I Am Not the God of Drama

Chapter 747: Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance

Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance

Along with a burst of impassioned background music, a desk materialized out of thin air in the center of the stage.

"As expected... the performance has already been completed."

Seeing this, Chen Ling walked straight toward the desk bathed in the spotlight.

The final performance condition to advance to the Fourth Order was to "complete a hearty, interactive performance with the participation of the 'Audience'." At first, Chen Ling truly couldn't figure out how to make the Audience participate or what counted as interaction... but the moment the revolver was pressed against his temple, he already knew how to fulfill it.

What kind of performance could be more interactive than letting the "Audience" take over his body? Slaughtering his way through the Realm War in the identity of Mockery—how could that not be considered hearty and fulfilling?

However, the aftereffects of unleashing the Calamity of Mockery were too severe... If it weren't for Master, if it weren't for District 3 Chen Ling, he would have been beyond redemption long ago. It was nearly impossible to replicate this situation a second time.

Chen Ling approached the desk, upon which a blank sheet of paper had already been laid out.

"Congratulations on completing the play: 'Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance'."

"Maximum Audience Expectation Value for this play: 87%."

As these lines of text appeared, pages were drawn out of thin air, converging into a thick script right before Chen Ling's eyes.

"'Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance'... This name isn't bad."

Chen Ling opened the script in his hands. Just like the previous ones, it detailed his experiences during this period from a third-person perspective, while a portion of the content unrelated to him was obscured by black lines and could not be viewed.

After flipping to the final page, Chen Ling closed it, walked over to the bookshelf on the side, and slowly placed the script in his hand onto the newest slot.

"Heartless," "No One Survived," "When the Embers Fade," "The Aurora Will Never Vanish," "Red Dust Hunter," "Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance"...

Without realizing it, he had already gone through six plays, and looking at the remaining spaces on the bookshelf, there were still quite a few left.

"When will this ever end..."

Chen Ling sighed. His gaze swept over the dense cluster of scarlet eyes in the audience seating off stage, and his heart was filled with mixed emotions... Although in Jian Changsheng's eyes, his life seemed as smooth as cheating and worthy of envy, who could possibly know the torment and sacrifices behind it?

Constantly being monitored, constantly having to perform—his life had to be brilliant at all times. Ultimately, he was just a puppet on stage meant for people's amusement and entertainment... Once his performance failed to satisfy the Audience, everything would be beyond redemption. The Advancement of others only relied on talent and Spiritual Power, but his Advancement, aside from those, required completing dangerous and absurd performances time and time again.

If he couldn't complete the performance, he couldn't Advance. Only Chen Ling himself knew what he had paid to walk step by step to this day.

But dwelling on the pain was meaningless. The Thespian on stage had to forever march forward.

Chen Ling returned to the center of the stage...

It was time to claim the reward for his performance.

"You have obtained one designated Gacha Draw."

"Upon use, you may designate a specific character from all the characters that appeared in this play and randomly draw their ability. The probability of drawing a rare skill is related to the overall Audience Expectation Value of this play."

Chen Ling picked up the pen and fell into deep thought.

He wasn't hesitating because there was nothing to draw, but because there was simply too much to choose from this time... There were several characters of the Demigod Tier alone who had made an appearance:

Azure Spirit Dao Chief Yao Qing, Lord of the Red Dust Su Zhiwei, Lord of Wuji Lou Yu, Red King of the Dusk Society, and the World-Ending Calamity of Cessation.

Of course, there were also many characters below the Demigod Tier worth drawing, such as the Second Hall Master and the Third Hall Master of the Floating Life Painting... but drawing from them could yield an Eighth Rank ability at best, while drawing from a Demigod held the possibility of obtaining a Ninth Rank ability, even though the probability was extremely low!

After a brief moment of thought, Chen Ling only left himself with three options: Yao Qing, Su Zhiwei, and Lou Yu.

Cessation was a Calamity, and Chen Ling actually wasn't very interested in its skills. Moreover, it had a personal grudge with Mockery. If he really drew some ability that caused the "Audience" to be dissatisfied with him, things would get troublesome.

He couldn't draw from Master because Chen Ling didn't know his name; "Nameless Actor" was just a codename.

Chen Ling pondered at the desk for a full five minutes before he picked up the pen and wrote a name on the paper:

—Lou Yu.

Among these three, Yao Qing and Su Zhiwei were on his side. Su Zhiwei in particular had survived the long river of time in the end... That being the case, drawing her ability would only lead to overlapping skills on his side, which was meaningless for now. As for Yao Qing, Chen Ling actually had no need to replicate his Su Embroidery ability either.

Instead, Lord of Wuji Lou Yu was and would continue to be part of the enemy faction in the future. If he stole his ability, he might be able to keep him in check.

In the next moment, the blank sheet of paper bearing Lou Yu's name vanished...

Eleven cards were outlined out of thin air, hovering silently in the air.

"Two life skills, nine unique Monarch-level skills... It's time to test my luck."

Chen Ling muttered to himself. Waiting until the eleven cards flipped over and shuffled, he closed his eyes and casually tapped on one of the cards.

As the other cards disappeared, the final, sole remaining card radiated a faint silver light!

Perhaps due to the high maximum Expectation Value this time, Chen Ling wasn't unlucky enough to draw a life skill, but successfully drew one of the Nine Monarchs' skills... Seeing this scene, Chen Ling completely breathed a sigh of relief.

Every single one of the Nine Monarchs' skills was a treasure; this draw was definitely not a loss.

As the card turned over, several lines of information appeared before Chen Ling's eyes:

"Skill: [Material Reshaping and Material Ultimate Strength]"

"Affiliation: 'Material Science', Chapter Five."

"Character: Lou Yu."

Chen Ling: ...

Sure enough, these researchers' skills were all of the same mold.

As the card transformed into a streak of light and drilled into his body, Chen Ling instantly felt as if knowledge was being forcibly crammed into his brain... He had to recover for a long while before regaining his senses.

"This time's skill is rather interesting." Chen Ling's eyebrows lifted slightly.

The skill he drew from the Lord of the Aurora last time was a non-combat auxiliary skill, but this ability was quite a practical combat skill for him.

Thank you for the gift, Lord of Wuji.

Just as Chen Ling was preparing to ponder the specific applications of this skill, a strange feeling surged in his heart. He frowned and immediately detached his consciousness from the Theater, returning to reality.

...

Gray World.

Chen Ling, who had been dozing, violently opened his eyes.

Thick Killing Intent nearly condensed into a tangible substance in the air, churning ceaselessly like mist... Upon sensing this chilling murderous intent, even Chen Ling felt his hairs stand on end as his muscles tensed completely, as if facing a formidable enemy!

Without hesitation, he stomped on a rock and, amid a burst of shattering sounds, rapidly retreated backwards, only halting his figure after distancing himself by tens of meters...

His gaze locked onto the figure slowly standing up amidst the dense fog of Killing Intent.

"Is this... a Domain?"