You Are Not Horror Creatures

Fuck you.

Zhu Yan silently complained in his heart.

If I hadn't handed over the identity of [Hunter] to you earlier, you wouldn't be where you are today!

He glanced at Yang Zhanbai, suppressing the urge to continue complaining, and dragged his thoughts back on track.

Zhu Yan remembered that Yang Zhanbai had mentioned having a guess earlier.

He gripped the handle of the level-five dining knife tightly. The metal had already grown warm in his hand, but it gave him a sense of security.

"I did notice one thing, actually."

Zhu Yan watched as Yang Zhanbai poured half a bottle of [Universal Potion] over his head, forcing himself to think like a normal person.

"When you were speaking just now, I felt that the whole scene was off."

Zhu Yan said in a low voice, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the "children" around them who were still laughing and talking.

"But you actually only informed one NPC. One NPC affecting the entire scene—is that what you're trying to say?"

"Yes." Yang Zhanbai nodded, looking left and right, observing the queues around them.

"I suspect that this scene itself is a single entity. Grabbing a monster to show the mark just now was also to verify this guess."

Yang Zhanbai's voice was a bit hesitant. "But if that's the case, then we're in trouble."

He pointed at the queues of "children." "These things can't be killed. The attitude of that kid towards you just now also shows that this scene doesn't want to reveal too much information."

Indeed.

Zhu Yan nodded in agreement.

Just now, when he asked about the crucial point, that "child" started to change the subject or simply said it didn't know.

And what was even more terrifying was that they couldn't be killed.

Not being able to be killed meant that these things had no weaknesses.

Relying on "threats" to get information might be a dead end.

Damn it, damn it.

Zhu Yan gritted his teeth, and with a thought, activated the ability [Complain].

Could he exploit a bug?

Anyway, these things were all level-four, within the coverage range of the [Complain] ability.

If he treated the entire scene as a specific target and cursed at it directly, would these things be affected simultaneously?

Zhu Yan cleared his throat. "This block is really disgustingly awful, and this patchwork technique is pretty bad too. All the thriller creatures inside are like fucking AI corpse fragments."

"I don't even know what the point of keeping this kind of thing in the [Carnival Paradise] is. It's like an old man with loose skin taking a massive dump."

After cursing, Zhu Yan quickly looked around.

...No reaction at all.

Those "children" continued to laugh and chat as they should, without even swaying their bodies.

Yang Zhanbai's face twitched, as if he wanted to laugh.

But he held it in and considerately patted Zhu Yan's shoulder.

"Brother, I understand you," he said. "But cursing is useless. Hurry up and follow me, let's go find some clues."

Zhu Yan didn't believe it.

His words had also casually insulted the thriller creatures here for looking like AI corpse fragments, namely these "children."

[Complain] was level-five. If these "children" were level-four, they should be affected at least a little.

The current situation was not normal at all!

Zhu Yan threw caution to the wind, reached out, randomly grabbed a "child," and started to mock it.

"Your neck is really cute, topped with a pig's head."

That "child" had no reaction at all.

It just giggled at its companion, continuing its previous topic with gibberish.

[Complain] didn't work on these things!

Zhu Yan realized it instantly.

The [Universal Potion] was effective, proving that what caused them harm was indeed a level-four thriller creature, possibly the [Solace Mother].

But the level-5 [Complain] didn't work on these "children."

They were not within the judgment range of [Complain] at all and didn't belong to specific autonomous conscious entities!

These "children" were not thriller creatures at all—

They were most likely just a deceptive illusion, "avatars" or "puppets" connected to the thriller creature behind them.

Zhu Yan's expression turned solemn.

Now, their goal was clear: to find the real one among these fake things.

But, what should they do...

"Holy shit!" Yang Zhanbai cursed.

Zhu Yan's thoughts were interrupted by this sound. Just as he was about to turn his head, a splash of ice-cold potion was poured over his head.

?

"Damn this broken place, why are we possessed again?"

Yang Zhanbai grabbed his arm and pulled him away from that "child," stretching out his five fingers and waving them.

"Brother Zhu, are you okay?"

Zhu Yan sighed.

Better not tell him that he had the [Complain] ability.

Who knows, one day this testimony might match up with the police department's.

Possessed is possessed, it's fine.

"Thanks," Zhu Yan thanked him weakly. "I'm much better."

Yang Zhanbai nodded and laughed. "You're pretty good at cursing."

Then he quickly returned to the main topic, pointing at the queues around them.

"Look, these queues don't seem to have moved forward at all."

Before Zhu Yan stopped, Yang Zhanbai was leading him to move forward slowly.

They had passed five queues.

If yogurt was really being sold and these "children" were really buying it, then why were five consecutive queues completely still?

Moreover, there was really no one on the street holding a yogurt bowl.

Zhu Yan cleanly grabbed Yang Zhanbai and pointed at a shop randomly.

"Let's go into the shop and ask now," he said firmly. "I don't think we can get anything out of these kids. There's a boss in the shop, so we might as well go see if we can dig up new clues."

The illusions of this entire block were probably all controlled by the [Solace Mother].

The "child" just now said that there was order here.

Where there is order, there are loopholes.

The boss in the shop was a completely different role from the buyers on the street.

The order it followed should be different from that of the "buyers," right?

Then, could they dig up different clues from it?

"Okay." Yang Zhanbai nodded. "The boss's danger level might be higher than these kids."

"I'm a [Hunter], I can handle it, and they will respect me a bit more."

"Brother Zhu, do you want to open a bottle of potion and wait for me outside?"

Respect you.

Respect my ass.

Zhu Yan couldn't help but sigh that his previous scam was very successful. Yang Zhanbai really firmly believed that "[Hunters] have high status."

Hilarious.

The [Alpha Wolf]'s goal was to make things difficult for him, so he couldn't find the berry-flavored yogurt bowl sold by the [Solace Mother].

Therefore, the possibility of Yang Zhanbai getting effective information as a [Hunter] would be greatly discounted.

[Hunter]: The [Alpha Wolf]'s public enemy number one.

It would be a wonder if Yang Zhanbai didn't get scammed into a fool by swaggering in like that.

And Yang Zhanbai looked serious, completely unaware of what was waiting for him.

"What do you say, brother? Is it feasible?"

If Zhu Yan left Yang Zhanbai and secretly activated [Roleplay]...

Theoretically, turning into the appearance of a "boss" and then chatting with the [Solace Mother]—

This was his usual little trick, and the fastest way to fish for information.

But it wouldn't work here.

This scene was obviously interconnected. The consciousness of these puppets was linked together; they were very likely the eyes of the Solace Mother.

Just now, when Yang Zhanbai casually showed the token in his hand to a single "child," all the "children" instantly knew, and the scene ceased attacking him.

By the same logic.

If Zhu Yan activated Roleplay, he definitely wouldn't be able to hide it from the "children" scattered everywhere.

The entity behind the entire scene would know he was using Roleplay, and that the "Boss" was a fake!

It seemed this approach was a dead end.

"I'll go in with you," Zhu Yan decided to play it by ear. "Maybe I'll get some inspiration."

He was also very curious to see exactly what attitude the store's employees would have toward a Hunter.

Who knows, maybe he could glean some useful information from it.