Chapter 101 - 98

Chapter 101: Chapter 98Annie continually wiped away her tears with a tissue, still calmly saying: "If you use it in a bar, you’ll immediately attract men who think you are heartbroken from a breakup and want to take advantage of you. Then you can lure him into the alley, use the Electric Shock Device to knock him out, and steal his belongings."

Ah, this...

Jin Huixing was speechless and didn’t know how to comment.

As the program was about to start soon, the other players also returned to the living room one after another. Ant and Little Red Riding Hood were the last to arrive, with the former still wearing red and blue 3D glasses.

"Where did you two go?" Leonardo, who had changed into a tuxedo, raised an eyebrow and asked.

"We went to watch a movie in the private cinema of the villa." Li Cheng casually sat down, "For some reason, the cinema only stored movies from before the nuclear wars, including but not limited to ’Fast and Furious 13: Gravitational Pull’, ’Fast and Furious 15: Rush to the Moon’, ’Fast and Furious 21: Paul Returns’, ’Fast and Furious 30: Wheelchair Racing Through the Solar System’."

To prove his point, Li Cheng took out a Blu-ray disc, which actually had a very old bald man printed on it, sitting in a wheelchair, racing in a spaceship.

Uh, should I say Hollywood is doomed or that the Fast and Furious series is just too good at making money?

The others had strange looks in their eyes, many script-task worlds were similar to the actual Earth but with some details differing.

For instance, the Cold War ends with the socialist camp winning, Earth has two moons, Coca-Cola is not called Coca-Cola but uses an old translated name involving ants munching on wax, and so on.

Like the discs Li Cheng found, the big bald head printed on them was also different from Van Diesel.

"In a sense, this near-future world view is quite thrilling. It allows us to see the conclusions of literary works many years in advance."

Li Cheng smacked his lips, somewhat regretfully saying: "Too bad there are no collections of ’Swordwind Chronicles’, ’Full-time Hunter’, ’Strong Breeding Armor Cape’, ’One Piece’, and other comics in the villa. There’s nowhere to make up for the missing nutrients.

Ah, ever since Gol D. Roger died, I rarely watch ’One Piece’ anymore. I don’t even know how far the plot has progressed now."

??? How is that any different from not watching it at all!

Everyone wanted to loudly criticize, but the broadcast had already started.

"The authentic Good Cola, the authentic variety show. Welcome to the hottest reality show sponsored exclusively by Nuclear Cola, jointly produced by Eden Television and the New Humanity Union, ’Disaster! I’m Surrounded by Beauties/Handsome Guys!’. Now we are about to start the second round segment, where each of the seven players will showcase their skills."

Mechanical arms stretched out from the rails again, holding cameras and starting the live broadcast.

All the players immediately returned to their roles, Leonardo and Will sat up straight, Annie wiped her teary eyes, Jin Huixing comforted her in a low voice, and Li Cheng tucked the disc under the sofa cushion.

"As before, I’ll go first."

Leonardo turned towards the camera, flashed a perfect smile, touched his wristwatch, rose, and walked over to the grand piano in the corner of the living room. He opened the lid, slowly sat down, and his slender fingers began to play on the keys.

His fingers moved from slow to fast, and the melody shifted from soothing to lively. Leonardo’s expression grew more focused and serene, with sweat subtly forming on his forehead.

Given his body constitution as a player, playing the piano shouldn’t make him sweat profusely—it was purely because the continual electric shocks from the tuxedo he was wearing.

This piece of equipment was clearly inspired by the 2002 DreamWorks Company science fiction action movie "Magic Tuxedo" starring Jackie Chan.

In that movie, the tuxedo crafted from cutting-edge technology automatically adapts to the wearer’s body, endowing them with superhuman agility and a vast array of life skills.

Turning an utterly ordinary person into a top-level secret agent in an instant.

However, the one on Leonardo is merely a prototype, not only with less battery power and fewer skills but also, the way it operates is quite brutal—the tuxedo has metal filaments extending from its inner lining that pierce directly into the dermal layer of the skin, controlling muscle movement through small electric shocks.

From the audience’s perspective, the more melodious the piano piece, the more Leonardo suffers.

No wonder the equipment conditions are such rare constitution attributes equal to or less than 8. If the constitution was higher, the ability to withstand the pain of electric shocks might make it ineffective.

"Remember those walls I built——"

The black beauty, Harley, who was originally sitting on the sofa, suddenly stood up, starting to sing softly.

At first, Leonardo looked a bit surprised, but then he quickly adjusted the piano melody to match Harley’s singing—her voice was in excellent condition, with a broad range and smooth quality, not inferior to a professional singer.

They had already interacted in the first round, and playing a duet now didn’t seem out of place at all. Their votes steadily increased as a flurry of comments popped up on the TV screen.

Looks like these two have already formed an alliance.

The handsome black man, Will, squinted his eyes and suddenly had an idea. He stood up gracefully, walked up to Annie, and politely extended his hand, "Miss Annie, may I have this dance?"

It happened just as Leonardo and Harley were singing, providing background music. Among the remaining three girls, Little Red Riding Hood had already allied with Ant, not a consideration; Jin Huixing, being just an adult girl, looked too young and also not appropriate.

Instead, it was Annie, her face still showing traces of tears from a recent cry, maintaining a tragic survivor persona. Inviting her to dance as a gentleman could score a good number of votes.

Also, Will wasn’t too worried about Annie pulling any underhanded tricks again—using the same ploy twice wouldn’t work, and if two male guests got eliminated because of her, even the viewers would realize something was off.

"Okay, yes."

Annie wiped away her tears, was helped up by Will, and came to an open space next to the piano, starting to dance to the song.

"Mr. Ant..."

Little Red Riding Hood looked at the continually rising votes of others, nervously tugged at Li Cheng’s sleeve, "What should we do?"

No response.

She turned her head slightly to see Li Cheng unknowingly looking upwards at a 45-degree angle, tears streaming down his eyes.

"Sorry, I lost my composure. Listening to that piece, I was inexplicably reminded of a few old friends."

Li Cheng self-mockingly laughed, sadly said, "When I was a child, my family ran a mechanical factory, my father was the director, and my mother was the workshop manager, she died in front of me in a factory accident, and my dad didn’t take care of me, sent me to live with relatives, called me back to work in the factory as a child worker when I was 14, living in the staff dormitory, occasionally even having to pick up arms to defend the factory with other child workers.

A red-haired girl, and a blue-white-haired girl who looked very similar to my mom, both died tragically during this process.

Here are pictures of them."

Players of this level typically add Perception Attributes, seeing all around and hearing everything. Listening to the first few sentences from Li Cheng seemed somewhat sincere, but the child worker part felt unrealistic, and when Li Cheng pulled out the pictures, it was completely unbelievable.

The red-haired girl represented Asuka, and the blue-white-haired girl represented Asuka Langley. Oh man, so you’re calling yourself Shinji Ikari?