Chapter 4: Death Acrobatic Troupe 04 Part 1

【00:00:35】

The school of Piranhas fully revived. Their grey fish eyes bulged to an impossible degree, their mouths lined with sharp teeth opening and closing.

They noticed Jian Bumian’s presence.

However, Jian Bumian remained motionless. They couldn’t discern if he was dead or alive and didn’t show much interest, instead flicking their tails and searching around for fresh prey.

【Actually, there’s still a sliver of hope. Piranhas don’t attack without reason; as long as you don’t provoke them…】

【Wait, look at that flash of red—what is it?】

【??? Isn’t that blood!!】

【When did Mianmian get injured! It’s over!】

The viewers in the livestream room at that moment saw a streak of bright red appear in the water.

It was incredibly conspicuous and striking in the dim light!

The bright red Liquid flowed with the current, gradually drifting towards the Water Surface.

Like a piece of red silk submerged in water, dazzling and magnificent.

Experienced viewers immediately recognized it—

This was blood!

Blood was drifting out from where Jian Bumian was!!

Blood meeting Piranhas meant certain death.

According to the nature of Piranhas, their vision is mostly poor. They can’t easily discern if a stationary object is alive or dead, and they generally won’t attack something that isn’t moving without reason.

But.

If they catch the scent of even a trace of blood, they will turn into mad dogs, rushing recklessly towards the source of the blood, madly tearing at whatever is emitting the scent.

A large mass of dark Piranhas, in an instant, swept overwhelmingly towards the corner of the water tank where Jian Bumian was!

The youth’s figure was covered by a dense black shadow, looking utterly insignificant, as if a gentle pinch would dissolve him into foam like a little mermaid.

The viewers had no idea why blood would be surging from Jian Bumian’s person!

At this moment, they all thought the same thing—another player about to die a very ugly death.

Truly too pitiful.

Viewers held their breath. Some timid viewers even closed their eyes, unwilling to witness the bloody and brutal scene about to unfold.

【00:00:30】

Just as the foremost Piranha was mere centimeters from the tip of Jian Bumian’s nose.

…That Piranha acted as if it didn’t see Jian Bumian at all.

It brushed past Jian Bumian, heading towards a deeper corner behind him!

Followed by the entire dense school of fish behind it.

The entire school didn’t even graze Jian Bumian, all surging towards another location.

The school instantly swarmed a spot at the bottom of the water tank.

It was unmistakably the connection point between the iron chain and the tank’s glass surface!

Also one of the difficulties set by this training content.

The Acrobat’s handcuffs were connected to the chain, and the chain was pinned to the glass surface of the tank, fixing the Acrobat to a single spot.

The blood wasn’t emanating from Jian Bumian himself, but from that connection point!

The Piranhas in this horror instance were clearly mutated. Their terrifyingly strong bite force viciously snapped the iron chain, which was wrapped in the heavy scent of blood, in mere seconds!

The iron chain was bitten through!!

Once bitten through, the handcuffs on Jian Bumian’s wrists lost their connection to the glass tank, effectively freeing him from restraint!

【Countdown: 00:00:05】

That was the moment!

Although Jian Bumian’s hands were still bound by the handcuffs.

His figure, like an agile fish, darted towards the Water Surface at extreme speed.

The severed half of the iron chain dragged behind him, glinting with a silver light, resembling a slender merfolk’s tail fin, swaying with the youth’s movements.

Even though this was an extremely dangerous and perilous situation, it somehow conveyed an indescribable dreamlike quality.

【Countdown: 00:00:001】

The final second!

Splash!

Snow-white water spray shot up again. Jian Bumian appeared on the shore, completely unharmed.

The only damage suffered was probably the iron chain bitten off by the Piranhas, pitifully brought ashore attached to Jian Bumian’s handcuffs.

The viewers’ eyes widened. What was going on?

Why was Jian Bumian able to suddenly reverse the situation?!

Where did the blood come from!

Some viewers with special props immediately replayed and zoomed in on the livestream continuously until they could clearly see the object emitting the blood.

…………It was a piece of Steak.

One of the foods distributed to the Acrobats by the Troupe this morning.

This Steak was only cooked rare. Even the meat and sinews were red-red. The juices oozing out were entirely blood. It looked absolutely unappetizing.

The viewers had only seen Jian Bumian not eat the Steak but hadn’t seen how he disposed of it.

It turned out, Jian Bumian had re-wrapped the Steak in the attached plastic bag and newspaper, hidden it on his person, and brought it into the training ground.

Then, at the critical moment, he threw it towards the connection point of the handcuff chain and the glass tank surface—

The blood-soaked Steak, propelled by the Water Flow, tightly clung to the connection point.

Piranhas are most sensitive to, and crazed by, the scent of blood.

If a living thing that moves but isn’t injured and a fresh chunk of meat emitting blood are both present, Piranhas will unhesitatingly bite the latter, simultaneously biting through the iron chain restraining Jian Bumian!

Thus, Jian Bumian could take advantage of the Piranhas’ diverted attention and successfully escape.

The punishment mechanism, the accelerated countdown, the mutated Piranhas with enhanced bite force, the iron chain, the blood…

These were clearly obstacles set by the Infinite World wanting the Player to die, but in Jian Bumian’s hands, they became the very weapons turning the tables to secure his escape!

Standing on the shore, watching the crazed Piranha puppets savagely gnawing at the Steak, Jian Bumian let out a cold, soft laugh.

He was completely soaked. His clothes clung tightly to his skin, outlining the youth’s slender figure.

His skin was an extreme snow-white from the icy water immersion. His whole body consisted only of pure white and black.

Water droplets gathered on Jian Bumian’s eyelashes. As his lashes trembled, the droplets slid down the contours of his face, leaving small, round puddles on the ground.

Jian Bumian noticed the dense Bullet Comments in the livestream room.

Some viewers were asking him

【Why did you suddenly try to break the glass, speeding up the time?】

Jian Bumian hadn’t originally intended to bother with these comments, but he raised an eyebrow and answered casually:

“The revival process of those Piranhas speeded up as time passed. If I wanted to wait for them to fully revive, it likely wouldn’t happen until the very last moment.

And I haven’t undergone special training; it’s very hard to hold my breath until the last second of those ten minutes.

The only way was to deliberately trigger the punishment mechanism, making it speed up the countdown for me, accelerating the Piranhas’ revival enough so they could help me bite through the chain.”

The youth’s voice was pleasant to hear, soft and gentle. The words spoken were light and airy.

As if narrating something utterly trivial.

The punishment mechanism of speeding up the countdown, the mutated Piranhas with their enhanced bites…

These malice-filled setups clearly intended to drive the player step-by-step into despair and death.

But in Jian Bumian’s mouth, they had turned the tables, becoming the weapons that helped him escape!

The Bullet Comments erupted in another wave.

【What do you mean “making it help me”??】

【? So not a Dumb Beauty! Followed!!】

【A miraculous operation I never would have imagined…】

【Turning the tables, killing two birds with one stone!! Mianmian truly is the player I’ve been watching!】

【Infinite World: The clown is me!】

The livestream room continuously chimed with increasing follower notifications.

Jian Bumian had instantly topped the 24-hour real-time Novice Chart with his stream popularity!

【Ding! Congratulations, your livestream room has topped the 24-hour real-time Novice Chart No.1! Keep up the good work! Create more thrilling and exciting death experiences! (When popularity reaches a certain level, the livestream room can be upgraded. After upgrading, the “Viewer Prop Tipping Feature” will be provided.)】

The viewers in the livestream room were also veteran Players of the Infinite World, each possessing more or less props in their hands.

If a big shot tipped an S-Rank prop, it was equivalent to directly taking a shortcut with a cheat.

The survival difficulty for System Players was higher than ordinary players.

But the benefits were also much greater.

Jian Bumian didn’t care about these things. He found it noisy and unhesitatingly turned off the sound and comments.

Solving the death traps set by the instance was effortless for him.

He had witnessed such things countless times during his previous tenure as an NPC in the Infinite World.

Jian Bumian touched his stomach. A little hungry.

The Skeleton Doctor NPC he ate last time hadn’t filled his Soul at all.

The Piranha puppets in the pool now, he didn’t want to eat either. That nauseating fishy stench—he’d definitely vomit at the first bite.

He had to eat the target Malicious Ghost sooner.

He didn’t want to keep going hungry. Hunger was the worst feeling.

Thinking this, Jian Bumian frowned, pursed his lips, revealing a pitifully wronged expression.

Jian Bumian found a set of fresh clothes placed by the doorway. He changed and left the training ground.

At this moment, the main hall of the Acrobatic Troupe was now only a third of its original crowd.

Some people had even come out with severe injuries.

Someone had a leg brutally severed and was dragging half a bloody stump, lying on the ground groaning in agony. Another person had their lower body mangled beyond recognition, collapsed in a corner, breathing their last, vomiting blood.

No one could spare them any attention, nor did anyone care to imagine what kind of training content they had endured.

The hall was filled with the sounds of crying and screaming.

A crisp child’s voice, carrying the light lilt of a nursery rhyme, rang out again, covering the Players’ despair.

“Congratulations to the Players present! Your training results for today are qualified! For the remaining time, everyone can choose to rest or eat!”

The table at the front of the hall was laden with a dazzling array of lunchboxes, wafting out strong food aromas.

Someone, catching the scent of roasted meat drifting over, suddenly collapsed on the ground and vomited violently, almost throwing up their own internal organs.

A person next to them asked what training content they had experienced.

While vomiting, they answered, trembling.

They had drawn the “Fire Hoop Jumping” acrobatic project along with a few others.

The Fire Hoops were real fire, very intense flames.

They were forced to douse their whole bodies in gasoline and, within a sealed space, pass through fifty Fire Hoops in five minutes.

In the end, the few who participated with him were all burned alive during the Fire Hoop jumping, reduced to thin, black charred hunks of meat.

“Then how did you pass?” Someone asked curiously.

The person wiped their vomit-smeared mouth, letting tears stream down their face, and said shakily: “I wrapped their charred corpses around myself like a blanket, covering my head with them, so I could pass through the Fire Hoops…”

That smell… it was all the scent of thoroughly cooked meat, incredibly strong.

Including the scent of his girlfriend’s cooked flesh.

Hearing this player’s account, the others turned green, instantly losing all appetite for the steaming braised meat on the table, and couldn’t help but feel sympathy for this poor player.

Jian Bumian, expression unchanging, picked up a few lunchboxes and returned to the dormitory. Sitting on his bed, he crossed his legs and began eating.

His lunchboxes contained absolutely no fish dishes, nor any starchy foods.

Only high-protein items that could quickly help a person regain physical strength, along with some refreshing vegetable dishes.

These foods he ate did absolutely nothing to fill the part of his Soul belonging to the Malicious Ghost. They couldn’t satisfy him or make him stronger.

They were purely to allow this living body of his to stay alive.

Jian Bumian intently chewed on an ear of sweet corn, his damp eyebrows and eyes lowered, snowy white teeth grinding the kernels. His appearance inexplicably reminded one of a baby animal being fed—utterly obedient.

Suddenly.

Someone tapped Jian Bumian on the shoulder.

Jian Bumian looked up and saw a young man with brown hair, quite handsome.

The youth looked very young, bringing to mind some kind of large Golden Retriever.

The youth smiled at Jian Bumian: “Hi, I’m occupying the bed next to you. My name is Qin Yihan, a university student.”

Qin Yihan?

A very distinctive name.

Jian Bumian looked up, gazing at him.

The corn kernels in Jian Bumian’s mouth hadn’t been swallowed yet, puffing out his cheeks, looking like a milky-white little hamster suddenly startled.

It had been too long since he’d had a proper conversation with someone. He momentarily didn’t know whether to swallow the food or spit it out first.

This look of Jian Bumian’s seemed very well-behaved, looking like he could be casually ruffled.

The young man named Qin Yihan suddenly found his courage and continued: “Excuse me, did you… bind the 001 Strategy System?”

Jian Bumian slowly chewed and swallowed what was in his mouth. He set down the lunchbox, tilted his head, and asked back: “And who are you? Why do you need me for?”

Qin Yihan said: “I’m a player who’s experienced two instances. I have a prop that can detect what kind of Systems have entered an instance.

And I detected that the 001 Strategy System exists within this instance. But my prop can’t detect who the host is, so I can only ask around person by person.”

Jian Bumian: “That prop of yours doesn’t sound very useful.”

Qin Yihan laughed awkwardly: “It has its uses, hmm… makes it convenient for me to find a System Player to cling to as a lifeline?”

The survival difficulty for System Players was very high.

But it also meant that—the System Players who managed to survive would all be incredibly formidable experts.

He noticed Jian Bumian’s strange look and hurriedly changed the subject: “Actually, I don’t mean anything else. I just wanted to see what kind of player the 001 Strategy System would take a liking to.”

“?”

Qin Yihan scratched his head and explained to Jian Bumian.

“In the last instance, I heard about the existence of the 001 Strategy System, and also heard that the missions it assigns are all very difficult and twisted.