Float

Brilliant neon lights flashed alternately, piercing through the pale, dismal light above Zhu Yan's head.

Behind the stone door was a dazzlingly decorated parade float.

The float was firmly fixed to the tracks, its body encrusted with tiny light bulbs that constantly shifted into patterns of smiling faces.

The tracks extended into the depths of a bottomless tunnel. There was no light inside, only rings of carved stone patterns that made it look like the esophagus of some giant creature.

Zhu Yan quickly scanned the float.

There were no terrifying creatures on it; it was completely empty.

The floorboards of the float looked sturdy, and there didn't seem to be any traps. It appeared he was just overreacting.

However, Zhu Yan still felt a sense of panic.

He was already used to playing the role of a terrifying creature.

Facing a BOSS directly as a player or a Hunter always made him feel like there were too many pitfalls—so many that it terrified him.

Right now, Zhu Yan had taken on the appearance of the long-dead Captain.

He had wanted to transform into the Solace Mother, but he had no idea if the Solace Mother could even move.

Zhu Yan swallowed hard and tentatively spoke to the float.

"It's me. Something happened outside. I am requesting an emergency bypass to see the Alpha Wolf!"

Please don't let this be a trap, please don't let this be a trap.

If there was another pitfall, he swore he would never try to bluff a terrifying creature as a player ever again.

On the float, the ever-changing smiling faces froze.

The dense cluster of light bulbs changed color, outlining an angry face with a downturned mouth.

"What happened?"

The nursery rhyme stopped, and a child's voice broadcasted from a speaker, carrying an old, distorted quality.

Zhu Yan was speechless.

Damn it.

It looked like a float, but it was actually a surveillance monitor.

He took a deep breath, pretending to lower his head in trembling fear.

"Something went wrong."

Zhu Yan repeated it using the Captain's tone, taking a few seconds to concoct a lie.

"The Solace Mother sent me to deliver a message. She left me a yogurt bowl, along with this hand."

"What?!" The child's voice suddenly turned shrill. "How is that possible?!"

"How did they find the Solace Mother? Why didn't she come herself?"

This must be the Alpha Wolf speaking.

Zhu Yan silently thought to himself.

This thing seemed completely ignorant of the true situation outside.

And from the sound of it, the Solace Mother was apparently capable of moving freely.

Zhu Yan quickly recalled every detail of his encounter with the Solace Mother and formulated a plan.

"She is using illusions to stall them."

Zhu Yan spoke with absolute certainty, yet maintained his trembling facade.

He was certain that the Solace Mother could not move while maintaining an illusion.

Otherwise, when he had threatened her with a knife earlier, she would have fled long ago.

"They are too strong. The doppelganger at the flower shop and the Boss have already... already..."

Zhu Yan trailed off, his entire body shaking like a leaf.

The crying faces on the float shifted, aligning perfectly to stare at Zhu Yan's face.

"Why are you still alive?"

"If they didn't break through your level, how could they know about the Boss?"

"How could they know about the Solace Mother?"

Fuck.

Zhu Yan suddenly thought of Yang Zhanbai.

What was Yang Zhanbai's signature move? Shifting the blame onto his own alternate identities!

Zhu Yan immediately copied the tactic.

"The Hunter." He controlled his voice to sound high-pitched and quivering. "The Solace Mother said that the Hunter this time is very strong, likely level five or above..."

"He might be able to conceal his presence and move freely at night."

This was the absolute truth.

"He bypassed us entirely! He went straight to the flower shop! Straight there!"

The crying faces trembled, and pairs of oval-shaped eye patterns fixed onto Zhu Yan.

Even though they were just dark, pixelated patterns, Zhu Yan felt an intense gaze upon him, and a dense layer of goosebumps erupted across his back.

He hurriedly lowered his head, mimicking the fearful posture of the Police Officers.

After a long time, the muffled child's voice sounded again.

"The Solace Mother, how did she contact you?"

"Why do you have the Hunter's right hand?"

"If the Solace Mother could chop off his right hand, why didn't she just kill him?"

Interrogation. This was a full-blown interrogation.

Zhu Yan's lie still had flaws.

However, he could explain.

"There... there is more than one Hunter!"

This was also the truth.

"Impossible!!" the child's voice shrieked in anger.

Zhu Yan maintained his shrill pitch, waiting until the trembling crying faces calmed down a bit before continuing his explanation.

"I... a Police Officer came and told me. In order to chase the players, she went further away..."

"There are three Hunters in the illusion, and all three... all three have the mark!"

"She could only kill one of them. The other two have potions and powerful abilities, and they are still holding on."

Zhu Yan deliberately raised his voice, simulating a tone of fearful breakdown.

"She told me to notify you first. She doesn't know how much longer she can hold out. If she fails, I'm afraid the Hunters will come to kill you next."

The child's voice fell silent for a long while. Zhu Yan could even hear the wind blowing through the tunnel.

This time, he waited a full minute, perhaps two, before getting a response.

"I have received this hand."

The voice said chillingly.

"You didn't lie. There is a problem with the mark on this hand. The direction of the bow and arrow is wrong; it is mirrored."

Fuck.

Fuck!

Zhu Yan was genuinely terrified.

Damn it. He made calculation errors when doing math problems, and he ignored the mirror effect when copying the Hunter's mark.

When would he ever stop making these rookie mistakes?

"Heh," the child's voice sneered. "How could such a low-level player possess this kind of duplication ability?"

"Even I had to look at it several times before I noticed!"

"A big shot from the Court of Many Acts must have intervened. Ugh, damn this law of the jungle."

Zhu Yan swallowed hard and didn't dare interject.

"It's a good thing you came. Otherwise, if the Carnival Paradise bypassed my procedures for receiving and inspecting goods and opened the stone doors directly like this, I wouldn't have had any time to react."

The child's voice said indignantly.

Zhu Yan understood.

It seemed that even BOSSes were equally restricted in this kind of instance.

"However, even if a Hunter is truly standing behind this, I am not afraid."

The child's voice gave a sticky, sickening chuckle.

"After all, the end of the line is my stomach... Heehee. No one can withstand being drenched head-to-toe in high-concentration stomach acid."

Zhu Yan stood frozen in place, feeling as if he had already been dead for a while.

He was truly out of ideas.

Pitfalls, pitfalls everywhere.

The good news: he knew there was a pitfall.

The bad news: the Alpha Wolf seemed to be a massive creature.

He used all his strength to maintain his state of extreme terror, continuing to deceive the Alpha Wolf.

"We need you," he said. "Once the Solace Mother dies, we... we will inevitably share her fate."

"Then go die."

The child's voice said maliciously.

"If you dare come over, you can die together with the Hunter!"

Zhu Yan went silent for a few seconds, deciding to take a gamble.

"M-My Lord," he said. "That is the problem. I'm afraid the Hunter..."

"The Solace Mother said that the players are looking for your head and your heart."

"It... it said there is a player whose ability allows them to see through to the truth, and he has been searching everywhere—"

A sharp, childish voice shrieked, drowning out the tail end of Zhu Yan's sentence.

"Useless trash! Get out! Get the hell out of here!!"

"Don't let them in!!"

Zhu Yan's heart shuddered from the sheer force of the scream.

Before he could even react, the parade float actually jolted as if struggling.

"Close the stone doors!" the childish voice commanded viciously. "Close them!"

Zhu Yan froze for a second. In that brief instant, a possibility rapidly flashed through his mind.

The [Alpha Wolf] didn't want the players to come in because they could see through to the truth.

This meant that the "truth" it was trying to conceal might be right inside here—

In a place that could be seen immediately upon entering.

...Could it be the parade float?