Trembling At A High Altitude

"Not leaving anything for others, isn't that too selfish? A bully takes pleasure in pushing around those weaker than him; it's truly disgusting and repulsive!" In the café, watching the livestream, Huang Xun couldn't help but loudly express his opinion.

"How can you even bring up selfishness? In a life-or-death advancement setup, who needs kindness?" Elsa disregarded Huang Xun's view completely.

"Look at how people treat Li Teng; they always make him face death first. Li Teng eating food didn't violate any rules. It can only be said that the Film and Television City's food portions were insufficient, and his big eater abilities just happened to expose a blind spot of the Film and Television City's," Gao Fei also chimed in.

"Eating so much without worrying about his body handling it, and besides, it was just a casual meeting, not enemies. After this, if they meet again, they'll surely become adversaries. No wonder he is always resented, retaliated against, and even abused; he only has himself to blame," Huang Xun was still very unconvinced.

"I generally don't like using 'saint' to describe people, but if Li Teng thought about leaving food for those actors whose lives are countless times better than his even in such adversity, then he would truly be an absolute saint! He lives in an environment where he regularly experiences droughts, blizzards, hail, scorching heat, thunderstorms; when do most others ever face near-death situations? For others, skipping a meal mostly means being hungry, but him finishing the food gives him a slightly better hope of surviving the coming days. Is there something wrong with him finishing the food?"

Gao Fei couldn't help but speak up again because he had shared a room with Li Teng twice, he knew more about Li Teng's situations and had more right to speak.

"Numbers 3, 4, and 5 were a temporary alliance. They cheated during the lot drawing, which you all might not have noticed. Particularly number 5, who was always controlling the situation, is an old hand at this. I've played this kind of cheating game; I know exactly what he did. While drawing lots, they were always plotting against Li Teng's group, letting them do the life-risking tasks. Li Teng might have noticed or maybe not, but with his capabilities, he didn't really care about it," suddenly, Director Liu Shiyuan approached, he cut off the livestream signal, pulled out the previous video footage, and played it frame by frame to everyone, showing how number 5 used finger signals, and how he coordinated with numbers 3 and 4 to cheat.

"Though each lot was written in front of everyone, folded in front of everyone, and while drawing, one had to turn around, the people here helped shuffled the lots on the table. But notice this: the lots were written and folded by number 5, yet the shuffling and positioning were completely controlled by numbers 3 and 4, using their bodies to block others from getting close."

"The three of them were also among the first few to draw lots, following this so-called 'shuffled' method, the bad lots always ended up on the right, and all of them, after turning their backs, only ever drew from the left, thus never drawing a bad lot..."

Liu Shiyuan played a few more video clips.

Indeed, everything was as Liu Shiyuan had said, numbers 3 and 4 were continuously coordinating with number 5; while drawing lots with their backs turned, they all reached for the lots on their farthest left, and the others, clearly novices in this regard, completely failed to see the conspiracy they were playing.

"For number 5, and numbers 3 and 4, such betraying behavior in the show is quite normal—it's just the principle of not sacrificing oneself but rather a comrade. There are no saints in the Film and Television City, every actor thinks about maximizing their own interests. Being kind just means foolishly giving away the resources that were supposed to be yours. Li Teng isn't stupid; even if he didn't see these people cheating, he knew that these people were not to be trusted, so why can't he turn the tables on them?"

"After Li Teng entered the restaurant, he never closed the door of the restaurant."

"If he were truly evil, truly wanted to trap people, he could have completely shut the restaurant's door and even barricaded it with tables; no rules prevented him from doing so. And if he did that, the people who arrived later would truly despair, never hoping to find and enter the safe house."

"That would be true evil."

"At the very end, is there any rule that says the winner can't take it all?"

Liu Shiyuan finally summed up.

"Yeah! If you're going to play the saint, why not go all the way, be the last one into the safe house, and give up your chance at promotion to the weaker ones? That would be a true saint, a real good person, huh! So, eating a few more dishes makes one a bully?" Elsa looked at Huang Xun with a mocking expression.

"What kind of bullshit logic is this? Someone's brain is sick—and seriously so!" Gao Fei cursed a few times.

"That's not what I meant, I just think... I didn't realize they were cheating, just forget it," realizing that Director Liu Shiyuan personally stepped in to defend Li Teng, Huang Xun didn't dare to continue arguing.

...

In the dark helicopter cabin, Li Teng, having eaten too much, nearly fell asleep in a daze.

Suddenly, he sneezed over a dozen times, completely waking himself up.

"Damn it! Who is cursing me?" Li Teng touched his nose.

Just then, the helicopter's cabin door opened.

The location for the advanced performance wasn't far from the café, and the helicopter arrived after a short flight.

However, it didn't land next to the café, but in a small square nearby.

It was the place where Li Teng had encountered Bunny Girl last time.

After getting off the helicopter, Li Teng went to the clothing store first.

At the clothing store's vending machine, Li Teng received his compensation.

The two sets of hospital clothes he was wearing, a set of his own pajamas, and a promotional outfit he bought from the clothing store were all converted into 55 points of store credits!

Li Teng couldn't help but be overjoyed. The two sets of hospital clothes were only worth 4 points, but the Black-hearted Doctor had forcibly sold them to him for 20 points each. He hadn't expected that the advancement task would include clothing compensation, reimbursing him at the Black-hearted Doctor's price of 20 points per set.

He made a fortune!

It was just too bad that they didn't compensate him directly with points.

What kind of clothing would be a good deal with 55 credits?

He already had the waterproof down jumpsuit, and it seemed there wasn't any other immediate need for clothing.

All he needed was the simplest set of clothes for coverage.

As for the underpants he was wearing, along with the contaminated socks and shoes, they could be cleaned during a bath, and he could still wear them.

In the end, Li Teng only bought a very cheap, thin set of pajamas, similar in quality to the hospital clothes, which cost him only 2 points. He decided to save the remaining 53 points for future needs.