Chapter 87
Chapter 87
This Circus was filled with Ah Bu’s fear and hatred. Instead of calling it the Happy Circus, they might as well have called it hell on earth.
Come to think of it, the hunger and other torments Yu Lingling and the others had endured in this dungeon were simply what Ah Bu had once lived with every day.
Yu Lingling looked down at her mangled, bloody hands. So this was what being skinned felt like.
Ah Bu was curious about Yu Lingling too, but she said nothing.
Yu Lingling slowly exhaled and got to her feet in the pit. She was about to dust off her clothes, but when she remembered the state of her hands, she stopped. “So the Red Tent was formed from the collective resentment of all the animals in the Circus.”
No wonder Snack Street had been unable to identify what kind of monstrous creature the stomach belonged to. It was an amalgamation.
In that case, there had probably been some cow in there, right? So it wasn’t entirely false advertising.
Ah Bu had always been kept with the Circus animals, yet she had constantly been starved. Those animals could not have fared much better. Eating had become their deepest obsession.
The identities of the unknown horrors in the darkness were also easy to guess. They were the Circus Ringmaster and the members of the Circus who had once bought Ah Bu. The fact that players’ blood could drive them away also exposed their true nature: they bullied the weak and feared the strong.
Yu Lingling had already pieced most of this together before signing the contract with Ah Bu. Once she obtained the Music Box, the whole sequence of events in this dungeon had become perfectly clear.
Ah Bu watched Yu Lingling, feeling somewhat agitated. All her memories and experiences told her that no human could possibly be good, yet her instincts made her want to trust Yu Lingling just this once.
Yu Lingling held out a hand to Ah Bu. “Give me a hand. I’m out of strength.”
Ah Bu looked at the filthy Yu Lingling, then thought of the three pieces of White Rabbit Creamy Candy. In the end, she reached out and pulled her from the pit.
Yu Lingling did not ask for any information about the dungeon. She only asked, “Does it still hurt?”
It had never been the tent made from her skin that truly caused Ah Bu pain. It was the Music Box. She hated the people of the Circus, but the ones who had hurt her most – and whom she hated most – were the family members who had sold her.
Ah Bu did not answer. After giving the little shorty another look, she turned and walked away. But once she had put some distance between herself and Yu Lingling, she stopped.
Yu Lingling was clever. How could she fail to understand what Ah Bu meant? She started walking toward the tent where Tongyu and the others were waiting.
Ah Bu followed at a measured distance. Only after she saw Yu Lingling enter the tent did she sweep a glance over the players watching from the shadows, then turn and leave.
Tongyu could not see, but he could hear the movement and smell the thick stench of blood. His head snapped toward the entrance of the tent.
Zhao Peng and Sun Yao could see Yu Lingling’s gruesome condition. “What happened?”
Strictly speaking, injuries like these were not severe for players like them, but they looked horrifying. Not only were her clothes covered in blood and grime, but the outer layer of skin on every exposed part of her body looked as though it had been burned away, revealing the raw flesh beneath.
Yu Lingling came over and sat down beside Tongyu.
Tongyu hurriedly asked, “Where are you hurt?”
Because he could not see, he instinctively reached out to check by touch.
Before he could touch Yu Lingling, however, Zhao Peng stopped him.
Zhao Peng took some medicine from his System Inventory. “Little Fish, don’t touch your sister.”
Tongyu’s hand froze in midair.
Yu Lingling lightly tapped his hand with a fingertip. “It’s nothing serious. I just lost a layer of skin.”
Technically, that was true.
Sun Yao also took out some water and topical medicine. “Let me clean your wounds first.”
Yu Lingling could endure the pain, but since someone was willing to tend to her wounds, she had no reason to refuse. “Thank you.”
Zhao Peng handed her some medicine. “I don’t have anything specifically for this. This will restore blood and relieve pain.”
Yu Lingling took it and used the appraisal skill that came with Snack Street. Only after confirming that the medicine did exactly what Zhao Peng claimed did she swallow it.
She went through the entire process without pausing. From Zhao Peng’s perspective, she had taken the medicine and swallowed it without the slightest hesitation.
Tongyu remained silent. He was considering transferring Yu Lingling’s injuries to one of the puppets under his control, but his only puppets at present were Sun Yao and Xu Chao, and Xu Chao was nowhere to be found.
Sun Yao was an ally they were working with, so it would be inappropriate to test the ability on her.
Yu Lingling slowly exhaled. Fortunately, the blood she lost from her injuries was different from the blood she fed the kittens. It did not leave her feeling weak, nor did the kittens, Yiyi, or the other little Anomaly Dolls react to it.
Sun Yao looked at the wounds stuck to Yu Lingling’s clothes but did not try to forcibly treat them. Their injuries would heal once they left the instance, and right now, they lacked both proper medicine and tools. Insisting on treating the wounds would only make Yu Lingling’s injuries worse.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
Yu Lingling did not answer her directly. Instead, she said simply, “This instance was formed from a disreputable Circus that abused its animals. They even charged spectators money to torture them.”
Zhao Peng and the others had already suspected as much.
“I don’t think the Circus was like this in the beginning.” Yu Lingling had inferred that from the goodwill the animals had shown them when they first arrived. “Someone evil must have taken over later. If we want to clear the instance…”
Before she could finish, Yu Lingling paused and turned toward the door.
Zhao Peng had sensed it too. He looked over with a slight frown.
Sun Yao glanced back, shifted Pony farther behind her, then resumed tending to Yu Lingling’s wounds.
Wang Hao, Zhou Ming, and the others were standing in the doorway.
Yu Lingling took one look at them and couldn’t help remarking, “You people really are hard to kill.”
Still, this worked out well. Some things were simply more satisfying when she handled them herself.
Yu Lingling had not spoken loudly, but every player present had keen senses and naturally heard her.
Wang Hao and the others already looked grim. Their expressions darkened even further.
Zhao Peng noticed that Yu Lingling was finally showing her edge. Since she dared to provoke them so openly, she must have gained something new.
Compared to Zhao Peng’s group, Wang Hao and his companions were in a truly sorry state. Every one of them was injured.
Wu Bin had lost an arm, and his gorilla was gone.
Li Na stood beside Wang Hao and the others, her face deathly pale, with the pigeon hidden inside her clothes.
Xu Chao was not in good shape either. After learning that the animals could not coexist, he seized the opportunity to attack Wu Bin and separate him from the gorilla when they could not find a tent at night and were being hounded by unknown anomalies in the darkness.
Like the dwarf who had guided them through the night, the gorilla was torn into bloody pieces.
Wu Bin had tried to fight Xu Chao to the death on the spot, but Xu Chao joined forces with Wang Hao’s group.
Whatever else could be said, Xu Chao belonged to the same guild as them, while Wu Bin had already become useless. Wang Hao and Zhou Ming joined Xu Chao in attacking Wu Bin, allowing Xu Chao to seize the chance to sever his arm. When Xu Chao tried to kill him, however, Wang Hao stopped him.
It was not because Wang Hao had any mercy. They needed someone to take the punishment during the performance on the third day.