Chapter 18

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Chapter 18: Star Death Reality Show (I)

[Player Qi Leren has begun the task: Star Death Reality Show.]

[Task Background: Thirteen contestants came to a planet where civilization has died out to participate in a live wilderness reality show. The program organizers selected a primitive village near the polar region as the filming base, isolated the area after their life detectors determined that there were no living creatures in the area, and arranged a large number of cameras for all-weather individual filming. This is a live reality show without editing and all the staff have been evacuated, so it’s up to the stars to show themselves in front of the camera. On the first day of the reality show, the group of people found a strange luminous and spherical stone in the polar village and studied it curiously. Soon afterwards, they will find that this stone has been broken strangely, revealing mucus that has not yet dried inside… Countless cameras will record this scene and, hundreds of millions of light-years away, viewers will recognize what this stone is and the show’s ratings will soar instantly, nearing the historical record. Following this, armed troops will come here, but it will take time for them to reach the planet…]

[Task Requirements: Survive until the army arrives. The task completion degree is 30% or higher with a reward of 15 survival days, with some survival days rewarded for extra completion. There is an audience vote of “Best of the Day”, and each time this is won will result in a reward of 5 extra survival days. Eliminate all amphioctopuses for a reward of 30 survival days. If more than half of the audience questions the player’s identity, all rewards will be cleared and 30 survival days will be deducted.]

[Data synchronization countdown, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, synchronization complete.]

&&&

Different from any previous copy task, after entering the task this time, new memories appeared in Qi Leren’s brain. He could clearly recognize that they were not memories composed of his own experiences, but were false memories, which had been implanted in his mind by the system’s power.

In the false task memories, he was a member of an EDM group in the Galactic Federation during the Big Universe Era, whose name was still Qi Leren, and the other two members were Du Yue and Dr. Lu. This group was not very famous, so when they learned that they had been invited to participate in a famous reality TV director’s new show, the three people were overjoyed and signed the contract for the live wilderness reality show without much consideration, despite the show possibly being life-threatening. The three people sat on a spaceship with ten other stars and flew to the planet where intelligent life was said to have disappeared.

The memories from after boarding the spaceship were also very clear—for the three players, this was like something that had happened only a few days ago. The production team’s staff had called a meeting and gave a brief explanation of the reality show’s specific situation, which included signing a life-and-death contract for the program’s live broadcast (in fact, they had already signed it) and, most importantly, the rules for the next seven days.

1. The shooting site, which is a polar village, has been isolated by a laser network. The area has been checked and cleaned, and cameras have been installed. Food, water, and other daily necessities have been hidden. All staff members have evacuated from the planet and will never set foot on the planet again within the seven days of the program, even if the contestants’ lives are in danger.

2. All participants have automatic nano-stealth cameras following them, but everyone has 10 hours of privacy every day. In the case of remaining privacy time, participants can turn off the tracking cameras, but cannot turn off various fixed cameras installed in the village.

3. Because of advanced quantum communication technology, the program could be broadcast live across the universe synchronously. Every day, there will be a vote to decide which contestant was the “Best of the Day”, and each time they win “Best of the Day” they will receive an extra bonus of one million dollars.

4. A speaker is installed in the church in the center of the polar village. Its only function is to automatically announce at 8:00 every morning who was voted as “Best of the Day” by the audience the day before.

5. For the seven days, there is no way to contact foreign countries, no way to call the spaceship in orbit, and the spaceship also won’t receive instructions. There is no modern means of telecommunication between competitors.

6. After arriving on the planet, participants are not allowed to carry their own weapons and nourishment, but the production company will prepare a knife for each person.

……

……

……

“Since you’ve inspected this polar village and confirmed that there’s no sign of life, why should you distribute weapons to us?” The actress Janet Evans raised a sharp question on the spot.

The program staff member was an AI robot. It said carefully: “Because there are 12 humans who may be aggressive with you, you need a weapon to protect yourself.”

Janet rolled her eyes: “Yes, I need a weapon to protect myself, but at the same time you also distributed a weapon that may be used to attack others to 12 potentially aggressive humans.”

This was quite offensive to her peers, but Janet didn’t care. She knew very well that she had to express herself as much as possible in this program so that the audience could remember her. Otherwise she would be like a poor wallflower and miss the “Best of the Day”.

This drama queen looked like the first cannon fodder female character who would die in a horror game. Qi Leren had a basic impression of this NPC when he skimmed through this memory. Although it was a stereotype, it still helped him remember the numerous NPCs.

Along with the female cannon fodder character, the male cannon fodder character was indispensable. Alex, an NPC with muscles like a fitness instructor, put on a fake smile and explained that he was good at wilderness survival. If Janet was in trouble, he would always be willing to help. Janet twirled her long curly hair and showed a charming and mocking smile: “Thank you for your kindness, but you don’t have to act like a warm-hearted gentleman, because I’m not going to sleep with you. You’re not my type at all.”

“Oh… Janet, shut up.” Another high-nosed and deep-eyed actress with short hair sighed. Qi Leren remembered that her name was Lara, the same name as the heroine in his favorite action game.

“I just have something to say,” Janet spread her hands and gave an innocent look.

By the time he went over this memory during the night, Qi Leren had already memorized all of the NPCs. There were 13 people in this dangerous life-or-death group, three of whom were the players whom Qi Leren was among; Lara, Janet, and Alex had recently collaborated on a TV series where Lara had played the leading role, and Francis, the leading actor, was also invited to participate in this reality show. All four of them were white, and there was also a white girl named Annie who was a country music singer, but what she was famous for was not her music, but her psychic ability and cult beliefs which had been heated up by the media for a long time—at first glance, she was the type of horror movie character who acted too knowledgeable and died early.

In this copy, there was also a black man named Mark, but Qi Leren hadn’t gotten a deep impression of him as he hadn’t said much.

The remaining four stars were all Asian, and their names were all Chinese. One pair were twin sisters, where the older sister was Jing Siyu and the younger sister was Jing Sixue. There was also a newscaster named Xue Jiahui.

The last person was a man… and he was also the one who impressed Qi Leren the most in his memories.

Qi Leren didn’t notice him at first. The person who never spoke among a group of beautiful men and women was always easily ignored, and what’s more, this was just a memory that he couldn’t interact with.

At that time, the spaceship had already landed at its destination. Tomorrow morning, they would leave the spaceship and start the seven-day survival reality show. Now they were enjoying their last dinner on the spaceship. Because agents and assistants were forbidden from accompanying them, these stars were helplessly enjoying the fun of “self-reliance” and all the food had been prepared by themselves, so several people had taken the opportunity to show off their cooking skills—the trivia obtained on this spaceship would also be broadcast as tidbits during the program.

Unfortunately, not everyone could find the opportunity to perform. The kitchen on the spaceship wasn’t large and there were no fewer than 13 people, so those who couldn’t cook were all driven out of the kitchen. The chef was He Yi, who hadn’t been obvious before.

He Yi fried lamb chops for everyone, each one was cooked according to the preferences of the different people, and he remembered all the twelve menus correctly.

When everyone praised his skill, only Janet sighed affectedly, took a bite, and put down her knife and fork: “Sorry, I can’t eat when I think about the next seven days.”

He Yi sat at the table, his hands crossed below his chin, and looked at them with a smile: “When Jesus tasted his last supper with the twelve apostles, he was in the same mood as you.”

He Yi’s smile grew deep and meaningful: “Enjoy the present and enjoy it in time. After all, none of us know how long we can live.”

At this moment, Qi Leren suddenly saw a familiar yet unfamiliar shadow from him.

He thought of Su He.

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The author has something to say:

There’s a large number of people in this task, so if it’s hard to remember, come back to this chapter and see what the author has to say. It will be remembered slowly with the development of the plot. For the convenience of memory, foreign names are only mentioned by first names, not last.

Leading group: Qi Leren, Du Yue, and Dr. Lu

Foreign Group: Lara, Francis, Alex, Janet, Annie, Mark

Chinese group: He Yi, Xue Jiahui, Jing Sixue, Jing Siyu

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Editor’s Note: I spent so long trying to figure out how to translate the name of that dang octopus… For anyone curious, I’m pretty sure the ones that appear in this arc are based off Amphioctopus fangsiao specifically.

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