DTTM 69

Chapter 69: Trash, Send Money

The final match of GTC was held in Langfeng. This city was not far from Baiyujing, just a two-hour high-speed train ride away. Although the main stadium was not as luxurious and large as Baiyujing’s, it was still a standard international sports stadium with a capacity of 80,000 spectators.

Due to the martial law order issued by Wuxi Kunpeng, a strict curfew was imposed in Langfeng after 10 PM, prohibiting people from moving around on the streets without special reasons. As a result, the final battle was forced to be moved from the prime-time 8 PM to 3 PM.

This change not only meant that spectators needed to line up earlier to enter the venue, but also completely disrupted the contestants’ preparation rhythm.

Before dawn, the stylists dragged us out of bed. Makeup, dressing, promotional photos, pre-match interviews, and then a final tactical meeting. After a quick bite of lunch and a touch-up, we entered the long wait for entry.

The withdrawal in the previous race drastically narrowed the points gap between Sun God and second and third place. Any slip-up in this race could relinquish the championship title. The safest strategy was to secure a 1-2 finish in this race, leaving no room for error…

“Jiang Man! Jiang Man! Jiang Man!”

When it was Sun God’s turn to enter, I mechanically waved to the stands while mentally calculating the possible combinations of points.

Compared to the lack of attention and even boos during the opening race, the cheers for the final race was like a tsunami, making the entire stage tremble slightly.

“Enjoy the final race, partner.” Zong Yanlei suddenly said as he sat down in the neuro-navigation pod and the hatch closed.

…Enjoy?

“I will definitely make you the champion…” I closed my eyes and whispered in the darkness, “Partner.”

When I opened my eyes again, everyone was already in the “waiting room.” I habitually raised my hand to touch the back of my neck, and there was no feeling of the slightly protruding chip under my skin, confirming that my consciousness had successfully entered the metaverse.

“I’m so nervous! It feels like the opening ceremony was just yesterday, and now the final race is already underway. Is everyone ready? Come on, tell me loudly!”

The host’s voice suddenly rang out in the room without warning, so noisy that I couldn’t help but frown.

“It’s so noisy.” Zong Yanlei expressed his dissatisfaction.

The host paused abruptly. He appeared to have been caught red-handed, regardless of whether the director had cut to our waiting room and he had heard it.

“Ha, haha… The track survey is about to begin, everyone get ready!” After a moment, he laughed awkwardly, his tone abruptly changing to a sickeningly sweet manner.

Shortly after his voice faded, the usual mechanical electronic voice sounded in the room, announcing that the portal had opened.

Almost simultaneously, a big, sand-colored door appeared before Yi You and me. The door looked as if it were cast from fine sand, with a recessed center forming an intaglio number “6,” as if it were an engraving left after being eroded by the wind over countless millennia.

“Made of sand?” Yi You stepped forward first and grabbed the doorknob. As soon as the door was opened, sand began to fall down. “Could it be a desert terrain?”

He muttered to himself, then pushed the door and went inside. I followed behind him, and the moment I passed through the door, a wave of heat hit me, and before me stretched an endless, undulating golden desert.

It really was desert terrain.

“Jiang, over here.”

Under the scorching sun, a staff member wearing a headscarf and a loose, breathable robe approached me and invited me into a hover jeep.

The jeep slowly rose into the air, carrying us into the vast expansion of yellow sand.

I discovered a problem shortly after surveying the course. Although there were some markers scattered across the desert for the navigator to mark and write route notes, the desert winds were constantly blowing, and the shapes of the dunes were constantly changing. The route notes I was writing would probably be completely unusable before the race even started.

And……

“What’s below that?”

Beneath the yellow sand, something black surged and churned, moving at high speed close to the sand layer. Occasionally, black fins resembling those of a shark would appear on the surface of the dunes, only to disappear quickly. Judging from those fins, the creature beneath wasn’t small.

“Oh, those are sand-fish, monsters that live in the desert.” The staff member glanced at it in the direction I was looking and said in a slightly educational tone, “They can go over 400 kilometers per hour and mainly feed on small animals in the desert. They have a very strong sense of territory. Their eyesight isn’t very good, but their sense of smell and hearing are excellent. The desert is their territory, and anything that doesn’t belong to this desert will be seen as an intruder and attacked by them.”

“So what methods can we use to defend against or stop these attacks?” I asked directly, having already figured out the organizer’s tactics.

The staff member smiled and held up one finger: “Donations!”

I tilted my head, somewhat puzzled: “… Donations?”

“It’s the kind of donation that happens during live streams,” the other party explained further. “This time, we’ll be introducing an audience interaction mode, bringing the live stream screen—which the drivers usually can’t see—into the racing…”

She waved her hand. The next second, a virtual electronic screen appeared in front of the passenger seat, half of which displayed scrolling bullet comments, and the other half displayed a constantly changing navigation map.

In addition to showing vehicle locations, the map also displays the locations of sand-fish. These shadowy figures were marked as fast-moving red skulls, making the danger fully tangible.

“Only 80,000 viewers can enter the live stream room. Each regular viewer has 5,000 virtual coins, and each VIP viewer has 50,000 virtual coins. How to retain more viewers depends entirely on the contestants’ abilities. The more viewers donate, the more props and buffs the contestants can buy.” With another wave of her hand, another “product” preview appeared on the electronic screen.

Cooling bombs, high-energy hydrating agents, protective shields, sonic bombs, super cacti…

I took a quick look and found that the supply items weren’t too expensive, around one or two million, but the attack items and the crucial final destination map were ridiculously expensive.

That’s right, the map marking the “finish line” also had to be purchased. In other words, the navigator’s main role in the early stages of this race was to act as a lively streamer to earn more donations and accumulate funds to buy the “map”.

“Oh, right.” The jeep slowly descended and finally stopped atop a sand dune. As if remembering something, the staff member added, “There’s another necessary condition for finishing the race, besides obtaining the ‘map’…” She smiled slightly at me, “Each vehicle must kill two ‘sand-fish’!”

As she spoke, a five-meter-long monstrous black fish suddenly burst out of the sand and crashed into the front of the jeep.

The strange creature had no eyes, but a large mouth covered with fine, sharp teeth. A curved tentacle sprouted from its head, ending in a round, fleshy lump. Its skin was covered with thick, crocodile-like armor, and it had shark-like fins on its back, as well as a thin tail covered with barbs like a ray.

This is clearly a synthetic freak, so ugly it’s repulsive.

“Bang!”

Amidst the deafening sound, a golden ripple appeared on the front of the Jeep, which had miraculously withstood the impact.

“That’s the power of the protective shield,” the staff member explained with a smile. “As long as you don’t lean out of the car window, the shield can withstand any attack. The duration is the same as the cooling bombs used to keep the car cool, five minutes in total.”

The strange fish, having failed in its attack, reluctantly burrowed into the sand, leaving only the curved tentacle and a black fin visible as it swam on the surface.

“That’s its nose,” the staff member said, pointing to the fleshy bumps at the tip of its tentacle. “It uses that to detect its enemies.”

Since there wasn’t much track to explore, after understanding the race rules, I went back to the waiting room, while Yi You was even a step ahead of me.

“So disgusting, so terrifying… so disgusting, so terrifying…” He sat down on the sofa, trembling, his face pale, looking completely terrified.

Seeing that he had lost the ability to organize his thoughts, Zong Yanlei and Tan Yunmei had no choice but to turn their gazes to me.

“There were a little surprise on the track…” I sighed softly, sat down, and reported what I had seen and heard on the track.

“Livestream donations?” Zong Yanlei crossed his arms, his brow furrowed. He quickly used his capitalist mind to come up with an idea, “Could we bribe individual investors?”

I smiled and said, “No. It would be considered ‘manipulating the race results,’ and if discovered, the team would be disqualified and permanently banned.”

“They certainly pursue fairness and justice in this regard,” Zong Yanlei said with a sarcastic chuckle. If it weren’t for noble etiquette, I suspect he would have rolled his eyes long ago.

The final tactic was simple: the two cars would stick together. First, we would buy “cooling bombs” to cool down, activate “protective shields” to defend against the sand-fishes attacks, then one vehicle would buy sonic bombs to kill four sandfish, while the other vehicle would save up money to buy a map and share the route. This way, both cars could complete the race without needing to earn too much reward money.

This was the optimal solution. But there was a fatal, uncontrollable variable. I only realized this when the race started and I connected to the live stream chat.

That is the “de-inhibition” effect of power.

Psychology suggests that people in power are more likely to take action, are more confident, more impulsive, and more likely to disregard consequences; those without power are more likely to be controlled by an ‘inhibition system,’ which makes them more cautious, more self disciplined, and more concerned about threats and punishments.

Power is like an amplifier; it easily amplifies a person’s existing tendencies and reduces the self-control brought about by external constraints.

When a group of gamblers gains power, virtue and empathy quickly dilute.

They will not easily spend their virtual currency unless they are pleased. And this “pleasure” cannot be achieved by singing a song or making a heart shape with a hand on the screen and saying a few nice words.

Initially, the comments were normal.

[Smash all the other teams! Go, Demon King! +3000]

[My entire fortune rests on your shoulders, don’t let me lose! +5000]

[Jiang Man, the strongest navigator!!! +2000]

Gradually, as we became increasingly disheveled from the monsters’ pursuit, the malice of humanity began to fester in the anonymous revelry amidst the power dynamics.

[Take off your clothes and I’ll give you a donation.]

[Jerk off for us and I’ll reward you ten thousands, hehe.]

[I want to see Jiang Man give the Demon King oral sex, hahaha, I’ll support it even if it means going bankrupt!]

Groupthink spread like a virus, swallowing up individual rationality, and everyone was caught up in a frenzy of power.

[I’d rather see the Demon King get wrecked by monsters than win money, hahaha…]

[Call me ‘Master’. If the high-and-mighty Zong Yanlei dares to say it, I’ll bet everything on the Sun God Team]

[How could I miss such a good opportunity? The suffering of a noble is truly a never-ending spectacle.]

[I want to see the Demon King suffer.]

[I want to see the Demon King suffer.]

[I want to see the Demon King suffer.]

[I want to see the Demon King suffer.]

[I want to see the Demon King suffer.]

[I want to see the Demon King suffer.]

“Guys, this is a bit much…”

After that, no matter what I said or did, even if I was required to take off my helmet and racing suit, leaving only a thin white fireproof undershirt, the direction of the comments remained consistent. Individual rationality was lost, and the collective will was quickly converged into a unified goal, they wanted to see Zong Yanlei suffer.

Faced with the situation where I only had one cooling bomb and one protective shield left, I maintained an awkward smile and began to consider the possibility of turning the tide through the extreme means of masturbation.

“Why did you take off your racing suit and helmet?” Just then, Zong Yanlei noticed something was wrong with me.

Racing suits and helmets were important protective measures for drivers in the event of a crash. Underneath them was fireproof underwear for heat insulation and flame retardancy. Under normal circumstances, drivers were not allowed to remove these items.

“It’s nothing…” I was afraid he would see those foul words, so I reached out to block them.

He slapped my hand away first, slammed on the gas pedal to avoid the giant sand-fish biting behind him, and “took” the virtual screen from my hand.

He glanced at the contents, gave a disdainful smile, and already knew exactly what was going on.

“Trash.” With that, he tossed the electronic screen back to me.

Because of that insulting “trash,” the barrage of comments instantly exploded. Anger, curses, and insults… In stark contrast to these extreme negative emotions, the account received two million in donations within seconds.

The sonic bomb cost ten million, and the original balance was over eight million. Adding these two million will be just enough.

“That’s enough to buy a sonic bomb,” I said.

The sonic bomb was the only effective item to kill a sand-fish. It was especially effective against creatures with sensitive hearing. If you threw it into a sand-fish mouth, you could blow it up from the inside.

“Buy it.” Zong Yanlei executed a tail swing, using the height difference of the sand dunes to create some distance between us and the sand-fish that was right behind. Then, he said, “Activate the protective shield.”

I bought the sonic bomb as instructed and used the protective shield. Soon after, the race car emitted a faint golden glow, and at the same time, a purple sphere about ten centimeters in diameter appeared in mid-air inside the car.

Zong Yanlei grabbed it and clenched it tightly in his palm.

“Keep your grip on the steering wheel.” He looked over, his heterochromatic eyes fixed on me behind his goggles, and instructed, “Remember, never let go of it under any circumstances, understand?”

He used a similar phrase during the opening race, but that time it was “Never stop reciting the route book under any circumstances.”

“Okay.” I leaned over and took control of the steering wheel from him.

The car window slowly rolled down, and a wave of scorching heat mixed with a fishy smell rushed into the car. Zong Yanlei released the accelerator, and the race car began to slow down. The enormous sand-fish quickly caught up and raced alongside us.

For better visibility, he took off his helmet, grabbed the sonic bomb with his left hand, held onto the roof of the car with his right hand, and leaned his entire upper body out of the car window.

“You want… then…I’ll…you…”

The noise was too loud, and I had taken off my helmet, so I couldn’t hear what he was saying for a moment.

As if provoked, the sand-fish opened its blood-red maw and lunged forward. The next instant, thick blood splattered from the roof of the car, drifting in through the wind and splashing onto my face.

The sticky blood radiated a warm heat, unlike the blood of fish that one might imagine. But that made sense; most fish were cold-blooded animals, their blood temperature changing with the external environment. In the heat of the desert, their blood temperature must be…

As this thought crossed my mind, Zong Yanlei suddenly collapsed into the driver’s seat.

His entire left side was stained crimson with blood, the scarlet liquid trickled down his pale face. Yet, he still wore that usual arrogant, haughty smile.

“You trash, send money.”

The pain made his voice tremble, but even so, he tightly grabbed the stump of his severed left arm, determined to turn this excruciating pain into the sharpest weapon he possessed.

I suddenly realized what he had just said.

“You want to see me suffer? Well then, I’ll show you!”

Even in adversity, this proud nobleman would never fawn over anyone.

“…” I opened my mouth, but I wasn’t sure if I said anything. All I could hear was the sound of the wind and the loud noise of the engine running.

By the time I realized what was happening, I had already let go of the steering wheel and pounced on Zong Yanlei, pressing on his bleeding wound.

***

Author’s Note

The most classic example of removing the restraint on power is the Stanford Prison Experiment, in which ordinary people were divided into two groups, taking turns playing the roles of prisoners and guards. Those who gained power gradually unleashed some of the malice inherent in human nature. Those interested can search for more information.