WTNL Chapter 83

Fantasy Amusement Park
Chapter 83: The Legendary Strongest Newcomer

After leaving the basement slaughterhouse, the group walked forward along the corridor.

A large door stood at the end of the dark corridor, above which a green sign faintly glowed—”Safe Exit.”

Yun Bilan lowered her head and checked the time.

There were only three minutes left until forty-five minutes.

She naturally took a step forward: “Let’s go, we better hurry up and…”

Suddenly, a slender hand reached over from the side and abruptly covered her phone screen, blocking out most of the light.

Yun Bilan froze, subconsciously turning her head to look.

The young man beside her slowly shook his head.

Her pupils suddenly shrank.

Wait…

The rule about having to leave the haunted house within forty-five minutes was told to them by that green-haired clown! If they rashly left now, it would be exactly repeating Brother Pang’s disastrous path from before—

Trusting the frog.

“Wait!” Yun Bilan’s voice changed pitch slightly as she violently grabbed Elise, who was naturally walking out. Beside them, Piqiu was firmly yanked back by Wen Jianyan: “Don’t go out!”

“Forty-five minutes is almost up; we must leave before forty-five minutes…”

Elise and Piqiu muttered.

Even though they were completely normal before seeing the exit, now they seemed to be under a nightmare’s spell. Their bodies moved uncontrollably, every ounce of muscle tense and exerting force, trying to break free from Yun Bilan and Wen Jianyan’s grasp.

Fortunately, there were two people awake; otherwise, there would really be no way to completely hold those two down.

Wen Jianyan’s slender arm wrapped around Piqiu’s neck from behind, locking him in a professional chokehold against his chest.

Piqiu struggled, using his fingers to scratch the young man’s taut arm. His eyeballs bulged due to suffocation, yet he still resolutely tried to walk outside.

Although his behavior was bizarre and paranoid, his language function seemed normal, appearing perfectly capable of normal communication:

“Why are you stopping me? Hurry up and go; we need to leave before forty-five minutes…”

“It’s fake, that’s bait!”

Yun Bilan was much fiercer than Wen Jianyan.

She grabbed Elise’s arm with one hand and slapped the other party’s face with the other, producing a crisp “Smack!”: “Wake up!”

Wen Jianyan stood in place, thoughtfully watching Piqiu struggling in his arms.

This was a good opportunity.

Earlier, when Brother Pang was bewitched by the rules, both he and Yun Bilan were trapped in the dollhouse. Not only could they not stop him, but they also couldn’t observe his state, nor could they know whether this state could be broken from the outside.

But this time was different.

These two were right beside him now, giving him an excellent opportunity for close observation.

Wen Jianyan raised his eyes, his expression solemn and anxious, deep concern hidden in his amber eyes. He said urgently in a low voice: “No matter what method we use, we have to wake them up, otherwise…”

Yun Bilan gritted her teeth: “…You’re right.”

She also didn’t want to see a repeat of what happened to Brother Pang.

“Do whatever you need to.” Yun Bilan took a deep breath and said resolutely, “It’s on me.”

The young man smiled silently: “Okay.”

In the next three minutes, Wen Jianyan and Yun Bilan tried almost every method.

Whether it was rational persuasion or direct beatings, whether it was verbal communication or pain stimulation, nothing could drag these two out of this irrational state.

Soon, the forty-five-minute time limit was up.

After the seconds returned to zero, Wen Jianyan felt the body he was holding in a death grip suddenly go limp, no longer struggling to walk towards the door.

“L-let go of me, can’t, can’t breathe—”

Piqiu said in a suffocating voice, struggling to raise his hand to pat Wen Jianyan’s arm.

Beside them, Elise also seemed to have regained her rationality: “…What’s wrong? Why is everyone standing here not moving?”

She inhaled sharply:

“It hurts so much.”

Wen Jianyan let go of his hand.

“Cough, cough, cough, cough!”

Piqiu coughed violently.

Clutching his injured throat, he glared at Wen Jianyan: “What are you doing!”

Piqiu felt pain everywhere.

His face was burning, and it felt like his stomach had taken a heavy blow. His stomach cramped; it was simply as if he had been brutally beaten up.

“Did someone hit me?” He touched his bleeding mouth, his facial features contorting slightly as he asked in confusion, bearing his teeth in pain.

As the main culprit, Wen Jianyan innocently raised his hands, signaling that he didn’t do it.

The crisis was resolved.

Yun Bilan breathed a sigh of relief and began to explain the current situation to the two people in front of her at top speed.

Wen Jianyan listened half-heartedly, sorting out the known information in his mind.

Judging from the current situation, those who believed in the wrong rules could not break free from the vicious cycle using their own logic and thinking ability, nor could they be awakened by the words and actions of others. They could only regain their rationality when “the conditions for fulfilling the wrong rule could no longer be met.” This kind of rule based on visual limitation was still okay. If it was the kind of rule based on a specific action like Brother Pang’s earlier, it would probably only be solvable by physically dragging the person out of that definitively restricted scene.

After learning what had happened, Piqiu and Elise both fell silent, a look of lingering fear flashing in their eyes.

If the two of them hadn’t been held back just now, they would probably have followed in Brother Pang’s footsteps and become hosts for parasitic frog eggs.

Recalling what had just happened, everyone couldn’t help but feel their scalps go numb.

It was truly too close.

“However, unlike the two of them, you woke up very quickly just now.” Wen Jianyan looked at Yun Bilan pointedly.

Yun Bilan froze.

It was true.

Although she had been bewildered for a moment at the beginning, Wen Jianyan merely blocking her phone was enough to snap her awake, completely different from the other two, whose stubbornness not even a team of oxen could pull back.

Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes in thought for two seconds, taking the lead to voice the conclusion he had been pondering along the way:

“So I suspect this instance is very likely based on some degree of mental pollution.”

Those with a low degree of pollution can regain their rationality with external help, while those with a high degree of pollution can only wake up when the conditions become impossible to fulfill.

“It’s probably because of this that the item you threw out was useless on Brother Pang.”

The reason it was ineffective was that this instance wasn’t just a simple “biological parasitism” but a much deeper mental pollution.

Wen Jianyan continued along this line of thought, slowly perfecting his idea:

“Guessing based on this theory, even if Brother Pang had worn gloves when he touched the emergency button, I don’t think it would have had any effect on the final outcome. Or from another perspective, if the two of us had directly touched the red emergency button, we wouldn’t have fallen into the same situation as Brother Pang—there might have been danger, but we wouldn’t have died so quickly, because we hadn’t reached that level of pollution.”

If one could be infected simply by “touching the mucus,” then the solution to this instance would be very simple. One wouldn’t even need to consider the rules; simply preventing direct contact with the outside world through various means would be enough.

However, Wen Jianyan didn’t think this instance could be solved so easily.

Its deep underlying rules were far more complex than they appeared on the surface.

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Good heavens… Has this instance only been going on for a little over an hour? Has the streamer already found the key point of mental pollution? Awesome!]

[?! Wait, this is my first time watching Fantasy Amusement Park! So the streamer’s conclusion just now was correct?]

[Yes, this is the reason for the high death rate in the early stages of Fantasy Amusement Park. It relies on mental pollution to eliminate streamers. As long as you fall into the trap and fulfill the conditions, whether you wear gloves or not, or whether you have healing and purification medicines in your backpack, it’s useless.]

[Fuck… If that’s really the case, then this instance is truly perilous! My back is getting cold.]

[Am I the only one who noticed the wording of the big shot explaining the rules just now? This is the reason for the high death rate in the “early stages”? Does that mean there are other reasons in the middle and late stages?]

[Oh my god, I seem to understand why this instance was shut down… This could completely rival an S-rank instance!]

Wen Jianyan looked at the other few people: “No matter what, let’s leave here first.”

Yun Bilan nodded:

“You’re right.”

The four of them walked through the door of the haunted house together and returned to the Thrill Zone.

The Thrill Zone was no different from before they left. Cheerful music flowed through the air, and the sweet scent of popcorn and candy could still faintly be smelled, yet it made it completely impossible for people to relax.

Everyone looked towards the entrance of the haunted house in unison.

The place where the green-haired clown had originally been sitting was already empty, leaving only a vacant table. The entrance into the haunted house was blocked off, seemingly impossible to enter again.

“It seems that if one can survive and complete the challenge, the park attraction will automatically close.”

Wen Jianyan’s eyes darkened.

No wonder.

This way, the sharing of information between streamers could be resolved. Although someone survived and completed the challenge, the attraction was closed. Even if they told other streamers their method of clearing it, this information would be meaningless to the others.

This also made time even more pressing.

If the number of streamers clearing instances increased, it meant that more and more attractions would be closed, and the number of attractions they could experience would become fewer and fewer. Yet the main quest stipulated that they needed to complete five attractions. Therefore, the batch of streamers left for last would absolutely be at the greatest disadvantage.

“What’s next? Which attraction are we going to play?”

Yun Bilan turned her head to look at Wen Jianyan.

Unknowingly, this streamer with the lowest level among them had slowly become the backbone of the entire team that could not be ignored. There seemed to always be a bizarre power about him that made people convinced from the bottom of their hearts.

Making them unable to resist asking for and even following his advice.

Wen Jianyan fell deep in thought.

Right now, the most ideal method was of course to leave the Thrill Zone, go to the gift shop to buy a clown doll, and then return here to play a new attraction. However, this would inevitably present two problems: would there be issues with the doll bought a second time, and would the attractions in the Thrill Zone close during this time, leading them to experience another long and potentially fruitless waiting period?

More importantly, the clothes worn by the staff in different zones should be different. For example, the theme of the Thrill Zone was obviously clowns, but it wouldn’t necessarily be so in other zones.

If the Thrill Zone attractions closed, having the clown doll in their hands would be useless anyway.

After a brief ponder, Wen Jianyan raised his eyes and said affirmatively:

“Let’s go, we’ll go play the themed roller coaster.”

According to the information on the receipt, there was an eighty percent chance that the clown also had problems. In that case, they could at least have some mental preparation before entering this attraction.

“But… our number of people?” Piqiu said hesitantly.

There were only four of them now, and they couldn’t get on the roller coaster. Unless that invisible fifth person was still around, they probably wouldn’t be able to enter the roller coaster attraction.

“Don’t worry.”

Wen Jianyan pointed outside the zone, where a three-person streamer team was seen approaching in this direction. He smiled:

“I don’t think there will be a problem with the number of people this time.”

“Thrill Zone.”

A streamer with an extremely beautiful face and a charming gaze frowned, a trace of hesitation flashing in her eyes: “I still feel this place is very dangerous…”

“Indeed.”

The leading man nodded: “But our goal is to find items, isn’t it? The possibility of highly rare hidden items appearing here is very high.”

“That’s right, and we also have to rendezvous with that unnamed rookie teammate. The likelihood of him being here is very high.”

Wen Ya chimed in.

She was sent into this instance by the Eternal Day Guild this time, and one of her tasks was to connect with that legendary strongest rookie and persuade the other party to join their guild.

Since the other party was only cooperating with the Eternal Day Guild for items, he would definitely take the initiative to search for the existence of items.

Therefore, the possibility of this rookie being in the Thrill Zone was not small.

Right at this moment, the sound of approaching footsteps came from not far away.

The three from the Eternal Day Guild stopped talking and turned their heads to look in the direction the sound came from.

They saw a slender young man walking in this direction. A pair of amber eyes narrowed slightly, and a smile hung on his lips: “Hi—”

“…”

Wen Ya slowly widened her eyes. She stared dead at the young man in front of her, so shocked she almost forgot to breathe.

This face.

This smile.

She would absolutely never forget it!

It was this person! In the Fukang Private Hospital instance, he had posed as an NPC named Lin Qing, not only deceiving their red faction the entire way, but he was also the black faction captain who swiped a legendary item while escaping—

That dog scammer!!!!

__