Chapter 95: Salvo

Li Cheng sat in a chair, his left hand, hidden beneath the desk, tightly gripping the bat-hook gun, ready to pull the trigger at any moment. His right hand pulled out a small device.

It consisted of a laser pointer mounted on a spinning disc, aimed at the TV screen; when the disc rotated and stopped, Li Cheng would record the subtitle the laser pointed to on paper.

A dense stream of subtitles scrolled across the TV screen, all of them phone numbers.

The mechanical arm hung suspended in midair, swaying slightly like the Sword of Damocles. Time dripped away, yet the arm never struck, the camera lens still fixed on the pile of "gold ingots" on the table.

As Li Cheng and Little Red Riding Hood's vote counts steadily rose and the show's organizers made no interference, Leonardo and the others still playing volleyball grew mentally chaotic.

"I only brought ten gold bars and a few diamonds and jewels; everyone else probably has the same. Trying Pi Fu's method—spending money to buy tickets through lucky draws—is clearly no match."

Leonardo suppressed his turbulent emotions and forced himself to think calmly, "Then, attack Pi Fu and seize the gold?"

Probably not feasible either—the mechanical arm's limit seems to prohibit direct attacks between contestants, and attacking Pi Fu wouldn't guarantee the audience would vote for you, especially while he's still in the spotlight.

They didn't know that earlier, Li Cheng had taken several gold pieces from Little Red Riding Hood and, while everyone else prepared for the next reality show round in the gym, slipped into the Bone Corridor and melted the gold with a nuclear lighter, mixing it with other metals to forge this batch of ingots.

Among them were gold-plated silver, copper-laced fake gold, and pure gold ingots.

"Trust me," Li Cheng whispered to everyone, "if anyone gets eliminated, don't resist—immediately leave the villa through the door. There's a good chance you'll survive."

"Bullshit—"

In desperation, Will abandoned his refined demeanor and spoke in a street-black accent: "Then why don't you go wait by the door yourself?"

"Because I'm busy serving the audience. All the viewers are my family."

Li Cheng wore an expression of complete certainty and casually spun the disc.

Gulu lu—

The disc spun for a while, then slowly stopped, pointing to a subtitle: 【Can the host draw my number? Please, I haven't eaten in three days since breaking up with my partner. Here's my phone number: 502*****】

"Perfect. We now have our first lucky viewer. These are your ingots."

Li Cheng slid part of the gold on the table aside and, in a tone heavy with familiarity, urged the subtitle: "Look, the most important thing in life is happiness. Love can't be forced. My mom always said: smile often, good fortune will come. Cheer up."

Saying that, he spun the disc again, locking onto the next lucky viewer's subtitle.

【Host, host, can you draw me? My cousin was about to get engaged, but his family only wanted to buy a tiny apartment in Diamond City and refused to pay for a radiation-shielded magnetic levitation vehicle for commuting and grocery runs. They couldn't reach an agreement, so the engagement fell through. My cousin regrets it, and I'm terrified this might happen to me. Here's my phone number: 511****】

Li Cheng copied the phone number onto paper and said solemnly: "Tell your cousin—true love is always on the road. My neighbor's old lady spent her whole life waiting for true love and died over ten years ago."

One day, a dark-tech warlord happened to pass by, instantly sensed a karmic connection with her, dug up her grave, extracted her DNA from bone marrow using cutting-edge biotech, cloned and revived her, fitted her with the most advanced mechanical prosthetics, and gave her dozens of armored vehicles and powered exoskeletons as dowry."

Now their family is a renowned power. The couple is happily married. I heard they're expecting twins next year—gene-altered, born with double pupils, supreme mechanical bone implants, and ultra-powerful innate abilities, who drink beast milk. Truly enviable."

Whether it was due to prolonged exposure to the killing ground awakening his morbid sense of humor, or whether the multi-threaded brain method and immersive performance technique had made Li Cheng's thinking increasingly "abnormal," his talent for improvising wild tales grew daily.

Little Red Riding Hood, sitting beside him, struggled to keep her expression composed. To manage her facial expression, she had to violently pinch her own thigh out of the camera's view, just to maintain a calm smile.

She wiped the glistening sweat from her forehead and echoed Li Cheng: "Yes, I've heard that story too—the old lady, no, the wasteland warlord's lady—what an admirable tale. Master Pi Fu, shall we draw the next lucky viewer?"

"Mm, alright."

Li Cheng readily complied and spun the disc again.

Seeing two piles of ingots moved away, the frequency and volume of subtitles on the TV surged. Some subtitles even grasped the essence of the lottery—they deliberately sent long, sprawling messages to increase their area and dwell time on screen, boosting their odds of winning.

【Host, here's my number: 502***—Lifespan No Lifespan No Shit Machine, the day before yesterday, Xiao Xin's underwear, Xin Ba's life shit pellet, Barumong Fezalian, Isaac Shu Nard.】

【Host, my number is 213***. My family is extremely poor. Since childhood, my mother told me: poor kids are little chefs.】

【Host, draw me during the day, I'll draw you at night. How's that? (GIF: wearing tight leather, whipping a whip.)】

Soon the TV screen was flooded with chaotic, disordered subtitles—but this suited Li Cheng perfectly.

The more chaotic and numerous the subtitles, the more time he could buy to observe these samples and verify his hypotheses.

Yet his calm composure only made Leonardo and the others feel more agonized.

The vast majority of votes were sucked up by the antics of Li Cheng and Little Red Riding Hood; their beach volleyball was now ignored, with barely any new votes added.

"Pi Fu!"

Will, holding the beach volleyball and currently with the lowest vote count, growled: "Help me get votes. When we leave here, I'll give you a big reward. Don't forget where I'm from."

Will was from Gen-Sys Biotech. As a direct corporate member, he could petition his superiors after leaving to approve a substantial sum to transfer to Pi Fu as payment.

The problem was

"Don't joke."

Li Cheng's voice was calm: "Empty promises mean nothing. You can fabricate a bribe, but so can anyone else—then it becomes chaotic competition."

If you truly need help, you wouldn't say 'after we leave'—you'd hand me your gear and equipment right now."

"Same as before: trust me—if anyone gets eliminated, don't resist. Leave the villa through the door immediately."

"Hah."

Will sneered bitterly: "Sitting here waiting to die? That's not my style."

Saying that, he sharply spiked the volleyball and unleashed a skill upon it.

(End of Chapter)