After chatting for about ten minutes, they finally arrived under the gate.
The towering and ancient gate had the characters "Qu Shui Ancient Town" written on it. The drone followed them through the gate, reaching the center of the ancient town.
Surrounded by ancient city walls, the shops and various attractions inside were separated by those hollow wooden walls—like a giant screen, only cut off at the bottom, supported by pillars on both sides. From outside, one could see the flower beds inside.
The turbulent river they had just seen branched out, flowing through the town along a man-made canal, splashing against the canal walls and slightly wetting the stone paths on both sides.
"The environment here is good enough, not at all inferior to Willow Leaf City." Guan Yu couldn’t help but close her eyes and take a deep breath, but halfway through, she was stuck. She turned earnestly to Shu Ran beside her,
"I mentioned Willow Leaf City without any other intention, don’t overthink it."
Shu Ran: "...But I’m starting to overthink now!"
"The environment here is similar to Willow Leaf City, but this place has been developed again, while Willow Leaf City retains its original flavor."
Cheng Zhirang commented briefly and then tilted his head to ask her: "So should we in Willow Leaf City..."
"Hold it," Mu Qiu immediately intercepted him, leaning closer and whispering into the mic, "You’re here to join the show, not to inspect the real estate market."
Cheng Zhirang stifled a laugh.
Walking beside them, Shi Yuhuai gave them a strange look and then turned away disdainfully.
The director’s team waited beside the canal, a crowd of cameramen pointed their lenses at them.
Maybe it was cooler near the flowing water because, this time, the show’s staff did not carry those giant umbrellas nor were they fully equipped to block out the sun. Instead, they wore holey shoes and shorts, looking ready to take a dip at any moment.
Of course, they still wore their signature flower-patterned headscarves.
"Welcome everyone to the ninth episode of ’Different Variety Show’! Once again, welcome our special guests for this episode—An Zhou! Xu Jihua! Song Weili!"
Everyone clapped enthusiastically.
"This episode is different from previous ones. First of all, a notable difference is that we have a fixed NPC this time, who will be locked in a little black room, losing mobility and the initiative to participate in the game. Welcome our fixed NPC Brother Huai!"
This time, the cheers were even more enthusiastic.
"Woohoo! Brother Huai! Brother Huai!"
"Welcome zombie Brother Huai! Brother Huai, Brother Huai, you are the best, Brother Huai, Brother Huai, you are the strongest!"
"So strong that no one can surpass him, we can only lock you up hahaha!"
Shi Yuhuai extended his hand, closed his eyes, and gave up: "Come on, tie me up, I don’t want to stay here in the sun."
His adept posture of offering his neck was truly pitiful.
Unfortunately, the director only mentioned him in passing without intent to give him more screen time, quickly returning the topic to the main track.
"Another difference is the very bold format setting of this episode—online timely voting to determine each person’s win or loss."
"Everyone has received a fan with numbers, which is very good. It seems everyone is familiar with the show’s process. The corresponding numbers on these fans determine the sequence for costume selection."
"The costumes you draw will determine your direction of performance for this episode, so don’t think it’s unimportant. Now, the highly anticipated theme for this episode is—When We Lose Our Memory, I Use My Words to Defy Fate!"
Mu Qiu slowly turned her head, her face scrunching up like an old towel: "What the heck???"
This arty name with a hint of juvenile fantasy was physiologically uncomfortable.
"Hahahahaha, director, be honest! Did you read a lot of unorthodox novels at home?!" Li Yang laughed uncontrollably.
Guan Yu even chimed in directly: "Why don’t you just call it Adolescent Adventure in the Ancient Town?"
Director: "...Alright, shut up, just listen seriously. This name took the team a long time to come up with and best fits the theme of this episode!"
Shi Yuhuai: "The staff are all looking down, they don’t agree."
Director: ...Ah, I really wish I could send him to the little black room now!
Leveraging his powerful ability to ignore noise, the director overlooked their complaints, pinching a broken megaphone with orchid fingers as he continued:
"In short, this episode won’t be divided into segments, nor will there be several different games. The grouping is simple, one female guest with two male guests, and the choice of male guests is determined by the female guest blindly selecting numbers.
Once everyone has selected their costumes and changed into them, the only game for this episode officially begins—"
"You need to create a story on the spot based on your costume and your teammates’ costumes, and perform it. Your group’s members are the main characters of this story. Different groups may have interactions in the story but only for side plots. For example, you can set members from other groups as an unimportant NPC to advance the story.
Given the high difficulty of this game, the team decided that within the first three hours of the game’s start, you can freely change your story’s main plot and character settings.
Three hours later, the story must be finalized and reported to the accompanying director, who will compile your stories into a real-time voting post on Weibo. After the story ends in the evening at eight, the voting results will determine your success or failure.
From the time the story is decided until eight o’clock, while constantly moving around the ancient town, you must continuously improve the story, enrich the characters, and avoid any out-of-character instances.
If a character goes out-of-character once, your group’s final vote count will be reduced by 100 votes. If twice, decreased by 300, three times by 500, and four times by a whopping 1000 votes. This rule applies to individual members; if two members go out-of-character, the votes deduction is cumulative.
Teams that draw Brother Huai should be particularly careful. The fixed NPC has no mobility and can only stay in a fixed position. Your story and character settings must take this into account and find a way to make his role fleshed out and consistent even with minimal appearances.
Does anyone have any questions above?"
"Yes," Guan Yu eagerly raises her hand, "What does OOC mean?"
The director pointed at Mu Qiu, and the camera immediately focused on them.
"OOC means out of character, doing things or saying things that violate character settings. For example, Sister Shu Ran would never act cutesy and whiny towards you."
Guan Yu: "Okay, no need for examples, just thinking about it is giving me goosebumps."
Director: "Does anyone else have questions?"
Li Yang half-heartedly raised his hand: "I have a not-so-problematic question. I just want to confirm, director, this episode is mainly about storytelling and acting, right? That’s all? And, what’s my MVP privilege?"