"Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance"
Along with a burst of impassioned background music, a desk materialized out of thin air in the center of the Stage.
"As expected... the Performance has already been completed."
Seeing this, Chen Ling walked straight towards the desk enveloped by the spotlight.
The final Performance condition for Advancement to the Fourth Order was "Under the participation of the 'Audience', complete a hearty and interactive Performance." At first, Chen Ling indeed didn't figure out how to make the Audience participate, and what counted as interactive... but the moment the revolver pressed against his temple, he already knew how to complete it.
What kind of Performance could be more interactive than letting the "Audience" take over the body? How could killing through the Realm War as the [Mockery] Calamity not be considered hearty?
But the aftereffects of releasing the [Mockery] Calamity were too severe... If it weren't for Master, if it weren't for District 3 Chen Ling, he would have long fallen Beyond Redemption. This kind of situation was almost impossible to duplicate a second time.
Chen Ling walked to the desk, and a piece of white paper was already laid out on it.
"Congratulations on completing the play: 'Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance'."
Following the appearance of these lines of text, pieces of paper were outlined out of thin air in the void, gathering in front of Chen Ling's eyes into a thick play script.
"'Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance'... This name isn't bad."
Chen Ling opened the play script in his hand. Just like the previous few books, it detailed his experiences during this period from a third-person perspective, and some content that had nothing to do with him was blocked by black lines, unable to be viewed.
After flipping to the last page, Chen Ling closed it, walked to the bookshelf at the side, and slowly placed the play script in his hand to the newest position.
"Heartless", "No One Survived", "When the Embers Fade", "The Aurora Will Never Disappear", "Red Dust Hunter", "Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance"...
Unknowingly, he had already experienced six plays, and looking at the remaining space on the bookshelf, there was still quite a lot.
"When will this end..."
Chen Ling sighed, his gaze sweeping over the dense scarlet pupils Off Stage, his heart filled with mixed feelings... Although in Jian Changsheng's eyes, his life was incomparably smooth as if using cheats, making people envious, who could know the torment and sacrifices behind it?
Constantly being monitored, constantly having to perform, his life must be wonderful at all times. Ultimately, he was just a puppet on Stage for people to pass the time and find amusement... Once his Performance couldn't satisfy the Audience, everything would be Beyond Redemption. Other people's Advancement only required relying on talent and Spiritual Power, but his Advancement, in addition to those mentioned above, also required completing dangerous and absurd Performances time and time again.
Unable to complete the Performance meant being unable to Advance. Only Chen Ling himself knew what he had paid to reach where he was today step by step.
But reminiscing about the pain was meaningless. The Thespian on the Stage must forever move forward;
Chen Ling returned to the center of the Stage...
It was time to claim the reward for his Performance.
"You have obtained one specified Gacha Draw right."
"After use, you can specify a character from all the appearing characters in this play, and randomly draw an ability of theirs. The probability of drawing a rare skill is related to the comprehensive Audience Expectation Value of this play."
Chen Ling picked up the pen and sank into deep thought;
This deep thought wasn't because there was nothing to draw, but because there were simply too many options to draw from this time... Just at the Demigod Tier alone, several had appeared this time:
Pathway Chief of the Path of the Arts Yao Qing, Lord of the Red Dust Su Zhiwei, Lord of Wuji Lou Yu, Red King of the Dusk Society, World-Ending Calamity Cessation Calamity.
Of course, there were also very many characters worth drawing below the Demigod level, such as the Second Hall and Third Hall of the Floating Life Painting... But drawing them could at most yield Rank 8 abilities, while drawing a Demigod had the possibility of yielding Rank 9 abilities, although the probability was extremely low!
After brief consideration, Chen Ling only left himself with three options: Yao Qing, Su Zhiwei, and Lou Yu.
The Cessation Calamity was a Calamity. Chen Ling was actually not very interested in its skills, and it had a personal grudge with the [Mockery] Calamity. If he really drew some ability that made the "Audience" dissatisfied with him, things would be troublesome;
He couldn't draw Master's, because Chen Ling didn't know his name. "Nameless Actor" was just a codename.
Chen Ling pondered at the desk for a full five minutes before picking up the pen and writing a name on the paper:
— Lou Yu.
Among these three, both Yao Qing and Su Zhiwei were on his side. Especially Su Zhiwei, she had ultimately survived from the long river of time... Since that was the case, drawing her abilities would only lead to a duplication of allied skills, which was temporarily meaningless. As for Yao Qing, Chen Ling actually had no need to duplicate his Su Embroidery ability either.
On the contrary, the Lord of Wuji, Lou Yu, would be an opposing faction both now and in the future. If he stole his abilities, perhaps he could counterbalance him.
The next moment, the white paper with Lou Yu's name written on it vanished...
Eleven playing cards were outlined out of thin air, silently floating in mid-air.
"Two lifestyle skills, nine unique Monarch-level skills... It's time to test my luck."
Chen Ling murmured to himself. Wait for the eleven playing cards to flip and shuffle, he closed his eyes and casually tapped on one of the playing cards.
With the disappearance of the other playing cards, the only remaining playing card emitted a faint silver light!
Perhaps it was because the highest Expectation Value this time was very high, Chen Ling wasn't unlucky enough to draw a lifestyle skill, but successfully drew one of the Nine Monarchs' skills... Seeing this scene, Chen Ling completely breathed a sigh of relief.
Every single one of the Nine Monarchs' skills was a treasure; this wave was absolutely not a loss.
As the playing card flipped over, several lines of information appeared before Chen Ling's eyes:
"Skill: [Material Reshaping and Material Ultimate Strength]"
"Origin: 'Material Science', Chapter Five."
"Character: Lou Yu."
Chen Ling: ...
Sure enough, for this bunch doing scientific research, their skills were all cut from the same cloth.
As the playing card turned into a streak of flowing light and drilled into his body, Chen Ling immediately felt as if knowledge was being forcefully stuffed into his brain... It took a full long while before he came back to his senses.
"This time's skill is somewhat interesting." Chen Ling's eyebrows slightly raised.
What he drew from the Lord of the Aurora last time was a non-combat auxiliary skill, but this time's ability was a quite practical combat skill for him.
Thanks to the gift of the Lord of Wuji.
Just as Chen Ling was preparing to ponder the specific applications of this skill, a strange feeling welled up in his heart. He furrowed his brows and immediately pulled his consciousness out of the Theater, returning to reality.
...
Gray World.
Chen Ling, who was dozing off, abruptly opened his eyes.
The dense Killing Intent almost solidified into substance in the air, churning endlessly like fog... Even Chen Ling, upon sensing this ghastly murderous intent, had his hairs stand on end and the muscles all over his body tense up, as if facing a formidable enemy!
Without hesitation, he stomped on the rock beneath his feet, rapidly retreating backwards amidst a burst of shattering sounds, only stopping his figure after distancing himself by tens of meters...
His gaze locked onto the figure slowly standing up in the thick fog of murderous intent.
"This is... a Domain?"