Chapter 39#
After a few seconds of blankness, the barrage on the electronic screen erupted into pure frenzy.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“So beautiful, so beautiful, so beautiful—I can’t breathe!”
“How can someone be this good-looking? Are my eyes even working right now?”
“Trembling hands; I made several typos just sending this.”
“Am I the only one curious whether he’s human or a Blue Star human?”
“He’s human, right? He doesn’t have any Blue Star traits.”
“Maybe someone knows the prototype for the Flower Spirit Saint statue? The Flower Spirit Saint didn’t have any obvious non-human traits either, but her beauty was the ultimate non-human feature!”
“I feel like this guy is even more beautiful than the Flower Spirit Saint…”
“I think he’s a Blue Star human with a charm ability. The moment I saw him, I was completely sucked in. Who else feels this?!”
“Is that person in front talking nonsense? What does ‘beauty is the ultimate non-human feature’ mean? Like we humans can’t be good-looking?”
“Exactly. You talk down to us Earthlings, but your high-level Blue Stars all look exactly like humans.”
“Come on, stop arguing. Want your accounts banned again?”
“Tsk, the contestants are in for a treat.”
“What a waste! Why send a beauty like that to those animals?”
…
Meanwhile, contestants farther from Central Lake were cursing as they jabbed at their electronic tablets: “Damn it, how do I turn off the barrage?! It’s blocking everything! I can’t see a thing!”
At the same time, in Studio 3 of the F101 production team.
Yulis watched the high-definition image on the big screen and let out a soft tsk.
Not bad, huh.
As expected of the Earth Spirit clan—born with a beauty that unifies global aesthetics.
“Slap!”
The door was shoved open, and the head director walked over, stunned: “Yulis, is this the mysterious gift you sponsored?!”
Yulis: “Yeah? What’s the problem?”
Head director: “But this doesn’t match the photo you showed me last week! The person in the photo looked completely different!”
Yulis shrugged: “Photoshopped a little—that’s normal, right?”
Head director: “…”
Little?! This is a world of difference!
And who in the world would PS a beauty to make them uglier?!
Yulis: “What? Don’t you think he’s good-looking?”
It wasn’t that he wasn’t good-looking—he was too good-looking.
A perfect masterpiece of the gods like this should be made into a top star, or “offered” to the upper echelons. Instead, he was thrown into a dangerous game like this, fought over by a bunch of desperate outlaws, and might not even survive three days… Just like some of the barrage comments said—wasn’t this a waste?!
Yulis had started as a small star himself and knew the industry well. How could he not understand?!
Before the head director could speak, the assistant burst in frantically: “Director, Director Zhang and Chairman Wang are both on the phone, asking where you found that beauty… How could you not inform them about something this big in advance?”
The head director immediately took the phone and walked out with a sycophantic smile.
In the studio, countless screens displayed Luo Mingshan’s face from every angle without blind spots. Yulis walked up and manually adjusted the lens.
Soon, among the dazed, spellbound contestants, he found F101’s face—full of hostility, as if he wanted to destroy the world.
Wow, that doesn’t look good.
Yulis raised an eyebrow and silently mourned for that beautiful Earth Spirit.
Two days ago.
Yulis had gone through great trouble to find Luo Mingshan, hoping to connect with the mysterious Earth Spirit clan through him, but Luo Mingshan had treated him poorly.
Just when Yulis thought he might return empty-handed, Luo Mingshan suddenly said: “You just said you’re one of the investors in the F101 program?”
Yulis felt a glimmer of hope but feared Luo Mingshan would ask for something beyond his ability, so he preemptively warned him: “Yes, but I’m just a minor investor. If you want me to get your F101 out… that might be difficult for me. I don’t really have much say in this show. All I did was sponsor a beauty—the mysterious gift in the android mission…”
“You sponsored a beauty for the program…” Luo Mingshan slowly repeated.
Yulis: “What? Is there a problem?”
For a moment, Yulis thought Luo Mingshan was about to criticize the act of selling humans like goods, but instead Luo Mingshan said: “Replace it with me.”
Yulis was so shocked he almost lost his voice, but no matter how much he asked, Luo Mingshan wouldn’t tell him why.
In the end, Luo Mingshan asked for the latest arrival time and left.
But now, watching the high-definition surveillance footage—how Luo Mingshan had found F101 in the sea of people at a glance, with eyes full of longing, yearning, and tension, and seeing Zhao Xing’s barely contained rage as he paced in circles—Yulis finally seemed to understand something.
Zhao Xing was about to explode.
And that anger reached its peak when the broadcast gave a detailed explanation of the “mysterious gift,” specifically noting that “this gift has volunteered to come to the island.”
Volunteered! Volunteered my ass!!!
Luo Mingshan, you idiot—why didn’t you stay underground?!
Why did you make yourself look like this?!
Why didn’t you protect yourself, letting yourself be locked in a cage like a sex slave?!
And these contestants on the island—they’re all idiots too!
How can they all be so horny and desperate, drooling over someone else’s property like dogs?!
Damn it!
Zhao Xing’s bones nearly snapped from his clenched fist. He tried to control his emotions, turning around once, but after two steps, he couldn’t help kicking an electronic board that was covered in barrage comments fantasizing about Luo Mingshan.
—Fuck!
When the broadcast ended, the other contestants erupted.
The first to move were the Tianhe Group members near Central Lake.
That D-group guy with the ferocious face grinned defiantly against his group leader’s orders and swung his knife at one of the ten “suspects.”
Chaos broke out as the ten suspects scattered.
Gu Xiaoxi stared at Luo Mingshan in shock, but D003, who was holding him, threw him to the ground and fired a shot into the air.
Even so, he couldn’t stop the chaos.
D003 glanced at Luo Mingshan, then at his disobedient teammates, and finally kicked over his chair and joined the fray with a dark expression.
An excited woman watched from the sidelines, and seizing the chance, grabbed a surveillance ball and shouted: “The android is B074!”
Electronic board: “Beep! C047 answered incorrectly, minus 10 points.”
But losing 10 points didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits; instead, some were eager to join the bet.
After all, three of the ten suspects had already had their fingers cut off, two had started attacking others, and one had been eliminated—leaving a one-in-four chance of getting it right.
Even though he was shaking with rage and wanted to kill, Zhao Xing gritted his teeth, swallowed his anger, and didn’t waste a second raising his True Leaf—
Nothing.
The remaining four were all normal humans and Blue Star humans.
No chips in their heads, no wires, no metal.
Damn it!
Zhao Xing couldn’t control his emotions anymore and punched the tree in front of him!
At that moment, Zhao Xing could barely process his feelings. His hands and feet were ice-cold, his heart stopped for a beat, but his mind was burning with a violent urge to kill.
Holding the True Leaf in one hand, Zhao Xing stood up, walked out of the bushes that had perfectly concealed him, and quickly scanned everyone present.
Nothing, nothing, nothing…
There were over a hundred contestants gathered, but none of them were androids.
Meanwhile, the ten suspects that the Tianhe Group had gone to great lengths to capture were being eliminated one by one. The situation grew even more chaotic, with curses ringing out incessantly.
Gunfire erupted from all directions, smoke bombs went off one after another. Blue Star humans used their abilities, ground humans raised their weapons—the fragile peace and cooperation shattered, and long-suppressed conflicts were ignited by a single fuse.
More people tried to flee the battlefield, scattering everywhere.
A Blue Star human from the Feather Tribe flapped his wings in panic as he flew over Zhao Xing’s head, only to be brutally grabbed down by him.
Zhao Xing’s face was dark, his movements rough.
He held a gun to the feather tribe member’s head with his left hand, took out the ability fruit the Flower Spirit had given him with his right, cracked it open with one hand, ate half, and forced the other half into the feather tribe member’s mouth, pinching his jaw to make him chew.
One minute later.
Zhao Xing gained the ability to fly for one hour.
Wings sprouted from his shoulder blades, and in that instant, something seemed to tear through his flesh. Zhao Xing grunted but didn’t sit down for even a second to rest. Instead, he flapped his wings and soared into the sky.
Zhao Xing flew low over the island at top speed.
From stumbling and crashing to mastering the skill and dodging nimbly.
He held the True Leaf in his left hand and a gun in his right, searching every contestant who hadn’t been checked with the True Leaf—even those who had been mutilated, male or female slaves, he didn’t miss a single one.
Eliminated the 274th person.
Eliminated the 365th person.
Eliminated the 408th person.
Eliminated the 579th person.
Eliminated…
—Found it.
With 57 minutes of the True Leaf already used and only three minutes left before it expired, Zhao Xing finally found the android: 20 cm tall, with a pair of wings, holding a task card it had picked up and darting through the flowers to complete low-scoring tasks.
Zhao Xing didn’t hesitate. His gaze locked onto its number, and he grabbed a surveillance ball: “The android is B077.”
The broadcast sounded again: “The first main mission of this game has been completed by F101! Let’s give this warrior our cheers and applause. Please come to Central Lake to claim your mission reward, F101!”
The crowd was stunned.
—This was the first time an F-group contestant had completed a main mission since F101 began airing.
Not only that, it was the opening mission, and the reward was so… so tempting.
The result felt like a slap across the faces of all the A, B, C, and D group contestants.
At the same time, the barrage exploded.
“Ahhhh! An F-group person won?! Am I seeing things?!”
“It’s F101! That legendary guy blessed by Blue Saint Light! He’s no ordinary underground human!”
“Damn, I’m so jealous of F101. He’s going to win the beauty.”
“F101 is hot too. I have a feeling F101 and that beauty in the cage are going to star in a survival romance drama.”
“Am I the only one wondering why the android is B077? I saw him stab someone under Su Ye’s threat!”
“Program team, explain yourself! Is there foul play?!”
“How can an android hurt people?! How can an android hurt people?!”
“Program team, answer directly!”
“What the—F101 dominates the top 10 trending topics, and #MysteriousGiftBeauty and #F101Contestant are rising like crazy.”
“#AndroidHarmsPeople is suddenly trending at #4!”
“Everyone, calm down. The program team will surely explain the android thing. For now, let’s enjoy the epic meeting of hotties, hehe!”
“What will F101 do when he first sees the beauty? A: Shyly introduce himself. B: Domineeringly claim ownership. C: Grab him and kiss him against the cage bars. Which one do you choose?”
“I choose D: Hurry and drag him into a cave, then @#&*#$…”
The barrage continued its heated debate.
Meanwhile, the cage in the air began to descend slowly, finally landing by the shore of Central Lake.
Luo Mingshan’s eyes were bright, but his hands gripping the cage began to sweat.
A crowd of contestants stared at the cage, but no one dared approach.
Because the cage’s bars were coated with an electric current visible from the outside, enough to incinerate anyone who recklessly tried to approach.
Until Zhao Xing appeared.
The ability fruit had timed out, and the wings behind Zhao Xing began to dissolve at that moment.
Under the gaze of thousands, Zhao Xing walked step by step toward the cage.
The terrifying electric light vanished the moment he appeared. The golden cage even opened a small door for him, welcoming him inside, welcoming him to claim his mysterious gift.
Zhao Xing walked in expressionlessly.
Luo Mingshan stared at him without blinking, his throat tight, almost unable to speak.
Zhao Xing spoke first: “The broadcast just said you volunteered to come to the island?”
Luo Mingshan nodded.
Zhao Xing: “Why?”
Luo Mingshan’s voice was hoarse: “…Because of you.”
Because you’re here.
Because I want to follow you openly.
Because I hold foolish hopes and wild fantasies of being chosen by you again.
…Because I want to know if you’ll do what you did last time—when I was being bullied, you held Gu Xiaoxi, brushed past me without changing expression, and abandoned me.
The barrage paused for a moment, then exploded.
“They know each other?! What kind of development is this?!”
“Is this scripted?! It’s got to be scripted?! When did F101 start using scripts?!”
“Ahhh! It’s a mutual longing! Nobody stop me from shipping them!”
But the shipping barrage died down after two screams.
Because on the high-definition surveillance footage.
Under the 360-degree, no-blind-spot main channel livestream.
Everyone saw—Zhao Xing cursed, grabbed Luo Mingshan by the collar, and slammed his head viciously into the cage bars!
Blood soon oozed from Luo Mingshan’s forehead. His body slid down, but Zhao Xing didn’t let go. Instead, he dragged him out of the cage by the back of his collar, shoved that perfectly artistic face onto the ground, and started hitting him, punch after punch.