Chapter 160 - Gastroscope

Chapter 160: Chapter 146 Gastroscope"Tourists entering the park generally face three situations: first, they don’t violate any rules, play normally, collect four clearance stamps, and leave. Second, they break the rules, fail to leave before sunset, and can only enter the staff break room, put on a doll costume with eyeholes, and obtain a temporary employee identity."

Li Cheng spoke quickly: "The staff manual mentions that after putting on the doll costume with eyeholes, one can effectively prevent attacks from those dolls without eyeholes, and also ignore air raid alarms. This is very attractive to us players."

The doll army is numerous, tough-skinned, and incredibly strong. Being surrounded by them would spell doom, even for a Transcendent.

Andre’s mind raced. The security protocol stated that after sunset when the park closes, security must assist the dolls with eyeholes to complete four amusement activities and then help them remove the doll costumes and leave the park through the exit.

This revealed two pieces of information: one, the closing of the park at sunset does not mean it shuts down entirely. Second, tourists can continue to partake in amusement activities even after putting on the doll costumes and use this to leave the park.

From a player’s perspective, the optimal solution is easy to deduce—find a way to put on the doll costume with eyeholes and safely move around the park with a temporary employee identity...

No, something is not right. The telephone booth that symbolizes absolute safety can hold up to eight people at most, yet there are far more than eight sets of doll costumes stored in the staff break room.

If the park wanted to protect the ordinary tourists, why not add a rule in the tourists’ manual like "When the air raid alarm sounds, tourists should go to the staff break room and put on a doll costume"? Isn’t that simpler than all tourists scrambling for one of the eight spots in the telephone booths?

Andre looked up, stating calmly, "So, after the air raid alarm goes off, one can’t put on a doll costume anymore?"

"Correct."

Li Cheng nodded and said, "At any other time, tourists can obtain a temporary employee identity by putting on a doll costume. But during the air raid alarm, doing so will be considered a violation of the rules, leading to severe consequences.

For example, growing hair, transforming toward becoming a doll—just like our current situation."

Gurgle gurgle—

A sound came simultaneously from the abdomens of the three individuals, which wasn’t the noise of an upset stomach, but rather the sound of internal organs moving within their bodies.

Bai Lang’s expression changed slightly as he pulled out a mirror slightly larger than the palm of his hand from the Backpack slot and pressed it against his stomach.

The mirror penetrated Bai Lang’s clothing and skin, revealing his internal organs like an X-ray, his intestines, stomach, spleen, and kidneys slightly moving, trembling, deforming, transforming towards something inhuman.

"The Curse has arrived."

Li Cheng said, "Players now face two choices: either continue as tourists to complete the amusement activities, gambling that they can leave the park smoothly after finishing four activities and that the Curse’s effects will not persist after leaving the park.

Or go there, and end it all."

He turned his head toward the Northwest direction, where in the area that used to be Future World, sat a medieval castle. Its white walls and blue roofs crowned with triangle flags, the top of which bore the Disney logo.

"Why haven’t they come yet..."

On the roadside lawn, Su Jie held a transparent glass jar with a floating head in one hand and a bundle of security uniforms in the other, his face etched with anxiety.

Behind him, just across the street, was the medieval castle, whose gates stood wide open, shrouded in darkness and emitting a continuous, sharp air raid siren.

Around the castle were only a few sparse dolls, which seemed to possess some instinct that made them deliberately keep a certain distance from the castle.

Tat tat tat.

The sound of running approached from the distance, and seeing Li Cheng and two others round the corner, Su Jie finally breathed a sigh of relief, "Mr. Ant, here are the security uniforms you wanted."

"Although heroes have been young since ancient times, isn’t it a bit too much for someone as young as you to be the lead brother?"

Li Cheng glanced at the head of Ding Shaohua in the glass jar; normal living things couldn’t be directly stored in a player’s backpack, so Ding Shaohua must still be "alive," Su Jie probably wanted to save someone.

The precursor to the Special Affairs Bureau was a special unit formed four years ago by the state from elite forces pulled from the military, police, and national security departments. Its declared purpose was clear: to take responsibility for protecting the lives and safety of the broadest population.

Other countries’ official organizations, such as the Special Incident Department of the United States’ FBI, do not have this rule. All operatives prioritize their own safety above all else.

When necessary, they can ignore ordinary civilians encountered in regular tasks or even use civilians as shields, without anyone being held accountable. Because a player’s status is worth much more than the life of an ordinary person.

This has led to a hellish joke—that the more new players in official organizations from different countries disregard the lives of ordinary people, being cruel, heartless, lacking morality and limits, the higher their survival rate.

It’s a kind of advantage in low human rights.

The setting sun slowly but steadily dipped, as everyone quickly dressed in the security uniforms and walked into Fantasy Castle.

The interior of the castle was as dark and gloomy as the park entrance, and even with a bright flashlight, only a small area in front could be lit up.

To prevent getting lost in the darkness, Li Cheng deliberately kept a security uniform, and everyone held onto a corner of the uniform, heading towards the source of the air raid siren.

Breathing the dull and icy air, walking on the sleek, brand-new floors, the atmosphere grew increasingly silent and oppressive.

"Mr. Ant,"

Su Jie, still holding the head in the glass jar, poked Li Cheng with his finger and signaled him to put on a Bluetooth headset. Speaking through the noise of the air raid siren for cover in the Bluetooth headset, he said, "There’s something I didn’t mention earlier, my arm had grown black hair similar to that of dolls."

Uh...

Even Li Cheng was left speechless, unsure whether this kid was too honest and naïve or just rigid and foolish, revealing things that could potentially threaten others’ safety (although Su Jie didn’t know Li Cheng and the others had also experienced mutations).

Although Li Cheng had a fairly good relationship with the Special Affairs Bureau, he wasn’t an internal employee, hey.

"No problem, growing hair there is a natural part of bodily development, your school should offer lectures on physical health education, you’ll understand then."

Li Cheng spoke nonchalantly, and Andre, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped.

His powerful flashlight illuminated a large noise-generating air raid siren, comprising three brass horns, with a rotatable valve below and a tripod.

A human corpse lay silently not far from the air raid siren. A white male, over thirty years old, dressed in a security uniform, his neck twisted 180 degrees, with black hair covering the areas of skin not hidden by clothing.

In his left palm were a few glutinous rice grains and what looked like yellow cloth fragments from a doll.

Judging by the coagulation of the blood on the ground, the time of death would not exceed two hours.

"Bring out the blood samples from the security room."

Li Cheng took the blood sample from Su Jie, activated his Worm Gene, and learnt that the blood belonged to the dead security guard.

In this way, all the clues were connected—the guard had always been a park employee, hiding in the security room until the air raid siren went off, when he noticed hair growing on his body.

Driven by his duty and survival instincts, he went to Fantasy Castle and manually shut off the air raid siren. That was the first air raid siren Su Jie heard, which lasted seven minutes.