WTNL Chapter 87

Fantasy Amusement Park
Chapter 87: Bah! Who the hell wants to play again?!

Wen Jianyan heard a thumping in his ears, a forceful and burning blood flow pounding against his eardrums.

Perhaps because he clearly knew he was breaking the rules, every part of his body involuntarily tensed up, alert to any danger that might appear next.

He walked straight toward the control room.

Along the way, nothing strange happened.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and raised his eyes to look at the paper pasted on the glass.

The paper was already slightly yellowed, with curled edges, looking like it had been there for some time. At the very top, several large, bold characters were printed, inexplicably giving a startling feeling:

[Fantasy Amusement Park Employee Rules]

The feeling of being deliberately obscured by some force, no matter how much he zoomed in just now, had disappeared. Below the title, there was a line of small text:

Welcome to joining Fantasy Amusement Park as a roller coaster operator in the Thrill Zone. The park provides high-quality benefits for employees, including but not limited to high year-end bonuses, three months of annual leave, and comprehensive personal safety insurance. For your safety within the park, please consciously observe the following rules.

1. The off-duty time for this park zone is 6:00 PM. Please do not work overtime, do not stay overnight, and leave within half an hour after the park closes.
2. During your work in the park, you must wear a doll costume or put on clown makeup. Never take off the costume or remove the makeup within the park. If someone asks you to do so, please ignore them and quickly move away.

3. This park is located in a damp area, so the appearance of frogs is normal. If you see frogs within your work area, please ignore them. As long as you strictly adhere to Rule 2, they will ignore your presence.
4. The safety measures of this attraction are well-established, and there is no possibility of equipment failure. If the roller coaster does not return to the departure station within the designated time, please do not panic. Restart the power after ten minutes, and the roller coaster will return on its own.

5. After the roller coaster returns to the terminal, if there is a shortage of passengers, please contact the cleaning staff to go beneath the roller coaster and clean up the corpses of frogs that fell to their deaths.

6. Ensure the safety of the tourists as much as possible; their survival is our ■■■■■

The last line of text was blacked out.

The corner of the rules was slightly curled up, and there seemed to be handwriting underneath.

Wen Jianyan carefully peeled off the tape sticking the paper and flipped it over.

Sure enough, there were words on the back.

[Roller Coaster Attraction Equipment Operator Emergency Handling Rules]

1. If you violate rule [1], please refer to page 5, section 2.1.2 of the Employee Rules.

2. If you violate rule [2], please refer to page 8, section 1.1.3 of the Employee Rules.

3. If, while at work, you find yourself entering a place similar to your workplace but different from it, and you cannot leave, please always remember that you are alone. No one will speak in your ear, nor will anyone call your name from behind. No one will touch your shoulder. Everything you see and hear is a hallucination! Please empty your mind as much as possible, dial the number below, and wait for rescue.

Wen Jianyan’s gaze fell on the end of the paper, where there was a phone number written with a gel pen.

He took out his phone and tentatively dialed it.

“La la la, la la la…”

A bizarre and cheerful ringtone sounded from the phone receiver, repeating endlessly, but the call remained unanswered.

A finger tapped Wen Jianyan on the shoulder: “Hey.”

Wen Jianyan reflexively wanted to turn his head, but in the split second before his muscles moved, he forcefully jerked himself straight again.

A thin layer of sweat broke out on his forehead, and his heart palpitated for a moment.

His heart thumped wildly.

He considered his vigilance to be quite high, yet with just a momentary distraction, he had almost violated a taboo.

He couldn’t wait any longer.

Wen Jianyan folded the rules and stuffed them back into his pocket, then quickly strode towards the four streamers standing not far away. The sentence from the employee rules kept repeating endlessly in his mind:

[Please always remember that you are alone. No one will speak in your ear, nor will anyone call your name from behind. No one will touch your shoulder. Everything you see and hear is a hallucination!]

Wen Ya, Piqiu, Chuanze, and Lilith stood at the entrance of the sealed tunnel, guessing the reason why they couldn’t leave.

Right at this moment, they felt something tap their shoulders, and a very familiar voice sounded in their ears: “Hey, look quickly.”

The four of them reflexively turned their heads—

Suddenly, two warm hands reached out from behind, gripping the heads of two of them in a death grip, stopping them from turning.

Wen Jianyan was panting rapidly, clearly having sprinted all the way over:

“Don’t look back!”

He said through gritted teeth.

The two people whose necks were gripped were successfully stopped.

But the problem was, he only had two hands.

The other two, who were further away from him, were not so lucky.

Piqiu and Chuanze maintained their head-turning posture, their pupils slightly dilated, their expressions calm and sluggish, as if they were looking at something pleasant. The corners of their mouths slowly pulled up, revealing a trance-like smile.

“Crack, crack…”

A bizarre sound of bones grinding echoed in the vast darkness, making one’s scalp tingle.

They seemed completely unable to hear other people’s voices anymore, and as if they were seeing something others couldn’t, the corners of their mouths curled higher and higher, their smiles growing wider—

“Crack…”

Their heads rotated bit by bit, not as if controlled by some external force, but rather as if it was their own voluntary action. Their long, pale necks gradually twisted to an angle completely beyond human limits, the arc of their head rotation gradually increasing, slowly widening to 180 degrees.

“Snap!”

Accompanied by two teeth-aching sounds of bone fracturing, their bodies instantly went limp, collapsing directly onto the ground.

—It was the exact same cause of death as the corpses on the coaster.

“…!!!”

Wen Ya’s eyes shrank tightly, staring dead at the two corpses on the ground.

Lilith’s face was deathly pale. Her normally bright lips trembled slightly, and two terrified whimpers escaped from the depths of her throat. If she wasn’t being held by Wen Jianyan, she would have almost subconsciously collapsed.

“You two, don’t look back; listen to me.”

Wen Jianyan spoke at top speed:

“The attraction hasn’t ended. The roller coaster will only stay for ten minutes before setting off again. We must quickly get back on the coaster, but you cannot look back, understand?”

Wen Ya nodded.

Lilith, with tears in her eyes, also nodded tremblingly.

Wen Jianyan’s voice was low and calm: “I counted when I came over. From here to the coaster is probably less than twenty meters. Walking backward, we’ll finish very quickly. No matter what sound you hear or what touch you feel, it is forbidden to look back!”

“Alright, I’m going to let go.”

Saying this, Wen Jianyan slowly retracted his hands.

The three of them slowly took steps together, walking backward step by step.

Only the sound of footsteps rubbing against the ground could be heard, one, two. Because they couldn’t see the road behind them, their backward footsteps sounded slow and sluggish, hesitatingly stepping back bit by bit, searching for the next even foothold.

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

Hearts pounded wildly in their ears, and adrenaline surged to the extreme. Everyone had fallen into a state of intense panic and tension. However, for some reason, no more shouts or feelings of being touched came from behind. Yet, this feeling of unending suspense was the most tormenting.

There was only dead silence.

Step, by step.

The path behind them seemed to extend endlessly into the darkness, as if they were blindfolded, walking step by step into the abyss.

Step, step, step.

“Twenty meters… why haven’t we reached it yet?”

Lilith widened her eyes in the darkness, tears uncontrollably sliding down her cheeks, her voice full of panic.

She felt her neck ache; every part of her body was shivering, and her heart was pounding as if trying to burst out of her chest. Intense panic accumulated deep within her body, and her nerves were stretched to the limit, like a string that could snap in the next second.

Twenty meters…

How could it be this long?

She felt like she had been walking for at least ten minutes!

No end, no edge, no limit, only an unstoppable retreat, retreat, and retreat.

The roar of the roller coaster’s engine came from behind.

“Ten minutes are up! The coaster is leaving!”

Lilith screamed uncontrollably.

No one answered her.

There was no sound from behind.

Like an empty cliff, with only the abyss displayed beneath their feet.

She wanted to look back, to see if she had been left here all alone, but at the last moment of turning her head, she remembered the other party’s initial warning, and forcibly stopped her action.

It was too quiet.

Too quiet.

Why was it so quiet?

Lilith felt like she was going crazy.

She panted rapidly, her chest suffocated to the point of almost exploding. Bloodshot lines popped in her eyes, and pain pooled in her neck. She clearly knew she couldn’t look back, but a voice kept screaming in her mind:

Look back!

Look back!

Look back!

Her cervical spine let out cracking sounds. Lilith felt her muscles lose control, her heavy head turning bit by bit, turning—

No, no… no no no no!

Lilith screamed in her mind, but uncontrollably turned her head bit by bit—

“La la la, la la la…”

A bizarre and cheerful nursery rhyme sounded, as if playing from a low-quality speaker, slightly distorted, echoing in the ears of the three.

Whether it was an illusion or not, the head that was just incredibly chaotic and drowsy suddenly jolted, like a bell chiming, instantly snapping one awake.

A thin layer of sweat broke out on Wen Jianyan’s forehead. On his pale face, a hint of nervous flush tainted his cheekbones, his chest heaving rapidly.

He tightly gripped the phone in his hand, the screen displaying the words [Connecting].

So this was why they had to dial the number below and wait for rescue.

[Journey Through the Jungle Themed Roller Coaster Rules] Rule Seven:

The music on the ride will not stop for no reason. If the music stops playing while the ride is moving, please contact a staff member immediately and leave the track and its surrounding area as quickly as possible.

This music playing on the roller coaster likely had the effect of reducing, or even resisting, mental pollution.

And the ringtone for this distress call was precisely this piece of music.

The reason the employee rules told the trapped person to make the call was because the trapped employee wouldn’t have a roller coaster beside them, so they had to find a means to produce this music.

Amidst the bizarre nursery rhyme, Wen Jianyan retreated step by step.

Suddenly, he felt his collar being grabbed by a cold hand, and then viciously dragged backward!

His pupils shrank slightly.

The next second, the back of his knees and legs hit a hard panel, and he pitched backward!

A bout of dizziness washed over him, and Wen Jianyan found himself tumbling into the roller coaster.

The machinery beneath him seemed to be slowly starting up. The roar of the engine mixed with the now completely normal cheerful music. The vehicle seemed to have regained power and was slowly moving forward.

“Once you’re good, come over and help!”

After dragging him in, Yun Bilan didn’t hesitate to rush forward quickly, shouting urgently.

The other two streamers were completely oblivious to this, still retreating step by step backward.

Wen Jianyan limped to his feet and, together with Yun Bilan and Elise, managed to pull the other two into the car before the roller coaster sped up!

The group collapsed in the car, panting heavily.

Wen Jianyan suddenly thought of something, struggled to prop himself up to look outside, and then his pupils shrank: “Quick quick quick, there’s a loop ahead ahhhhhhh! Hurry back to your seats! Fasten your seatbelts!”

This instance was too treacherous!!!

Ahead was a bona fide roller coaster loop!!!

The upside-down kind!

The few who hadn’t even caught their breath hastily jumped up again, dashed to empty seats, sat down at maximum speed, pulled down the safety restraints, and buckled up—

The next second, the roller coaster sped up!

“Ahhhhhhhhhh—”

A string of miserable screams was flung into the sky.

The wheels of the roller coaster rubbed against the tracks, emitting ear-piercing metallic screeches. The speed gradually slowed down, inching into the dark tunnel.

“Hiss—”

The car doors automatically opened, and the safety restraints over everyone’s shoulders also automatically rose.

A green-haired clown poked its head out from the control room and said to the streamers on the roller coaster:

“The roller coaster ride has now concluded. You can return the way you came. If you want to ride again, you can queue up once more!”

Bah! Who the fuck wants to ride again!

After confirming everything was normal, and the tunnel exit not far away was indeed the exit, the streamers finally breathed a sigh of relief. With their legs trembling, they dragged their sore, weak bodies slowly out.

The dark tunnel was left behind, and stepping into the light again gave people an involuntary illusion as if a lifetime had passed.

“Finally out…”

Wen Jianyan’s voice trembled, his legs giving out. If Yun Bilan hadn’t been quick-eyed and deft-handed to catch him, he probably would have collapsed directly onto the ground.

With a pale face, dragging his two weak legs, he forced himself to run to the side, and then vomited violently until the sky spun.

Wen Ya glanced back at the entrance with lingering fear.

The clown selling tickets earlier was gone, and a [Temporarily Closed] sign was placed on the table. Clearly, after they cleared it, this roller coaster attraction would no longer be open to other streamers.

Right at this moment, Lilith’s hoarse voice came from the side:

“Water… is there any water?”

Wen Ya froze and turned to look at her teammate.

She saw the other party scratching her fair face with her beautiful, long nails. Bizarre skin flakes fluttered down. Her lips were cracked and dry, trembling slightly, her eyes quivering, seemingly unable to focus. There was an uncomfortable, eerie feeling in her gaze:

“I’m so thirsty.”

“Scrape, scrape.”

She scratched her cheeks, red spots seeping out on her fair skin.

“Is there any water?”

Lilith swallowed hard, stuck out her tongue, and licked the cracked corners of her mouth.

“I’m so thirsty.”