Chapter Ch65.1 - Cooperation
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
The scrolling comments exploded instantly.
“Little Witch! Little Witch ahhhhh you’re still young, mama won’t allow you to be interested in boys ahhh!!”
“Wait a minute, am I the only one who can’t see the profile image of this player clearly? It’s 360 degrees of high level blurriness––feeling heartache for my Little Witch, this isn’t a bond between the initiator and the viewer, this is a blind snipe!!!”
On the other hand, Ying Xiangxiang wasn’t very surprised, “The Lovers instance has a maximum of fourteen partic.i.p.ants, and Zoe has already been blocked outside by the rules. Judging from the layout of the field, this contestant is Little Witch’s only choice. In that case, let’s take a look at the new contestant’s information––”
She paused abruptly.
Name: Wei Shi
Gender: Male
Trainee level: C
The profile image was so well blurred that it seemed that the photographer’s hand had shaken hard enough to create their own mosaic effect. It could only be vaguely seen that this Contestant Wei had a deep profile that cast clear outlines of light and shadow, and nothing else could be seen.
His height wasn’t filled in, weight was empty, hobbies were empty, s.e.xual orientation was empty… the company background section was a stretch of blankness, and only the words ‘Individual Trainee’ were marked at the bottom of the page.
Fortunately, Ying Xiangxiang responded quickly enough and swiftly steered the topic away, “So, by the third elimination match, the statistics show that there are only three individual trainees left in the Crosson Show…”
On the other hand, she hastened to make a gesture under the table, telling the program team to update the player’s information.
Backstage.
The Crosson Show program producer’s expression was muddled, “We have this person in our show?”
The little editor was also blank, but the intern who was watching the monitors on the other side was able to go through the playback, “Contestant Wei was in the Judgement card instance for the first round, then changed the card to the Chariot card in the second round. In the third round, he blocked White Moonlight’s sniper in order to enter this instance.”
The program producer nodded repeatedly, “His strength isn’t bad. How come he wasn’t on camera previously?”
The little editor faltered, “He rose up from D-level. There are too many contestants willing to pay money for exposure, so there’s no screen time left for those at level D and under––”
The program producer understood, “Oh, there’s no helping that. We have to give priority to the people who pay. See, he’s able to remain until the third match despite not putting in money. If he’s good, he’ll naturally shik2026;nek2026;”
The program producer suddenly stopped talking and stared at the screen, then slapped his thigh. He really wanted to grab his subordinates and personally give them orders, “This face, look at this face! We should’ve given him screen time even from the first episode, and we could’ve pulled a couple more endors.e.m.e.nt fees! Hey, how do you guys judge people? You ignore the good looking ones in front of you and try to fool the audience with subpar goods? Hey?”
The Crosson Show, ‘The Lovers’ tarot card instance.
The lights came on, and the contestant descended from the preparation area. Then the camera swept over Wei Shi, and there was a moment of silence outside the arena, followed by a burst of activity in the scrolling comments––
“Wait a minute, this little brother is a little handsome.”, “My G.o.d, who’s this?? How come I didn’t see him in the contestant list earlier?”, “This is the new person who just came!”, “The newcomer is Li, Little Witch’s partner? I’m suddenly excited!”
In the screen, the man’s facial features were cold and indifferent, his body strong and powerful. He was fully equipped with goggles, a sniper rifle, shotgun, bulletproof vest, and bayonet. Beneath the goggles, the bridge of his nose was high and cast sharp shadows, and the lines of his face were cold and hard as his gaze swept across the lens. The pupils that were a dark brown through the goggles were dark and opaque, and his deterring aura penetrated through the lens as he stood there.
This was the complete opposite feeling from Wu Jin; this was a character who took aggression to the extreme.
The live broadcast room was buzzing with activity, and the excitement was practically pushed to the highest peak when the camera shifted to the side.
Wu Jin’s head was tilted sideways slightly, and he was currently looking in Wei Shi’s direction.
At this time, in the Lovers instance, everyone including the Jingyi double c had already gotten together with their teammates in accordance with the rules. They encouraged each other if they were already familiar or introduced themselves if they were strangers.
Looking back at Wu Jin, when the two people’s gazes collided, amber pupils flashed, causing the man to unhesitatingly pull out a gun––
The audience, host, and program producer all sucked in a cold breath: … My G.o.d! What kind of G.o.dly development was this?!
Just when everyone thought that Wei Shi was about to perform ‘domestic violence’ and kill Wu Jin in order to obtain a few easy points, the youth reached out quickly––and delightedly accepted the shotgun that the big boss had tossed over, very naturally switching out and replacing his submachine gun with it.
In the studio, Ying Xiangxiang’s control over her facial expression almost collapsed, and it took her a second to regain her senses. Blood Pigeon who was beside her immediately spoke up to smooth out the awkwardness, “I believe that everyone knows this, but in a 100 meter wide instance, as soon as one nears their opponent, a shotgun becomes the best weapon of choice. Now, for the configuration of each team…”
At the same time, the comments in the live broadcast room had already exploded.
“He wasn’t drawing his gun? He was tossing it over? I didn’t see wrong?”
“His expression is so cold––if I was Little Witch, I would’ve been scared off a long time ago, oh, no, I would’ve counterattacked! Wait a minute, how come Little Witch knew that he was giving him a gun? I saw that he didn’t even try to dodge at all?”
“I don’t know… how did they communicate just now? Brain waves??”
In the screen, Wu Jin had finished setting up his gear. He paused slightly when he was about to lift his head up to look at the big boss.
A large number of cameras are swarming around, from the front and back, left and right.
The Lovers instance had a significantly higher camera density than other instances. The program team was well-prepared––it seemed that even after a thousand years, the public interest in cinematic entertainment was still easy to guess.
Wu Jin was instantly cautious. Even if he really wanted to celebrate, his reason reminded him to be very restrained so that he didn’t cause big brother any trouble.
One of them lived in the South Tower, while the other lived in the North Tower. They had also never interacted before in the program.
A familiarity that crossed borders would trigger the fans’ powerful curiosity and stimulate their ability to dig for gossip.
Wu Jin looked up, his round pupils shining as they stared into the brown goggles.The polarizing layer of protection stripped away the deep darkness in the depths of the man’s eyes, making it seem as though they held a warm glow.
In their ears, there was the sound of the pair of players closest to them still breaking the ice, exchanging names, and reporting their affiliation to each other before reaching an agreement.
In the camera screen, Wu Jin finally opened his mouth, speaking in the clear and bright voice of a youth. Due to his prudence, he regained some of the handsome aura he’d had during the earlier gunfight, but there was no way for him to be completely solemn.
The youth raised his small round face and held out his right hand, “h.e.l.lo, my name is Wu Jin.”
The cold lines of the man’s face seemed to soften slightly, “Wei Shi.”
Exchanging handshakes was etiquette that originated from the slash and burn era. Strangers would let others touch their palm in order to show that they had no weapons in their hands.
Dry and hot, the callused right hand stretched out to Wu Jin. The small curls shifted in the breeze the moment that their skin touched.
It was like he’d been suddenly stuffed with a milk candy; he was obviously so happy he couldn’t hold it, yet he had to pretend not to know each other. Wu Jin seemed to want to laugh, the corner of his lips twitching before his small round face immediately turned serious, then twitching again, and turning serious again.
He was so full of excitement that he couldn’t suppress it even when he tried. It was like stacking up rabbit b.a.l.l.s on soft and fragrant spring gra.s.s; one rabbit, two rabbits, three rabbits, until they couldn’t be piled up anymore and tumbled down to roll everywhere.
Wei Shi glanced at Wu Jin who stood there foolishly happy with his back to the camera, and rubbed his hand against the youth’s damp, soft palm before retracting his hand.
The friendly introduction between the two men was caught by the camera, and other than some alert girls who caught onto every detail like a microscope, the others were still immersed in the discussion of ‘starting with a shot or sending over a gun’ and couldn’t extricate themselves.
In the middle of the instance, in mid-air, the angel’s smile was shallow as a scoreboard slowly opened up in the empty s.p.a.ce––the Lovers instance had just begun!
At this moment, in Azure Cosmos, Floating City.
Arjun, who was currently fighting with the black cat, suddenly looked up at the virtual projection screen, “Bro, bro, brother Wei?!”
The black cat seized the opportunity and lifted its paws to swipe them across his face, but was taken by surprise when Arjun pressed it down headfirst into the sofa.
The s.p.a.cious room held Floating City’s two law enforcement officers, the chief researcher, the first royal cat, and the most distinguished guinea pig in the city. The Crosson Show live broadcast that took place once every two weeks was a must-see for these few people.
After facing the cat and hollering for a while, Arjun finally realized that he was the only one in the room who’d been given a scare.
On the other side of the sofa, Researcher Song, the chief researcher of Floating City’s laboratory, took a sip of tea and looked relieved, “He has to make his debut sooner or later. Showing up on the camera earlier is a good thing.”
“At the time, when I advised Brother Wei to partic.i.p.ate in the Crosson Show, the original intention was to allow him to learn how to integrate into society with a new ident.i.ty and express his feelings in a collective environment. He could also go and pick up two debut spots so that we can make a battle team and boost the economy… I didn’t think that this man would end up either cutting cla.s.s or avoiding the camera.”
Researcher Song took another look at the screen, “But now it’s different. Actively revealing himself to the camera is a manifestation of the effectiveness of the treatment plan and is the result of the entire body of research work done under my leadership.”
Arjun: “… This isn’t actively going on camera. Brother Wei is just showing his face for Little Witch’s sake. What’s that called, making an oath of sovereignty––”
The black cat jumped up and down. Seeing that it was about to hit the guinea’s roller toy, the law enforcement officer Mao Dongqing suddenly reached out to toss the black cat back at Arjun.
On the virtual screen, the first skirmish had just broken out.
xiin: brain waves!!!
WS’s brain wave: ‘Take the gun (and my heart with it)’, WJ receives: “Little follower, take the gun and don’t let me down.”