“Calm down, baby.” He Qin said, “You saved yourself and avoided the risk of losing your teammates. Compared to this possible outcome, increasing difficulty is already the lightest cost.”
Wen Zheliu let out a sigh. As they were talking, He Qin suddenly paused and squinted his eyes to look behind Wen Zheliu.
Wen Zheliu didn’t understand, so he looked back and saw Li Tianyu standing behind him. Her face flushed, and she pinched her fingers nervously. She stammered, but in the end didn’t manage to get a word out.
What’s going on here?
He asked, “Miss Li, do you have something to tell us?”
“Yes, um… yes, yes, what I have is… uh…” Li Tianyu looked embarrassed, as if a bone were stuck in her throat. Not far behind her, Chen Feiluan was talking with Lin Miao in a low voice and occasionally looking at them.
He Qin smiled politely and simply said, “Okay, you’re welcome.”
Seeing that Li Tianyu was choked up, he asked again very gentlemanly, “Is there anything else you want to say?”
Li Tianyu’s eyes wandered between Wen Zheliu and He Qin, and she instinctively felt that she should say something else. Finally, she said dryly, “Hmm… no, that’s it… Thank you, goodbye.”
Wen Zheliu: “…She just came to say thank you, I thought she wouldn’t say thank you to people with her personality.”
He Qin: “Then what else do you expect her to tell you?”
Wen Zheliu rubbed his nose. “It’s true that we saved her, but it was also for ourselves… There is nothing to be thankful for.”
“It would be great if everyone could think like you.” He Qin shrugged his shoulders, with a slight sarcasm in his tone, and said, “Soft-hearted baby.”
“F*ck you.” Wen Zheliu spat at him.
After their respective discussions, the players gathered together to exchange opinions. Wen Zheliu explained the boss’s weaknesses to them and truthfully informed them of the opinions speculated by He Qin.
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.
“In that case…” Bai Jingxing stroked his chin and began to think.
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“Just… Some novels, movies, and TV series often write about cult sacrifices and the like. If the boss is really a member of the cult, would the residents of the town have been sacrificed by him long ago…” The more he said, the uglier his expression became. His small, fair face had already turned blue at this point. “What appeared in front of us now might be ghosts who didn’t know they had been dead for a long time. They live as usual during the day and become fierce ghosts at night…”
“Stop talking!” Li Tianyu couldn’t help feeling horrified when she thought that the hotel owner and chef they had been in contact with for so long were inhuman things and hurriedly interrupted him, “Why are you scaring yourself like this?”
“Very likely.” He Qin’s expression remained unchanged, and he agreed with a relaxed smile, “A chef during the day has become a butcher at night… You must know that one person cannot present two completely different attitudes. Even if he has split personalities, it’s impossible to completely change one’s appearance in a short period of time.”
“Change?” For some reason, Li Tianyu didn’t dare refute the handsome man with an elegant demeanor in front of her, as she hesitantly said, “If it’s for the show’s effect, makeup is doable, right?”
He Qin shook his head. Wen Zheliu took over and explained to Li Tianyu: “But now that I think about it, the chef’s pupils were a normal brown, but last night, the butcher’s pupils were a bit unnaturally gray. When he opened his mouth, his tongue coating was dull, and there were purple-black bruises on it, which is really not something that can be done with makeup.”
Li Tianyu stared at him suspiciously and asked, “How did you notice this? You have been observing him?”
“No,” Wen Zheliu honestly denied, “It’s just that I usually pay more attention; it’s a personal habit.”
“In any case, we don’t need to waste too much time on this.” Bai Jingxing said, “We don’t know anything about the rules and conditions of the escape carnival, so we have to make plans for various situations.”
“Just looking at the name gives me the feeling that the whole family is going to come out.” Xie Yuan Yuan muttered.
Xi Ling said, “If the boss breaks us up, then we will try to use our communicators to meet our closest teammates and then make plans.”
“On the contrary, if the boss gathers us together and wants to catch us all in one go, then I’ll trouble everyone to disperse and escape by various means to avoid the entire army being wiped out.” Chen Feiluan said.
“If you encounter a character like the butcher blocking the way, no matter whether they are human or ghost, you must not soften your heart,” added Bai Jingxing. “If necessary, it doesn’t matter if you kill them all, no matter how real these intelligent beings are.”
Du Zijun stopped cleaning his gun, biting a cigarette, and lifting his eyes lazily. “Is it our side’s turn to speak?”
Wen Zheliu looked at He Qin, and He Qin lowered his head and glanced at him; his eyes were helpless and indulgent. “Then let me speak. The map of the escape carnival is likely to expand to surrounding towns, and the probability of the team being separated is very high. Each person needs to prepare a map, and when the time comes, you must rush here at all costs, and then go to the hotel owner.”
“Ah?” Before everyone digested the information that the map might be enlarged, the last sentence made them a little puzzled.
Bai Jingxing pushed his glasses, and a white light flashed through the lenses. He looked at He Qin inquisitively: “You mean the hotel owner?”
“I can understand that if we consider the hotel owner as a key NPC, then we really need to find him. However, this approach is not without risks.” Xi Ling analyzed this in a well-organized speech.
“But what’s the use of looking for him?” Xie Yuanyuan wondered, “If he also transforms at night, aren’t we looking for our own death?”
At this time, the door of the room was knocked on three times suddenly. The players immediately stopped talking. Wen Zheliu cleared his throat and said: “Please come in!”
No matter what you say, the hotel owner will still open the door and walk in with a tea tray: “Guest, your hot tea!”
“Thank you.” He Qin gestured politely, but Xi Ling uncharacteristically stood up from his seat and ran over to help the hotel owner carry water as if he were a real innocent little boy. Although the boss has a grumpy temper, his attitude towards children is still very gentle. He looked at Xi Ling, who was busy, and couldn’t help but sigh. The stubborn and deep wrinkles on his face softened, and he murmured softly, “As old as Sasha… how good an age.”
Many people heard his words, but none of them made a sound. Wen Zheliu asked, “Boss, where is that waiter named John?”
Speaking of John, the boss’s warm and fuzzy expression suddenly turned into an active volcano that was waiting to erupt. He spewed out a thick breath from his nose and cursed bitterly: “Damn beast, only know how to be lazy and loaf on his job all day long! Now I’m afraid he’s long gone to sleep somewhere!”
Thinking of this, he felt that he couldn’t stay here for long, so he hurriedly bid farewell to the players. Before he left, he took one last look at Xi Ling and strode angrily to find the missing waiter.
Xi Ling watched him go away and slowly closed the door tightly. The moment he turned around, he changed from the helpful and enthusiastic kid he was just now to a rigid and indifferent child with a high IQ. The speed of his changing demeanor made Wen Zheliu a little speechless.
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but remember the Zhou siblings who parted ways with him in Despair City. He wondered what had happened to them now…
When he was thinking about it, he heard Xi Ling’s undulating and flat voice: “I touched him just now, the body temperature is slightly above normal, and the heartbeat and pulse are no different. He should be a person.”
Everyone stared at his small face; their expressions were a little strange for a moment. Even Wen Zheliu laughed dryly a few times, thinking that this kid could become the captain of a big club at his age; he did have some skills.
“In that case, the danger of coming back to find the hotel owner has also been greatly reduced,” he said. “Let’s do what Brother He said. Even if the hotel owner isn’t a key NPC, we still have to come back to this town to complete the main quest.”
“The premise is that the scope of our activities has really expanded to the surrounding towns.” Bai Jingxing said, “Just in case, it’s good to go out and see where we can buy maps now.”
During the silent and long wait, everyone was not idle. They carefully studied the map they bought downstairs and found that the theory that the scope might expand wasn’t a joke. With Melios Town as the center, several main roads dispersed around it, each connecting four towns, big or small, far or near. This distribution route is simply to tell the players that they have to go to these places and take a walk around.
“What’s going on? Counter soldiers with arms, flood with an earth weir?” Chen Feiluan smiled wryly. “Could this be the reward for all our members passing the first night?”
Wen Zheliu remained silent on the surface, but felt a little tormented in his heart.
The teammates thought it was Happy Dawson, whom he and He Qin teamed up to repel, but in reality, only he and He Qin knew the specific situation. Du Zijun and Xie Yuanyuan, who knew some inside story, would not reveal what they had seen, but no matter what…
“It’s a good thing.” He Qin said casually, “Since the first night has been cleared by all members, can you show some courage and pride? Why worry about life and death? Just look at it as an ordinary and unusual game.”
“Easier said than done.” Lin Miao shook his head and said, “My family is still waiting for me to go back outside. I don’t want anything to go wrong here; once it does, there will be an eternal separation between heaven and man. This isn’t something that can be revived using coins.”
“So you see, this is where the contradiction lies.” He Qin raised his sharp brows, and a wicked smile curled up on the corner of his mouth. “You are all among the top players in Nova City. To reach this point, your mind, courage, conviction, luck, ability to seize opportunities, tactical strategies, and even your talents are all indispensable. Among them, the most easily overlooked is your own feelings for the game.”
“Whether it’s an addiction to victory or a love for fantasy worlds, even if you just like a certain plot or a certain NPC in a certain game world, this counts as the motivation that can support you to keep going. But here, you want to win among hundreds of thousands or even millions of players to reach the top of the pyramid, but you also have to tread carefully with your hands and feet bound. You not only think about how to play it well but also how to survive—Is it possible to have both fish and bear's paws? You guys are making it hard for me to do this, too.”
“If you want to pass the level alive, even to the end, isn’t it simple? Just geared up with all defense items and stocking life-saving medicine. Once you enter the world, you just need to huddle in a corner. If you can survive the maximum number of days, you can also be given a clearance evaluation by the system. Why bother to work hard, compress time, and analyze this and that? Isn’t it tiring?”
“…If you want to get something, you must give up something else.” Wen Zheliu echoed in a low voice, “This is the rule in the world.”
The players from the top clubs were all silent and couldn’t find anything to refute He Qin, but at this moment, a piercing and sharp electronic buzz suddenly passed over the town!
Everyone jumped up in an instant and rushed to the window to take a look.
Happy Dawson’s out-of-control, crazy laughter then resonated throughout the town: “Dear viewers, friends, and distinguished guests! Welcome to the special episode of the Midnight Happy Show—Escape Carnival!!”
Li Tianyu’s face turned pale, and she suddenly turned her head to look at the pendulum clock: “What?! But it’s not twelve o’clock yet!”
Rules are existing for being destroyed in this game
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It’s starting!!! I hope it goes well for them!
Thank you for the update!
Oh man happy Dawson is gonna be PISSED this round. I still hope everyone manages to survive though
I hope all of them live to the end… i really don’t want to see a character unalive just to throw in cannon fodders. Its unfair and unjust. Pleaseeeeeeeee let them all liveeee! Also thanks for the update!!!!! ❤❤❤
Ok maybe Li Tianyu isn’t deserving of death even tho her attitude is still quite annoying.
Ofc it wouldn’t start at 12 o clock sharp, it’s a night mission