Everyone’s attention quickly turned to the two players who raised their hands. Then, they were relieved to find that these two individuals appeared quite normal, unlike the previously decadent handsome uncle who had a different style.
The strategist with glasses turned to look at the two of them, and there was a hint of coldness and disdain in his tone.
“Obviously, you two are fine now, otherwise, you wouldn’t be sitting here. So, both of you, please carefully recall your emotions when you said that sentence and whether you did anything special after saying it. For example, did something happen that made you very happy?”
The male and female players started to think earnestly. Finally, the female player, wearing a smile, remembered, “Yes, yes! At that time, my favorite rose milk velvet cake was sold out when it was my turn.”
“The vendor asked if I was unhappy, and I nodded, saying that I was because it just ran out when it was my turn. But soon, the vendor smiled at me and said it was a good thing because the last limited edition custom velvet cake could be gifted to me. I instantly became happy. That cake was truly delicious!”
After hearing the female player’s account, the male player also recollected, “I had a similar situation in the hot springs area. The beautiful woman who was supposed to give me a massage had to leave due to some emergency. However, she was replaced by an even more beautiful and charming lady. So, I first said I was unhappy but then became particularly happy.”
With this revelation from the two players, everyone understood the key.
The strategist with glasses nodded and said, “So, based on this, I can deduce that you cannot say ‘I am unhappy’ in Happy Town. It’s best to avoid having any negative emotions. Otherwise, you might encounter misfortune, just like the seventeen players who were inexplicably eliminated last night. They probably didn’t even know why they were eliminated.”
“However, if you really can’t help having negative emotions or have uttered those words, the best solution is to immediately ‘overwrite’ them with something that genuinely makes you happy. That way, there should be no problem, just like what these two did. Of course, the most reliable method is to always maintain a calm state of mind and not let external things or people cause you pain, sadness, or anger. Although it’s challenging, it’s something to keep in mind.”
After summarizing, the strategist with glasses received mostly agreement from the others.
Mo Yang thought about the conversation and behavior of the child’s mother after the incident in the amusement area, and he confirmed the strategist’s method.
However, some expressed concern, “Are we supposed to be passive all the time? Who can guarantee that we will be happy twenty-four hours a day? Who hasn’t experienced any emotions? Besides, we are not just here to have fun and relax, there are important puzzles to solve. We can’t just keep delaying like this, can we?”
The strategist glanced at the player who voiced their concerns and pushed his glasses up before returning to the seats next to the sunny boy and the decadent handsome uncle.
“Of course, we can’t keep delaying. I was just summarizing the mistakes we should avoid in Happy Town. Solving puzzles and escaping is still something we should strive for. So, if anyone has any new discoveries to share, feel free to speak up. If not, or if you don’t want to share, you can leave directly. A new day has begun, and we should quickly progress with the game.”
The remaining players looked a bit strange upon hearing this. They gathered here almost entirely to hear the strategist’s summary of mistakes? Although the insights were indeed useful, they still felt a bit shortchanged.
“You called us here to share our discoveries, didn’t you?” one player with a square face directly expressed his dissatisfaction.
Then, the decadent handsome uncle chuckled, “We contributed the method to prevent you from disappearing for no reason. Isn’t that enough? It’s really greedy, tsk tsk. But what can we do? We are here to help, so let me share another discovery.”
“I found a school, a church, and a hospital in the town. These three locations are quite close to each other, almost next to each other. I think there’s something fishy about that.”
The other players responded with a confused look, seemingly not taking the discovery seriously, mainly because of the decadent handsome uncle’s tone and demeanor. Instead, Song Kefeng looked at the three individuals on the other side with some surprise, and Mo Yang also stroked his chin, sensing that there might indeed be something wrong.
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.
Fcvfg cbgwji mlgmewrajcmfr, mtegmtfr jcv tbrqlajir rtbeivc’a yf atja mibrf, gluta?
“Ktlr lr rbwfatlcu jcsbcf mbeiv rff, gluta? Qts vb sbe jii xffq ajixlcu cbcrfcrf?” atf rdejgf-ojmfv qijsfg rjlv, mifjgis ibbxlcu obg agbeyif.
Ktf vfmjvfca tjcvrbwf ecmif lcrajcais cjggbkfv tlr fsfr jcv atfc rwlifv, rjslcu, “Po sbe xffq qgbnbxlcu ilxf atlr, P wluta yfmbwf ectjqqs, sbe xcbk.”
In an instant, everyone’s astonished gaze turned to them.
The strategist with glasses couldn’t help but click his tongue, “You should be happy about that, shouldn’t you? With his stupidity, it only serves to highlight your intelligence.”
The decadent handsome uncle burst into laughter, slapping his leg, “Exactly! You saying that makes me especially happy! Ah, my dear little glasses, it’s rare for you to praise my intelligence!”
Other players: “…” These two players are ruthless. With their witty banter, the square-faced player seemed about to explode with anger. Nobody knows if he might suddenly disappear tomorrow.
Mo Yang hooked the corner of his lips and found the strategist and the decadent handsome uncle quite interesting. After finishing the last piece of sandwich, he raised his hand to signal, “Let me share a discovery too. Last night, at the entrance of the inn, I saw a crazy man singing a song that seemed suspicious to me. Maybe that’s another lead. Thanks to the insights from the handsome bespectacled guy, we should go to the church next.”
With that, Mo Yang stood up, and Rose, Zhou Api, Song Kefeng, Zhou Luoluo, and Wan Mei also stood up. The six of them formed a competitive team, and as they left, other players felt the pressure and started standing up and leaving as well, but none of them mentioned any discoveries.
“Tsk tsk, they are all selfish and self-centered fellows. These are the standards for selecting people in the Dream World. A promising young man like me is truly rare in the Dream World. I must display my style and wisdom and not let the Dream World fall into decline like this!” The decadent handsome uncle shook his head, and the sunny youth playing the game console beside him almost choked on his laughter.
Yes, yes, you are a promising young man. After being deceived and nearly drowned by your lover and childhood friend, you still smile at them without any grudges. Who could be more outstanding than you?
“Alright, don’t waste time. Let’s go to the school, hospital, church, or maybe the square. There must be clues there.” The strategist interrupted the discussions of his teammates and proceeded to announce the next task.
Meanwhile, Mo Yang’s group had already arrived at the intersection of the three areas in the town. Strangely enough, the locations of the hospital, school, and church were right in the center of the town, with the nearby square slightly to the east. This suggested that these three places were undoubtedly crucial.
However, as Song Kefeng and Zhou Api had mentioned, these three buildings were off-limits to outsiders.
The six of them could only circle around the periphery of these three places, and finally, a few of them sat on the benches in the square while eating pancakes and discussing.
“Is it already half past twelve? We’ve been circling around these three buildings for almost two hours?” Zhou Luoluo looked at her watch, surprised. “The school, hospital, and church are larger than I expected.”
Zhou Api nodded in agreement, “They don’t look that big from the entrance, but it was quite tiring to walk around them.”
After speaking, both of them turned to Mo Yang and Song Kefeng, waiting for their opinions, only to find that the expressions of these two were somewhat peculiar, as if they were contemplating something.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I just feel that these three places are somewhat vast.” Mo Yang shook his head. “It seems like there’s something not quite harmonious about them.”
Song Kefeng nodded, “The positions and orientations are quite unusual, unlike regular schools, hospitals, or churches.”
At that moment, Rose, who had been eating a flower cake, suddenly stopped and saw that Mo Yang had a map of the town, which he had gotten from somewhere. She pointed to the three buildings in the middle of the map with her red nail-polished fingertip, “It’s like a triangle. From an aesthetic point of view, this design is not very pleasing.”
Mo Yang was about to tease Rose about her sense of aesthetics when Wan Mei suddenly stretched out his hand, holding a pen he had gotten from somewhere, and drew an isosceles triangle along the edges of the three buildings on the map, then drew a circle in the center of the triangle.
Seeing the circle in the middle of the triangle, Mo Yang suddenly exclaimed, “Could there be something else in the middle of these three buildings?”
Wan Mei smiled after hearing that, “Otherwise, why would these three buildings be built together, surrounded by similar protective barriers? I’ve just done some research. The school, hospital, and church were all built about five years ago. So, we might find something by investigating what happened five years ago.”
Mo Yang praised his great demon lord with shining eyes, “Exactly! You’re like a living cheat. With you around, we can skip many steps and get to the results straight away.”
Wan Mei responded to the compliment with a mysterious smile.
However, the next moment, a scream came from not far away, and everyone turned to see a large fireball moving. No, it wasn’t a moving fireball, it was a man engulfed in flames. Behind him was a woman crying and shouting continuously.
“Ah, ah, ah! Someone help! Help! Charles, Charles is going to die! He’s burning to death! Please, someone help him!”
The residents around the square, who sold souvenirs and food, looked dumbfoundedly at the burning man. After a while, someone finally screamed and rushed to their small shops to get water to help the man.
Mo Yang and Wan Mei hurried over to help put out the fire. However, even with everyone’s efforts, the man named Charles remained motionless on the ground. His body and face were completely burned, and his true appearance was indiscernible.
The woman who had been chasing after Charles saw her husband in such a dreadful state and let out a heart-rending scream before fainting. Leaving everyone standing there not knowing what to do.
“Go find the mayor!”
“No, we can’t! The mayor is still at the hospital! Let’s find Father Zach!”
“Oh my God, this is really…”
“Shut up! Don’t speak nonsense! This can only be said to be Charles’s time to go to heaven. We should feel happy for him.”
“Heh, heh heh. Yes, we should be happy for him…”
“Yes, yes. I’ll burn the best thing from our home for him, to comfort him.”
“That’s right, I’ll burn the finest craft from our shop for him.”
The onlookers of the town forced smiles and spoke comforting words. Suddenly, a discordant voice murmured softly, “Could this be retribution?”
The atmosphere froze abruptly.
The town’s residents seemed to be forcibly reminded of something extremely unpleasant. Their faces turned pale and ugly one by one.
“What nonsense?!”
“Who said that! Who is speaking nonsense?”
“Father Zach said our town is the happiest and most harmonious. Everyone receives blessings, how could there be retribution!!”
At this moment, the youth who had gone to call Father Zach rushed over with the priest. Mo Yang noticed that the priest’s face showed shock for a moment when he saw Charles’s disfigured appearance, but it quickly turned into a realization. He first comforted the anxious residents before having someone take Charles and his unconscious wife away.
However, the moment Charles’s wife was touched by someone else, she suddenly opened her eyes, her eyes filled with extreme terror. Her face, however, wore a stiff, pale smile as she said, “I saw Goris. She gently touched Charles, and then he caught fire!”
“Goris also said that after Charles, it will be my turn.”
Everyone was shocked.
Father Zach wanted to say something to console her, but Charles’s wife finally broke down, covering her head with both hands and shouting, “Why are you treating me like this?! Goris!! Goris!!! I didn’t do anything back then, why are you so unreasonable? I just stood by and watched!!!”
“If I’m guilty! Goris!! Then everyone in this town is guilty too! You’re so powerful, why don’t you just burn everyone to death!!”
“Well, no one is happy, and everyone wants to die!!”
As Nina, who had collapsed, shouted the last sentence, the facial expressions of everyone around the town turned to fear. Some even couldn’t control themselves and slapped Nina hard, but it was futile. Everyone heard the bell ringing across the square and the system prompt sound that echoed throughout the town.
[Nina’s breakdown revealed the hypocritical truth. The door of revenge is completely opened. Players, please be careful and strive in the game. Goris has begun to act.]
Mo Yang: “…”
On the second day of the game, they had just found two suspicious clues and hadn’t had a chance to solve the puzzles yet, and the big slaughter was about to start.
“I’m really fucking happy.”
Imagine smiling all day every day. That must be horrible… and really hurt in the face.
Also, I noticed that many chapters have the names of various characters confused, or written names incorrectly. Even just skimming through, these errors are easy to find, so I hope this can be corrected, as it shouldn’t take up too much time.
Anyway, thank you for your efforts in translating this story and thereby making it available for us non-Chinese folks. I really appreciate it. 🙂
+1 hopefully, the names will be fixed, it gets kinda confusing sometimes (speaking from someone who reads different danmeis everyday)
Sorry for making errors with the names, I will try to fix them. It’s just that I don’t have a proofreader and I’m currently translating 3 different novels, so sometimes I don’t notice when I have character’s names misspelled as there are so many characters I need to keep track of. Also, the main characters of this novel have their actual names: Mo Yang and Wan Mei. And their game names: Yang Heigou and Mei BaiWan. And sometimes they call each other with shortened versions of their names or pet names, like how ml calls mc Ah Quan. And how mc calls ml Bai Wan.
It’s fine, I think it’s enough to first translate the whole thing and then look it over when you are done with it, or have some free time on your hands to look the chapters over in batches. You’re already doing so well, so there’s no need to feel bad about it.
Also, how did the nickname Ah Quan come about? Is it like a reference to something Chinese, or can the meaning of the Chinese character explain it?
Oh wow, it’s really cruel death!!
Thank you for your translation 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
Thank you for translating 💛
Goris ah, why in a rush? I think it’s gonna be fun though!
Ahaha I did not think the table would overturn!