Chapter 263: Phantom of the Trait
"Cough, cough!" The clown fake-coughed before saying, "Next up is the Q&A session."
"If you answer correctly, each visitor who purchased the same ticket will receive not only a little pink hat but also a carefully prepared gift from the amusement park."
"But if you answer incorrectly, you must accept the amusement park's punishment game."
"What punishment game?" Yan Jiayu immediately asked. "Dressing up as a clown to scare little kids?"
The clown rolled his eyes, blew up two balloons in quick succession, and popped them before saying, "So, do you want to answer the question or not?"
"No problem." Yan Jiayu clenched her fists. "When it comes to quick answers, I've never lost since I was a kid."
The clown let out a strange laugh, then waved both hands. The large mirror glowed faintly, and at the same time, all the floating mirror shards around it lit up. Many images flashed across the shards, each one taken from the time they had entered the camp of this mirror tent.
A few seconds later, three of the shards flew in front of the large mirror, transforming into three glowing pieces.
"These are your questions. You can pick any one of them to answer."
Yan Jiayu turned back to look at Xu Huo. "You want to go for it?"
Xu Huo gestured for her to go ahead. Yan Jiayu rolled up her sleeves and grabbed the middle one. Then a balloon squeezed out from the mirror, and when it burst, a strip of text formed from ribbons drifted down. The question on it read:
"In front of the mirror tent, what was the little rabbit numbered five selling, and how many did it sell today?"
Yan Jiayu stared at the question for two seconds, then dropped her sleeves and decisively turned back to Xu Huo. "I don't know. Do you?"
"Bubble machines and kites. None sold." Xu Huo gave the answer easily.
The ribbon turned into a firework and burst, showering over both their heads. The small mirror shard disappeared, and then the clown returned to the front of the large mirror, reluctantly pulling out the Q&A prizes: two differently shaped little pink hats and a plush hair clip.
Yan Jiayu took them, handed one to Xu Huo, and added, "The hair clip is a lighting tool."
Xu Huo helped pin it onto her hat, then turned to ask the clown, "If we answered incorrectly, would we have to go back to the amusement park entrance and buy new tickets?"
"How could the mirror tent be so cruel to little kids!" The clown seemed a bit displeased, waving them off while muttering, "I said the questions should be harder..."
The large mirror vanished, and the tent fell back into darkness. A plush bear walked over to lead them out, chattering, "Heading west from here is the Bear Building for the hopscotch game. But Bear goes to sleep after four in the afternoon, and if you wake him up during his nap, he'll be very unhappy, so you'd better hurry."
The two stepped out of the tent. The sky outside was growing dim. The plush bear looked up, muttered, "It's going to rain," and pulled the curtain shut.
Then, one by one, all the plush animals outside the tent burst into fireworks, disappearing from the camp. Even the shops, tents, and signs were lifted off the ground by balloons that suddenly appeared.
"The camp is moving," Yan Jiayu said. "We need to get going too."
Xu Huo nodded. This mirror tent camp was already off the main play route. After leaving here, they would have to return to the original path to reach the Bear Building. Since the plush bear had given a hint, it was best to complete this game point before four o'clock.
Taking advantage of the visual interference, the two broke away from the camp at top speed, but instead of heading straight for the Bear Building, they deliberately went in the opposite direction.
"Follow them." Several players in the camp exchanged glances and scattered to tail them.
Tang Xiao, who was trying to recruit a new player, saw this, hesitated for a moment, and then chose to follow as well.
Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu were not slow. They ran for over ten minutes before slowing down in a complex jungle area. Xu Huo kept his original direction, but Yan Jiayu veered off course, disappearing into the dense, tall plant stems and leaves.
Not counting Tang Xiao, there were four players following behind. In the blink of an eye, they found Yan Jiayu gone. The leader, a tattooed man, immediately stopped on a tree branch, alertly scanning the surroundings. The next second, he leaped backward off the tree, tossing a spherical object in his hand!
Yan Jiayu smashed the flying ball with her stone staff. Colorful bubbles burst out from it, surging all around her and expanding continuously!
"Tighten!" The tattooed man, who had jumped down, shouted back. The bubbles closed in on Yan Jiayu from all sides, lifting her whole body like a balloon and floating her in midair.
Though she was trapped, the tattooed man cautiously retreated, widening the distance.
At the same time, behind Yan Jiayu, another player holding a rope appeared. He lifted the rope's end, and it flew automatically toward the person in the air.
"Got him!" The rope-throwing player showed a delighted expression. But then a thin beam of light cut across, slicing the rope in half!
"Can you get out?" Kicking away another player who was blocking him, Xu Huo used his sword aura to force back the tattooed man and quickly returned to Yan Jiayu's side.
"No problem!" Yan Jiayu tore the bubbles apart with her bare hands, swung her stone staff, and aimed straight for the rope-throwing player's neck.
The rope-throwing player, too pained to care about his lost tool, exchanged a glance with the tattooed man. As they retreated, each threw another flying ball!
But this time, before it could burst, Xu Huo slashed through both flying balls with his sword. Yan Jiayu, who had anticipated his cutting trajectory and dodged ahead of time, grabbed a vine hanging from a branch as the balls broke, leaped in front of the rope-throwing player, and smacked him on the shoulder with her staff!
A clear sound of bone cracking rang out. The rope-throwing player tumbled away, rolling twice in the grass before quickly disappearing into the bushes!
Such swift movements made Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu exchange a glance, both realizing something at once: this player wasn't carrying a little hat.
The game rules forbade damaging the hats. Though the hats had defensive properties, once a fight started, both sides risked breaking them. The rope-throwing player's actions were completely unrestrained, clearly indicating he had no little hat on his back or front.
"Then no need to hold back." Xu Huo turned his gaze to the tattooed man.
The tattooed man glanced at Yan Jiayu, who had chased after the other player, then focused back on Xu Huo in front of him. They faced off for two seconds. He turned and ran behind a tree, shouting toward a certain direction in the woods, "Now!"
As the words fell, a thin thread flew out from behind the tree, rapidly weaving back and forth between the branches. In an instant, it crisscrossed a dozen times, spreading like a net through the forest. The tattooed man stayed on the outer edge of the thread, moving along with its direction, sticking the little hat he carried onto the line at every spot he passed!
Xu Huo retreated with the flying thread, dodging another player's attack, and pulled out a lighter.
"Click! Click! Click!"
The lighter flicked open and closed several times. A few dry trees caught fire, revealing the player hiding behind a tree controlling the thread. Xu Huo directed his zither strings to hook onto the thin line, dragging the man out from behind the tree!
Almost at the same moment, Xu Huo himself appeared beneath the tree, sweeping his sword horizontally toward the opponent's throat. But unexpectedly, the strike didn't land.
The hollow feeling of the cut made Xu Huo frown slightly. He looked up and saw that the person who should have been standing in front of him was now three meters away, and the Crimson Sword had only sliced through a human-shaped phantom!
(End of Chapter)