Chapter 11: Prison

Li Teng silently turned around and continued to study the hanging paintings on the wall.

Although the scene just now was quite thrilling, for Li Teng, who felt he had already died once at the top of the stone pillar, it wasn't enough to cause him to panic unless it was a threat of imminent death.

The paintings on the wall were very finely made, all encased in mirrored frames with a glass cover, the metal frames shiny and smooth.

After closely examining the last few paintings, Li Teng suddenly turned around again.

Sure enough, all the wax figures behind him were looking at him again.

Li Teng slowly walked toward one of the wax figures in the back.

He then closely scrutinized that wax figure.

A few seconds later, Li Teng suddenly threw a punch at another male 'wax figure' next to the one he was scrutinizing.

That male 'wax figure' clearly was caught off guard, completely unaware that Li Teng had discovered him, and it was too late to dodge.

With a 'thud!', Li Teng's heavy fist smashed into the face of that 'wax figure'.

"Ouch!"

The 'wax figure' clutched his face and collapsed to the ground, crying out in pain.

Li Teng immediately stepped forward, pinning the 'wax figure' down with his knee, and raised his fist high again.

"Bro! Bro! Stop hitting me! I was wrong!"

The 'wax figure' started to plead with Li Teng for mercy.

This wax figure was clearly a living person pretending, which Li Teng had just figured out.

"Don't want to get hit? Then spit it out! What's all this about?" Li Teng pressed his forearm against the man's chest, not letting him get up to struggle.

"I meant no harm, I was just joking around, don't be mad… calm down…" the man continued to plead.

"Joking around? Having fun? What kind of joke is this? If you don't explain clearly, I'll immediately twist your head off to kick it like a ball!" Li Teng said angrily.

After being trapped at the top of the stone pillar for so long and being tormented in various ways, it had almost caused Li Teng to lose his will to live.

He didn't believe that all this was the doing of the man before him… if it really was, the man shouldn't be so weak, but he must know something.

"Cough… When I arrived here, I was also confused and angry. I understand how you feel, brother. Don't hit me, just ask me whatever you want to know, I promise I'll tell you everything I know," the man said without any hint of resistance, just accompanying it with a smile.

"Alright, first question, what's the deal with that stone pillar?" Li Teng obviously asked the most important question first.

In the movies and novels he had seen before, when characters encountered all sorts of bizarre incidents and finally had the chance to question a witness, they often didn't focus on the essentials and asked a bunch of trivial questions first.

And by the time they finally asked the key question, either the witness in the movie had been silenced or the author of the novel had ended the chapter abruptly.

So, Li Teng didn't beat around the bush; he got straight to the point when he had the chance.

"That thousand-meter-high stone pillar?" The man obviously knew about the stone pillar as well.

"Yes." Li Teng suppressed his excitement, he really wanted to know the answer.

"As to who constructed those stone pillars, or who put you on top of them, I don't know either." The man shook his head.

Li Teng remained silent, his fist raised high again.

"Don't hit my handsome face… I am also on a stone pillar, not much better off than you. Is this your first time here? So many questions, it seems you haven't stayed atop a stone pillar as long as I have." The man hurriedly spoke again.

Li Teng continued to remain silent, his gaze bearing down on the man.

By the sound of it, were there multiple stone pillars in this world? And someone was trapped on top of each pillar?

"Although I don't know how the stone pillars got here, or who's behind it, I do know how to lower their height. If we find a way to gradually reduce the height of the pillars from a thousand meters to just a few meters, we can return to the ground." the man continued.

"Aren't we on the ground right now?" Li Teng interrupted the man.

"Haha… temporarily, just out for a breath of fresh air. See that countdown? The pillars are like prisons, their height signifies our sentences. This countdown represents our time to breathe. Once it's over, we have to go work, and after working, we'll be sent back to the pillars, then we struggle to survive until the next breath of fresh air," the man said with a weary expression.

"Sent back there?" Li Teng couldn't help but sink into despair, he absolutely did not want to return to that pillar.

"Yes, what is your surname, brother? My surname is Gao, first name Fei. You can call me Gao, let's sit up to talk, lying down is so unpleasant!"

"How can we reduce the height of the pillar?" Li Teng refused to let go of this man named Gao Fei.

"You just registered for a membership card, right? There are points on the card. After participating in a filming, you can use the points from the card to exchange for reducing the height of the pillars; one point per meter. If you save up a thousand points, you can use the terminal to lower a thousand meters from your pillar's height, then you can truly return to the ground, truly free," Gao Fei honestly answered Li Teng.

"How do we earn points? By finding work here?" Li Teng, regardless of whether the man's words were true, decided to still listen to him first.

"See those posters on the walls?" Gao Fei gestured towards the walls around them.

"I see them," Li Teng said without turning his head, wary that the man might trick him.

There might be accomplices of this man around, but for now, Li Teng couldn't concern himself with possible ambushes or traps, he decided to firmly keep this man under control first.

"This is a huge island that houses an enormous Film and Television City. We unlucky ones selected will participate in filmings of various scenes in this city. Of course, we start as extras, only able to perform minor roles. After completing a scene, you can receive some points as a reward. These points can be used for expenses here, or exchanged to reduce the height of the pillar… naturally to decrease it," Gao Fei explained in detail.

"Participate in various scene filmings? What's with the people in the posters looking exactly like wax figures?" Li Teng asked another question.

"Being an Actor here is not quite the same as in the world we used to know. Here, if the character you play dies in the film, you die too. Just like them, becoming wax figures displayed here," Gao Fei answered Li Teng.

"All these people participated in the filming and then died?"

"Yes."

"What if I don't participate in the filming?" Li Teng frowned.

"Then just keep being stuck on top of the pillar, starving slowly to death! By the way, when you first came here, you ate in the restaurant and took some clothes from the clothing store, right?" Gao Fei asked Li Teng a few questions.

"What about it?"

"Hehe, then your current points are definitely in the negative. You only have by participating in the filming at twelve o'clock to earn enough points so that when you leave, you don't have a negative balance. Otherwise, you can't even return to the pillar, you'll end up like them, struck a pose and sent to the wax museum," Gao Fei chuckled mischievously.