Chapter 747: "Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance"

Accompanied by a stirring piece of background music, a table appeared out of thin air in the center of the stage.

"As expected... the performance is complete."

Seeing this, Chen Ling walked straight toward the table bathed in the spotlight.

The final condition for promotion to the Fourth Stage was to "complete a hearty, interactive performance with the participation of the 'audience'." At first, Chen Ling hadn't understood how to get the audience to participate or what counted as interaction... but the moment the revolver was pressed against his temple, he already knew how it would be completed.

What kind of performance could be more interactive than letting the "audience" take over one's body? How could killing through the Realm War in the identity of [Mockery] not be considered hearty?

But the aftereffects of releasing the Calamity of Mockery were too severe... If not for his Master, if not for the Chen Ling of District Three, he would have been doomed beyond salvation. This situation could almost certainly never be replicated a second time.

Chen Ling walked to the desk, where a sheet of white paper was already laid out.

"Congratulations on completing the play: 'Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance'."

"Maximum audience anticipation for this play: 87%"

As these lines appeared, pages were outlined out of thin air, converging before Chen Ling's eyes into a thick script.

"'Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance'... That's not a bad name."

Chen Ling opened the script in his hand. Like the previous ones, it recorded his experiences during this period in detail from a third-person perspective, while parts unrelated to him were obscured by black lines and could not be viewed.

After flipping to the last page, Chen Ling closed it, walked to the bookshelf on the side, and slowly placed the script in the latest position.

"Heartless," "And Then There Were None," "When the Embers Fade," "Aurora, Never Fading," "Red Dust Hunter," "Roses, Salutes, and a Grand Entrance"...

Without realizing it, he had already gone through six plays, and looking at the remaining space on the bookshelf, there was still quite a lot left.

"When will this ever end..."

Chen Ling sighed, his gaze sweeping over the dense mass of scarlet eyes below, his heart filled with mixed emotions... Although in Jian Changsheng's eyes, his life was as smooth as if he were cheating, making others envious, who could know the torture and sacrifice behind it?

Constantly watched, constantly performing, his life had to be spectacular at every moment. In the end, he was just a puppet on a stage for others' amusement... Once his performance failed to satisfy the audience, everything would be lost. Others only needed talent and mental power to promote, but his promotion, in addition to those, required completing dangerous and absurd performances time and time again.

If he couldn't complete the performance, he couldn't promote. Only he knew what he had paid to get to where he was today.

But reminiscing about the pain was meaningless; the actor on the stage must always move forward.

Chen Ling returned to the center of the stage...

It was time to claim the reward for his performance.

"You have received one designated draw."

"After using it, you can designate a character from all those who appeared in this play and randomly draw one of their abilities. The probability of drawing a rare skill is related to the overall audience anticipation for this play."

Chen Ling picked up a pen and fell into deep thought.

He wasn't thinking because there was nothing to draw, but because there were simply too many options this time... Just counting the Demigod-level characters, several had appeared:

Yao Qing, the leader of the Green God Path; Su Zhiwei, the Monarch of Red Dust; Lou Yu, the Monarch of Infinity; the Red King of the Twilight Society; and the World-Ending Calamity, Xi Zai.

Of course, there were also many characters below the Demigod level worth drawing, such as the Second Hall and Third Hall of the Floating Life Painting... but drawing them would at most yield an Eighth-Stage ability, whereas drawing a Demigod carried the possibility of obtaining a Ninth-Stage ability, though the probability was extremely low!

After a brief deliberation, Chen Ling left himself only three options: Yao Qing, Su Zhiwei, and Lou Yu.

Xi Zai was a Calamity, and Chen Ling wasn't actually very interested in its skills. Moreover, it had a personal grudge with [Mockery]; if he happened to draw some ability that made the "audience" dissatisfied with him, things would be troublesome.

He couldn't draw his Master because Chen Ling didn't know his name; [The Nameless Actor] was just a codename.

Chen Ling pondered at the table for a full five minutes before picking up the pen and writing a name on the paper:

—Lou Yu.

Among the three, Yao Qing and Su Zhiwei were on his side, especially Su Zhiwei, who had ultimately survived the River of Time... Since that was the case, drawing her abilities would only lead to redundant skills, which was pointless for now. As for Yao Qing, Chen Ling had no need to replicate his Su Embroidery ability.

On the contrary, the Monarch of Infinity, Lou Yu, was an enemy now and would be in the future. If he could steal his ability, perhaps he could keep him in check.

The next moment, the white paper with Lou Yu's name on it vanished...

Eleven playing cards were outlined out of thin air, silently floating in the void.

"Two life skills, nine unique Monarch-level skills... It's time to test my luck."

Chen Ling muttered to himself. Once the eleven cards were flipped over and shuffled, he closed his eyes and randomly pointed at one of them.

As the other cards vanished, the last remaining card began to glow with a faint silver light!

Perhaps because the maximum anticipation was high this time, Chen Ling didn't have the bad luck to draw a life skill, but successfully drew one of the Nine Monarch skills... Seeing this, Chen Ling let out a complete sigh of relief.

Every skill of the Nine Monarchs was a treasure; this draw was definitely not a loss.

As the card flipped over, a few lines of information appeared before Chen Ling's eyes:

"Skill: [Material Reshaping and Material Ultimate Strength]"

"Origin: 'Materials Science', Chapter 5."

"Character: Lou Yu."

Chen Ling: ...

Sure enough, these people who do scientific research all have skills of the same ilk.

As the card turned into a stream of light and drilled into his body, Chen Ling suddenly felt as if knowledge was being forcibly stuffed into his brain... It took a long while for him to recover.

"This skill is actually quite interesting." Chen Ling's eyebrows arched slightly.

The last time he drew from the Monarch of Aurora, it was a non-combat support skill, but this ability was quite a practical combat skill for him.

Thanks to the Monarch of Infinity for the gift.

Just as Chen Ling was preparing to ponder the specific applications of this skill, a strange feeling welled up in his heart. He frowned and immediately withdrew his consciousness from the theater, returning to reality.

……

The Gray Realm.

Chen Ling, who had been dozing off, snapped his eyes open.

A thick, murderous aura in the air had almost condensed into substance, churning like fog... Even Chen Ling, upon sensing this chilling intent, felt his hair stand on end and his muscles tense up, as if facing a formidable enemy!

He didn't hesitate to push off the rock with his feet, retreating rapidly amidst a burst of shattering sounds, only stopping after moving dozens of meters away...

His gaze locked onto the figure slowly standing up within the murderous fog.

"Is this... a Domain?"