Chapter 719: Chapter 719: Paradise Maze
“Is the address on the invitation here?”
From the outside, it was impossible to tell what function the intertwining building complex served; they were wrapped around each other like a person’s twisted, perverted inner psyche.
“Paradise Maze?” Yan Le’s mother almost didn’t recognize the building before her. Compared to when she had left, the Paradise Maze had undergone massive changes, resembling an infant that had been incessantly fed all sorts of horrifying things until it had grown into an alien form: “This death ga is designed to select a new ‘brain’. The Paradise Maze happens to be the ‘brain’s’ territory. It makes sense for the final address to be here.”
“Let’s not go over there just yet, we seem to be under surveillance.” Qiangwei suddenly spoke up, stealthily moving closer to Han Fei: “My assistant secretly collected F’s blood. One of the well-known players has a hidden profession as a Blood Slave, and he can identify the scent of blood. I just got a warning from him that F is also in the park. At the closest, he was only ten ters away from us.”
“I knew he would definitely co.” Han Fei did not head straight into the maze but instead looked at a costu shop next to the maze. To increase the playability of the maze, the park offered a variety of costus and props for free, allowing players to role-play various characters while exploring the maze.
Han Fei had no interest in role-playing; what truly caught his attention was a rank list displayed inside the costu shop.
Besides the top three positions, the rest of the rankings were constantly changing, and nurous nas had just appeared on the list before turning blood red and disappearing.
“Paradise Maze points leaderboard?”
In this corner of the park, nurous leaderboards hung, each with a different na. Most of them were prepared for tourists, while a small portion was designed for those who were invited to participate in the death ga.
On the leaderboard that Han Fei saw, the na at the top was Li Guo’er, with ‘one hundred points’ specially highlighted in blood red as if to make sure no one could miss it.
F was in second place with ninety-nine points; and the person in third place was nad “Han Fei,” also with ninety-nine points.
“Why is your na also on the leaderboard?” Qiangwei whispered, and Li Guo’er and Yan Le’s mother beside her also looked confused. Han Fei hadn’t even received an invitation, and all the points from his killings had clearly been credited to Li Guo’er.
“When I looked at the leaderboard before, your na wasn’t on it. Could soone be impersonating you?” Qiangwei frowned, “But only the players know your na. Could it be that, aside from F, there’s sothing else hidden among the players?”
“There’s more than one person in this world nad Han Fei.” Han Fei gazed at the leaderboard; Kuangxiao, in a sense, was another Han Fei, sharing the sa na.
The mont they slowed their pace, so tourists around began to notice them. The ghouls and monsters of the entire city converged in the park, and becoming the center of attention would an a horrendous death.
“Are you new here?” A hoarse voice ca from the costu shop, and a man in an ill-fitting park uniform erged. He was handso and tall, his uniform stretched tight against his flesh: “Don’t be nervous, I’m an employee of the park. If you need to rent costus, you can find .”
“You’d better clean the bloodstains on your clothes before coming over.” Qiangwei and Achong both slipped their hands into their pockets, ready to draw their weapons at any mont.
“Ah, this… how did you imdiately figure out that I killed the attendant?” The handso man’s face revealed an extrely sunny smile, “Actually, I’m also a ga participant, but earning enough hundred points was too difficult for , so I entered Paradise early and thought to ambush near the leaderboard, to see if I could kill the other participants.”
The man was cheerful and attractive, speaking honestly. If one didn’t listen to what he was saying, they might think him a witty and humorous person.
“Take one more step, and your head will separate from your body,” Han Fei didn’t waste a word. He didn’t want to draw too much attention and tried to keep a low profile.
“Don’t be like that. I’ve been ambushing here for a long ti and know all the changes in Paradise. If you let join your team, I’d be happy to share everything I know with you.” The man didn’t wait for Han Fei’s consent before continuing, “As you can see, this Paradise has completely broken down. All the Paradise Managers have vanished, and the staff have nearly been wiped out. But surprisingly, even without the staff’s control, the park still operates normally. Isn’t that wonderful?”
He slowly took a step forward, closing the distance between him and Han Fei, “Do you think those madn controlled by slaughter are terrifying? Compared to Paradise, they’re rely naughty children. I’ve been here a long ti, witnessing with my own eyes how those amusent devices grew into monsters and slaughter machines under the nourishnt of blood. Look at that carousel, once a visitor mounts it, they are fixed to the horse’s back. They need to dodge the rapidly spinning blades above and below, avoid random murderous traps, as well as the Evil Ghosts disguised as visitors. Only by persevering until the end can they obtain a clue.”
“A clue? What clue?”
“It’s about a box, a black box that everyone in Paradise is searching for,” the handso man spread his hands, “You really don’t know? On the night the Paradise Managers disappeared, laughter echoed through Paradise, and the park broadcast kept playing the sa ssage all night—that the core of Paradise is a black box, and all changes in Paradise are driven by the Black Box. So the first person to find the Black Box will beco the new master of Paradise.”
“You said yourself that the broadcast appeared on the night the managers disappeared, aning that it’s very likely not the managers who broadcasted it.” Achong found the handso man’s reason unconvincing.
“Whether the managers broadcasted it isn’t important anymore. What’s important is what everyone believes.” The man spread his arms, basking in the chaos and noise, “Do you hear those madn’s roars? Even if the Paradise Managers show up now, everyone would tear them to pieces. Everyone has gone insane; the city has plunged into chaos, and the madn converging here in Paradise will keep increasing until they fill up this at grinder!”
“He’s not wrong. Many tis, the truth is not important. What matters is making everyone believe it. As long as everyone believes, the lie can beco the truth,” Qiangwei’s complexion was a bit pale. She looked towards Han Fei, asking with her eyes how they should deal with this man.
“Yes! That’s the spirit!” The handso man’s voice got louder, his frenzied deanor drawing the attention of many. More and more visitors were gathering towards Han Fei’s direction.
“Quiet.” Han Fei reached out and grabbed the handso man’s neck. He was good at dealing with psychos, knowing that the more you engage with them, the more they thrive, so the best thod was to simply render them speechless, “Let’s enter the maze first.”
Locking the man’s neck, Han Fei was about to move forward when suddenly a rumbling noise ca from afar and the ground trembled beneath them.
Everyone looked towards the direction of the sound, and the Ferris wheel at the center of Paradise started to slow down. The visitors locked inside the observation cars seed to be enduring unimaginable pain, continuously slamming their heads against the glass.
“Look! Black fire!”
Several cracks opened up beneath the Ferris wheel, revealing thick blood vessels, and what was even more eerie was the burning, undying black flas on those buried flesh and blood, giving off an aura beyond hatred!
Witnessing this scene from afar, an image imdiately surfaced in Han Fei’s mind—the Black Cocoon beneath the Death Building, like a range of black mountains under Dream Transformation. It seed that Unspeakable, upon completing its final Transformation, would always leave sothing behind.
“That’s the secret under Paradise!”
Upon closer observation, the underground blood vessels still pulsed faintly, as if they hadn’t completely died.
“Could Fu Sheng have imprisoned a gravely injured Unspeakable in his own shrine? Of course, it’s also possible that he placed the shell from his own Transformation into the shrine.”
The gap between Hatred and a Large-scaled Grudge wasn’t too wide, but the gulf between an Unspeakable and Hatred was preposterously vast. Standing in the Paradise, Han Fei could sense Xu Qin’s pain and unease.
“We need to hurry.”
Black Fire, emanating from the underground colossal corpse, spread along the base of the Ferris wheel, scorching cabin after cabin. Many tourists jumped from the height, utterly desperate.
Compared to the remaining few tourists, those who had left the Ferris wheel were rather fortunate; at least their deaths were not so painful.
The tourists who didn’t manage to leave the Ferris wheel lted in the Black Fire, from flesh to Soul; they beca a part of the Ferris wheel. That Black Fire that erged from underground reshaped the Paradise using the lives and Souls of the tourists. The gondolas were drenched in blood, the supports turned to bone, and the entire Ferris wheel transford into a massive eyeball, slowly opening between the city’s ground and the night sky!
Soone whispered, but no one could hear clearly; as if the content was unspeakable, and voicing it would bring great disaster.
“What kind of Monster is that? I thought sisters-in-law were scary enough, but there are even more terrifying Monsters than them!” Little Jia was stunned into carelessness and inadvertently blurted out his private thoughts in front of Han Fei.
“It seems that the Paradise Manager really is in trouble, or else they wouldn’t have let this thing erge from underground.” Han Fei hadn’t seen Kuangxiao or the Paradise Manager. He was now more eager to find out what his final deal with Kuangxiao was and why, when Kuangxiao was released, he had to take away so of his mories?
“I’m currently at Stage Nine; just one step from mory recovery. I must find Kuangxiao quickly.” Han Fei gestured to the players while all the tourists were distracted by the Ferris wheel. They quietly split into two groups; so entered the Paradise Maze directly, while others took a detour and headed for the “Dream” children’s castle.
Both parties kept in touch with Little You and her mother’s mobile phones, paying close attention to the various changes in the Paradise.
“The address on the invitation must be a room, but there are many rooms in this maze, and each room’s doors connect to different places.” Yan Le’s mother really wanted to see the invitation, but Li Guo’er didn’t let anyone else look at it except for Han Fei. She could only keep proving her worth, hoping Han Fei and Li Guo’er would trust her.
“Are you sure this place can also be called a maze?” Achong opened his eyes wide, looking at the buildings that led underground, layer by layer. Behind each door seed to be an independent mory space. Rather than a maze, it felt more like soone’s brain, with each scene representing a Fragnt of mory they couldn’t forget.
“The Shrine World is ford based on Fu Sheng’s mories. Right now, it’s like we’re walking inside his brain, and we need to find the most crucial secret among the many scenes he’s experienced.” Han Fei left half of his thought unspoken: The Black Box that changed Fu Sheng’s fate was likely deep within the maze.
Fu Sheng believed that Black Box had the Power to change everything. Therefore, in his Shrine mory World, the Paradise Manager, Kuangxiao, F—everyone would probably fight for it.
“Counting the ti, Fu Sheng had the Black Box for over fifty years. As the chosen successor by five Paradise Managers, he must know a lot.”
Following the clues on the invitation, Han Fei and Li Guo’er pushed open the first door. It led to an ordinary classroom, and on the other side of the classroom were two doors, front and back.
There was a backpack hung near the front door, and a human head hung near the back door.
“The map on the invitation points to the back door; could it be that the criteria is horror?” Li Guo’er couldn’t discern the pattern.
“No, the path we should take seems to be the original choices of the Master of Shrine himself.” Han Fei had accompanied Fu Sheng during his high school years: the backpack at the front door represented the studious and book-loving Fu Sheng, while the human head at the back door represented Fu Sheng who suffered bullying, isolation, and eventually turned to extremism.
“This is his life’s maze. Only by not changing any choices can we reach the deepest despair and see that black box, right?”
Han Fei might have observed the surroundings a bit longer, but Little You’s mother’s phone suddenly rang. Players outside the maze called; soone was deliberately leading the tourists and driving hordes of crazed tourists towards the maze!
“Is it F playing tricks, or has Kuangxiao sensed ?”
Picking up the backpack from the front door, Han Fei stuffed the human head from the back door into it, and then, along with everyone, he pushed the classroom’s back door open.
The room connected to the back door was a bar, where a staff mber, stiff like a Puppet and dressed in a suit, cuddled the Puppet on the sofa with affectionate gestures.
Besides the staff mber was the door to the bar, but the route shown on the invitation was the bar’s glass window.
Fu Sheng seed to have witnessed his father drinking outside more than once. Using the door seed to stand for confrontation and acknowledgnt, while leaving through the window might represent disappointnt and giving up.
“Let’s go.”
Leaping out the window, they found themselves in a living room.
Upon seeing the furniture in the living room, Han Fei hesitated for a mont; it was Fu Sheng’s forr ho, a place where he too had spent an unforgettable ti.
“There are three doors in the living room, leading to the parents’ bedroom, the child’s bedroom, and the kitchen…” Li Guo’er was holding the invitation, searching for the right path, but Han Fei walked to the center of the living room, approaching the parents’ bedroom, staring at the door of that room.
“Has my wife been here?”
Below the door, soone had carved a line with a knife—”I will help you find yourself; this maze hides not only him but also you.”
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