Chapter 56

Chapter 56

This celebrity named Zhao Yang-his full name was Zhao Yang-was an extremely controversial figure online.

He was originally a director. He was fairly handsome, and he did have some skill when it came to making movies. The problem was that he always liked to add bizarre, inexplicable elements to his films.

For example, in the movies he made, people from the Xia Kingdom never seemed to open their eyes.

At the same time, despite being from the Xia Kingdom himself, he was a brainless fanboy of the Beautiful Country. He had once said online that even the air in the Beautiful Country smelled sweet, among other things.

He often posted little essays online, going on and on about how wonderful other countries were. On top of that, he was a vegan, part of the LGBT community, an environmentalist, biologically male but identifying as female, gay, a lover of organic food, Catholic, and so on…

He had a considerable number of haters. But plenty of people supported him, too.

The moment anyone criticized him, those supporters would swarm in, saying things like people needed to connect with international standards, or that apparently no one was allowed to point out flaws anymore.

Because of all that, topics about him were always incredibly hot. He basically never left the trending searches.

And in this era of traffic, people like him were even more popular. Controversy meant attention, so countless variety shows and movies came looking for him.

That made him a top-tier celebrity in the country. It was just that recently, he seemed to have run into something, so he had gone somewhat quiet.

He glanced at Liu Ye in disgust.

“Honestly, I hate bumpkins like this the most. It’s because the Xia Family has too many people like you that they’re so backward. It’s different in our Meilijia. Everyone there has such high class. I really don’t know why the production team would invite someone like you!”

As he spoke, he held up his phone and said,

“Hello, sisters. Let me introduce you to another organic drink, Guangming Special Drink. After drinking it, your skin will be as fair as mine…”

He talked while heading upstairs.

“Is he… a man or a woman?” Liu Ye asked, speechless.

Li Yifan said, “…Seems male!”

“Huh?”

“…Also female!”

Liu Ye: “…”

After a while, one celebrity after another arrived at the villa. Among them were major stars, well-known entrepreneurs, and wealthy young ladies. They would all be living here together for fourteen days!

They all seemed to know one another and chatted amicably among themselves. Only Liu Ye and Xiaoshuai remained silent.

No one was talking to Liu Ye, while Xiaoshuai was too afraid of Liu Ye to speak.

Fortunately, this situation did not last long. Once the final person entered the villa, the System’s voice instantly appeared in everyone’s mind.

[Ding! Mission Objective 3 unlocked. Please do not allow your number of fans to fall to 0.]

As soon as the voice finished speaking, their phones rang. Everyone hurriedly took out their phones.

They saw that an app had suddenly appeared on their phones. When they opened it, the interface was very simple. It only showed their photos and their number of fans. At the same time, this data also appeared online, with their profile pictures and fan counts displayed for all to see.

Meanwhile, the same app appeared on the phones of all the fans watching the show. It showed the avatars of the fourteen celebrities participating in the program.

However, perhaps because of some error, even though Liu Ye clearly was not participating in this mission, his avatar was on it as well. Every viewer could choose one celebrity to support. At this moment, his number of supporters was only three. That’s right-they were the three Fiends: the driver, Old Man, and Ah Biao.

They were terrified that Liu Ye would be eliminated and come back.

Over on this side, Xiaoshuai looked at his own fan count. He currently had more than one hundred million supporters, which looked more than sufficient. But the moment he thought of Mission Objective 2, he could not help frowning.
These fans might be numerous, but if anything happened, their numbers could drop just as quickly.

Take Li Yifan, for example. He had originally had around thirty million followers, but after he admitted he was divorced just now, that number instantly fell by seven million.

Of course, some people did not care much. After all, even the least popular celebrities here had several million fans backing them, while even the ordinary participants who came onto the show had at least a hundred thousand or so. As long as nothing went wrong, their follower counts would not plummet.

Just then, another host appeared in front of them.

After the previous one stepped down, the director had nearly cursed him to death.

This time, they had switched in a much more experienced veteran. He naturally walked over to Xiaoshuai, chatting with him as if they were friends. But all of a sudden, the host’s expression changed, and a strange smile appeared on his face.

“Xu Fei, I heard that you joined a certain organization, and that your position in this organization isn’t low. Could you tell us more about that?”

Xiaoshuai, who had originally been calm, instantly broke out in sweat when he heard the question.

He never expected the other party to ask something like this.

The matter of the Illuminati absolutely could not be exposed to the public. If word got out, it would bring huge trouble.

Of course, he actually did not care that much about any of that. What he cared about was Liu Ye standing right beside him!

If he said it out loud, Liu Ye would eat him alive.

So without the slightest hesitation, he lied.

“That’s right. I joined a charity foundation dedicated to caring for children. We are committed to helping impoverished children so they can grow up healthy and strong. Here, I would like to appeal to everyone: as long as each person contributes a little love, this world will become a better place!”

“Great!”

Liu Ye clapped excitedly. Those words were simply wonderful. He never expected Xiaoshuai to be someone with such vision and social responsibility. It truly made Liu Ye admire him!

Online, Xiaoshuai was also showered with praise. Everyone said he was a good artist with real professional ethics. His fan count rose by quite a lot again.

Only Xiaoshuai’s face showed no trace of pride at all. Instead, it looked a little dark.

Because a line of text had appeared on the panel in front of him.

[Ding! You have lied once and gained the Fiend’s gaze. There is a chance you will speak your true thoughts!]

He never imagined that this Fiend would actually possess an ability like this.

He tried using the Fiendish Item on him, but it was completely useless. Since there was only a chance that he would speak the truth, the Fiendish Item had no effect unless that probability was triggered. He could not possibly keep the Fiendish Item activated the entire time.

Clearly, this Fiend possessed a very powerful rule-based ability.

Meanwhile, in Zhao Yang’s livestream room, a female actress who had been chatting with him suddenly changed expression. Then, just like the host, a strange smile appeared on her face.

“Zhao Yang, rumors online say that when you were a student, you bullied your classmates. Is that true?”

[What kind of question is that? How could our Yangyang commit school violence?]

[Exactly. This is why people say the Xia Family has no class. They only know how to ask questions like this.]

Zhao Yang had not expected the other party to suddenly ask this when they had been chatting just fine.

“That never happened! Where did you even hear that from?”

In his panic, words that went against his own conscience slipped straight out of his mouth.

Immediately afterward, the System’s voice rang out.

[Ding! You have lied once and gained the Fiend’s gaze. There is a chance you will speak your true thoughts!]

When Zhao Yang saw that line, he grew even more panicked.

The smile on the female actress’s face grew even brighter, but in the next second, her entire body turned dazed.