The pub was filled with cheers and whoops which grew with each minute, so loud that the robotic arms serving alcohol vibrated slightly. The quiet comment was easily drowned up by the raucous noise, and was heard only by the man directly opposite the speaker.
The man’s face was hidden once again under his hood, so half his face was covered by shadow. He did not reply immediately but instead leaned to a side listening to the crowd’s crazy celebratory hubbub before he gave a dismissive snort, curling one side of his lips.
"That’s because we aren’t human to them," he responded with his baritone voice while he took a sip of his blue cocktail.
The man in front of him was slim and dark-skinned. He was probably in his twenties or early thirties. He was stunned, and somehow his usually bright and inquisitive eyes were covered by a dull glaze.
He gaped, almost as if his voice was turning as pale as his face, "I don’t understand… even if we are different, this is too…"
"Too what?" the man in robes gave a wan smile, "Don’t humans have the same attitude towards cockfights, bullfighting, and dogfights? The only thing is that we look exactly like them, that’s why there are those—" he did not finish his sentence. At that point, the slim man lost focus in the conversation and suddenly covered his own mouth. Cold sweat appeared all over his body as he tried to hold back his nausea, making a muffled voice.
The light from the screen flickered over his face while the cheers from the crowd abated. The slim man turned and saw that the recap has ended and the female host was back on the screen. He quickly downed a few large gulps of beer but his face still looked sickly. "I... I don’t understand" the slim man gripped his beer bottle tightly. The disgust he felt when he saw those images previously made him so uncomfortable that it was as if he could feel his soul cringing.
The man hidden in robes continued sluggishly, "No one knows the exact date that this apocalyptic world called Garden of Eden descended. Everyone only knows that it has been a few decades. At that time, the citizens here had advanced technology. They created this city enclosed in glass and many normal people with zero Potential Growth Value survived. Even though they cannot leave this radiation-free zone, they are not subjected to random transportation to other New Worlds. Thus, they continued thriving till today."
"Do you know how large this ‘Garden of Eden’ City is?" he suddenly asked.
The slim man shook his head and did not say a word as he was afraid that he might spit out the gastric juices he barely managed to keep down.
"By foot, you could explore the entire place in three hours." The voice that escaped the robe was as calm and unwavering as before, "Can you imagine a life like that? Living in a restrictive cage from the day you were born, unable to leave and knowing that you will just have a job that the government assigns, raising a limited number of children as dictated, dying in a designated spot, and out there… there are those free Posthumans coming and leaving as they want.."
"Brother Gong, are you condoning their actions?" The slim man slammed his beer bottle on the table. Suppressing his anger, he muttered, "There is no reason to let—"
The man in a robe shook his hand and replied, "I don’t mean to absolve their sins. I just feel that their psychological changes are very interesting… It’s just my occupational disease."
"What sort of changes?"
"At first, this group of people probably only envied Posthumans and wished that they could leave this glass city. That was until they realized that the Posthumans that arrived were desperate to enter the city."
The slim man’s expression froze.
"Not only did we want to enter their city, but also lust for their resources: Anti-radiation gummies, clothes, clean water… We not only have nothing but we have to suffer the fate of being transported to other New Worlds." He smiled, "Some other New Worlds also share the right wing views that Posthumans are not humans. But this is a perfect place to inculcate the view that Posthumans are a lower classes organisms deep in the people’s consciousness. Under such conditions, with the lack of entertainment, and no proper cultivation of empathy, this Lunar New Year Tournament was finally created."
The slim man stared out in a daze for a long time before he could connect the brief explanation to the cheering behavior he witnessed.
"Brother Gong…"
He wanted to say more but he was interrupted by an eruption of shrieks and whistles. He turned to the screen and realized that after the recap, the program proceed to the popularity poll of the contestant. At that moment, the screen was showing many of the popular contestants and the people in the pub became loud and enthusiastic again.
Each resident of Garden of Eden wore a small wristband which projected a screen when it was activated. They just had to swipe across the projected screen to vote for their favorite contestant. Right now, the most popular contestant was a fearful looking black-haired girl whose name seemed to be Hui Chuyan. The second most popular contestant was a twelve-year-old child followed by a fourteen-year-old. People clearly voted for them because of their young age.
The contestants who had the highest votes would appear much later in the tournament, this was for viewership and to attract sponsors. The list started from the most popular contest and even after some time, Contestant 97 did not appear on the screen.
Lin Sanjiu’s cold expression only appeared on the screen after 50 over people have been shown. The reason for her popularity? It was stated as: "I want to see that proud and aloof woman face defeat and humiliation in battle."
"Defeat and humiliation…" Lin Sanjiu repeated the words on the screen, but her face looked stoic. However, if someone who understood her temperament had walked closer, they would be alarmed by her tumultuous glare. Her violent emotions seeped from her eyes, even though she was trying her best to hold it back, and that was an ominous sign. She never knew her emotions could be so intense.
After watching the recap of past tournaments, she couldn’t help feeling that all the vocabulary she knew was too mild. Nothing could properly describe the complex feeling she felt— was it shock? Disgust? Fear?
After thinking for a while, she decided that her mood was closer to "rage".
"Oh, you are talking about the female host this year? Yeah, she’s not bad."
Lin Sanjiu heard the idle gossip between the pink-faced host and one of the cameraman. They were obviously already used to the "Let’s recap the exciting scenes from previous tournaments".
"Has her father set her price?" the cameraman asked.
"Yup. It is quite high, but it shouldn’t be a problem for a rich man’s son like you. You can try… But, I heard that she wants to work even after getting married."
The cameraman suddenly scoffed, "If someone buys her, who is she to talk about conditions? I think no one would want to buy such a wilful woman."
"Haha. Maybe her price would drop if her father got anxious…"
"My cousin bought one this year. She had a premarital affair so her family had to drop her price…"
"How many women has your cousin bought? He is still buying more?"
The corner of Lin Sanjiu’s lip twitched a little as she listened quietly to the men’s unbridled conversation. A sour stench pervaded the air as a few of the contestants could not control their nausea so the floor was covered with puddles of vomit. The makeup on their faces were ruined due to the mixture of sweat, tears, mucus and saliva. Some of them were crying unconsciously while the others were in a daze.
Lin Sanjiu turned behind to look at the pink-faced host, but the latter continued chatting cheerfully with the cameraman.
"Hey, you." Lin Sanjiu called softly, "I have something to ask you."
The pink-faced man was momentarily stunned. He exchanged glances with the cameraman before he tilted his head, staring back condescendingly, "What?"
"Who are the organizers of this tournament?"
"Why do you want to know?" The pink-faced man looked away. When he was on camera, he acted as if he was so eager to hear more from her. In contrast, he looked as if he was holding back his revulsion when he was speaking to her. "All of you just have to participate in the tournament. There is no need for you to be bothered with anything else."
Their conversation caught the attention of Hui Chuyan, who looked over at them with a blank expression. Their conversation wasn’t all that audible as the room was filled with the sound of sobbing or vomiting, yet she heard them clearly because she was close to them.
The smile on Lin Sanjiu’s face could be considered gentle. She looked at the pink-faced man and spoke with a very cordial tone, "I ask and you’ll answer.. I don’t want you to regret if things get ugly later."
Hui Chuyan and two other women were stunned. Seeing the pink-faced man shocked and angry reaction, Lin Sanjiu smirked. After watching that recap, she couldn’t restrain the murderous intent she felt in her heart, and it was clouding her rationality.
There were about thirty fully armed soldiers in the room and Sandwhale’s six lackeys. Even though their boss was dead, for some reasons they did not leave but continued monitoring the women closely.
Lin Sanjiu had gotten back her [Voice Recorder] from his corpse and a protection-type Special Item. If she activated it, she could probably survive the attacks from these people until she could store the rope and activate her Pygmalion Choker…"
Her plan wasn’t perfect but after running through it once in her head, Lin Sanjiu did not wish to think any longer and decided to just take action.
Just as she was feeling hot-headed and was about to shout out [Lone Wolf Casual-smart Leather Belt Protection], she heard a trample of footsteps as if many people were rushing to the room. Following which, someone yelled out, "Send all these contestants away for preparation. The tournament will start next Monday at 9 am sharp!"