Chapter 784: Live Show Secrets

"Now that you have an irreconcilable conflict with Butcher, your only choice is to stand by my side." The black-robed man had planned this out long ago. The idea of allying with me against Butcher had probably formed the first time he saw me at Xinhu Cancer Research Hospital.

"Butcher holds a serious grudge. Honestly, even if you hadn't clashed with him, he would have come looking for you sooner or later. That lunatic will use any means necessary to get stronger. He wants to monopolize the Live Show's resources, so in his eyes, every other live show streamer is both a competitor and a target."

Even though the black-robed man had schemed against me, on second thought, his words made sense.

There was also one other thing I hadn't told him.

I hadn't gone to the Red Building that night just because of his phone call. The main reason was that the Live Show had scheduled my broadcast right there in the Red Building!

Even if the Black-Robed Anchor hadn't shown up, I still would have gone to the Red Building and ruined Butcher's plans. In other words, making an enemy out of Butcher was inevitable.

This guy thought his scheme had worked, but in reality, everything was under the Live Show's control.

I looked at the Black-Robed Anchor. He was completely shrouded in his black robe, making it impossible to read his true thoughts from his voice alone. "Do you want to hunt Butcher because you have a grudge against him, or has he already marked you as his next target?"

Nobody would willingly provoke someone as terrifying as Butcher. The Black-Robed Anchor had to have his own reasons for wanting to hunt him. The most logical explanation was that he had already been targeted by Butcher—or perhaps they had even fought already.

"I'm killing Butcher simply because he's in my way. That's all." The Black-Robed Anchor spoke in a flat tone. For a live show streamer, masking emotional fluctuations was a basic skill. I couldn't tell if he was lying.

"I can't be bothered to ask about your history with him. Let's hear it—how do you plan to deal with him? I want to hear your entire plan. I'll only help you if the odds of success are above sixty percent." I toyed with the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment the black-robed man had given me, subtly adjusting its angle to aim the reflective surface at him. His silhouette appeared on the glass. I then turned the mirror toward myself, but the reflection was entirely blank. It reflected absolutely nothing.

The mirror was authentic. In the Live Show's product catalog, the one and only Reincarnation Mirror Fragment cost a hundred points to redeem. The Black-Robed Anchor had done me a massive favor. Of course, the items displayed on everyone's Live Show storefront were probably different; he might not even be fully aware of the fragment's true value.

"It's a long story. Since you wanted to ask me about the Underworld Live Show and the First Anchor anyway, I might as well tell you everything at once." The Black-Robed Anchor sounded completely sincere. "No one knows when the Live Show was established, nor does anyone know its purpose. We only know that it resides on a No-Lights Road, hidden in the corners of various cities, possessing many fake branch locations. I've seen destroyed Live Show branches in the Yin-Yang Boundary and laid eyes on its ruins within the Deep Dream Layer. Its exact age can't be verified. Perhaps it has existed for ages, and just didn't present itself to the world in the form of live broadcasting at the very beginning."

"You don't know the Live Show's purpose either?" I furrowed my brows. This differed slightly from what I had imagined. The black-robed man had clearly been a streamer much longer than I had.

"When I first became a streamer, I panicked too. I secretly investigated everything about the Live Show, but didn't find much. However..." The black-robed man pulled back the dark fabric at his wrist, revealing the Plum Blossom Brand on his arm. "Live show streamers share countless commonalities, such as this Plum Blossom Brand and all the equipment we're issued. A few years ago, during a multi-person broadcast, I saw the equipment used by other streamers. After a detailed comparison, I made a startling discovery. All of our broadcasting tools are absolutely identical. Even the placement of the bloodstains and the exact tightness of the screws on our selfie sticks are exactly the same."

"What does that prove?" I was a little puzzled, but I faintly felt like I was approaching the truth.

"There are no two identical leaves in this world, yet the broadcasting tools used by all of us streamers are exactly the same. If you visit the Live Show's branches in different cities, you'll find that everything inside every single branch is absolutely identical." The Black-Robed Anchor's voice gradually turned eerie and sinister. "The same interviewer, the same interview venue, and even the exact same Gu insect used to seal the contract. If you look closely, you'll even notice that the positioning of the insect corpses wedged in the floorboards has never once changed."

"Even if all the Live Show branches and the tools they hand out to streamers are exactly the same, what does that mean?" I was eager to know the answer.

"It's simple. Everything in the Live Show was brought out from reincarnation! The Live Show you see might have been established in the future, or it might have been built in the past, but there is no denying that there is only one true main body." The Black-Robed Anchor lowered his voice. "Whether it's the branch in the Deep Dream Layer or the one in the Yin-Yang Boundary, their destruction has zero effect on the Live Show, because neither is the real body."

"I think I get what you mean. So how do we find the Live Show's main body?" I didn't ask this because I was ready to make an enemy of the Live Show; it was just a subconscious reaction.

"Who knows?" The black-robed man let out a chilling laugh. "The Good and Evil Buddha of Xinhu City thought the branch in the Yin-Yang Boundary was the main body, burning his own Fate Pattern to destroy it. And the result? His physical body was crippled, his Fate Pattern was shattered, yet the Live Show still exists. Years ago, live show streamers unwilling to be enslaved banded together and launched a rebellion. They thought the branch in the Deep Dream Layer was the main body. You've seen what happened to those poor bastards. Their real-world bodies were drained of life, and their wills were forced to flee into the Deep Dream Layer, too terrified to ever emerge. The truth is, they succeeded in their goal of destroying a Live Show, but unfortunately, they targeted the wrong one."

After hearing the black-robed man say this, any thought I had of fighting the Live Show completely vanished. If you wanted to destroy the Live Show, you had to be prepared to face its frantic retaliation. "According to you, isn't the Live Show completely invincible?"

The black-robed man shook his head. "Though I despise Fate Usurpers, I sometimes have to admit that even under the interference of heavenly will, they are the ones most capable of calculating the truth in this world. Do you know why the Good and Evil Buddha entrenched himself in Xinhu?"

It seemed like an irrelevant question, but I immediately understood what the black-robed man meant. "Xinhu borders Jiangcheng! Could the Two-Faced Buddha have deduced that the No-Lights Road Live Show in Jiangcheng is the main body?!"

"In all likelihood. Jiangcheng is a very unique ancient city. Many people know it's a massive tomb, yet no one knows what terrifying thing is buried inside. I secretly infiltrated the Five Great Upper Sects and went through countless ancient texts, but I found nothing." The black-robed man sighed softly. "You were born in Jiangcheng. You should understand this city better than I do."

"The massive tomb in your eyes is just an ordinary city to me. If I hadn't become a live show streamer, I reckon I'd still be completely in the dark, living out my days in a blur." I truly possessed far too little information regarding the Live Show. Ever since becoming a streamer, I had been running non-stop without a single moment of rest. It felt as if a pair of invisible hands were pushing my life forward from behind, forcing me to keep moving.

However, it was also precisely because of all this effort that my strength had grown to such a level in just two short months, earning me the right to speak to other streamers on equal footing.

"That's enough about the Live Show for now. I advise you to drop any unrealistic ideas. Even someone as formidable as Butcher obediently follows the Live Show's rules, doesn't he? As a live show streamer, playing by the rules is the only way to live comfortably." Seeing my emotional fluctuations, the black-robed man decisively ended the discussion about the Live Show.

"Playing by the Live Show's rules..." The crimson hue faded from my eyes, leaving me with a faint sense of bewilderment. "Do I really have to save up ten thousand points to break free from the Live Show? I've survived fourteen life-or-death broadcasts, but I've only managed to save a hundred points. That's merely one percent of ten thousand."