strictlysupreme Chapter 93 The First Stroke in Reality
Chapter 93 The First Stroke in Reality
The private room was named Tingyuxuan (Listening to the Rain Pavilion), but no one was in the mood to listen to the elegant sound of the wind rustling through the bamboo leaves outside the window.
In the center of the round table, a lazy Susan slowly rotated, displaying some of Anshi's most authentic dishes. The people sitting around the table all had increasingly solemn expressions.
On the left are three generations of people, selected by the government.
Ye Jianguo sat like a stone lion, with two bottles of Moutai wrapped in newspaper in front of him.
Chen Hua silently wiped the teacup, while Da Lu twisted and turned in his seat, offering cigarettes to people with a silly grin, but his eyes kept drifting towards Lin Xiaoxiao.
The group on the right is the Wild Madman group.
Lin Xiaoxiao sat upright, her tablet screen filled with data charts.
Bao Ping hunched his shoulders, wishing he could disappear, clutching his teacup tightly in his hand, while Lu Dan, the organizer of the gathering, slowly and methodically deboned the fish.
Caught in the middle, Chen Zhongyi felt like he had accidentally wandered onto the set of a gangster movie.
He pushed up his sunglasses: "I said... everyone."
Chen Zhongyi chuckled twice: "This fish will get cold if we don't eat it soon."
"What kind of situation is this group having? A blind date? Debt collection? Or are they finally going to establish themselves as gangsters?"
Lu Dan placed the cleaned fish meat into a plate, looked up and glanced around: "Let me introduce it."
He pointed to Ye Jianguo: "This is Lao Ye, he works within the system, and now he's in charge of some special tasks. You can think of him as someone who specifically deals with things that shouldn't exist."
Chen Zhongyi raised an eyebrow. What did he mean by "special job"? Aliens or stowaways?
Lu Dan continued, "These two are his colleague, Da Lu, and Chen Hua, Sister Chen."
Lu Dan then turned to the other side, "These are my coworkers, Lin Xiaoxiao and Bao Ping. We all work on the same platform... taking jobs."
"Workers?" Chen Zhongyi looked at this group of people whose styles were completely incompatible, his lips twitching. "Your platform has pretty wide-ranging services, huh? Repairing air conditioners? And also cracking down on organized crime?"
"More or less." Lu Dan put down his chopsticks and stared at Chen Zhongyi. "After all, sometimes the work we do does require fixing certain things."
At this moment, Ye Jianguo unscrewed the cap of the Moutai bottle, and the aroma of the sauce filled the air.
He poured himself a glass and then poured one for Lu Dan.
"Stop beating around the bush," Ye Jianguo said in a loud, frank voice.
"Since we're all sitting at the same table, some things need to be laid out on the table, especially about the film set."
"Film set?" Chen Zhongyi was taken aback.
"Horror Movie Set," Lin Xiaoxiao continued, "a rogue software that can't be uninstalled, forcibly drags people in, and shuttles back and forth between reality and another dimension."
Over the next 10 minutes, Chen Zhongyi's worldview underwent a complete reconstruction.
From Ye Jianguo's description of the Amuro Special Investigation Division, to Da Lu's vivid description of the ghost battle royale, and then to Bao Ping's trembling addition of trading one's life for points.
He recognized every single word that came out of their mouths, but when put together, it sounded like gibberish.
"Wait!" Chen Zhongyi waved his hand to stop them, his face absurd. "You mean, you're saying you've been kidnapped by an app on your phone and have to act in a place full of ghosts? You get points for completing the game, but you die if you lose?!"
"Pretty much." Da Lu stuffed a meatball into his mouth and added vaguely, "And they died horribly. Losing limbs was the least of their worries; most of them were gnawed on from the left and right—leaving no trace of their bodies."
Chen Zhongyi looked at Lu Dan, his eyes full of doubt.
As his childhood friend, he knew that Lu Dan used to be a bit neurotic and that his writing was particularly grotesque. But this was the first time he had seen him concretize his paranoia to this extent.
"I know you don't believe me." Lu Dan didn't explain, but only pointed at Ye Jianguo, "But Team Leader Ye's identity is real, and Lin Xiaoxiao being blinded by a pencil is also real. And me—"
He paused, then pointed to his chest, "It's true, even if I died 100 times."
Chen Zhongyi's smile froze.
"Alright, scaring this kid won't work." Ye Jianguo picked up his wine glass, took a sip, and said, "Comrade Lu Dan, let's talk about our professions now."
"In the script, we discussed how people on set were divided into two categories."
"That's right." Lu Dan nodded, tapping his fingers lightly on the table. "This is what I wanted to confirm today. Team Leader Ye, your verified identity on the app is 'actors,' right?"
"Official actor." Ye Jianguo took out his phone from his pocket and showed the screen.
"Our task prompts usually involve playing a certain role, completing certain plot milestones, and sometimes even requiring us to say certain lines."
"That's right."
Lu Dan narrowed his eyes, his gaze sweeping over Lin Xiaoxiao, Bao Ping, and Chen Hua.
"We are the screenwriters, which are also the designers. Currently, you are responsible for acting, while we are responsible for acting and also trying our best to make it coherent."
Lu Dan explained: "An actor's task should be to follow the script, survive within the prescribed framework, and finish the play."
"If the script makes you cry, you have to cry. If the script makes you die, you have to find a way to fake your death. You are part of the script."
He pointed to himself: "But we're different. Our missions are usually broader, more like exploring the truth, or driving the whole plot forward. It's more like a group of repairmen being thrown into a boiler room that's about to explode, and then we just leave them be."
"If it's a bad movie, we have to turn it into a watchable one. If it's a dead end, we have to carve out a way out."
"No wonder!" Da Lu slapped his thigh, suddenly realizing, "In Shuangshan Village, you guys always managed to pull off things that went beyond the script. So you guys were there to rewrite the play?"
"That's a fair way to understand it," Lin Xiaoxiao added. "Your tasks are usually relatively simple, but they're also subject to strict requirements."
"We have a high degree of freedom. As long as we play our roles well, we can explore freely."
The atmosphere at the table eased a little.
Chen Zhongyi was stunned. He grabbed the teacup in front of him and took a big gulp to try to calm his nerves.
"Excuse me, could you interrupt?" He raised his hand and asked timidly, "Since you're all supposedly special agents with all sorts of abilities, why did you call me here?"
"I just own a flower shop; I can't act or revise scripts."
Lu Dan turned his head and looked at his best friend, with whom he had grown up sharing the same pants since childhood.
"Old Chen, I called you here because the fire is already reaching our eyebrows." Lu Dan's voice lowered.
"Film set apps are no longer content with just pulling people into another dimension," he said, pulling a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it, and taking a puff. "They're invading reality."
"Invading reality?" Ye Jianguo paused, his glass catching in his hand. "You mean that one in the news?"
"That should only be the beginning." Lu Dan opened his phone, pushed it to the center of the table, and a line of text appeared on the screen:
[Special Notice: You will gain the ability to write scripts on a small scale in real life—your pen will never stop.]
"I've been promoted to full-fledged screenwriter."
Lu Dan spoke calmly, but dropped a bomb outside.
"The system gave me a skill that I can use in real life. What does that mean?"
Lin Xiaoxiao's expression changed: "It means that the real world has been determined to be an editable script scene."
"That's right." Lu Dan nodded. "Before, when we were in the dungeon, reality was a safe haven, but it's different now."
He looked at Chen Zhongyi with a helpless expression: "Old Chen, you are the closest link in my social network."
"Given the nature of this crappy software, once the real-world instance opens, as an important player, the probability of you getting caught up in it is 100%."
"Rather than letting you be eaten by a ghost one night out of nowhere, I'd rather tell you now so you can be mentally prepared."
Chen Zhongyi opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything for a long time.
He wanted to laugh, wanted to curse Lu Dan for being out of his mind, but looking at the serious expressions on everyone's faces, he couldn't laugh.
He was especially familiar with Lu Dan's eyes – back when they were cornered by thugs in the back alley of the school, Lu Dan had the same look in his eyes, both calm and ruthless, ready to fight to the death.
"Damn it!" Chen Zhongyi took off his sunglasses and slammed them on the table. "So this is my last meal before I'm executed?"
"More or less," Lu Dan smiled. "But this fish is really good, eat more."
Chen Zhongyi glared at Lu Dan, his chest heaving several times. Finally, he sighed, picked up a large piece of fish with his chopsticks, and stuffed it into his mouth: "Fine, Lu Dan, you son of a bitch, I believe you."
"Anyway, you've tricked me more than once or twice since I was a kid. If something really bad happens, remember to get your roommate with the bad left ankle to come to the rescue."
"Don't worry." Lu Dan patted his shoulder, "I'll definitely make sure you die after me."
"Pah, what bad luck!"
Chen Zhongyi had just forced down this absurd premise and was preparing to turn his grief and indignation into a hunger.
"Sizzle—"
A faint hum of electricity filled the air, the lights in the private room went out, and the light was gradually drawn away, allowing darkness to seep in from the corners, under the table, and through the cracks in the ceiling, quickly engulfing everything.
"What happened? The power's out?" Chen Zhongyi's voice trembled slightly.
"Don't move!"
"alert!"
Ye Jianguo and Lu Dan's voices rang out at the same time, followed by the sound of tables and chairs scraping against the ground.
In the darkness, the cold light of several mobile phone screens lit up simultaneously, illuminating the group of people who were on high alert.
Ye Jianguo stood up, holding the unfinished Moutai bottle in his hand, ready to crack someone's skull open at any moment.
The teacup in Chen Hua's hand had somehow transformed into a pitch-black baton.
Lu Dan, on the other hand, was emanating a faint chill from his left ankle, and his pupils seemed to flash with a golden light in the dim glow of his phone.
"Ding!"
The notification sound exploded simultaneously in everyone's minds.
"A large number of related personnel were detected gathering."
"The vulnerability of the real firewall has been identified, Anshi Some Water Restaurant."
"Real-life scenario loading..."
Chen Zhongyi looked at the black and white color matching app that suddenly popped up on his phone screen. His hand trembled, and his newly bought phone fell directly into the plate, splashing soup everywhere.
"Holy crap, it really exists!"
He screamed and felt his bladder tighten.
[Script Title: A Feast for the Senses]
[Genre: Realistic Breakthrough/Survival/Bizarre]
[Difficulty: C]
Number of participants: ?
[Introduction: Food is the most important thing for people, and even ghosts need it. The ingredients at this restaurant are always fresh, especially to those self-important diners.]
Now that everyone is here, the chef has decided to add a special dish.
[Mission Objective: Pay the bill before the restaurant closes and successfully leave.]
[Note: Negative reviews, refunds, and no-shows will be accepted for this meal.]
The text slowly faded from the screen, turning into a blood-red countdown: [01:59:59]
"Rank C." Bao Ping looked at the screen and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, that scared me to death. It's only Rank C, which is basically beginner village difficulty."
"Don't be careless," Ye Jianguo said in a deep voice. "Who knows what level 'C' here represents on the film set?"
Lu Dan, seeing Chen Zhongyi scurrying under the table in the dim light, was speechless.
"Old Chen, come out!"
He reached out and pulled Chen Zhongyi out.
"Welcome to the film set."
Lu Dan's voice was exceptionally clear in the darkness, carrying a hint of madness, "Your first scene is starting."
Before Chen Zhongyi could even cry out, the large round table laden with delicious food made a loud noise.
"Snap!"
The central glass turntable shattered suddenly, and a pale, swollen hand, as if it had been soaking in water for three days and three nights, reached out from the plate of fish and grabbed the nearest bottle of Moutai liquor.
"Wine...I want wine!" A sinister, hoarse voice came from inside the fish's belly.
As Lu Dan watched this scene, his eyes flickered slightly, and the invisible pen in his mind began to stir.
How should one write the first stroke in reality?