Chapter 209
Chapter 209
Shi Chen felt deeply aggrieved.
After emerging from the passage, he had found himself in a deserted amusement park.
He wandered cautiously, searching for clues while also watching for signs of the other Players.
After their cooperation in the previous world, Shi Chen believed Jian Fan’s group could be trusted as allies. He very much hoped to find the main group as soon as possible.
Yet after searching for more than half an hour, he still hadn’t seen a single person.
That wasn’t necessarily bad. He had no companions, but if he couldn’t see anyone, there was no danger either, right?
Just as Shi Chen comforted himself with that thought, the woman who looked dangerous from head to toe appeared.
Unsure whether she was friend or foe, Shi Chen didn’t move at first. He stood where he was, watching her and waiting to see what she would do.
The woman seemed to have the same idea.
They remained far apart, staring at one another across the distance.
Shi Chen was wondering whether he should extend an olive branch when the woman’s expression abruptly turned cold and she charged at him with astonishing speed.
The moment he saw her, his feet reacted before his mind did.
He turned and ran.
Don’t ask why he was the one fleeing from a woman.
One look told him she was not someone to mess with!
As Shi Chen ran, he tried to assess his predicament.
Her cold expression and suicidal rush clearly weren’t an attempt to discuss cooperation. She was probably trying to kill him. The possibility made Shi Chen run even faster.
Unfortunately, the woman was far faster than he was.
Just as she was about to catch him, Shi Chen reached the Ferris wheel. With no time to think, he yanked open a gondola door, jumped inside, and locked it decisively.
The woman had started some distance away. Despite her speed, Shi Chen’s gondola had already left the ground by the time she reached it.
She could no longer reach him.
Only then did Shi Chen breathe a sigh of relief.
The Ferris wheel slowly turned, carrying him higher and higher.
The woman stood below and watched for a long time before finally leaving. Seeing her go, Shi Chen exhaled heavily.
When the wheel completed one revolution, he didn’t get off immediately.
He had no idea where the woman was and feared she might leap out the instant he stepped down. Besides, he had discovered a convenient strategy: from the top of the Ferris wheel, he could see the entire amusement park below.
He might even spot Jian Fan and the others.
So instead of leaving, Shi Chen went around again.
He didn’t see Jian Fan’s group, but he did catch a distant glimpse of the woman. She had left the Ferris wheel area.
That meant he was safe for the time being.
Relieved, Shi Chen decided to get off when his gondola returned to the ground.
The Ferris wheel had already begun descending from its highest point when, without warning, it stopped.
There had been no sign whatsoever.
Shi Chen was dumbfounded. He noticed that the once-pristine wheel had become old and dilapidated, but he couldn’t care less. Only one question mattered now: how was he supposed to get down?
There was no one in the amusement park. When would the Ferris wheel ever start moving again?
He had thought boarding it was a brilliant choice. Now he wanted to knock himself over the head. What had possessed him to get on a Ferris wheel?
He must have been out of his mind.
Shi Chen didn’t dare keep looking outside.
He wasn’t afraid of heights, but staring down for too long inevitably made him nervous. All he could do was wrap his arms around himself and hunker down inside the gondola.
Jian Fan and the others were so clever. Surely they would solve everything, and he could ride their coattails to victory when the time came… right?
That faint hope was all Shi Chen had left to cling to.
Jian Fan’s group had already begun exploring the amusement park.
They had no idea how much suffering their actions had inflicted on Shi Chen.
They were discussing the park itself.
“The female lead’s villa bears traces of her life, so we can piece together some of the backstory. But the amusement park… what purpose could it serve? At most, it’s somewhere the female lead and male leads might go on a date. It shouldn’t be especially important,” Lin Junruo said, perplexed.
For the amusement park to stand out among so many possible locations, it had to possess some significance.
But what could an amusement park mean?
With no information to work from, they could not answer the question yet.
After leaving the greenhouse, the group followed a narrow path that soon joined a main road.
Stalls lined both sides, advertisements hanging above what appeared to be snack counters. Naturally, there were no vendors in an empty amusement park. The abandoned booths had accumulated thick layers of dust.
Beyond the food-stall street, they soon found a map with a signpost beside it.
Everyone approached.
The amusement park was enormous, and they currently occupied only one corner, fairly close to an exit. Nothing about the park map looked unusual; it was the sort found anywhere in the real world.
However–
Qin Nan’s attention shifted beside the map.
A sheet of paper had been posted there.
It resembled a public notice, so Qin Nan read it. What he saw left him stunned.
The notice had been issued by the company operating the amusement park and addressed to all its vendors. It was lengthy, but its message was simple: poor business had forced the park to close, and the vendors should seek opportunities elsewhere.
A bankrupt amusement park?
This…
If the amusement park had gone bankrupt, its abandonment made perfect sense. But what purpose did a failed amusement park serve in a romance game?
Qin Nan’s store of relevant knowledge had run dry.
He turned to Lin Junruo.
She hadn’t noticed the announcement and was still studying the map. When Qin Nan suddenly stared at her so intently, she paused and looked back at him cautiously. “What is it?”
“In a romance game, how would a bankrupt amusement park usually connect to the main plot?” Qin Nan asked.
Lin Junruo: “???”
She looked completely bewildered, while Jian Fan and Qin Weiyi had already noticed the announcement.
“An amusement park that closed due to poor business?” Jian Fan raised an eyebrow.
Only then did Lin Junruo understand Qin Nan’s question. She thought hard. “Maybe… it belongs to the female lead’s family?”
“The female lead?” Jian Fan repeated.
Lin Junruo nodded uncertainly. “If the game specifically points out that it was poorly managed, it reminds me of another game I played. That one didn’t involve an amusement park, though. It was a struggling company. The female lead was appointed during the crisis, and the main plot revolved around turning the company around while meeting all sorts of outstanding male leads.”
“But Little Princess is a psychiatrist,” Yellow Hair quickly pointed out. “She can’t be expected to run this amusement park too, can she?”
Lin Junruo shook her head. “Then I have no idea.”