Soon it was afternoon, and before Yi Heye set off for the talent scout, Pei Xiangjin, like an old father, checked Yi Heye's equipment and repeatedly reminded him of the details of the mission.
Annoyed by the nagging, Yi Heye rolled his eyes and said, "If you don't trust me, then go by yourself."
Pei Xiangjin immediately shut up, but after thinking for a moment, she added, "Contact us immediately if you have any questions."
Yi Heye waved his hand and left without looking back.
The talent scout who contacted him was named Xiao Wang, a name even more forgettable than Xiao Ming.
They arranged to meet at a well-known chain coffee shop in Zone B. To show his sincerity, Xiao Wang told him that he would cover all the expenses for their meeting that day.
Before setting off, Yi Heye specially changed into a set of cheaper clothes and didn't dare to ride the expensive Xiao Ming to the banquet—if the other party knew that he was a wealthy man hiding in District D, the mission might be over before it even started.
Aside from work, Yi Heye rarely comes to Area B. Unlike the dirty and chaotic Area D that he is familiar with, although there are still towering buildings here, it has a sense of order and technology that the other areas cannot match.
This area boasts the most famous and upscale shopping malls outside of Zone A, as well as colossal corporations with immense wealth. The dozens or even hundreds of stories high-rises in the city center are spotless, without a trace of dirt or grime. Looking up, you can see aerial cleaning robots busily working on the exterior walls everywhere.
Everything in Block B is bright and airy, just as the street billboards say – “This is a city full of hope.”
Most people who have been here would think so, but only if they haven’t seen the even more beautiful Area A on the other side of the high walls.
Yi Heye arrived at the coffee shop right on time. It was a fully self-service shop, and the servers who came and went were all simple robots, which minimized the uncanny valley effect for customers and also psychologically increased the privacy of their conversations.
As Yi Heye stood at the door, he saw a young man waving at him—this was Xiao Wang, the talent scout who had contacted him.
Yi Heye nodded to him and sat down opposite him, pretending to be reserved.
"Hello, hello," Xiao Wang said very politely. "I'm Xiao Wang."
Yi Heye looked up at him and shook his hand: "Heye".
"He's so handsome!" Xiao Wang exclaimed, staring at his face. "He's even better looking than in the photos!"
Yi Heye remained silent—he didn't know how to respond to such straightforward praise.
He looked up at Xiao Wang again, and those two glances confirmed that this guy was an AI, without any distinguishing markings. If it weren't for the mission, he would have already pinned this guy to the ground and taken him back to be scrapped.
hateful.
Yi Heye lowered his head and stopped looking at him, lest he feel more and more itchy if he looked at him.
As Xiao Wang handed him the menu, he said, "I heard you're having some financial difficulties and urgently need money."
"Okay." Yi Heye nodded. "I'd like a glass of plain milk."
Xiao Wang was surprised that this person would order pure milk in a coffee shop. He looked at him with some astonishment and said, "You can order something a little more expensive. You don't need to save money for me."
Yi Heye blinked, realizing he had misunderstood, and went along with him, saying, "I'm not used to drinking those expensive ones."
Xiao Wang immediately showed him pity and comforted him, "Don't worry, once you become famous and make a lot of money, you can drink whatever you want."
Yi Heye nodded in a pretentious manner.
Surprisingly, unlike the sinister villain I had imagined, this Xiao Wang was a very warm-hearted guy. After ordering his drinks and snacks, he started chatting with him warmly.
“You know what? Normally when we’re recruiting people online, we don’t say we’re from ISSAC,” Xiao Wang said. “But you, my darling, so many companies across the internet are vying for you, and our boss said we had to get you no matter what, so I made an exception and mentioned the company name.”
Yi Heye had no idea he was so sought after, but upon reflection, he realized that a large part of the reason why the preliminary investigation was so difficult to advance was that these people had never revealed the name of ISSAC online.
At that moment, the instructions from the security department came through the earpiece. After listening, Yi Heye looked up and asked, "Do you usually work in Area A?"
"How could that be?" Xiao Wang laughed. "How could low-level employees like us have that kind of luck?"
"Ah..." Yi Heye said, feigning regret, "I thought..."
“But you’re different!” Xiao Wang said immediately upon seeing his expression. “You’re the kind of people who are going to be big stars, the kind who are going to really put in the effort and make a name for yourselves for the company. How can you compare yourselves to us behind-the-scenes people?”
Yi Heye raised his head: "You mean, I have a chance...?"
"Of course!" Xiao Wang nodded. "But the prerequisite is that you can pass all the tests. The final assessment is next month."
Yi Heye grasped the key words: "What assessment? What do you mean? I don't know anything about it."
"Hey, don't panic." Xiao Wang patted his shoulder and said, "Our company has a complete training process. Trust me, as long as you follow along and learn diligently, even a sow could debut."
Hearing this analogy, Yi Heye felt even more afraid to speak—he felt that with his talent and skill level, he might end up worse off than a sow.
At Pei Xiangjin's prompting, Yi Heye asked more detailed questions about the "final assessment." Xiao Wang said he couldn't reveal too much, only giving him a vague outline, telling him that everyone was preparing for the assessment and working hard for the one and only spot available.
“But don’t worry, I believe in your abilities,” Xiao Wang said. “Honestly, the moment I saw your photo, I knew who the ultimate winner of this year’s assessment would be—you were personally selected by our leader.”
Yi Heye dared not speak, feeling that the crown that had been forcibly installed on his head was about to collapse.
"Of course, all of this is based on the premise that you follow the lessons diligently," Xiao Wang said. "Although I believe you are exceptionally talented, there is less than a month left. I hope you can put aside your other tasks and focus on your studies. During this time, the company will provide you with basic food and living support. Just stay at the company for intensive training without any distractions, okay?"
How could Yi Heye say no? He nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go with you now."
Xiao Wang probably didn't expect the negotiation to go so smoothly. He just took out an agreement and asked the handsome young man in front of him to sign it, since the young man was desperate for money.
Yi Heye secretly took a photo and sent it to Pei Xiangjin, then signed it with the pseudonym He Ye.
"You don't need to prepare any luggage or anything; the company dormitory has everything," Xiao Wang said.
To be honest, Xiao Wang's enthusiastic work attitude made Yi Heye momentarily doubt whether he had found the wrong person and signed with a legitimate entertainment company.
However, when I think about their hasty behavior of focusing only on appearances and neglecting personal cultivation, I feel that they are still not reliable enough.
Once outside, Xiao Wang drove him to ISSAC's branch in Area B, located in the most luxurious area of Area B. It was surrounded by the largest luxury shopping mall in the area, medical and weapons companies that monopolized the entire industry, and the recently fallen 4D Network.
This is indeed a capable company. Just by looking at the enormous billboard, Yi Heye was certain that this was not a fake company using a counterfeit name.
Upon entering, the enormous first-floor plaza immediately took Yi Heye's breath away. Before him, the busy staff and the service machines shuttling back and forth resembled a group of hardworking worker ants, desperately building a dream that belonged to whoever it might be.
The entire first-floor lobby was decorated like a dream palace.
In the square, huge floating screens, seven or eight stories high, stood like elders at a round table conference. They played promotional videos of the company's most famous artists and called out to the people in the center of the square, saying, "This is the door to your glorious future."
Around them were many young people like Yi Heye, who had been brought in by talent scouts. Some of them, like Ke Yu, wore simple and inexpensive clothes and had a timid and hesitant demeanor. They were obviously scouted online to make quick money. Others had youthful faces and were dressed up. Some of them still had their makeup on and were probably extras who had been poached directly from the film set or college students from art schools who had not yet graduated.
Some came here for money, some for dreams; in short, driven by some urgent desire, they all lost their judgment and stepped into the unknown abyss before them.
Yi Heye followed Xiao Wang onto the suspended fiber optic elevator and arrived at the twelfth floor. When the elevator doors opened, there were rows of doors so neatly arranged that they were inexplicably suffocating.
Like a prison cell.
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Xiao Wang reached out and opened a door in front of him.
It was an empty room. Apart from a well-dressed man, there was only a table, a chair, and a ring of security cameras on the wall.
It really felt like a prison cell. Yi Heye hadn't expected his intuition to come true so quickly.
The next second, Xiao Wang reached out and pushed him into the room, then smiled and said to the man, "Mr. Qin, the person has been brought to you."
Before Yi Heye could react, Xiao Wang had already left the room, and the door behind him clicked shut and locked.
A strong premonition slowly crept into my heart.
Sure enough, a man's voice came from in front of them—
"Take off your clothes."
Author's Note:
Mr. Sheep, if you don't come out soon, your wife will be seen naked by everyone!
Chapter 96, number 096
Yi Heye repeated his words three times in his mind before asking incredulously, "...What did you say?"
The man named Mr. Qin repeated, "Take off your clothes."
Yi Heye stared at him with wide eyes, questioning whether he was joking. Mr. Qin looked him up and down as he said, "We need to collect your body data to facilitate the virtual avatar modeling later. This is something that everyone who wants to debut must go through."
Yi Heye completely ignored his nonsense, his whole body radiating resistance—this was clearly a blatant abuse of power for personal gain, and given Yi Heye's understanding of gay men, this man's eyes clearly indicated he wanted to have sex with him right there and then.
Damn it. Yi Heye took a step back, his fists clenched tightly—although he hadn't attacked humans often, taking down this suited elite man in front of him with his bare hands was more than enough for him.
Seeing that Yi Heye did not make a move, Mr. Qin said slowly, "I believe that before you came here, Xiao Wang has already explained the contract to you in detail. If you walk out of this door now, the liquidated damages you will have to pay later will probably be something you can never pay off in your lifetime."
Yi Heye looked up at him—now he understood how those missing men had walked into the trap step by step; their fates had been irreversible from the moment they signed the contract.
But Yi Heye didn't care.
The one who signed the contract was He Ye, the scapegoat, not him. Moreover, he could easily have the entire amount of the so-called huge penalty for breach of contract transferred from his company's expense reimbursement account in a matter of minutes.
He had no other thoughts at the moment, only wanting to tear the guy in front of him to pieces.
Thinking of this, the veins on his arms began to bulge.
He stared at the man's movements, thinking that if the man dared to lay a hand on him, he would break his arm. If the man dared to do anything else, he would make sure the man could never be a man again.
He had already found the perfect spot to strike and was about to step forward when he heard Pei Xiangjin's anxious dissuasion through his earpiece: "Don't be impulsive!"
Yi Heye abruptly stopped what he was doing, gritted his teeth, and typed out the pre-prepared code words with his fingers: "What...meaning?"
Pei Xiangjin said with difficulty, "For the sake of the mission, this small sacrifice is acceptable..."
Before he could finish speaking, Yi Heye slammed his fist on the table in front of him. The force of the punch nearly made Mr. Qin fall to the ground, and Pei Xiangjin on the other end of the phone was too scared to speak.
"I'm sorry." Yi Heye said with a fake apology, raising his hand and revealing a crack in the table. "I had low blood sugar and lost my balance just now."
Mr. Qin silently wiped the sweat from his forehead, taking a long time to compose himself. Then he swiped a screen, looked down at it, and his expression instantly lit up with joy.
"Everyone was very satisfied with your performance," Mr. Qin said. "Don't you really want to give them another good show?"
Yi Heye frowned: "What do you mean?"
"Do you see these cameras?"
Yi Heye looked at the all-around surveillance cameras in the room with a serious expression.
Mr. Qin said, "Although you've only been here for less than 5 minutes, the audience's evaluation of you has already begun."
Mr. Qin's so-called "assessment" is the part that Xiao Wang mentioned earlier, which involved "passing five checkpoints and defeating six generals".
Here, in order to reflect the trainees' true popularity and market potential, the company will conduct live broadcasts of the trainees' daily lives from time to time. The viewers in the live broadcast room will vote for the trainees in front of them and decide whether they have the ability to continue to stay in the company.
Yi Heye had never heard of such a thing before. The sudden presentation of these rules was clearly intended to make them make impulsive decisions without any preparation.
For example, right now, the most direct way to attract viewers' attention is obviously to take off your clothes and have a live, sexy broadcast.
This is something Yi Heye certainly cannot do.
He had just clenched his fist, thinking, "Maybe the world should just end," when he heard a rustling sound coming through his earpiece again.