Players, Please Board the Train

Casually setting the map aside, Xu Huo asked Yan Jiayu about her preferences, flipped open the menu to order, and when the Stuffed Rabbit delivered their food, he asked if he could tour the castle.

After accepting a handful of candy from him, the Stuffed Rabbit happily agreed to give him a tour.

”I’m going out to look around.” After finishing the meal, Xu Huo told Yan Jiayu and followed the Stuffed Rabbit outside.

Only about one-third of the rooms in the castle were occupied, and due to the dungeon rules, many players were moving around inside the castle without interfering with each other.

”Dong! Dong! Dong!” Bell chimes rang from above the castle, and the little rabbit excitedly exclaimed, ”It’s nine o’clock, time for the fireworks show!”

”Isn’t it raining outside?” Xu Huo turned around and realized the previously dense rain curtain had suddenly lightened. He glanced at his personal panel showing eight o’clock, ”Is this clock inaccurate?”

”How could it be inaccurate?” The little rabbit glanced back at him, ”The castle’s large clock shows the exact same time as the Clock Tower at C9 Wormhole Point—it’s the most accurate time in the game.”

Xu Huo paused, then said, ”I’ve never been to C9 Wormhole Point or seen the Clock Tower. Is the tower very large?”

”Of course it’s huge! The Clock Tower is the most famous place in C9, with many people going there to calibrate their time—it’s even more crowded than the amusement park.” The little rabbit said wistfully, ”I’ve heard there are lots of delicious candies there too.”

”Are they better than Jar Jar Candy?” Xu Huo asked.”Jar Jar Candy is still a bit better... but how can children resist candy?” the little rabbit stated matter-of-factly.

Just then, fireworks exploded in the sky outside the castle. The little rabbit happily clapped its front paws, then pulled Xu Huo’s hand to make him look out the window, while it sat on the windowsill itself, swinging its feet and occasionally exclaiming in awe.

After watching various fireworks shaped like dolls and desserts for a while, Xu Huo returned to his room.

Yan Jiayu was already asleep, so he went to the sofa area.

After resting overnight, the two headed straight to the third game point the next morning.

The amusement park games weren’t difficult, so they completed three game points by noon and arrived at the second quiz game location—the Rubik’s Cube Maze.

The Rubik’s Cube Maze camp was much larger than the previous Mirror Tent. Looking around, this wide grassy area was covered with large Rubik’s Cubes—some on the ground, some floating mid-air, in various orientations—some lying flat, some balanced on their corners, and some forming ladders for the stuffed animals to climb up and down.

”The Rubik’s Cubes really are floating.” Yan Jiayu stood beneath a giant Rubik’s Cube, reaching out to touch its rotating corner tip, but this angered the Plush Pig inside the cube, who shouted, ”Don’t you know you shouldn’t randomly touch floating objects?”

As soon as it finished speaking, the Rubik’s Cube tilted and fell down due to its forward lean, with the Plush Pig landing face-down on the ground. Simultaneously, a Rubik’s Cube that had been on the ground nearby slowly rose into the air, hovering diagonally about two meters above the ground.

The Plush Pig scrambled up and grabbed Yan Jiayu’s leg, ”I don’t care, you have to pay compensation!”

Yan Jiayu said apologetically, ”I didn’t mean to, but why does touching or not touching make the cube fall? Can you rise back up after falling down?”

”Because you blocked the magnetic point.” The Plush Pig stamped its foot, ”With the magnetism here gone, how could it possibly rise back up? Pay up!”

Xu Huo crouched down and picked up a small metal Rubik’s Cube that had fallen out, gently placing it forward. After wobbling a couple of times, the small cube actually began to float.

”This is magnetic levitation.”

Magnetic levitation wasn’t anything mysterious in Zone 014 either—magnetic levitation trains had been put into use several years earlier. The Rubik’s Cubes in this camp area rose and fell across a wide, unstable range, appearing to form naturally, though such regular eruptions all oriented in one direction could be considered a spectacle.

Glancing at the trembling pointer on his watch, he set down the Rubik’s Cube and stood up, turning to the Plush Pig, ”Give us a discount—your stuff isn’t broken anyway.”

The stuffed animal that had been pestering Yan Jiayu finally relented, and after taking the money, gave each of them a metal Rubik’s Cube, ”Take these to play with.”

Yan Jiayu pinched the Rubik’s Cube, staring at the Plush Pig, ”I think I overpaid.”

The Plush Pig abandoned its stall entirely, turning and running away.

”Even the stuffed animals in the amusement park pull scam tricks!” Yan Jiayu angrily picked up the small Rubik’s Cubes scattered across the ground, carrying them away in a pouch—if the large cubes weren’t so cumbersome, she would have planned to take the entire stall.

”Carrying those around is useless anyway,” Xu Huo said amusedly.

”They’re not bad as throwing stones,” she said, grabbing one and weighing it in her hand before throwing it toward an empty space. However, a large Rubik’s Cube happened to rise up in front just then, getting hit and tilting into the cube beside it. Several large cubes all rolled onto the ground, and that wasn’t all—the deflected small cube flew off in another direction. With two banging sounds, several more cubes toppled over. Like this, cube hitting cube, it seemed the chain reaction wouldn’t stop!

Yan Jiayu stared dumbfounded. Seeing the large swath of cubes falling, she abandoned her pouch and frantically waved at Xu Huo, ”We’ve caused trouble, run quickly, run quickly!”

With no alternative, Xu Huo could only follow her as they ran toward the center of the maze. Soon, a giant Rubik’s Cube appeared ahead.

”That should be the quiz location,” he called to Yan Jiayu, signaling her to stop running.

Yan Jiayu glanced back at the stuffed animals charging fiercely toward their area but kept moving her feet while looking around the giant Rubik’s Cube, ”Where do we get in from?”

The map had recorded this Rubik’s Cube Maze. Just as Xu Huo was about to speak, a section of cube blocks in the lower right corner of the giant Rubik’s Cube rotated. Yan Jiayu slipped through the opening and rushed inside, startling two players who were walking out.

Seeing the two adopt combat stances, Xu Huo waved his hand dismissively, then pushed the cube block and followed inside.

Yan Jiayu was hiding right beside the door, asking nervously, ”Have those stuffed animals arrived?”

Xu Huo gave her a look, ”Even if you run, you can’t escape—you’ll still have to pay when you go out.”

Yan Jiayu made a pained face, ”How would they know it was me? Clearly no stuffed animal saw... I’m out of money.”

”All the stuffed animals belong to the amusement park. If one stuffed animal sees something, the others will know too,” Xu Huo said.

Yan Jiayu paused slightly, ”You mean the amusement park stuffed animals share vision?”

”Maybe the same person is inside all the stuffed animal costumes,” Xu Huo said. He had suspected this earlier and now felt more certain. The rabbit, bear, and pig they encountered yesterday had superficially different personalities, but some of their small movements and habits were quite similar, including the rabbit that told him about the Clock Tower last night.

If this was the dungeon boss’s ability in the amusement park, and shared vision was indeed true, then there might be loopholes to exploit in some of the dungeon’s rules.

”Let’s complete the quiz game first,” he said.