Cannon Fodder Cheat System

Chapter 29

3 days later, Jing Yang set off for the Imperial Star, and arrived at the organizers' company assembly area.

The organizers are the Imperial Star Network's headquarters, they host a variety of competitions every year, and netizens need to pay a fee in order to watch. It's also because the show is paid-to-watch that the organizers want to ensure the brilliance and attractiveness of the competition, and would use new and original methods.

Jing Yang had just walked in the entrance when a flying camera started following him around. This meant that his live stream had already started from this very moment.

There were already more than ten competitors sitting in the waiting room, they sat together in twos and threes chatting. Once they saw Jing Yang appear, some people's faces showed disdain and ridicule. Some people faintly shot him a glance, and then shifted their eyes away, showing that they didn't want to have any relationship with him.

Milton's reputation right now was truly abysmal, of those other live streamers, there were some who truly didn't like him, and others who were afraid that having contact with him would implicate them. In short, regardless of whether they had gotten there earlier or later than him, they all kept their distance from him, obviously creating a clear dividing boundary with him.

For this behavior Jing Yang was quite indifferent, sitting by himself on a sofa a little distance away from them. He waited for the organizers to come over and give them an explanation of the competition procedures.

After all of the competitors arrived, a few organizer staff walked in. Taking the lead was an extremely astute-looking man, from head to toe he emanated the "I am an elite" feeling.

The elite man introduced himself: "Hello everyone, I am Angus, I am the head producer of this time's competition, and also the person in charge for this competition. Now my assistant Ruth will be introducing the rules for the competition.”

Ruth had long red hair, and she stepped forward and said: "The competition's rules are quite simple, during the competition, you are not allowed to use any high tech products, you will have to take care of your food and drink yourself, we will not provide any ingredients or materials. The competition content will be temporarily confidential, you will be informed of each event's content before the competition starts, and the same goes for the competition times. During the competition process, there will exist certain risks, you might suffer injuries, and might also lose your life, so right now before the competition starts, you all will need to sign a contract for waiving responsibility for injury.”

Another male assistant passed out the contract form to every competitor, a few participants after seeing the content of the contract in front of them, felt that the risks were too big. Some weren't able to accept it, and their hearts were shaken.

Jing Yang casually flipped through the contract and immediately signed Milton's name. A few were also like him, only casually looking through it and then signing.

Seeing that some people were still hesitating, Ruth again repeated the first place prize money amount twice, and then used an enticing tone to say: "You can flip to page 16 of the contract, for those people who can remain until the end, we will give them consolation prize money, and the second and third places will also have prizes. The prize is the newest model limited-edition Light Beam c10 luxury car.”

Ruth satisfiedly looked at the excitement and longing in their eyes, and continued to say: "However I still must remind you, for those who withdraw midway, they will not receive any money or prize.”

Everyone opened the contract to the 16th page, the consolation prize money amount was quite large, for some people even if they worked hard to live stream for 2-3 years, would also not necessarily be able to earn that much. If it was just to remain until the end, for them it shouldn't be too difficult, plus they still had the opportunity to obtain the Light Beam c10 model luxury car, this was something that they wouldn't be able to buy even if they furiously live-streamed for ten years, the limited edition model was even more something that even money wouldn't necessarily be able to buy.

Everyone finished signing the contract, and there were some people who for the sake of the prize money and prizes even gave birth to a heroic spirit of doing anything for riches.

Ruth collected all the contracts, and showed them to the biggest camera.

Angus stood up and made the final remarks: "The entire competition process will be done in an impartial, fair, and public manner, we will not favor any person, and will also not deliberately make things difficult for anyone. The competition will implement a scoring system, online netizen voting will account for 50% of the score, off-site judge evaluations will account for 25% of the score, and then personal evaluations will account for 25% of the score. Every netizen, besides having a vote for support, will also have a vote for objection, for those competitors who have received a certain amount of objection votes, in the final calculation of the scores, they will get a corresponding amount of points deducted. Finally, good luck to everyone.”

They all boarded the ship arranged by the organizers. The next morning, they were sent to a planet that they had never seen before.

There were more than 10 airships and 2 large spaceships in the air, and some equipment put up on the ground. The organizers had already finished all of the preparations.

When the live streamers did their own live streams, they were all half videos and half images, it was very easy to fake. But the competition used the most advanced flying cameras, they could shoot the entire scene from all sorts of angles, plus in the sky there were still so many airships carrying out surveillance, wanting to cheat was basically impossible.

Ruth wore sunglasses, and her long red hair was blown by the wind, fluttering behind her body. She clapped and said to the competitors looking around: "Everyone, please look over here!”

All eyes concentrated on Ruth's body, and she used an excited tone to say: "Welcome everyone to the Kuluo Star, this is an extremely magical planet, if you are really outstanding at outdoors live stream, this place will be heaven for you. But if you're not, then this place will be hell.”

"Voting on the Star Network has already begun, come, let us first see your voting numbers." Ruth clapped her hands, and immediately a projection of the Star Network appeared in midair, 18 people's headshots were shown in the image.

The competition had not yet officially started, the fans had already started voting to support the live streamers that they liked. Every person more or less had some supporting votes, Kedi who had the largest number of fans received the most number of supporting votes. Only Milton under his headshot had all objecting votes, this also meant that he was starting from a negative score.

This seemed to be within everyone's expectations, some people's ridiculing expression became even more obvious, their eyes looking at Jing Yang seemed to be saying, those netizens dislike you so much, even if you really do have the ability, you will still not be able to gain any support, not to mention that everyone knows that you only know how to cheat.

"All right." Ruth continued, "Now I am going to announce the task for the first segment. The first item for surviving in the wild is to construct a livable home. The judging will be from the aesthetics, practicality, stability, etc, every aspect will be scored. Plus just the home alone will undergo two rounds of scoring, I hope that you will all take it seriously. In addition, the home must be built by the end of today, or else you will lose eligibility to be scored…”

Seeing some competitors reveal an awkward expression, Ruth smiled. "No need to worry, we will not make you all complete this competition task individually. Over the course of the competition, you will be allowed to form a team yourself, but every team cannot have more than 3 people. You can choose to be by yourself, with two people, or three people to form a team, all of these are possible. For those who team up, if your house gets 8 points, then each person will be able to get 8 points, isn't this a lot easier? But during the course of the game, we will prepare for you all some small ‘surprises,’ so you will have to prepare yourself well oh.”

Once they heard Ruth say this, the competitors became excited again, looking around at the other people and figuring out in their minds who they wanted to team up with so that the odds would be greater.

"You will have 10 minutes to choose your teams, after 10 minutes, each person will receive a small knife, this is the only tool that you will receive." Ruth tapped a finger in the air, and a 10 minute timer appeared in midair.

Everyone quickly discussed with each other, some people tried to persuade other people to join their own teams, and some people were trying to persuade other people to let them join their team. Only Jing Yang was standing alone at one side, waiting for time to pass.

Ten minutes of time was quickly over, the other people had all formed their teams, only Jing Yang and another two were left over.

Ruth asked, "Do you three want to form a team?”

A brown-haired, slightly more petite young man looked at Jing Yang with hesitation, it seemed like he kind of wanted to form a team with Jing Yang, but also didn't dare to speak out. The other more sturdily-built young man quickly said, "We'll be fine as a two-person team.”

The reason these two people were left over, for one of them it was because his number of fans was too small, his popularity wasn't high, and he also didn't have any very strong aspects. The other brunette youth, even though he had many fans, but he was not a wild outdoors survival live streamer, but a gourmet reviewer live streamer, just looking at his stature you could tell that he wouldn't be able to help very much.

Even these two people who were avoided by everyone else also didn't really want to form a team with Jing Yang, fearing that they would be attacked because they were in a team with him.

"All right," Ruth looked at Jing Yang with regret, "It seems that you can only be in a one person team.”

Jing Yang shrugged, showing an expression of indifference.

Having companions to work together, and not needing to go through the competition alone, the competitors were much more relieved.

The most popular three, Kedi, Rhett, and Goodyear, formed a team, their fans were very happy to see this combination, they felt that they would be really strong working together. Then later in the competition, they would be able to see the process of them crushing the other contestants, that would definitely be brilliant, they were looking forward to it a lot.

And for no one being willing to team up with Jing Yang, the netizens were mocking and ridiculing, all sorts of sarcastic and scornful remarks were commented, even some very vulgar insults were mixed in. The expectation of the netizens for him was to see the degree to which he would be humiliated, they had already prepared their attacks on him.

The competitors all received their only tool, each person received a small knife.

Ruth loudly announced, "The competition starts! Good luck to everyone!”

The competitors all quickly ran up along the forest, wanting to quickly seize the best places. Only Jing Yang very slowly walked at the back by himself, appreciating the scenery along the way. The blue ocean, the white sands, the lushly vegetated forest, this was really a scenic vacation spot.

In order to make it more convenient to shoot, the organizers had demarcated a limited range of activities, the competitors were not allowed to build their houses outside of this range.

Some people chose to build their houses below the trees, and some chose a relatively shorter tree and prepared to build a treehouse. Jing Yang chose an especially thick, solid, and tall tree, using his short knife to make a mark on the tree trunk to express that he had decided on this tree and wanted to construct a treehouse on it.

Immediately people around him let out mocking laughs, other people all thought that he had some kind of brain problem. Their common thought was that if you chose this kind of tree, you wouldn't be able to bring the stuff up there even until the end of the competition. They all felt that the competition had just started, and he had already exposed his lacking IQ.

The brunette young man Jake in the two person team looked over at Jing Yang with some concern, quietly discussing with his teammate Danny, "How about we still let him join our team, he seems pretty pitiful by himself.”

"Don't mind other people's business so much, whether or not he's pitiful has nothing to do with you. Don't you see that everyone else is crowding him out, if we let him join us we will also be crowded out." Danny rolled his eyes. "He will have his current result, all because it was caused by himself, being found out faking he should have apologized properly, and then stopped being a live streamer. But he actually put out ruthless words to challenge Kedi, being scolded is what he deserves, I don't want to be implicated by him.”

Jake thought a bit, and then didn't continue speaking, lowering his head to continue his own work.

Jing Yang treated those malicious scornful laughs as if he hadn't heard them, walking towards the deeper areas of the forest. The forest had many commonly seen fruits, the organizers weren't going to provide them any breakfast, if he wanted to do a day of physical labor, he needed to first fill his stomach. Jing Yang climbed up a tree to pick some fruits, walking and eating.

The other competitors who had entered the forest to look for materials also picked some fruit to satiate their hunger.

On Star Network there were already not a few comments, because the competition had just started, there was nothing much to discuss about. Besides fans leaving behind messages of encouragement to their favorite live streamers, comments attacking Milton took up a large portion.

Especially after Jing Yang chose that kind of tree, comments like idiot, stupid, brain problems, and so on, were already considered quite polite. More people expressed that just seeing him would make them annoyed, they all wanted to close his individual live screen, but had no way to turn it off, so they could only make an effort to ignore it.

The live stream screen was like this, the netizens on the Star Network live stream page, would see a large streaming image in the middle, and around the biggest image would be 15 smaller live stream images, and then an overall live image. If the netizens wanted to look at someone's live stream, they just needed to drag it to the middle to expand it, but the other streams could not be closed.

Jing Yang was just picking a red blood-colored fruit when Jake and Danny happened to pass by. Jake stopped walking and said to him, "This kind of fruit is poisonous, you can't eat it.”

Jing Yang turned around and smiled at him, and then continued to pick the fruit.

Danny saw that Jing Yang didn't stop his movements and pushed Jake forward, impatiently saying, "I already told you to not bother with him, being poisoned to death is also what he deserves.”

The Star Network comments:

——Other people Jake kindly reminded him, he actually still didn't listen. Danny didn't say anything wrong, being poisoned to death is what he deserves.

——That's right, red copper fruit is poisonous, he doesn't even know this kind of basic common sense, why is he still being some kind of wilderness survival live streamer?

——Kedi already said very early on, this person's brain is not normal.

——I think he's just stupid, and also doesn't listen to advice.

——Do you guys think he will want to deliberately eat the red copper fruit, manufacture an accident, and then use that as an excuse to withdraw from the competition.

——That is quite possible, that seems like something he would do.

——Don't look at him anymore, seeing him is annoying.

——If it weren't for him showing up in Jake's stream, who would want to see him.

Jing Yang picked the red copper fruit, if you directly eat it it really was poisonous, but if you put it with meat and cook it thoroughly, it would be able to provide seasoning, like a pungent spice. It would make the meat become even more delicious, the smell would be even more attractive, but not many people knew this.

The first day of the competition, everyone was very enthusiastic, once the morning passed, most of the people had already finished shaping their house structure. Working under the sun, even though they had the shade as shelter, they were still sweating like rain, some people simply took off their shirts to work.

The fans all shouted that this was too easy on the eyes, even though some people's body structure was really ordinary, but the fans’ tinted glasses made them directly overlook all of these, being able to see their idols’ bodies made them very satisfied.

Everyone accelerated the speed of their work, until Jing Yang came out of the forest, the people who paid attention to him all froze.

Jing Yang had made a wooden towing trailer, on top he had stacked a lot of material. Dragging a trailer full of materials by himself, he didn't seem to be expending a lot of effort, instantly making it seem like the other people who had just been transporting materials using their bodies seem quite silly.

No one knew how he had made this trailer, just making those few wheels should have been quite strenuous, he actually did it by himself.

When Jing Yang began to saw his wood, everyone stopped to look at him, they only had a short knife, even cutting a slightly thicker tree took a lot of effort, where did this guy come up with a saw?

Some people walked a bit closer to take a look, and found that this saw seemed like a kind of tree leaf, and then turned around to discuss with their teammates a bit. Then they also went into the forest to look for this kind of tree leaf. If they had this thing, not only would it be easier for them, but they would also be able to save a lot of time.

Very quickly some people returned with some of the saw-toothed long tree leaves, they tried to saw the wood, but found that these leaves were too soft, and basically couldn't make any strength. Only the leaf that Jing Yang was holding was like a saw, sharp and effective.

The other people didn't know how Jing Yang had done it, but also didn't want to go over to ask, so they could only continue to use the short knife to cut. As time passed, they cut until their hearts were full of frustration, and then turned around to look at the Jing Yang who seemed to be quite relaxed, their moods became even more impatient.

The netizens were also quite curious about how he had done it and opened his live stream to rewind a bit. They saw that he had picked down the sawtoothed tree leaf, and then applied some kind of plant juice to it. And then he had left it to dry under the sun, and after the plant juice had become transparent, the tree leaf had turned as hard as a saw.

This kind of plant juice actually had this kind of effect, the netizens all seemed to have suddenly had an epiphany, and then continued to watch the live stream. Seeing that the other people all didn't know how to make the leaf hard, the fans were all anxious to death, wanting to rush in there to tell them how to do it.

Jing Yang finished preparing all his materials under the tree, then removed the wheels from the trailer. Then dragging along a long vine, he climbed up the tree with extremely agile movements.

Some netizens saw this scene through other people's live streams and were all attracted by his nimble movements, unable to resist opening his live stream. They felt that while he was climbing the tree, that tree seemed to have grown some invisible stairs, so that he would be able to climb up there so relaxedly and quickly.

Jing Yang stopped on a relatively thicker branch, binding the vine and the wheels to the branch, and then quickly jumped down along with the vine. He then tied the long vine to both sides of the trailer, and then pulled the vine from below, hanging the things up.

The Star Network comments:

——F*k, isn't that a trailer? How did it become a crane, it's still able to transform?

——This theory is pretty simple, what are those people doing just looking at it blankly? Why aren't they making a crane like him?

——What is there to make a fuss about, isn't it just a few wheels and a long vine? I estimate that he only has this kind of skills to attract attention.

——That's right, to make this kind of thing, don't know how long he's practiced for it. Don't know what there is to take out to show off.

——Now he's using up all of his little skills, later on when he doesn't have anything else he'll just be more miserable.

——This is only the start, let's just wait and see what happens, no one is even willing to form a team with him, how much ability and strength would he have just by himself.

——He definitely secretly practiced for a long time, look at him deliberately showing a relaxed appearance, really funny.

——Other people before live streaming, wouldn't they also practice and train? Many things, no one will be born knowing how to do it, especially now depending on high tech products, even if it's things that are easy to make originally, making it yourself also has a certain level of difficulty.

Finally there were some more rational people who helped Jing Yang speak, but very quickly, they were submerged in a flood of malicious comments.

Translator Notes:

[1] new and original – 别出心裁, idiom, literally means to hit on something new, to adopt an original approach

[2] Angus – 安格斯, pinyin is An Ge Si, and MTL translates this to Angus

[3] Ruth – 露丝, pinyin Lu Si, I feel like MTL is pretty good at assigning English names to pinyin

[4] limited-edition Light Beam – 款限量光, I honestly don't know if this is right, I'm basically writing Light Beam as the brand, and c10 as the actual model number

[5] doing anything for riches – 人为财死,鸟为食亡, idiom, literally means human beings will die for riches just as birds will for food

[6] Rhett, Goodyear – 瑞特, 固特鲁, pinyin are Rui Te and Gu Te Lu, I'm just going with the MTL for this one

[7] mocking and ridiculing – 冷嘲热讽, idiom, literally means frigid irony and scorching satire

[8] Jake – 杰卡, pinyin is Jie Ka, usually Jake is a slightly different pinyin but let's go with it

[9] Danny – 杜尼, pinyin is Du Ni…I’m just guesstimating to Danny

Random Notes:

Two hours: 10:30 am – 12:30 pm, for 5.6k characters to 4k words. Honestly, took less time than I had expected.

I’m attempting to translate one chapter of each project a day during this Thanksgiving break. Hopefully that allows me to catch up at least a bit.