Chapter 36: Movie Ratings

"Pearl?"

"As expected."

Wei Yanchi's fingertips curled slightly. He coughed, and after thinking, he said, "Our screening room was showing the G-rated The Lion King. It seems there should be two more screening rooms. Perhaps the movies being shown are the clues to clearing the level."

Pearl is an American slasher film, part of the X series, which has three parts in total. This one tells the story of a girl born on a farm who, in order to participate in a dance competition, killed her parents, and after failing to be selected, killed her lover and sister-in-law. The theme it expresses seems to be that societal suppression of human nature leads to the eruption of American women. Of course, everyone has their own different way of understanding it.

The previous film was called X. Pearl is the sequel to X, as well as a prequel.

Unlike this oppressive and bloody movie, The Lion King is an animated film about love and bravery.

In the earliest days in America, because the content of movies differed and targeted different groups, movies were rated. From bottom to top, they were G-rated (General audiences), M-rated (Mature audiences), R-rated (Restricted), and X-rated (Strictly restricted).

When this rating system came out, many erotic films, horror films, and dark, violent films flooded the American movie market under the banner of the X rating.

However, because movie themes have become increasingly complex and require more branches, this rating system was abolished.

As for the previous film being called X, it fit the theme, the stage positioning, and also served to attract attention.

And the reason Wei Yanchi thought there were four screening rooms in this movie theater was precisely because of the old American rating system. Xie De had relatively bad luck and was assigned to the X-rating right off the bat.

The screening room Wei Yanchi and the others were in was showing the G-rated animated film The Lion King. Although the atmosphere was still very eerie, it wasn't as terrifying as the X-rating.

It just repeatedly played the scene of the monkey lifting the little lion. Because it was a childhood memory, they were quite familiar with the plot, so the door was easy to open.

"We now need to know what is playing in the other two screening rooms." Wei Yanchi looked at Xie De, paused for a moment, and continued.

"Although this place looks quite big, it also feels very dangerous. Perhaps we can walk together and see if we can find them?"

When Xie De heard all that stuff about the American movie rating system, he had already given up thinking for himself and once again admired the bigshot's associative abilities.

Seeing Wei Yanchi asking him, he naturally nodded. He wished he could stay with the bigshot the whole time. Being alone offered no sense of security at all.

And he really hadn't expected the theme this time to actually be movies, and not all of them were horror movies; it even included animated films!

The scenario definitely had no good intentions.

Xie De, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, walked in front in annoyance.

Hu Wei squeezed past Wei Yanchi and followed behind him, saying in a very low voice, "Mr. 39, I don't have your contact information yet. After we get out, I won't be able to contact you, so I might not be able to help you with anything. Moreover, I still have old Lao You’s gold bars from the last scenario. How should I give them to you?"

The girl Hu Wei stuck to her usual style, showing no fear whatsoever, her face taut and expressionless.

She clearly looked very cute but went for a cyberpunk style, covered in jingling accessories from head to toe. They were on her wrists, ankles, and she even had a lip piercing.

However, the eyes looking at Xie De were sparkling, containing a yearning and admiration that she herself knew and very generously admitted to.

"When I want to contact you, you will naturally receive a message," Xie De said coldly.

But it was indeed true. The player forum required real names, and with Gibberish, this cheat code, finding someone was still a very easy thing to do.

As a result, the look in Hu Wei’s eyes as she looked at him became even more fervent.

She was probably starting to overthink things again. Xie De didn't have the mental energy to care for the time being. If she wanted to overthink, let her. It wasn't a bad thing anyway. Right now, he just wondered why this movie theater was so big? And the further they walked, the more something felt wrong.

The movie theater was huge, the paths complex and intricate. A layer of moss had already grown on the carpet. Walking along, they could see that the posters hanging on the walls were all for movies from before the 80s. There were no windows, and the overhead lights flickered on and off. Anyway, it was all stimulating their sense of unease.

A woman suddenly appeared in front of them. The lights were flickering, making it hard to see her clearly. Xie De gripped the gun in his pocket tightly. He was a little scared, but his legs felt weak. There were three people standing in the corridor behind him. There was simply nowhere to retreat to.

The woman opposite them snapped her fingers three times.

Wei Yanchi said, "It's Yue Xiamo."

Sure enough, Yue Xiamo walked over wearing a long dress, with various bracelets on her wrists. It looked like it should be a decorative expression of a love for beauty, but her expression made people feel like she was wearing a bunch of lethal weapons.

Her face was pale. She quickly swept her gaze over their group and spoke rapidly.

"My screening room is playing a clip from Inception. Two newbies fell asleep while running and are pretty much dead."

"Inception?"

This was one of the few movies Xie De had actually seen. It told the story of Extractor Cobb leading a team into other people's dreams to steal secrets from their subconscious. It was very good, mind-bending, and highly sci-fi.

But appearing in an instance wasn't very optimistic…

Inception falls under the PG-13 rating in movie classification. According to the old system, it should probably be classified as R-rated or M-rated.

Xie De immediately pulled a bitter face. He felt that relying solely on himself, he absolutely wouldn't be able to clear this level.

Now there was only one screening room left where they didn't know what movie was playing.

Their group of five, four veteran players and one new player, continued walking quietly forward. Along the way, the faint clinking of Hu Wei's jewelry could be heard.

Xie De made small talk just to say something, "Gibberish, why do you think they bring so many accessories when coming into an scenario?"

Gibberish, who knows what it was doing, hadn't spoken for a long time. Now, it spoke as if suddenly coming online.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Every time you clear a scenario, aren't you allowed to bring in one weapon that doesn't belong to the scenario’s items? So, they might be exploiting a bug in the instance, because accessories and clothes aren't counted as foreign weapons. It means you can bring as many as you want. Of course, they have to be worn on the body to count."

"Host, look, Big Boss Hu Wei has ear piercings, a lip piercing, and an eyebrow piercing. Most of the accessories she wears have studs. This might not be a simple accessory. It could be assembled into a weapon."

Xie De remained silent for a long while. This time entering the scenario, he only brought a gun and bullets, plus his lighter and cigarettes.

The gun and bullets were items provided by the scenario.

The lighter and cigarettes together counted as one foreign item.

He originally wanted to bring Little Centipede, but that coward didn't even dare to enter, completely losing face for having such a terrifying appearance.

So he had to leave Little Centipede at home to watch over the villain.

Since things considered accessories could be brought in casually, if he had known earlier, he would have tied a whip around his wrist and brought it along.

Xie De asked speechlessly, "Why didn't you tell me earlier? You better not tell me it's because I didn't ask."

"Uh, because the scenario is sexist. In its detection methods, it seems only girls need accessories. Turn around and look, the protagonist didn't bring any either."

Gibberish told the truth.

"And what's needed in the scenario is a battle of wits. Finding clues and making associations to clear the level. It's not like you absolutely need that many weapons. Having one gun is enough. You know the lethality of a gun."