I am a demonic cultivator, not a capitalist with a conscience.

Chapter 175 Hidden Fans (Bonus Chapter 2 for Alliance Leader Qiu Ge)

The pale-faced scholar walked over, patted Shi Ling on the back, and said, "You're acting."

"I know, but I don't want to act anymore! I want to go back! I want to go back!"

"There's no other way here; you can only act."

"...What should I do? I can't tell! They say I'm acting, and I hope I am, but I don't feel like I am!"

"Because it is indeed an act, if you can't tell the difference, you'll fall right into their trap. But it's okay, it's just a big show on stage, life is like a play, and a play is like life. If you can't tell the difference, so be it. Isn't this also a way to seal away confusion?"

"Who are you? Who are you really?!"

"Zhuge Yuan, but now is not the time for you to get to know me. See you later."

As soon as she finished speaking, Shi Ling noticed that the surrounding fire had disappeared.

Not only that, "Sun Huowang," who had just been disemboweled by himself, reappeared, clapping and saying, "Teacher Shi's acting skills are indeed outstanding."

“Yes, I really thought Teacher Shi had gone mad just now,” Bai Niaoniao said, stepping forward.

Director Lü Zhuangyuan also made a hand gesture and said excitedly, "One take! Just now, one take! Perfect, absolutely perfect! Let's move on to the next scene... Teacher Shi, you don't look well, do you want to take a break?"

Looking around, Shi Ling understood.

I'm trapped in the play.

No matter how she acts, no matter how she kills, the other party can always use filming as an excuse to make everything in the past disappear and then let her continue filming.

She didn't know whether these people were real or puppets, or what the mastermind behind them wanted her to do.

But she knew that all she could do was act.

Not only must you immerse yourself in the role, but you must also get everyone else involved, until everyone forgets their original identities and begins to shine on the stage. That's when the other side will reveal their weakness.

The other party's illusion was extremely convincing; the concept of acting directly confined him to this dream, making him a part of the dream.

It's okay, the other party overlooked one thing.

That means she is both Sun Huowang and Shi Ling.

She is Sun Huowang here, but she can also jump out of this dream at any time, go to other places and become other Sun Huowangs, and then continue to explore the truth of the world.

But now she plans to find Zhuge Yuan first, to learn his true identity, and together with him, unravel the mysteries of this world.

Wait for me, Zhuge Yuan!
Lost in her dream, Shi Ling began to act recklessly.

In this dream world that is both free and unfree, she can act to her heart's content and kill to her heart's content.

She could make all sorts of unreasonable requests to the director during breaks in filming, and they would all be fulfilled.

The dream seemed endless, and everything was just an act, giving her a feeling of "nowhere to go and nowhere to go forward."

When she was forcibly awakened, she looked around blankly and suddenly burst out laughing.

Pointing to the other clerks, she said with a smile, "Hey Director Lü, did you bring in some new faces this time? Wow, everyone's so pretty! Let's keep the music playing and keep the show going!"

Looking at a woman who was over fifty, she smiled and said, "This is good. Although you are past your prime, you still have a lot of charm! And you look so much like our vice president, that's rare. Beauty, let's act together."

The woman in front of her looked at Shi Ling coldly, and the familiar gaze made Shi Ling feel very uncomfortable.

A moment later, she felt it was incredibly real. The others around her were also watching her nervously, and those she knew were exchanging glances.

Quietly, Shi Ling said in a low voice, "Hello, Vice President."

With a cold snort, the vice president said, "I was thinking of rewarding you guys for working overtime. But I came in to find you all acting crazy. You can't give injections during work hours? Was all that training for nothing?"

"There was no needle prick, it was just a fit of madness," Shi Ling quickly explained. "We were testing the dream very seriously, we definitely weren't slacking off."

"Yes, yes, I really didn't slack off; I was testing my dream."

"Vice President, look, there's a record. An anonymous author submitted ten dreams, and we're testing these ten dreams."

Faced with the flurry of explanations from others, the vice president frowned and said coldly, "What author? How come you submitted ten at once?"

He said that these ten are interconnected, form a whole, and cannot be changed. So he released them all at once.

The vice president sneered: "Another dream weaver who thinks he's so artistic, is he planning to create some art that no one else understands? And what kind of dream is this, 'The Final Chapter of the Dreamer 1-10'? What a crappy dream."

Just as Shi Ling was about to argue, she saw the vice president wave his hand and say disdainfully, "Alright, time to go home. Everyone's working so late, take a day off tomorrow."

The clerks cheered briefly, then one of them asked, puzzled, "But Vice President, isn't tomorrow your training session?"

"You're all exhausted and going crazy. What training course are you going to tomorrow? Go back and rest. Oh, and remember to take your milk tea, one cup each." After thanking the vice president, the group pretended to finish up their work and then huddled together to discuss.

"Is Number 1 Shi Ling? How was the dream?"

"It's incredibly intense, and you feel incredibly relaxed afterward. It feels even more exhilarating than being drunk, but unfortunately, you can't indulge in it for too long, or you'll never be able to get back to normal."

"Buy some calming herbs. I heard they're especially effective for treating epilepsy. Tianyuan next door is taking them."

"There doesn't seem to be much calming grass in Wenchang City. The climate here doesn't seem suitable."

"I heard there's a lot of calming grass in Sangmu. How about we buy some tomorrow, go crazy together, and then eat the grass afterward? It won't affect our work the next day."

"Great idea! This feeling of going crazy is just amazing."

"It's decided then. But I'm eager to discuss the plot now, let's talk about it over drinks. First of all, who exactly is Zhuge Yuan?"

"I don't know, the number 2 I played didn't have any instructions."

"Number 3 didn't explain either."

"It doesn't seem to be explained at all. It's probably a hidden character behind some dream. We have a day off tomorrow, so let's play together and then go find Zhuge Yuan."

"Great idea! Come to my house. My house is in the basement, which is soundproof and won't disturb anyone."

Seeing her colleagues getting excited, Shi Ling realized that acting crazy could actually help improve relationships among colleagues.

This is the first time everyone has ever been so excited about a dream; such a peculiar phenomenon is truly rare.

Although she really wanted to go crazy with everyone right away, Shi Ling still asked, "Everyone, what do you think of the quality of this dream?"

"Personally, I would have given it a perfect score, but there are too many traces of artificial intelligence used in it, which would reduce its originality, so I can only give it an 8."

"Because it is too small, I can only give it an 8.1."

"The gameplay is unique; I'd give it a 9 out of 10."

……

After recording everyone's ratings, Shi Ling discovered that this dream actually scored 8.5 points.

However, this score did not meet Shi Ling's expectations, because she wanted to score 9.3.

This is because the artificial intelligence elements contained in the dream lowered the score, but Shi Ling felt that artificial intelligence was actually a plus here.

Only artificial intelligence can create this kind of cyclical content and generate ideas that can kill people.

But that's just how the scoring criteria are, and there's nothing she can do about it.

After determining the score, she asked a second question: "Do you think this dream can improve the score?"

"Hmm... going crazy can help improve one's sensitivity to art, so I think it's okay."

"Furthermore, searching for clues in dreams can also improve logical thinking skills, which is very helpful for intelligence scores."

"I sweat profusely every time I have a seizure, which improves my physical fitness."

"Labor... I can't mention labor, but it doesn't really matter."

After confirming that the score could be increased, Shi Ling was satisfied and issued a notification that it could be released, and temporarily set the price of each dream for Chen Yu at 6 yuan.

The dreams of trainee dream architects cannot be given away for free easily, otherwise it will crowd out the growth space of novice dream architects and create malicious competition.

Generally, the pricing is determined by the dream architect, but Chen Yu said that the lowest price would be fine, so Shi Ling chose this price.

After setting the price, she let the others go first, while she organized the contents of this meeting and prepared to hand them over to the vice president.

As she approached the vice president's office, she heard soft murmurs coming from inside.

"Is Dreamer finally coming to an end? I feel so reluctant to say goodbye. Why don't you make more installments of such an interesting dream? Morning Light, you're such a little devil who doesn't know how to please the players."

"I'll take a day off tomorrow and enjoy myself."

Even without opening the door, Shi Ling could sense the vice president's appearance behind it.

Back at her workstation, she sighed and thought to herself that she should submit the application online.

Now that the vice president has seen it, I'm doomed.

(End of this chapter)