Chapter 50

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

Stunned.

No other word can describe this.

The group of people spectating number 199 has grown over time. Right now, from the storyboard writers to the editors, everyone is glued to the screen, bearing witness to the fall of the old ruler and the birth of the new one.

Number 199 can always bring surprises. The surprise of having to work overtime.

“I hate him!” This is the congratulation message on the ascension to the throne from the scriptwriting department.

The leader of the ape was originally planned to be around until at least the quarterfinals or the finals. Now, under the orders from the upper brass to let the show go naturally, this plot element has been eliminated prematurely. The show will have to allocate additional budget to design harder challenges. The original backup plan may have been jeopardised as well, since the strength of number 199 is greater than everyone’s estimation. This will mean that for 365 days of the whole year, instead of originally working overtime only 364 days, now even that one day off bonus is gone.

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The leader is deep in thought. It feels odd to see George, who usually goes off on number 199 whenever there are things related to him, stay silent. He cannot help but look at the fanatical boy.

When he sees the expression on George, he is struck for a moment. All his team members are still wholly dedicating their attention to Bright onscreen. Their expressions are exact copies of those apes that are displaying subservience towards the man.

His coffee in his hands also stopped for a moment before he puts it up to his lips. He looks around and sees several staff members in a similar state to George.

Only until after the camera moves away does George collect his wits about him. He says to the leader excitedly, “he will become the champion, right?”

“His chances of winning are high.” The leader has been in the business of the show for a long time. He laments how great young people are that their hearts have not yet died. They can still easily be touched and influenced. The leader who has seen things can already see how after number 199 ascends the throne of the championship, he will meet a worse end than any of the champions from the previous seasons.

George ‘Anti(?)-fan’ smiles, his hand of creativity trembling in excitement.

Since the last time when the tiger video he made anonymously blew up across the Internet, winning countless likes, he has been treated as a big fan of Bright, being called 'Missus,' 'Missus' everywhere. He was operating by the principles of self-sacrifice to become a spy behind enemy lines, and when Bright’s agent Ococo contacted him, concealed his true identity and had a good cooperative relationship with her, publishing a few more videos afterwards. Since Ococo has been offering snippets actively retrieved from the show’s records, so George’s guise has not been exposed, nor the fact he’s in the show himself.

What could he do? He has to wait until the video passes onto Ococo and she contacts him to discuss the ideas and direction to take this time before he can start working on it.

Argh! That agent is too carefree about taking care of her star!

Ococo feels she has given all her care and attention to her star.

She is on the toilet when she was suddenly called by the Director and almost threw her smart chip into the toilet in surprise. She wears her pants and quickly dashes out of the toilets.

“Coco.”

“Director, what can I do for you?” Ococo asks respectfully. She is anxious about whether what she has done for Bright has been discovered by the show.

“You have always been a hard-working, diligent employee. The show has become more and more successful thanks to your contribution.”

Ococo’s nerves are tense like that of a small animal trying to escape. She keeps deflecting the complicate saying these are her responsibility, almost as if promising to give her life if the show should need it.

“Clever child,” Director is pleased with Ococo’s obedience and behaved manner, and does not hold back his praises. His tone is noble while the content making Coco’s hairs stand on end, “from your observations, what is the weakness of Bright?”

“He is emotionally invested in relationships.” She quickly utters this sentence, which is also what people who are familiar with him would say.

“Ah, the same as I thought. He has had a brilliant performance this episode, awestriking, I am certainly pleased…” For each sentence of praise the Director utters, the poor agent shudders. Luckily they are only talking through voice on the phone. At the same time, she silently prays in her mind that Bright had better not have pierced the heavens. She is not .

Director continues, “find out who his closest one is.”

“Understood.” Ococo runs her mind through the people in Bright’s social circle, and thinks it is most likely Ginger or Wolfie.

In episode seven, one of the teams of contestants followed behind Bright at all times. They are Ginger, Wolfie, Piers and co. who were worried about him.

“I’m not worried about him. I’m just here for all these spoils along the way. They’re going to waste anyway.” Piers denies he is worrying about number 199. He is sarcastically mocking the man’s actions which are tantamount to suicide. The correct way to proceed would have been to give up on the attractive ‘Battle Refusal’ card. You’ve got away once, got away twice, and you think you can get away scot-free forever? The priority should be to acquire other high-value tools with the least effort. But then again, when has the man ever done what is ‘correct’? Stupid git.

Like he said, as the man killed apes along the way, he has not picked up a single tool from them, which is good news for those contestants picking up after him behind him. It might be the reason the whole team followed him disregarding the dangers, or perhaps not. In any case, they’ve all arrived.

Thin Bamboo Harry nods honestly, “me too.” Each one of them managed to get something out of this. Old Veteran is confident and even saying he’ll be at the casino betting on himself getting into Top 20.

“To be honest, it’s a miracle you’re still alive.” Beauty also thinks Old Veteran has had a great stroke of luck. The audience has long since moved on from the hatred between him and Bright and instead started focusing on his luck. Some even treat him as a koi , visiting his personal webpage daily hoping to get lucky.

Old Veteran says happily, “if only my luck in gambling would improve.”

Piers is speechless “…”

When Bright fought with the ape leader, this team of people hid far behind in the crowns of the trees. They only dared approach after everything settled down, just in time to witness the scene of the apes swearing fealty to the man.

The man is sitting next to the mountainous corpse of the ape leader, playing about with the ‘Battle Refusal’ card he dug out from the ape’s body in his hand. All sorts of fresh meat and berries are presented in front of him. Young ape females are being chased here, most of whom have lowered their heads not daring to look him in the eye, only occasionally one or two with beautiful and smooth fur are slightly braver and more active. There’s an old ape with his body almost all bald gesturing something in front of him, his mouth opening and closing as if trying his best to communicate with the new ruler.

There’s a certain comedy in this farcical missetting.

“Ha, to be the king of the apes?” Piers is sarcastically remarking pointedly, but shuts up with just one glance from Bright, and swallows his indecent follow-up ‘which ape do you want to screw’ back into his stomach.

Ginger bites his lips and braves his tickling scalps to approach the man until they are about two metres apart, looking over his wounds. He doesn’t ask silly questions like ‘how are you’ or ‘are you alright’ since the man is obviously not looking well, whether physically or mentally. Ronald asks tentatively, “can I help patch you up a bit, can I?”

The brown eyes of the man staring at him look extremely unfamiliar to Ginger for a moment, a look he has never seen on him before. It is as if only his delusion as temperature seems to have returned quickly to the eyes. He nods, permitting Ginger to approach, and closes his eyes to rest.

He is tired.

Episode seven is over. Bright has got quite the bonus as well. When Wolfie thinks he will continue saving it up, contrary to everyone’s expectations, Bright has ordered a dog-eared teenager that is being sold for cheap by a hotel online, which still almost cost his entire savings.

Wolfie shares this news with his new companion – Through interactions in the previous two episodes, he has familiarised himself with members of Bright’s team. Especially when he learned Piers is playing the same game as him, his friendship with him quickly warmed up.

“He’s going to open up to having sex at last?” Piers asks in shock. He immediately informs Ginger hoping he will be sad.

Ginger is surprised at first, but then asks, “is it that male boy who blew him that time his ‘2Hr’ nickname got spread?”

Piers asks Wolfie for confirmation immediately, and the latter checks the order secretly——They use the same smart chip, and gives an affirmative response, “it should be the same one.”

“He’s certainly committed in relationships,” Ronald doesn’t seem to mind, even his eyes curling along with his laughter, and says expectantly, “I hope it will make him happy.”

Piers is thinking, tch, he feels so green.

Just as Bright’s package arrives, before he even signs the order, Hopkin is here.

The aristocrat walks into Bright’s living space like normal, and without additional orders, his smart chip has already taken over nearby cameras. Inner City residents do not like to be seen by too many Outer City residents. They have the right to use and control the surveillance networks, so they can stop it as they please.

“I thought you’d wait a day or two before coming.” Bright sounds calm, his emotions unsurfaced. He has his back to Hopkin, showing his defencelessness to the visitor. He is examining the package the drone has left behind. It is packed tightly, about the size of a large luggage bag. He seems to be trying to figure out how to unpack it.

“You’ve caused quite the uproar.” Hopkin holds back the violent emotions in his mind. Has the man truly fallen? To start indulging in sexual desires, ordering such a thing. “I hope you remember our promise. Don’t dirty yourself too much.”

Bright does not answer the first half of his statement of scolding. He unpacks the package as he explains, “I ordered this for someone else, do you know how to change the address?”

This answer soothes Hopkin’s inexplicable restlessness in his mind. His nerves which have not had a moment of calm since he got the news finally relaxes. This is how the man should be. He lowers his guard and walks towards him. In a life support incubator an unconscious dog-eared teenager is sleeping in a foetal position, and he says coldly, “you have already opened it.”

“I can’t change it anymore?”

“No.”

“I’m not really good at this. Can you do this for me?”

Hopkin does not suspect anything else. Bright’s attitude is too natural. He has Bright log onto his account on his own smart chip. While his attention is focused on the smart chip, his neck suddenly feels a sharp pain and then his consciousness sinks into a terrifying darkness.

“I’ll teach you what dirty is.”

Bright says so expressionlessly. He moves Dog-ear Boy to his room and locks it, then packs Hopkin into the life support incubator, reseals it, then he picks up Hopkin’s smart chip, and finishes the rest of the operation.

A drone comes and picks it up, flying away gradually. Under the supervision of countless CCTV and armed personnel in the shadows, the package has been delivered to the address Bright has specified.

Author’s notes: I’ve sent out drones carrying Hopkins in packages. Readers who’ve ordered should look out for it hahaha.

It’s not easy to make the aristocrat who has every possible advantage suffer defeat like that.

Read only at Travis Translations