abcnovels
Chapter 57 - Clue
Chapter 57 - Clue
Chapter 57 - Clue
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
The third Crosson Show elimination match support page.
Pink fluttered everywhere.
The cartoon avatars of the 300 contestants were framed by transparent hearts, and pink bubbles popped up constantly against the six-pointed star background.
A few lines of text scrolled across the top––
“Crosson Divination House – test your love compatibility with your little brother!”
“Mysteries. Supernatural. Divination. Destiny. Love.”
“10 credits for one divination! 100 credits for 11 divinations! Light up your marriage fate with your little brother! Every divination is equal to one vote! The success of your pick depends on you!”
Wu Jin, Zoe: “......”
The 300 players on the page would perform interactions with the cursor as it moved across the page.
Wei Yan calmly followed the cursor around, Thin Fire held up his selfie stick and poked at the cursor, a chibi Wu Jin bounced around with a small white rabbit––
Wu Jin was stunned.
Zoe laughed loudly, “Looks quite similar––”
His laughter came to an abrupt end. The cartoon Zoe who was on the second row of the voting page tossed down his sniper rifle with a whoosh and ran towards the cursor with the text bubble ‘Pick Me’ over his head.
“......” Zoe quickly blocked his view of the page. “What kind of messy competition prompt is this?!”
Wu jin thought about it, “It’s divination. The theme for the next elimination match is divination.”
The words ‘Crosson Divination House’ flickered constantly against the six-pointed star backdrop at the top of the page, and the new sponsor’s name was written at the bottom of the page––
“Centaurus Society of Metaphysics, Numerology, and Astrologists”
Zoe was stunned.
The sponsors for the reality show usually came from several fixed industries, including star airlines, outdoor equipment, sports, tourism, military, and civilian firearms. Each competition broadcast could pull a wave of sales big enough to guarantee they wouldn’t lose money on the deal. The current sponsorship from a ‘Society of Metaphysics’ seemed extremely questionable.
With the rapid development of Federal science and technology, ‘metaphysics’, which went counter to science, had gradually declined over the past centuries. Zoe himself was an atheist and couldn’t imagine how the so-called ‘Society of Metaphysics’ could bring out enough resources all at once to invest so heavily in a survival reality show.
At this time, Wu Jin had already quickly typed ‘Centaurus Society of Metaphysics, Numerology, and Astrologists’ into the terminal, and millions of related results popped up. The top search result was a competitive advertisement from the Society.
“......” The two of them were both stunned, and Zoe had even been slapped in the face lightning-quick.
This wasn’t a poor street association at all.
Their headquarters were in Centaurus System, and they had 7000 branches across the Federation. In addition to their divination business, they also carried out a series of other businesses, such as spiritual meditation, metaphysics experience classes, sales of blessed furniture, psychological consultations, marriage dispute mediation, and so on. It was practically one of the signature industries of the Centaurus System.
Zoe gaped, “They, they’re this profitable?”
Wu Jin gestured for him to look at the front page of the Crosson Show.
On the message board to the right, the audience was extremely excited as they all showed off the divination results that came with each vote.
“Your love compatibility with [Thin Fire]: 70, Kinship: 90, Friendship: 95. Experience having the best boy friend!”
“Your love compatibility with [Wu Jin]: 60, Kinship: 95, Friendship: 80. Experience having a well-behaved, sticky younger brother!”
“Your love compatibility with [Red]...”
Judging from the size of the voting pool, the black-hearted Crosson Show’s pricing of 10 credits per divination had only caused the audience’s enthusiasm to grow.
At this point, the number of votes each contestant had was still hidden, and the order of the names was based on the latest to be voted on. Wu Jin tried hard to restrain his desire to pull the voting page down to the bottom and instead discussed the elimination match system with Zoe during the star ship’s return journey.
“Will the arena be a giant crystal ball? Or an ouija board?” Zoe speculated.
Wu Jin quickly shook his head, “The shape of the foundation isn’t right.”
Zoe: “What do you think, Little Witch?”
After going through two elimination matches, the White Moonlight team had basically all acknowledged Wu Jin as the team’s brain. Although his experience wasn’t there yet, his ability to analyze problems was first-class.
Wu Jin took out paper and pen and quickly sorted through the known conditions.
“In the third elimination match, according to the Crosson Show’s previous practices, the focus should be on firearms. Short-distance weaponry that can be used within 50 meters. There should be many closed environments within the arena that can be used to create areas of competition and conflict.”
“Based on what can be seen from the North Tower, the foundation covers an area of about 6 hectares. The announcement says that it will be a team competition. 50 of the 300 players will be eliminated, and the competition will last 12 hours.”
Wu Jin drew out a simple sketch of the foundation on the white paper and turned it before showing it to Zoe.
A flash of inspiration struck Zoe, “Player density!”
Wu Jin nodded, “Yes. The second elimination match arena covered 7 hectares and had 400 people. Most teams didn’t even encounter each other before they were eliminated. If the emphasis of the third match is to force contestants to fight, then the player density should increase rather than decrease, unless––”
Wu Jin pondered for a moment, then wrote down two possibilities.
Either there were only a few safe zones in the arena, which would force the contestants to gather together.
Or––team members would be separated by certain conditions, and the chance of encountering a battle would increase greatly.
Zoe thought about it for a long time and finally nodded. He looked at the six-pointed star again, “Then is there any way to speculate on the theme of the competition?”
Wu Jin shook his head, “Too little is known. We’ll need to wait until we go back to the Crosson base and see the training schedule.” He paused for a moment, then comforted him, “Brother Zoe, the form of the game is just one of the conditions. If the rules are related to metaphysics––at least all the trainees will be on a level playing field.”
Zoe understood.
There were many different types of professionals in these survival shows, but nobody had ever heard of any trainee who majored in palm-reading and card counting.
The star ship travelled slowly through the sea of stars, and dim starlight was finally replaced by the harbor’s guiding light––their field of vision suddenly brightened. The two of them fastened their seatbelts as they penetrated back into the heat of the atmosphere.
Zoe stood up first, stretching himself comfortably and tossing the five days of hell training to the back of his mind.
“Little Witch, we’re home!”
At 6 AM, the White Moonlight building shone in the morning light. The suspension car left them at the door, where Secretary Qu smiled and gave Wu Jin a hug before nodding at Zoe.
Zoe: “......”
The few of them walked through the empty corridors, and Secretary Qu told them about what had taken place over the past five days in a low voice, “The nuts that Little Witch bought have all arrived. I accepted your packages for you last night. The company team has closed themselves up to go over the replays, and Caesar is still traveling. He will come back tomorrow...”
Zoe was surprised, “Caesar went out traveling?! Didn’t you say that he would take supplementary classes to train up his brain at the company these past few days and that you wouldn’t let him leave if he failed––I saw that there were a good few sets of papers. Did he even finish the math tests?”
Secretary Qu nodded repeatedly.
Zoe: “Give me a copy of his test papers.”
A few seconds later, a series of photos was sent to his terminal.
Secretary Qu was still laughing and talking to Wu Jin when Zoe, who was behind them, suddenly froze.
The second test problem was a solid geometry question about conic sections.
Solution: (Darling, I’m not not sure about this problem. Can you calculate it again? Kiss kiss) Draw a line between BF and AG, according to the formula...
Zoe showed the answer paper to Secretary Qu.
Secretary Qu: “Eh... What’s that in the brackets?”
Zoe’s expression was cold, “Caesar wasn’t the one who did this. His girlfriend did it for him. Deduct his salary and bonus, and call me when he’s back.”
Wu Jin stretched his head out and snuck in a few glances. He couldn’t help but light a single dog candle for Caesar in his heart.
Wu Jin was still seriously lighting a candle for Caesar when Zoe reached out and patted him on the head, internally thinking that in comparison, Little Witch was really much less worrisome.
After training during the day in Floating City, having three fights in the underground survival arena, then buying a guitar and eating handheld wraps with the big boss, by the time they returned to the White Moonlight dorms, Wu Jin was already having trouble keeping his eyes open.
He hazily pet the rabbit, put away the two guns that the big boss had given him, and finally smiled broadly as he untied the guitar he had on his back.
The rabbit crouched beside the pillow with its head tilted, as though waiting for Wu Jin to pick it up.
However, the youth pounced onto the soft bed with a cry instead, carefully lifting up the quilt to stuff the guitar inside before falling into a contented sleep.
The moonlight splashed onto the bed through a gap in the curtains. The rabbit jumped into the gap between the boy’s slightly bent arm and the scrunched up pillow, and found a comfortable place to curl up and settle in.
Likely because of his biological clock, Wu Jin woke up on time six hours later.
The Crosson Show’s one week holiday was coming to an end, and the suspension car would return the four trainees back to the base in three hours.
Caesar had yet to return, and Secretary Qu was already in the process of ordering a second child-tracking chip.
Wu Jin scarfed down an early lunch before entering the evaluation room once again.
Forty minutes later, the White Moonlight examiner who had sent him out looked rather dazed.
“Do you still remember the time when I brought you in back then?” The examiner coughed and asked.
Wu Jin grinned and nodded.
The examiner couldn’t hold back his smile as he patted him on the shoulder, “Work hard and don’t be too focused on your debut. Our team is still waiting for you to play in the Star League.”
On the examiner’s evaluation desk, the column for basic firearms had finally risen from E to B. The examiner signed his name under the form and handed it back to Wu Jin.
Around the corner from the corridor, Zoe also gave him a thumbs up. The other trainees who had gathered together to see the assessment data were all surprised when they watched Wu Jin come out.
Wen Lin handed Wu Jin a glass of water and smiled lightly.
As they walked out of the training room, this future support member of White Moonlight said, “Back when Little Witch joined us, our company had said that we recruited a good-looking trainee. But it’ll be different from today on.”
Wu Jin lifted his small round face, “How so?”
Wen Lin was very serious, “Good-looking and can fight.”
Zoe was heartfelt, “Our Little Witch has grown up. By the way, Little Witch, keep it hidden when we go back to the Crosson base––scare them out of their wits in the game!”
It wasn’t until the suspension car started to urge them incessantly that Caesar triumphantly returned from his vacation.
Zoe’s expression was cold as he went to the back seat, remained cold as he stepped in, and was still cold as he blocked the door.
A howl of pain rang out from the suspension car that was headed back to the Crosson base.
Zoe finished his c-position duties and continued to look at the Crosson Show voting page.
Even if the program team concealed the specific number of votes, the number of votes for each contestant could still be inferred from the main page’s scrolling comments.
Wu Jin and Wei Yan were both firmly in the first tier. Thin Fire was biting at their heels, and Zoe and Qin Jinbao were in the third tier––
Caesar had dropped so low he couldn’t be found.
Zoe asked angrily, “What’s going on?!!!”
Caesar magnanimously explained, “Each vote is a marriage divination... The one who spends the most can do that thing with the contestant––where they hold hands on the web page. My wifey didn’t like that, so she changed all my information...”
Phantom Caesar (White Moonlight Entertainment)
Height: 150 cm
Weight: 200 kg
Hobbies: Eating, sleeping
It would be strange if he could get the audience to vote with this sh*t!
Zoe’s fist moved. He finally couldn’t hold back the desire to beat up Caesar a second time. Caesar roared a very straight man’s roar, and fought to protect his information.
Wen Lin cleverly pulled down the partition and blocked out the sight of the two of them in the back seat.
On the other side, Wu Jin had quickly opened up his terminal.
Sure enough, after clicking on each contestant’s name, their ‘voting leaderboard’ that was occupied by all the rich tyrants would be displayed to the right side of the page.
The audience members all spent money crazily in order to vote and obtain the randomized ‘divination’ results. This also served to increase their so-called ‘Affection Meter’. The audience member who had voted the most for each individual contestant would have a full affection meter and could choose to have an animated version of themselves hold hands with the contestant’s animated character.
This move by the Crosson Show was extremely effective. The pages for the several popular contestants were full of the smell of gunpowder, and the competition for the top of the list was exceedingly fierce. The announcements for the votes scrolled by so fast they were practically like flickering shadows.
Wu Jin scrolled along the contestant pages. Most of the contestants weren’t left single, but there were a few towards the end of the page who’d never shown up in front of the camera and who had empty voting lists.
Wu Jin’s movements paused, and he quietly snuck onto an alternate account.
The votes from the second elimination match had been reset. The original... Noble protection status had also been reset. He quickly charged the account with credits, entered the contestant’s name, and clicked on the pink voting button––
“Your love compatibility with [Wei Shi]: 99, Kinship: 99, Friendship: 99. Experience having a perfect soul mate!”
The completely empty leaderboard rankings now had an additional bunny head profile picture.
Wu Jin began to criticize the Crosson Show in his heart––
It turned out that being at the top of a contestant’s rankings would gain the viewer a compatibility rating of 99 points! The program group was really willing to do anything in order to cheat the audience out of their credits !! They were too merciless!!
After entering the top of the contribution rankings, Wu Jin was given a chance to choose an animated character to hold hands with the contestant.
Wu Jin’s ears were slightly red as he swiftly selected the default image––
Then, because he was afraid of getting exposed, he changed the small rabbit head avatar into a little snow leopard.
The little snow leopard and big brother stood there holding hands in the middle of the page, just like two happy little friends.
This way, big brother wouldn’t be alone!
Wu Jin was delighted as he switched accounts again. The fight in the back of the car was finally over. The 300 pound Caesar, who had won using his rich experience in the assault position, was surprised when he lifted his eyes, “Hey, Little Witch, who are you voting for? Let big brother take a look, just let me take a look...”
Wu Jin froze, then scurried to hide the terminal. The suspension car became chaotic for a while once again.
It was dusk by the time they arrived back at the Crosson Show.
The twin towers cast long shadows beneath the setting sun. In the open area where players usually walked and chatted, there was staff directing robots to mark the ground with chalk.
“Oh, these are your positions for the shooting of the music video.” The staff explained.
In the grove behind the open area, Ying Xiangxiang picked out yet another string of lucky trainees, smiling broadly as she pulled them over to fix up their dance moves.
Thin Fire crouched next to the grove, swishing past with a ‘whoosh’ every time they danced and acting like the c-position over and over again. He looked to be in high spirits as he danced amongst the lucky trainees.
Next to him was a crew member who helped him hold up his selfie stick while chomping down on a piece of watermelon. Ying Xiangxiang was also very happy to have a temporary lead dancer.
The four people from White Moonlight got out of the suspension car and leisurely walked over to the newly posted timetable.
“What kind of schedule is this?” Caesar was the first to shout, “30 hours of basic firearms training, 2 hours of divination...”
On the other hand, Wu Jin’s gaze paused on something.
Their new sponsor had already been posted on the bulletin board, and there was also a clue here for the third elimination match––
“Finding you, sheltering you, and crowning you, is all part of your distant past, your recent past, and your future. It’s also your sincerity, your bonds, your hopes, and your fears... It’s the unveiling of your destiny.
–– Golden Dawn Association 1888
Juurensha: Hooray for making sure big brother’s avatar won’t be lonely hahahaa
xiin: that 99 compatibility is just you and Wei Shi, silly Little Witch~