Chapter 179
Chapter 179
Liang Chen hurried over to ask the girl for the notebook back.
Jiang Li, meanwhile, kept staring at the face of the girl in the pale pink down jacket, a strange look entering her eyes.
She had seen this girl before.
When they were hiding from the rain, this girl had been sitting at the neighboring table with four young people.
Back then, this girl had suggested they “ride the roller coaster,” but none of her friends had gone with her, so she had gone alone.
Jiang Li remembered that the girl’s name was… Shanshan, she thought.
Almost subconsciously, Jiang Li looked above Shanshan’s head.
Right now, Shanshan’s Health Points displayed… 0.
She was already dead.
“Um, excuse me. This notebook belongs to my friend. Could you please give it back to me?”
Liang Chen asked Shanshan, who had picked up the notebook.
Shanshan raised her head. Her eyes were lifeless and unfocused.
“Okay.”
Shanshan placed the notebook in Liang Chen’s hand, then turned and left without a trace of expression.
“Over there! She went that way!” In the distance, several staff members from the roller coaster attraction pointed in Shanshan’s direction and hurried over.
“Young Lady, don’t run off like that next time!”
The staff grabbed Shanshan. “After the ride is over, we still have to go register. You can pick up a visitor’s gift, okay?”
Shanshan’s expression was stiff, her eyes still dull.
But the corners of her mouth twitched slightly, and she said in a troubled tone, “But… I need to go… find my friends.”
Without another word, the two staff members held Shanshan by the arms and led her toward the amusement park’s West Gate.
“It’s fine. Once we get the gift, you can go see your friends. It’ll be quick…”
Their figures gradually receded into the distance.
Jiang Li remained frozen where she was, unable to come back to herself for a long time.
Because she had seen a thin line of blood on Shanshan’s neck.
The roller coaster was a throat-slitting game.
Every Huaguo hostage here was being abused and harmed by the Ghost Face Organization.
So…
Was it truly worth it for Jiang Li to gamble the lives of more than ten thousand people just to achieve an SSS Rank clearance?
What if she failed?
When that happened, everyone would die with her.
The Ghost Face Organization was far too massive.
They had ten thousand chances to kill Jiang Li.
But Jiang Li’s path to survival was scarce and arduous.
This was the second time Jiang Li felt that things had spiraled out of control.
The first time had been in the Madhouse, when she suspected that she might truly be mentally ill.
The second time was now.
In silence, Jiang Li put the 3D Glasses back on.
This time, although there were still many negative comments in the bullet-screen area, under the Intelligence Department’s control, the overall public opinion, both positive and negative, had become relatively stable.
However, what was different this time was that many humble, pleading comments had appeared.
-“Jiang Li, we all really like you. But we also hope you won’t insist on having your own way. Please think about the families of those ten thousand hostages.”
-“As long as you’re human, you can never be absolutely certain nothing will go wrong. Please, Jiang Li, think carefully before you act. Give up your obsession with an SSS Rank clearance. The entire nation will be grateful to you!”
-“Jiang Li, if you fail, everyone will be buried with you. They will never come back.”
-“There’s still time to change your method of clearing the instance.”
-“I’m willing to kneel to Jiang Li on behalf of the people of Jinlin. Please, Jiang Li, choose an easier way to clear it! I’m kowtowing to you, Jiang Li.”
The bullet-screen comments were chaotic and complicated.
The comment section, which had originally been filled with insults, had now uniformly shifted to trying to “move Jiang Li with emotion and persuade her with reason.”
After Jiang Li read through them once, she took off the 3D Glasses and held them in her hand.
She turned around and, together with Liang Chen behind her, went into the grass to retrieve the backpack Zhao Siyao had thrown down.
A plastic charm hung from the schoolbag.
Liang Chen had given her that charm. On it was a cartoon portrait of the two sisters.
Liang Chen hugged the schoolbag to her chest, her eyes red-rimmed.
“Jie, let’s go wait inside the Ferris wheel area for Da Yao. She’ll definitely come out soon.”
Seeing Liang Chen hurrying to enter the Ferris wheel area of her own accord-walking right into the trap like a lamb to the slaughter-Jiang Li grabbed her by the clothes and held her back.
“Don’t rush,” Jiang Li explained. “Five minutes left. We’ll go once this round is over.”
If they entered the Ferris wheel area now, the staff would just catch them and drag them back again.
Liang Chen’s voice was thick with tears.
Hearing Jiang Li’s reminder, she lowered her head and gave a soft “Mm.”
The moment the game ended, Liang Chen and Jiang Li entered the Ferris wheel area at once to pick up Da Yao from Cabin No. 01.
“Da Yao!” When Liang Chen saw that Da Yao wasn’t injured, surprise and joy flashed across her face, and she threw herself at her.
But Zhao Siyao, now caught in her embrace, had already lost every trace of light in her eyes.
The way Da Yao looked at Liang Chen was mechanical, like a soulless marionette.
She was clearly smiling at Liang Chen.
Yet the longer Liang Chen looked at that smile, the more unnerving it became.
From behind her, Jiang Li grabbed Liang Chen’s arm and pulled her back.
“Chenchen, Da Yao… she’s already gone.”
Jiang Li shook her head at Liang Chen.
Liang Chen’s tears splattered onto the ground. “How is that possible? You’re lying. Da Yao is perfectly fine!”
Liang Chen wiped away her tears and looked at the identical Da Yao before her. She forced the corners of her mouth up, trying to smile.
But the more she looked, the more wrong Da Yao seemed.
She really was different from before.
“She isn’t Da Yao anymore, Chenchen,” Jiang Li said bluntly.
The moment Jiang Li saw that Da Yao’s Health Points above her head had reached 0, she had already known Da Yao’s fate.
But when she said those words out loud, Jiang Li still felt a heavy ache in her heart.
Jiang Li and Liang Chen watched helplessly as, after Da Yao passed the Electronic Device Physical Examination beneath the Ferris wheel, the staff guided her away in the direction of the amusement park’s West Gate.
Liang Chen hugged both her and Zhao Siyao’s schoolbags, crouching on the ground as she sobbed uncontrollably.
“If I’d known… If I’d known it was this dangerous, I never would’ve let Da Yao come with me. It was supposed to be a nice trip. How did it turn into this? Wuu, wuu, wuu…”
Remembering Da Yao’s request, Liang Chen cried for a while, then stood up again and forced herself to pull herself together.
“Liang Chen.” Jiang Li’s expression was exceptionally grave.
She asked, “If everyone in the country wanted you to die, and as long as you died, every dead person could be brought back to life-would you do it?”
Liang Chen reined in her emotions and answered Jiang Li seriously as well.
“Why should I die? Saving all of humanity is God’s job. Why should it fall on the shoulders of one girl like me?
How is that ‘saving everyone’? That’s obviously moral coercion from the entire country, isn’t it?”
Behind them, the voices of several young men and women rang out as well.
“Exactly, Jiang Li. Did they brainwash you or something? You’re the Chosen One. How you clear this is up to you!”
A girl wearing 3D Glasses said this.
The young man beside the girl walked straight up to Jiang Li, took the 3D Glasses from her hand, and tossed them into the trash can nearby on the spot.
He said, “From now on, we refuse all moral coercion! Focus on clearing the game. That’s what you should be doing!”
Another bespectacled IT guy also stepped forward.
“Jiang Li, don’t listen to them. With so many of us ‘hostages’ willing to bet our lives on your victory, what is there to be afraid of?”