Red Dust Hunter
"Can you guys imagine?"
"I was still dreaming at the time. Suddenly I heard someone knocking on the door. When I opened it, I saw Little Junior Brother dragging his own intestines with one hand, covered in blood, smiling while shouting 'Senior Brother, help'..."
"To be honest, my entire person cracked."
"My first reaction was that someone secretly fought their way into the Ancient Vault of the Drama Path, and they actually hid it from all of us, even Master didn't notice a thing... At that time, I was thinking, the enemy should be a Rank 9 Demigod, and the one who could silently sneak in, the high probability was that Silver King..."
"Almost... I was just a bit away from sealing off the Ancient Vault and then entering a state of combat readiness."
Ning Ruyu sat on the grass in front of his house, rubbing his temples while speaking with a pale face. His eyes were full of bloodshot lines, as if he hadn't slept well all night.
Opposite him, Luan Mei, Wen Renyou, and Mo Jue looked at each other. Seeming to have already imagined the scene at that time, their expressions were incredibly odd.
"Then how is he now?"
"So, the Silver King didn't invade the Ancient Vault of the Drama Path... Then where did Little Junior Brother's injuries come from?"
"He said he got them in the Timeline Save File."
Luan Mei seemed to have thought of something, a "I knew it was like this" expression appearing on her face.
"It was the same last time." Luan Mei sighed. "Before going to the Red Dust Domain, we were walking perfectly fine on the road, and his entire person suddenly exploded... If Chu Muyun hadn't happened to be there, I wouldn't have known how to save him."
"When Little Junior Brother does things, he has a bit of ruthlessness and wicked nature in him," Mo Jue summarized, recalling the scene at the Stars Chamber of Commerce manor.
Wen Renyou, who was usually taciturn, also followed up and said:
"This kind of personality is a good thing, and also a bad thing... He might grow faster than others, but if he is slightly careless, it's very easy to throw his life away. Last time there was Second Senior Sister, this time there was First Senior Brother. If one day none of us are by his side, then it'll be troublesome."
The four of them simultaneously fell into silence.
"What should we do about this..." Ning Ruyu sighed repeatedly.
"Right, how are the personnel sent to the Wuji Domain? Is there any news?"
"Not yet... I reckon we still have to wait a period of time."
"I always feel that there's something fishy about this matter." Mo Jue was deep in thought. "According to Master's prophecy, the next of the Nine Monarchs to revive should be the Lord of the Red Dust... On this point, Master's prophecy has never been wrong."
"So, our arrangements are still mainly in the Red Dust Domain." Luan Mei nodded slightly. "As for that news about the Lord of Wuji, there's a high probability it's a smokescreen deliberately thrown out by the Nine Great Realms to deal with us... Sending a few people to scout out the situation is fine. If we really invest a large amount of personnel into the Wuji Domain, I'm afraid we'd fall right into their trap."
"I agree with this view."
The group briefly discussed, then stood up, preparing to go and visit Chen Ling. But after pushing the door open and entering, they found that Chen Ling had already fallen into a deep sleep on the bed.
Seeing this, the several senior brothers and sister naturally didn't disturb him. Instead, they each left some things by Chen Ling's bed and silently retreated.
As the door closed, the room once again fell into a deathly stillness.
...
At the same time.
On the Stage of the Theater, Chen Ling slowly opened his eyes.
"Phew..." Chen Ling let out a long breath. His gaze swept over the numerous figures in the audience seats. For the first time, he felt that it was really good to see them.
Being able to see them here meant that he was still alive, and his body hadn't been controlled by "Mockery"... It seemed that First Senior Brother had still managed to fish his little life back.
Chen Ling skillfully walked to the center of the Stage and looked at the screen. The last line was still a message of Audience Expectation Value change:
[Current Expectation Value: 60%]
In the corner of the Expectation Value message, a tiny Treasure Chest icon was constantly shaking, seemingly waiting for Chen Ling to open it.
Chen Ling lightly tapped with his fingertip. Along with the "da-da" sound of the jumping lights, all the spotlights converged behind him. A desk had been placed in the center of the Stage at some unknown time.
"Congratulations on completing the play, 《Red Dust Hunter》."
"The highest Audience Expectation Value for this play: 81%"
"You have obtained one designated Gacha Draw right."
"After using it, you can designate a certain character from all the appearing characters in this play, and randomly draw an ability of the other party. The probability of drawing rare skills is related to the comprehensive Audience Expectation Value of this play."
As Chen Ling conducted a large-scale live broadcast on the dark web and successfully killed Nie Yu, the performance conditions for the middle stage of the Third Tier were completely fulfilled. Paragraphs of text surfaced on the blank pages, intertwining into a brand new play.
This play, starting from Chen Ling leaving the Aurora Domain until killing Nie Yu ended, was even thicker than the previous play 《Aurora, Never Fading》. He routinely flipped through the contents inside and, as expected, it was exactly the same as his own experiences without a single discrepancy.
After completing plays a few times, Chen Ling had already become numb to this. Just as he conveniently placed this play on the bookshelf, a thought suddenly emerged in his mind.
"In a certain sense... does this belong to my 'Life Script'?"
Ever since Chen Ling unlocked [Vermilion Countenance] and gained the ability to pry into others' "Life Scripts," Chen Ling suddenly realized: aren't these "plays" born after every performance ends exactly the scripts that make up his life?
It was just that the difference between him and other people was that he himself could see with his own eyes how his script was produced... Looking at it from another angle, was this a kind of "internal vision" in a certain sense?
Chen Ling pondered in front of the bookshelf for a long time and felt there was no problem with his understanding, but this also didn't have much significant meaning... The only meaning lay in that this Theater was already gradually becoming understandable to Chen Ling, not like when he first entered it, filled with mystery everywhere.
The fourth wall separating The Audience and the Stage, the mysterious Script recording his everything surfacing out of thin air, the phenomena On Stage seemed to be gradually explainable with the theories of the Path of the Actor. Chen Ling's fear and vigilance towards this place were also gradually dissipating.
"Then, it's time to decide the candidate for drawing skills this time."
Chen Ling returned to stand before the desk, beginning to ponder seriously.
After completing a play every time, how to determine the candidate for drawing skills was always a major problem. On one hand, he had to consider the strength of the skill. On the other hand, he also had to consider his own luck, whether he could draw the skill he wanted from that person... After all, the higher a person's Rank, the more skills they had, and the smaller the probability of drawing the skill he wanted.
Chen Ling carefully recalled the characters that appeared in this play. After struggling internally for a long time, he still picked up the pen and slowly wrote down a name:
—Ying Fu.