Chapter 280: Doing Business

Chapter 200 - Doing Business

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

Sucking blood.

It was a term used in the fan circle.

It was commonly seen when two parties tied themselves together. One party would ‘suck’ the other party’s popularity in order to increase their own.

“Brother Wang, won’t I lose fans like that?”

In the dormitory’s ground floor canteen, dinner time. Nicholas sat across from Wu Jin with his food. His expression was stunned and bewildered.

Wu Jin shook his head and countered his words.

“Real fans won’t climb over the wall and switch so easily.” Wu Jin spoke calmly, “Although there’s a small likelihood that your fan base will be affected, all the fans you’re left with will be loyal fans. The total quantity might be reduced slightly, but the overall quality will have been improved.”

“We call this kind of thing ‘fan purification’.

“See, you can purify your fans while I increase my popularity. Our total number of fans won’t have decreased, and it’s a win-win situation for both sides.”

Nicholas suddenly understood, “You have a point.”

Wu Jin: “……” It was over. This guy really was a fool.

However, Wu Jin felt a lot of love for this beautiful waste.

Half an hour ago, the two of them were still fighting in the fire passageway, and mutually attacking each other’s black history. Half an hour later, they were working together in the canteen.

The alliance was confirmed.

Wu Jin slowly picked up and ate a mouthful of food. Wu Jin’s face was obviously flawed, and Wu Jin hadn’t had time to study the way the muscles worked in his jaw when he bit and chewed in front of the mirror. As the 96th ranked idol, Wu Jin definitely wouldn’t wolf down food in front of the camera.

Across from him, Nicholas didn’t eat much either. He was too scared.

Wu Jin was very satisfied with this new status quo. Nicholas was a ‘mobile blood bag’ who could be controlled, and he was ranked 2nd in popularity. As long as things were managed well, this blood would be enough for him to absorb all the way from the qualifying rounds to the finals!! Even though Nicholas’s position was a little dangerous at the moment, it wasn’t a situation with no solutions––

Nicholas trembled and quaked, “Brother Wang, how will you protect me?”

Wu Jin slowly curved up the corners of his mouth, “Stay with me when you go out, and lock the door when you go back to the dorms.”

The beautiful waste across from him was finally relieved.

Like Silver Armor’s single bedroom, once Nicholas’s bedroom was locked from the inside, it would be a private room that ensured absolute safety. As for outside the dorms––Nicholas was full of confidence in big brother Wang Ping’s combat skills. As long as they didn’t run into star level trainees like Wei Yan and the King of Hearts, Nicholas firmly believed that Brother Wang had the ability to fight and win.

So, Nicholas began to live up to his promise, “How shall we do business?”

Wu Jin rapped the table with his knuckles. This was one of his micro actions for ‘Wang Ping’ that would cover up the details of his behavior as ‘Wu Jin’. “Let’s try building a brotherhood relationship.”

A few minutes later, the live broadcast camera swept past the table. Nicholas and Wang Ping stood with their arms slung across each other’s shoulders.

The camera drifted away.

The two of them lowered their heads at the same time, opened up their wrist watches, and looked at the forums.

“Nicholas ahhhh!! Husband, look at me! [love][love]” ––Girlfriend fan.

“Darling Nico is still very handsome today. My daughter is so popular >w<” ––Jokester fan.

The completely transparent Wu Jin: “……”

It turned out that in the early stages of the talent show, each contestant’s script and story hadn’t yet come up to the surface. Fans couldn’t even recognize their faces, let alone tap into the deep relationship between players. Wu Jin thought it over again, “Let’s change it to a CP.”

Wang Ping’s facial features were honest and bland. It was absolutely impossible for him to act sexy. When the camera passed by again, Nicholas was showing half of his profile as he leaned by the window and laughed loudly against the setting sun, while Wang Ping cuddled his arm and gazed at him.

The camera drifted away.

Both of them rubbed their goosebumps at the same time. Wu Jin’s back felt cold, and his expression was dazed. He felt that things were a little wrong, and it seemed that the two of them didn’t match at all; there was no tacit understanding between them.

The fans on the forum finally reacted this time.

“Who is this person? Who is trying to take advantage of my Nicholas’s popularity?”

“Nicholas ahhhh don’t play with him! Listen to mama; he’s not good looking. Good looking people should eat and work together with other good looking people, okay?”

Nicholas looked up blankly, “Do you want to try again…”

Wu Jin shook his head. He’d already figured out the ecological distribution for Nicholas’ fan group. With this kind of delicate little fresh meat, the appearance fans, the idol fans, and the reverse fans outnumbered everything else. Forming a CP or building a brotherhood relationship wouldn’t be easy, which left only one last option––

idol fans and reverse fans – idol fans are those who regard their idol as handsome, good, and so on, and want to be their girlfriend/lover/etc. reverse fans are fans who treat their idols like tender and shy daughters, sisters… reversing the ‘positions’ of an idol fan

At this time, the AI who worked in the canteen for the trainees passed by and set down a plate between the two of them.

Nicholas: “?? We didn’t order any food.”

The AI smiled slightly and removed the silver plate cover, “Perhaps it was ordered for you by another player. Please, enjoy.”

The aroma of pepper and roasted meat was very tempting.

A solitary spiced rabbit head stood in the middle of the plate, like a blatant warning.

“……!!!” Wu Jin turned back abruptly. Rap Class 2 was seated in scattered positions around a corner of the canteen, and Vocal Class 1 and Dance Class 1 were off in the distance. A malicious gaze seemed to sweep over his back, but there was no sign of it when he looked back.

Nicholas was so frightened that he turned pale, “What is this?”

Wu Jin picked up his chopsticks, “A rabbit head.”

Nicholas: “You eat rabbit heads? Rabbit heads can be eaten? … That’s not it, I mean, who sent us this rabbit head? Is it poisoned? Brother Wang, don’t bite it, ah, you still have to protect me aaahhhh!!”

Wu Jin finished it in a few quick bites, “It’s quite delicious.” Then, he continued and wiped his mouth, “Alright then, let’s not form a CP.”

“That means there’s only one option left.”

Wu Jin knocked on the table, “Father and son relationship.”

Night fell.

Rap Class 2 slowly made their way back to the training room they’d gathered in during the day. There were 16 rappers, and each of them had a segment of rap lyrics that had been issued to the contestants. Wu Jin only glanced at it briefly before putting it away.

For the 100 into 60 competition, the most important thing wasn’t the lyrics.

On the snow white wall, the red handprints that they’d left there during the interview were a shocking sight. When mixed in with the pale blue light, it seemed like there had been a ghost locked inside the training room who’d beat at the wall with bloody hands.

By this time, there was already a series of hidden alliances between the 16 trainees.

Wu Jin had a good relationship with Nicholas, and he’d maintained a friendship with the three people he shared a dormitory with. The arrogant Silver Armor occupied a window on his own and looked down from the training room, observing the terrain of the dilapidated factory building. In another group, Leica, who’d taken the initiative to stand out as a ‘think tank’ and seek allies, had quickly become a leader of the group.

Soon, Leica led the group of trainees into the corridor for a meeting.

“Hurry.” Wu Jin led Nicholas towards the camera. Nicholas nodded solemnly, picked up the manuscript, struck a hip-hop pose, shook his head, and began to rap, “The audience is my bro, the stage is my flow, for the dream you know, for the brother you know…”

Wu Jin had reason to suspect that the lyrics for the seventh elimination match had been randomly written by a rap generator.

However, while they were in front of the camera, Wu Jin was like a loving father who was good at teaching. He quickly went to Nicholas and taught him how to breathe, how to spit out words, and how to deal with the break points in the lyrics.

Nicholas’s performance was very natural. He was just like someone who couldn’t figure it out no matter how he was taught, but it was difficult to blame him because he was beautiful.

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The two of them dragged it out in front of the cameras for 15 minutes before the AI cameraman finally got tired of them and moved the camera away to shoot other players.

Wu Jin quickly looked through the fan forum on his watch.

“What is this player’s name? Wang Ping! He feels very kind. As I was saying, my Nico is loved by everyone wherever he goes! Thank you, Brother Wang, for taking care of my daughter––”

“Hahaha Wang Ping is just like Little Nico’s mama fan!”

“Super thankful, thank you for helping Nicholas. I’ll use my extra votes on you!”

Wu Jin was relieved at last.

Beside the window, Silver Armor gaped at the two of them. After witnessing Wu Jin holding a vampire cane and poking at Nicholas’s blood bag for 15 minutes, it seemed that Silver Armor’s view on this competition had been thoroughly subverted.

Nicholas asked him excitedly, “Brother Wang, was it useful?” Then, he suddenly realized that Silver Armor was still watching them and quickly lowered his voice.

Wu Jin nodded and made a gesture. The two of them left the training room.

“Let’s go out and walk around.”

Before leaving Silver Armor regained his cool pride again, and scoffed at Wang Ping and Nicholas’s XX type trade.

The night was cool.

Wu Jin didn’t stray too far from the training room. The scope of the lighting from the room only reached a certain range.

Once they were away from the crowd, Nicholas finally poured out his doubts, “Brother Wang, will Leica and the others do something to me?”

Wu Jin leaned against the wall, half of his body submerged in the shadows. “Yes.”

Nicholas always had a feeling that beneath Wang Ping’s face, Brother Wang himself should be a very attractive player with a strong personal temperament. But the answer he was given sent him straight into a panic, “Really? Bro-bro-brother Wang––”

“It’s not a big problem.” Wu Jin spoke again, “They have over a dozen people, but their interests aren’t evenly distributed. There’s a total of 800 votes, meaning that it’s impossible for everyone to advance together.”

“There are many ways to advance. One is to eliminate the top ranked teammates, and another is to take advantage of the top ranked teammates.”

Nicholas shivered and trembled as he listened. Suddenly, he seemed to understand something, “You mean… to help lift them up, too?”

Wu Jin was only going to give this much advice. “You have a large number of fans. How you use them is up to you. Remember, only when someone has a stake in the matter, will someone be willing to protect you.”

Nicholas pondered this for a short time and suddenly saw the light, but he abruptly heard Wang Ping ask, “Out of the sixteen people in Rap Class 2, how many do you recognize?”

Wu Jin’s attitude towards Nicholas was extremely straightforward. In exchange for giving advice, he asked the most important questions directly, without going around in circles.

In the seventh elimination match, there were 50 players from the Crosson Show and 50 from the Stardust Cup. Any clues he could learn now could become a chip during the final showdown.

In return, Nicholas was also very direct, “Two, but their strength is also only mediocre…”

Amongst the trainees from the Stardust Cup, Nicholas was an underachiever. Underachievers tended to become friends with each other, so the friends of a mediocre student would be other mediocre students. It was already reaching Nicholas’s limit for him to be able to recognize two people.

Wu Jin: “What about Leica and Silver Armor?”

Nicholas spread his hands regretfully, “No way, I thought they were both from the Crosson Show!”

Wu Jin shook his head.

Only now did Nicholas realize that Brother Wang’s circle was different from his. It seemed that Wang Ping was familiar with the A and S-level trainees from the Crosson Show, which was why he could eliminate them from the possibilities so quickly. Nicholas was then curious, “Brother Wang, who are you?”

Wu Jin patted this silly son on the shoulder, “I’m Pikachu. Alright, let’s go back to the dorms. Remember to lock yourself in at night.”

Wu Jin suddenly thought of something else, “Between Leica and Silver Armor, is there any chance that either of them might be the King of Hearts?”

Nicholas couldn’t really answer him and was only able to squeeze out after a long time, “Based on their characters, it doesn’t seem like it. If you ask me, if any group ends up nearly completely destroyed, then there’s a 80% chance that it will be at the King of Hearts’ hands. Brother Wang, although I’m from a wild card team, I’ve also heard about the training games the King has participated in before.”

“His style is very ‘grand’.” Nicholas seemed to be trying to pick out the right words, “Because he is very powerful, sometimes, in the instances, he is the closest thing to the rule designer inside the game. I don’t think being eliminated by the King of Hearts is anything disgraceful.”

“……” Wu Jin was in a daze. This was a real competition drifter! He’d already given himself excuses for being eliminated before he was even eliminated from the game!

The night had grown dark.

The two of them took advantage of how they’d left the training room to quickly look around the vicinity for anything that could be used in self-defense. Wu Jin found a piece of toughened glass, and wrapped it up with a steel fork using a cloth rope taken from the canteen curtains, making it into a rough dagger. He planned to use this for self-defense, and find time later on to go to the canteen and steal a kitchen knife.

The survival count on their wrist watches was still at 100.

If Wu Jin’s guess was correct, then the closer they were to the performance, the more players would choose to make a move.

“Brother Wang, will they come to chop me up tonight…” As they neared the back of the canteen, Nicholas was still chatting nonstop.

Wu Jin was almost dizzy from all the noise, “Do you see the survival number?! It’s 100. What’s the probability that you’ll be the first to fall? 1%. That’s basically zero. Go back and sleep!”

“You’re not in any danger until tomorrow, unless you’re forced into doing something by an external cause.”

Nicholas finally breathed a sigh of relief, “That’s true, nobody else has been eliminated yet…”

Both of their watches vibrated.

Wu Jin’s expression changed slightly, and he quickly bowed his head. Nicholas also looked at his watch in dismay.

Current survival count: 99.

Nicholas’ expression was pale, “Brother Wang, the King of Hearts has started ahhhh!”

Wu Jin wasn’t convinced, “…….” Why does it have to be the King of Hearts? Are you treating Wei Yan and Brother Wei like they didn’t exist!

“Let’s get the knife and go.” Wu Jin glared at Nicholas, then gestured for him to lower his voice, “Back to the training room.”

The kitchen behind the canteen was dark.

By the time they went inside, the majority of the knives had already been swept away. Wu Jin wasn’t surprised that someone had been ahead of them, and it seemed that they could see some other contestants running over to the canteen from the distance.

“Let’s go.” Wu Jin mouthed the words as he snatched up a couple knives.

They left quickly.

As they ran back towards the training room, Wu Jin thought quickly.

There were 100 interns. There were too many variables, and it was hard to speculate over why the first player had been eliminated. However, it was still beyond his expectations that they would make a move at the very start…

The lights for the training room were getting closer.

Wu Jin hid away his knives and led Nicholas to the main entrance. He looked through the window and said, “Almost everyone is there.”

The door to the training room opened.

Silver Armor, who’d also come in from outside, glanced at them.

But after that, Wu Jin, Silver Armor and Nicholas’s gazes gathered in the same place, just like the rest of the contestants.

On the walls of the training room.

The ‘16’ that had originally been written in blood red paint had been crossed out.

In its place was a new number.

15.

xiin: chapter 200! do you know what that means?!?! there’s only 38 chapters left!!! (there’s a lot of long ones so it’ll take maybe a little less than two months before it’s all done??) holy crap~

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