With Xavi's crushing defeat, the show continued to the second game. Coincidentally, he was also playing at the second game with Jupiter's one other member.
The course was divided into two parts with 2 obstacles each. The first half had a row of 2-meter walls and a monkey bar which the player must jump and climb across to reach their partner. The second half had a 5-inch wide cylindrical balance beam that could easily rotate and a rock climbing wall at the end. After the anchor pressed the bell at the top of the wall, he would then join the first runner to return to their starting line together.
Bai Liang and Zhan Sheng had a brief discussion and decided Bai Liang would be the anchor since Zhan Sheng was higher for jumping the walls.
Soon after Bai Liang went to his starting point, Xavi also stood in his respective area. From his resentful glare, he knew Xavi was picking a fight on purpose.
Xue Liang: [Master, someone is targeting Shen Qing-Mei in her filming site. It is highly likely to be Yi Nian's arrangement.]
Bai Liang lowered his gaze. He remembered the movie Shen Qing-Mei was working on right now was an action movie, a perfect chance to injure someone. He thought preventing Yi Nian from stealing Shen Qing-Mei's role would be enough, but she was more persistent than he thought.
'Show me.'
Xue Liang projected the image into Bai Liang's vision, showing an unknown actress switching a prop knife to a real one and quietly leaving.
'Where's Yi Nian?'
Xue Liang: [After she failed her audition, it was exposed that she had been sleeping with several influential people and that she got the place for the perfume advertisement by climbing its president's son's bed. She was sued by the company for damaging their image and disappeared.]
'Disappeared?' Bai Liang raised his gaze at Han Yi-Shen thoughtfully. 'Even you can't trace her?'
Xue Liang: [Forgive Xiao Xue, Master. Xiao Xue thought Master wouldn't want to spy on Grandmaster, so Xiao Xue stopped monitoring her after Master entrusted her to Grandmaster.]
Bai Liang inwardly sighed. 'Next time, confirm your actions to me first.'
Xue Liang: […Yes, forgive Xiao Xue, Master.]
'It's fine.' Bai Liang thought for a moment. 'Can you control my phone?'
There was a brief silence before Xue Liang answered: [Yes, Master.]
Han Yi-Shen was anticipating Bai Liang's performance when he received a message notification with Bai Liang's exclusive ringtone. He frowned and took out his phone to see what it was.
[My Baby: Shen Qing-Mei is in danger. Send an anonymous message that the prop knife has been changed into a real knife.]
[My Baby: Do it or I'll leak Su Yan's naked pictures to the public.]
Han Yi-Shen's eyes darkened. Maintaining his normal expression, he texted Huang Chen and fixed his gaze on Bai Liang who was stretching his legs on the stage. Turns out he was threatened, not tasked. Why didn't he tell him? Did he not believe that he was powerful enough to protect him?
He would chase this bastard in whatever gutter they were hiding and tear them apart into 1,000 pieces.
Bai Liang could feel Han Yi-Shen's killing intent from their distance and felt a little guilty. He didn't want to use Han Yi-Shen like this, but it was the fastest solution he could think of right now.
After everything was ready, the hosts prompted the game to begin. Zhan Sheng and his opponent raced forward and jumped over the first of the five walls. Zhan Sheng didn't spare any effort, but his opponent had a height advantage and advanced faster.
When he had just reached the monkey bar, his opponent was already halfway through it. He became reckless from wanting to catch up resulting in him slipping and falling. Fortunately, the ground was safely cushioned, and he quickly went back up to restart the monkey bar from the beginning.
Bai Liang wasn't panicked when the opponent tagged Xavi. While he struggled at the balance beam, Zhan Sheng finished the monkey bar and touched Bai Liang to tag him. "Sorry! I got careless!"
"It's alright."
Without hesitation, Bai Liang ran from his spot, crossed over the rotating beam in 3 brisk strides, and passed over Xavi in quick succession. Everyone, including Zhan Sheng, was astonished and before their fallen jaw could close, Bai Liang had finished putting on the safety gear for the next and last course.
He grabbed the first rock and climbed up like a spider crawling up a wall. Meanwhile, Xavi passed the rotating beam and wore his safety gear, but by the time he was about to start climbing, Bai Liang had reached the top and pressed the bell.
On his way down, he glanced at Xavi in passing and provoked him with raised eyebrows. Xavi gritted his teeth and climbed in a hurry, but he couldn't be as fast as Bai Liang however he wanted to.
Bai Liang returned to Zhan Sheng and patted his back. "Come on. We still need to go back."
Zhan Sheng snapped out of his stupor and quickly nodded. Only in one minute, the table was turned with EFEX leading with a large gap. Even without needing to rush, their first place was secured. When Xavi was returning to his teammate, the two of them already reached back to the starting line and pressed the bell in front of the hosts.
"Winner, EFEX!" both the male and female hosts announced with pure excitement.
EFEX fans cheered with pride and joy. They were still completely astounded by Bai Liang's one-hit-kill performance and shouted Bai Liang's name.
"Xiao Yan, that was crazy! You're awesome!" Chang Liu high-fived Bai Liang.
"I didn't know you could run that fast either! I thought I was hallucinating!" Zhan Sheng's blood was still boiling.
"Xiao Yan, you're not hurt, are you?" Xu Rong asked in worry.
"I'm fine." Bai Liang nodded.
While they were celebrating, EFEX fans were also very happy with the unexpected result. They were ready to console EFEX when Zhan Sheng fell from the monkey bar, but Bai Liang was an unexpected dark horse.
But Jupiter fans couldn't accept the result. They started accusing and doubting online whether or not Bai Liang's beam rotated. They insisted nobody saw the beam move one bit when Bai Liang ran across it.
The show knew best whether they were helping or not. Even if there was foul play, they didn't have any reason to help EFEX which, despite their current popularity, was only a group from a small company. It would make more sense to help Jupiter.
But the show's integrity was at stake, so the host playfully brought up Jupiter fans' suspicions and answered them by replaying Bai Liang's part through the monitor in slow motion. From there, they could see that the beam did rotate for a small bit but before it could move more, Bai Liang offset it with his next step. Each of his 3 steps didn't stay too long and watching the details in the reply made the scene even more exhilarating.
Bai Liang knew this would happen and deliberately let the beam move a little. If he wanted to, he could just lighten his steps which wouldn't cause the beam to move at all.
With EFEX's victory, the points tied and they entered the extra segment.
"For the last game, both teams will battle it through raw strength. The winner for this special episode will be determined in this one game," the male host prompted.
"Some of you might already guess what it is," the female host continued. "Yes! It is the good, old hand wrestle!"
The studio became lively with the fans' cheers when the group lined up according to their agreed order. The last one standing would be the winner.
Bai Liang was first to go with Xu Rong next, followed by Zhan Sheng and Chang Liu last. Bai Liang stepped forward, facing off Jupiter's weakest member first. His concept was also a cute boy like him except he fully embodied his concept in addition to witty remarks.
When they clasped each other hands on the provided table, Bai Liang could only hold the other loosely, not wanting to risk breaking his hand.
The hosts started the first round and the baby face boy exerted all his strength. Bai Liang didn't budge from his place and his arm was still as a statue. He gauged the boy's strength for a moment before finally swooping his hand down in one fluid motion. It almost felt like he was bullying a kid, but what was power for if not to be used?
All 4 members of Jupiter were beaten by Bai Liang one after another, once again, surprising the whole studio. Even the last guy who was almost twice as big as him couldn't move him an inch and got helplessly crushed.