Trembling At A High Altitude

"I'll make some calls and ask around," Liu Shiyuan said as he picked up his phone and started dialing.

As expected of a senior director, Liu Shiyuan made over a dozen calls, and finally found a script for Li Teng that involved quite a number of ghosts.

"I only found one script with a lot of ghosts. It interfaces with many types of ghost scripts, making it a great place for actors specializing in ghost roles to 'level up'. The abilities and treasures obtained there can be used in many ghost films. But the difficulty is also quite high, and there's only one spot left."

"The prerequisite for entering this script is that you must have a wristwatch, which shouldn't be a problem for you."

"The script doesn't take long; once inside, you might need to start killing right away, then it's kill, kill, kill all the way through."

"The only problem... all the other actors are experienced, starting from middle special guests and up, with even a supporting role level actor among them. Possessing a wristwatch means at least a top two finish in performance upgrades. They enter with one goal: to become stronger, leveling up their skills, and murdering for loot."

"After a period of time from the script's start, the rules will suddenly change. An announcement goes out, and the actors can start killing each other. Once you're in, there are no teams—it's every man for himself, and the likelihood of getting eliminated is very high," Liu Shiyuan explained to Li Teng.

"So, what you're saying is, this is a chaotic script. Once inside, actors, NPCs, or ghosts can kill at will," Li Teng fell silent for a while before confirming.

"This is a world of ghosts. All the NPCs and monsters inside are ghosts, or at least tainted with ghostly energy. Including you, in some sense, after entering the Scripted World, you are also ghosts."

"You can kill freely, which also means any person... or rather, any ghost, can kill you. There will be a safe period at the start of the script when actors can't kill each other—this will be displayed on your wristwatch. But no one knows exactly when the safe period will end. It might suddenly be announced even while some actors are still cozily calling each other brothers."

"One second they're your brothers, the next they're stabbing you in the back—don't be too shocked if this happens. Some might seem innocent and harmless, the kind that easily captures your heart. But the only reason they approach you is to kill you, plunder everything you have, even your soul."

"This script has no good or evil, no morals or bottom lines. It requires no sympathy or mercy. Don't try to look for any glimmer of humanity here. This is a Scripted World where demons run amok. If you're not ruthless enough, better stay away from this script, or you won't even know how you died."

"If you want to temper your mental toughness, grow quickly, don't want to waste time, and just want to fight continuously, then this might be a good choice."

Liu Shiyuan added a few more details for Li Teng.

"Damn! That sounds terrifying. The survival rate for this script must be very low, right?" Li Teng frowned.

"Out of eight actors, usually only two or three make it out alive. It's not uncommon for there to be only one survivor, or even a complete team wipeout," Liu Shiyuan said with a smile.

"Can 'Time Prison's scrapped script interface with this one?" Li Teng thought for a moment before asking Liu Shiyuan.

"It can't. This script only allows interfaces with the same type of Ghost Film scripts," Liu Shiyuan shook his head.

Li Teng fell silent.

"I'll make a few more calls to see if there are other suitable scripts," Liu Shiyuan picked up the phone again.

"No, I'll take it," Li Teng stopped Liu Shiyuan.

"Should I sign you up then? Don't blame me if you end up 'collecting the box lunch'." Liu Shiyuan sought confirmation from Li Teng.

"My biggest strength is that I'm thick-skinned and never blame others or fate," Li Teng smiled.

"Alright." Liu Shiyuan picked up the phone, securing the last spot for Li Teng.

"Come here around eight o'clock tomorrow morning; my driver will take you there," Liu Shiyuan finally said to Li Teng.

"Got it."

...

After Liu Shiyuan left, Li Teng hurried to the restroom.

A skin-changing app had been added to his wristwatch.

Upon opening the skin app, there were two available skins to choose from.

One was the seventy-eight-year-old skin he was currently using, which would continue to age, turning into a seventy-nine-year-old skin in a year.

The other was a fixed twenty-five-year-old skin.

To change skins, one had to be in a non-combat state and wait for a five-minute progress bar to complete.

This app could be brought into the script, a formidable feature that opened up many possibilities.

Looking into the restroom mirror, Li Teng spent five minutes to switch to the fixed twenty-five-year-old skin.

Indeed, the man in the mirror had completely reverted to his twenty-five-year-old appearance.

Even more, some improvements had been made, making him look even more handsome than his younger self.

Suddenly, Li Teng remembered Liu Shiyuan's appearance.

Liu Shiyuan looked to be in his twenties, but his speech and actions were more like those of someone in their thirties or forties.

Could he also be using a skin? And a beautified one at that?

The possibility was very high.

After changing his skin, Li Teng lingered in front of the mirror for over half an hour.

His younger self, how wonderful.

Even if it was just the appearance.

Seeing himself grow old and decrepit every day, his mood would become depressed, feeling like there was no hope for the future.

...

In the evening, Li Teng went to the restaurant and ordered a feast.

He now had 120 credits in his account.

He didn't order the feast because he had these extra hundred-odd credits.

It was because... he was waiting for the Grim Reaper to make it free for him.

The vending machine's screen turned into a black and red background.

The Grim Reaper's image also faintly appeared in the backdrop.

Showboating in progress.

"Invading the restaurant's self-service vending system..."

"Invasion failed."

"..."

Li Teng was speechless.

So he tried reducing the order amount by half.

"Invading the restaurant's self-service vending system..."

"Invasion failed."

"..."

Li Teng continued to try.

The order amount was reduced to 10 credits, still a failure.

9 credits, failure.

8 credits, failure.

...

...

...

2 credits, failure.

1 credit...

"Invasion successful."

"Order price temporarily cleared."

"Please complete your order within three seconds!"

"Three, two, ..."

"..."

The second attempt at 1 credit failed again.

Can I only succeed once a day? Only one credit at a time?

"I get it now, these cool-looking hacking skills are really just good for three steamed buns," Li Teng sighed.

What a waste of life! Half an hour of life just went by in vain.

All for one credit.

Forget it, if he hadn't been doing this for the past half hour, there wouldn't have been anything else to do anyway.