The Trending Topic Herself: The Villainess is the Superstar!-Chapter 251: Searching for the Return Stone

A few tall and sturdy poplar trees formed a grove, with villagers carrying palm-leaf fans cooling off under them. Occasionally, they cast curious glances.

"Are those celebrities? They all look so attractive."

"Really handsome, they must be from out of town."

"The village chief mentioned that a TV station was coming to film a program, it must be these people. Look, they’re all holding equipment!"

...

Maya Monroe raised her eyebrows in surprise.

It seems this journey isn’t too bad, at least much better than she imagined.

The guide led all the guests to a shady spot, where the shadows of the trees danced and a slight coolness lingered in the air.

Maya Monroe took a baseball cap from her backpack and put it on, pulling the brim low so that only her crimson lips and pointed chin were visible.

"I remember seeing netizens discuss on Weibo that this journey would be much more relaxed, and they turned out to be right after all," Jamie Miller remarked, "the guide didn’t spill a word on the way here."

The guide stood in front of the tree, smiling, "I didn’t expect Jamie to pay so much attention to what the netizens say."

Jamie Miller laughed, "When I’m free, I follow the show’s updates. Compared to previous survival on deserted islands and such, this time the program team can be considered really kind. Are they trying to leave a good impression on the guests in the final episode as the netizens suggested?"

"A good impression?" The guide chuckled, "I guess you could say that."

"As you can all see, our destination this time is — Stonewell, a beautiful village!"

He pointed towards a large stone with inscriptions beside them.

Jessica Young felt a bit uneasy, "Let’s talk about the rules. I always feel that whenever we arrive at a nice place, the rules become stricter. After all, this is the usual... ahem, I mean style of the program group."

"I didn’t mean to insult the program group..."

With a glance from the director, the guide began to speak slowly:

"So many episodes have passed, and I’m sure everyone is very familiar with the regular rules—"

The guests all nodded in agreement.

The guide’s tone suddenly changed, "But the rules of this episode are somewhat different..."

"What does this mean? Wasn’t what you just said pointless then?" Justin Morgan frowned, "I knew this journey wouldn’t be so simple, the real challenges lie ahead!"

Kiki Monroe stood next to him, with a bit of worry on her face.

Unlike the other guests, she hadn’t participated in the previous episodes, so the current environment didn’t seem particularly reassuring to her.

She had done quite a lot of research before and knew that the program crew loved to play tricks, and apart from the harsh environment, their frequent tactics to make things difficult were the hardest to endure.

The guide said, "This time the rules aren’t necessarily that difficult, everyone still needs to adjust their mindset first."

"The rules this time aren’t as terrifying as everyone imagines. They’re quite similar to before. Our task is simple: just find the ’Return Stone’ to go home."

With just these few words of rules, the guests actually felt a bit uneasy: "Just find the ’Return Stone’? Is it like the previous Golden Key, where as long as we find it, we can go back?"

The guide held the black umbrella handle in his hand and mercilessly shattered the other guests’ fantasies: "Solving your food issues isn’t that easy, so it’s good to maintain some tension and fear at the start after all."

Jamie Miller said slowly, "I think it won’t be easy. Do you all remember when we had to find the Golden Key in the second episode, we almost searched through that whole rainforest..."

The others nodded, their expressions turning not so good.

Kiki Monroe’s expression was serious: "Since the goal is to find the ’Return Stone’, is there any hint information about it?"

Justin Morgan also got excited: "Right, are there cards? We need to find cards!"

"There’s no need to find cards this time~"

With just one light statement from the guide, everyone became uneasy.

"What do you mean?" Jessica Young hesitated, "What does no cards mean? Could there be other hint methods?"

"There’s no hint method this time; it means everyone has to rely entirely on their own to find it. The program group won’t provide any clues."

Maya Monroe raised her hat slightly, revealing a pair of beautiful and brilliant eyes.

"Is your program group serious? With no hints, you’re asking us to find a stinky stone? How is this different from finding a needle in a haystack? We don’t know how to obtain it, not even if it’s an idea or a physical object! Your program group is becoming more and more ridiculous!! How did you come up with such a terrible rule!!" Justin Morgan, confused by anger, didn’t even have the time to care about Kiki Monroe’s opinion beside him.

Jamie Miller maintained his gentle demeanor, but his expression wasn’t great: "I think without any hints... it’s really hard."

Previously relying on "cards" to find the "Golden Key" almost cost them their lives, let alone now without any clue.

"The ’Return Stone’ is a physical existence," the guide lightly revealed, not caring about the crumbling emotions of the other guests.

The guide’s smile broadened: "Meanwhile, the live streaming popularity contest is closed, meaning everyone can’t get the program’s ’heart breakfast’ like before; whether it’s Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup or pickles, none of them will be available—"

With these words, the guests all became dejected.

Maya Monroe slightly lowered her head, wearing a thoughtful expression.

[Little Fatty: I originally thought the difficulty would be much reduced this time, but didn’t expect— you’ve really outdone yourselves, big survival!!]

[Onlookers Eating Melon Seeds: Frankly, I’ve never been disappointed by the program crew...]

[Earth Earth: They said they wanted to leave a good impression on the guests, I say it’s purely psychological trauma, isn’t it?]

[zzz: I’m lighting a stick of incense in advance for all the guests!]

[Did Maya slack off today: Go, Maya!!]

...

The guide took a palm-leaf fan handed over by the assistant and ignored all the resentful looks from the guests, smiling leisurely: "Unlike previous free team formations, this time we employ paired competitions. We have six guests in total, so that’s three groups."

"As for the grouping method..."

The guide smiled slowly, "Do you remember the fruit-flavored water you all were asked to bring before getting on the bus?"

All the guests’ expressions changed at once, as if they had a bad premonition.

Sure enough.

"Next, please unscrew the bottle caps again and check your group divisions."

"Are the group results on the bottle caps?" a guest asked.

The guide smiled ambiguously.

"Please check carefully."

Maya Monroe pulled out the bottle of fruit-flavored water from her backpack and unscrewed the cap.

She placed the cap on her palm and squinted slightly.

There were no words, just a red apple.