Messy short brown and black hair, rather fierce facial features, slightly dark skin, a tall and strong figure—the cuffs of the chef’s uniform are rolled up, and the thick elbows are tightly stretched, revealing a piece of thick hair. Wearing a one-piece apron and carrying a meat-cutting knife in his hand—the person in front of them is almost the same as “Mr. Butcher” last night!
Everyone tensed up, and Li Tianyu was so frightened that she jumped three feet high. The chair she was sitting on rubbed against the carpet, and she retreated a few steps away. If it weren’t for the lesson she learned yesterday, she would have pulled out her gun long ago.
“You …… what are you!” Her scalp tingled, and she shouted with forced composure, only her slightly shaky voice revealing her panic at the moment.
The chef showed a puzzled look. He frowned and replied in confusion, “I’m the chef here, dear guest. Aren’t you guys the ones who wanted to see me?”
“You weren’t in the kitchen last night, so we didn’t see you.” Bai Jingxing stared at him. His arm hidden under the thick draping tablecloth has quietly touched the cold, sharp arrowhead. “Can you tell us where you went?”
The chef scratched the side of his bearded face and looked left and right with confused eyes for a while before answering, “Me? I went to help Mr. Happy Dawson. What’s the matter? Didn’t you see me?”
Everyone froze there; even He Qin subconsciously twitched his brows, showing a hint of bewilderment.
……what is this? Is this considered a confession?
All the players present seemed to be stunned by this curved ball, and they didn’t know what to say for a long time.
If the chef hesitated, lied, or simply said that he didn’t know, fell asleep, and had no memory of that time, they wouldn’t be so confused. Li Tianyu’s expression was blank, and she shouted in a strange voice: “So you know…you know what you were doing last night?!”
“I know, miss; why don’t I know? I’m not a fool.” The chef was even more puzzled. “So is there something wrong?”
Li Tianyu couldn’t catch her breath and almost fainted from suffocation right there.
Is there something wrong? How dare you ask if something is wrong?!
She was about to jump up when she heard Du Zijun say, while looking directly into the chef’s eyes, “So you admit that you are one of the murderers who killed that woman?”
“What?!” the chef yelled loudly. “I didn’t kill anyone! The Midnight Fun Show is an absolutely safe and harmless relaxing game; how could there be dead people in it!”
“Bullsh*t!” Li Tianyu screamed, “I saw you cut her with a knife, and then she was bitten to death by a monster dog. Are these all fake?! Do you think you are crazy or I am crazy!”
The chef looked at her in disbelief. Aside from his identical appearance, his expression of embarrassment was totally different from that of the savage and crazy butcher last night. If he said he had a twin brother, some people might believe it.
“Guests, that’s just the effect of the show!” He struggled to explain, feeling as if he and the group of people in front of him lived in two different worlds, “I cut her with a knife, chased her, and even let the dog bite her, all for the effect of the show; what’s wrong with that?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The chef kept rubbing his rough hands on the apron, and Lin Miao suddenly asked, “So, she’s still dead?”
“Yt, rtf’ii mbwf yjmx ab ilof, rlg; kf’gf jii ilxf atja tfgf.” Ktf mtfo rwlifv xlcvis. “Ktfgf lr cbatlcu ab wjxf j oerr jybea, jr ibcu jr fnfgsbcf offir tjqqs; atlr lr atf mtjgw bo atf Zlvcluta Ljqqs Vtbk!”
Llr rwlilcu fzqgfrrlbc, mjreji abcf, vfafgwlcfv jaalaevf, jcv raeyybgc, riffqkjixlcu, agjcmf-ilxf fsfr jii wjvf atf qijsfg’r yjmx mtlii lc j rajaf bo qbkfgifrr jyregvlas.
They couldn’t argue with him any longer. For him—and even the residents of the small town represented by him—the distorted ideas instilled in them by the Midnight Happy Show had been completely molded into their lives. Just as you can’t discuss the concept of hot and cold with someone who has been told since childhood that the sun is cold, he can only think that ice is hot and fire is cold, while ordinary people’s concept is deformed and needs to be fixed.
Watching the chef’s back gradually go away, Wen Zheliu said softly, “In the world of madmen, normal people are the real deviants.”
The Midnight Happy Show has created another very different time and space for the town, where there are new rules and new orders. To the town, players are like viruses that have entered the computer program by mistake, and all of them need to be purified and transformed.
If you want to survive, you must either adapt to the rules here or break the rules here.
[The main quest has been updated: 1. Persist until dawn from the escape carnival scene (unlimited times)]
[Main quest has been updated: 2. Solve the puzzle of Midnight Happy Show (01)]
“Escape? Persist until dawn?” Bai Jingxing frowned. “This is a night mission.”
“There is something even more tricky,” Xi Ling said with a serious expression. “You also heard what the chef said just now; he told us that everyone here is like this… What does this mean? You should be able to guess, right?”
Wen Zheliu nodded, and Chen Feiluan said: “In other words, all the natives in this town can become murderous psychopaths in the Midnight Happy Show and become the boss’s assistant. This is something they’re happy to do.”
“But the task of watching the Midnight Happy Show is already equivalent to being chased by the boss. The updated Escape Carnival… wouldn’t it be the whole town?” Bai Jingxing looked worried. “If this is the case, then it’s terrible. It’s too bad.”
“Don’t worry about it; let’s eat something first.” He Qin smiled slightly and said, “There must be a way when the car reaches the mountain, and when the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally go straight. Only when you have eaten enough can you have the strength to think.”
Mfn: There’s a solution to everything.
As he spoke, he put a piece of pie on Wen Zheliu’s plate.
“Thank you.” Wen Zheliu spoke softly.
After the meal, the players formed groups of threes and twos and began to exchange opinions and gather countermeasures.
Before entering the Uncanny Valley, they were each affiliated with their own clubs and had a deep understanding of each other. Such a way of discussing was not conducive to the team, but it was able to summarize the solution deduced with information intelligence in one piece with the fastest speed.
Wen Zheliu stood next to He Qin, and the two began to chat quickly and quietly in a familiar manner.
“I haven’t told them just now that Happy Dawson’s weakness is in the eyes and tongue; how did you figure it out?” Wen Zheliu asked.
“Under last night’s situation, the system really didn’t allow players to discover much,” said He Qin. “The boss is indeed strong in melee combat, but the most important thing is his ability to use mental manipulation. All his sense of oppression comes from his eyes and voice, which are his strengths, but could they also be his weaknesses? So I test it out.”
“You’re right; he couldn’t tell whether your words were a mere provocation or an intended threat, so he hesitated.” Wen Zheliu sighed, “It’s amazing how fast your mind is turning.”
He Qin smiled dotingly. He wanted to reach out and rub Wen Zheliu’s head, but in the end, he just put his right hand in his pocket and said, “You’re also able to think fast, but you don’t have enough experience, and you haven’t seen much, so it’s easy to be influenced.”
“Hmm… Now that I think about it, Jenny even called him the eye and tongue that hold the tail, so that’s true.”
He Qin suddenly asked: “By the way, what’s the condition of your pendant?”
Wen Zheliu took the restored silver jewelry off his neck and handed it to He Qin. He Qin glanced at it: “30 minutes of summoning, two days of cooling time…”
“What’s the matter? Is there a problem?”
He Qin shook his head with a smile and put the necklace back on for him, saying, “No problem, it’s a great item. In order to repay you, Jenny gave you the key to the first world.”
“Key?” Wen Zheliu was a little surprised. “No way, so exaggerated?”
“Then what do you think?” He Qin looked relaxed. “Do you think such a huge data life form can be accommodated in such a small pendant?”
“I thought she was a projection or something else.” Wen Zheliu didn’t know whether to be happy or worried. “I didn’t expect it to be a key.”
He Qin said, “If it was just a projection, Happy Dawson would not be afraid of her to such an extent. Not only you, but even Li Tianyu was spared. Let’s just say the pendant acted as a permission code, opening the door to the first world in the second world, allowing her to move around briefly for 30 minutes in a land that doesn’t belong to her.”
“It turned out to be like this…”
“Although I don’t know if players can travel through in reverse, even so, this is an important life-saving talisman for you, so don’t let others know.”
Wen Zheliu nodded: “Yes, I understand.”
“Then let’s sort out the information that we currently know or can deduce.” He Qin snapped his fingers and gestured for the number one, “The source of the Midnight Happy Show?”
“unknown.”
“The identity of the host?”
“We only know that his name is Happy Dawson. He is the spiritual master and leader of the town. There’s a very high possibility that he isn’t a human. Before his death…”
Wen Zheliu hesitated: “According to my speculation, this person should have engaged in the communication industry before his death. He was either engaged in pyramid schemes, politics, or a cult. Based on the ending credit scene of the first world and the atmosphere of the whole environment, I am more inclined towards a cult.”
“How so?”
“When he was talking to Jenny, he mentioned the word ‘master’ many times and asked why Jenny wanted to help a human being who has no faith like me.” Wen Zheliu said, “The master he mentioned may be the Saint Nun, an evil god that the Saint Nun also worships, or it may be someone else… But based on his words and actions, as well as his excellent and almost terrifying mental pollution, I think his professionalism in this area is impeccable.”
He Qin nodded slightly and said, “Remarkable.”
He then asked, “What is the modus operandi of the Midnight Happy Show?”
“This one should be picked by the boss at random—or the system designates unqualified players to him, let him capture them, and have fun through illogical and absurd killings. At the same time, it deepened the brainwashing of the town residents and cultivated their sense of fanaticism.”
“What is his purpose in doing this?”
Wen Zheliu hesitated for a moment: “…for the power of faith? I guess if he is a cultist, then he must need something like the power of faith?”
“The power of faith?” He Qin laughed. He looked at Wen Zheliu with great interest; his peach blossom eyes were full of light, yet not feminine, but had a more flirtatious and evil meaning embedded in them: “A mere town of a few thousand people, how much power of faith can it provide?”
“This…” Wen Zheliu frowned. “Thousands of people are not a lot.”
He Qin said, “Then what if I say that the coverage of the Midnight Happy Show channel is not only limited to one town?”
Wen Zheliu’s heart skipped a beat, and he was speechless immediately.
If it’s not just this small town, then the scope of this world will be greatly increased, and the difficulty will also increase exponentially!
“Escape Carnival…” He Qin chewed on these words, and as if he knew what Wen Zheliu was thinking, he said softly, “That’s right, baby. Because Jenny, a cheat-like helper, appeared, even if no one died on the first night, the difficulty of this world is also increasing unconsciously. This is the self-protection mechanism of the boss, and it is also the basic method used by the world to balance power.”
“But…” Wen Zheliu was stunned. “But the cooldown of this pendant lasted for two full days, and the others didn’t do anything. Doesn’t this mean that I have implicated them?!”
😬😬 Sounds like the night will be very, very long
Thank you for the update! ❤️
Baby worried about others 🥺🥺🤧🤧🤧
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