The moment Jiang Liyue and Zhao Chenxing appeared, the bullet screen exploded with colorful comments, all praising and welcoming the “gege” (brother), with some comments also acknowledging Zhao the assistant’s good looks.
“Wow, the assistant next to gege isn’t bad-looking either!”
“By the way, didn’t Jiang always call his assistant ‘gege’ before? Could they be relatives?”
“Are they cousins? They don’t really look alike.”
“Good-looking people always have some similarities.”
“Wasn’t someone badmouthing our Assistant Zhao before? Why isn’t that happening now?”
“I still feel so sorry for gege. I didn’t expect him to be afraid of the dark! Such a cute contrast!”
“What’s going on? I switched to the main channel, and everyone else is already there.”
“Why are they here?”
“Could it be?… Is there a hidden plot?”
After stabilizing themselves, Zhao Chenxing immediately looked towards Jiang Liyue and asked, “Are you okay?”
Jiang Liyue’s tone in the holographic cabin earlier didn’t sound good, and Zhao was a bit worried about his state.
After coming out of that confined dark environment, Jiang Liyue felt much lighter. But with Zhao Chenxing’s question, he still felt a bit uneasy, his heart beating a bit faster.
He curiously placed his hand slowly on his chest, feeling his heart beating strongly in his chest.
It must be an illusion, so he shook his head and replied, “I’m fine now, just felt a bit stuffy in the cabin.”
Zhao Chenxing watched as Jiang Liyue placed his hand on his chest and asked, “Still feeling stuffy now?”
“Much better now.” Jiang Liyue put down his hand and walked to the edge of the tower to look down.
“Beep—” Huan Huan’s electronic voice, not too loud or too soft, reminded the audience in the live broadcast room. At this moment, from Jiang Liyue’s perspective, the audience could clearly see the small heart icon in the upper right corner turning pink.
Huan Huan: “Friendly reminder to all audience friends, your dear Jiang Liyue gege’s heart rate is currently above normal, suggesting he might be in a state of exercise. Since Jiang Liyue hasn’t actually been active, this AI cannot comprehend.”
Huan Huan can converse with artists in Huan World and switch to the live broadcast room to discuss with the audience.
Why would the heart rate indicate exercise when there’s no physical activity? This is a big challenge for an AI without emotional analysis and complex human logic analysis.
“Hahaha! Exercise, this is so interesting!”
“Huan Huan! Don’t say you don’t understand, I don’t get it either!”
“Could gege have an irregular heartbeat~”
“Don’t talk nonsense, gege is in great health! Last time I…”
“Heart beating fast?? Am I overthinking??”
“Why are they on the tower?”
Huan Huan analyzed all the text information in the bullet screen but didn’t find much useful information, so she could only put this anomaly aside and record it in her local document.
After all, her parents taught her well, all anomalies have traces, just that the sample size isn’t large enough yet.
She decided to pay more attention to Jiang Liyue in the future, but… she likes Zhao Chenxing more!
So conflicted…
*
The bullet screen acts as a god’s perspective, not always following the artist’s view, often considering the audience’s viewing experience, presenting them with a fully immersive game environment.
The tower is a circular column structure, unclear which floor they’re on, but it shouldn’t be too low.
The place they’re in isn’t big, only about 10 square meters, with a wooden table in the middle and no chairs.
Zhao Chenxing and Jiang Liyue came to the edge of the tower, looking around. The tower is open on all sides, offering a panoramic view of the city, the bustling traffic below contrasting sharply with the silence atop the tower.
So, where is this place?
Where are the others? Why are only the two of them here?
While they were puzzled, a slight vibration came from their wrists, interrupting their thoughts.
Looking down, they found a thin metal ring placed on their wrists at some point.
The metal ring was so light it was almost imperceptible, and as far as Zhao Chenxing knew, this type of metal hadn’t been discovered in reality.
Zhao Chenxing raised his wrist for a closer look.
This must either be a virtual product in the game, a derivative, or a custom item for the variety show to distinguish them from the native inhabitants of Huan World.
To confirm this, Zhao Chenxing was about to remove the metal ring from his wrist to check for any engraved text when the ring paused for a moment and then started vibrating violently, accompanied by a familiar loli scream.
“Ah! Don’t look at me~ I’m shy.”
Zhao Chenxing raised an eyebrow at Jiang Liyue, who understood and looked at his own metal ring.
His metal ring didn’t vibrate as violently as Zhao Chenxing’s. After feeling it again, he confirmed and gently shook his head at Zhao Chenxing.
Zhao Chenxing said on the surface, “Alright, alright~ I won’t look at you.” But in his mind, he thought, “Once you let your guard down, I’ll strike and see what you really are.”
Huan Huan, with a crying tone, whimpered, “┭┮﹏┭┮, you’re lying! You clearly want to see me!”
Zhao Chenxing confirmed the conclusion from his previous experiment with Jiang Liyue: in this world, their consciousness is monitored, at least the surface consciousness is restricted, but whether the deeper consciousness has been leaked remains to be explored.
So he put down his wrist, discarding the fleeting thoughts from his mind, focusing on their current situation.
Noticing he had no intention of forcibly removing the metal ring, Huan Huan controlled the ring to stop vibrating violently and began to relay the instructions given by the variety show.
“Dear Jiang Liyue and Zhao Chenxing, welcome to ‘Huan World.’ Since you are the last group to enter, you must accept a penalty.”
The variety show can track all the artists’ movements but cannot control the entire world. The data calculation of this world isn’t something their supercomputer in the villa can handle.
For the variety show to interact with Huan World, they need to use the game company’s server for calculations. Not entering means needing a mediator to convey commands, which is the role of the super-intelligent AI, Huan Huan.
“Accept a penalty?” Zhao Chenxing heard this and sneakily glanced at Jiang Liyue from the corner of his eye, only to be caught by Jiang Liyue, who was looking right at him.
Zhao Chenxing cleared his throat uncomfortably, trying to act calm as he asked, “Why are you looking at me?”
Jiang Liyue slightly curled his lips, smiling as he said, “If you weren’t looking at me, how would you know I was looking at you?”
Zhao Chenxing coughed and mumbled, “So what if I look at you? Can’t I?”
Jiang Liyue, seeing his slightly guilty expression, laughed even more, his dark pupils clearly reflecting Zhao Chenxing’s figure. This expression was so focused that the bullet screen started to explode.
“Ahhh!! Jiang Liyue! Who are you looking at?”
“Gege! Look at me! Look at me~”
“Is this the look you give an assistant? A relative? An assistant?”
“You say you’re homophobic! I believed you! But looking at your eyes, I’m not so sure!”
Jiang Liyue, with a gentleness he hadn’t even noticed himself, said, “Of course you can look, who else would I let look if not you?”