Chapter 7: Supermarket Coupons

Huan Xiao had originally intended to leave, but noticing the ghostly aura emanating from the severed limb—and the fact that there was no one around—she reasoned that it must be abandoned. It wouldn't be excessive for her to take it, would it?

[Store ghost hand?]
[Yes]

After stashing the ghost hand away, Huan Xiao picked up the performance schedule to continue reading. The next event was the beast-taming show. The venue for this performance was precisely where she was standing.

"...Hand... my hand!"

Just then, an elderly man with a severed arm approached her. He groped blindly at the ground as if he were completely sightless. Judging by the direction he came from, he was a guest who had just stepped off the pendulum ride; the sheer dedication of searching for his missing limb immediately upon arrival was truly admirable.

"Hand... it's gone?"

When he failed to find it, he suddenly went into a frenzy. His skin began to fester, his remaining limbs twisted, and the eyeballs fell from his sockets, only to be crushed underfoot as he crawled on his three limbs. His face was drenched in blood, and his entire body radiated an eerie aura. In a matter of seconds, he had transformed from a normal-looking person into a full-fledged specter.

"Abnormal guest detected. Initiate immediate removal."

Two figures wearing cat masks ran over from the distance. They bound the one-armed ghost with rope and dragged him away as if he were mere cargo.

Watching from the sidelines, Huan Xiao thought to herself: How pitiful. The old man went mad just because he couldn't find his hand. What a tragedy! However, does this mean guests here are not allowed to reveal their ghostly forms? Why is that? They are already ghosts; do they still yearn to be human?

Suddenly, a section of the roller coaster track snapped. The passengers aboard tumbled down, littering the ground. Within an instant, several pools of red blood bloomed across the floor; from a distance, they looked almost like a painting—truly beautiful!

Huan Xiao reached for her phone to take a picture, only to discover that the camera function was disabled; nothing worked except for the app "Ghost." Honestly, what use was this phone if she couldn't even take photos?

Before long, the pools of "blood" stood up of their own accord and limped back onto the roller coaster. Once they were all aboard, the coaster was seized by black ghostly energy, flying back onto the broken section of the track to resume its operation. What a way to play—repeating the exquisite sensation of death. The designer of this attraction must have had a truly healthy state of mind.

Huan Xiao observed the other rides; unsurprisingly, every one of them was a display of bloody cruelty.

The carousel appeared normal when stationary, but once guests took their seats and it started, the colorful horses seemed to come to life. They began to run, shedding a layer of skin with every movement. By the end, they transformed into bizarre creatures covered in maggots and filled with blood-stained teeth, battling the passengers riding them. Either the guest defeated the creature, or the creature devoured the guest, turning them into a new "guest."

As for the pirate ship, it featured a pirate statue that would revive once the ride started, randomly asking one of the passengers a question. It would ask three questions in total... Huan Xiao didn't know the penalty for failure, as it seemed everyone questioned already knew the answers.

What intrigued Huan Xiao most was the haunted house, which happened to be very close to where she stood. It was a tiny structure, seemingly only five square meters in size, completely shrouded in black cloth. Standing at the entrance was a figure in a black robe wearing a white mask, hunched over. Huan Xiao watched people enter, but never saw a single person come out—not even one.

Suddenly, as if sensing her gaze, the white-masked figure looked at her. The pure white mask lacked even eye holes, yet a heavy sense of being coveted and watched washed over her. In the blink of an eye, Huan Xiao’s vision went black. When she regained her senses, she found herself facing black, foul-smelling robes...

She looked up—it was the white mask!

It stood incredibly close to her. The masked face revealed no expression, yet Huan Xiao knew it had been watching her the entire time. The figure remained silent, seemingly waiting for her to speak. Seeing it stare at her motionlessly while people continued to enter the haunted house in an orderly fashion, Huan Xiao observed it without moving herself.

After a standoff of about ten minutes, the white mask moved. It reached under its black robe and handed Huan Xiao a voucher. Once she took it, it flickered back to the entrance of the haunted house.

Seeing it return, Huan Xiao let out a sigh of relief. For those ten minutes, she had thought the masked figure intended to force a sale and drag her into the house, but it seemed she had overthought it. However, the voucher in her hand was covered in nonsensical ghost-script; she couldn't decipher a single character.

[Store "Hundred Ghost Supermarket 9.9% Off Coupon"?]

The notification popping up on her phone left Huan Xiao speechless. The white mask held a side job? Were ghosts really this overworked? And what kind of discount was 9.9% off? Why not just make it 9.99%? Seeing an empty slot in her inventory, she tossed it in, thinking it might be useful later.

After a long wait, the next performance began. The beast-taming show!

The host was a woman with a scorching figure, wearing a mask painted with a red circle.

"Guests, today's beast-taming show is starting! Come and take a look, we have a wonderful beast today~"

She pulled back the red cloth covering an iron cage, revealing twelve people wearing collars. The moment she saw them, Huan Xiao knew they were veteran players. Four of them radiated ghostly auras, all of which were clearly incompatible with their physical bodies. One of them, in particular, possessed such a dense aura that it had already formed a layer of black mist around him.

The Red-Circle-Face explained the rules: this was a gambling performance. One had to wager ghost aura on the "beast" they favored; the winner would receive double the reward, while the loser would forfeit the wagered aura.

Hearing this, Huan Xiao fell into deep thought. Would they really engage in such a losing business? In terms of density, the one with the most aura was certain to win. Wouldn't that just be giving away freebies? Given the stingy nature of the amusement park, that was impossible.

Yet, most of the guests present were in a frenzy, joyfully wagering their aura on the "beast" with the most power. Without needing to see the expression under the red-circle mask, Huan Xiao knew it was grinning from ear to ear.

"Guests, time is running out. The beast-taming begins in three seconds. Don't hesitate! Counting down now—three..."

Several guests scrambled to pull a handful of aura from their own bodies and place it on the betting table, terrified of being a second too slow.

"Two..."

Those who had already placed their bets pulled even more aura from themselves to pile onto the table, which was already overflowing like a small mountain.

"One..."

A few guests who had been hesitating finally moved, placing wisps of aura onto the table.

"Time is up! Let the beast-taming begin!"

The voice behind the red-circle mask trembled with excitement. It opened the cage, but no one expected the "beast-taming" to be an eleven-against-one affair. Yes, the one with the highest aura was to fight the other eleven—a group beatdown.