Wizard: Become stronger by drawing cards from the potions variety show

Chapter 801

"Outrageous! This is utterly outrageous!"

Ah Bin abruptly detached himself from the immersive script, his consciousness returning to his personal performing stage.

As soon as I opened my eyes, a barrage of "hahaha" comments flooded the screen.

This was exactly what he expected.

When he failed to absorb the Myriad Faces of Fate in the script, he knew something was terribly wrong.

According to his memory, this was supposed to be a crucial step that had to be completed. But in reality, let alone absorbing it, when he actually faced that thing, he struggled to even save his life.

He knew that his strategy was supposed to be the optimal solution. If it went wrong, surpassing the original protagonist's performance would be a pipe dream, so from the very beginning, he had to strictly follow the plan.

However, he encountered an endless torrent of souls, which was simply beyond human resistance. Everywhere he looked, there were enemies.

Xiaomei was right; it was indeed the final boss, and a monster with enhanced attributes across the board. But who could have predicted that it would accumulate such a massive amount of souls over such a long period of time!

At least in that desperate situation, Ah Bin racked his brains but couldn't come up with any way to break the deadlock.

That's a real dead end.

Even so, we should still give it a try.

If Xiao Mei can use her newly acquired abilities to slightly interfere with or restrain other souls, giving him a moment to catch his breath, there might still be a glimmer of hope.

But to his utter surprise, Xiao Mei, who had always vowed to help him, abandoned him and ran away alone when faced with a life-or-death situation!

That's right, just as he was preparing to fight to the death with the Thousand-Faced Weaver, his dear teammate, Xiao Mei, who was supposed to support him, actually slipped away from above without looking back.

This completely violated Ah Bin's biggest taboo.

There's no way to work with this kind of idiot. Even if the King of Heaven himself came, he'd be kicked out. I'm telling you!

After leaving the script, he quickly glanced at the subsequent developments and then gave a cold laugh.

Xiao Mei didn't fare well after escaping. She was found in the nursery, then vaccinated, her abilities were sealed, her memories were erased, and she became no different from an ordinary person.

Upon seeing this, the company immediately determined that the strategy had failed and forcibly woke Xiaomei up.

Faced with a barrage of mockery, Abin pouted and immediately retorted, "How can you blame me? I followed the plan from beginning to end, and even helped Xiaomei get the 'Group Feast' and 'Thousand Eyes' she needed. But what happened in the end? She didn't even have the courage to face the monster head-on, and ran away after just a couple of attempts! How can you blame me for having such a teammate?"

"What would you do in my shoes? I put all my effort into preparing the script and kindly helped my teammates, but we lost everything because they deserted at the last minute. And you're going to blame me for that?"

Bin's words immediately drew in fans to join the fray amidst a barrage of mockery and online comments.

"Brother Bin has already done his best! What more do you want from him? This is supposed to be a collaboration between two people. Look how crucial Ava was in the original script, and Xiao Mei was just a burden!"

"Try your best? All I saw was a glutton who buried his head in trash and ate for ages before being instantly killed by 'Swallowing Rock.' We agreed to take down Swallowing Rock first, but we ended up having to deal with Thousand Eyes instead. Luckily, Xiao Mei was well-prepared and took him down herself. Brother Bin didn't help at all; he was trapped by Thousand Eyes and fast asleep. Didn't you guys see that?"

"No way, no way, there are simps here? Is the internet being mistaken for reality? Is it true that Xiaomei backed out at the last minute?"

"If Xiaomei hadn't run away, would this have happened? If you think she did nothing wrong, I hope all your future teammates will be like Xiaomei!"

"Then I hope all your teammates are like Ah Bin!"

The two groups of fans were arguing fiercely in the live chat.

Just then, Bin received a text message from the coach: "Stop talking nonsense in the live stream, come over here right now."

Bin snorted coldly. He disliked the coach's commanding tone, but he needed to rely on him for the time being, so he decided to put up with it for now.

He stood up and said to the viewers in the live stream, "We need to do a recap. The first strategy is mainly about gathering intelligence. Real experts often play it easy the first time, and the key is the results of the second and third attempts."

An actor has three chances to portray the same script, which is usually the best time to create a classic character.

If you fail three times, it will be almost impossible to create a classic character in this script, because the subconscious mind will be affected by the experience of failure, and the upper limit will be locked. Therefore, it is generally assumed that a character can only be conquered a maximum of three times.

Bin didn't turn off the live stream; he went straight to the coach's location.

Some viewers in the live stream were still debating whether "running away when facing an enemy that is clearly outmatched is considered desertion or a strategic retreat," while others started making jokes while waiting idly.

"I've reported it; the person using the chair to broadcast the content has been identified."

"Click the chair to load the script..."

……

Ah Bin, his face grim, stormed into the conference room and barked, "Xiao Mei, what have you done! If you're supposed to be assisting with positioning, you should have preserved the crucial data on the Myriad Faces of Fate so we could develop targeted tactics! Instead, we were caught completely off guard, and at the critical moment of data collection, you ran away without permission, causing my script to end with your death! Are you even capable? If not, replace you!"

After he finished shouting, he finally took a closer look at the situation in the room. Besides Xiao Mei and the coach, there were also several senior executives of the company present.

Bin's imposing manner instantly softened, and he greeted them somewhat reservedly: "President Liu, President Yi..."

Mr. Liu waved to him with a friendly smile: "Don't be shy, sit down, please sit down."

As she spoke, she personally poured Ah Bin a cup of tea, saying, "Young people get too hot-tempered, it's bad for their health. Have a cup of tea to calm down."

This action left Ah Bin somewhat bewildered. He took the teacup and found it too hot to handle, unable to discern whether the other person was genuinely trying to comfort him or if there was an ulterior motive behind their words.

As if oblivious to Bin's unease, General Manager Liu continued with a smile, "You are the backbone of the company; our future development depends on you..."

Upon hearing this, Brother Bin unconsciously straightened his back and immediately realized: President Liu valued him highly! It seemed that his abilities had impressed the higher-ups.

The cup of tea in my hand suddenly felt incredibly warm.

General Manager Liu continued to offer his earnest advice: "Your abilities are undeniable. But you also need to be tolerant of others; a man should always shoulder more responsibility. As you mature further, the company will definitely entrust you with even greater tasks. By then, not everyone under you will be as outstanding as you, so you need to think ahead about how to manage and lead your team."

As he spoke, he patted Abin on the shoulder.

Ah Bin's brows furrowed subconsciously at first, then relaxed, and he bowed slightly and nodded: "Mr. Liu, you are right."

General Manager Liu then turned his gaze to Xiao Mei: "You too, since your mission is to assist Abin, you should be fully prepared. Being cowardly before the battle is a cardinal sin in warfare."

Xiao Mei smiled sweetly at President Liu: "Godfather is right."

General Manager Liu waved his hand: "In the workplace, we use job titles."

The coach, who was standing nearby, spoke up at the right moment: "Mr. Liu, we can't really blame Xiaomei entirely. In that situation, the chances of winning were indeed slim. Abin wanted to gather more information to prepare for the next time, which is a good idea; Xiaomei wanted to conserve her strength to explore the subsequent plot and look for opportunities, which is also understandable. It's just that the two had different strategies, and it's not a matter of who was right or wrong."

Seeing the group of people in front of him singing in unison, Ah Bin immediately understood the prevailing sentiment. Even with his low emotional intelligence, he understood the meaning of the term "godfather."

His only question was, when did this female performer get involved with a high-ranking company executive? How come he hadn't heard a thing? And why didn't she even inform him beforehand? Wasn't she deliberately trying to embarrass him?

Thinking of this, Brother Bin drank the tea in his hand in one gulp.

He now fully understood: this woman was genuinely teaming up with him and assisting him, but she also harbored the intention of using him to gain a "dual protagonist" position.

Once she surpasses the original protagonist and becomes the new supporting character, her status will naturally rise, and together they will create a classic; but if given the opportunity, she will never let go of the possibility of surpassing herself and becoming the more important one of the two protagonists.

This time, the other party directly revealed her backing to make him hesitate and not try to get rid of her. She was determined to take this burden with her and even hoped that he would take the initiative to help Xiao Mei out of consideration for their "relationship".

Brother Bin sighed. He knew he wasn't smart, but he wasn't stupid. The higher-ups' meaning was so clear. If he still couldn't understand it, he would have been finished long ago.

So he said, "I can continue to take care of her."

Both General Manager Liu and the coach smiled upon hearing this.

Mr. Liu said, "That's why I say Ah Bin is a smart man; he understands immediately. Don't worry, the company will never treat you unfairly. Once you get the role, you'll receive everything we promised."

The coach quickly smoothed things over, saying, "We're also keeping an eye on the progress of other film studios' strategies. Right now, everyone's basically stuck on the Faceless Weaver, and the difficulty is skyrocketing. If I hadn't read the original script and known that the final outcome is to devour it, I simply wouldn't believe that such a monster could become a source of sustenance for growth. Previously, most people chose to avoid it."

"Of all the people, Ah Bin has the best chance of successfully winning her over."

Mr. Liu nodded in agreement and looked at Abin: "Most people lack the courage to confront powerful entities, which is precisely why I have high hopes for Abin. He's full of confidence and dares to take action against any opponent—that's the right thing to do!"

He clapped his hands and said, "Our support for you cannot just be lip service. Come, try the dish I specially had the imperial chef prepare for you—'The Map of Conquering the Nine Provinces'."

The conference room door opened in response, and four people pushed two food carts in, each carrying a large plate.

"Encompassing the universe and possessing the grandeur of mountains and rivers, this is what is meant by 'Conquering the Nine Provinces'." Mr. Liu's tone revealed pride. "This is one of the top dishes that many award-winning actors choose before tackling key scripts. I had a lot of trouble to get this."

As he spoke, the staff lifted the lid off the plate.

In an instant, brilliant starlight burst forth from the plate, so dazzling that it was almost impossible to open one's eyes.

However, a unique aura, or rather a "sense of presence," draws everyone's gaze involuntarily.

Inside the plate was a lifelike map!

The Nine Provinces are clearly defined, and each region is prepared with completely different top-quality ingredients using exquisite techniques. They are independent yet harmonious and unified, together forming this magnificent dish.

Although they appear to be separate entities, they are actually a unified whole, complementing each other.

"The world, after a long period of division, tends to unite; after a long period of unity, tends to divide. This is the natural order of things." President Liu watched with satisfaction as the astonishment on everyone's faces. It was clear that this move had completely exceeded everyone's expectations.

He nodded slightly, acknowledging that his efforts in using personal connections and making thorough preparations had not been in vain.

"This 'Nine Provinces Ascension' technique can significantly enhance all basic attributes within the script, and that's just its most basic effect. More importantly, it can 'bury' a large number of memories! The so-called 'Nine Provinces Ascension' involves dividing key memories into nine parts and deeply embedding them within the soul. As the body gradually strengthens and unlocks these parts, the corresponding memories can be acquired one by one. If the nine memories are eventually united, it can directly increase the soul's integrity by one level and grant the soul the characteristic of 'resilience,' meaning that even if it is split, there is a possibility of reunion and healing!"

After hearing this, Ah Bin was dumbfounded.

Amazing attribute bonus!

Preserve a massive amount of memories!

Once fully awakened, it can also enhance the flexibility of the soul!

It's crucial to understand that the biggest fear in immersive scripted performances is having one's real-life soul corrupted by the script's experiences or memories. After all, when exchanging "performance points" for abilities, one directly inherits everything about the character in the play. If that ability comes with a price that affects the soul or emotions, that price will also be borne in reality, easily leading to a loss of control.

Consuming this dish is like adding an extra layer of insurance for the characters in the script!

While enhancing abilities in the show, this "soul resilience" effect will also be inherited by the real body, which is equivalent to having an extra layer of soul protection. This is the blessing of top-notch cuisine!

"No wonder... I always felt like I was just one step away from becoming a Best Actor, but I could never break through. It turns out I was already far behind others at the starting line." Brother Bin muttered to himself.

He then looked at President Liu and blurted out, "President Liu, if you have such a good thing, why didn't you bring it out sooner?"

The coach's heart skipped a beat: Ah Bin must have lost his mind, daring to question the higher-ups' decisions to their faces!

He immediately stepped forward and, before Mr. Liu could speak, rebuked him: "Ah Bin! How dare you speak like that? The company's decisions have their reasons; do you think you can question them? Besides, those who become movie stars don't all rely on preparation. Take this script you're looking at, for example. The original lead actor came from a slum, and they were performing on a public stage. What preparations did they make? They still rose to fame overnight..."

At this moment, Mr. Liu raised his hand, and the coach's words came to an abrupt halt.

Just when the coach thought Mr. Liu was about to get angry, Mr. Liu chuckled and said, "Ah Bin, it's not that I didn't want to prepare earlier, but your previous level wasn't high enough. The company can't invest huge resources in you and gamble on your success rate with unknown risks. Do you know how many favors and costs were involved in preparing this dish? Many things are difficult to do even at the company level; I only got it by using my personal connections."

"If you were a movie star, what's so difficult about providing you with a script every time?"

"You're proud and outspoken, that's your nature, and I don't mind. But I hope you can perform exceptionally well this time. That's all I have to say. Take care and I look forward to hearing good news from you."

"Let's go." President Liu led several senior executives out of the conference room.

Ah Bin didn't feel anything special. He had already picked up the tableware on the table and was enjoying the precious "Nine Provinces Conquering the Throne" dish.

Seeing his nonchalant attitude, the coach could only point at him and sigh, "You, you..."

Perhaps, this "big heart" trait is a good thing in some situations.