by N. Heller
"Brother Gong, are you condoning their actions?" The slim man slammed his beer bottle on the table. Suppressing his anger, he muttered, "There is no reason to let—"
The man in a robe shook his hand and replied, "I don’t mean to absolve their sins. I just feel that their psychological changes are very interesting… It’s just my occupational disease."
"What sort of changes?"
"At first, this group of people probably only envied Posthumans and wished that they could leave this glass city. That was until they realized that the Posthumans that arrived were desperate to enter the city."
The slim man’s expression froze.
"Not only did we want to enter their city, but also l.u.s.t for their resources: Anti-radiation gummies, clothes, clean water… We not only have nothing but we have to suffer the fate of being transported to other New Worlds." He smiled, "Some other New Worlds also share the right wing views that Posthumans are not humans. But this is a perfect place to inculcate the view that Posthumans are a lower classes organisms deep in the people’s consciousness. Under such conditions, with the lack of entertainment, and no proper cultivation of empathy, this Lunar New Year Tournament was finally created."
The slim man stared out in a daze for a long time before he could connect the brief explanation to the cheering behavior he witnessed.
"Brother Gong…"
He wanted to say more but he was interrupted by an eruption of shrieks and whistles. He turned to the screen and realized that after the recap, the program proceed to the popularity poll of the contestant. At that moment, the screen was showing many of the popular contestants and the people in the pub became loud and enthusiastic again.
Each resident of Garden of Eden wore a small wristband which projected a screen when it was activated. They just had to swipe across the projected screen to vote for their favorite contestant. Right now, the most popular contestant was a fearful looking black-haired girl whose name seemed to be Hui Chuyan. The second most popular contestant was a twelve-year-old child followed by a fourteen-year-old. People clearly voted for them because of their young age.
The contestants who had the highest votes would appear much later in the tournament, this was for viewership and to attract sponsors. The list started from the most popular contest and even after some time, Contestant 97 did not appear on the screen.
Lin Sanjiu’s cold expression only appeared on the screen after 50 over people have been shown. The reason for her popularity? It was stated as: "I want to see that proud and aloof woman face defeat and humiliation in battle."
"Defeat and humiliation…" Lin Sanjiu repeated the words on the screen, but her face looked stoic. However, if someone who understood her temperament had walked closer, they would be alarmed by her tumultuous glare. Her violent emotions seeped from her eyes, even though she was trying her best to hold it back, and that was an ominous sign. She never knew her emotions could be so intense.
After watching the recap of past tournaments, she couldn’t help feeling that all the vocabulary she knew was too mild. Nothing could properly describe the complex feeling she felt— was it shock? Disgust? Fear?
After thinking for a while, she decided that her mood was closer to "rage".
"Oh, you are talking about the female host this year? Yeah, she’s not bad."
Lin Sanjiu heard the idle gossip between the pink-faced host and one of the cameraman. They were obviously already used to the "Let’s recap the exciting scenes from previous tournaments".
"Has her father set her price?" the cameraman asked.
"Yup. It is quite high, but it shouldn’t be a problem for a rich man’s son like you. You can try… But, I heard that she wants to work even after getting married."
The cameraman suddenly scoffed, "If someone buys her, who is she to talk about conditions? I think no one would want to buy such a wilful woman."
"Haha. Maybe her price would drop if her father got anxious…"
"My cousin bought one this year. She had a premarital affair so her family had to drop her price…"
"How many women has your cousin bought? He is still buying more?"
The corner of Lin Sanjiu’s lip twitched a little as she listened quietly to the men’s unbridled conversation. A sour stench pervaded the air as a few of the contestants could not control their nausea so the floor was covered with puddles of vomit. The makeup on their faces were ruined due to the mixture of sweat, tears, mucus and saliva. Some of them were crying unconsciously while the others were in a daze.
Lin Sanjiu turned behind to look at the pink-faced host, but the latter continued chatting cheerfully with the cameraman.
"Hey, you." Lin Sanjiu called softly, "I have something to ask you."
The pink-faced man was momentarily stunned. He exchanged glances with the cameraman before he tilted his head, staring back condescendingly, "What?"
"Who are the organizers of this tournament?"
"Why do you want to know?" The pink-faced man looked away. When he was on camera, he acted as if he was so eager to hear more from her. In contrast, he looked as if he was holding back his revulsion when he was speaking to her. "All of you just have to participate in the tournament. There is no need for you to be bothered with anything else."
Their conversation caught the attention of Hui Chuyan, who looked over at them with a blank expression. Their conversation wasn’t all that audible as the room was filled with the sound of sobbing or vomiting, yet she heard them clearly because she was close to them.
The smile on Lin Sanjiu’s face could be considered gentle. She looked at the pink-faced man and spoke with a very cordial tone, "I ask and you’ll answer.. I don’t want you to regret if things get ugly later."
There were about thirty fully armed soldiers in the room and Sandwhale’s six lackeys. Even though their boss was dead, for some reasons they did not leave but continued monitoring the women closely.
Lin Sanjiu had gotten back her [Voice Recorder] from his corpse and a protection-type Special Item. If she activated it, she could probably survive the attacks from these people until she could store the rope and activate her Pygmalion Choker…"
Her plan wasn’t perfect but after running through it once in her head, Lin Sanjiu did not wish to think any longer and decided to just take action.
Just as she was feeling hot-headed and was about to shout out [Lone Wolf Casual-smart Leather Belt Protection], she heard a trample of footsteps as if many people were rushing to the room. Following which, someone yelled out, "Send all these contestants away for preparation. The tournament will start next Monday at 9 am sharp!"
Chapter 117 - The Lunar New Year Tournament Begins
The Lunar New Year Tournament did not actually have a fixed duration, and "one month" was just an estimation of the event from the opening celebrations to the closing ceremony. The actual duration of the tournament depended on the number of young female Posthumans they could kidnap from the outside world. In a good year, the organizers could get about a few hundred contestants; there were years where it continued with just about 40 or 50 contestants.
This year, there were only 100 contestants. With two rounds every day, about nine to ten female Posthumans would be expended each day, so the event would only last for about slightly over ten days. With the celebratory atmosphere around, the tournament merchandises were already selling like hotcakes in the city.
The photos of the few most popular female contestants had been made into posters and phone accessories which were well-received by teenagers. All of the contestants’ stats have been analyzed and collected in a databook, which the residents could view after purchasing it from their projected screen. Using the databook and the lengthy reports from the experts on TV, the residents could place bets on the different contestants.
However, these merchandises sold before the tournament starts were nothing compared to the items which would only be available at the later stage of the tournament.
Some rich man had already purc
hased the rights to the taxidermied Hui Chuyan, the most popular contestant in the tournament. No matter in what condition the dead body would end up, the taxidermists could revert the body to a pristine condition according to the customer’s wishes. This was done by dissecting the body and removing all the soft tissues, then drying the skin and using some sculpting and modeling techniques to finally produce a lifelike taxidermied female Posthuman. Many taxidermy shops basically survived by doing such businesses.
The people who could not afford to buy the taxidermy models could collect other memorabilia left behind after the female Posthuman died, such as weapons, their torn clothes, video recording of the match… In any case, for the entertainment industry, the Lunar New Year Tournament was the longest lasting, largest and most lucrative event.
"As we are the most outstanding creations of God, standing at the pinnacle of all humankind, we are thus able to create the world’s greatest spiritual celebration…"
Lin Sanjiu listened quietly to the TV while she stood in her capsule. Those were the words used by the male host to describe the recap of the Lunar New Year Tournament. The space in the capsule was less than one cubic meter, so she couldn’t walk or lie down. There was a board at the back of the capsule which she could lean against when she was tired and that was all she could do to rest. There were numerous similar capsules beside her and each of them contained a bound female contestant.
Lin Sanjiu could easily convert the rope into a card and if she touched the capsule, she could immediately gain her freedom. In fact, as long as it was tangible and did not weigh over one ton, there was nothing in this world which could trap her.
However, she did not take action.
One of the reasons was because of the tight security in the tournament arena—there were over a hundred fully armed soldiers and they guarded every corner of the arena. The countless number of black sentry guns on the ceiling were all aimed at either the capsule containment area or the battle arena. It was not hard to figure out that the organizers would not hesitate for one second to use all that firepower if they spotted any odd behavior from the Posthumans.
A total of 100 capsules were placed at the back of the large oval battle arena and was segregated from the rest by a metal barricade. There were rows after rows of stair-like audience seats at the other side of the arena, which could house at least 10,000 people.
—
This was the first day of the tournament. As the least popular contestants would fight first, the ticket sales were the poorest on the first day. There were only three to five people sitting in each of the rows and not even half the tickets were sold.
She could understand why there was a lack of audience, but Lin Sanjiu found it strange to see the audience members all wearing the same style of hooded robes. They were fully covered from head to toe, even their faces were hidden and all of them were wearing a pair of transparent glasses.
[What is that?]
She wasn’t curious for long because the male host started speaking, "My dear audience, happy Lunar New Year! I want to welcome you all to the first match of the Lunar New Year Tournament! I sincerely hope that you will enjoy this great experience and go back happy at the end of the day! Now, we will invite the competitors to enter the arena. Before they enter the arena, please check that your anti-radiation clothing is proper donned…"
Lin Sanjiu moved to the walls of the capsule and stared at the audience, checking their clothes.
[Of course, contestants were all caught outside, so there is still radiation in bodies. The residents here are very cautious...]
Five capsules slowly slid toward the battle arena. Lin Sanjiu was a little stunned. When she looked a little closer, she realized that the 100 capsules were arranged and packed on a conveyor track. The capsules followed the track that brought them to the arena.
"Click!"
The doors of the capsules opened. It took quite some time before the first person gingerly stuck her head out to look. One by one, the pallid-looking female contestants walked out from their capsules. They had all been untied.
Even if contestants refused to come out from the capsule, the organizers had their way of changing their minds. One of the contestants who did not step out was electrocuted. Her body shook so violently that she fell out from the capsule. The voltage must have been high as she didn’t get up even after a long time. Her face turned pale green and she just stopped moving.
"The female contestants have already entered the arena! I wonder what sort of opponents they will have to deal with today?" With the host enthusiastic tone, the few audience members cheered.
Lin Sanjiu could see the closeup view of the women in the arena on a large screen far away. When she saw the expressions on their faces, she couldn’t help looking down, afraid to watch their faces.
A black prison van slowly stopped in front of the women. The entire prison van was made of heavy-duty steel and there wasn’t a single slit to reveal its content. It looked about five to six tons yet the weight did nothing to prevent the top section of the van from vibrating slightly as if whatever was inside was trashing violently against the walls.
When the female contestants noticed that, they turned pale. When the host saw that the prison van had stopped, he suddenly spoke in a chirpy voice, "Alright, now let us introduce the challengers!"
Lin Sanjiu held her breath as she stared at the door of the prison van without blinking. She had already been in Garden of Eden for a week, but it had been so eventful that she did not have time to think of one thing— why wasn't there any duoluozhong in the Garden of Eden?
Even if the initial batch of duoluozhongs had already died, there should still be people like Lin Sanjiu who couldn't develop anti-radiation passive abilities, so she should at least see a few around…
A white... limb extended out from the door.
They did not show these in the recaps but now this parade (Lin Sanjiu could only think of this collective noun) of hairless, horrendous contorted ‘human bodies’ were walking down leisurely from the prison van.
Even calling those ‘human bodies’ required a stretch of one’s imagination. At least, this was her first time seeing such deformed ‘humans’. Each duoluozhong there possessed unique aberrations, which were in different parts of their bodies. One of them had a large pair of compound eyes which took up two-thirds of its head. Another had a wart-covered body like a fried dough twist, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t even spot where its face was.
The duoluozhongs, with their twisted bodies, walked down one after the other. Eight, nine, ten… but there were more. As the female contestants’ expressions sank, a total of 30 duoluozhongs finally got out from the van.
"As you all know, the female mutates[1] have already been sprayed with synthetic pheromones…" the host never-ending explanation rang out in the arena, his clear and crisp voice entered Lin Sanjiu’s ears without a single static noise, "...and we have also ensured that they are not holding any items… Just as before, you will witness a fair and exciting match…
"Our Lunar New Year Tournament holds the best elements of those ancient competitive games like ‘soccer’ and ‘basketball’. Building on those foundations, you could say that our tournament is the best evolution of those games… Oh! How unexpected! Contestant 7’s first reaction is to run!"
"I guess her ability is not suitable for combat... Haha! But she moves pretty fast. Come on, catch her! Let’s take a look at what the others are doing. Two of the mutates have been totally surrounded, we almost can’t even see their shadows. All you people seeing this on your TV screen, can you spot them?
"Oh, what a surprise! Contestant 32 has the ability to regenerate her limbs, like a lizard? Oh, but the duoluozhongs caught her again… Her spine bone! They have torn most of the flesh off her back along with her vertebral column! That is an intact vertebral column! Oh, it’s still moving! We can hear the jubilant cheers from the audience! They are indeed the strengthened breeds from our experimental labs!"
"Contestant 26 tried to run toward the audience and fainted after being electrocuted by the electrical fence… Arena maintenance members, please stand by to clean up the remnants…"
It wasn’t even half-time, yet there were only two out of five contestants left. The host, who had been giving commentary all this time, leaned back in his chair and took a sip of tea. Then, he tutted.
"Without sponsors for the first few rounds, it is really boring."
Chapter 118 - I Will Remember All of This
Lin Sanjiu only heard the term "sponsors" on the fourth day of the tournament. After the end of day three, the capsule containment area had 29 fewer capsules. Among the 29 women, there were those with outstanding abilities, some who were quick-witted and others who worked together... but in the end, they all ended up dying in the most meaningless and banal way without a shred of dignity. Their remnants of blood and flesh dyed the arena red while the groups of duoluozhongs walked around making squishy sounds as they trampled over their bodies.
Out of the dead women, one of them had an ability that seemed related to her vision. Even after her body had been minced, one of her eyeballs remained intact. No matter how hard the duoluozhongs tried to step on it, it didn’t burst. It simply rolled about in the bloody mixture on the ground with the sclera facing the ceiling.
After the end of each match, the number of duoluozhongs in the arena increased like the piling corpses. The duoluozhongs that were not killed in the match were not taken away, instead, they were allowed to roam the arena, waiting for the next batch of duoluozhongs to arrive. Perhaps due to the "strengthening experimentations" done to them in the Garden of Eden Laboratories, the duoluozhongs from the first three days seemed to be lacking in the intelligence department, their combat styles were also nothing unusual...
After the fourth day, Lin Sanjiu started to feel that those 29 women were lucky.
At that moment, the cameras were sweeping across the cheering crowd surging into the arena. Whenever a camera flew close to the crowd, it would cause the audience to shriek happily. Some people even took off their hoods and jumped up and down waving at the cameras. By this time, the seats had all been filled. The vendors who were strolling through the rows of seats were all beaming. They sold all sorts of odd, colorful tidbits and souvenirs and easily cleared their stock in just a few minutes.