Chapter Ch202.1 - Rehearsal

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

The sky was fish belly white.

The sound of water could be heard as Wu Jin washed his face, observing the ‘human skin mask’ that covered his face in the bathroom mirror.

This mask face seemed to start from the root of his neck and didn’t get wet after getting soaked in water. Even the pores of Wang Ping’s face seemed to shrink and shift with Wu Jin’s small changes in expression.

It was almost certain that this fantastic biological simulation technology would set off waves of controversy and gain an increase in interest with this survival show match. The more realistic it was, the more frightening it was.

The camouflage could be torn off by the owner themselves or could be forcibly stripped off by external forces––

The scene from two hours ago flashed through his mind again. The life-saving capsule, the blood red paint that led the way, the expanse of crimson and the human skin stuck to the wall.

Wu Jin breathed out lightly.

From behind him, there came a crash inside the bathroom compartment. Nicholas hopped out and looked back with every step, “Evil door, I always feel like someone is following me…”

Wu Jin led the blood bag with him and went outside.

The whitewashed walls of the corridor and the gloomy skyline were the same pale shade of white. The bathroom and the training room were a 10 minute walk away, and the light streaming in from the high window was cold and wan, like a haze drifting across one’s vision.

The corridor was winding, but devoid of people. Nicholas had to pull Wu Jin with him before he dared to come out and pee.

“Brother Wang, say, how painful must it have been when Silver Armor’s face was pulled off!” Nicholas said, “He was also able to withstand it and didn’t make any noise!”

Wu Jin: “It wasn’t torn.”

Even if it was torn off, a potion would have to have been used. Silver Armor may not be the strongest amongst the large number of trainees, but it wasn’t to the point where he had no chance to call for help. Wu Jin speculated that the most reasonable explanation for the removal of his face was that, when the life-saving capsule was ejected, the eliminated person’s face would fall off automatically due to the chemical reactions, falling into the murderer’s hands.

Nicholas was stunned.

However, he soon found something else to gossip on about, “The King of Hearts was able to kill Silver Armor alone… Does this mean, like, disobedient people will die? Brother Wang, what do you think….”

Wu Jin mused, “It’s quite interesting.”

“The King of Hearts doesn’t go to sleep in the middle of the night and goes to the training room instead to paint the walls. The paint was spread all over the ground to lead us over. He had to walk with his body hunched over if he wanted to stay out of the paint while still spreading it around.” Wu Jin thought about it very honestly, “I wonder if he’ll have lower back pain today.”

In order to put on a cool act, was it worth it?!

Nicholas: “……”

The training room was right ahead of them. Nicholas suddenly yanked Wu Jin back, “Brother Wang, don’t-don’t go in. The King of Hearts is in our class. He wants to eliminate another 5 people this time. Let’s avoid him. It’ll be fine after the teams are reformed!”

Wu Jin slowly turned back. The light in his eyes was the same as the haze around them, and it made people want to shudder. Nicholas paused, and for a moment, he even felt that Wang Ping was suspecting him––

Nicholas reacted abruptly.

There were two cameras up ahead. Nicholas quickly grabbed Wu Jin and lowered his voice to the minimum before they could enter the range of the cameras, “Brother Wang, don’t. The King of Hearts is really there.”

Wu Jin was also outside the monitoring range.

How do you know, he mouthed.

But then, Nicholas’s brain seemed to freeze, and he started to stammer, circling around the topic.

Wu Jin crossed his arms over his chest and looked at him.

All the easily neglected fragments in his memories rapidly linked up together.

Nicholas. He’d been the first to hear the knock on the door, and he’d been the closest to Silver Armor’s room.

The most important point––

Wu Jin slowly opened his mouth, “The writing on the wall, why is it the King of Hearts?”

The one who’d set the tone had also been Nicholas.

Nicholas suddenly flushed red, “Brother Wang, I really don’t mean anything else. We have mutual interests…”

In the dead corner of the monitoring, the atmosphere between the two of them suddenly grew stiff. At this time, the door to the training room opened as competitors came out to go to the bathroom. Wu Jin turned around as though nothing had happened and led Nicholas to the entrance.

The atmosphere inside was chilly.

Leica and several other trainees occupied the southwest corner, while Wang Shu sat in the southeast corner, and a group of others who’d separated at some unknown point in time sat scattered across the room in twos and threes.

What all groups had in common is that they would definitely go out in groups.

On the white wall, the bright red ‘9’ character was finally lit up by the sunlight that was penetrating into the room. It seemed to announce the beginning of the next round of executions

In the center of the training room, the talent show cameras that had rested for an entire night started up automatically.

Wu Jin commanded Nicholas, “Start working, release some blood.”

Nicholas looked stunned, then pleased, “You haven’t abandoned me…”

Wu Jin put his right hand into his pocket.

A cotton thread lay there. Two hours ago, when Silver Armor had had his accident, he’d rushed into the dormitory corridor before Nicholas, knocked on the door to signal that everything was safe, untied the cotton thread that had been wound around Nicholas’s bedroom door, and watched him walk out of the bedroom with his own eyes.

The cotton thread was still in good condition.

Nicholas hadn’t been the one who’d poured the paint all the way from Silver Armor’s bedroom to the training room.

On the other side, Nicholas rubbed his hands, “Let’s practice rap today, Brother Wang…”

Wu Jin made a sound of acknowledgement.

Nicholas was acting suspiciously, but at his core, he wasn’t bad. His basic skill level, alertness, pace and muscle state could all testify for him. Taking ten thousand steps back, if the King of Hearts really wanted to pretend to be Nicholas, it would really be too shameful.

There was definitely something wrong with Nicholas.

However, this wasn’t the main focus of the problem with the King of Hearts.

Wu Jin bowed his head. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind beneath his drooping eyelids. Silver Armor had only opened his door once that night. How had the King of Hearts killed Silver Armor in that closed up room?

What was the King of Hearts’ purpose?

Where had Lin Qingshan vanished to? Where was the King of Hearts?

Also––

Wu Jin glanced at his watch.

That last sentence in Wang Ping’s script.

“You are the first owner of the identity ‘Wang Ping’.”

“Ring-ling-ling!”

The bell rang out rapidly, and the training room seemed to have been suddenly woken up.

At 8AM, the AI rap instructors yawned as they walked in with the cameras, writing down that day’s training plan on the whiteboard on the wall.

“Stage rehearsal––”

All trainees: “……”

The AI instructor was stunned for a moment, then noticed Silver Armor’s face skin stuck up on the wall, “Oh, he died.”

The cameraman beside them nodded, “It seems so. Poor thing, he must have been stuck into the wall.” After he finished speaking, he even went over to shoot a close-up of the blood red wall.

Wu Jin’s eyes were dazed. Finally, he recalled that this was being broadcast live and quickly opened up the terminal on his watch to take a look.

On the fan forum, the audience realized that ‘Silver Armor had been skinned and stuck onto the wall’ one after another. A group of little fans were all crying and making yingyingying sounds:

“This brother was assassinated even before his debut!”

“Wuwuwuwu, it’s a beautiful tragedy.”

“Darlings, look here. No.45, Chen Xiaoqiu, looks a bit like Silver Armor. Silver Armor substitute fans, why don’t you consider him!”

“Similar +1, possible substitute. Want to switch +1.”

Wu Jin: “……”

The Crosson Show obviously hadn’t optimized the logic for the plot line. However, it sounded off an invisible alarm for Wu Jin––

Silver Armor’s body hadn’t even cooled yet, but the smart little trainees and fans already knew to suck blood from his corpse! If he didn’t work hard, he’d always remain as the No.96 Wang Ping!

In the training room, after the AI issued out their performance clothing, they began to explain the stage rehearsal parts.

“In rap, the most important thing is to have style. Your stage presence has to explode…”

At this time, many of the trainees were still immersed in the deterrence that the King of Hearts gave them. For some reason, Wu Jin had a faint sense that the division in Rap Class 2 was very strange. There were too many trainees from the Stardust Cup, and there were more than one or two trainees with low morale. The King of Hearts seemed to be a curse on all of them.

Meanwhile, Nicholas snatched up two sets of costumes like a lackey, handing one set over to Wu Jin, “Brother Wang, I haven’t heard you rap before.”

Wu Jin was expressionless as he looked down at the lyrics that had been assigned to him.

Although Nicholas’s lyrics, ‘The audience is my bro, the stage is my flow’ were heavy on the saliva, his lyrics were more pitiful.

There were over a dozen parts in the entire song, but only one sentence was assigned to Wang Ping–– “Let’s get it.”

And it was a harmony part. There was no doubt that there would be a full line up on the stage.

––Fortunately, there were many other places he could perform and stand out.

Wu Jin folded up the lyrics and blocked out the writing and drawing on the back. After the first chorus, he could link it up with some beat boxing and enter the transition section before the main song started up again. He could also sneak in a melody rap during the freestyle, or snatch up some camera time by doing a back somersault during the interlude. He could jump up and catch the lens during the final killing part.

As long as he could snatch a position in the show, he could shine even from the edges.

So, the group changed into their costumes and went to attend the rehearsal. There was a small delay before they left, as a trainee who’d been too slow hadn’t managed to get a costume.

The AI instructor was also confused, “That shouldn’t have happened, I brought over 14 sets…”

The program team soon sent over another set. When the door to the training room opened, a group of burly trainees in sequined costumes and suits got in the car and drove for ten minutes to the special stage for Rap Class 2.

Wu Jin paused slightly the moment the door opened.

The stage was arranged like a bustling night city, dizzying and gorgeous.

The venue, which could hold 800 spectators, wasn’t big, and all the lights converged onto the central stage. The stage was set up with the basics, and the curtain lights shone from the bottom up. The skyscraper setting with its punk heavy metal colors was luxurious and rich, the backdrops overlapped, throwing out shadows, and there were hydraulic lift platforms that rose up between the ‘skyscrapers’.

Wu Jin exhaled softly.

The stage could easily make his blood boil no matter the time or occasion.

After they went in, the trainees were pushed up onto the stage one by one.

They stood at random.

And their performance was casual.

Almost everyone’s attention was focused on reconnaissance, looking through the screens, the mechanisms, setting boards, moving walls, tracks, lifts, and flamethrowers. The complex performance mechanisms turned the terrain into an artificial labyrinth. According to the requirements of the program, at the beginning of the performance, all the players would be waiting on the B1 floor beneath the stage, standing on their own lift platforms.

When the turn came for their parts, the lift platform would automatically rise up and bring the players up to the stage.

“Performers can be split into half-open mic and full open mic…” The AI director introduced, “After all of you have thought it over, come over and register for either half-open or full.”

Nicholas was shocked silly, and even Wang Shu was confused, leaning, shifting to approach Wu Jin quietly.

“When singing with accompaniment, it’s half-open mic. Picking up the microphone and singing on the spot is full mic. When singing with accompaniment, another voice is played, and the volume of the live microphone is lowered to allow for the dual singing. That’s half-open mic, and the fault tolerance rate is higher.” Wu Jin explained.

Nicholas suddenly understood. All the players registered for the half-open mic––if killing really started on the stage, they wouldn’t even have enough time to escape. Who would remember to sing in such a situation!

Wu Jin went after everyone else and reported to the director, “Open mic.”

The director gave him a thumbs up.

After their assignments were finished, the players lined up and were brought to the B1 floor beneath the stage.

The floor beneath the stage was pitch black. Between the scene props were 16 scattered lift platforms, but two of them were already vacant.

The simple lift platform only allowed for one person to stand on it at a time, and the partitions between the lift platforms were complex. Although it connected in all directions, it was difficult to remember the way. The extremely weak light made many of the players nervous instantly. Wu Jin narrowed his eyes slightly, then opened them again to adjust to the light. He closed them, then opened them again.

The AI director was giving the final commands, “One person per platform. Stand properly. Don’t squeeze two people in together. The lift platforms have limited load bearing capacity and won’t be able to lift two people…”

The players weren’t far away from each other, but due to the complicated barriers, the sound of each other’s breathing that reached them was also very shallow.

Darkness didn’t necessarily mean danger, but darkness and danger came from the same place. Wu Jin took out his kitchen knife that was wrapped up with curtain cloth from his collar in one swift movement after memorizing the position of his own lift platform. He inserted it vigilantly at his waist, then pulled down his performance costume to hide the handle of the knife.