”
Their gazes met. Silver Armor’s eyes held a sense of exploration, and Wu Jin finally figured out that Silver Armor seemed to be looking for an ally. However, this person’s method of looking for allies also seemed like he was offering charity.
“I’m not afraid of the King of Hearts.” While Wu Jin was still trying to figure out whether Silver Armor wanted to form an alliance or not, the trainee spoke up slowly, his voice carrying a strange, yet remarkable ambition, “Because everything that the King of Hearts has isn’t the fruit of his own efforts.”
Wu Jin was surprised, “Then, he…”
“His reputation is false, and his position was given to him by his team’s seniors. His fame has been raised up by the entertainment company, and his combat style is hyped up by the media. He didn’t have to put in any effort in order to occupy the c-position that most professional players can’t even imagine in their entire lifetime.” Silver Armor spoke slowly, his tone sarcastic.
“I will beat him.”
“It’s very important to me.”
Silver Armor nodded precisely to Wu Jin and turned to leave.
Wu Jin stayed where he was, and the scene from the Stardust Cup that he’d watched with the big boss suddenly flashed in his mind. When the contestants entered the arena, the commentators had been giving them brief introductions.
––This was the King of Hearts, the most talented rookie in the Empire!! The new star of the future!
––As for this one, he’s an anonymous trainee who has been training for 11 years. I don’t know why he’s still a trainee either, hahaha….
Some people’s path forward was star studded, while others were still working desperately for their debut.
However, Wu Jin didn’t have enough time to lament when Nicholas began howling from beside him, “It’s over, it’s over. Brother w.a.n.g, we can’t get too close to him. This person has offended the King, he’s offended the King…”
Wu Jin reprimanded him, “Shut up!”
Nicholas was suddenly as quiet as a chicken.
Before the bedroom lights went out, Wu Jin took Nicholas to the cameras to suck some blood.
‘Grand’ seemed to be the term that described the King of Hearts’s exaggerated killing style, but it didn’t fit with any of the 15 remaining players in Rap Cla.s.s 2.
On their way back to the dorms, Nicholas chattered the entire time. Wu Jin even felt that the role of ‘Nicholas from a wild card team’ was one that made any player sneer, a big fool that made others easily set down their guard.
If the King of Hearts wanted to camouflage himself, then picking this ‘Nicholas’ as a cover really wasn’t out of the question––
Ten minutes later, Nicholas realized in horror, “Bro-bro-bro-brother w.a.n.g, you can’t be doubting me, right?! Just now, I was with you the whole time, Brother w.a.n.g, Brother w.a.n.g, we agreed to be like father and son. You can’t leave me alone like an orphan contestant…”
Wu Jin couldn’t help being annoyed, “Go back and sleep, go back and sleep!”
‘Nicholas’ could be faked, but muscle reactions couldn’t be faked. At the start, Nicholas had really proven that he was a weakling, and his muscles had obvious signs of protein powder enhancement.
Muscles that were formed from actual combat were different from those that came from fitness training.
Wu Jin felt that if he really couldn’t tell the difference, then he would’ve been spending so much time sleeping in the big boss’s bed for nothing!
The dormitories were also divided into different cla.s.ses depending on the players’ rankings.
Nicholas and Silver Armor could lock their single rooms from the inside, and the bedroom was s.p.a.cious and bright, with black s.e.xy pajamas, slippers, cosmetics, and skin care products––
Wu Jin understood the inside story for this. A viewer might think that the picture of an unaware sleeping contestant captured in the talent show might be a real shot of a contestant who’d been in bed for several hours, but in reality, said contestant had found the perfect angle, put on CC cream, painted their eyebrows, and washed up their pillowcases…
Finally, there were the four person dorms for the lower tiers.
When they parted, Nicholas was very reluctant and concerned for his life. Wu Jin tossed the sentence ‘lock the door’ at him, and finally, under Nicholas’s strong begging, the two of them established a remote contact method.
Nicholas’s single bedroom had a good view that overlooked two paths outside the building, allowing him to collect first hand information. It could occasionally come in handy.
Wu Jin waved his hand, went back to his dorm, then quickly got to work.
A tiny thread was wound between the bed column and the gap in the cabinet door, and inconspicuous metal parts were hung up on ropes. Finally, he took out a stack of newspapers from the training room.
Wu Jin folded up the paper loosely, leaving plenty of s.p.a.ce, and covered every inch of the area beneath the bed. As soon as anyone approached and stepped on the paper, it would immediately make a sound––
On the bed across from him, the un.o.btrusive trainee w.a.n.g Shu was laying out traps in an equally crazy manner.
The two trainees to the side were dumbfounded, then suddenly saw the light and learned to do the same.