Chapter 94: Gold

The event was beach volleyball, but instead of a living room, it took place in an indoor sports arena filled with fine sand.

The rules of beach volleyball matched those of the real world: two players per team, best of three sets.

After Irfan and Harley were eliminated, only three men and three women remained in the villa. As the match was about to begin, Li Cheng had not yet arrived.

"Where did he go?"

Will, wearing swim shorts and bare-chested, frowned. He had undergone emergency treatment; electric burn marks still lingered on his chest. He utterly distrusted Anne and adamantly refused to team up with her, so he stood beside Jin Huiying.

On the other side of the net were Anne and Leonardo.

"I don't know," said Little Red Riding Hood, sitting in the corner outside the volleyball court, shaking her head and frequently glancing toward the living room.

She felt an inexplicable anxiety, like when she was a child, having just finished shopping at the supermarket, waiting in line to pay, and her mother suddenly went back to buy something—her turn was coming up, but her mother hadn't returned.

"Forget about him."

Fewer competitors meant no loss, Leonardo took a deep breath, stripped off his shirt, and revealed his bronze-toned skin and sculpted physique to the camera.

White Europeans were obsessed with tanning and sunless tanning. Even without access to sunlight, they went to beauty salons to use tanning machines.

Beyond the trend of healthy skin tones and class perceptions (a tan implied frequent vacations, indirectly signaling leisure and wealth), it was also because some white people had pale, cold-toned skin that looked especially unattractive without a tan.

For example, Donald Trump: his face, treated with tanning lotion, appeared bronze, while the skin around his eyes and hairline remained pale.

As an elite agent of European Heavy Industry, Leonardo's daily diet, sleep schedule, and exercise regimen in the real world were scientifically managed by nutritionists, fitness coaches, and medical teams. He had long developed perfectly defined six-pack abs.

Now, displayed before the camera, he immediately drew a flood of comments.

Beside him, Anne unfastened her dress, revealing the strapless swimsuit underneath. Her voluptuous figure completely overshadowed Jin Huiying's attempt at a cute aesthetic.

I bought a very sexy swimsuit. jpg

The match officially began. A mechanical arm tossed a blue, white, and yellow volleyball into the air.

Leonardo leapt up and delivered a heavy palm strike to the ball, sending it soaring over the net and crashing to the ground.

Will interlaced his fingers and used his arms to lift and bump the ball with practiced form.

Both sides exchanged volleys, showcasing their physiques and skills on camera; the score steadily rose until—

A powerful beat of music blared. Li Cheng arrived late, dressed in a suit with a bowtie, each hand dragging a suitcase. One suitcase even had a speaker attached.

His attire clearly had nothing to do with beach volleyball. The players mid-game instinctively slowed their movements and turned to stare at Li Cheng.

Like real-world reality shows, the post-apocalyptic dating show used multi-camera filming. The production director (possibly an AI) decided which camera's footage would be broadcast live based on the dramatic effect of each angle.

Li Cheng's face filled the screen in close-up. Expressionless, he strode to Little Red Riding Hood's side and sat down. After pausing for several seconds toward the camera, he suddenly shouted: "Do you want financial freedom? Do you want a beautiful life? Vote for us, and let us help realize your dreams."

???

Even though Li Cheng had already demonstrated his bizarre thinking, this sudden turn left everyone—including Little Red Riding Hood—stunned and bewildered.

Li Cheng ignored the others' stares and yelled into the camera: "Shanrong Industry thrives on trust. In the vast sea of commerce, the broad-minded prevail. Concerned with the world, enriching countless households. Vote for us, seize future opportunities, achieve financial freedom."

"I declare: all viewers watching this screen, if you vote for me and Little Red Riding Hood, and send your phone numbers as comments on the screen, I will randomly select fifty lucky viewers and gift them cash prizes."

WTF

All players stared in shock. The chat screen overflowed with confusion and skepticism.

【Wait, isn't this outright vote-buying? Is the production team allowing this?】

【The rules probably don't explicitly ban live-stream vote-buying… the production team never expected this.】

Facing the doubts, Li Cheng lifted both heavy suitcases onto the table, unlocked the combination locks, and opened the lids.

A flash of Jin Guang immediately reflected onto Little Red Riding Hood's and Li Cheng's faces. Li Cheng rotated the suitcases so the camera captured the contents inside.

Gold ingots.

Stacked neatly inside the suitcases were heavy, substantial gold ingots, radiating the unmistakable aura of money.

This shocking scene cleared the TV screen momentarily, then triggered a deluge of comments.

【GOLD GOLD MONEY MONEY!】

【Send 1 for gold? 111111, bro, are you really giving it away?】

【Bro, give me some, don't make me kneel and beg you.】

Leonardo and the others stopped playing, staring fixedly at the gold in the suitcases, lowering their voices instinctively: "This isn't possible!"

Since many scenario missions occurred in alternate worlds resembling modern Earth, players typically carried some form of universal equivalent—gold, silver, jewels, diamonds, or foreign currencies—to interact with native NPCs in the scenario world.

Leonardo and the others had also brought a certain amount of gold and silver valuables.

The problem was, the quantity of gold Li Cheng had produced was excessive. Together, the two suitcases contained roughly one hundred kilograms. At real-world gold prices, that amounted to approximately fifty-five million U. S. dollars in cash!

Master Pi Fu was merely a lone wolf player. Where did he get the funds to buy so much gold? Even if he belonged to a guild, there was no reason to hoard such bulky, inconvenient precious metals.

Little Red Riding Hood was equally stunned. At the end of the previous round, Li Cheng had asked her whether she carried any gold ingots. She had truthfully handed over all the gold bars she possessed—worth eight hundred thousand U. S. dollars.

Li Cheng smiled faintly and announced loudly: "To ensure fairness, I will randomly write down fifty phone numbers on paper, obscuring the middle four digits, and display them for all viewers. After we leave this place, I will contact every winner and ship the gold to their designated addresses."

Currency is not inherently gold or silver, but gold and silver are inherently currency. Gold, due to its unique physical and chemical properties and industrial uses, remains a universal equivalent even in times of war—unlike diamonds, which are merely lumps of ancient charcoal.

"What are you doing? We agreed to win by our own merits!"

Leonardo growled low: "The mechanical arm is already descending!"

A mechanical arm hung from the ceiling, swaying slightly toward Li Cheng, as if uncertain whether this violated the rules and whether it should intervene.

Li Cheng stared directly at the mechanical arm, unflinching, calmly saying: "Trust me. If I'm not mistaken, no one will die in the next phase of this mission."

(End of chapter)