Chapter 196 - Masked Opera

Chapter 196 - Masked Opera

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

The ‘Stardust Cup’ performance competition.

The appearance of the number one seeded team from the Imperial competition zone, Northern Wolf, pushed the atmosphere up to a new peak.

The holographic remote viewing VR devices that the audience in the stands were equipped with all turned on at the same time.

Wu Jin had just put on the VR gear when dozens of official and fan commentary channels for the Stardust Cup jumped out. The commentary language and viewing positions differed for each channel. In contrast, the Crosson Show that only had one official commentary channel with only Blood Pigeon and Ying Xiangxiang as fixed commentators was really quite pitiful.

Wei Shi leaned over and switched Wu Jin to a fan commentary platform: <Watch Survival With The Little Yellow Duck>

The little yellow duck was a synthesized AI commentator that took a neutral stance. Its technical analysis was supported by the network computers and AI, and provided comprehensive coverage. Wu Jin, who could only be regarded as an entry-level fan in the ‘survival show circle’, quickly adapted to the ‘teaching nature’ of this commentator.

The Stardust Cup was similar to the Star League, but it had slightly lower requirements and was the carnival for the entire mid-season period.

The competitors would first sign up to show their faces, then start fighting for the championship when the top 32 were confirmed. In the top 32, the Imperial competition zone had 16 spots, which made them a runaway tyrant in this competition. After that, the Federation had 12 seats, and the last four seats were held by wild card teams from other regions.

The so-called wild card referred to all kinds of star regions and celestial bodies outside of the Federation and Empire…

Wu Jin paused, “Will Floating City’s team be a wild card team?”

Wei Shi nodded.

Wu Jin was suddenly excited.

Throughout the professional leagues, the wild card teams had always been a foil for the Federation and the Empire, and were beaten in almost every game.

Once the big boss made his debut from the Crosson Show and used his identity as a professional player to establish the Floating City Team, it would become the only wild card team in the arena that could beat up others! It was simply like a hot-blooded shounen manga that went up against the heavens!

Wu Jin: “Heeheehee.”

Wei Shi pondered, “Why did you become silly.”

From beneath the stage, another team from the Imperial competition zone, the Star Emperor Team appeared.

Wei Shi: “Look carefully.”

Wu Jin immediately went up to lean against the railing, observing them carefully.

The first seven players of the Star Emperor Team were all tall and strong, and dressed in red and white uniforms. Following behind them were two youths wearing orange and white.

“Trainees!” Wu Jin suddenly realized.

The Star Emperor Team had come to participate in the performance competition, but they’d also brought two trainees who hadn’t yet made their debut. The Stardust Cup performance competition wasn’t a formal event and was at most an entertainment competition. Even so, bringing their newcomers out on such an occasion made their intent to provide support for their new trainees very obvious.

Just like in Wu Jin’s memories, in the 21st century’s entertainment industry, there would always be famous singers who would bring out a small, unknown idol from backstage during their performance break, introducing the other party as their younger brother and asking the audience to support them…

In the arena, the atmosphere reached new highs as cheers and screams practically overflowed from the audience stands.

“The King of Hearts.” Wei Shi’s words were concise and to the point.

Wu Jin was dazed as his optical VR telescope wandered amongst the players on the stage. Very soon, he was surprised to find that the left arm of each player from the Star Emperor Team had a face card on it. The Star Emperor’s team captain was an Ace of Spades, and their vice-captain was a Jack of Diamonds.

The King of Hearts was––

Wu Jin paused.

The King of Hearts was printed on one of the trainee’s arms.

“After two low-key seasons, the Star Emperor Team is finally about to welcome…” The yellow duck in the background provided him with an introduction.

From beside him, the big boss also spoke at the same time, “The Star Emperor Team has been adjusting their configuration for the past two seasons.”

Wu Jin: “Adjusting?”

Wei Shi: “Mm. Changing their core captain.”

Wu Jin quickly browsed through Star Emperor’s game statistics, “Professional teams rarely change their c-position unless they’re forced to. Star Emperor’s captain score in every game seems stable&#k2026;”

Wei Shi: “They’re changing c-positions because they signed the King of Hearts.”

And they felt that this new trainee was more valuable than their current captain.

The crowd roared loudly enough to shake the skies and earth. The Star Emperor fans in particular held their King of Hearts cards up high and cheered with powerful shouts.

“Star Emperor!”

“King of Hearts!”

Wu Jin: “!!!”

Wu Jin finally put it together. The King of Hearts was a trainee who was participating in the Stardust Cup performance competition with their team. Crosson Show’s seventh elimination match would be held with the Stardust Cup youth training team. That meant that the King of Hearts would be amongst the players in the next round of the Crosson Show elimination match!

Wu Jin: “! Is the King of Hearts really strong?”

Wei Shi nodded.

Wu Jin immediately realized that he’d asked a nonsense question and asked again, “Then, his fighting style…”

Wei Shi: “He’s never appeared before. Nobody knows.”

Wu Jin understood. The King of Hearts was probably one of the ‘secret trainees’ that Zoe had mentioned before. The team would provide them with the top resources, and all active players in the team would help him build up momentum. When he unsheathed himself from the scabbard and revealed himself, he would be the biggest killer that could threaten all players.

On the stage, the King of Hearts conscientiously followed behind his captain and walked in formation. He looked quiet and unobtrusive, and even seemed a little embarrassed. This won him many good impression points as he didn’t go beyond his captain and didn’t overstep his authority. He wasn’t too flamboyant despite being the new c-position.

After the Star Emperor Team came out, over half of the Imperial battle teams had already come out.

The further back the team was, the lower their score. There were a few other teams with trainees who came out as reserve players and didn’t stir up many waves. However, as a small, unknown team came out, someone pointed at the trainees in that team and laughed.

The little yellow duck commentator: “Winter ends and spring comes, time flies on like a shuttle. This trainee has already been in training for 14 years…”

Wu Jin shook his head.

The difference in treatment between this 14 year trainee and the King of Hearts was as stark as night and day.

After the Imperial division came the Federal division. First came R-Code’s expressionless, genetically modified players, then came Dolma, the runner up during mid season, and third place Azure People’s Entertainment, White Moonlight…

Wu Jin jumped up and shook the virtual screen, “Caesar! Caesar! Phantom Caesar––”

Caesar had washed his hair today.

This trainee appeared even more comfortable on the scene than the professional veterans. White Moonlight, which had originally been locked in for the champion or runner up position in their division, had fallen to fourth place at this time. The entire team wasn’t in good condition, which only served to highlight Caesar’s good state…

Wu Jin recalled what Secretary Qu had once said. Caesar was a survival show player who didn’t require any psychological counseling.

After White Moonlight came the rookie team Silver Thread Roll that was nibbling their way into the division’s top four.

Thin Fire and Thin Water really looked similar in terms of appearance. The howling male and female fans almost shocked the rest of the members of the audience. This time, other than White Moonlight, Silver Thread Roll had also brought their trainees here to show their faces.

Thin Water had brought his younger brother out for a walk around.

From this, Wu Jin could see that in Silver Thread Roll’s debut timetable, Thin Fire should be ahead of Ning Fengbei.

After that came the ‘declining’ old team Jingyi.

The professional players walked in one by one, and the performance brawl was about to begin. Wu Jin flipped open the background information that was placed to one side of his seat and saw that the theme for the performance competition was only a few short words.

“A thousand gods, a thousand faces.”

Inside the arena, the curtain around the stadium lowered, revealing the quaint scenery within. There was a mountain village, a bonfire, a river, a sacrificial platform, some puppets, and treacherous-sounding vocal music––

The first round of drawing was completed.

Each of the 50 contestants selected a mask.

Wu Jin looked carefully at the masks, “––Masked opera?”

Wei Shi nodded, “Masked opera, borrowing the faces of ghosts and gods, and praying for good fortune.”

The masked opera was a traditional sacrifice ceremony for ghosts and gods in Ancient China, and it had absorbed thousands of years worth of mystical and religious inheritance. The first competition, ‘A thousand gods, a thousand faces’, was a masked opera.

In the first round, Caesar was very lucky and managed to get a head start. He went with White Moonlight’s sniper vice-captain, and at the beginning, they chose to fight in the wild areas away from the village, gathering a random assortment of weapons and magic artifacts. They even managed to snatch up half an altar.

A fierce battle was imminent.

Not far from the two, Silver Thread Roll accidentally bumped into the Empire’s powerful Northern Wolf and only managed to escape due to their sniper sacrificing themselves to save Thin Water. White Moonlight’s Chen Xiran took advantage of the chaos to take over the magic array.

The array was activated.

The magic array allowed them to switch out obstacles and traps in the arena. Caesar held a machete and was actually able to use the traps to defend the altar against their opponents, making them afraid to approach. In this game, Caesar gave an extraordinary performance, and even the little yellow duck gave Caesar a few words of praise.

However, the big boss evaluated, “Playing in the wild area in the early stages makes it easy for them to fall into a disadvantage later on.”

In the game, the first ‘man-made natural disaster’ arrived, and rampant wildfires spread out quickly.

The contestants with the masks for the ‘river god’ and ‘water ghost’ quickly took advantage of their identity talents to extinguish the fires. On the White Moonlight altar, Caesar was ‘Zhong Kui

’, and Chen Xiran was the ‘kitchen god’. They were unable to resist the fire and had to move away from the altar area to avoid the wild grass that was burning up around them.

In the same arena, Northern Wolf, who had taken over the village at the start of the game, had already wiped out over three other teams. They had abundant resources and had collected several more masks. The team members quickly took out a ‘river god’ mask and prayed for the river god’s blessing, extinguishing the fire in their vicinity.

The second natural disaster was ‘extreme cold’.

White Moonlight managed to survive this natural disaster with the help of the ‘kitchen god’ mask and the remnants of the burned down altar. However, a third disaster, ‘flood’, soon came––

Caesar and Chen Xiran ran out of resources and were forced to fight against Northern Wolf.

The assault player on the other side had combat effectiveness equivalent to three Caesars, and they had ten times more artifacts and magic at hand. There were two beeping sounds, and the two White Moonlight players were eliminated.

Wu Jin was really struck by the thrill of the game as he watched it. A long time later, he finally exhaled slowly.

Northern Wolf’s contestant’s combat effectiveness was equivalent to three Caesars, which was equal to six Wu Jins. Assuming that the combat effectiveness of professional assault players was equivalent to six Wu Jins, then the King of Hearts who was even better than average professional players must be at least equivalent to 10 Wu Jins…

Wei Shi glanced over.

Wu Jin quickly looked at Wei Shi, who had a combat effectiveness equal to 99 Wu Jins.

Each glance could add 1 Wu Jin!

Big boss: “What did you learn?”

Wu Jin quickly sorted out his notes and reported, “In the professional competition, everyone’s basic skills are extremely solid. In the swimming in the flood just now, nobody took more than 40 seconds…”

“In addition, they are experienced with tower defense tactics. Even if they fight alone, any player’s judgement of the terrain is at least at the textbook level. At 1 hour and 20 minutes, Silver Thread Roll’s Thin Water solo killed Dolma’s player, using the ultimate application of bunkers and a short analysis.”

“Most importantly,” Wu Jin drew out a line under an item in his notebook that had been circled repeatedly, “Close combat.”

All tower defense, pursuit battles, scouting, and counter scouting all turned into close combat after ammunition had been exhausted.

Wei Shi: “So?”

Wu Jin closed his notebook and his small, round face was full of perseverance. “Continue training tonight.”

“As long as training doesn’t kill me, then I’ll train like I want to die!”

The first round of the ‘masked opera’ competition ended with Northern Wolf winning the championship. The program group presented the team with an old, painted pottery trophy and a complete set of jade artefacts.

The second round of the performance competition was a ‘Masked Ball’. White Moonlight’s captain appeared, but this round soon became a controlled field of slaughter for the Star Emperor Team. Wu Jin was still unable to figure out the strength of the King of Hearts; the King of Hearts was sandwiched between two teammates, and his actions weren’t brilliant, but every move was just right and could annihilate the enemy team each time.

After that came the final round, the ‘Thousand Face Buddha’, and the performance competition ended. The audience all left satisfied.

At the contestant area, Caesar had just gotten his terminal back when he immediately received several warm congratulatory messages from Wu Jin.

There were also messages from Zoe, Wen Lin, Secretary Qu, his family, his girlfriend, and Chu Chu, who had specifically bought tickets and come to provide support…

Vice-captain Chen Xiran came up to Caesar from behind and clapped his shoulder, “Not leaving?”

Caesar laughed foolishly and looked up at the dazzling lights at the top of the arena, “Vice-captain Chen, I just want to look a little more and savor it a bit, savor it!”

In the audience stands.

Wu Jin was also looking back repeatedly at the arena that was filled with starlight.

All the way until Wei Shi pulled him away.

In the distance, the podium for the Stardust Cup had already been built. The top of the bowl shaped competition venue was as bright as a blazing star.

When Wu Jin looked up, the championship cup filled his eyes.

Bright and crystal clear.

On the terminal, Red had just finished blowing out a pile of rainbow farts for Caesar before being hauled off by Arjun to look into the team formation procedures.

The Floating City Team required 7 people to build a team, and they had to pull in people from all over Floating Base to make up the numbers. Red counted them on his fingers, then suddenly patted his own forehead and thought out loud, “What about Little Witch? Should we leave him an assault position? We can take Little Witch with us and charge directly for the Star League championship––”

Arjun was disdainful, “Are you stupid. Little Witch isn’t the kind of person who wants to just lie down and be carried for a win! Otherwise, he would’ve spoken to White Moonlight about terminating his contract with them as soon as they got their wedding certificate.”

Red: “Ah? He really wants to be a trainee at White Moonlight?”

Arjun: “Even if he’s a trainee, in a few years, he might be able to enter the league anyway. Even Brother Wei is letting him do as he likes, so you’re the only one free enough to worry about it blindly!”

That night, on the Star Blog, the Stardust Cup performance competition soon accumulated huge amounts of interest.

But then it all calmed down again.

While survival shows were nothing but an episode for the interstellar audiences, they were a survival show contestant’s entire life.

Time passed by in a flash.

Wu Jin asked Chu Chu for a tour itinerary for the Imperial Capital. After a short tour, they returned back to Floating City to continue training.

All the way until the end of the one month vacation.

The door to the training room opened up. Wu Jin dragged his luggage out behind him and could clearly feel that his combat effectiveness of ‘one Wu Jin’ had clearly increased!!

The star ship docked at the port and would leave in half an hour.

The service robot placed Wu Jin and Wei Shi’s socks together to dry, and before leaving, Wu Jin had been in a hurry and picked out two at random. After putting them on, he found that they were a little big.

Wu Jin could only send a quick message to the big boss and remind him to bring his own socks over when he came to the Crosson Base tomorrow. Then, he boarded the star ship, tossed in his luggage, and went to the business class gym to pump iron. When he got off the star ship, he got on the suspension car and went back to his dormitory in White Moonlight.

“Brother Rabbit, I’m back––”

Wu Jin opened the door happily.

Then, his smile solidified blankly on his face.

He seemed to be having hallucinations.

There were rabbit balls rolling around all over the floor of his room.

Juurensha: Nooooo, when did Brother Rabbit get a friend???

xiin: no… not hallucinating. also, i love Wu Jin’s way of measuring his own combat effectiveness… his thoughts are so cute.