FLME Ch49

Xi Su’s reaction was not only completely unexpected for Yu Wen, but even the netizens in the livestream were caught off guard. After freezing for a second, they burst into roaring laughter.

[Hahahahahaha I’m dizzy.]

[Someone save him! He looks like he’s genuinely losing his mind!]

[What a beautiful mental state…]

[I was almost feeling emo, but seeing Teacher Xi going this crazy, I suddenly calmed down a bit.]

[I remember Xi Su used to be pretty mature? He had a ship with Chu Han and gave off massive top energy on the show.]

[The past is the past; right now, he’s a pervert.]

[Hhhhhh what the heck is going on…]

[He’s such good friends with Xiao Yu, deep down he’s just a cute baby like Xiao Yu, what’s wrong with that? Mm, exactly. (Mama fan’s doting love)]

[I’m telling you, your Starlight Media is just a giant psychiatric hospital…]

“We’re innocent, esteemed magistrate! Our company is full of proper, decent people! Xi Su has actually always had this kind of personality, he’s just a bit shy and restrained in front of the camera. He’s quite lively in private…”

Yu Wen racked his brains, desperately trying to organize his words to smooth things over for Xi Su.

Midway through, Xie Heyu received a call from Xie Jiamao. The boss of Starlight Media rarely had free time today. Remembering that Yu Wen’s new variety show was airing, he decided to go online to check the reviews. However, before he even scrolled down the trending topics, he saw live-streamed clips of another artist under his management losing his mind in the number two trending spot.

The trending topic #YuWenLivestream# had an extremely high volume of discussion, hanging right below the Battle Royale topic. Netizens drawn in to follow the live updates naturally clicked in to take a peek, and the moment they entered, they were greeted by a blue-haired guy running wild all over the room.

“Yu Wen, I feel like our friendship has reached its end. Let’s stop here. I won’t support your dramas anymore. If I watch another second, I’m a dog.” Xi Su brought a small suitcase down from upstairs, standing calmly in the living room as he bid farewell to Yu Wen. “Goodbye, Yu Wen. Goodbye, entertainment circle.”

Yu Wen: “…”

A moment later, dragging his suitcase, he walked back from the front door, picked up the broom he had accidentally left on the sofa, and said calmly, “Almost forgot my cannon.”

Yu Wen: “…”

When Xie Jiamao clicked into the livestream, Xi Su was opening his suitcase, attempting to pack a box of cherries from the kitchen to take with him, saying all the while, “I’m leaving now, just taking a little keepsake. I’ll think of you when I eat them, Yu Wen.”

Yu Wen: “…”

After watching this, Xie Jiamao nearly fainted.

He had only given Xi Su half a month off, how the hell did this thing manage to cause such a massive disaster for him?!

Xie Jiamao hurriedly called Xie Heyu.

“Xiao Xie… Yes, yes, yes, tell him to go back to his room, don’t let him wander in front of the camera… I don’t plan on giving him a fabricated persona, but he can’t just completely let himself loose like this! Oh my ancestors, all his female fans are going to run away if he acts like this! How is he going to film idol dramas in the future?! His acting is atrocious—oh, wait, no, I mean he has to retain a little bit of Su (heartthrob) appeal! Do you understand Su appeal? If you tell him, he probably won’t understand, Xiao Xie, just tie him up…”

Hanging up the phone, Xie Heyu slipped his phone back into his pocket, feeling a bit troubled.

Tie him up… How?

Xie Heyu went into the bathroom and found two unused towels. When he came out, he saw Xi Su attempting to pack Yu Wen into the suitcase as well, claiming this was his pension for the rest of his life…

Xie Heyu walked over and instinctively blocked him. Somehow, a scuffle ensued, and with a smooth motion, Xie Heyu pinned Xi Su onto the sofa.

Having narrowly escaped being kidnapped, Yu Wen indignantly smacked the blue-haired guy with a throw pillow.

From the corner of the sofa, Chu Han hastily relocated, crawling and scrambling away from the war-torn main battlefield.

It was utter chaos.

The livestream was just as chaotic. The viewers didn’t even know which spectacle to watch first, ultimately lamenting that the person above was right—Starlight Media was indeed a giant psychiatric hospital.

Fifteen minutes later, Xi Su was tied to the corner of the sofa with a blanket and towels.

Sitting directly facing the TV, he looked like he wanted to die. “Did I commit murder or arson, Teacher Xie? To subject me to such cruel torture?”

[Xi Su, just confess hhhh]

[It’s been fifteen minutes, is he still refusing to confess?]

[Blue Hair must accompany me to finish this episode of Battle Royale today! His reactions are practically my healing potions!]

[Tying Teacher Blue Hair here was a brilliant decision. Who supports, who opposes?]

[Support!]

The variety show was in its final stages, with only half an hour left.

Even without buying a trending spot, the popularity of Battle Royale was so high it nearly crashed Weibo’s servers. Naturally, the director wouldn’t pass up such a fantastic promotional opportunity and immediately contacted the other guests, inviting them to join a live video call.

Yi Ming was still on set and hadn’t taken off her makeup and costume. With a slightly hazy background, she smiled and greeted the viewers in Yu Wen’s livestream, “Hello everyone, I’m the Elf. I’m here to leech off Teacher Yu’s popularity hahaha.”

For the time being, not many guests were able to go live—only Yi Ming and Jian Heng. On Jian Heng’s end, the moment he turned on his TV, his expression turned grave.

The bullet comments asked him what was wrong.

“The upcoming plot doesn’t seem very happy. I’m personally a very fragile little boy and can’t handle this kind of stuff. Sorry, I have things to do, I’m logging off.” Saying that, he moved to close the connection, but his manager grabbed him and pinned him in place, his face full of resistance.

The Bard’s storyline was independent, so Jian Heng didn’t know much about the bonds between the other characters. He probably understood even less than the viewers who had been following it closely in the bullet comments. However, he knew this final scene intimately well, because he had been on set during the filming.

He ended up crying just watching it out of context.

[“Young man, where are you going?”

A dark, quiet space. Boundless darkness enveloped the area. The sound of dripping water echoed from an unknown source, drip, drip, slow like the passage of time.

A young man wielding a longsword was walking forward.

His steps were steady, but his gaze was blank. A wisp of black mist coiled around his ankle. He instinctively swung his sword and severed it, doing so with such practiced ease it was as if he had done it a thousand, a million times.

The path ahead was endless, with no end in sight.

“…Find the core of the curse, sever it,” he answered mechanically. These words seemed carved into his bones, allowing him to answer without thinking. Yet after answering, he blinked, and a trace of clarity surfaced in his near-hollow eyes.

“Who are you?” he asked the voice.

The other party did not answer.

“Young Hero, you have done very well. You have severed countless streaks of curse magic, weakening its power… Now, you should rest for a while.”

The Hero raised his head. His lips were dry, and his voice raspy.

“…Can I rest now?”

“Of course. Your sword is already so shattered. Even if you walk further, you cannot achieve more victories. Why not end it here, and rest in this place?”

The Hero looked at the sword in his hand. It was so shattered, full of notches. It was no longer sharp and required four or five swings just to sever a single streak of curse magic.

“It doesn’t matter…” His dry lips parted. “A notched sword is still a weapon. Even without a weapon, I will continue to move forward.”

The voice fell silent.

A moment later, it said, “You no longer need to move forward. You severed the Demon Lord’s seven-day limit, buying enough time for your companions. The Dwarf and the Princess have already left the castle, returned to the palace, and are living happily ever after with the Evil Dragon…”

Seven-day limit, Dwarf, Princess, Evil Dragon… These words triggered distant memories within the Hero.

He gradually began to wake up, his brain, rusted by time, slowly beginning to turn.

“…Is that so?” he said, “But I haven’t completely severed the curse yet…”

“It is already enough, child.”

Under the voice’s patient, continuous persuasion, the Hero’s gaze gradually wavered. He revealed a look of slight relief, “I can rest now.”

The voice said, “Yes, you can rest now.”

Suddenly, a small cabin appeared before him. Bright sunlight poured in, illuminating freshly baked, fragrant buttered bread and black tea on the windowsill. Little birds sang in the woods; everything looked so beautiful.

The voice coaxed, “Go in, go in, enjoy the food and the warm bedding.”

The Hero murmured, “Go in…”

A loud, deep dragon’s roar echoed from far away, a roar that seemed to harbor fury.

The Hero’s steps faltered.

The voice grew urgent, “Go in quickly, young man. Inside is freshly baked bread and tea…”

He lowered his head, listening to the dragon’s roar echoing by his ear, looking at his notched sword, lost in thought.

“Dragon’s roars… they sound similar, but are actually different… There is a dragon whose roar I can understand,” he muttered to himself.

“This dragon is calling me, telling me to wake up, telling me to come home.”

He took a deep breath and looked up at the dazzling sunlight.

“My friend.”]

This segment was filmed during Yu Wen’s post-production reshoots. The guests shot a lot of supplementary material in post-production. While filming, it was hard to tell where the footage would be used, and even they themselves weren’t sure what the final product would look like.

When Yu Wen filmed this scene, the other guests were watching from the sidelines.

When shooting began, Jian Heng was gleeful, but by the end, he was hugging the emotionally sensitive Daniel Li, crying their eyes out, tears falling pitter-patter.

Daniel Li: “It’s too moving…”

Jian Heng: “Which part is this? Wuwuwu, I don’t understand but it’s so sad…”

In this footage, the darkness symbolized the boundless curse magic. The coaxing voice was the Demon Lord, and it depicted the Hero lost within the magic.

The Hero heard the Evil Dragon’s call, yet he didn’t immediately turn back. Instead, he continued forward.

Clutching that shattered, ruined sword, his steps were unwavering. Finally, amidst the Demon Lord’s shrill howls, he found the core of the curse and severed it with a single strike.

At the end of this scene, Yu Wen knelt on one knee, his head bowed in exhaustion.

The darkness dissipated. Bathed in sunlight, he raised his face, his eyes rimmed slightly red.

“I can go home now.”

Jian Heng and Daniel Li hugged each other and wailed.

When Yu Wen found the mechanism and authenticated the storyline, plunging his sword into the black mist, it transitioned directly into this scene.

Jian Heng cried once while filming it. After post-production editing and music were added and it aired on TV, Jian Heng cried all over again.

“He was trapped in the magic, forgetting the passage of time, but he still remembered the dragon roar of ‘My friend.’ He didn’t remember anything else, but still remembered he had to sever the curse magic. It wasn’t until the Demon Lord tricked him, saying the Dwarf and Princess had escaped, that he was willing to rest… Wuwuwu…”

He cried with such genuine emotion that he couldn’t even speak clearly. Yu Wen was originally feeling a bit sorrowful, the corners of his eyes secretly turning red, but after listening to Jian Heng’s choked-up pouring of feelings, he suddenly didn’t feel very sad anymore.

The other people in the livestream were in a similar situation.

Yi Ming had just pulled out a tissue and was secretly wiping away tears. But after Jian Heng’s barrage, her emotions instantly evaporated. Propping her chin on her hand, she watched Jian Heng’s sorrow.

Finally, unable to bear it any longer: “Brother Jian, there are so many people here… Can you stop blowing your nose?”

Jian Heng’s emotions were running high, and nobody’s words were going to stop him. With a nasally voice, he retorted, “What’s wrong? What living person doesn’t blow their nose? Stop acting so fake.”

The bullet comments voiced their support one after another.

[Support Brother Jian’s freedom to blow his nose!]

[The plot makes me want to cry, but Brother Jian is so funny.]

[To think one livestream could produce two clowns. The two of you and Xiao Yu, can you three livestream for us often?]

Yu Wen instinctively looked at the other clown. Half of Xi Su’s body was slumped on the sofa; he was completely motionless, impossible to tell if he was dead or alive.

Yu Wen poked him. “Teacher Xi?”

Like a reanimated corpse, Xi Su took a long, deep sniff.

“Give me a tissue,” he said.

Yu Wen: “What for?”

Xi Su looked very calm, but had actually lost his mind. “My eyes are peeing.”

“…”

Yu Wen pulled a tissue for him. When handing it over, he took a look and realized his face was already a mess of tears.

“Give me another one,” Xi Su said again.

Yu Wen: “Not enough?”

Xi Su sniffled. “My nose is peeing too.”

Yu Wen: “…”

Holding the tissue, Yu Wen felt a bit grossed out and didn’t dare to do it himself. Spotting his hesitation, Xie Heyu fetched Xi Su’s towel from the bathroom and slapped it directly onto his face.

Xi Su squirmed around to rub his face clean, actually quite grateful. “Thank you, kind sir.”

The bullet comments noted that Xi Su and Jian Heng must definitely have a lot in common, suggesting Yu Wen take this opportunity to introduce them. Whenever there was a new drama in the future, he could have the two of them livestream their reactions together.

Yu Wen relayed this comment to Xi Su. Shaking the towel off his face, Xi Su glanced at Jian Heng and said unhappily, “He’s a bad person. My grandma told me not to play with bad people.”

Yu Wen: “…You really are crazy.”

This earth-shattering remark sent the livestream into roaring laughter. Jian Heng choked, stopping his nose-blowing entirely, and declared, “Bro, that’s just the variety show character. In real life, I am… warm, cheerful, generous, proper, sunny, positive, optimistic, the treasure of the universe, and Goddess Nuwa’s masterpiece…”

Xi Su lay paralyzed on the sofa, eyes closed, looking half-dead as he replied, “Whatever. I just hate the house and its crow too.”

He couldn’t even enjoy shipping the ‘Xi-Yue’ CP anymore.

Yu Wen was genuinely worried Xi Su would completely obliterate his public image, and exchanged a glance with Xie Heyu.

Teacher Xie nodded, indicating he understood. He took the towel Xi Su used to wipe his face, balled it up, and gagged him with it.

Xi Su: “?”

At the end of the first episode, the world-building was introduced.

Because Yu Wen was the only one to clear the level, his official profile photo was the first to appear on the TV, with basic info like height and weight listed next to it.

“Tutorial dungeon concluded. Clearer: One person.

“Yu Wen, Registration Number xyum667. The beginner’s gift pack has been bound to you. Please select your clear reward—

“The second dungeon is about to begin. This season’s final mission: Resurrect the undead, rebuild the Hero’s squad.”

The information of the other four regulars followed closely behind. The blue electronic light screens and cold official photos exuded a strong mechanical, futuristic vibe.

“Thank you, players, for assisting the system in collecting soul energy. There is only one path of escape. Failure means death.

“Immerse yourselves. Revel in the carnival.

“Welcome to Battle Royale.”

This was the overarching world-building that spanned the first three seasons of Battle Royale—the Battle Royale system’s goal was to collect soul energy. Players were inserted into various characters to explore storylines. They only had one chance to escape; failure meant death.

The final mechanical voice brought viewers a long-lost sense of familiarity.

[Yo, Bro System, long time no see.]

[Bro System, I want to play too, let me in to play.]

The episode update ended, but Yu Wen’s livestream did not. His koi fish hadn’t been given away yet. However, he was also very concerned about the reception of the first episode and took a moment to check online.

As expected, it dominated the trending searches.

Nine of the top ten searches were about Battle Royale. Yu Wen didn’t read the contents of the searches closely, but the discussion volume was exceptionally high. Even his livestream had generated three or four trending topics, one about Xi Su and one about Jian Heng.

#XiSuWentCrazy# #JianHengCried#

One was at number twelve, the other at thirteen. Quite harmonious, really.

Yu Wen’s Weibo follower count was surging fiercely. Under his post promoting Battle Royale, netizens continuously left comments pouring out their love for the Hero.

Character filters were a terrifying thing, especially since Yu Wen’s actual personality was about sixty or seventy percent similar to the character.

In short, the first episode of Battle Royale Season 3… was a massive, explosive hit, a complete and total victory.