The first round was finished. All of the competitors returned to the airship to rest, and the live broadcast was temporarily closed.

Before everyone went to rest, Ruth said, “All of you will have one day and night of time to rest. The live broadcast has been suspended, so you can all relax properly for a bit. On the airship there is an infirmary room, those who are injured can go to get treatment. Each of you has a separate room to rest in, the facilities inside are quite complete, so please don’t walk around randomly on the airship. The only area open to you is the lounge area, for other places you will need to apply for entry. If someone breaks the rules, they will be kicked out of the competition directly.”

Ruth clapped her hands. “All right! You can all go rest, tomorrow you will face an even more difficult competition. Take advantage of this time to raise your spirits well.”

The crowd dispersed, and everyone returned to their own rooms. First, of course, they all wanted to take a bath to relax their bodies.

Jing Yang opened the door to his room to go in. Kedi paused when he was passing by Jing Yang’s room, watching his back disappear into his room. Only after the door closed did he continue walking forward.

His three personal scores were all higher than Milton’s, but he was actually not happy about it, because Milton’s reaction was completely beyond his expectations. The judges were clearly biased towards him, but despite Milton’s easily provoked personality, he actually did not get angry, and also did not go argue with the judges.

From the past, the more Milton argued and the angrier he got, the remarks he made would be more likely to make him hated by netizens. He had never thought that Milton would be able to endure like this, and even more so did not think that Milton’s abilities would be even stronger than his. If they continued on like this, it would be very unfavorable for him.

After Kedi finished taking a bath he immediately went over to find his two teammates. They needed to take advantage of the live broadcast being suspended to properly discuss and plan.

Ruth went back to her own room and found her most beautiful clothes to put them on. Right now she especially regretted not bringing a few more dresses over. After she changed and put on some makeup, Ruth put on the bracelet that Jing Yang gifted to her, and took many . She picked a few of the best looking ones and posted them on her personal profile. Instantly quite a few people commented, wanting to buy the bracelet on her wrist.

Ruth cast her own support ticket to Jing Yang, and then sent out messages to her family and friends, as well as some people pursuing her, telling them that they had to also cast a vote for Jing Yang.

Not until she received news about a meeting did Ruth finally change back her clothes and walk out the room.

Just when she reached the door of the conference room, she saw the three judges walk out with especially ugly expressions. Ruth quietly asked another male assistant, “What happened?”

The male assistant also quietly responded, “We have received complaints from many netizens saying that the competition is operating under the banner of fairness and impartiality, but we didn’t actually achieve it. And then, the big Boss personally gave the order to severely punish the three judges.”

Ruth raised an eyebrow and looked back at the backs of those three judges. She laughed with .

The airship was moving the entire time. Three hours later, the airship arrived at the second competition site on the planet. And most of the competitors, after a fulfilling meal, were currently blissfully snoring in their sleep.

Early the next morning, all of the competitors disembarked from the airship and discovered that they had been sent to the outskirts of a jungle. Looking from afar, this jungle revealed a somewhat grotesque atmosphere.

“Good morning folks!” Ruth called. “The second stage of the competition is about to start. Before the competition begins, I need to announce a matter. Yesterday after the end of the competition, we received many complaints from the netizens because the judges that we found were being completely unfair. Milton Miller, please step forward.”

Jing Yang walked forward a few steps, not knowing what she wanted to do.

The others were very shocked when they heard Ruth’s words. As someone hated by most of the netizens, Milton actually had people willing to help him and complain to the organizers because he was treated unfairly.

Ruth didn’t continue speaking, instead turning around to look in the direction of the airship. A tall and upright man walked down from the airship, behind him followed the head organizer and some other staff members. As the man walked closer, the crowd were first attracted by his handsome appearance, and then oppressed by his imposing manner, not daring to continue looking straight at his face.

“Let me introduce him to everyone.” Ruth said, “This is the highest boss of our Star Network company, .”

Immediately some people let out shocked gasps. No one had thought that they would actually have the opportunity to see the legendary Earl Wilson, it was really unimaginable.

Jing Yang looked at Bowie. He was surprised that this man actually had a pair of golden eyes, those eyes were really too beautiful. In this space-time, there were people with brown eyes, people with blue eyes, people with black eyes, people with cyan eyes, and then there was another very rare kind, people with golden eyes. It was said that in this empire, only those with royal blood would have golden eyes. And right now in this emperor’s generation, the number of people with golden eyes would not be more than three.

“Milton Miller?” Bowie gazed at Jing Yang.

“Yes.” Jing Yang quickly used the system to search for this person’s information. Earl Bowie Wilson, his mother was the eldest princess of the empire (deceased), and the current emperor was his cousin, the two people’s relationship was very good. He himself owned more than 20 different companies, and each company had several hundred branches. He was known as the master of the imperial economy, the richest man in the empire.

“I apologize to you on behalf of Star Network Company regarding the injustice that you suffered during the competition. I have already punished those three judges. However, the previous scores cannot be changed, so we will separately compensate you after the competition ends. Are you willing to accept these conditions?” From the first time he saw this man, Bowie felt a sense of long-awaited reunion in his heart. It was like he had been waiting for this person, that he had been waiting for many years.

“I accept.” Jing Yang truly really liked that pair of eyes of his, but besides liking them he didn’t sense any other feeling, and the familiar sense of twitching in his heart did not appear. But based on the experience from the previous two worlds, the appearance of that kind of feeling was very irregular. He really did not know at what time and in what kind of situation that kind of feeling would finally emerge. But being able to give him a favorable impression from the first time they met, there was a good chance that this man would be his previous worlds’ lover.

Bowie announced, “Following this, I will serve as the head supervisor to ensure the fairness and impartiality of the competition.”

Star Network had already long been boiling, the legendary Earl Wilson actually appeared in the live broadcast, and even personally came forward to apologize, this was really…too handsome! Too imposing ah!

The discussion on Star Network instantly ran astray, the number of people who worshipped Bowie was actually extremely large, it was only that he was too mysterious and rarely appeared. He would only occasionally show up in the text of the imperial economic news, so the netizens did not understand much about him. Many people were sighing that while watching live broadcast they could actually see this elusive big man, it was truly worth it!

After Bowie finished speaking, Ruth continued to announce the content for the next competition: “See the jungle behind you? That is the content for the next stage of the competition, you will need to cross the jungle and reach the foot of the hill in the middle. The first team to arrive will receive 10 points, the second team to arrive will get 8 points, the third team will get 6 points, the fourth team 4 points, the fifth team 2 points, and the teams after the fifth, 0 points.”

Seeing the normal expressions on the competitors’ faces, Ruth smiled. “Perhaps you feel that crossing the jungle is very simple, but I will remind you all, most of the plants in the jungle are poisonous, and there are even some that if you even slightly bump into them they can poison you to death. So after you all go in, you would do well not to randomly touch around, let alone randomly eating them.”

Immediately some people’s expression changed. Ruth was very satisfied with this, and continued explaining: “The previous stage of the competition was only to help you all warm up, the following is the real competition. Accidents can happen at any time. During the course of the game, if you cannot continue, you can choose to opt out. On each of your flying cameras there is a button, if you want to give up on the competition, press the button, and your live broadcast will be turned off. We will then immediately dispatch people to send you back to the airship.”

“Now you will have 10 minutes to reselect your teams.”

The competitors again started to look left and right. Because of Jing Yang’s performance in the previous stage of the competition, as well as the delicious food that he made, there were quite a few people who thought about teaming up with him. But once they remembered that being in a team with him might still cause them to be attacked by the netizens, they were all not as willing anymore.

Jake turned to ask Jing Yang, “Can I be in a team with you?”

Jing Yang nodded.

Jake happily smiled. He already didn’t really care about the other things, if the netizens wanted to scold they could just do it. He just wanted to remain to the end of the competition, get the bonus, and then continue to livestream his food recommendations. If they enjoyed watching it then they would watch, if they didn’t enjoy watching then they didn’t have to watch.

“That…” Danny walked over and asked somewhat embarrassedly, “Can I join you guys?”

Jake looked at him with some surprise, and then turned to look at Jing Yang. He felt that whether or not he could join should all be based on what Jing Yang thought.

“If you’re not afraid of being scolded, then we can go together.” Jing Yang said.

Danny didn’t say anything, but looking at his expression you could know that he had already made a decision, he felt that being scolded didn’t really matter anymore.

The competition started. Each person still only had one short knife in their hands, besides that they had nothing else. They needed to take care of their own food, and there was also the problem of staying overnight in the jungle.

Before crossing the jungle, Jing Yang wanted to first take care of breakfast. Otherwise, where would they have the energy to walk for an entire day, especially in that jungle that had danger everywhere.

There was a river on the outskirts of the jungle, in which there were quite a few fish, so Jing Yang decided that they would eat fish for breakfast. Catching fish was a task that could not be any simpler for him: he sharpened a stick and easily stabbed several fish.

The others saw that he did it so easily and followed suit. But reality showed that other people being able to do something easily, did not mean that you yourself would also be able to do it easily. So the results were very disappointing. Some people did not want to delay too much time, and thinking that they would always be able to find some food in the jungle, they quickly set off.

This place was not the seaside, so there were no coconut shells to act as bowls. But there were some things that were even better to use: . The thinner ones would be as thick as a teacup, and the thickest ones were as wide as a bucket.

Jing Yang gave the fish to Jake and Danny to handle, while he himself went into the jungle to roam around. Tasteless fish soup was definitely not good to drink, he wanted to find something to act as seasoning.

When Jing Yang returned, he was holding some things that looked like weeds in his hand, and also dragged three bamboo of different thicknesses.

While cooking the fish soup, Jing Yang quickly made six capped bamboo tubes that could be tied to their waist. He poured some boiled water into three of the tubes, and then Jing Yang split the six bamboo tubes into three portions, each person got two.

Jake took the tube filled with water and the empty tube and asked, “What is this empty tube used for?”

“To hold some things, when we go into the jungle you’ll know.” Jing Yang used a ladle made out of bamboo to scoop up some fish soup and fish chunks.

A figure appeared next to them. Jing Yang raised his head to look over, “Is there something?”

Bowie lowered his head to look at him. “Ruth said you offer breakfast here.”

Ruth rolled her eyes on the airship, she definitely didn’t say this, okay? Obviously it was the big boss using his powers to deprive her of the right to , and then taking over that privilege himself.

Jake and Danny were completely stunned at being able to see Bowie from this close.

Jing Yang also froze a bit, in his heart he was thinking, the food on the airship was not that bad to eat, the flavor was still pretty good. You this big shot, you’re still their immediate superior, would they dare to treat you badly? You actually ran over to mooch off of this bit of food of ours?

Bowie crouched down next to Jing Yang. Such a noble and imposing person, because of this action, was instantly grounded.

Jing Yang wanted to reject him. If he gave him fish soup to drink, he was afraid that he would be suspected of bribing the organizers. Plus, who knows whether or not walking too close to him would cause him to be attacked by the netizens?

Bowie seemed to have seen his thoughts. “Rest assured, I only supervise the fairness of the competition, I do not interfere with the scoring. Eating your food would not be considered as accepting bribes.”

Facing that pair of golden eyes, Jing Yang was unable to voice any words of rejection. He ladled some fish soup to give him to drink, and couldn’t resist looking at his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Bowie discovered his gaze.

“Your eyes are really beautiful.” Jing Yang blurted out the thoughts in his heart. After he finished speaking he became vexed, those words really sounded a bit like he was flirting.

“Thank you, your eyes are also very beautiful.” Bowie looked at him with a smile.

Of the countless people watching on Star Network, there came many chuckles, some were spitting, and also some had nosebleeds. The legendary grim earl actually knew how to smile, and smiled so handsomely, it was really too amazing! Those who spit were all people who understood Bowie’s indifferent and cold personality. And those who suffered from nosebleeds, were all ordinary netizens who didn’t understand him, they all felt that he was simply too seductive.

Jing Yang also felt his heart tremble because of his smile, that kind of familiar feeling again hit his heart. This person should be his own lover, there was no mistake. Jing Yang secretly scolded himself for being disappointing, they were already such an old couple, yet he actually was still so easily moved.

———

[1] – 立體影像, also stereoscopic images, but probably more high tech than the ones today

[2] – 幸災樂禍, idiom, literally to take joy in calamity and delight in disaster

[3] – 維森·博威伯爵, wei sen · bo wei, and 伯爵 can either be earl or count

[4] – 水桶竹, literal translation, this is definitely not a thing

[5] – 蹭吃蹭喝, cadge means to mooch off of, didn’t know cadge was a word until just now