Surprise! The Supposed Talent Show Was Actually–?!

Chapter Ch226.1 - Extra – Going On Vacation

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

“Good morning, you’re listening to <Azure Survival Star Express>. As of yesterday, the mid-season starter list for each team in the Azure competition zone professional league was announced, and the main rotation players of Dolma and White Moonlight have stirred up heated discussions…”

“In the upcoming mid-season competition, 62 rookies will join this top professional league as new blood. Amongst them, 27 of them come from the trainee competitions Crosson, Hyacinth, Northern Lights, and so on, having made their official debut and become eligible to join the rotation.”

“Another 35 players from each team’s youth training reserves will also be participating in the mid-season games as substitutes.”

“Additionally, since the Crosson Show finals came to an end two weeks ago, the whereabouts of Contestant Wei Shi, who debuted in first place, have been discussed frequently. It has been reported that the Floating City Battle Team signed Contestant Wei with a sky high offer, breaking the record for the first round contract price for all previous trainees. At this time, we’d like to invite the famous commentator, Axel, to speak. What are your thoughts on this…”

For once, the mist over Floating City had dissipated, and the sunshine was just right.

Wu Jin yawned widely and made two cups of coffee, handing one to Wei Shi.

The house robot was nearby, working hard and broadcasting the morning radio.

“Thank you for inviting me here. Floating City Battle Team is a newly registered wild card team this year. Their first contract was generously offered to Contestant Wei, putting him in the c-position, which can be considered ‘heavy investment into foreign aid’. This year, the Floating City Battle Team has shown great ambition, and I personally look forward to their performance in the wild card division. However, from the perspective of career development, only Federal events will provide him with more exposure. Going to the Floating City Team means he will most likely be doing a Star League round trip”

round trip – going to the competition and then coming right back (because of early elimination)

“Thank you, Axel. Out of the other players from the Crosson Show, who else do you think is worth paying attention to?”

Wu Jin gulped down his coffee.

Who else was worth paying attention to! It sounded like stock selection advice given by stock market experts.

“Wei Yan, without a doubt. Thin Fire, who was ranked third, is also a rookie who is being pushed hard by Silver Thread Roll this year. Of course, Contestant Ning Fengbei, who is in the same battle team, is also worth looking forward to. Zuo Botang and Zoe, who are ranked 6th and 8th, are both very talented snipers, but their rankings were lower than they should have been due to the 1v1 system in the finals. Wu Jin, the player who ranked 4th…”

“I appreciate his brilliance in the commander position and his reasoning ability. However, his style is quite different from the current White Moonlight, and as an assault position, there is still room for improvement.”

“It’s hard to say if White Moonlight will be able to gain a Star League quota after Lin Jue retires.”

“Do you think it’s unlikely that White Moonlight will be able to make it to the Star League?”

“Not exactly. It’ll depend on how fast White Moonlight’s new players grow.”

The program began to broadcast advertisements.

The small robot cleverly switched channels, changing to a radio station that discussed popular tourist attractions.

Wei Shi finished his coffee and signed the last document.

On the other end of the communication array, Mao Dongqing, the 4th Law Enforcement Marshal of Floating City, announced that all items currently requiring attention had been cleared out. Congratulations to Floating City’s King on the start of his holiday, may he have a happy holiday.

Then, a series of short messages poured in like the tide.

Mao Dongqing: “[Forward] Surprise! Amongst the top 50 coolest spots for couples to travel in summer, this place ranks first.”

Red was cheerful, “Brother Wei! This is amazing! [Forward] Terrifying exotic animal farm, eight thrilling hunting scenes, eat as much as you can hunt.”

Researcher Song: [Group Forward] Places to go to stay healthy this summer, relax your heart and mind.”

Wei Shi looked at the couples hot spring in the forwarded articles.

On the other side of the table, Wu Jin didn’t know which button he’d pressed, but it caused the robot to spit out a pile of travel flyers, scattering them all over the table.

Wu Jin: “&#k2026;&#k2026;”

Wei Shi fished him out and reached out his hand to expose his terminal. The robot cheerfully scanned the terminal, deducting 200 credits from Wei Shi and activating an internal purchase, closing the advertising printing plug-in.

Wei Shi bowed his head and nibbled casually.

Wu Jin only realized after the fact, “You didn’t add sugar to your coffee!”

Wei Shi made a sound of acknowledgement, then held Wu Jin down, not doing anything, but not letting him go. His gaze had narrowed a little like a beast of prey as it travelled suggestively over Wu Jin’s waist line.

Wu Jin: “!” Another layer of the emotional lock had been undone, so you can hold back!

The man sat at the boundary between the morning light and the shadow from the curtain. His strong, scarred chest was exposed in the gaps of his robe as his long legs stretched out under the table and blocked Wu Jin’s retreat.

Wu Jin turned his head and slowly, slowly leaned in.

The bench was pushed aside, and the small robot ran quickly to the door, locking it behind itself automatically.

Wu Jin set an alarm at the last moment, “Half an hour! We agreed that we’d go traveling… Waaah, 29, 29 minutes left…”

……

Floating City’s King’s suspension car didn’t start up until noon.

The captain of the guard expressed that if it was him who was on vacation, he would’ve run off early in the morning. After all, in primary school, he couldn’t even go to sleep the day before a spring outing. Brother Wei was really calm, really worthy of being Brother Wei!

The sun hung lazily in the sky after the fog had cleared up.

Outside Floating City Base, the city was lazy and languid in the afternoon. The smell of frying and boiling drifted slowly through the market, the scent lingering in the nose even if one had their eyes closed. Lunch was always another event worth celebrating during the day. Of course, the first event was waking up and opening your eyes to see your family and friends for the first time that day.

Floating City’s laboratory tower stretched up into the clouds. Last week, there had been another breakthrough in broad-spectrum therapy for the emotional lock. Boxes of sugarcane had been sent to the entrance of the base closest to the tower. On the sidewalk nearby, there was a young couple strolling by slowly. Red had mentioned them to Wu Jin before that the husband from this family had immigrated over from the Federation. He used to walk around with his wife while wearing a mask, but he didn’t wear it much after she gave birth to a baby. It was probably because he was now determined to start a new life.

The suspension car stopped at the side of the road. Wei Shi bought two lunch sets and got back into the car.

Wu Jin was drowsing off in the passenger seat. Wei Shi set the suspension car to drive automatically and stuffed Wu Jin’s mouth with delicious dumplings.

Wu Jin woke up and expressed strong criticism of his partner’s lack of punctuality. Wei Shi expressed that he would make up for it in the future, but Wu Jin always felt that something wasn’t right when he heard this.

By the time the two of them arrived at the Star Harbor, Wu Jin was once again alive and kicking, holding up the travel manual with enthusiasm.

It was a manual that the little robot had spat out.

The cover and binding was covered in messy text and ads, and it was basically a series of small advertisements.

Wei Shi: “Are you sure you want to go?”

<Golden Cloud Holiday Star, the largest pet exhibition in Azure Cosmos! Pikachu Makes A Special Debut>

Wu Jin expressed that his memories were still stuck in the 21st century. He hadn’t even seen an ordinary pikachu before, and checking out this special type would help broaden his knowledge!

Wei Shi: What a coincidence, pikachu doesn’t exist in the 31st century, either.

Wu Jin continued to dream about a pie in the sky. Beside the pet exhibition was a forest resort. They could hunt, knead pikachus, go logging, play with the local wildlife, and soak in hot springs…

When Wei Shi saw the advertisement for the lovers’ hot springs, he nodded directly, “We’ll go there.”

The star ship to the resort planet departed once every two hours. Seats were available on a first come, first serve basis, and the waiting room was currently packed. The two of them were sandwiched in with the crowd, wearing sunglasses as they stood against the wall, surrounded by bustle and noise.

The star ship was nearly half an hour late, and the waiting room wasn’t organized at all. Children rolled around everywhere, while nursing robots chased after them with hand sanitizer. Young girls chattered amongst themselves, and further away, there was a group of high school students on their graduation trip, who were full of energy and enthusiasm, generating over 60% of the noise.

Wu Jin and Wei Shi were huddled together, concentrating on watching a video replay of the Northern Wolf Team’s survival game on the terminal.

The noise in the waiting room was so loud that they couldn’t hear the commentators. Wu Jin didn’t seem to notice, getting excited all by himself:

“! 6666 Can this kind of operation even work!”

“Amazing! This support player is so badass!”

“There’s no support for this highlight, the requirements are too high! Ah, what’s the commentator saying––”

Wei Shi pulled out a pair of noise reduction earphones from somewhere.

An antique model that came with a cable.

Wu Jin stuffed one into his ear. The video’s audio track was suddenly very clear!

Wu Jin praised Wei Shi, then bowed his head, touching his right ear. He kept feeling that the earphone cable was a little short, so he leaned closer to Wei Shi.

After watching another short match point, the earphone cable shortened again. Wu Jin continued to lean closer to the big boss.

Another replay, and the earphone cable shortened again…

Wu Jin looked down.

Wei Shi calmly released the cable. The antique earphone cable had been rolled up seven or eight times by the big boss, and the individual cables for each ear were also tangled together.

Wu Jin was dazed; with his actions, it would be stranger if the cable didn’t feel short!

Wei Shi reached out and grabbed hold of Wu Jin, who’d sent himself to the door. His actions were no different from those of the young couple who were several seats away.

Ten minutes later, the star ship finally arrived.

Tourists flocked to the star boat, and the two of them lagged behind. There were duty-free shops on both sides of the port, and snacks were available everywhere. Wu Jin bought some from the left side, then went to the right side, eating and crunching the whole way from the waiting room to their seats.

All the way until the pleasant voice rang out over the broadcast, “Golden Cloud Starlines provides high-quality business meals on board. Please do not bring food into the cabin…”

“!!!” Wu Jin: Wasn’t this the standard operation for cheap airlines? It had actually continued on for a full 10 centuries?!

From not far away, the smiling crew began to check seat belts one by one, also checking for external food. Wu Jin made a decision and stuffed the crispy corn sausage to Wei Shi.

Wei Shi mercilessly refused, and Wu Jin could only hide the snacks under the table. When the flight attendant came over, Wei Shi opened up a duty-free goods catalogue, leaning forward slightly as he read it. With these precision tactics and tacit cooperation, he blocked Wu Jin’s small food hiding actions from view.

The flight attendant finished the check and left with a smile.

Wei Shi tilted his head.

Wu Jin happily lifted up the table to snatch up his snacks. He dug around a bit and then started to crunch and chomp again.

When the star ship arrived at Golden Cloud Resort, it was raining, and the traffic at the port was blocked. Tourists were packed into the suspension minibus in groups of 12.

Wu Jin suddenly realized something, “Did we forget to buy tickets and pay the transportation fee?”

Wei Shi nodded.

Wu Jin looked down again.

On the ad booklet the words ‘free tour’ stood out and caught the eye! Wu Jin’s heart thumped, and he had a premonition that it wasn’t good. By then, the suspension minibus that was covered in advertisements arrived in the rain. Even the lights were projecting an advertisement for a certain love hotel.

After getting on the bus, the AI salesman stretched out six mechanical arms and enthusiastically recommended value-added tourism services to the six couples on board.

Another same-sex couple was seated beside Wu Jin, and the youth wearing a pair of black framed glasses was outgoing and talkative, “What a coincidence, you guys are also traveling on a budget!”

Wu Jin sighed, hesitated, then nodded.

The young man received a response and was even more enthusiastic as he continued, “There are quite a few group purchase discounts for four people here. How about we group up together! Are you here to see Pikachu too…”

Wu Jin was instantly excited, “Yes, yes!”

On the bus filled with advertisements, Wei Shi was wearing sunglasses and looking at the other party with his arms crossed over his chest. The young man’s boyfriend cheerfully tried to strike up a conversation with Wei Shi, “The two of us met through playing Pokemon. My family has an ancestral Flareon that was caught on the palm computer several centuries ago. The game has gone through so many versions, but we’ve never forgotten to copy it over. Speaking of which, although nobody watches the game or animation anymore, I used the Flareon to propose to him.”

Wei Shi: “……”

The man beside them, “Are you guys Pikachu trainers? Or do you like something else? Mewtwo? Jigglypuff? Charmander?”

Wei Shi: “……”

However, this conversation that was on different wavelengths was quickly connected together. Wei Shi tilted his head, while Wu Jin smiled broadly from beside him.

xiin: … pokemon. and also, a Flareon that made it (digitally) through centuries. wow.