Chapter Ch208.2 - Female Lead

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

In the corridor, the sound of fingernails scraping across metal finally disappeared, and there was dead silence all around.

Wei Shi simply put away his blade. Wu Jin looked up and down, then left and right, in a daze. It seemed that other than the blood on the wall, that sound hadn’t left any other traces of its existence.

It was as though nothing had happened.

The walls, the ceiling, the corridor, everything was normal.

He didn’t even know whose blood was seeping out of the wall.

Wu Jin seemed to sense something and raised his head.

The next second, however, his eardrums tingled.

Dozens of meters away, in the trainee toilets, someone was screaming at a 100 decibel volume, “Ahhhhhhh––”

The two of them glanced at each other and strode to the bathroom.

Another three or four teams of trainees were also rushing over, including Caesar and his new partner. The bathroom was still closed, but the smell of blood was strong. Along the way, the lighting remained dim, and there was a feeling of a heavy, ghostly aura.

Wu Jin looked around. In this section of the corridor, each wall held a silent mirror.

According to Wu Jin’s knowledge, very few people other than Louis XIV liked to install such mirrors all over the corridors. On this rainy day, the corridor was dark and unlit, and the mirrors absorbed light, reflecting indistinct figures.

The survival number on the watch had dropped from 59 to 58.

Wu Jin hadn’t expected someone to be eliminated so quickly.

In the bathroom, a life-saving capsule had burst out, and the victim’s teammate was leaning against the wall in panic, their breath coming short. Caesar’s ally––the good-natured support position player, strode forward and got down on one knee to look over the survivors.

Fortunately, the survivor was no stranger to this support player and soon regained his composure.

Wu Jin narrowed his eyes at the survivor, looking at them for a long time before moving his gaze away.

The survivor’s name was ‘September’.

“It was a ghost girl.” The survivor, September, was quite well built and soon came back to his senses. He spoke in a hoarse voice, “The female lead whose feet had been cut off.”

“I opened the door to the compartment and saw her standing at the door. She blocked the door, and my teammate was trying to open it at the time. I don’t know why she didn’t choose me and jumped at my teammate. Then––”

He looked at the life-saving capsule that was still rocking, his gaze was still shocked.

Wu Jin and a group of trainees crowded around the door, his gaze sweeping around the toilet.

The rusty faucets and fuzzy, yellowing mirror were the same as the countless other bathrooms in the factory space, but it was more depressing here for some reason. The windows to the bathroom were slightly open, and the rain was still pouring down outside. No matter how keen one’s hearing was, it would still be weakened by the sound of the rain.

In order to retain better functionality of his five senses, Wu Jin went straight forward and closed the window. The air streaming in from the window was fresh and sweet, carrying the scent of flowers.

Wu Jin looked down. A large cluster of red roses was in bloom.

From behind him, the crowd of trainees were interrogating the survivor.

“How can you prove that she was the one who did that to your ally, and not you?”

“Was the female ghost a projection or was she real? If it was a projection, how did she attack you? If it’s not, then how did she disappear from the bathroom?”

A gaping Caesar was also mixed in with the crowd, “There’s something wrong here. Little Red Riding Hood is only a few years old. How could she sneak into your toilet? Is our program even broadcasting normally or not?!”

Everyone: “……”

The survivor, September, couldn’t avoid giving an explanation, so he simply opened up the cubicle door.

The outside of the compartment only had scattered spots of blood, but the area inside the compartment was a mess, with blood on the floor and walls.

There was a sudden silence.

In a survival show, the elimination of any player was a &#k2018;one shot kill’ type that would trigger the life-saving capsule. There was no abuse and torture. Caesar’s support player ally bent down and rubbed his fingertips over the wall, “It’s a prop. It’s the same red liquid prop as the cut legs.”

He nodded, “The ghost girl’s legs have been cut off, so she’s been constantly dripping blood.”

Everyone turned to stare at September with wide eyes.

The support player sighed softly, “Alright then, tell me about the ghost girl that you saw.”

September was a low-ranked middle ranked trainee who’d been promoted from Vocals Class 1. The victim was his former ally from Class 1.

The female ghost that September described was older than the girl with the red shoes in the video. She had Western features, appeared 18-19 years old, and her skin was pale. The people in the bathroom were silent after they heard, all the way until Wu Jin spoke up.

“…When you slack off in training, she’ll come out to supervise. She’s everywhere…” Wu Jin repeated the lines from the AI director.

“She will personally hand over the red shoes.”

The support player turned back abruptly.

Caesar was surprised and overjoyed. He could vaguely tell that this was Wu Jin, but he couldn’t be certain.

Wu Jin smiled slightly and said, “Leica, Rap Class 2 trainee. Nice to meet you. If I’m right, as long as we don’t choose a c-position, the female lead will eliminate us in various ways.”

“This is her ‘rule’.”

“Of course, the female lead only likes to make a move on single trainees. For example, she only showed up when there were two people in the bathroom.”

Caesar was very supportive and nodded repeatedly!

Caesar’s support player ally came over and gently shook hands with Wu Jin, “My name is Yu Chu, glad to meet you. So, you mean…”

Wu Jin politely shook hands with Yu Chu.

“I’d like to invite this lady to show up again.”

Everyone was shocked.

Many of the trainees showed incredulous expressions as they looked towards Wu Jin. Even members of the Crosson Show live broadcast room were stunned, “Little Witch wants to––”

Wu Jin spoke frankly, “It’s very simple. There are three compartments. We leave 2-3 people in the bathroom each time, while the others wait outside the door. Once the female lead appears, the players inside will immediately give a warning, and the players outside will rush in to provide support.”

The survivor, September, was stunned as he said, “What if… what if she doesn’t show up?”

Wu Jin smiled like a fox, “Then that proves that she won’t appear as long as the players remain together as a group.”

A small discussion soon broke out amongst the crowd. However, it was impossible to not use the toilet at all during the program, and there was only one bathroom in the whole building. Wu Jin’s proposal was quickly pushed through.

Two to three people entered the bathroom each time, while the others stood guard outside.

However, when it came to choosing who to act as bait, a few people had another small dispute.

Just like how no one wanted to wear the cursed red dancing shoes.

Nobody wanted to go first and act as bait, unless they were particularly confident in their own strength––

As the person who’d put forth the proposal, Wu Jin simply signed himself and the big boss up as bait.

Unexpectedly, Caesar also wanted to go in. Caesar’s ally, Yu Chu, was stunned for a moment, but soon smiled wryly and agreed to be used as bait in the first round. After all, he’d already thoroughly figured out Caesar’s IQ level as early as when they’d first formed a team.

Fortunately, Yu Chu was also confident in Caesar’s strength.

The first round of bait was arranged.

Before Caesar went through the door, he winked at Wu Jin––Wu Jin was 100% certain that Caesar wanted to catch the ‘ghost’ alive and show off.

Two minutes later, Wu Jin knocked at the door. They let Caesar and Yu Chu step outside, and he and the big boss went in.

Two minutes wasn’t a long time. Wu Jin had knocked on the door early to show his sincerity, keeping Caesar and Yu Chu out of danger.

Wu Jin and Wei Shi went inside. Before they entered, Wu Jin looked back at the worried trainees, frightened survivor September, happy Caesar, and the headache-ridden Yu Chu.

The dark bathroom was empty and quiet. Before going in through the door, Wu Jin had suggested switching people every ten minutes, like a gentleman who took care of his team members. He soon won the trust of everyone present.

The two men were ready to enter the cubicle.

Wu Jin boldly occupied the middle compartment and pushed the big boss to the side.

Wei Shi raised his eyebrows.

The toilet compartments in the talent show weren’t messy. On the contrary, they were very clean and tidy. After all, under the disguised ‘21st century training workshop’, the hardware was still the high-end drainage and garbage treatment recycling systems from the 31st century.

They definitely wouldn’t give these darlings with huge fanbases any extra reason to suffer.

The toilet covers were the most advanced versions from Wu Jin’s memory.

Wu Jin sat on the toilet seat inside the compartment.

Then, he quietly, sneakily knocked against the plastic wall between him and the big boss.

Wei Shi knocked back.

Wu Jin lowered his voice, “Brother––Wei––”

Wei Shi could imagine Wu Jin puffing up his cheeks and exhaling across the wall board.

On the other side, Wu Jin was inexplicably excited, and his tone of voice sounded like he’d caught the fattest flamingo in Floating City, “Brother Wei, do you know why we wanted to come in!”

Wei Shi signaled for him to continue.

Wu Jin vowed, “I was tricked once and will never be tricked again.” This Little Witch would never trip over the same door threshold twice!

“Because of September.” Wu Jin spoke each word clearly, “September is the King of Hearts.”

In the Crosson Show live broadcast room, the fans were in a state of uproar.

“My god!”

“Amazing, how did he recognize him? So, Little Witch and K have mutually recognized each other again. Is he planning a plot within a plot?”

Inside the cubicles that were alike as two peas in a pod, Wu Jin continued quickly, “His body shape and techniques are exactly the same as they were in Rap Class 2. And, he will definitely come find me. He won’t rest until one of us is dead.”

“The person in the life-saving capsule was killed by the King of Hearts, which is how he took over September’s identity. That means that they definitely weren’t killed by the female ghost.”

“Also––”

Wu Jin took a deep breath. His eyes were shining, and his tone was affirmative, “The King of Hearts must have seen the female ghost, because just now…”

Wei Shi’s reply was concise, “In the corridor.”

Wu Jin nodded decisively, “Yes. That time in the corridor, we should have encountered the female ghost as she retreated from the bathroom.”

“K should know how to deal with her.”

“Killing in the dark, killing openly, his favorite killing methods are psychological threats and using unequal information.”

“The show would never set up a dead end game, so the ghost girl follows the same logic. If I’m not wrong, in this round, K is going to kill people with the help of the ghost girl––”

“This round is <Red Dance Shoes>. If he can figure out the rules, then we can too.”

Wu Jin paused abruptly.

Inside the extremely dark bathroom, there seemed to be a shadow in the empty cubicle facing the window sill to the right.

It was blocking the moonlight streaming in through the window.

Wu Jin bowed his head and inferred from the shadow that a figure was lying in a seemingly boneless posture against the right partition. Someone female, thin, and had long hair.

Plink.

Plink.

Blood flowed down the partition and converged into a red pool of blood.

The Crosson Show’s live stream room.

In the scrolling comments, the Scarf fans’ original joyful cheering stopped abruptly, “Little Witch, beat them up! God Wei, beat them up! Scarf unite and chaaargeee! Shipping my Scarf ahhhh––ahhhh holy shit, Li-little Witch ahhhhh, be-be-beside you––”

“Help! I just want to ship my CP, ahhhh Little Witch look up ahhhh––”

Wu Jin looked up slowly.

A pale, bloodless cheek looked over the bathroom partition. Its neck was bent at a 90 degree angle, staring straight at him from the top down.

The female lead from <Red Dance Shoes>.

Her skin was extremely white, her pupils were very dark, and she had a strange smile on her face. Her pupils occupied two thirds of her eyes, and her long hair was wet, like a ghost coming out of a sewer.

Wu Jin looked down again.

He couldn’t see the female lead’s feet.

The female lead’s feet had already been cut off.

The wound continued to bleed along the partition, and it was unknown how she’d floated up.

Wu Jin immediately stood up and used the sound of flushing water to cover up his voice, “Little sister!”

From beside him, the big boss had rushed out without a word.

Wu Jin spoke sincerely, “Little sister, can I ask you something? Just now, that September––Ah, Brother Wei, don’t attack yet, let’s see if we can communicate!”

Wei Shi’s aura was cold and intense. He opened his mouth and spoke through gritted teeth, “When she saw you just now, were you wearing pants.”

Juurensha: ….WS, not the point hahaha.

xiin: if you guys remember, right at the start of the novel, Wei Shi once caught WJ not wearing pants during an emergency drill…