Chapter 49
Chapter 49
“Do you think the palace is the source of the problem?”
Qin Lan immediately pressed for an answer.
When he first arrived in Fairytale Town, he had felt an inexplicable sense of wrongness. He could not understand why someone had forced the story of Cinderella onto this place.
Not every fairy tale involved princes and princesses. Some paired humans with beasts… No, that sounded even stranger.
The young woman, whom they could only call Ah Hui for now, hesitated before offering her opinion.
“I don’t think so… The things in the palace are terrifying too, but they feel no different from that giant talking match.”
“The same goes for that genie. It is the same kind of thing.”
Ah Hui sighed. “Many of my memories have vanished, but I feel that something else–something far more twisted–caused all of this.”
So that was how it was.
“A blizzard blocking every road and making travelers walk in circles is commonly called a ghost maze, but it could also be a form of folded space… like a storage bracelet.”
Qin Lan thought aloud.
“Maybe this town was severed from its original space, like scooping a bowl of water out of a lake…”
“Does that mean the raw materials used to create instances might be worlds that actually existed? And that the people inside them are truly alive, or were once alive?”
Someone had taken an entire town, turned it into an instance, released several anomalies into it, and reduced the human residents to consumable materials for its “missions”…
A chill crept down Qin Lan’s back.
It carried a sense of profound, absolute evil.
“Abyss Town… Why would the hidden storyline have that name?”
Qin Lan felt that the instance notification contained a crucial clue.
But he had too little information to reach any further conclusions. His only option was to continue exploring the remaining storylines.
“Whatever happens, we’ll leave the palace for last.”
“Our next target is the genie in the lamp.”
Qin Lan nodded, then looked at Luo Yue. “Let’s go. The two of them should be safer if they stay here.”
He directed his next question to the little girl in the patched coat.
“You know where that genie is too, don’t you?”
The little girl answered truthfully. “It is in the town’s…”
…
Qin Lan surveyed his surroundings in front of an utterly ordinary house.
“This is Aladdin’s home?”
“If he has something as valuable as a magic lamp, why does he live somewhere this shabby…? Oh, right. I forgot. This genie makes wishes instead of granting them.”
Qin Lan slapped his forehead as he remembered.
He stood directly before the door. Luo Yue waited some distance behind him in case the battle began the instant he entered.
Her Talent was not suited to close combat, and her physical attributes were far inferior to Qin Lan’s. Supporting him from a distance with cursed artifacts was the most suitable role for her.
“Open up! Utility inspection!”
Qin Lan knocked and shouted at the top of his lungs.
No one answered.
“Open up! Community care package!”
He knocked again.
The house remained silent.
“Oh, so you aren’t falling for it?” Qin Lan raised an eyebrow and decided to use his ultimate move.
He cleared his throat and shouted, “Open up! Your delivery is here!”
“Leave it outside,” a shrill voice replied from within.
Qin Lan flew into a rage. “Fuck!”
“So you were in there pretending to be dead?”
He kicked the door apart with a thunderous crash.
Bang!
Splinters flew in every direction. The shattered door struck the floor and sent up a heavy cloud of dust.
The house had clearly not been cleaned in a very long time.
Qin Lan immediately spotted something in the center of the room–something golden, gleaming, and obviously a special quest item…
Uh.
What the fuck was that?
His face twisted into an expression that plainly said, “Are you fucking kidding me?”
He stood there speechless for a long time.
Luo Yue had no idea what was happening. She cautiously approached from behind Qin Lan and took a look.
Three seconds later, her cheeks flushed bright pink.
“Oh!”
“Why would something like that be in here…?”
She hurried away, shaking her head as if she could erase the image she had just seen.
Inside the house, the same shrill voice spoke again, this time from the golden object.
“What a rude fellow… I told you to leave it outside because I cannot come out.”
“I am a genie, bound by an ancient curse. Without an outsider’s help, I cannot reveal myself.”
Qin Lan stared at the object for a long time with dead eyes.
“Are you… Aladdin’s Magic Lamp? Because something doesn’t look right.”
The genie shrieked in protest.
“Nonsense!”
“I am not Aladdin’s Magic Lamp. I am Aladdin’s Magic Dong!”
“Magic Dong. Understand?”
Qin Lan studied him carefully for a long time before forcing a few words through clenched teeth.
“I can see that. You really are a magic dong…”
The golden object before Qin Lan was, in fact, a dong.
A gigantic dong.
“What a load of cock… Why did the story have to develop in this direction?” Qin Lan could barely stand to look at him.
The Magic Dong Genie let out a deep chuckle.
“Outsider, you want my approval, don’t you?”
“Let me warn you–fulfilling my wish will not be easy!”
“But first, you must release me. Otherwise, I cannot make a wish of you, and you will never leave this town.”
Qin Lan’s face darkened.
“And by releasing you, you mean…?”
He had an ominous feeling. In fact, he could already guess what infuriating demand the damned Magic Dong Genie was about to make.
“Rub it, of course! Rub it!”
“Don’t you even know that, boy?”
The Magic Dong Genie sounded enormously pleased with himself. “Grip this Magic Dong with both hands and rub it a few times. Then I will naturally spray out from inside, and after that–”
Qin Lan brought his stick down with a dark expression.
“You should hurry up and die instead.”
He had lost all interest in listening to another word.
Even if the genie had offered to grant Qin Lan a wish, Qin Lan would never accept a humiliating storyline in which rubbing something made the genie spray out.
“Ignorant mortal! What are you doing?”
The Magic Dong Genie screamed. His entire golden form began to tremble and emit dazzling rays of light.
When the golden light struck Qin Lan, it burned him violently and sent agony through his body.
“Damn, that’s bright. Why can yours glow when mine can’t?” Qin Lan cursed unhappily, then unleashed the signature technique for which he was not yet famous.
[Baton Secret Art: Three Strikes, Three Guards!]
“One strike to the legs… Shit, where are his legs?”
Qin Lan hesitated, then chose a target he believed could still force the Magic Dong Genie into a stagger.
The Magic Dong Genie’s magic balls.
Clang!
The impact left Qin Lan’s palm numb, while the Magic Dong Genie released a bloodcurdling scream.
“Ah! Where do you think you’re hitting?!”
“Despicable! Treacherous! Shameless! Filthy! Disgusting!”
“Fight me head-on if you have the guts!”
Qin Lan’s expression darkened further. “Who the fuck would fight you head-on?”
“And you have the nerve to call me shameless and filthy? With that appearance and that name, you couldn’t appear in any movie or television show without a censor blur!”
“Luo Yue! Help!”
Luo Yue said nothing. She merely summoned two burly men.
It was another familiar, righteous group beating. This time, however, the enemy’s weak point could not have been more obvious…