Chapter 172: Battle in Shanghai!
Chapter 172 – Battle in Beijing!
In the sunny Si Racha, Chen Yu stood before the Interstellar Portal. Swiping his finger across his watch, he entered the private message interface.
“First, the bullet comment group’s Past Memories.”
Extending his hand toward the Interstellar Portal’s interface, he established a spatial link to the given address.
The next moment, s.p.a.ce warped, and a hall with a broken ceiling appeared in the portal.
Poking his head through the portal, Chen Yu looked around before asking, “Huh? Where’s the guy?”
“Over here.” A middle-aged man in a white shirt trotted forward. After arriving before Chen Yu, he pushed against his gla.s.ses as he suppressed his excitement. “h.e.l.lo, h.e.l.lo, I’m Past Memories.”
“Your house is broken,” Chen Yu said as he pointed at the ceiling the metal arch was poking through. “Will it be a problem?”
“I-It’s fine…”
“Come on over, then,” Chen Yu said as he hooked his finger at the middle-aged man. He then faced the camera and sternly said, “I’ll use this opportunity to say it now, but please do not set your address to be inside your house unless your ceiling is over five meters high. Otherwise, it’s going to get destroyed by the portal’s appearance.
“Well then, let’s continue. Next up is Kuaishou platform’s One’s Origin.”
After Chen Yu successfully connected to the provided address, a young man excitedly leaped through the portal and hugged him while shouting, “Amazing! Host, you’re the ruler of the world!”
“Calm. Calm down.”
“Ahhh! I finally get to see you in person!”
His patience growing thin, Chen Yu grabbed the young man’s shoulders and pushed him away. He then sternly asked, “Do you want me to replace you?”
“No! You can’t!” The youth’s eyes widened as he fervently shook his head.
“Calm down, then.”
“OK!”
“Stand together with the other partic.i.p.ant.”
“OK!”
The youth hurriedly ran up to the middle-aged man and shook hands with the latter. He then looked toward the distant little peach, gulped, and approached her with his phone in hand.
“P-Pretty Lady.”
“What?” Little Peach turned toward the young man skeptically.
“You’re my i-idol. Can you take a picture with me?” the youth asked expectantly.
Straightening her mask, Little Peach tilted her head and asked, “What’s an idol?”
“I-It means I’ve always liked you.”
“You like me?” Little Peach was surprised.
“You can’t like me!” Little Peach interrupted the young man’s words while also sending a punch at the latter’s chest.
Thump!
“Pfft—”
The youth flew three meters across the air and landed on the ground with foam coming out of his mouth…
When Chen Yu, who was manipulating the Interstellar Portal, heard the commotion and looked over, he couldn’t help but be startled. “What the? What are you doing?”
“H-He…” Abashedly stomping her foot, Little Peach pointed at the foaming youth and shouted, “He tried to steal me from you!”
Chen Yu: “…”
After setting the camera to follow him, Chen Yu approached the youth. He then picked up the stick and poked the youth, asking, “Hey, you still alive, brother?”
“Guh… Uh…”
“Hah…” Sighing, Chen Yu extended his hand and closed the youth’s eyelids. “You were alive and healthy, so why did you have to provoke her?”
“Guh…”
Picking up the youth, Chen Yu approached the portal and established a spatial link to the entrance of Beijing’s Veteran Hospital. He then looked toward the camera and asked, “Is there anybody in the hospital watching the stream? Please come and save him.”
Shortly after Chen Yu said so, the Veteran Hospital entrance abruptly opened, and an emergency rescue team rushed out from the building. There were also many armed soldiers tagging along with the rescue team.
“G-Greetings, Mr. King.”
“h.e.l.lo. I’ll leave him in your hands,” Chen Yu said as he walked through the portal and placed the unconscious youth on the stretcher. He then asked, “How’s his condition? Is he in danger?”
After a middle-aged doctor inspected the youth for half a minute, the doctor shook his head.
“Is he beyond saving?” Chen Yu was surprised.
“I mean, he’s fine.”
“…Are you a new arrival?”
“That’s right.”
“I’m guessing you’ll last a year at most in this Veteran Hospital,” Chen Yu complained. He then scanned around and hooked his finger at a healthy soldier. “Brother, I’m missing a person. You’ll make up for it.”
“M-Me?!” The soldier pointed at himself in disbelief.
“Yes. Pa.s.s your gun to someone and come in.”
While leading the stunned soldier toward the Interstellar Portal, Chen Yu explained to the camera, “One of the partic.i.p.ants got injured, so I got a replacement. I hope everyone doesn’t mind this little detail.”
[Be reasonable! Shouldn’t you choose from the bullet comment section if you’re missing a person?]
[We won’t get chosen anyway, so why waste time?]
[You actually let Sony partic.i.p.ate in testing a Nintendo product. UP, you’re really wild.]
[I wish to know what that guy said to the female a.s.sistant.]
[A one-hit kill. How pitiful, lolol.]
Three minutes later, the other two members of the bullet comment group also arrived on the scene. Chen Yu then started teleporting the donation group’s partic.i.p.ants.
“First, Bilibili’s Sony.”
Once the spatial link was established, Sony’s representative, dressed in a suit, walked through the portal and made a 90-degree bow to Chen Yu. “It is a great honor! On behalf of Sony Technology, I thank you for choosing us.”
“Let me ask you a question.” Picking up the metal console, Chen Yu pointed at the logo on it and asked, “What do you think of your rival’s product?”
As if having prepared for this question beforehand, Sony’s representative moderately answered, “Nintendo is an excellent company. I hope to learn the advanced game concepts used in this console and contribute to the industry’s development.”
“How boring. Can’t you say something like ‘Nintendo is trash, Sony is the best’?”
“Y-You jest…”
“Fine. Stand aside.”
After chasing Sony’s representative away, Chen Yu continued with teleporting Disney’s, the Turing Jury’s, and the Huabai Bank’s representatives.
“Now, the bullet comment group, stand to my left; the donation group, stand to my right. Show your faces to our two million viewers.”
Everyone immediately split into two groups.
Afterward, Chen Yu looked toward Little Peach and asked, “Which group do you want to join?”
“This one!” Little Peach pointed at the bullet comment group.
“Why?”
“Because it’s closer to me.” After saying so, Little Peach stepped toward the bullet comment group and eagerly asked, “Can we start the game now?”
“I’ll be in the donation group, then.”
After joining the donation group, Chen Yu faced the camera and said, “As everyone can see, the battle will be five versus five. The bullet comment group will face off against the donation group. We’ll evaluate the product in detail during the game.”
Chen Yu bent down and pulled open 10 of the drawers on the metal cube after saying so. Taking the lead, he picked up a blue bodysuit and wore it.
Poof!
A puff of seemingly real white smoke exploded around Chen Yu. When the smoke dissipated, Chen Yu had become a chubby, big-headed chibi version of himself. There were also two blue guns hanging around his waist.
“How cute!” Little Peach cried out in surprise. Immediately, she stepped forward to grab a blue bodysuit as well.
“Wrong. You’re in the bullet comment group. Put on the red one.”
“Oh.” Little Peach grabbed a red bodysuit and swiftly put it on.
Poof!
White smoke similarly exploded from the red bodysuit. When the smoke dissipated, Little Peach had transformed into a big-headed chibi character wearing a red cheongsam. Meanwhile, her weapon was a red submachine gun.
[How cute!]
[This old man’s heart just exploded.]
[What scientific principles does this console operate on? Any experts care to explain?]
[It should still be a virtual projection. The players’ real body is still there, but their appearance has been modified using light.]
[Surely, there’s more than that.]
[This is so interesting! Future people really know how to have fun.]
Raising the submachine gun, Little Peach pointed the nozzle at the sky and pulled the trigger.
Takka! Takka! Takka!
Three streaks of red paint shot out of the nozzle and arced across the air before landing on the ground with a splatter.
“Haha! This is fun!” Little Peach jumped up in excitement. She then aimed her gun at Chen Yu.
“Don’t! We’re opponents. I’ll die if you fire.” Chen Yu hurriedly stopped Little Peach. He then tried touching his own body and the red paint on the ground, discovering that both felt real to the touch.
“This game is…quite something.”
Taking a step back, Chen Yu pointed at the remaining eight drawers and said, “Start putting on the suit. One each. We’ll start the game once you’re done.”
Hearing this, the eight partic.i.p.ants immediately stepped forward.
The bullet comment group’s four partic.i.p.ants put on their bodysuits as soon as they grabbed them. In contrast, the donation group’s four partic.i.p.ants only put theirs on after carefully observing the clothing for a while.
Poof!
Poof, poof, poof…
As the white smoke dissipated, all 10 people present had transformed into chibi versions of themselves. The scene looked very much like something found in anime and manga…
“Now that everyone’s geared up, let’s choose the venue and start a paint war!”
…
…
Five minutes later, in China’s Beijing…
In a pedestrian street with high foot traffic, a five-meter-tall and three-meter-wide metal arch suddenly appeared out of thin air.
Immediately afterward, under the stunned gaze of many pa.s.sersby, animated characters started running out of the arch one after another…