APP: Chapter 18

Xie Xinglan was silent for a few seconds as he thought about the Xie Chi who blushed just a few years ago.

The 17 year old Xie Chi had a thin face and skin. He liked to pretend that nothing happened but in a few years, he had become his present self. From time to time, he could quietly say something that would kill Xie Xinglan with surprise.

A few years ago, he wanted to be a pampered little brother. A few years later…

Xie Xinglan’s heart itched as he laughed.

—He wanted to bully Xie Chi hard.

***

Finally, under the temptation of Xie Xinglan’s ‘be good, believe in yourself’, ‘the potential of human beings is unlimited’ and ‘it is merely big, not small’, Xie Chi changed it slightly with a hot face.

He drew the front view, the side view, the perspective view, the body and clothes as well as the details of various parts of the body.

The man with layered short hair was fierce, with long eyebrows and sideburns. The pupils were a slightly deep red-brown, his nose was tall and his lips were thin and lustrous. It was a very aggressive appearance but in a contradictory manner, it was also elegant and indifferent.

He was dressed in a black trench coat and stood in front of a rose bush. The roses had thorns and were a dark red like blood. The man was tall and upright with shoulders, a narrow waist and slender legs. He was beautiful.

Xie Chi was mischievous and drew his reflection in Xie Xinglan’s eyes. Then he looked at his masterpiece and slightly smiled.

Xie Chi thought it would be very difficult to draw but in fact, he completed it very quickly. He didn’t even need to think about what Xie Xinglan looked like. Xie Xinglan could only be like this, nothing else. This was the only solution.

His brother had long been embodied in his mind. Every word and action made Xie Xinglan more vivid.

There was nothing that Xie Chi didn’t like and his brother’s appearance was what he liked.

Xie Xinglan suddenly asked, “Why give me black star earrings?”

“Because…” Xie Chi thought of something and changed his mind. “I won’t tell you.”

Xie Xinglan felt helpless.

***

Once the drawing was complete, Xie Chi took photos of the various drawings and passed them onto the app.

[The model image has been received. The app will step up the production. Please wait patiently for a while.]

Xie Chi threw himself onto a soft bed and looked up at the stars outside.

He had learned to operate patiently in the long wait but he suddenly became eager.

***

Three days later, Xie Chi received a new horror movie announcement.

In these few days, Xie Chi had spent some time gaining an in-depth understanding of the app’s agent system.

The agents worked part time because the app’s  low-level actors were too numerous to manage. They lacked experience and it was easy to choose the wrong horror movie, causing their death.

A randomly assigned agent would help actors choose horror movies that were suitable for them and at the same time, give them guidance to help them through the newcomer period.

In the process of raising a newcomer, the agent would get points rewards from the app. For every newcomer who upgraded their title, the agent would gain additional rewards.

According to reason, the agent shouldn’t accept the actor’s points. However, because the newcomers were mostly weak and agents were old actors with acceptable strength, it wasn’t uncommon for agents to take newcomers’ points. Zhou Tong wasn’t the first nor the last one. The guilt system generally existed in the app and the app also acquiesced to it. If the agent bullied you when you were a newcomer then you could rise above him and get revenge on him in turn.

The existence of this system actually promoted a newcomer’s efforts to climb up. It was because when an actor acquired 1,000 points, they could actually choose to change agents or be their own agent and choose horror movies for themselves. At this time, Xie Chi wasn’t qualified to pick a horror movie for himself and this right was still in the hands of the agent.

Another purpose of the random agent was to prevent low-level actors who experienced a horror movie and started to regret their wish, becoming lazy out of fright and not participating in any horror movie filming.

There was the random agent. Even if the actor didn’t want to shoot, the agent would take the initiative to arrange something for them.

During intervals of a maximum of 15 days, the low-level actors would be forced to film the next horror movie.

Xie Chi’s current title was only enough to qualify for two types of horror movies, the rough quality and plain quality, where rough were green cards and plain were blue cards.

Xie Chi looked at the purple card ‘Zombie Lovers’ in the app and laughed.

The elegant purple represented a pros outweigh the cons quality movie and there was a row of black characters under the card: a movie with Hong Kong style zombies.

He didn’t have permission to enter a zombie movie of this quality so Zhou Tong must’ve used his special permission. He specifically drew Xie Chi into this movie and the purpose was obvious—in the hope that Xie Chi died.

A minute later, the cast list was loaded and at the top of the list was… Zhou Tong.

Xie Chi was shocked for a moment before slowly smiling. Did Zhou Tong want to do it himself? There were really no signs. The grievances between him and Zhou Tong hadn’t reached the point of ‘you die or I die’ but if Zhou Tong really wanted to kill him then don’t blame him for retaliating.

Yan Jing’s name followed and Xie Chi froze. Like him, Yan Jing didn’t have permission to enter Zombie Lovers. There must be special reasons for his name appearing here.

Xie Chi’s name was at the end and it should’ve been temporarily added.

There were a total of nine actors in Zombie Lovers. Five had black names and four had grey names.

For grey names, the search box’s answer is this:

There was a title elimination system in the app. A grey name meant a lower ranked title who was pulled into a slightly higher quality horror movie as punishment.

To put it bluntly, even high quality horror movies needed cannon fodder. If an actor didn’t work hard then they might be pulled into high quality horror movies. Of course, the cannon fodder might have something and it wasn’t impossible to get a chance to reverse things and become the leading role in a high quality horror movie. However, in most cases, they were cannon fodder to the end.

The app loaded after a while and the introduction of the horror movie ‘Zombie Lovers’ popped up.

[In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, an old Taoist priest was hired to move graves for others. He went with a group of entry disciples to the Mian Mountains to dig a coffin and was responsible for transporting the coffin to the employer’s home in Huai Ao. They thought it was just a simple commission but many things happened during the transportation. The entry disciples died one by one and the group of people took great pains to send the coffin to the employer’s home. They thought the commission was over but they didn’t expect it was just the beginning of the conspiracy…]

[You will be playing an entry disciple. Please explore the truth behind it all.]

[Being transferred, please wait.]

***

In the dark cinema, the audience had already sat down.

The big screen suddenly lit up.

[The actors have entered the horror movie and are preparing for it. Audience members, please be patient.]

The audience whispered to each other. “It seems that Zhou Tong is leading the team?”

“It seems there is also Lu Wen…”

“Who is Lu Wen again? The name is a bit familiar…”

“The one with fish scales on his face.”

“Ah, it’s disgusting!”

“By the way, there was the newcomer who broke the record of the movie emperor. He seems to be in this movie too. I don’t know if I read it wrong…”

“No way, he isn’t qualified to enter a pros outweigh the cons movie…”

***

Xie Chi entered and found himself in the wilderness of the mountains. At night, there were the shadows of trees around him and the sky was dotted with stars. They were people scattered around the slope, all separated by a certain distance. They were the actors participating in Zombie Lovers.

This time was different from the last time. Xie Chi could move but there seemed to be an invisible barrier around him, making him unable to leave his position. Xie Chi wasn’t in a hurry. The app must have a reason for doing so.

Three seconds later, the phone rang.

[This is the actor’s preparation time. Automatically deducted 20 points to purchase the clothing and 30 points to buy the Zombie Manual. A total of 50 points have been deducted.]

[Please change into your costume and read the Zombie Manual within 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, the shooting will officially start.

Xie Chi felt a bit helpless at suddenly losing 50 points. So all the higher quality horror movies belonged to the ‘don’t want a child to catch the wolf’ type? Completing a high quality movie gave large rewards but the initial investment was also huge.

A pile of things fell in front of Xie Chi. He crouched down to check them. There were a yellow robe, a humble peach wooden sword and a small bag of glutinous rice. There was also a small blue book with large words written in green: Zombie Manual.

Xie Chi wasn’t in a hurry to change clothes and first opened the Zombie Manual.

* The origin of zombies: There is a difference between a corpse and a zombie. A person who suffocates with anger before death will have a breath gathered in their throat after death. Once this person dies, they won’t lose the breath. After many years, they might become a zombie.

Zombie characteristics: fear of light, fear of fire and invulnerable to knives and g*ns.

Things that can restrict a zombie’s activities: tying up the corpse, an ink stick.

Things that can kill zombies: glutinous rice and a peach wood sword.

Basic ways to avoid zombie attacks: hold your breath.

Notes:

1. An actor who is bitten or caught by a zombie will be poisoned. The corpse poison will enter the heart and the actor will be completely turned into a zombie.

2. Some props have been provided. Other props should be collected by the actors themselves in the horror movie.

***

Xie Chi read this and felt that 30 points were lost. They were all basic information he already knew. However, the app’s intention wasn’t to sell clothing and information but to let them pay 50 points as a performance qualification fee.

The app sent another message.

A few notes about the horror movie Zombie Lovers:

1. This movie is a purple card and the quality is pros outweigh the cons. After the shooting, the actor ranked first on the comprehensive ranking will be rewarded with 500 points and the other actors will receive a gradual reduction.

2. The maximum length of the movie is 15 days and the exploration can end it in advance.

Xie Chi put on the robe and hung the peach wood sword at his waist. The moment he finished this, the app’s message was updated.

[The preparation time has passed and the shooting has officially started.]