Chapter 84

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

Nobody feels like continuing the gathering anymore, and they bid each other farewell. The only thing that seems to have changed is everyone’s gaze at Bright, it’s like they’re looking at . Those who are wary of him have become more so, and those who want to acquire him have become more so.

“It’s not your fault.” Bright soothes Hopkin. His smart chip is on silent, but its screen is flashing, continuously popping up with new notifications.

“The others don’t think so, apparently.” As expected, Hopkin receives an announcement for the commencement of an emergency meeting, mainly to work out how to deal with this afterwards. He arranges for Bright to be sent home, and prepares to leave himself, but Bright stops him for a moment.

“You can say I did it.” Bright’s expression says he is serious.

Hopkin stops for a second, before chuckling, “it’s nothing much for me. Have a good rest and prepare well for the upcoming competition.”

“Come back soon. There’s something I want to tell you.” Bright kisses him goodbye. For some reason, looking at Hopkin’s silhouette as he is leaving, Bright feels as if he has lost something.

When he is alone, Bright finally has time to look at his smart chip.

The one who sent the information is anonymous.

“How did I appear in the news? You can’t tell the difference between me and a son who is highly filially pious and also in self-blame, saddening witnesses and drawing tears from those who hear the tale, right?”

Bright ignores the other person’s jokey remark, and inputs, “how is it going at the gates?”

“I’m the one in charge of that. Don’t worry about it.”

Bright wanted to mock him on how his previous scheme had gone terribly wrong. Still, he doesn’t want to have an argument with Piers now, so he just says, “proceed in accordance with the plan.”

“Tch. To pull the rug out from under your patron like that, doesn’t your conscience hurt?”

This is quite the pointed remark directed at his heart. He feels a bit tight in the chest, as if he is suffocating. Bright did use Hopkin here, the aristocrat who only has eyes for him, who is dead-set on having revenge for him. For the purpose of his own plans, he leaked the information to Piers, because he and Hopkin’s goals this time are fundamentally in contradiction. Hopkin wanted to have the revenge while the City’s factions are pacified. What Bright wanted was for law and order in the City to break down. His revenge can wait until after that.

Bright acts as if he hasn’t received Piers’ sarcastic remarks, and deletes the logs of the conversation.

Not receiving a reply from Bright, Piers puts down his smart chip with a bitter feeling, “the man has no heart.”

Ginger mocks him, “you make it sound like you have one.”

While his appearance is unchanged, the current Ginger would make people feel as if he is not the same person as the usual Ginger. The impression he gives is completely different from his usual one – his gaze is sharp, filled with a sharp and sarcastic coldness. There is none of that impression of the older boy next door you’d want to take home anymore.

If one is reminded of a clear spring when they see the previous him, now he is more like a poison that is bubbling as it is being brewed by a witch.

“You wanna get fucked?” Yet this is the real him that Piers likes, which is much more palatable than his fake guise.

It turns out that Ginger has always been Piers’ accomplice, and vice versa. In any case, the two have worked in tandem to weave a massive web of lies that has fooled the majority of people, including Bright.

“Don’t act so rashly next time.” Ginger sighs as he warns Piers. If it were not for Piers’ misstep, the two of them wouldn’t have had to face Bright directly as his enemy, and he wouldn’t have been exposed so early. He was originally planning to keep up the act until the final moment of the duel.

The young master has a slightly embarrassed expression, “nobody’s perfect.” He defends himself, “I wanted to use Bright’s son to learn about the secret to the werewolves’ removing their bracelet. I did it for us! Who knew my father would intervene and plant an explosive for a boom.”

“Fine. Shouldn’t dwell on the past anyway,” Ginger laments, “I do admire Bright. He’s got the power, the will, the shrewdness, the mentality. Now he’s even got an ideal. For his goals, he can even push the grudge of murdering him aside.”

“No enemy is forever; only mutual benefit is forever.” Piers retorts in dissatisfaction. How charismatic is Bright anyway? He’s just a hypocrite!

He continues, “my father has made up for his mistake this time, agreeing to fake his death to cooperate with us. He’ll act blind and deaf to all our schemes. Don’t worry, I helped Bright to deal with the City gates, and got that equipment he wanted there. He has promised to help us take our bracelet off after the deal.”

Ginger is also satisfied with this deal. Nobody wants to become a sacrifice of the show in the end, after all.

He then goes in thought, “say, what do you think Bright is planning? He dropped his hint to us so that you’d kidnap his son. I suspect he planned to have his son moved somewhere safe outside of the surveillance of the show and Inner City, so that he is no longer a stake for threatening or coercing him. Now he wants something to do with the City gates. Is he planning to run away?”

“Who cares. I’ve done my part and my objective is achieved. This will show all those highfalutin Inner City aristocrats!” Piers is rather proud, like he has finally managed to topple the mountain that has always loomed over him.

“Haha! Nobody would have thought he’d still work with me together. My father has ‘died,’ and Outer and Inner City will escalate in conflict. In the best-case scenario the Inner City residents will enter an open conflict with the military and they’ll both cripple one another. Then the Inner City aristocrats will lose face and the military will also be in chaos. We’ll be the ones to profit.”

Ginger adds to this, “also, whether Bright succeeds or fails in the end, he’ll never appear in the show again.” If he’s successful, he’d leave the City. If he fails, he’d die, or be captured and eliminated. He’ll have nothing to do with the show anymore.

“Yeah!” The greatest rival in their competition has been kicked out.

In excitement, Piers hugs Ginger and kisses him forcefully, “the biggest winner is us!”

Towards the current situation where the topmost management of the Outer City has been assassinated, some are happy and some are concerned; every faction reacts in a different manner. As Hopkin expected, Outer City has fallen into anarchy.

The most important question is who to succeed. Legally, it is currently subsumed by his second-in-command. This person is usually the one who Butler would have trusted the most and would be the one who understands the actual situation in Outer City the most. This will help mitigate the negative impact brought about by a change of power. Currently, the Inner City aristocrats are having an expedited meeting to discuss and pick a new candidate for Butler. Before the results are announced, the second-in-command is in charge of Outer City temporarily.

That is, currently it is the Butler’s assistant in charge of leading Outer City, but because the person is neither capable enough nor experienced enough, the military of Outer City has refused to recognise that authority. They don’t even pay much respect to Butler, so why would they respect his second-in-command?

And so, the order issued by Outer City to temporarily summon the military to maintain order in Outer City has been ignored by the military. They give a technical reason – We are solely in charge of the defence of the City towards Outside. What if some external enemy suddenly strikes and they are short on men?

It’s not that the military is actually unwilling, but they’re actually asking for delegated power in a roundabout way. They want to start influencing the management of Outer City with an honourable excuse. The moment they’re involved in maintaining law and order in Outer City, it will be quite hard indeed to revoke that authority. Why would they spit out the meat that has been offered to them? And if it is conceded this time, they will only grow bigger and bigger in appetite later.

This is the reason why Inner City has been reluctant to agree. The military is also adamant. You want the cow to both work the fields and not munch grass? Bugger off!

So they are in a stand-off.

And the City begins to fall into anarchy.

At first, those living in the slums have barged into shops in daylight robberies. Then gangly fellas have started to openly sexually harass the ladies on the streets. As law enforcement is overstretched, gradually, the waves of robberies have turned into violent riots. Like droplets collecting into puddles, and puddles form streams, streams form rivers.

“We want the truth! Justice for our Leader!” Someone has made a chant on the lines of revenge for Butler, and have pulled together a big mob that barges into a mansion and, without caring for whether it is related to Butler’s death or not, they started to destroy and rob and break whatever they could.

When their motives are questioned, the mob rolls up their sleeves and answers with a low, gravelly tone, “they’re rich, so they must have made some shady deals for it!”

“Right, you see, they use the same type of flying vehicle that blew up our Leader! They’re in cahoots!”

It is chaotic in real life, and the Internet is also rioting.

Someone has posted a thread that revealed the address of many idols, including Bright, and people are inviting others to go visit. Countless people are responding.

“It’s definitely number 199’s handiwork! Number 56 is suspected, and then immediately something happens to his father! Nobody will believe he has nothing to do with it!”

“I’ve had my eyes on him… uh, in a pissed-off way for a long time now! He must be punished!”

“Aren’t we avenging Leader?”

“Right, revenge… we’ll do this and that , and then have our revenge!”

“Yeah, nothing wrong with that plan there!”

While the chaos is unfolding, George is working overtime in the show. He reads the messages on the Internet, and snorts dismissively, “let them go! Then they’ll be able to appreciate Big Tiger’s power.”

“Number 199 should be in Inner City right now.” His leader says next to him.

George is suddenly reminded of the silhouette he saw that time. Though he didn’t see the front of them, but the two people, with their backs to him, hand in hand, looked quite pleasing to the eye. He prays that Bright can take this chance to stay by his patron’s side, and last a bit longer in popularity.

The mood in the show has grown more anxious. On the whole, it still seems to be functioning properly. Staff with families and friends are all contacting them to tell them not to go out and shut their doors and windows, before continuing their work. Some who are especially diligent and smart in their work have even suggested sending out cameras to film the chaos.

“Director has approved. Film it as materials for a teaser.” The leader says.

“Understood.” George complies and starts viewing the camera feed with his colleagues, working out how to edit and create.

From a bird’s-eye view, one will see that Outer City has been split into two – the chaotic areas are really messed up. There’s shouting and murdering, like a battlefield, like an apocalypse, like a pandemonium; the quiet areas are quiet as always – like usual, there are people going out eating and drinking, playing and play-fighting. People are working and living their lives as usual. These locations are often guarded by capable security forces and armed guards. The mobs dare not approach them.

Small scale riots like that are often easily suppressed. The Inner City aristocrats are unconcerned. They have decided the fates of those involved in just a few sentences on the meeting.

“The damages to the private and public possessions of Outer City, and damages to public facilities will be compensated for from next year’s taxes.”

“This season is almost over. We should start preparing for next season too, and these criminals will make great cannon fodders.”

“Watchdog has been disobedient. They’ve grown in appetite now, and a replacement will have to be made. We’ll slaughter the original.”

“Ah. Too bad for Butler… His son is fine, but he will be murdered by number 199 soon, no?”

When Bright is involved, Statistician who has always remained silent, suddenly interjects, “the Citadel asks for number 199.”

The meeting room falls silent. Everyone has suddenly lost their ability to speak. They look at each other, and can only see each and every one of them breathing in an anxious and suppressed manner.

Almost at the exact same time as Statistician said that, there is suddenly a change in Outer City.

Of the 32 gates of Outer City, one has suddenly been attacked.

In a gigantic explosion, the wall dozens of metres tall has suddenly collapsed.

Faced with this dramatic scene, neither the officers nor soldiers react in time. The wall has long protected them well, from beasts, from enemies. It has stood for hundreds of years without fail. Yet right now, it has been punched through. They’re in disbelief, and they’re completely frozen. As if someone pressed the pause button on them.

This lasts until someone makes a blood-curdling scream, “Dog, Dog Soldiers! Aaaah, it’s the Dog Soldiers——They’re back to kill us all!”

Author’s notes: Hopkin is about to discover the truth.

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