Chapter 354 - 353: Victims Behind the Holographic Reality Show, Part 6
In the blink of an eye, a month passed in the virtual world.
In reality, not much time had passed at all. Whenever everyone rested, time would accelerate.
Of course, the people in the virtual world couldn’t feel it.
If they were suddenly attacked at night or something, time would return to normal. Time could freely speed up or slow down along with the actions of the guests. The live broadcast always had content, with some unimportant scenes automatically skipped over.
It was because of this that Ah Chen found a loophole and did quite a few things during this time. With 997’s cover, the monitoring technicians didn’t notice her anomaly at all and thought she was just wandering aimlessly. Whatever she did, it wouldn’t trigger any response from the monitoring program.
Yes, starting from a month ago, the audience found that Ah Chen was just wandering around like an ordinary zombie, without any clear target, and they lost interest. At first, it was fresh to watch, but without any stimulating content, they found it boring and stopped paying attention, so the production team also relatively ignored her.
The live broadcast was divided into two screens, but Wen Chulin’s side occupied most of the space, while Ah Chen’s screen was just a small box, only a few audience members would click to enlarge it.
[Host, the first batch of audience NPCs has been released and are about to meet up with Wen Chulin and the others,] 997 reminded her.
Ah Chen opened her eyes: [Great, let’s go take a look.]
[Is the host going to infect them all and turn them into zombies?] 997 asked excitedly.
Ah Chen was silent for a moment: [Why have you turned bad?] Was it because of the bad system it swallowed last time? Such a big influence?
[Host, I haven’t turned bad. Isn’t this the virtual world? Those people will come out eventually, so we can do whatever,] 997 explained, afraid Ah Chen would misunderstand him as becoming a bad system.
Ah Chen smiled faintly: [You’re not wrong in thinking that.]
[But I don’t plan to turn them into zombies, just going over to... watch the fun, and maybe cause them a bit of trouble.]
In the month that passed, preparations had been made, and there wasn’t much else to do before the next plan began. Watching the fun was quite nice. Can’t let them have it too easy, causing some trouble feels just right.
The entire virtual world was under 997’s surveillance, and Ah Chen could naturally find Wen Chulin and the others’ whereabouts quickly.
With the stats adjusted by 997, she was leveling up particularly quickly, leveling up every day without needing to do much. Without using human tools, she ran directly. Every time she passed an area with zombies, these zombies would show their respect to her.
Now, unless she summoned them, these zombies wouldn’t follow her. After they glanced at her, they would continue doing their own thing.
By the time Ah Chen arrived, the group of elderly, children, and the disabled had already met Wen Chulin and the others.
Without any commissioner alerts, the team quickly reached a consensus to take this group of elderly, children, and the disabled along with them.
The apocalypse already connected with this world, meaning that even if the Wen Family shut down the server at this point, it couldn’t stop this world from existing.
Ah Chen stood on a distant hillside, watching the group trudging along. According to the development, they would run out of water soon, and then a few water ability users would appear among the elderly, children, and disabled, making those with the alerts believe that kindness indeed has its rewards.
[Host, should we stop them from awakening their superpowers?] 997 asked. Now, no matter how he changed things, the Wen Family couldn’t stop it. Previously worried about them shutting down the server, now that the worlds were connected, the virtual world no longer depended on the server for existence. He had gained the highest authority, the Wen Family couldn’t seize it, only stare in frustration.
Ah Chen shook her head: [No, let them awaken their superpowers, just... limit the water ability to only one cup of water per day, the fire ability to only lighting fires, and the ice ability to only the size of a popsicle, as for the rest, you decide, just don’t let them awaken normal superpowers.]
For these guests and NPCs, it’s still the virtual world, no matter how it’s played, they will eventually get out.
One of the commissioner’s wishes was that not only she should taste this, but others should too.
With the water ability granting just one cup of water per day, there’s no telling how to divide it, especially when one can’t even satisfy oneself.
Three days later, Wen Chulin’s group ran out of water.
Originally, for just the seven of them, the water and food in the car would last half a month without any issues, but with the sudden addition of this group of elderly, children, and the disabled, they consumed all the water in just three days. Food was almost gone too, but they previously stockpiled quite a bit. By rationing, they might last another two days.
"Why is there no water?"
During the daily food distribution, the temporary leader, He Guiyun, had food distributed, and those receiving it asked upon seeing they had only a biscuit, with no water.
In front, distributing the food, Jie Weiwei turned and said, "There’s no more water."
She was also desperately thirsty, her lips were already dry.
The recent hardships she faced were greater than anything she had ever gone through from childhood to now.
The weather wasn’t too hot, which was lucky, otherwise not drinking water for a day might’ve been deadly.
But the lack of water was still unbearable, if water couldn’t be found within three days, they’d all be doomed. At this moment, Jie Weiwei suddenly doubted whether following that voice in her head telling her to stay kind, would truly allow her to survive in this world.
Originally, their group’s food and water, used sparingly, would’ve lasted half a month.
If rationed, even a month was doable.
Bringing along these helpless elderly, children, and the disabled, they had nearly depleted their supplies in just three days. Could they truly make it alive to a base?
[Looks really miserable.]
[Don’t worry, soon there’ll be water; the production team has opened permissions, once the voting concludes, those elderly, children, and disabled will have a few able to awaken with water abilities.]
[Exactly, poor Jie Weiwei, probably never experienced such hardship before.]
[Anyway, I’m off to vote, curious who the lucky ones to awaken water abilities will be.]
[It won’t be any of these guests, the production team is truly ruthless.]
[There must be a reason for letting those elderly, children, and disabled awaken abilities, just to show the guests that their kindness wasn’t wasted.]
[Bei Chen is over there.]
[Huh, Bei Chen really is watching over there, what’s she looking at?]
[No clue, from her unusual pupils, can’t discern any emotion.]
[The zombies around her are so obedient, like guards.]
[By the way, she won’t attack the others, will she?]
[She shouldn’t, she hasn’t moved, probably just curious.]
[But it looks more like she’s watching the show.]
[Can she really understand what she’s seeing?]
[Voting has concluded, soon there will be three water abilities, two ice, and one fire ability.]
"Someone has a fever." The crowd’s previous complaints about the water were interrupted by someone having a fever, causing a flurry of panic.
He Guiyun and the others immediately calmed the crowd, telling them not to panic or give up, reassuring them that it might be an awakening of abilities, despite witnessing two teammates’ failed awakenings, they still held onto some hope.
[Gotta admit, the production team has a way with it, they’d be doomed without water in three days, giving them three water abilities, should be enough.]
[Looking forward!]
A day later, all the people with fever gradually returned to normal; they hadn’t turned into zombies, bringing joy to everyone’s hearts. If they hadn’t become zombies, then they were superpower users!
"What superpowers have you awakened?" Chen Xingyang quickly asked, his lips cracked, regretting having taken these people along, yet now seeing them awaken abilities, he felt that voice in his mind had some truth.