Chapter 78: World Two [48]

The six guests followed the director’s indicated direction. On the outskirts of the island’s building complex, over twenty cabins stood in a cluster.

Calling them cabins wasn’t entirely accurate. Each wooden structure was about a story and a half tall, with the half being something like a loft.

Each cabin covered around sixty square meters, making it quite spacious for one person. Even a family of three wouldn’t find it cramped.

Of course, compared to the luxurious central complex spanning tens of thousands of square meters, they certainly deserved to be called cabins.

After answering the netizens’ most pressing questions, the director briefly outlined the activity area. Except for the ostentatious buildings at the island’s center, the rest of the island was open to the guests.

Not only the two yachts docked at the pier but also the off-road vehicles on the island could be used freely—provided you had a valid, relevant driver’s license.

[Whoa, if the whole island is open, three days is way too short! Feels like you couldn’t even finish exploring such a huge island. I think they should film for seven days, let me broaden my horizons too.]

[I feel like the production team probably wanted to extend the shoot, but three days for a million… the budget probably couldn’t handle seven days.]

[But this doesn’t seem related to wilderness survival anymore. They have cabins to live in. I remember my wife Qingqing’s last wilderness survival show was the real deal—fishing, foraging at the beach, living in a tent, and cooking her own meals.]

After briefly explaining the accessible areas to the six guests, Director Qin, in charge of this shoot, picked up her loudspeaker to introduce them.

Jing Ke and Shao Qing were the most famous and highest-ranked among the six. The former could be considered someone no one in the entertainment industry wanted to cross.

Liu Chang, originally a wilderness survival expert-celebrity, had officially debuted after his stint as a regular guest. After the New Year, he landed a few tough-guy persona scripts, creating minor ripples in the entertainment world and pushing his fan count towards millions.

Qin Zheng was the former Young Duke’s Stepmother. Her popularity was slightly lower than Shao Qing’s, but as a regular guest on “Who Is the Murderer?”, she frequently appeared on various variety shows and had excellent public appeal.

Yao Lan was an artist who had just won a Best Newcomer award, boasting high current popularity. She seemed to have no prior collaborations with Jing Ke or Shao Qing, making her the only female newcomer in the sextet.

However, Jing Ke, having investigated the guests’ backgrounds beforehand, knew very well that Yao Lan was the cousin of Little Yao—the one who had tried to use Director Zhang to steal Shao Qing’s role as the Third Female Lead in the Tribute Film.

The exact nature of Yao Lan and Little Yao’s relationship was hard for Jing Ke to determine right now, but based on their public social media comments and interactions, at least a superficial sisterly bond seemed to exist.

As for the final guest, the only male newcomer in the group: Xu Yi, who debuted just last year. Initially, Xu Yi rose to prominence by piggybacking on the name “Little Xu Yin.”

After Xu Yin was taken away by police for investigation and ultimately sentenced to seven years in prison, Xu Yi quickly shed the “Little Xu Yin” label, rebranding himself as a sunny, cheerful boy and gaining a considerable fanbase.

Understanding this guest lineup, Jing Ke pretty much figured out why the production team was splashing out cash to invite herself and Shao Qing.

If a brand-new show couldn’t achieve a strong start, a mixed dating-and-wilderness-survival variety program like this had a one hundred percent chance of flopping, quietly and without a trace.

“Next, I’ll announce the tasks required for the guests to secure their cabin accommodations.” Director Qin was just in her early thirties. She wasn’t related to Qin Zheng by blood; they were simply good friends.

At least a third of the reason Director Qin invited Jing Ke and Shao Qing as first-episode guests was due to Qin Zheng’s strong recommendation.

“Following the principle of voluntariness, the six guests will form teams of two. After pairing up, the two members of each team will be placed at different locations on the island. Each person will have a positioning watch on their wrist, which will indicate the distance to your partner every ten minutes.”

Director Qin explained the game mechanics through her loudspeaker. “It is currently 2 p.m. If you fail to reunite with your teammate within three hours—that is, before 5 p.m.—you will lose the right to stay in the cabins and can only sleep in tents tonight.”

“The first team to reunite will receive luxury ingredients. The second team to complete the task will get standard ingredients. As for the last-place team… sorry, you’ll only receive a small amount of ingredients.”

Director Qin added, “To make things more interesting, we’ve also scattered a batch of Prop Cards across the island. Using these cards can provide tools like a compass or shorten the distance notification interval.”

After elaborating on the rules for five or six minutes, Director Qin finally announced the start of free team selection.

[Hahaha, they call it free selection, but I bet Jing Ke will definitely team up with Shao Qing. They’re an officially public couple. The production team would have to be out of their minds to separate them.]

[I wonder if Qin Zheng will choose Liu Chang or Xu Yi. From a mission standpoint, picking Liu Chang should be better; he can discern direction from the environment.]

[But Liu Chang isn’t as easy on the eyes as Xu Yi. I mean, this is still a Love Observation Variety Show, so I think picking Xu Yi is better.]

[Whoa, why is Qin Zheng walking towards Yao Lan? Are they planning an all-female team?]

[Hiss, Liu Chang and Xu Yi wouldn’t be bad either. One’s a tough guy, the other a pretty boy…]

[Stop! My idol is straight! His sexual orientation is female! Don’t you dare force a man on another man!!! What’s wrong with the production team? Why didn’t they arrange more guests? Four people limits the combinations way too much!]

The combinations were indeed limited, but the three same-sex couple setups were a massive hit for the production team. The live stream room’s viewer count stabilized at five million, and the ad revenue from the bottom-left corner alone could recoup a significant portion of their investment.

“Shao Qing, after the first distance reading shows up, don’t move. Wait until the second distance reading appears, then do some minor scouting. I’ll come find you.” Jing Ke whispered in Shao Qing’s ear just as they were about to separate.

However, this action wasn’t very effective. Both wore microphones; lowering her voice prevented other guests from hearing, but the viewers in the live stream room could hear her perfectly clearly.

The production team only gave the guests three hours to find each other, so they wouldn’t place them excessively far apart—generally within a range of three to five kilometers.

Finding herself placed in a forest-like area, Shao Qing, who could only roughly orient herself by the sun, decided to relax a little. She followed Jing Ke’s instructions to the letter, staying put after her watch first displayed the straight-line distance between them.

[Wow, a distance of 4821 meters! The Shao Qing and Boss Jing pair has the longest distance. Did the production team rig this behind the scenes? Qin Zheng and Yao Lan’s distance is only just over 3000 meters.]

[Probably not. Looking at the trajectory map the production team provided, the guests could actually choose their landing spots within the area. It was likely just a coincidence in timing.]

[Shao Qing is really staying put. If so, how will Boss Jing find her?]

[Did you guys notice? After noting the 4821-meter figure, Boss Jing started walking firmly in one specific direction. She didn’t even detour around small hills, just pushed straight forward.]

[Did the production team tell Boss Jing Shao Qing’s location? Doesn’t the watch only show the real-time distance?]

After the live stream viewers engaged in a heated discussion, ten minutes quickly passed.

Jing Ke’s chosen direction didn’t seem perfectly accurate. After walking for ten minutes, the original 4821 meters had only decreased to 4562 meters, even though she’d clearly covered about six hundred meters of ground.

However, Jing Ke wasn’t discouraged. She used the surrounding vegetation to confirm her bearings, then precisely calculated her angular deviation using the six hundred meters she’d walked and the two distance readings.

This level of calculation usually requires a computer for an ordinary person to solve, but if geniuses capable of mental calculation exist in this world, then Jing Ke could certainly do the same—and even slightly surpass them.

And so, after pausing for less than a minute to think, Jing Ke adjusted her direction and strode forward at a brisker pace than before.

[Huh? Is she cheating? I’ve been watching Boss Jing the whole time; she never left my sight! How did it go from shortening by two hundred meters in ten minutes to shortening by almost seven hundred meters in ten minutes?]

[Damn, did someone from the production team guide her off-camera? That must be preferential treatment!]

[Uh, did you guys not notice Boss Jing’s initial instructions? If Shao Qing didn’t move, calculating the correct angle is just the Law of Cosines, isn’t it?]

[Huh? What? I’m a slacker student; I don’t get it!]

[The theorem stuff is too hard. Basically, it’s finding an angle of a triangle given the side lengths. But can you even do that mentally? Boss Jing really has some skills. Even with a calculator, I might not figure it out.]

[Isn’t Boss Jing a returnee from overseas? She’s clearly mixed-race. Maybe she graduated from a prestigious foreign university.]

[Indeed a prestigious university. I just checked some freshly updated encyclopedia entries. Boss Jing is an Ivy League master’s graduate in finance. She’d naturally be sensitive to numbers; strong calculation ability is understandable.]

[Such an insane calculation ability. A brain like that going into anything other than scientific research is a real waste.]

[Don’t you think Boss Jing’s sense of direction is terrifying too? The map just showed the guests’ movement trajectories. Boss Jing is advancing almost in a straight line! At this rate, she can reunite within an hour!]

[Folks, there’s nothing to criticize now. The production team released the drone footage. There are only two accompanying cameramen around Boss Jing, and they’re struggling to keep up with her while carrying all their equipment.]

[Ugh, but even so, Boss Jing must be so exhausted. Shao Qing doesn’t have to do anything, while Boss Jing has to toil away walking five kilometers.]

[Come on, some people’s ‘efforts’ are worse than no effort at all. I suggest you take a look at what happened with the other two groups after their ‘efforts’.]

As they say, there’s no contrast without comparison. While Jing Ke was using her brain to find the right direction, the guests in the other two teams were still trying the simplest method to find the correct path.

What’s the simplest method? Of course, changing direction the moment the distance increased.

If one party stayed still, this method could eventually slowly reveal the right path. However, the problem was that both members of each team were thinking the same way.

Even worse, some couldn’t tell north from south from east from west. Their directions got all muddled as they walked; the distance fluctuated wildly. Despite covering a lot of ground, the straight-line distance between them sometimes grew larger instead of smaller.

So, except for Jing Ke and Shao Qing, the trajectories of the other four on the map were a bit funny, somewhere between amusing and frustrating.

Fortunately, the production team had anticipated this situation and placed Prop Cards near the guests’ spawn points, allowing those with poor directional sense to get a compass.

Coupled with items that could reduce the cooldown time, the positioning updates gradually shortened from every ten minutes to every five, and finally every three minutes. The other two teams also finally found their rhythm and began closing the gap.