Light

His idea was to fasten the rope to himself, jump off the stone pillar, and get the people in the hot air balloon to slowly pull the rope up and reel him into the basket. They could also rescue him in this way.

Li Teng felt that the latter was a more reliable method. Well, it was certainly more reliable than fastening to the rope to a bed leg.

Of course, there was also a certain degree of risk. He needed to quickly fasten the rope around himself while the wind direction hadn't changed. Otherwise, once it changed, if he was only half-way through securing it, there was a high chance that the rope would pull him directly over the stone pillar's edge, and he would end up crashing all the way to the bottom and perish.

But what if it succeeded?

If it succeeded, he would be completely free from this goddamn pillar. Neither would he need to participate in films that might turn him into a wax statue anymore.

It was worth a gamble!

Just as Li Teng was about to fasten the rope around himself, the wind direction beside the stone pillar changed again. A weird gale propelled the hot air balloon forcefully toward the stone pillar.

This time, the hot air balloon approached at a very high speed. A terrified Li Teng watched in horror as the basket crashed right toward the stone pillar. There was no space for him to duck at all on the narrow space atop the pillar.

This wasn't a rescue but an accident now!

The hot air balloon operator also realized the danger of the situation. He hastily turned up the power and quickly raised the hot air balloon's altitude to prevent the basket from crashing into the pillar. However, it was hard to tell whether it was the wind direction or an operation error on his part, but the basket beneath the hot air balloon suddenly began to sway and dip fiercely. In the end, it crashed into the stone pillar, nevertheless.

Li Teng had quickly dived under the bed just now. As he was sprawled at the other side of the stone pillar, he had narrowly escaped the basket's crash into the pillar.

However, the basket wasn't that lucky.

It toppled after it crashed into the top of the stone pillar. Two of the people inside couldn't grab onto something in time and were thrown out of the basket. They screamed as they plummeted more than 1,000 meters to the ground.

The weight load inside the basket fell into serious unbalance after the two of them were thrown out. Moreover, the operator had turned up the power just now. At this point, under the double whammy of sudden, increased buoyancy and the force of the wind, the hot air balloon rose swiftly into the sky and went far away from the stone pillar.

However, due to the crash just now, the soft tubing which connected the gas cylinder in the basket and the burner suddenly snapped. Propane sprayed out of the high-pressure gas cylinders and came into contact with the burner's flames, igniting a huge explosion. The basket went up in a sea of flames in an instant!

The people in the basket let out piercing screams. Someone covered from head to toe in flames jumped out of the basket, while the others simply continued screaming as they flew higher and higher in the hot air balloon.

Li Teng, who had gotten out from under the bed, could only watch as the hot air balloon flew higher into the sky while it emitted black clouds of smoke. Then, the balloon fell apart and plummeted to the bottom together with the burning basket.

"Why is this happening?!

"They were only trying to save me!

"F*ck!"

Great pain and agony overcame Li Teng.

Those people had only approached the stone pillar because they had wanted to rescue him. Never would they have imagined that this would actually happen!

Not only did they not manage to rescue him, but all of them had also perished instead!

All of them had died because of him!

Li Teng had a vague feeling that their accident wasn't a coincidence.

It was just like the plane crash the other time.

It was as if a mysterious force hidden behind the scenes was controlling all of this, and it didn't want Li Teng to be rescued.

It seemed like there was only one outcome awaiting everyone that attempted to come near the stone pillar—death.

Although the kind-hearted strangers in the hot air balloon hadn't managed to rescue Li Teng, they had given him something extremely precious—a mineral water bottle.

Just now, in the instant that the basket had come crashing toward Li Teng, despite being extremely tense, one of his hands had held onto the bottle of mineral water tightly as he ducked, preventing the bottle from accidentally falling off the pillar during the crash.

This was a bottle of life-saving mineral water.

Should the helicopter not come today or the next day and the weather remained as hot as ever, this water bottle would very likely become his only hope in surviving till his next filming session.

The value of the bottle of water was far beyond the 600 milliliters of water inside.

Li Teng still had a long time ahead of him where he wouldn't have any water source on top of the stone pillar. Even after he finished the water in the bottle, he could use it to store some drinking water on rainy and snowy days, so that he could sustain a longer time during the filming session intervals. This would also greatly increase his chances of survival in the cruel entertainment world.

In fact, he could also use it to store his liquid waste for recycling purposes in extreme situations.

Li Teng was absolutely unwilling to do this unless he was really at his wits' end.

It was honestly very difficult to get past the psychological hurdle.

Of course, should the time really come, he wouldn't have any other choice, either.

Li Teng, who was still suffering from lingering shock, carefully sat at the broken bed's edge and opened the precious bottle of water.

After he took a tiny sip, he quickly tightened the bottle cap.

It seriously felt awesome to drink water.

I wish I could finish all the water in the bottle.

However, Li Teng managed to resist in the end.

He would take another sip before he went to sleep and leave the rest for tomorrow, a day that would become even more difficult to pass.

Li Teng stuffed the water bottle into his torn and tattered blanket to prevent it from falling off the pillar. Then, he rolled the blanket up and stuck it securely between the bed rails. With this, most typical shaking and swaying wouldn't be able to shake it free.

…

It was night now.

A blinding light beam woke Li Teng up with a shock.

He could also hear loud booms.

He didn't know what time it was.

In any case, he had gone to sleep after the sky turned dark. He had no way of telling the time when he woke up in the middle of the night.

However, it shouldn't be that late. He could sense that he hadn't slept for that long yet.

The piercing light beam was coming from a black helicopter.

Li Teng was delirious with joy when he saw the enormous helicopter in the night sky.

Was it here to bring him to the film studio?

He even suspected somewhat that all of this was just a dream.

Why was it coming over at night instead now?

Was he going to film a night scene?

When Li Teng, who was now completely awake, was certain that all of this wasn't a dream, he hastily climbed up the rope ladder lowered by the helicopter. He was then pulled up to the side of the cabin together with the rope ladder.

Li Teng did all he could to scramble into the cabin. Upon entering, he rushed over to the box inside, opened it, and took out the drink. Then, he turned around to toss the drink onto the stone pillar.

Unfortunately, the cabin door closed swiftly and didn't give him even the slightest opportunity to do so.

It looked like his plan to add another bottle for water storage during his time on the stone pillar wasn't going to come true.

The distance between the helicopter and the film studio seemed rather far.

Soon after he ate the bread and crackers in the box and finished the drink, Li Teng laid down and fell into deep sleep again.

…

The helicopter landed at the same place as before at the helipad beside the beach.

It seemed like every actor's landing spot upon arrival at the film studio might be fixed and exclusive.

Of course, this was just Li Teng's conjecture. Two sample counts were insufficient for him to draw a conclusive outcome.

Unlike the last time, the helicopter had brought Li Teng here at night this time.

Li Teng made a beeline for the film studio after he got off the helicopter.

Despite his hunger, Li Teng didn't charge right into the cafeteria when he reached the streets. Instead, he ran toward the terminal at the roadside.

He turned it on and checked his account. Then, he waited to see if any notification about newbie missions and things like that would pop up.

He would be able to earn 10 points if it did!

The reward was comparable to what he would receive from a filming session.

Unfortunately, nothing popped up.

After he waited for quite a while at the terminal, Li Teng went to the cafeteria.

The wall clock inside indicated that it was currently 10:30 at night.

There was only a countdown of half an hour. It looked like Li Teng needed to hurry over to the film set before 11 p.m.

Late-night filming—what kind of genre would the movie be?

Li Teng had a rather bad feeling about this.