AITFYMIBP Chapter 23

TL: Hua

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With five people on the team, the 1500-meter relay was a breeze.

The guests quickly finished the game, and the production team reluctantly handed them the 500 points.

When they actually received the generous 100-point reward, the guests naturally gathered around Lin Yanran. Two of them had participated in the previous season and knew how difficult it was to earn 100 points.

In the last season, they had worked themselves to exhaustion and only managed to get 30 to 40 points in total.

Thinking of their painful experience last time, and seeing how easily they earned 100 points this time thanks to Lin Yanran, some of them looked at him with a hint of admiration.

“Teacher Yanran, you’re amazing,” said a young, newly debuted actress.

She had a lot of prejudice against Lin Yanran because of his past scandals, thinking he was a typical dumb beauty with no brains.

But after meeting him tonight, she realized he was not only handsome but also had a crushing IQ.

She wondered if she had been blind to having hated such a smart and handsome guy before just because of what others said!

Another actor in his forties, who often played supporting roles in historical dramas, also nodded in agreement. “I was just thinking about spending 20 points on the first event. Thank goodness I didn’t!” He patted his chest in relief and gave Lin Yanran a thumbs-up. “You have a really sharp mind.”

Shang Chengcheng also clapped happily, his eyes full of smiles. “Yanran, you’re so smart!”

Meanwhile, on the other side, Li Lang, who had worked tirelessly on the triathlon and only earned 10 points, almost lost his mind when he learned that the others had each received 100 points.

“How could they get so many points? Did they cheat?”

He wiped the sweat from his face and looked in surprise as everyone surrounded Lin Yanran, completely unaware of what had happened.

A staff member explained how Lin Yanran had broken the rules. Li Lang suddenly realized that he looked like a complete idiot for eagerly jumping on the first event and only getting 10 points.

He had originally planned to completely outshine Lin Yanran on the show to embarrass him and teach him a lesson on behalf of his boss, Bai Tianyu. But who would have thought that after the first two rounds, he hadn’t taught any lessons and the other party had stolen all the thunder!

Li Lang hid in a corner away from the cameras and wiped the sweat from his face. He swore to himself that in the next round of team competition, he would definitely beat Lin Yanran!

After two rounds of competition, it was time for the guests to exchange their points for items.

While the Almighty Showdown production team liked to create pitfalls for the guests, they also didn’t want to push them too far.

The first two rounds had been very physically demanding, so this exchange segment was meant to be a relaxing time for the guests to rest and refuel.

However, even though it was a relatively relaxed segment, in every previous season, many guests had so few points that they couldn’t exchange them for anything. So the production team would often add more challenges to make things difficult for them.

The production team gathered everyone together to begin the exchange. The rule was that the person with the most points got to choose first.

With 100 points from each of the first two rounds, plus his initial points, Lin Yanran had a total of 300, the highest score on the field.

When the director announced Lin Yanran’s name and score, many of the sleepy audience members woke up instantly.

[300 points!! Did I hear that right?]

[I’ve never seen such a high score before.]

[Holy crap, I just dozed off for an hour. What did I miss?]

[Can the production team even handle this? Letting an uneducated person get first place?]

The show’s live broadcast time was at an odd hour, so many of the haters had been half-asleep and hadn’t been paying close attention.

Now, seeing Lin Yanran in first place, they rubbed their eyes and tried to focus on how he had managed it.

The next second, they watched as Lin Yanran coolly spent a massive 120 points on a sleeping bag and earplugs set from the exchange area, then walked directly to the rest area.

Then, right in front of the camera… he fell asleep!

Seeing this…

The haters were fuming: “I stayed up all night to watch you sleep?!”

The director, who was expecting a brilliant move, was in disbelief: “Who put the sleeping bag in there?!”

The props team looked miserable: Why would anyone spend a fortune to buy a sleeping bag that’s just supposed to be a filler to make the exchange harder? QAQ

But Lin Yanran had already exchanged the points and was sound asleep. What could they do?!

An hour later, Lin Yanran was woken up by a staff member.

Even though it was a short rest, it was enough for him. After a few days of staying up late, he felt much more awake.

When Shang Chengcheng saw him wake up, he quietly handed him a piece of bread.

“I saved this for you. We still have a few more hours of filming, so eat something to fill your stomach.”

“Thank you.”

Lin Yanran didn’t hesitate. He took the bread and started eating. It was whole-wheat and a bit dry, so he opened his thermos and quickly took a sip of hot water to wash it down.

As soon as the break was over, the production team started urging them to get back to work.

Lin Yanran quickly finished his bread and rejoined the group with Shang Chengcheng.

It was now past six in the morning. After over three hours of filming and with the lack of sleep, many of the guests looked exhausted.

While some had managed to grab a quick nap, it was nothing compared to Lin Yanran’s full-on rest.

When the camera panned over the group, Lin Yanran was the most energetic of the eight guests.

The audience, who had initially thought Lin Yanran was crazy for spending so many points on something useless, now thought: Yanran is on a whole other level.

The production team, who loved to create drama, had no sympathy for the exhausted guests. Seeing them so tired, they immediately arranged for the third round.

They came up with a variety of flashy sports events that completely drained the guests of the little energy they had replenished.

Watching several guests on the verge of collapsing, the director finally felt a sense of accomplishment.

After all, tormenting people was their specialty!

However, his happiness only lasted a few seconds. He turned around and saw that Lin Yanran was still looking refreshed and clear-headed. His spirits immediately dropped.

So he quickly announced the start of the fourth game—Challenge 2700.

This was a game that combined running with intelligence and required the guests to be split into two teams.

To create more drama, the production team deliberately allowed the guests to form their own teams. In past seasons, the guests would debate for a long time over who to team up with.

But today, as soon as the director gave the signal, six of the guests immediately moved behind Lin Yanran, automatically forming a team with him.

Meanwhile, Li Lang was left standing alone…

If they all went to form a group with Lin Yanran, that would be too much!!!

“The teams must be even! They must be even! You’re not allowed to have a seven-person team!”

The director frantically shouted into a megaphone until his throat was almost hoarse.

In the end, the six guests had to play rock-paper-scissors to decide who would go to which team.

The people who were forced to go to Li Lang’s team looked visibly upset.

Li Lang: Do they really dislike me that much?

After the teams were set, the two teams’ race began.

The rules were simple: each team took turns rolling a dice. The number on the dice determined how many meters they would run forward, with one dot equaling 100 meters. The first team to reach 2700 meters won.

However, the production team had placed some challenges along the way. If a team landed on a challenge space, they had to complete the challenge. If they won, they could move forward, but if they lost, they had to go back to their previous position.

By now, the sky was completely bright. Lin Yanran and his teammates stood at the starting line.

This game was a staple in every season of the show.

It seemed simple, but many guests were exhausted by it. This was because they often failed the challenges and had to run back and forth multiple times. In one season, a guest was so exhausted from this segment that he threw up and had to be given oxygen.

With that in mind, everyone was extra careful when rolling the dice, trying their best to avoid the challenge spots.

Initially, both teams controlled their dice rolls well. They chased each other and reached 2300 meters without encountering a single challenge.

Just when everyone thought they would pass smoothly, the young actress’s hand slipped, and she rolled a one, triggering the first challenge of the night.

The girl stuck out her tongue and looked at everyone apologetically.

“What do we do…”

The actor who played roles in historical dramas was more composed. He immediately suggested, “Why don’t you let Yanran do it? He’s smarter.”

This proposal was met with unanimous agreement. Everyone looked at Lin Yanran with hopeful and trusting eyes.

So, Lin Yanran was pushed onto the challenge stage.

He randomly chose one of the brightly colored balls containing a challenge question. When he opened it, he found a challenge called [Wasabi Bitter Melon].

The large screen in the center immediately displayed the rules:

The production team has prepared 20 cups of wasabi bitter melon juice. Each team will send one guest to drink. The first person to drink the 20th cup wins the competition. You can drink between 1 and 3 cups at a time, with a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3.

After choosing his challenge, Lin Yanran started walking back to the group. However, he found that the model had already used rock-paper-scissors to determine the drinking order with Li Lang, who was sent by the opposing team.

Lin Yanran asked the model, “Did you choose to go first or second?”

The model confidently told Lin Yanran, “First!”

Upon hearing the answer, Lin Yanran sighed inwardly. But since it was already decided, he didn’t say anything more.

Li Lang, on the other hand, saw the expression on Lin Yanran’s face. He thought Lin Yanran was unsure about the game, so he urged him to start quickly.

Lin Yanran picked up a cup of wasabi bitter melon juice and drank it. His eyebrows immediately furrowed. The taste was truly strange.

Li Lang saw Lin Yanran drink one cup. He pondered for a few seconds before also picking up a cup.

Lin Yanran took a sip of water to wash down the terrible taste, but when he saw Li Lang choose to drink just one cup like him, he immediately understood that Li Lang had no idea how to play the game. He put his water down and quickly picked up two more cups, downing them in one go.

[????]

[Is Yanran crazy????]

Li Lang, who had noticed Lin Yanran seemed dispirited earlier, now saw him suddenly full of energy, and a sense of foreboding filled him. For a moment, he felt like he was going to lose this game.

Next, Li Lang chose to drink 3 cups, and Lin Yanran drank 1. Li Lang chose 2 cups, and Lin Yanran also chose 2. When Li Lang drank 1, Lin Yanran drank 3. By the end, Li Lang finally realized he was destined to lose!

“Yanran wins!” The director’s team announced Lin Yanran’s victory.

Li Lang stood there, his mind buzzing as he stared at the cups, completely unable to figure out how he had lost. He felt so embarrassed that he offered to play again with Lin Yanran, this time insisting he would go first.

The production team, which loved to create drama, saw that Li Lang was about to make a scene and immediately agreed.

Lin Yanran really didn’t want to drink that horrible concoction again, but Li Lang looked like he wouldn’t continue the game otherwise, so he gave in.

This time, Li Lang went first and thought for a long time before making his move. But in the end, he still lost.

After drinking nearly twenty cups of wasabi bitter melon juice, Lin Yanran felt like he could throw up just by looking down. He held back the nausea and prepared to return to his team. However, Li Lang still looked unconvinced and seemed to want to try again.

Lin Yanran couldn’t stand the thought of drinking the vile beverage again, so he just told him the core strategy of the game.

“This game has a second-player advantage. The first person to make a move to a multiple of four wins. If you had chosen to drink three cups first, you would have won.”

Li Lang looked at Lin Yanran, stunned. “Huh?? What do you mean?”

The director on the other side gasped: Here we go again! Is Lin Yanran starting again?!

The director’s heart pounded. He quickly instructed his staff to make sure the same person from Lin Yanran’s team didn’t get to answer the next challenges. He thought this would be enough to contain Lin Yanran.

But then he found out…

When the young actress got a challenge to correctly order a jumbled sentence within twenty seconds, she cried, lamenting her bad luck for getting the same question as last time.

But before she could even say another word, Lin Yanran had already organized the sentence for her.

“The greatest of all oceans is the sky; the greatest of all skies is the soul of man.” He even added the book title, “Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.”

When it was Shang Chengcheng’s turn to guess a word blindly, Lin Yanran had already started teaching him to divide the 26 letters into two halves to narrow down the range…

The director leaned back in his chair, already taking a puff from his oxygen tank.

If I have sinned, let the law punish me; do not let this bug named Yanran torment me to the point of a breakdown.

He had painstakingly designed these challenges for so long, and yet this person could just blurt out the correct answers without even thinking!

Watching the guests easily pass one challenge after another in an atmosphere of peace and love, the director, who had utterly failed to achieve his goal, finally erupted after a deep breath of oxygen.

Unable to take it anymore, he grabbed his megaphone and yelled at the entire set, “Yanran! If you keep giving out the answers, I’ll deduct all your points! ALL of them!”

Hearing the director’s furious roar, the live stream’s chat was instantly filled with a flood of “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”

[Guys, I’ve been so satisfied! This is so refreshing, so, so refreshing!]

[This move by Yanran is so gratifying.]

[I’ve always seen guests get tormented, but this is the first time I’ve seen a director of this silly show driven crazy by a guest.]

[Yan. The Strategist. Ran: With all due respect, the games on this show are trash.]

[Yanran is way too smart. How does he know everything?]

[He’s like a human cheat code.]

[Isn’t he supposed to be uneducated? How can a high school dropout be this amazing? Did the production team give him the answers beforehand?]

[Does a high school diploma affect his intelligence? How is it 2021 and people are still using that kind of discrimination?]

[LOL, is this your first time watching this lame show? Several A-list stars were tormented in previous seasons. Why would they give an 18th-tier celebrity the answers?]

[Did you not see how mad the director was? If he could act that well, an Oscar would be his.]

[Is it really that hard to admit that Yanran is just smart?]

The haters who were still trying to argue that an “uneducated” person couldn’t be this good were left speechless by the overwhelming support from the rest of the chat.

Seeing the consistent praise for Lin Yanran, they couldn’t hold it together anymore. They cursed and left the live stream in a rage.

After the show, all the guests except Li Lang added Lin Yanran on WeChat.

Ding Weikang didn’t let Lin Yanran rest; he bought him a plane ticket to fly back that very night.

While Lin Yanran was on the plane, Almighty Showdown became a huge hit.

The show had been known for tormenting its celebrity guests, which had annoyed many fans.

When fans heard that Lin Yanran had put the production team in their place, they all rushed to watch the highlight clips.

Everyone who watched felt incredibly satisfied, and soon hashtags like #YanranAlmightyShowdownNemesis and #YanranHumanBug were trending.

At the same time, people also noticed Li Lang’s ridiculous performance, and #LiLangTheClownIsMe also climbed the trending charts.

After Lin Yanran flew back overnight, the first thing he did was ask Ding Weikang to transfer his salary.

After receiving the money, he only slept for a few hours. Early the next morning, he went straight to contact the lawyer he had previously chosen.

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