Trembling At A High Altitude

There was a muffled "bang!"

A female staff member raised something akin to a signal gun in her hand and fired a signal-like flare into the air.

The object was extremely bright, hanging in the sky hundreds of meters high, like an artificial sun.

It showed no signs of extinguishing.

At the same time, everyone's bodies were suppressed by a mysterious force, unable to move at all.

Under the bright light from above, super clear shadows appeared behind everyone.

Then, all the shadows started moving on their own, even shifting to the front of these people, clawing and snarling fiercely.

A thirty-second countdown illuminated the shadows.

"Once the countdown ends, run for your lives! Escape from the mountain villa, escape the mountain, and you might have a chance to survive before the shadows catch up and kill you!"

"Oh, and no matter how fast you run, every two minutes, the person at the very end will be killed by a shadow! So, you have to figure out a way to run faster than your companions!"

Another female staff member said to everyone with a reassuring smile.

As the words of the female staff member concluded, so too did the countdown.

Everyone's suppressed bodies were freed at last.

"Run!" Li Teng pulled Yuki Noto beside him and then took the lead to flee down the mountain.

The others were desperately running downhill as well.

"Don't run so fast, leaving me behind... This rule isn't fair! Why should women have to compete with men in running?" The last woman fell behind, loudly protesting to everyone.

"This just reflects gender equality!" A man retorted sarcastically, looking back at her.

"Shameless, petty, disgusting man! Scum!" The woman cursed loudly.

"Do you want me to carry you?" Li Teng, seeing the situation behind, intentionally slowed down and asked Yuki Noto.

"Why the sudden change of attitude towards me?" Yuki Noto laughed.

"I have always said, I am a man of responsibility," Li Teng explained seriously.

Since the two discussed life on their way up the mountain and cheered for it, it was certain he would take responsibility to the end!

"I'll find you when I can't run anymore," Yuki Noto declined Li Teng's kind offer.

After running for a while, Li Teng discovered, with a bit of surprise, that Yuki Noto's physical stamina was quite remarkable. He was running at eighty percent of his peak state, and she could keep up with him without showing signs of breathlessness or fatigue.

Though slightly inferior to him, she was definitely above all the others.

"What is it? Impressed by my stamina? You should have known during our climb up the mountain, right? Handled with ease?" Yuki Noto, noticing the expression in Li Teng's eyes, spoke with a hint of pride.

"During the climb? I was just not at my full strength, that's all. After we escape from here, let's find a place and have a real showdown to see who concedes first," Li Teng snorted coldly.

"That's a promise," Yuki Noto said, eagerly anticipating it.

As the two talked, two minutes had passed.

The woman in the back suddenly screamed, then grabbed her own neck with both hands. A few seconds later, her body flew off the mountain path and crashed hard against the nearby cliffside rocks.

Everyone was too terrified to look back at her and simply kept running for their lives.

After the female boxer's demise, another woman trailing at the very end cried out desperately to the men ahead, hoping they would slow down and help her.

Unfortunately, no one paid her any attention, each person wishing they could grow an extra pair of legs to run even faster.

Two minutes later, that woman at the back didn't even have the chance to scream before she was silently flung off the mountain path.

A few minutes afterward, Li Teng and Yuki Noto burst out of the Mist Shell and escaped from the mountain where Xianyu Villa was located.

At the foot of the mountain, the armored vehicles that had brought everyone were still there, but not a single person was alive.

Bodies and limbs were strewn everywhere, with fresh blood indicating they hadn't been dead for long.

"This place is not safe, we need to leave quickly and return to the camp," Li Teng said solemnly to Yuki Noto after examining the mutilated bodies and their wounds.

The condition of the bodies and wounds puzzled Li Teng... It seemed like the work of human martial arts experts, but not ordinary ones—those with supernatural powers.

"Be careful!"

Standing opposite Li Teng, Yuki Noto suddenly pushed him away with force.

'Pfft!'

The sound of a sharp knife piercing flesh and bone echoed.

Behind Li Teng, a figure in a red garb appeared out of nowhere, holding a blood-red samurai sword that had just pierced through Yuki Noto's body.

Li Teng had had no awareness of the red-clothed individual's presence until then.

As the figure pulled the sword out of Yuki Noto's body and saw Li Teng realize his presence, he immediately withdrew the blade and vanished from the spot in the next second!

Clearly, this person in red knew the Art of Invisibility and moved without making a sound or even displacing the air, rendering Li Teng's finely honed senses and perception utterly useless.

Li Teng had no way to fight this red-clothed individual; he could only pick up Yuki Noto's body and run towards the nearest armored vehicle.

After a couple of steps, Li Teng suddenly dodged to the side and twisted his body to deliver a powerful side kick.

The invisible red-clothed assailant appeared right where Li Teng had aimed his kick, preparing to strike with his sword, but was instead caught squarely by the kick and sent flying, the samurai sword falling from his grasp.

"Amazing!" Yuki Noto gave Li Teng a thumbs-up.

"Just a lucky guess," Li Teng knew his kick was purely accidental. He had anticipated the timing based on his extensive combat experience, guessing that the red-clothed individual was about to attack again, and so he dodged and kicked in one fluid motion, surprisingly sending the assailant flying.

But in the next moment, the red-clothed individual and his sword vanished from Li Teng's sight.

Li Teng had no intention to entangle with the red-clothed individual. He had now reached an armored vehicle with its driver's side door open, he put Yuki Noto inside on the passenger seat, then quickly shut the door.

The armored vehicle started up smoothly!

Li Teng floored the accelerator, driving off into the distance.

"I'm sorry, I feel like I'm not going to make it," Yuki Noto said, blood gushing from her mouth, her complexion deathly pale.

"Don't talk like that. I'll get us back to camp as fast as I can so you can get treated," Li Teng kept his eyes fixed on the road, pushing the vehicle to its limits.

"It's no use, I'm bleeding internally. I can feel it, I probably have only three minutes left," Yuki Noto shook her head.

"Don't talk so much, it's not as bad as you think. I won't let you die!" Li Teng continued to comfort Yuki Noto.

"As an audience member, being able to perform with an actor I admire, I already feel very fortunate, and I die with no regrets. If I die, don't be too sad, perhaps this was the destiny that was arranged for me in the script long ago." Yuki Noto smiled with a tragic look.

"Don't talk!" Li Teng yelled at her.

"I really didn't expect to save your life at a crucial moment. If I hadn't pushed you away, you definitely wouldn't have dodged that knife, right?" Yuki Noto continued to speak.

"Yes." That much Li Teng had to admit because the man in red was no ordinary person, no matter how experienced he was in combat, he couldn't have guarded against such a sneak attack.

If Yuki Noto hadn't pushed him away at that moment, the knife would have struck him squarely in the back.

"I preserved your Invincible Golden Body for you! That must be what you care about the most right now, isn't it?" Yuki Noto said with a tone of pride, and it seemed she really understood Li Teng very well.

After saying these few words, even more blood gushed from her mouth.

"Yes, could you please not talk?" Li Teng almost begged Yuki Noto.

"I'm glad to have been a supporting actress in your story, even though my role was brief, it was as dazzling as fireworks." Yuki Noto's voice became weaker.

Just then, the armored car made a strange noise and then stopped on the road.

The fuel tank was empty.

Li Teng opened the door beside the driver's seat, carried Yuki Noto out, and then ran toward the camp with her in his arms.

"Stop running, we're too far from the camp, I won't last that long. Let me have a few last words with you, okay?" Yuki Noto reached out to touch Li Teng's face.

"I won't let you die," Li Teng kept running.

"Stop running! I have a secret to tell you and if I don't tell you now, I never will have another chance to," Yuki Noto continued talking to Li Teng.

"Could you speak less? Tell me this secret when you get better, okay? I'll listen then," Li Teng did not stop running.

"Actually, I am a man," Yuki Noto blurted out.

Li Teng, who was running, suddenly stumbled, nearly falling to the ground. After steadying himself, he forgot to continue running forward.

"Having some privileges as a former audience boss, like... gaining the privilege to change gender during a performance," Yuki Noto explained.

Li Teng's face turned so dark it seemed he might drip water, as if he was hesitating about whether to throw her... him out.

"Just kidding! I'm purely female, just not that old, only twenty-two years old. I intentionally played a mature type, thinking you might like it..."

Li Teng said nothing.

"Are you mad at me? Sigh... I just wanted to lighten the mood... Why else would you have kept running without listening to me? But the moment I said that, you stopped, it seems... to you... indeed... there is a difference between men and women." More blood poured from Yuki Noto's mouth, staining all her clothes red.

"You will... always... remember me, won't you?" Yuki Noto's voice also weakened.

"I will," Li Teng touched Yuki Noto's face.

"I love you, no matter how low your popularity... your true fans... are always silently... supporting you... for our sake... don't give up, never... give up... okay?"

"Okay."

After a while, Yuki Noto made no further sound.

When Li Teng looked at her again, her eyes had become hollow, devoid of any life.

Li Teng held her and sat motionless on the spot for a long time.

...

"Director, thank you for your cooperation just now. How do you feel... How did I perform in that scene? I cried, right? Was it moving? So melodramatic! Could it be considered a classic?" Yuki Noto asked the person in red next to her.

"Do you want the truth?"

"Of course."

"Your performance... was terrible. And the dog-blood plot you forced into it, also terrible, simply lowered the taste of my entire film. If it weren't for the huge sponsorship you provided for this film, I would never have let you meddle with the script and mess it up," the person in red responded to Yuki Noto.

"Really? I felt that part of the story was pretty good, and I performed it quite well, I even moved myself to tears," Yuki Noto was very dissatisfied with the director's words.

"As long as you're happy, boss," the person in red said, looking disillusioned and unwilling to say any more.

"By the way, how is the story progressing after this? Is he plunged into immense pain because of my death?" What Yuki Noto cared about most now was this matter.

"I don't know about immense pain, but I do know he is definitely extremely happy right now," the director showed Yuki Noto the scene with Li Teng in the movie.

In the movie, Li Teng, for surviving and leaving Xianyu Villa, and also for bringing back the secret of the Aliens using the Shadow Demon for attacks, was awarded by the camp and got a private room.

Then, the daughter of the restaurant owner, Jiang Yani, was also in his room at this time.

The screen was full of mosaics, leaving little to the imagination as to what kind of performance was taking place.

"No way? I just died not long ago! And now he's just..." Yuki Noto rolled her eyes in disbelief.

"It totally fits his usual character!" the person in red said with a schadenfreude expression.

"No, he's a man of loyalty and integrity, how could he do this?" Yuki Noto was unwilling to accept it.

After a while, the mosaic ended.

In the video, Jiang Yani and Li Teng began to chat.

"How did that sea witch you were with die?" Jiang Yani was obviously asking about Yuki Noto.

Yuki Noto immediately perked up and watched the video with keen interest.

"Don't talk about her like that," Li Teng corrected Jiang Yani.

"What's wrong? Are you angry? Come on, I was just saying it casually," Jiang Yani coquettishly said to Li Teng.

"She wasn't a sea witch," Li Teng continued.

Yuki Noto was deeply moved, touched that Li Teng had defended her.

"She wasn't a sea witch, she was more terrifying and more perverse than that... he's actually a man! Moreover, right now, he might be staring at me, listening to our conversation," Li Teng answered Jiang Yani.

"He's a man? Oh my! That's too horrifying, right? I thought you and him had... sigh... Didn't he die? How is he staring at you? How can he hear our conversation? Could he have turned into an Evil Ghost?" Jiang Yani widened her eyes in shock.

"He's worse than an Evil Ghost! Forget about him! Every time I think about the things I did with him, I regret it!" Li Teng vigorously shook his head.

Based on various clues, Li Teng had almost deduced the truth of the matter.

He had good reason to believe that Yuki Noto was no ordinary Actor.

Most likely, this entire terrible film was his (her) doing.

...

"I'm definitely a woman, I made a joke with him, how could he take it seriously?"

"Director, do you have any super tragic scripts? I'll cover all the sponsorship fees for the next scene by myself. I want to see him get devastated!"