abcnovels
Chapter 210 - Mirror
Chapter 210 - Mirror
Chapter 210 - Mirror
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
The huge training room broke out into whispers.
Wu Jin’s expression remained unchanged as he nodded slightly to the crowd.
In reality, his mind was turning quickly.
There was no doubt that someone had taken out all his clips with a card.
At this time, there were 52 survivors, and the 52 trainees held a total of 59 cards. Clover cards could remove any player’s camera time––
Around him, the looks Wu Jin received that had originally been curious started to hold some subconscious alertness.
The trainees closest to Wu Jin seemed sympathetic, but their pupils clearly held caution and awe.
The performance of ‘Leica’ in the 60 to 48 segment had been commendable. He’d been resourceful and active in front of the camera, and he’d also fought the female ghost on his own away from the show’s cameras. However, if the position of ‘Leica’ became precarious, he might be forced to take someone else’s identity in order to continue qualifying.
There were only a few people in the entire training room who could compete against him.
In front of the floor to ceiling windows, the AI director turned off the display after the talent show episode finished playing. The crowd seemed to suddenly come back to their senses, and several trainees who’d built good relationships with Leica came to comfort him one after another, showing their card colors naturally or half unconsciously and letting him check.
“Who plotted secretly? It’s too shameless. Clover cards can cut camera time, but I only have a hearts card here and can’t help Brother Leica...”
Even the King of Hearts who was ‘September’ in disguise revealed his ‘hearts card’.
Wu Jin’s gaze swept over September lightly.
The King of Hearts had eliminated the previous ‘September’ and should have at least two cards on hand––
Wu Jin’s brows twisted in a frown.
A strong sense of disconnect poured in.
For any survival show trainee, even if their faces and identities changed, their fighting style would tend to stabilize and become sharper as they matured.
The King of Hearts was good at assassination, pursuing morbidly alluring rules, and playing games of life and death that left only one survivor. If the King of Hearts had really used his card to attack him, it was slightly contrary to his combat habits from the previous round.
Wu Jin’s eyes shifted, and a thought suddenly flashed through his mind––
“60 to 12, players are free to form alliances in the rest area.”
If K had allies in this round.
If––
From nearby, Caesar roared and charged into the crowd.
Wei Shi effortlessly stopped Caesar’s charge, blocking him, then letting him go expressionlessly. Wu Jin could see clearly that in the seventh elimination match, contestants would mutually peel off each other’s skin and cheat each other. Only the big boss was still calm and idle, acting just as he normally did when he took the rabbit out for a walk.
Caesar lowered his voice and extended a helping hand without a second thought, “If you need help, just shout. I’ll always be on call.”
Wu Jin made a fist bump gesture to express his thanks.
Caesar was still not at ease. On the surface, he appeared grumpy and annoyed, but he secretly pulled Wu Jin to a corner near the wall that avoided all the cameras and repeated to Wu Jin again, “Listen to me. There’s something wrong with the rules in this game. If you eliminate a player, you can put on their skin. This face of mine is––”
Wu Jin was stunned when he heard this.
From the first round all the way until this round, this seemed to be the first time that Caesar had grasped the rules of the game so completely!
Caesar patted Wu Jin on the shoulder and chuckled, “What are you thinking! It was Yu Chu who told me.”
Wu Jin suddenly understood. Since ancient times, the main DPS position and an excellent support position always had a bit of a bond. In a 100 person melee brawl, the best support players would always pick out the ‘best’ assault or sniper players right away.
Yu Chu was Caesar’s brain center for this round of the competition, following him from 100 into 60 and 60 into 12.
On the other side, Caesar opened his mouth and spoke to Wu Jin mysteriously, “Be careful&#k2026; don’t end up in the dark and not even knowing if your teammate has changed. Do you know how to keep an eye on your teammate? After the skin of the face is stuck on, it takes three to five minutes to fit properly. You and that person can’t be separated for more than three minutes, otherwise you won’t be able to figure out if they’ve been replaced.”
Then, he used himself as an example, “That’s how your big brother, me, keeps an eye on my support.”
“......” Wu Jin: So, Brother Caesar, you and Yu Chu were acting gay together right from the start and didn’t separate for more than 3 minutes at a time??
“Oh,” Caesar added, “This was also something that Yu Chu taught me.”
Wu Jin finally realized.
Yu Chu had organized the trainees to go to the toilet hand in hand, and he’d also tied Caesar tightly to himself. His fighting style was very cautious.
At the edge of the crowd, Yu Chu finally had no choice but to squeeze in with them.
This young support position trainee’s eyes looked straight past Caesar, and he stuck his hand out to Wu Jin, “Let’s get to know each other again. Yu Chu, support position.”
Wu Jin held his hand, “Leica, assault position.”
Their gazes collided, and Wu Jin unexpectedly had the illusion that the other party was slightly similar to him.
Yu Chu smiled mildly, “Since it’s like this, my teammate’s ally is also my ally. Let’s keep in contact; it’s not a big problem to be on the edge of elimination. We’ll stay together for this round.”
“It takes three minutes for the masks to bond fully, meaning that the shortest ‘perfect identity replacement interval’ is three minutes.” Yu Chu looked at Caesar, ‘As long as Leica can guarantee that his teammate isn’t replaced, our alliance will be unbreakable. 60 into 12, <Red Dance Shoes> will have at least four qualifying players. I hope that it’ll be us.”
Wu Jin finally showed a smile.
Wei Shi raised his eyebrows.
Yu Chu sensed it faster than Caesar did. He nodded courteously towards Wei Shi, then led Caesar away to chat with the other trainees.
The evening class was over.
The number on their wrist watches jumped from 49 to 52, but this was within Wu Jin’s expectations.
In the end, the number of survivors remained fixed at 48. The AI fans who were ‘crazily scraping together votes and supporting their favorite little brother’ finally stopped fighting.
The trainee ranked 49th was taken out by the AI director, and the arena was eventually determined to have ‘48 survivors’.
The dormitories for the remaining 48 people were the standard twin bedrooms, which was much a much better living environment than the previous round. Of course, the dormitory ‘privilege’ for the upper ranks had also disappeared.
Wu Jin didn’t even have to think twice about taking over a dorm room with the big boss.
An hour later, the camera was turned off for privacy reasons.
Strange sounds gradually came out of the narrow dorm room.
On the dorm bed, Wu Jin’s breathing was suppressed, and he was forced to raise up his neck, his arms showing their shallow lines of muscles. He pursed his lips hard to cover up the sound of panting––
Wei Shi released his hold on Wu Jin.
Wu Jin was out of strength and splayed out on the bed.
After lying there for a while, he refused to accept it and climbed back up, “It’s impossible. Is it really useful to catch that female ghost like that?! Again, again!”
Wei Shi picked him up again and then quickly pressed him down in a hostage hold.
Wu Jin struggled like a salted fish, but was unable to escape the big boss’s control range. A while later, he exclaimed in surprise, “Wow, it’s really possible!”
Wei Shi: “Press down on the spine. Your arms are longer than hers, and she can’t touch you.”
Wu Jin suddenly saw the light. He looked pitifully at the big boss, wanting to change training positions.
Wei Shi was calm, “Demonstration won’t work. My arms are longer than yours.”
“......” Wu Jin puffed up his small round face; just because I’m shorter, it doesn’t mean I can’t use you for training! For better or worse, I’m still close to 180cm, and if I eat more, I can still grow taller!
However, after the big boss refused, Wu Jin had no choice but to practice on the bedpost.
After practicing, he squeezed into the big boss’s bed and skillfully wrapped himself up in the quilt.
The two beds in the dorm were side by side.
The bed that belonged to Wu Jin was already a mess from his earlier activities, and the quilt was all balled up. The big boss’s bed was clean and warm during this rainy night!
After Wu Jin occupied the territory, he wrapped himself up in the quilt and looked at his wrist watch.
In the talent show fan forum, Leica’s voting ranking was 36th. Because his camera scenes had been cut out, he made no splash on the forums that night. However, the big boss’s ‘2nd ranked trainee Zhu Lan’ was currently in the middle of a bloody storm on the forums.
The big boss lay down beside him.
The rain outside the window was like a waterfall. Wu Jin yawned, and the big boss rubbed his head. Wu Jin switched positions and curled up to look at his wrist watch; he was very small and didn’t take up much space.
“The c-position will be selected tomorrow.” Wu Jin spoke lazily, “If it’s the same as today, the rehearsal will remain at a stand still. Of course, there’s another possibility.”
If there’s a trainee with medium strength and a low ranking, they’ll be in urgent need of gaining camera time in order to increase their votes. So, the c-position is suitable for that. Of course, other contestants are willing to see that happen, because if a strong player falls out of the rankings, nobody knows who they’ll pick to replace them.”
“In this game, the person who set up the situation––they want the trainee to be Leica.”
“Their target was Leica. The person who set it up may be K, or they may not be. In terms of style, it’s not similar...”
Wei Shi made a sound of acknowledgement, “You are going to take the c-position?”
Wu Jin was full of fighting spirit, “Yes, why not take it? The c-positions in <The Nightingale and The Rose> and <Snow White> are both still alive. Besides, our little sister––”
From an unknown number of dormitories away, a sudden scream could be heard. Following that, the sound of fine metal parts colliding could be heard through the ceiling before finally disappearing.
On their wrist watches, the survival number dropped from 45 to 44.
“Little sister attacked again.”
They opened up the cupboard in front of their beds, aiming the full length mirror at the two beds. The ‘mirror’ was a talisman that prevented the female ghost from approaching. Few players knew about it in this round, and the female ghost was currently wandering through the entire dormitory building, hunting around.
“As long as there’s a mirror, she won’t show up.” Wu Jin smiled like a fox, “Since we’ve discovered the rules, we must take the c-position. What’s the point of just dragging on to the end without taking the c-position!”
The youth made this vow in the moonlight, stopping just short of clenching his fists and pumping them to cheer himself on.
Wei Shi narrowed his eyes slightly.
Wu Jin lifted up his wrist watch and prepared to begin accumulating popularity.
He held up the Three of Hearts.
––[Hearts] 30,000 likes on the forum.
The wrist watch read the card chip and soon gave Wu Jin a water army backing.
On the forums, there were obviously many other players who’d hired water armies, including Caesar’s ally Yu Chu. This support player had also used a Hearts card and was vigorously promoting his highlight in the episode.
The associated search terms ‘Yu Chu’s bright eyes’, ‘Yu Chu talent show’, ‘Yu Chu positive energy’ and so on were all trending The artificial traces were obvious.
Wu Jin also created a lot of top posts.
“How come we can’t find Brother Leica! Wuwuwu cheering for my invisible brother!”
“Explosion-proof cut warning, we’re going to apply to get Brother Leica the editing treatment he deserves...”
Wei Shi: “......”
Wu Jin posted the threads and fried up the popularity all in one go, and his small round face was full of the joy of coming into contact with new toys!
Wu Jin: “Woaaaaah there’s an AI bumping the thread!”
Wu Jin: “Ahhhh there are wild passers-by mixing in!!!”
Wu Jin: “Aaahhhh I’m popular, I’m red! Hahahaha-hic!”
Wu Jin rolled around in the quilt.
Wei Shi narrowed his eyes.
Then, Wu Jin’s camouflaged small curls were pressed down, and his entire person was held up by the neck before being tossed into the soft pillow. Outside the window, the rain was being blown up against the glass, the air was moist and cold, but the inside of the quilt was steamy and warm––
Wu Jin: “––Wu!”
The heat spread out slowly from Wu Jin’s cheeks to his earlobes.
Wei Shi’s heavy breathing was muffled, but he finally just pinched the youth’s earlobe twice.
“Mm. It’s indeed red.” The man confirmed.
“......” Wu Jin abruptly climbed up and pounced on him, gnawing at him with a dissatisfied expression.
A few minutes later.
Wu Jin grabbed the big boss’s pillow contentedly. It wasn’t just an illusion; the continuous rainstorm had lightened up slightly.
“Don’t make a move against K for now.”
“We’ll wait for his ally to show up.”
“The weather may clear up tomorrow. We’ll go out for a walk.” Wu Jin was so sleepy he was in a confused daze, speaking on and off, “Let’s see if my allies from the previous round are still alive!”
“What’s the noise outside? Over there in the Snow White building, who broke the glass?”
“Oh, right, is it possible that our little sister’s face is...”
“Why did the little sister attack again? She’s running even faster this time than last time. Is she sucking in trainees in order to cultivate or something! Are the ceilings high in this building? My guess is that the ceilings are empty, and the little sister is running around above us!”
Wei Shi: “Sleep.”
Wu Jin: “She lives in such a big loft, why don’t we have a loft!”
Wei Shi: “You want one?”
When he looked back, Wu Jin had already fallen asleep happily, snoring slightly and rubbing against the pillow.
Wei Shi reached out a hand and pinched Wu Jin’s soft cheek, repeatedly adjusting his position until he finally also fell asleep.
Late at night.
Wu Jin abruptly woke up.
The big boss was leaning against the head of the bed.
He was looking at the mirror in front of the bed.
Wu Jin leaned his head over to take a look and suddenly sucked in a breath of cold air.
Juurensha: ....possession????