By the ti the cruise ship carrying Gu Mian and the others arrived at the variety show venue, the audience had already been waiting inside for a long while.
The unreliable automatic driving system really did malfunction, and even the backup robots ant for ergencies broke down as well.
The cruise ship had to stop halfway, and Teacher Slaughter hurriedly went to find an Upper Class Person who knew how to pilot the ship; after all this back and forth, they were delayed on the road for over half an hour.
When Gu Mian and the others finally approached their destination, the audience, who had arrived long ago, were already growing impatient from waiting.
As soon as the contestants got off the cruise ship, Teacher Slaughter rushed them toward the variety show venue in a fluster.
The docking place wasn’t far from the variety show venue; a long red carpet linked the cruise ship exit to the entrance of the venue.
The variety show venue was a stadium that had been renovated. From the outside, it looked more or less like most stadiums on Earth—it was a gigantic ring, hollow in the middle.
From afar, Gu Mian could see sothing extending out of the hollow center of the stadium, pointing straight up at the sky.
But before he could take a closer look, Teacher Slaughter at his side urged them on anxiously, "Move it, move it, don’t dawdle."
The contestants had no ti to savor what it felt like to step on the red carpet, nor to appreciate the carefully arranged decorations on both sides; like ducks being driven onto a perch, they were stuffed all at once into that ring-shaped building.
After entering the building, there was still a long red carpet inside the doors, and around it were all sorts of baffling constructions.
Gu Mian looked at the Ferris wheel not far away and fell into thought.
Seeing that the contestants had finally arrived, the audience in the stands perked up and all turned toward the entrance.
They let out delighted shouts; so even leaned forward and whistled at Gu Mian.
Following the sound, Gu Mian looked over and saw the ring-shaped stands in the center of the venue.
He had already studied the topographical map of this place and knew it was originally a stadium. The original stands had been built around the periter, but after renovation, the Upper Class People had demolished those peripheral stands, built a stage in the very center, and then put up a small ring of seating around the stage.
Back when he first saw the architectural map, Gu Mian had felt sothing was off. The stadium was very large, yet the map showed that only the very center was being used, leaving a huge ring-shaped vacuum around it.
At the ti, Gu Mian couldn’t quite understand why the Upper Class People would leave such a giant empty space when building a variety show venue.
Now he knew—what should have been an empty ring of open ground was instead cramd full of entertainnt facilities.
Well, they should probably count as entertainnt facilities...
He saw a Ferris wheel built in the middle of a large artificial lake. Half of the Ferris wheel was subrged in the water, with only the upper half of the circle exposed above the surface, like a sun with its lower half sunk below the horizon.
Not far from the Ferris wheel was a rry-go-round playing cheerful music, except the floor beneath it was riddled with dark, gaping holes of all sizes, as if sothing might co crawling out of them at any mont.
Above their heads ran a long roller coaster track. Gu Mian saw that at regular intervals along the track, massive steel rings were welded on. They resembled tunnels on the track that the coaster had to pass through, and these "ring-tunnels" were bristling inside with sharp rebars of all lengths and sizes, all pointing along the direction of the track.
With so many attractions, it looked like the Upper Class People had built an amusent park here.
Just not any kind of proper Paradise. Gu Mian withdrew his gaze from those sharp rebars—none of these facilities seed to have proper safety asures.
Just then, the loud shouts of the audience ca from up ahead.
"Get on the stage! Get on the stage!"
They couldn’t wait any longer.
Because of his popularity, Gu Mian had been deliberately arranged at the very front of the line.
He looked forward and saw that a passage had been left open in the ring-shaped stands for entry and exit. The red carpet under his feet passed through this passage and extended to the front of a stage about the size of a classroom, with a slightly peculiar shape.
Its steps rose level by level, each higher tier smaller than the one below; taken as a whole, it looked like a pyramid.
Teacher Slaughter led them forward excitedly and only stopped when they reached that "pyramid."
As soon as they arrived at the base of the pyramid, staff mbers imdiately handed Teacher Slaughter a microphone, and two caran ca up to start filming, capturing everyone in Gu Mian’s group in the fra.
Only then did Gu Mian realize that the inner walls of the stadium had all been turned into a gigantic screen.
The ring-shaped screen wrapped around the entire variety show venue. On the enormous circular display, Gu Mian saw his own figure, as well as Chu Changge and 007.
The two of them were sitting in the very front row of the stands.
Gu Mian stopped looking at the big screen and shifted his gaze to the audience seating.
Chu Changge and 007 were looking at him too, but with so many people present, the three of them couldn’t exactly acknowledge each other openly, nor could they reenact so TV drama scene and rush into a tearful embrace. All they could do was exchange a glance and silently look away.
By now, Teacher Slaughter had already launched into hosting with great enthusiasm.
"Thank you all for waiting—"
Perhaps because he was too excited, Teacher Slaughter’s voice was a bit shrill. Listening to him talk felt like sothing sharp was scraping along your eardrums.
"Welco to the second stage of Trial and Crown! Our second stage program is the Joyful Park Tour!
"I know you’ve all been waiting here for a long ti, but I promise the upcoming program will definitely not disappoint you!"
Teacher Slaughter spoke with sonorous conviction, clearly very confident about what was to co.
But then he abruptly shifted the topic instead of imdiately revealing the next segnt, choosing to sell a bit of suspense first.
"I believe that viewers who watched last night’s live broadcast already know that we held a mysterious vote among the contestants to determine today’s order of appearance. In the upcoming program, the earlier you go on stage, the greater advantage you’ll have. But our vote was reversed: the more votes you get, the later you appear. Hehe, now let’s reveal the results of last night’s vote."
Teacher Slaughter held a card in his hand and looked down at its contents with a squinting smile. "There’s a certain contestant whose popularity is sky-high. His popularity ranks first not only among the audience, but even the other contestants have their eyes on him..."
This was practically calling out Gu Mian by na.
also picked up on who he was talking about. She glanced at Gu Mian standing at the base of the pyramid and quietly said to Chu Changge beside her, "Don’t tell the one with the highest vote count is Gu Mian."
Her guess was spot on.
The next second, Teacher Slaughter’s voice bood out from the speakers surrounding the stands: "Out of fifty contestants, thirty-two cast their votes for him. He is our No. 1118! He’ll be the last to appear in the upcoming program."
Though last night everyone had put on a harmonious front and acted like they’d obey whichever popular contestant spoke, when it ca ti to trip soone up, they didn’t hesitate in the slightest.
After speaking, Teacher Slaughter swept a malicious gaze over Gu Mian, wanting to see him looking worried and anxious.
The Upper Class People in the stands all turned to look at Gu Mian as well. Yesterday’s number one had now beco the last to go on; they too wanted to see what sort of wonderful expression would appear on his face.
But Gu Mian’s reaction left the audience sorely disappointed. Not only did he not panic, he even looked quite proud, as if his face were saying, "I knew first place could only be ."
Teacher Slaughter’s mouth twitched a few tis; he felt that 1118’s brain might not be screwed on quite right.
In reality, one of those thirty-two votes had been cast by Gu Mian himself. He had voted for himself, hoping to go on stage later.
The second and third stages of the variety show were being held back-to-back, and Lu Yi would make his appearance in the third stage. That ant Lu Yi would most likely be escorted to the venue in advance.
Gu Mian planned to find Lu Yi before he had to go on, then use the key to take Lu Yi and Chu Changge and the others and leave directly. So the later he appeared, the more ti he would have.
However, at the mont, Gu Mian still hadn’t managed to spot Lu Yi.
Chu Changge and 007 in the stands were secretly searching as well, but they didn’t see Lu Yi either.
Either Lu Yi hadn’t been brought here yet, or he’d been hidden sowhere and would only be revealed in the third stage.
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