Global Collapse

Chapter 812 The Collapse of Family Reunion

When the cruise ship carrying Gu Mian and the others arrived at the variety show venue, the audience was already waiting inside.

The unreliable autonomous driving system did indeed malfunction, and the robot intended as a precaution also broke down.

The cruise ship had to stop halfway, and the teacher hurriedly searched for a senior person who knew how to drive the cruise ship to take over. This back and forth delayed the journey by more than half an hour.

When Gu Mian and her group arrived near their destination, the audience members who had arrived earlier were already getting impatient.

The contestants were rushed to the variety show venue by the teacher as soon as they disembarked from the cruise ship.

The cruise ship docking area is not far from the variety show venue, and a long red carpet connects the cruise ship exit and the variety show venue entrance.

The variety show venue was converted from a stadium. Its appearance is similar to most stadiums on Earth. From the outside, it looks like a huge ring shape with a hollow center.

Gu Mian could see something protruding from the openwork part of the stadium from afar, pointing straight to the sky.

But before he could take a closer look, the killing teacher beside him hurriedly urged them, "Hurry up, hurry up, stop dawdling."

The contestants didn't have time to savor the feeling of walking on the red carpet or appreciate the carefully arranged decorations on both sides. They were crammed into the circular building as if they were being herded into a cage.

Upon entering the building, there was a long red carpet inside, surrounded by some bizarre architectural structures.

Gu Mian looked at the Ferris wheel not far away and fell into deep thought.

Upon seeing the contestants finally arrive, the audience members in the stands finally became interested and all looked towards the entrance.

They cheered happily, and some even leaned forward and whistled at Gu Mian.

Gu Mian looked in the direction of the sound and saw the circular audience seating in the center of the venue.

He had seen the topographical map of the area before and knew that it used to be a stadium. The original stands were built around the perimeter of the stadium, but after the renovation, the upper class demolished the original stands and built a stage in the center of the site, and then built a small-scale stands around the stage.

When Gu Mian first looked at the building's topographical map, she noticed something amiss. The stadium was enormous, but the map showed that only the very center of the vast area was being used, leaving a huge, circular vacuum around it.

At the time, Gu Mian didn't quite understand why the upper class would leave such a large gap when building variety show venues.

But now he knew—the place that should have been a circular open space was now filled with entertainment buildings.

It should be considered an entertainment building...

He saw a Ferris wheel built in a large artificial lake. Half of the Ferris wheel was submerged in the water, with only the top half of the circle showing above the surface, like a sun that had sunk halfway down.

Not far from the Ferris wheel was a carousel playing cheerful music, but the floor beneath it was riddled with dark holes of varying sizes, as if something might emerge from them at any moment.

Above them was a long roller coaster track. Gu Mian saw that every so often there was a huge steel ring welded to the track. They looked like tunnels in the track, through which the roller coaster had to pass. The "tunnels" were covered with sharp steel bars of different lengths and sizes, pointing in the direction of the track.

With so many entertainment facilities, it's as if the upper class has built an amusement park here.

However, it wasn't a proper amusement park. Gu Mian turned her gaze away from the sharp steel bars; the safety measures for these facilities were far from adequate.

Just then, the sound of loud shouts from the audience came from ahead.

"Get on stage! Get on stage!"

They can't wait any longer.

Because of her popularity, Gu Mian was specially arranged to be at the front of the line.

He looked ahead and saw a passageway in the middle of the circular seating area for entry and exit. The red carpet under his feet extended through the passageway to a stage, which was about the size of a classroom and had an odd shape.

It had steps that increased in size as you went up, with each step becoming smaller as you went up, making it look like a pyramid. The teacher, Killer, excitedly led them forward until they reached the "pyramid" and stopped.

Upon arriving at the foot of the pyramid, staff immediately handed a microphone to Teacher Killer, and two photographers surrounded him to start filming, capturing Gu Mian and his group in the frame.

Gu Mian then realized that the entire inner perimeter of the stadium had been transformed into a giant screen.

A circular screen enveloped the entire variety show venue. Gu Mian saw her own reflection on the huge circular screen, as well as Chu Changge and 007.

The two of them sat in the very front row of the audience.

Gu Mian stopped looking at the big screen and turned her gaze to the audience.

Chu Changge and 007 were also looking at him, but in front of so many people, the three of them couldn't openly acknowledge each other as relatives, nor could they imitate the scene in the TV series where they hugged each other with tears in their eyes. They could only glance at each other and then silently look away.

At this point, Teacher Killer began to host the event with great passion.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting—"

Perhaps because he was too excited, the teacher's voice was a bit high-pitched, and listening to him speak felt like having something sharp sliding on your eardrums.

"Welcome everyone to the second phase of the trial and the crown! Our second phase program is a fun-filled carnival!"
"I know you've all been waiting for a long time, but I'm sure the following program won't disappoint you!"

Teacher Killer spoke with conviction, appearing very confident about the upcoming episode.

But he changed the subject, not immediately revealing the next steps, but instead keeping it a secret for now.

"As viewers who watched the live stream last night probably know, we held a mystery vote among the contestants yesterday to determine their performance order for today's show. Those who perform earlier in the upcoming episodes have an advantage, but our voting worked in reverse order: the more votes someone received, the later they would perform. Hehe, now let's reveal the results of last night's vote!"

The teacher, holding a card, smiled as he read its contents: "There's a contestant who's incredibly popular. Not only is he number one among the audience, but all the other contestants are also focused on him..."

This is practically a direct attack on Gu Mian by name.

007 also recognized who Killer Teacher was talking about. She glanced at Gu Mian standing under the pyramid and whispered to Chu Changge beside her, "The person with the most votes wouldn't be Gu Mian, would it?"

She was right.

The teacher's voice came from the speakers surrounding the audience the next second: "Out of fifty contestants, thirty-two people voted for him. He is our number 1118! He will be the last contestant to appear in the next episode."

Although everyone outwardly appeared to be having a great time and obeying the popular person, they were ruthless when it came to sabotaging each other.

After finishing speaking, the teacher with a murderous gaze swept over Gu Mian, wanting to see her looking worried and anxious.

The VIPs in the audience also looked at Gu Mian. Yesterday's champion had become today's bottom performer, and they wanted to see what kind of interesting expression Gu Mian would have on her face.

However, Gu Mian's reaction greatly disappointed the audience. Instead of panicking, he displayed an extremely proud demeanor, as if to say, "I knew first place was mine."

The teacher's lips twitched a few times, and he felt that 1118 might not be quite right in the head.

In fact, Gu Mian cast his own vote among the thirty-two votes, hoping that he could go on stage later.

The second and third stages of the variety show are held consecutively. Louis will appear in the third stage, so he was most likely escorted to the variety show venue in advance.

Gu Mian planned to find Louis before going on stage, and then use the key to take Louis and Chu Changge and the others away together, so the later he went on stage, the more time he would have.

However, Gu Mian still hadn't found Louis yet.

Chu Changge and 007 in the audience were also secretly searching, but they couldn't find Louis either.

Either Louis hasn't been brought here yet, or he's been hidden somewhere and won't appear until the third phase.