Chapter 357
Chapter 357
Yellow Hair’s looks had improved considerably after his makeover.
He had also spent the day taking her out and having fun. By the end of it, Lin Junruo felt much less stressed. Now, with nothing more than a simple ice cream cone, he suddenly made her feel happy.
She thought she might be getting a taste of love.
Before she could remain lost in that feeling for long, however, a large light fixture suddenly fell from the mall ceiling. Lin Junruo was sitting directly beneath it. Once it fell…
“Ah!”
Screams erupted all around them.
Lin Junruo had not yet come to her senses.
Yellow Hair no longer cared about the ice cream. He threw it aside and reached out to yank her away.
He dragged her several steps out of the way. They stumbled, then both fell flat on the floor. Fortunately, they were clear of the falling light, though flying shards of glass left both of them with cuts.
But a few minor injuries were nothing serious.
They had survived a brush with death.
“Are you all right?” Yellow Hair asked anxiously.
Lin Junruo shook her head. The tension that had only just begun to ease, however, returned at once.
The panda robot had said there would be danger during the shows too. They had not encountered any before, so they had not paid much attention. But now…
And after all that abuse they had hurled at it, could the Realm of Death really have failed to notice?
Lin Junruo regretted it a little now.
It had felt wonderful to swear, but if the Realm of Death really decided to make trouble for them, they clearly had little power to fight back.
Still, this was no time to dwell on that. They had already said it all. What could they do now?
The sight gave Zhou Jingying a fright as well.
The staff hurried over immediately.
Filming was suspended because of the accident. Since the day was almost over anyway and the show was already nearing its end, Zhou Jingying was sent out of the program halfway through her anxious dash toward the pair.
They returned to the lounge.
Yellow Hair and Lin Junruo remained dazed for a moment.
Once they were out of the show, their injuries disappeared.
They exchanged a glance, then looked straight toward Jian Fan and the others.
“Finished?” Qin Nan greeted the five of them.
Yellow Hair nodded. “You were quick. How long have you been out?”
“Quite a while,” Qin Nan replied. Then he laughed. “You weren’t slow either.”
“Never mind how fast we were. We don’t have much time. What did you find this round?” Yellow Hair asked hurriedly. He had found not a single clue and could only follow the show’s requirements.
Mu Xin was still holding the book. She returned it to Yang Zhen and said, “This autobiography updates.”
Yang Zhen took it.
Mu Xin had deliberately folded down the corner of the relevant page, so Yang Zhen quickly found the new passage. The reason Mu Xin had discovered it…
“Does it have something to do with this episode of Escape Room?” Yang Zhen asked.
Mu Xin nodded.
“Then does that mean it’ll update again after the next episode?” Yang Zhen asked.
“What’s the point of another update?” Yellow Hair said. “Once the next episode’s over, we’re finished.”
Yang Zhen: “…”
“Jian Fan, have you thought of anything? Your position should be fairly secure now, but we’re getting a little worried,” Yellow Hair said.
Qin Nan offered some reassurance. “We still have a slot to recruit someone. Lu Jing drew a Copy Card. If we can duplicate that slot, we’ll be able to choose two teammates.”
Yellow Hair’s eyes lit up at that, but his heart soon grew heavy again. He turned to look at Yang Zhen.
He understood what Qin Nan meant.
They must be planning to save him and Lin Junruo.
He did not know Zhou Jingying or Shen Xianglan very well yet, but Yang Zhen had helped them quite a lot. The thought of leaving her alone in the variety show… made him feel guilty.
“What are you staring at? Are you so sure they’re going to win?” Yang Zhen deliberately snapped.
“Actually, I have a risky idea,” Jian Fan suddenly said.
Everyone immediately turned to him.
“If we have one slot, choose Xia Zeqin. If we have two, choose Xia Zeqin and Xie Cheng,” he said directly.
They all froze.
Jian Fan would never give a chance at survival to a stranger, much less to Xia Zeqin, with whom he had a grudge. His reason for doing this…
“Leaving Xia Zeqin alone in a world really is too dangerous. If he pulls something and pushes his show’s Popularity into first place, then…” Qin Nan said. By this point, everyone understood.
If Xia Zeqin took first place, everyone except Xia Zeqin would die.
The way to prevent that was to bring him into their own camp.
They would nip any plans he had to cause trouble in the bud.
“What about Xie Cheng?” Mu Xin asked, a little puzzled.
A glint passed through Qin Weiyi’s eyes. “Exploiting a bug.”
“What?” Lin Junruo looked lost.
“There are four variety shows, and every show is required to have someone in it. Once we take Xia Zeqin and Xie Cheng away, though, those four shows become two.” Qin Weiyi’s lips curved upward. “That contradicts the game’s initial setup.”
The game required every variety show to be staffed, yet its own rules allowed them to reduce four shows to two. Once the actual situation conflicted with the setup, a bug might occur, or some corrective measure might be triggered. Perhaps that would give them an opening.
“If we’re going to exploit a bug, why not take it a little further?” Something seemed to occur to Qin Nan, and he gave a meaningful smile.
Jian Fan looked over too. “What do you mean?”
“According to the rules, the show with the lowest Popularity after the second episode has to erase one member. If the Copy Card works, we take Xia Zeqin with one slot, and use the other for the person who was supposed to be erased,” Qin Nan said.
Everyone considered this. That really was pushing the exploit.
A Player who should have died would end up surviving by using the rules instead.
“But what if… the final outcome doesn’t change?” Yellow Hair suddenly asked.
If nothing changed, only the group with the highest Points would survive. Wouldn’t that mean all five of them were doomed?
It was a very real possibility.
For a moment, everyone fell silent.
“How much Popularity do you have now?” Jian Fan suddenly asked.
Yellow Hair checked. “Only a little over nine million.”
They had tried harder this episode and earned more Popularity than before, but their total was still only around ten million. Jian Fan’s group had already passed ten million after the first episode, once their bonus was added.
Jian Fan turned to Qin Weiyi.
“Shall we let them take first place?” he asked. He needed his teammates’ agreement first.
Yellow Hair and the others, however, were stunned by his words.
What did he mean?