Chapter 179
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Chapter 179: The Budding Crisis, the Entry of the Disaster Beast, the Captain-Level Witch. (5K)
The scene in the livestream room is warm and cozy.
The green-eyed cat no longer secretly rubs against Honey Qing’s thigh. She watches her lovely daughter, who is usually more mature and works hard like a top student. Her curled eyelashes flutter a few times, and her bright green eyes soften even more. Without thinking, she takes on the role of a caring elder and gently pinches her daughter’s cheek.
Tang Liuli’s lips curl up, and inexplicably, she radiates a touch of maternal warmth.
Xie Qingxuan thinks for a moment and leans in to stroke her lovely daughter’s hair, trying her best to act like an older sister.
Kirimi Miyuki feels something is wrong. How did she suddenly become the least advanced one? When did this strange competition begin?
The girl grits her teeth and shows a perfectly curved smile, refusing to back down as she walks over, wanting to share her own motherly love.
Soon after, Little Sakura successfully fills the last gap, causing the lovely daughter in Chu Yuanqing’s arms to be surrounded by three girls who want to be her stepmother, creating a chaotic scene.
Of course, it is even more confusing for the audience.
The bullet comments clearly indicate there are Liang Xiaoxiao’s fans.
Although this person is not as popular as the top competitors, they have gained some audience favor early on and were pulled out of the abyss by Chen Yining to join the second-most popular team in Sea City, currently having over a million fans on Weibo.
The long-silent Potato God Church suddenly spoke up.
"Yes, the stage decides fate. I hope Xiaoxiao can perform better in the second performance."
Inside the practice room,
Chu Wang Shu finally realized something was wrong. She opened her eyes and saw three idol seniors blinking at her as she lay in Little Qing’s arms. Embarrassed, she quickly sat up, her cheeks reddening as she said,
"Since we have decided on the Carry Center, let’s continue training?"
"Um, I will work hard and not let everyone down! So please stop pinching my face!"
The green-eyed cat reluctantly pulled back her little hand, while Xie Qingxuan stood up to change into her training outfit, and Kirimi Miyuki returned to her serious team leader demeanor.
Chu Yuanqing’s eyes were clear and sparkling. She looked at her daughter, who didn’t want to be seen as a child and was a bit shy, and smiled warmly as she clapped her hands and said,
"Well then, let’s train."
After saying this, the magic power from the lantern suddenly rose, then quickly fell after about ten seconds, returning to its usual curve, as if the live stream had just experienced a stunning moment from the Pure White Witch, only to be interrupted by the annoying Dream Weaver Rabbit.
Chu Yuanqing realized this too. She took a moment to go to the bathroom, pulled out her pendant, and gently poked the silly lantern that was spinning in the air out of anger with her fingertip, saying some kind words to calm it down easily before returning to training.
The training process is not worth mentioning.
Since she started using magic to cheat, the difficulty of dancing had dropped sharply for her. Not to mention that during the week of magic transformation, her physical strength and abilities that matched her appearance were being passively heightened, making her movements even more graceful and flexible, surpassing the effects achieved in the previous month.
Simply put, she had become a genius in this area, and keeping up with the team’s progress was not difficult.
Moreover, Chu Yuanqing had recently realized that if she did not need to exert 100% power, Magic Armor could actually take on different forms.
Theoretically, she could completely shape the Magic Armor into a costume for the stage. Even if it only produced less than 50% power, with the boost from her basic attributes, she could still reach a state where her body moved as her heart desired.
Therefore, these worries were no longer worries, and it seemed that the little idols in the future would feel the same way.
Whenever Chu Yuanqing thought of this, she always imagined everyone wearing Magic Armor, like magical girls, dancing openly on stage.
Although that scene was too surreal, it perfectly matched the current direction of "Dazzling Stage." Perhaps one day, it would truly happen; just thinking about it felt very abstract.
After the training ended, everyone returned to the dormitories for their rest time.
Well, the training schedule for Chu Yuanqing’s team is from 7 AM to 12 PM, then a lunch break until 1:30 PM and continuing training until 5:30 PM.
After that, it’s completely free time.
If we set aside the tricks between the girls, the green-eyed cat would play video games, Little Sakura would practice the guitar, and the golden retriever would either meditate or look for silly knowledge with the help of the think tank at the base.
Chu Wang Shu is not to be mentioned; she spends half her time self-studying university courses and the other half learning music theory.
Chu Yuanqing is more complex; her situation is special, and whenever she is alone, she spends more than half of her time daydreaming. Sometimes, she listens to the lovely vinyl records given by her daughter, and she also practices magic control and spell development.
Time passed slowly, bit by bit.
During this time, Tang Liuli made a bet of a week’s worth of bedtime stories and challenged a certain Great Devil. In the end, filled with incredible sadness, she faced a miserable defeat, causing her to cry in the cozy bed of the Pure White Witch when it was her turn to recharge her magic.
In these days, the little idols did not change their training schedule and moved forward step by step.
Hmm, if you calculate carefully, training for 9 hours a day, even without counting some essential rest processes, is still an extremely scary amount of exercise.
But compared to the top performers from past auditions, or even the trainee working hard across the country, 9 hours a day is indeed considered "normal."
In fact, in the recent competitions, it could be seen as quite relaxed.
The current "Dazzling Stage" has officially entered the era of the top performers. The program group provides a range of high-tech products that truly give the contestants the conditions to train intensely.
Whether it’s sleep pods, massage pods, efficient nutritional supplements, exercise capsules that prevent muscle breakdown, or team-exclusive meals every week… even a bunch of miscellaneous items, all allow the trainees to sleep just three hours a day and still complete over ten hours of training with energy and health.
This treatment, which should be reserved for the army, naturally led to much speculation among the trainees in the small audition, sparking intense competition ahead of the second performance.
— Since training doesn’t kill you, why not train as hard as you can?
Normally, there are not many contestants with this kind of awareness. In a team, there will always be one fool who realizes they have no hope of advancing, gives up their idol career, and chooses to slack off and hold everyone back, leading to the failure of the competition plan.
However, what makes "Dazzling Stage" unique is that the show has a safety net. If something happens during training, even if you can’t become an idol, at least you will receive a year’s salary of an idol. And if something occurs while using those high-tech products, the compensation can be doubled.
Therefore, many trainees who feel there is little hope of advancing but think they are likely to hurt themselves have found a reason to be hardworking and are beginning to put in crazy efforts.
What Dream Weaver Rabbit wants to see is exactly this situation.
The more effort people put in, the more they yearn for corresponding rewards, which further ignites their desire for victory and deepens their inner obsession.
On the other hand, during moments of training to the limit, when they are exhausted and their minds are blank, it is the best time to touch the "Heart Flow."
Thus, the "Fuel" grew like mushrooms after rain over the course of three days.
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The next day, there were two days left until the official performance.
Dream Weaver Rabbit sat in the central room, glancing at the pleasing data on fuel growth, showing no signs of joy. It silently switched the information on the projection, observing the trends of the world like a bird watching over the mountains, as secret data that was not disclosed to the public appeared one after another.
This super AI filtered out the chaotic and useless information, using a world map as a background, linking all the seemingly normal clues from different countries into one, creating a deep and huge puzzle.
Then, it zoomed in on the map, anchoring to the Donghong Federation, and magnified it until only Daxia was visible.
Kyoto and Sea City, two top-tier cities, were almost covered with red circles and lines, and information about various events jumped out, intertwining like a dense cloud.
Dream Weaver Rabbit clicked on Sea City and casually zoomed in, causing dozens of pop-up windows to appear.
[Thanks to a report from a concerned citizen, official personnel searched a trash can at the corner of a Matsukawa Ramen shop at 611 Nanjing Road and found several pieces of human skin. After big data monitoring and comparison, the DNA extracted from the skin belonged to an employee of a company in Sea City.]
[In Building 17, Room 301 of the Four Scenery Community, the owner complained of a strong odor. After the property management opened the door, they discovered many dead stray cats and dogs, along with tracks of other large animals.]
[Sea City Sixth People’s Hospital has lost a large amount of anesthetics and psychotropic drugs. Currently, through the bloodstains and genetic tissue left at the scene, it connects to Dream Weaver but still cannot find relevant information.]
This information piled up in the projections, along with real-life photos and various detailed reports, truly gave the feeling of an approaching storm.
Dream Weaver Rabbit looked back at the projections and said:
"What do you all think about this?"
Although it has the ability to instantly create the right decisions, a super AI is ultimately just a tool. No matter how human-like its intelligence modules are, it cannot make decisions on its own.
Therefore, how to interpret this information and how to respond to these signs is something only the decision-makers at this meeting can determine.
The atmosphere in the room was serious, and everyone began to speak:
"Is it a disaster beast that can change its form? They really guessed it right. Are they trying to sneak into the performance venue with this?"
"Ether Satellite—[Fuxi]—can monitor disaster auras. Sea City, being one of the venues for ‘Dazzling Stage,’ has a very high monitoring density, so it shouldn’t have missed any traces before."
"Don’t forget that [Fuxi] is ultimately a prototype. Its way of identifying disaster auras is like an infrared thermometer; it’s still a rough version. Medium to low-risk disasters really have a chance to escape [Fuxi]’s monitoring."
"It is very likely that members of the Church of the Gods brought an unknown number of Calamity Seeds to Sea City, using blood and flesh to hatch them, preparing to cause trouble."
The people making decisions were very calm, seemingly not surprised that this situation could arise. First, Chu Yuanying’s identity gave them a warning. Second, as the Pure White faded, the activity of various monsters was entirely predictable.
In the end, the base where Dazzling Stage was located was as strong as a fortress. All the staff members, including the mentors, did not have the freedom to come and go during the recording.
Even if there were disaster beasts that could disguise themselves as humans, they could not sneak into this last line of defense that humans had built to resist the apocalypse. All the contestants, as well as important fuel and witch reserves, remained very safe.
In fact, this base is the safest place in Sea City; the citizens living in Sea City are the ones who feel less secure right now.
Therefore, everything has some room to maneuver. If necessary, we could temporarily add some activities and postpone the second performance until the officials eliminate all hidden threats.
However, soon someone argued against this suggestion.
"What if they continue to hide? Don’t forget, Sea City is under high surveillance from Dream Weaver. If we can’t find them before the performance, no matter how many weeks we spend searching, we still won’t find them."
"As long as the performance does not start, that group of crazies can keep hiding. They can achieve their goal by dragging it out, but we cannot."
"The Dazzling Stage in Sea City will be delayed by one week. Should we postpone in Kyoto as well? For the future competition format, should other regions delay? If one string is pulled, the whole body moves. A delay will only reduce the chance of success for the Fire Seed Program; it is like drinking poison to quench thirst."
This reasoning directly knocked down the conservative plan. The whole human civilization had barely come together; they were racing against time. It was impossible for one small issue to affect the overall plan for the Dazzling Stage. They had to act quickly, so quickly that the internal alliance would not have time to break apart before achieving their goal, or else their efficiency would only slow down.
Dream Weaver Rabbit added:
"If necessary, a delay is an option, but it should be no more than two weeks, or it will affect the future competition format."
An elder coughed a few times and softly said:
"First of all, we need to be responsible for the lives of these young people. They are the sparks of hope for humanity, so we must consider the worst possible scenario."
"For example, if a disaster beast really attacks the second performance, what would be its highest danger level?"
Grade E, Grade D, and Grade C are all classified as low to medium risk Calamity Seeds.
Grade B is already officially in the high-risk category and has a chance of causing a disaster that could destroy a city with a population of a million.
As for Grade A, and even the higher S grade, as well as the thirteen sequences listed as forbidden files, they have never revived due to the suppression of the "Pure White." Humanity can only guess, using various technologies and assumptions, the level of threat their revival poses to civilization.
Grade A could hatch something that might destroy a country.
S grade could hatch something that might erase a continent.
Forbidden sequences could hatch something that might lead to the destruction of an entire civilization.
Because humanity has limited research results on the "Calamity Seed," these levels are roughly distinguished by their destructive power. However, there is a more complex classification system in the internal files, which is as organized as a whole subject, but it has not yet become widely known.
For those in the meeting, none of this was a secret. After a moment of contemplation, someone finally spoke up:
"The ‘Pure White’ has not officially collapsed. Theoretically, the high-risk ‘Calamity Seeds’ are still in a sealed state. Even if the Sea City really has a disaster beast, Grade C is the highest assessment, and it may not even be fully matured."
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
It is well known that humanity is an incredible race. Even though the upper echelons have seen the terror of the Disaster Wave, they are extremely fortunate to have the "Pure White" suppressing all the "Calamity Seeds."
Seventeen years ago, certain countries secretly took risks to seek benefits, which ultimately led to the emergence of dangerous disaster beasts.
A similar event happened recently three years ago, known as the "Inverted Tower" incident.
Although, during that time, various defensive measures based on experience were put in place, allowing us to kill the disaster beast just as it hatched, it shows that similar events surely happen behind the scenes.
In other words, if we talk about probabilities, the chance of a Grade B occurrence, although as low as 0.00001%, still exists.
However, the good news is that even a Grade B "Calamity Seed," after hatching, needs to go through the juvenile stage, growth stage, and maturity stage before regaining its full power.
This is still thanks to the Pure White High Wall, whose suppression and sealing have forced all disaster beasts back to their egg stage. Even if they hatch later, they will take a lot of time to return to normal; otherwise… humanity would likely have been wiped out by its own experiments long ago.
The meeting continued for another thirty minutes.
In the end, it was concluded that there would be no delay for the second performance, but a witch would be dispatched to guard the venue on that day.
The Dream Weaver Rabbit smiled as it glanced at the image of the witch projected on the giant screen, whispering softly:
"So, you all agree that the best choice is this one?"
On the screen,
The girl’s golden hair flowed down, her long lashes fluttered, her deep blue eyes looked over, and a sunny smile graced her beautiful face. She resembled a contestant from Sea City, yet she appeared even kinder and more elegant; she was an exceptionally recognizable beauty.
In the meeting, someone sighed:
"Xie Qing Yu."
"It’s so reassuring to have a captain-level witch who hasn’t used [Full Power Mode] yet, isn’t it?"
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Recommend my friend’s book!
Summary: Original story with a unique flavor.
"At first, you know, I told them, disaster came, rules changed, the world shifted, but they didn’t believe me. They locked me in a mental hospital and forced me to admit that I was crazy, treating me like I was mad."
"And what happened next?"
"Later, no one said anything."
A waning moon hung in the sky, and a blood-soaked girl sat atop a mountain of corpses, chatting aimlessly with the lifeless broken puppet in her hands.
