Chapter 164
Chapter 164
Seeing that Jiang Li still made no move to take it, the Red-Nosed Clown kept smiling, not the least bit annoyed.
He gave a soft snap of his fingers, and in the blink of an eye, the red rose transferred from his fingertips to Jiang Li’s hair, where it sat tucked neatly in place.
“Miss, a red rose suits you better.”
“I hope that when the game ends, the lady I see will be wearing a red rose, not a white one.”
“Farewell.”
With that, the Red-Nosed Clown turned and left with perfect courtesy.
He walked to the edge of the canopy and took out an enormous red cloth, draping it over himself.
With one forceful shake of the cloth, the clown’s figure vanished with a bang.
Only countless white balloons, meant to mourn the dead, remained, braving the rain of blood as they drifted up into the sky.
Amid the curtain of rain, deafening thunder cracked again and again-crack! crack!
Each peal of thunder sounded like a sobbing roar, as though warning the visitors that they had to escape this place.
“Hey, guys, guys! Aren’t you curious? That tour group that brought us here for free this morning-how exactly are they making money?”
At the next table over, four young people were eating snacks and chatting animatedly.
“I’ve been wondering that too. They picked us up in a private vehicle, waived the fare, and even covered the park tickets. Isn’t that just losing money for publicity?”
“Maybe it’s advertising. This %$amp& was only finished less than a month ago, so maybe they’re trying to attract tourists.”
Part of what one of them said was garbled.
Jiang Li glanced at the boy who had spoken.
He looked refined and scholarly. Taking advantage of this brief spell of rain, he was holding a laptop and modifying code.
He was probably an IT major.
The “this whatever” that the IT boy had mentioned had been blocked out.
Judging by the literal meaning, he should have been talking about this amusement park.
Jiang Li knew that the full name of this amusement park was “Hell’s Paradise Amusement Park.”
So there was something wrong with the name?
In the eyes of the other “non-Chosen One” people, this place was not “Hell’s Paradise Amusement Park,” but had another name-one that was not meant to be guessed by any Chosen One.
Then what was its true name? And did it have something to do with the truth of this place?
“The rain’s letting up! Looks like it’s about to stop!”
At the neighboring table, a girl in a pale pink down jacket called out excitedly.
“Let’s go on some rides in a bit! I want to ride the roller coaster!”
The girl in the pale pink down jacket made the suggestion to the other three with an eager look on her face.
Among the other three, a young couple shook their heads in refusal. “Forget it. My boyfriend and I throw up all over ourselves every time we ride that thing.”
The refined-looking IT boy from earlier also refused to ride the roller coaster, using “fear of heights” as his excuse.
The girl in the pale pink down jacket looked a little disappointed. “All right, then. I guess I’ll go by myself.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she stood up, intending to brave the scattered drizzle and head over to the roller coaster to wait in line.
As she left, the girl from the couple called out to remind her,
“Shanshan, wait until the rain stops before you go. Don’t get soaked. The rain today feels like it has a fishy smell to it. It doesn’t smell good.”
The girl in pink named Shanshan didn’t listen. “It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m going back to shower tonight anyway! There aren’t many people in line right now, so I’ll go get in line first!”
Jiang Li watched the girl walk into the rain.
The boys and girls at the neighboring table all picked up the Park Map in their hands and began flipping through it, choosing where to go.
Jiang Li noticed that the backs of their maps were different from hers.
There was writing on the back of each Park Map as well, but it consisted of ordinary, standard amusement park “safety instructions,” not rules.
Everyone inside this park had no idea they were in the middle of an anomaly.
They all thought this was nothing more than an ordinary amusement game.
Within the borders of Huaguo.
Within the span of just half an hour that morning, every major public security bureau in Jinlin City received tens of thousands of reports from residents.
Over the previous twenty-four hours, large numbers of Jinlin City residents had gone missing.
Missing-person reports could only be filed after twenty-four hours had passed.
As a result, first thing that morning, the phones at the city’s public security bureaus were practically ringing off the hook, the constant “ring, ring, ring” never stopping for a moment.
The entire public security system of Jinlin City was thrown into chaos over the matter, and its internal systems even ground to a temporary halt.
The matter was reported up level by level, and before long, it reached the ears of the Intelligence Department.
“How could something like this happen?”
Xia Guofeng held the documents in his hand, his expression exceptionally grave.
He looked through the missing-person reports. “So many people vanished just like that. More than ten thousand of them… Where could they possibly have gone?”
“Director, a normal amusement park can accommodate anywhere from several thousand to over ten thousand visitors in a single day. Shanghai Disneyland can see forty to fifty thousand visitors in one day on a weekend.”
The investigator reported the data he knew.
Hearing this, Xia Guofeng turned his head and looked at the tourists in the Live Streaming Room. His grip on the documents gradually tightened.
“Have the photos of the missing residents been verified? Can they be matched with the tourists in the Aberration World?”
Xia Guofeng asked the investigator.
The investigator replied, “The team is currently running facial comparisons. We should have results within an hour.”
After speaking, the investigator took out over a hundred printed surveillance screenshots and presented them to Xia Guofeng with both hands.
“Director, these are the last known locations where those missing residents appeared.”
“At different times yesterday, they boarded different buses, taxis, school buses, and so on.”
Xia Guofeng fell into thought. “In other words, the final destination of those vehicles is very likely the Aberration World.”
Xia Guofeng glanced at the live feed.
There were at least a thousand visitors in this amusement park, but nowhere near ten thousand.
That meant the more than ten thousand missing residents might have been transported in batches.
If participating in the game meant facing death-
Then during the day, the Aberration World could send in a new batch of people every half hour to fill the vacancies left by dead tourists, allowing the amusement park to maintain a packed-house operating state at all times.
But for now, these were only Xia Guofeng’s personal conjectures.
“Continue the personnel checks. Report to me the moment you have accurate results.”
“Yes, Director.”
On Jiang Li’s side.
She stopped the cheerful Little Girl wearing 3D Glasses. “Little sister, can you tell me where you bought those glasses?”
Jiang Li needed to know exactly where the old man selling the 3D Glasses was.
If possible, it would be best to find a way to get a pair of 3D Glasses and study them properly.
The Little Girl took off the 3D Glasses and thought for a moment, her expression scrunching up. “These glasses weren’t bought! A younger girl gave them to me!”
“Then… do you remember where that younger girl is?”
“I saw her over by the children’s park!”
The Little Girl pointed toward an area in the distance covered in large, colorful murals, showing Jiang Li the direction.
Jiang Li glanced that way.
That was the area where parents took their children to play.
There were far too many children there. It would be impossible to tell which one was the younger girl who had bought the 3D Glasses.
“Big sister, the flower on your table is so pretty! Can I have it?”
The Little Girl pointed at the bouquet of red roses.
Jiang Li picked up the red roses and handed them to her with a smile. “Of course.”
The Little Girl took the red roses and skipped away.
But after the bouquet left Jiang Li’s hands, a cluster of blue flames inexplicably ignited over it.
Once the blue flames burned out, the roses’ crimson color gradually faded, turning them into white roses.