Chapter 35: Pearl

The movie's light spilled all over Xie De, making his figure loom indistinctly in the light, full of a cinematic feel. He didn't look like a person from reality, but rather someone who had just walked out of a story.

He was looking up and carefully watching the movie, only to find that it had just one single scene. A woman constantly raising an axe to chop wood. The background seemed to be an American farm. Because it was a black-and-white movie and a looping clip, it appeared exceptionally eerie.

The bang bang bang sound of chopping wood sounded very much like the sound of meat being chopped in the horror movies Gibberish had made him watch, but even more terrifyingly close at hand. It felt as if that wood-chopping woman was about to step right out of the movie screen.

He hissed, getting goosebumps all over his body from his own thoughts. He lowered his eyes, not wanting to look anymore.

Xie De also felt despair at his own cowardice. Gibberish had tried to improve his courage by making him explore graves, visit haunted houses, and watch horror movies.

As a result, his courage hadn't improved at all, and Xie De was almost scared into getting PTSD.

Whenever he saw anything related to gore or violence, he would breathe rapidly, his heart would race, and he would easily have a stress reaction. This made Gibberish not dare to push him too hard either.

Now, without having built up his courage, he had entered a scenario again. The thought that the scenario was full of ghosts made Xie De want to cry a little.

Wait, hadn't he teamed up with the protagonist's group? Where did the big shots go? The three people behind him looked like complete newbies at a glance! Even more unreliable than him.

"Hey! Do you know what this place is?" The corporate slave swallowed hard and gathered his courage to ask.

Xie De tilted his head and looked over, his long silver hair falling to one side. He told the truth.

"A scenario."

The model girl screamed, "Is this real?"

She was clearly someone who knew what a scenario was, and the surrounding environment was incredibly eerie and dark.

Covering her mouth, she immediately started to panic. She walked over to Xie De almost rapidly, and, not knowing what she had imagined in her head, started begging bitterly.

"Please, please let me out. I can give you anything you want. My family has money, my family is very rich. I can give you all my family's money. I beg you, I'm scared, I don't dare to clear the level..."

Sis, you're begging the wrong person. He's scared too.

Just as Xie De was about to speak, the corporate slave next to him also walked over, facing him with a tragic and solemn posture, his eyes bloodshot.

"Bro, I have elderly parents to support and young children to raise, and I'm just a very ordinary and average person. I have no backing forces behind me at all, even if you want the people above me to watch us slaughter each other to survive, I... I can't do it! I beg you, what should I do? Let me go."

What the heck are you joining in for?!

The cleaning lady behind them also opened her mouth slightly.

Xie De looked down from above with a kind of sneer, his dark green eyes showing a bloodthirstiness akin to a cold-blooded animal.

"You guys are really ridiculous."

It seemed this man wasn't going to let them go. The girl's tears flowed out instantly.

Xie De quickly said, "I am a player."

Her tears stopped, hanging there. The girl wiped the corners of her eyes and replied in a voice lacking confidence.

"I... I know."

Do you really know?

The corporate slave hesitated to speak, but under the pressure of the man's powerful aura, he didn't dare say anything, daring to be angry but not daring to speak out.

It was obvious to everyone that this man was clearly not an ordinary person! With such hostility and coldness radiating from him, who would dare believe he was just a player controlled by the scenario?

If he really was a player, he might not necessarily be a good person. He seemed like the kind of guy who disregarded life. How could they dare to go up and cling to him for support?

People admire the strong. When the strong meet the strong, they will cautiously appreciate each other. But when the weak meet the strong, they are either humble and timid or flattering. The gap in strength creates a psychological chasm.

The middle-aged cleaning lady completely shut her mouth, sitting there quietly, looking around helplessly.

Then, the three of them huddled together and introduced themselves to each other far away from Xie De.

The female model was named Qiu Shanyi. As she had said, her family was very well-off.

The corporate slave was named Liang Renhuai, from the capital. In fact, he didn't have any young children to raise and wasn't married, but he did have a gambling addict father to support.

The middle-aged lady was named Zhang Qiuyue. She was a single mother. Her son had just started college and found a girlfriend.

Their experiences had nothing in common. They really couldn't figure out why the scenario would target them.

However, by tacit agreement, none of them questioned Xie De. Highly vigilant, they collectively "ostracized" him.

Gibberish came online humming a song.

"Host, have you found the protagonist? Eh! Host, what's wrong?"

T^T

"Obviously, I've been isolated."

Gibberish was furious.

"How audacious! Just a bunch of superficial players who only look at appearances and not the inside! At a glance, you can tell they won't amount to anything. Host, be good, let's ignore them. You need to know it doesn't matter, we formed a team anyway."

"Yeah."

Xie De stood up expressionlessly, just about to look for some clues.

The three players nearby gasped in exclamation one after another.

Xie De's body stiffened. He saw that on the huge screen in front of them, the woman who had been repeating the wood-chopping motion had come up to the screen grinning. Holding the axe in her hand, she turned her head extremely stiffly, wearing an uncanny smile that revealed eight teeth. Then, she twirled the axe in her hand and swung it fiercely at the screen.

The screen shattered just like that.

"Ahhh..."

The three new players let out piercing screams, running around wildly like headless flies.

Not a single one of them was reliable. Xie De forcefully suppressed the panic in his heart, understanding that at this time he should calm down and think carefully... He couldn't calm down in the slightest!

"Gibberish! Is this plot in your storyline?"

Xie De asked, on the verge of tears, while hurrying to the door and pressing the door handle hard a couple of times.

"No, uh, calm down first. The scenario wouldn't design a path of certain death. There must be some clues here that you haven't seen..."

"To hell with clues."

When Xie De couldn't open the door, he directly pulled out a Glock. With a bang, the lock on the door was blown to pieces. He delivered a kick, and the door opened.

Outside the door was a very normal Universal Studios corridor. Except, the lighting was dim following a certain pattern, and the smell of popcorn permeated the air. Posters of various movies hung on the wall from left to right.

Animated films, horror films, romance films, art films. Eerything was there.

There was no time to pay attention to the names of the movies on the wall.

Xie De ran out in one breath, choosing his path blindly in a panic. His nerves were taut, constantly watching out for ghosts that might jump out from the surroundings.

Thanks to his training over the past few days.

His sharp senses caught a sound coming from the corner. Was it a player or an anomaly?

Whatever, he raised his gun.

It's said that all fear stems from insufficient firepower.

Wei Yanchi had just walked out when a gun was pressed against his head. In his mind, he subconsciously thought about how to subdue the person holding the gun to him, but a familiar smell of tobacco hit his face, carrying the subtle sweetness of cedar.

He met that pair of eyes he had been longing for.

"Mr. 39!"

Protagonist, you're here!

Behind the protagonist were two other players. One of them was Hu Wei. Hu Wei was wearing a tracksuit, her hair cut into a very short wolf-tail mullet. She looked like a very cool girl, but the moment she saw him, her eyes lit up instantly. She directly bypassed Wei Yanchi and ran to his side.

She didn't say anything, just simply stood there.

The other one was probably another new player. This balding man with a Mediterranean-style haircut was still wearing a suit. His eyes kept darting around uneasily, swallowing hard as he looked at him.

Sure enough, you could tell new players from veteran players at a glance.

Xie De holstered his gun and warily glanced behind him. After he left, those three new players had also quickly run out, seemingly wanting to follow him. However, because he had been too scared, he hadn't even looked back once, walking away very quickly with long strides. Naturally, the three new players were left far behind.

If this was a place where someone had to die, who knew which of the three of them would perish?

There's a rumor like this when escaping.

You don't need to run very fast. You just need to run faster than your companions.

Although it was easy to suffer from a guilty conscience, forgive Xie De, he really wanted to survive too much.

His heart still hadn't stopped its violent beating. Xie De lit a cigarette for himself and held it in his mouth.

"Any clues?"

Wei Yanchi snapped back to reality and shook his head.

"We still need to find more people. I think there should be four movie screening rooms here. Mr. 39, can you tell me what movie you were just watching?"

What movie was it?

Xie De only knew one scene, which was a woman constantly chopping wood.

Gibberish reminded him, "That movie is called Pearl."

Sounds very familiar.

Xie De exhaled a puff of smoke and slightly lowered his brow.

"Pearl."