Trembling At A High Altitude

The assistant director quickly explained all the plot points and the related rules.

Seven young actors immediately began to discuss, questioning whether the scoring rules for this performance were fair.

"This isn't a normal performance, so the rules are certainly different from a normal one. You don't need to question anything, and I won't explain anything. The start time for the performance has already arrived—hurry to the Time Bubble Transport Pod! Anyone who delays the performance will be immediately disqualified!" the assistant director snapped.

No actor dared to contradict him.

Everyone quickly got up from the rest room and rushed toward the transport pod room.

The woman who had spoken with Li Teng earlier thought of something when she reached the door; she called over a man beside her, and together they returned to the rest room. They supported Li Teng, who had just risen from his seat, one on each side, and assisted him to the transport pod.

"Young people nowadays are really kind—are you not afraid of me scamming you?" Li Teng joked with them.

"There are cameras everywhere!" the woman replied to Li Teng.

All three of them laughed together.

After entering the transport pod room, the young man and woman helped Li Teng into the pod and made sure he was lying down, then went to their respective pods and lay down themselves.

Once inside, Li Teng's consciousness gradually became blurred.

The staff adjusted various parameters on the control panel screen...

The countdown numbers kept changing, until eventually all the numbers had turned to zero.

Blurry images started appearing on the screen along the wall.

Snowfields, ice rivers, checkpoints, war, Spirit Tower, blood...

A soft electronic female voice echoed in the ears of the now bewildered crowd.

It was like a dream, surreal.

"Scanning..."

"..."

"..."

"Body teleportation program initiating..."

"Initialization complete..."

"..."

When Li Teng awoke again, he found himself no longer inside any soul transfer device but in a stone-built house.

The house had a large shared sleeping area where he and the other six young male actors were covered with straw mats, lying disorganized on the floor.

There was a stove in the middle of the room with a chimney leading outside the window, likely for warmth, the chimney probably meant to prevent them from being suffocated.

Despite this, the room was still cold, even under the straw mats.

Each person had a pile of clothes next to them, with things like Identity Jades on top of them.

Next to them were Vitality Cans.

They must be something like oxygen tanks but with a very ancient name.

Li Teng found it somewhat difficult to breathe; he grabbed a Vitality Can and inhaled from it, which made him feel much better.

After catching his breath, Li Teng looked at his Identity Jade.

He was a Stove Soldier, responsible for cooking at the checkpoint.

The others were Communications Soldiers, Engineers, while the rest were on patrol duty.

Li Teng turned and looked at his wristwatch.

The Exploration APP, Transport APP, and Storage APP inside were all grayed out, unusable.

It seemed that Liu Shiyuan's "Time Prison" deletion interface hadn't been prepared yet.

The flow of time outside the Time Bubble is different from inside; a few minutes outside might be a day inside.

He didn't know when his interface would be ready.

He hoped he wouldn't have to wait until the act was nearly over for the interface to be ready, as that wouldn't be much help to Li Teng then.

...

After a while, someone pushed the door open and walked in from outside.

It was the female Actor.

When the door swung open, the cold wind rushed in, causing the two actors near the door to cough violently.

The female Actor quickly shut the door.

The group gathered together to study the plot and how to successfully complete it to avoid a BAD ENDING.

The female Actor was a medical soldier; she introduced herself as Dr. Zhong, and the others started calling her Doctor Zhong.

The Communications Soldier's surname was Wang, so the others called him Wang Tongxun.

The engineering soldier's surname was Qiu, so the others called him Qiu Engineering.

Li Teng said his surname was Li, so he was called Stove Soldier Li.

The remaining four Patrol soldiers' surnames were Zheng, Xie, Meng, and Mao, so they were called Zheng Patrol, Xie Patrol, Meng Patrol, and Mao Patrol, respectively.

When everyone was strangers, this way of addressing helped them quickly get familiar with one another and understand the roles they each were to play.

Since there was a Communications Soldier and the plot stated that they could receive messages from the outside, after a discussion, everyone decided to first activate the Spiritual Artifact to listen to the situation outside. This could also provide a more accurate assessment of the enemy's actions and help them respond accordingly.

Wang Tongxun quickly took on his responsibilities, running to the room's wall where the Spiritual Artifact was installed and following the instructions manual to tune it.

Because the external formation of the Spiritual Artifact was damaged by the blizzard, they could now only receive messages and not send them out.

After listening to some related messages, the group gained a better understanding of the current situation.

The situation was not optimistic.

The Barbarian Country and the Long Kingdom had just clashed a few days ago. In this clash, many soldiers from the Barbarian Country were severely injured, and due to the Barbarian Country's neglect of wounded soldiers, these injured soldiers eventually died without timely medical treatment.

The deaths of these soldiers had a big impact in the Barbarian Country, and their tribal ancestors all swore to seek revenge.

The two sides are currently in negotiations.

According to rumors, the soldiers in the Barbarian Country were highly agitated, clamoring for revenge. The military discipline in the Barbarian Country has always been lax, and the leaders have limited control over the lower-ranking officers and soldiers at the border, making another conflict possible at any moment along the border line.

"The weather is terrible today; I guess the soldiers from the Barbarian Country won't come out," Zheng Patrol deduced after a few statements.

"Among you four, someone should be arranged to go to the border to patrol," Qiu Engineering spoke up.

"Nonsense! It's too cold," several of them shook their heads simultaneously.

They were actors, not real soldiers; they didn't have the high sense of duty and discipline that real soldiers did.

As far as their roles were concerned, all eight soldiers were of equal rank, and no one could order anyone else around.

"If we make a mistake, all of us will lose points," Qiu Engineering spoke up again.

"Stop talking nonsense, Stove Soldier Li; hurry up and cook something, we didn't eat when we arrived, and I'm starving!" Mao Patrol urged Li Teng a few times.

"Okay," Li Teng slowly got up.

After getting up, he staggered a few steps and almost didn't keep his balance.

Qiu Engineering quickly got up to support him.

"This Stove Soldier is too old!" Mao Patrol complained.

"The kitchen is deep in the canyon; you young people wouldn't actually watch an old man brave the snowstorm to cook for you, would you?" Doctor Zhong spoke up, holding a map.

"With the fierce wind outside, whether Stove Soldier Li could even make it alive to the kitchen is questionable," Qiu Engineering holding Li Teng, spoke to everyone.