Chapter 90
Chapter 90
Everyone outside the tent waited anxiously. Fifteen minutes later, the tent flap opened again. Ah Bu stood at the entrance and asked coldly, “Who else wants to quit?”
Peering through the entrance, Wang Hao and the others saw no sign of Tongyu inside the tent.
They exchanged bewildered looks. They hadn’t heard any announcement from the System that Tongyu had successfully cleared the instance, yet he was indeed nowhere in sight.
Ah Bu swept her gaze over the group, then turned and went back into the tent. “If no one else wants to quit, stay put inside the tent.”
Sun Yao felt her body move beyond her control, taking several steps forward.
Her eyes widened in terror, but those few steps had put all the other players behind her, so none of them could see her expression.
Ah Bu saw it, of course, but said nothing. Once Sun Yao entered, the tent flap closed again.
Only then did Tongyu step out from beside the entrance, holding the puppy in his arms. “I’ll make two trades with you. If you agree, I’ll give you the chance to clear the instance.”
Sun Yao regained control of her body. She glanced at Ah Bu, then turned to Tongyu, her voice trembling. “Let’s hear them.”
Ah Bu sat in her chair with an ugly expression. She hadn’t expected Yu Lingling to be bold enough to strike a deal with Sun Yao at a time like this.
Tongyu asked, “What did your companion tell you last night?”
Sun Yao took a deep breath. A chill ran down her spine, and she had the distinct feeling that something was watching her. “It told me that when night falls, I should climb onto its back and it would take me away.”
That was information on how to clear the instance, but Sun Yao also remembered Yu Lingling’s earlier warning – not to get too close to her companion.
Tongyu nodded. “You’re not lying.”
Sun Yao’s heart pounded. She had indeed considered withholding part of the information, but the memory of losing control of her body had frightened her so badly that she told him everything.
Tongyu’s voice remained calm. “Two trades in exchange for letting you clear the instance. First, I want that item of yours that lets you communicate with animals. Second, before you clear the instance, I want you to tell everyone else what you heard last night.”
Sun Yao’s expression darkened. “How do I know you won’t lie to me?”
“Lie to you? There’s no need.” Tongyu sounded as though he were discussing something utterly trivial. “You can choose not to believe me. You can go outside and tell the others what happened in this tent. If you do, I’ll use the only chance to clear the instance myself.”
Sun Yao clenched her teeth. After a long silence, she took out an ear-shaped item and handed it to Tongyu. “I want to leave.”
She had a feeling that if she stayed any longer, she might never be able to leave.
In truth, Sun Yao had still held something back. When Pony had told her those things, her instinctive reaction hadn’t been joy, but a sense of creeping horror.
Tongyu accepted the item and verified that it was genuine before storing it in his System Inventory. Then he stepped aside to make room. “You can quit now.”
Sun Yao stared at him in shock. She hadn’t expected it to be so simple. “You lied to me! How could this possibly be the only chance?”
Ah Bu urged her impatiently, “If all of you leave, do you expect tonight’s show to be canceled?”
Sun Yao drew a deep breath and walked over. “I want to quit.”
Ah Bu studied her closely. “You used one of the Circus’s steamed buns. You may quit, but you’ll have to leave behind flesh ten times the bun’s size.”
When Sun Yao had received the bun, she’d fed it to Pony. She mentally estimated the bun’s size. Knowing she would recover as soon as she successfully left the instance, she gritted her teeth and said, “Fine.”
Ah Bu casually tossed her a Snake Scale. “Break it, and you’ll leave immediately.”
Sun Yao hesitated, then asked, “What about everyone else? If they want to leave, will they also have to pay ten times the price?”
“Ten times?” Ah Bu scoffed. “For the next one, it’ll be a hundred times. Then a thousand times.”
The Circus wasn’t running a charity for these outsiders.
Sun Yao finally understood why Tongyu had said there was only one chance. But she remembered that Zhao Peng hadn’t eaten his bun either. No, although Zhao Peng hadn’t fed it to his parrot, he had put it away. Based on what Ah Bu had said, even if Zhao Peng took the bun back out and returned it, she would still demand a hundredfold compensation.
Most importantly, once she made it out, the third person to enter would most likely be Wang Hao or one of his people, while Zhao Peng would stay by Yu Lingling’s side.
Sun Yao figured trading one item for a chance to survive was a fair enough deal.
Her mind made up, Sun Yao pushed open the door to leave. But just as she was about to go, the Pony suddenly bit down on her clothes. Its normally glistening eyes turned red.
Fear surged through Sun Yao.
Ah Bu placed a hand on the Pony’s head. “Quiet.”
The Pony was forced to release Sun Yao’s clothes and settled down.
Sun Yao’s heart hammered as she watched the Pony vanish under Ah Bu’s touch. She blurted out, “What did you do to it?”
At her question, a hint of warmth entered Ah Bu’s gaze. “It’s asleep.”
Only then did Sun Yao breathe a sigh of relief. She pushed open the door and walked out.
Wang Hao and the others frowned as soon as they saw her. “It didn’t work?”
“She was telling the truth.” Sun Yao looked at them. “Since we were teammates, I’ll share the latest information I got with you.”
Sun Yao glanced at Yu Lingling, who was standing beside Zhao Peng. She did not know whether Tongyu had been able to leave but had chosen not to, or whether he had truly given his chance to her. But Yu Lingling cared so much about her younger brother, and the creature here was willing to help her. There had to be another way out.
“The Pony told me that when night falls, I should get on its back. It’ll take me away.”
After saying that, Sun Yao immediately crushed the Snake Scale, afraid that Wang Hao and the others might try to seize the token that would let her leave. She vanished before everyone’s eyes. Just as before, no notification of a successful clear appeared.
Wang Hao frowned. At some point, Li Na had moved to the doorway. She suddenly shoved the door open and rushed inside. Zhou Ming tried to stop her, but it was already too late.
Zhou Ming gritted his teeth. “She got off easy.”
This time, however, Li Na emerged on the verge of a breakdown. She threw herself at Yu Lingling, only for Zhao Peng to send her flying with a single kick.
Wu Bin had been about to enter as well, but the sight of Li Na stopped him in his tracks.
Wang Hao asked grimly, “What happened?”
Li Na seemed unable to hear him, utterly consumed by despair.
Wang Hao glanced at Zhou Ming. Gritting his teeth, Zhou Ming entered the tent, while Wang Hao grabbed Li Na by the collar and slapped her hard across the face twice.
“Have you come to your senses?”
Li Na did come to her senses. Then she suddenly let out several abrupt laughs. “None of us can get out. If we want to resign, we’ll have to repay everything we’ve eaten here a hundred or even a thousand times over.”
Zhou Ming emerged as well, his expression grim. He had heard Li Na’s words and gave Wang Hao a confirming nod.
Li Na stared fixedly at Yu Lingling. “Only you can leave! You didn’t eat. You didn’t eat anything!”
But Zhou Ming said, “She can’t get out either.”
The other players all turned toward him. The moment Zhou Ming heard the conditions Ah Bu had named, he had thought of Yu Lingling. He was more composed than Li Na, so he had asked about her.
“She destroyed even more Circus property.”
Wang Hao and the others immediately thought of the two tents. “Your goal from the very beginning was to get your younger brother out.”
Yu Lingling showed no trace of panic. “Isn’t there still another way?”
Naturally, she was referring to the method Sun Yao had just mentioned.
Yu Lingling’s tone remained calm. “I said from the start that we could walk out. Resigning was merely the safest and most convenient option.”
Li Na’s and Wu Bin’s expressions turned extremely ugly. Both of their animals had died the previous night.
Xu Chao, who had remained silent until now, frowned. “So when those monsters in the audience arrive tonight, we charge out, protect our animals until we reach the entrance, and have them take us away?”
Wang Hao caught the key point. “Since the monsters in the audience can get in, and our animals are monsters too, they can naturally pass through the fog and leave.”
With that thought, Wang Hao’s gaze grew even gentler as he looked at his tiger. Sensing how much Wang Hao cared about it, the tiger nuzzled his hand, its eyes filled with dependence on him.