Chapter 251
Chapter 251
Something suddenly exploded inside the fish tank.
The blast sent the water surging.
Wave after wave traveled downward, but to Fang Kang, it all happened in the blink of an eye. He could only watch as the Golden Ball, which had been right in front of him, was swept away by the current and vanished to parts unknown.
Fang Kang: “…”
Fang Kang was so furious he wanted to curse.
He tried to chase after the Golden Ball, but the water was churning too violently. A wave slammed into him, and he lost all control of his body. Tossed up and down by the water, he was swept off to who knew where.
It took several minutes for the water in the fish tank to gradually calm down. Fang Kang wiped away a tear of bitterness.
What else could he do? He could only resume his journey to find the Golden Ball.
Meanwhile, Lu Jing had already returned to Qin Weiyi’s side.
Halfway back, the basket that might or might not have been a bomb exploded.
Fortunately, the blast wasn’t very powerful.
Whether it had always been weak or the water had suppressed it, the explosion only disturbed the water in the fish tank. It didn’t even shatter the tank itself.
This undoubtedly proved Jian Fan and Qin Nan’s theory correct.
Keeping warm was not the key to Zhou Jingying’s survival. The basket was the thing that would take her life.
Now that it had exploded inside the fish tank, it naturally could no longer hurt Zhou Jingying. Which meant Zhou Jingying…
Lu Jing looked at Zhou Jingying expectantly.
The instant the explosion occurred, Zhou Jingying felt a jolt run through her body and mind. She vaguely sensed that whatever had been binding her was gradually fading away. She didn’t know what it was, but once the water in the fish tank settled, the System’s voice rang out in her mind again.
“Ding! Congratulations, Player, on completing your task. Player has now shed the character identity and may play the game freely.”
“Ding! Task complete. Player has received one task gift and one Fragmented Story Page.”
Zhou Jingying turned over her palm, and a torn page appeared out of thin air.
Everyone immediately looked over.
“You completed your task?” Yellow Hair asked excitedly.
Zhou Jingying nodded, then took the initiative to hand the Fragmented Story Page to Jian Fan.
At that moment, she finally believed what Yang Zhen had told her.
Jian Fan was clearly a Big Shot. She had only survived thanks to him. Of course, Qin Nan deserved some of the credit as well, but the two were obviously on the same side. Zhou Jingying therefore did not hesitate to share the clue she had received.
Jian Fan was somewhat surprised as he looked at the Fragmented Story Page she held out to him.
He hadn’t expected Zhou Jingying to be this kind of person.
Still, he had no reason to refuse.
Jian Fan accepted the Fragmented Story Page.
While he studied it, Zhou Jingying explained her current situation. “The task is complete. Not only that, but the System told me I’ve shed my character identity and can now play the game freely.”
Jian Fan’s gaze paused briefly.
It wasn’t entirely unexpected.
Zhou Jingying had completed The Little Match Girl’s task. From this point on, the plot would no longer affect her. She was no longer a character from any fairy tale.
She was simply Zhou Jingying.
“In other words, once we complete our tasks, we can break free of our characters,” Mu Xin said before giving a derisive laugh. “But even after breaking free, we’re still trapped in this world.”
As she spoke, her gaze fell on the page in Jian Fan’s hand.
This world was a world of fairy tales.
Characters from different fairy tales had all been thrown together at a single ball, and everyone had a task connected to their assigned character. To leave this world, they first had to trigger their character’s task. But those tasks could very well get them killed. And even if someone completed theirs, how many people would be willing to share the information they gained?
If anyone else had come to this world instead of their group, Mu Xin could already imagine how it would have ended.
Without enough clues, no one would have been able to leave. In the end, every last one of them would have been erased.
The Realm of Death had thrown together a group of Players who distrusted one another and might betray each other at any moment, then made cooperation their only way out. It was a cruel test of human nature.
But then Mu Xin laughed again.
This time, she was laughing at the Realm of Death.
The Realm of Death seemed far too confident in itself. It had never considered that the Players might genuinely unite and work together.
They were still a long way from finding the answer, but Mu Xin believed they would make it through this time as well.
Once again, the Realm of Death would lose to them.
Mu Xin quickly composed herself and looked at Jian Fan. “What’s that?” she asked. As she spoke, she flapped her wings and flew directly onto the torn page for a closer look.
Jian Fan was already examining it.
There was writing on the page, but because it was only a fragment, the passage was incomplete. And as for what it said…
“The Prince smiled. As he looked at the woman before him, his cruel true nature emerged.”
“He stepped forward and wrapped a hand around the Little Princess’s throat. ‘You need to remember your place. Here, I am the supreme ruler. You can only submit to me.'”
“The Little Princess went pale. She struggled to breathe and felt as though the life were draining from her, but she continued to stare resolutely at the Prince. ‘In the end, you will be nothing but a failure,’ she said.”
Even Jian Fan had not expected their so-called information to be something like this.
“Is this… part of a story?” Mu Xin asked uncertainly. Then she added, “Or maybe a dark fairy tale?”
There was a Prince and a princess, but the contents were hardly magical or beautiful. Considering the world they were in, this was clearly a dark fairy tale.
But what did any of this have to do with leaving this world?
Did they have to piece together the entire story before they could discover the final answer?
That was asking far too much of them.
Jian Fan turned the torn page over and inspected it several more times, but there was nothing unusual about it. In other words, the information really was hidden somewhere in this fragment of an unknown fairy tale.
Faced with this, even Jian Fan fell silent.
He felt as though the Realm of Death had just played them all for fools.
Qin Nan was the first to rally. “At least we found something. Now we need to trigger the missions and complete them.”
The others quickly pulled themselves together as well.
There were twelve people with the Player role. Xia Zeqin’s situation was uncertain, so he was obviously out of consideration. As for Fang Kang, now that he had Zhou Jingying, there was no chance of him cooperating with them. They could therefore disregard any information those two might have.
That left the ten of them. Zhou Jingying had already completed her mission, Shi Chen was still unconscious, and Lu Jing and Qin Nan had already received their missions. Jian Fan and Yellow Hair were probably connected to Qin Nan’s mission. That left Mu Xin, Lin Junruo, Yang Zhen, and Qin Weiyi.
At the thought of Qin Weiyi, everyone turned to look at him, their expressions complicated.
Even if Qin Weiyi managed to trigger a mission, he would have a hard time communicating it in his current state.
It really was… a little tragic.