Chapter 6: The Flower with a Human Face

“Guest, you have violated the rules. Please pay a fine of one wisp of ghost energy.”

A patrol officer wearing a rabbit-faced mask stepped forward and held out his hand toward Huan Xiao.

Seeing this, Huan Xiao separated a wisp of ghost energy from her body and handed it over.

“Thank you for your compliance. Enjoy your visit.”

The rabbit-faced officer placed the ghost energy into a box used for storing such energy and left as if his task was complete.

Guests are not allowed to use other identities’ tickets for play; this rule was clearly stated in the tourism and sightseeing guidelines that Huan Xiao had read.

The amusement park had countless rules, and the penalty for violations was ghost energy—clearly showing their eagerness to profit.

With no one bothering her anymore, Huan Xiao decided to roam the park and see what kind of world this game, “The Uncanny,” had brought her to.

Unfortunately, she found that once inside the park, one could only leave after closing time; otherwise, she truly wanted to step outside and see what the world beyond was like.

From inside the park, she could only see a layer of black mist obscuring the outside, hiding everything from view.

After some observation, Huan Xiao realized this amusement park was trying every trick to extract ghost energy from its guests. Judging from the reviews, none were positive—it was hard to imagine so many guests still came here.

Because Huan Xiao was registered as a guest, she could see the reviews. None of the ghost players had ever won the so-called grand prize, and the probabilities weren’t even disclosed.

This made her suspect the probability of the prize wheel had been rigged…

As she walked, Huan Xiao passed by stalls selling snacks like cotton candy, ice cream, and sugar figurines. If one ignored the ghost energy emanating from them, this place was no different from any normal amusement park.

Seeing few customers buying snacks, Huan Xiao suppressed the urge to buy some for herself. She still didn’t fully understand the game; acting on whim or carelessness could cause her to trigger traps in the one place she least wanted to die.

She decided to observe quietly for now.

Thinking of the upcoming shows, Huan Xiao took out the performance schedule and resolved to watch the next one—perhaps she might even meet some veteran players of the game.

While Huan Xiao pondered how to explore the park, the other four had already learned the hidden rules from the ride descriptions.

They deliberately chose rides without guest restrictions. Despite injuries and losing one member, the remaining three had all completed the tasks without serious harm.

Now, Huan Xiao encountered them again and couldn’t help but sigh at how small this amusement park really was.

“You’re using the guest identity, huh? Didn’t expect your luck to be this good. But you definitely haven’t tried the rides—you’ll still die when the time’s up!”

The three, bored and restless, came over to Huan Xiao to assert their presence.

“Hm, I’m figuring something out. You lost one already? That’s rough.”

Huan Xiao replied kindly, as if she had forgotten their earlier attempt to gang up on her for information.

“What are you being so sarcastic about? At least we finished the tasks. You might as well wait to die. Those rides aren’t something a weak girl like you can handle. Or you can call me ‘Dad,’ and I’ll tell you the secret to clearing this place!”

“Hey, have you lost it? She hasn’t done anything and even got her teammate into trouble. You’re not interested in her just because of her face, are you?”

Seeing they were about to argue, Huan Xiao kindly interrupted, “Enough. Until the very last moment, who knows if you’ll die unexpectedly? Take care of yourselves first.”

“You’re cursing me, aren’t you? You…”

Seeing the three act foolishly and lose their temper inappropriately, Huan Xiao silently lamented her bad luck to be stuck with such oddballs—half of them seemed bent on courting death.

“Alright, since you finished your tasks, could you please stop gloating in front of me? Let’s just go our separate ways and not interfere with each other, okay?”

Seeing Huan Xiao back down, the three suddenly didn’t want to leave. Having survived countless dangers to complete their tasks, how could they not show off in front of the only one who hadn’t finished?

At that moment, a three-meter-tall clown riding a unicycle approached, holding a bouquet of flowers and handing one to everyone passing by.

When it reached Huan Xiao and the others, it bent down and gave Huan Xiao a flower.

Looking at the imposing, towering clown, Huan Xiao didn’t hesitate to accept the flower.

The clown gave her a strange smile before moving on to hand out flowers elsewhere.

Watching the clown’s retreating figure, Huan Xiao looked down at the grotesque flower with a human face at its center and fell silent…

Such a terrifying flower. Were it not for her strong psychological resilience, she might have thrown it to the ground upon seeing its appearance.

Look—the human face was still alive, and it was rather disgusting to look at.

“What is this…? Eek, it’s so scary. You, you’re not afraid?”

“Why am I not? Is it because it doesn’t recognize me?”

“This place is still too dangerous. Let’s not wander around recklessly!”

The three whispered beside Huan Xiao, then greedily looked at her.

“That flower must be a prop, right? It’s useless for you to keep it. Why not give it to us?”

“Enough talk, just snatch it!”

Seeing they were about to forcibly take it, Huan Xiao rolled her eyes in exasperation—these three really knew how to cause trouble.

“Goodbye. I’m going to find a way to clear this place. Don’t bother me.”

Huan Xiao waved to them kindly and, ignoring their stunned expressions, ran off with the flower.

She really didn’t want to talk to them. They spoke rudely and told her nothing; exchanging words with them was a waste of time.

By the time the three recovered and chased after Huan Xiao, she had already concealed herself using ghost energy.

This was something she had just learned from the laughing-crying face—she hadn’t expected to succeed on her first try.

“Beep beep!”

At that moment, her phone notified her of a message.

Opening it, Huan Xiao saw six slots on the screen and a line of text:

“Save human-faced flower?”

[Yes] [No]

Huan Xiao selected “Yes,” and the flower in her hand disappeared, replaced by an icon of the human-faced flower appearing in one of the slots.

So the game had this feature. That explained the glowing orbs that appeared out of nowhere when guests died in front of her earlier.

But what was the human-faced flower’s purpose?

Observing others holding the flower, she noticed they swallowed it whole, and their ghost energy increased by one wisp.

…So that was its function.

Looking at her own abundant ghost energy, Huan Xiao felt she didn’t need to use the flower just yet.

Suddenly, above her head came the frantic rattling of a swinging hammer, accompanied by the rush of wind. An object flew at incredible speed, striking the wall behind Huan Xiao.

The wall cracked, spiderweb-like fractures spreading across its surface.

The air turned foul with the stench of decay. Turning her head, Huan Xiao saw a severed limb.

It seemed some ghostly guest had gotten too excited on a ride and thrown their arm out.

Though she knew it wasn’t intentional, Huan Xiao was furious.

This was simply too much—throwing trash around carelessly. Falling objects from height are dangerous; even if they don’t hit people, damaging the flowers and plants was unacceptable!