Trembling At A High Altitude

Li Teng's theory was rather abstruse.

The actresses listened for a long time before they reluctantly understood.

Once they understood, they were suddenly in awe of Li Teng.

Wasn't his imagination too vast? Wasn't his power of association too strong?

The clues collected appeared as mere speculation to others.

But for him, they were a completely different kind of speculation!

It was as if everyone were in a maze, trying hard to remember the way while searching for the exit.

But he seemed to have leaped above the maze, observing its layout, and at a glance, saw through the entire maze.

Such a perspective was truly beyond the reach of most.

As much as they admired him, most people still harbored doubts about Li Teng's theory at this moment.

If you say a painter can make whatever they paint appear, then at least draw an actual object to prove it, right?

Li Teng was indeed very troubled now.

He had almost determined his deduction was correct.

However, he didn't have the ability to prove it.

It was awkward and sad.

As early as the 3rd century BC, the Greek geographer Eratosthenes believed the Earth was round. Then, on September 6, 1522, after enduring tremendous hardships for three years, the Portuguese navigator Magellan finally completed his circumnavigation of the globe, returning to Spain and for the first time proving with facts that the Earth was round.

It took nearly two thousand years from start to finish.

Now, Li Teng didn't have so much time.

He had proposed a way to break the game, and he must also prove he was correct and implement it in a very short period of time.

Otherwise, they would all be slaughtered by the triumphant Director Hu, losing this round of the storyline.

Speaking of which, the screenwriter for this round was quite a trap!

They actually gave such a difficult script to a cast mostly comprising newcomers.

Besides, there was another major pitfall that had led to the current situation.

That was the director of this round, Xia Zhihui.

When she was choosing actors, she didn't look at the script at all or select actors for their skills, but just picked people based on their appearance, assigning Li Teng, who had no painting foundation at all, to play a painter.

And not just any painter, but one with an extremely paranoid personality and very high demands for painting skills.

It had to be played by a highly professional painter!

If only Li Teng had, before entering the script, activated the Film and Television City's script skill exchange system and used points to exchange for the specialized paranoid painter skills for this particular scene.

Of course, Li Teng's account didn't have any points available for such an exchange.

…

After repeated practice, Liu Shina quickly mastered the skill of painting while holding Li Teng's hand.

Soon, a kitchen knife that looked much better than the one Li Teng drew appeared on the paper.

Li Teng hurriedly asked everyone to take a close look at the kitchen knife, and then he looked around expectantly, wanting to see if the kitchen knife had materialized.

It still hadn't.

Could it be that it had to be drawn in the form of a newspaper photo to be materialized?

The problem was, even Liu Shina couldn't produce that style of painting!

Not to mention having to paint while holding onto Li Teng's hand.

"Classmate Liu, can you paint in this style? Don't worry about having to hold my hand while you do it," Li Teng brought a newspaper-style painting to Liu Shina to examine.

"Senior, even if I had the ability to paint in this newspaper photo style, it would still require a great deal of time. Look at these ink dots... I actually feel they weren't painted stroke by stroke, but rather dot by dot! This way of painting... it's truly torturous," Liu Shina shook her head.

...

In the following time, Li Teng continued to practice painting.

"Senior, it's no use, one can't learn to paint in just a day or two," Liu Shina tried to reason with Li Teng after a few attempts. Based on what Li Teng had painted, she felt that his skills were significantly lacking.

Some things couldn't be achieved just through hard work; talent was also necessary.

And for certain things, not only hard work and talent were required, but also an accumulation of training over time.

Li Teng aimed to improve his painting skills to photo level in a short period, and then from there to newspaper-photo level. The difficulty was akin to asking an untrained person to compete in the Olympics and win a gold medal in the floor exercise.

"Senior, are you sure that solving the plot this time is truly related to the skills of a painter? What if it's not?" The other female actors couldn't help but speak up.

Although Li Teng's deduction seemed quite innovative and appeared to be plausible,

what if it wasn't correct? What if he made rapid progress in his painting skills, but it wasn't the way to defeat Director Hu? Wouldn't all his current efforts be wasted?

"If you can find a more reasonable way to beat that scumbag director and end the plot, then I'll stop painting. Otherwise, let's make the most of every second," Li Teng responded to the others and then continued to practice painting, occasionally asking Liu Shina for advice.

Two hours later, Liu Shina went to the bathroom, and Elsa and the others with her asked about Li Teng's painting progress.

"It's a bit harsh to say, but he's really not cut out for this. Forget a few days, even if he trained for a year, I doubt there'd be much improvement," Liu Shina said with a helpless expression.

...

Late at night.

It was past eleven o'clock.

Li Teng's wrists were swollen from practicing.

All the paper the female actors could find in the psychiatric hospital had been gathered.

Everyone was yawning profusely, but Li Teng was still focused on his drawing and showed no intention of taking everyone back to the Glass House to sleep.

Seeing the skewed works he had created, the female actors couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time.

The only thing worthy of respect was his perseverance, determination, and never-give-up spirit.

However, never giving up had another interpretation too.

It was like not turning back until crashing into the south wall.

"Let's go check out the basement."

Another half hour passed. When the time was nearly midnight, Li Teng finally put down his pen and made the suggestion to the others.

According to the handwritten notes and drawings, entering through a secret entrance between midnight and one o'clock would reveal Director Hu's secret in the basement. Why that time... perhaps it was when Director Hu would activate the array?

In any case, they would find out once they went.

Hearing about visiting Director Hu's basement at this time, the female actors showed expressions of fear.

As Li Teng described it, a huge Corpse Ghoul in the basement, composed of many dismembered patients, was a monstrous creation. What kind of immense monster would that be?

They didn't need to see it to feel the horror and disgust; just imagining it was enough.

"Then... how about you all go back to the Glass House, and I'll go down alone to see if I can find a better solution," Li Teng offered, seeing the reaction of the female actors.