The words of the little girl instantly darkened the face of the male player.
“What nonsense are you talking about? Who would believe your ghost stories?”
However, the little girl didn’t pay any attention to the player’s emotions. She simply turned around and walked away, followed by the other welcoming girls who had finished offering flowers and snacks. They all left one by one, leaving the fifty players in the center of the town square looking at each other.
At this moment, the girl who had given flowers to Mo Yang came over with an ice cream cone with three scoops of ice cream. She ignored the gaze of the others and handed the ice cream to Mo Yang.
“Big brother, this is our family’s best milk chocolate strawberry tricolor ice cream! It’s for you!”
Mo Yang looked at the delicious-looking tricolor ice cream and accepted it with a smile. Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a beautiful amber stone, placing it in the girl’s hand.
“Thank you. Here’s a token of my appreciation for you.”
The girl looked at the amber stone with a small flower inside, and she was amazed. Then, she smiled even brighter.
She looked at Mo Yang and said, “Big brother, this is really beautiful. Linlin will keep it. Oh, and big brother, let me tell you a secret. Crying is not allowed in our town. You mustn’t show a sad expression, or else misfortune will come upon you.”
Just as Linlin finished speaking, her mother’s voice could be heard from afar, calling out to her. Linlin answered and happily skipped away. Then, Mo Yang became the center of everyone’s attention.
Mo Yang: Luckily, I’m still wearing my premium protective “Human Skin Mask”.
“Hey, buddy, you’re impressive. We all received two items, but you even got an extra ice cream. Your hidden charm must be high, right?” a male player with dyed yellow hair approached him and struck up a conversation.
Mo Yang shrugged. “It’s alright, I guess. Maybe I just look good.”
Other male players: “…We’ve never seen someone with such thick skin!”
The female players couldn’t help but laugh. Mo Yang smiled back at the girls, and then he became serious.
“Ladies, I assume you all heard what Linlin said earlier, along with what we heard on the broadcast. The most important thing in this joyful town is not to show any signs of sadness. Since we all have our own strengths to enter this game, there should be no conflicts among us. If anyone makes any discoveries, feel free to share. But if you don’t want to share, that’s okay too, as long as we don’t harm each other. What do you think, ladies?”
Mo Yang’s handsome face was certainly favored by the female players. A handsome guy approaching them with a smile, discussing how to progress through the game, made all twenty-two female players in the group nod with either reserve or a smile.
It was the second time for Zhou Luoluo and the curly-haired beauty wearing black-rimmed glasses to see Yang Heigou, and she walked out very happily: “Brother Hei! Don’t worry, this is not a battle game, at least we won’t sabotage each other.”
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.
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Mo Yang looked at this curly-haired beauty, thinking that she must also have a human skin mask, but he still remembered the fiery red wavy hair.
“Indeed, a person just like a rose.”
Beauty Rose laughed, “Brother Hei is also more charming than Hua.”
Mo Yang: “…I don’t think this term is suitable for me.”
Rose shook her head. “No, no, Brother Hei is more suitable for that term than I am.”
Just as the two were about to continue their conversation, the other players had already dispersed. There was no more information to be gained here, and most of them had some confidence in themselves or in the game. They didn’t want to waste any more time here.
As the others left, Mo Yang turned to look at Wan Mei. They didn’t know how long they would have to solve puzzles here, so it would be best to find a place to stay first. Although sleeping on the streets wouldn’t be fatal, it would still have some negative impact on their mental and physical state.
At this moment, Song Kefeng, wearing a new mask came over and extended his hand. “Brother Black Cat, I’m Xiezhi.”
Mo Yang: “…”
Zhou Luoluo and Rose were one thing, but why did he have to encounter Song Kefeng, that old dog, in this game?!
“Mr. Bao!! What a coincidence!”
Song Kefeng suddenly realized that Black Cat Detective seemed much more enthusiastic without wearing a mask.
“It truly is fate. In that case, let’s stick together in this game. More people means more strength.”
Mo Yang’s mouth twitched, but in the end, he nodded in agreement. As long as he wore his mask, Song Kefeng would never discover his true identity.
Finally, Mo Yang, Wan Mei, Zhou Apu, Song Kefeng, Zhou Luoluo, and Rose formed a group of six to act together. They headed straight to the town’s inn, only to find that most of the players had chosen to stay there.
As they caught each other’s eyes, at most, they exchanged smiles.
However, the native inhabitants of the town greeted them one after another, each one more enthusiastic and joyful than the last.
“Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Please follow me. Your rooms are on the second floor.”
A standard smiling beauty waitress led Mo Yang and the others to their accommodation. However, while climbing the stairs, a player coming down from above bumped into her at high speed, causing the waitress to lose her balance and fall down the stairs.
Even with Song Kefeng’s quick reflexes and Mo Yang’s vigilance, they couldn’t catch the waitress in time. After she fell, they helped her up, and Mo Yang asked with concern: “Are you injured?”
After Mo Yang asked the waitress if she was injured, he was stunned. Contrary to his expectations, the waitress, who should have been frowning or even in tears due to the pain, was still smiling. Her smile remained unchanged, completely standard. If it weren’t for the slight trembling in her voice, he would have thought that she hadn’t fallen at all.
“It’s… it’s fine. I just need to rest for a while. You don’t have to worry. This is a happy thing, after all. I just took a little fall, and I’m completely unharmed.”
After saying these words, the waitress continued up the stairs. The expression on the face of the male player who had collided with her, just like Mo Yang and Song Kefeng, looked incredibly strange.
It wasn’t until the waitress opened the doors of the three rooms, turned around, and left that Zhou Luoluo was the first to speak in disbelief, “Oh my god, Brother Hei, Fatty, and Mr. Bao, did you see that? The woman just fell so hard, but she was still smiling! It’s simply unbelievable! At a time like this, she should be crying, not laughing, right? I can’t even call her optimistic with this.”
Mo Yang nodded, “It’s indeed not normal, but we just arrived here, and there’s a lot of information we haven’t discovered yet. Let’s keep our doubts to ourselves for now. Let’s go back to our rooms, put away our things, and then we can search for clues separately in the afternoon and share our findings in the evening.”
The others agreed with nods. Although Zhou Apu couldn’t stay with the two big shots, Hei and Bai, he felt reassured knowing that he was with the excellent captain of the Criminal Police in Beijing and the retired king of soldiers with suspected special forces background. And Zhou Luoluo was delighted to be with Rose, the curly-haired beauty.
So, Mo Yang, Wan Mei, Zhou Apu, Song Kefeng, Zhou Luoluo, and Rose were in a good mood when they checked into their rooms. It was a happy thing to meet trustworthy friends who were going through the same difficulties in this game.
After putting away their belongings, Mo Yang took Wan Mei to explore the town.
Joyful Town was a tourist town divided into three main areas. The southeastern part was the amusement area, with various amusement facilities. Although it didn’t have as many amusement park rides, it had the characteristic charm of Joyful Town.
The northeastern part was the hot spring relaxation area, with dozens of natural hot springs of different sizes. Surrounded by beautiful scenery, it was a relaxing place. The last area was the food and gift area, with the central square located there, which was where they first appeared.
Mo Yang thought for a moment and then took Wan Mei to the amusement area, while Zhou Apu and Captain Song instinctively chose the food and gift area. Zhou Luoluo and Rose, on the other hand, lamented that men didn’t know how to enjoy themselves and happily went to enjoy the hot springs. In the end, with six people and three areas, they split into pairs without any problem.
The amusement area was crowded with people. Mo Yang and Wan Mei went through all the amusement facilities from start to finish. Along the way, they even rode a tandem bicycle and thoroughly explored this area. However, apart from seeing the cheerful townspeople and players enjoying themselves, they didn’t discover anything.
Well, it wouldn’t be accurate to say they didn’t discover anything.
While sitting beside a ring-toss booth, as they were attempting to throw the rings onto the bottles, a young boy who had been happily running with a small dinosaur toy tripped and fell to the ground due to his speed. When his parents saw him fall and heard him crying, their faces turned pale.
The father immediately grabbed the boy and covered his mouth, scolding him loudly not to cry. The boy’s mother forced a stiff smile and looked at him, saying, “Chubby, have you forgotten what mommy and daddy told you before? Smile quickly, and also, Mommy will make your favorite grilled prawns for dinner. Are you happy?”
Being scared by his father and promised delicious food by his mother, the boy first suppressed his tears and then smiled, tears and snot still on his face, and said, “Mmm, I’ll eat five, not six!”
Seeing the boy stop crying, the mother’s smile finally relaxed, and she said naturally, as if echoing or emphasizing, “We’re very happy.”
Mo Yang furrowed his brows. It felt awkward, to say the least.
At that moment, he suddenly heard the booth owner say, “Sir, why are you frowning? Aren’t you happy?”
Mo Yang’s heart skipped a beat for no reason, and he immediately put on a smile, then casually aimed and threw a ring. The bamboo ring in his hand happened to land on the farthest black ceramic cat.
“No, I’m not frowning. I was just aiming. I’m very happy! Look, didn’t I successfully catch a little black cat?”
The booth owner’s smile froze for a moment upon hearing Mo Yang’s words, but he nodded and smiled, “Haha, yes, that’s right. It’s something to be happy about.”
Then, with his smile, the big boss, Wan Mei, skillfully won all the ceramic cats on the booth owner’s stall.
By the time they left, Mo Yang noticed that the booth owner’s smile was even more unpleasant than crying. Nevertheless, he still bravely said with a smile, “I’m really happy! I bought a set of ceramic dogs as prizes a long time ago, and now I can finally make use of them.”
Mo Yang: “…”
It was certain that this Joyful Town was indeed “joyful” in a rather peculiar way.
Author’s note –
Everyone: We’re all so happy. Really. Look at my fake smile.
Note: For puzzle-solving games, considering aesthetics, they can’t wear all sorts of messy masks, only realistic human-skin masks.
Do they prefer a smile without showing your teeth, or a smile while showing your teeth? 🙂 Or 😁?
Anyway, the note really makes sense! I’m kinda nervous because there’s only one layer of mask, the possibility of Song Kefeng discovering that Mo Yang is Brother Hei is a bit high now. Good luck to your friendship ah!
Thank you so much for the update! ❤️
Thank you for the chapter 💛
I’m curious, is our cold king Dr. Wan smiling or npc ignore fact that he isn’t happy?
Thank you for your translation 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
probably ignored…
I was wondering why they ditched their animal masks, but I guess that would have made it difficult to notice whether they are smiling or crying 😂
Thank you for the update!
i feel my face cramping just thinking about smiling all the time