Chapter 570: Carnival of Desire [2]
The pull of the spatial gate faded, and the sensation of dizziness immediately disappeared.
Yet instead of a modern waiting hall or a magnificent arena, what appeared before everyone was a severely rusted iron entrance gate. At the top of the gate, a string of lights curved into the words Carnival of Desire, sparkling with a pale golden glow. Every now and then, a few bulbs flickered, emitting a faint bzzt... click....
The air was saturated with a strange scent—the sickly sweetness of cotton candy mingling with the pungent metallic smell of dried blood and gray mist.
Around the entrance gate, thick fog enveloped the entire path, leaving behind only a single old-fashioned brick-paved road that stretched deep into the amusement park.
CLACK.
A silver badge shaped like a ticket suddenly appeared on the chest of every player. The number 100 was engraved into the surface of each ticket in red ink. At the same time, their pockets grew heavier. Inside were five pale-gray metal coins, each bearing the face of a smiling clown.
"Oh, a welcome gift?"
Adrian lifted two fingers and pinched a coin out of his pocket, lightly spinning it between his knuckles. He raised his head and looked around, the smile on his lips unchanged as his blue eyes slowly swept across the walls surrounding the amusement park.
Nick stood right beside Adrian, both hands lightly clutching the hem of his clothes. He looked down at the ticket on his chest, then at the five gray coins. His lips pressed into a thin line, but he made no sound.
Ember, on the other hand, couldn’t have cared less about the coin in his pocket. He simply raised his large hand and scratched at his short, spiky red hair, his amber eyes fixed intently on the bushes lining the road.
Beside the brick-paved path, among the withered bushes, several creatures wearing tattered clown mascot costumes and shabby plush bear suits stood perfectly still. Their heads were unnaturally large, and their glossy black plastic eyes seemed to follow every movement of the players. They neither lunged forward nor made any threats. They simply stood there, holding trays of popcorn and faded lollipops in their hands, gently waving at the players.
"Shall we head inside?" A free player standing nearby spoke up. He glanced around before turning to his teammates. "This place looks..."
Before he could finish, the group from Vaelthor Guild had already started moving.
The leader of Vaelthor Guild did not even bother to look at the free players around him. He casually shoved aside a passerby who was blocking his path, sending the man sprawling onto the ground. Without a word of apology, he stepped over him. The members in golden armor behind him immediately followed, their attitudes utterly nonchalant, as though trampling over other people were the most natural thing in the world.
"How rude." Adrian clicked his tongue, his voice carrying a hint of exasperation, yet his eyes remained curved into two crescent moons.
He walked over and extended a hand toward the free player. "Come on, get up. Are you all right?"
The free player seemed somewhat startled by Adrian’s attitude. He stared at Adrian in slight confusion, but in the end, he did not take Adrian’s hand. Instead, he hurriedly scrambled to his feet and shook his head. "I... I’m fine."
Ember and Nick watched Adrian begin strutting around like a peacock showing off everywhere, speechless.
"You’re not going to go drag Adrian back?" Nick couldn’t help but ask.
Ember did not even look at him. "He’s entered work mode."
Ember remembered that when Adrian had first met him, Adrian had been just as enthusiastic.
"What a scammer..." Ember muttered.
[Hahaha, as expected, Ember is still holding a grudge against Adrian.]
[Come on, Adrian, hurry back before someone starts crying.]
[Those mascot things look disgusting...]
[What does that Silver Ticket do?]
[Vaelthor Guild is as arrogant as ever, haha.]
[Everyone, look! There seems to be a rule board next to the gate!]
Just as the comments pointed out, a battered wooden sign stood right beside the foot of the rusty iron gate. Pasted onto it was a yellowed piece of parchment covered in crooked black lettering:
[CARNIVAL OF DESIRE VISITOR RULES]
Every visitor begins with 100 Satisfaction Points on their Silver Ticket and 5 Joy Coins.Satisfaction Points will automatically decrease over time. To restore or increase them, participate in the games or enjoy the food at the stalls.If Satisfaction Points fall to 0, the visitor will enter the state of "Endless Hunger."Be a good visitor. We wish you a pleasant trip!
"Satisfaction Points decrease on their own?" Nick whispered, his voice barely audible. He looked up at the number 100 on his chest.
As soon as he finished speaking, the number 100 on everyone’s tickets trembled slightly, then silently changed to 99.
Only a few short minutes had passed since they entered, yet their points had already begun to drain away.
"The first game is right up ahead." Ember spoke in a low, muffled voice, pointing toward the orange-red lights spinning at the end of the brick-paved road.
It was a massive structure standing right in the entrance area: the Carousel.
Unlike the ordinary carousels found in amusement parks, the sound coming from this structure’s speakers is not children’s music, but the haunting cry of a violin, drawn out endlessly and slightly out of tune.
The wooden horses arranged in a circle were slowly rotating around the central axis. Under the flickering reddish-orange lights, the surfaces of the horses could be seen clearly — they were not coated in glossy paint at all, but wrapped in layers of grayish, dry, rough skin, with crooked stitches running all the way along their spines.
A group of members from Themisia Guild had already been waiting in front of the carousel entrance for who knew how long.
The leader of Themisia Guild — a man wearing a silver scales insignia on his chest — turned to look at the people who had just arrived. His gaze swept over Adrian’s group before settling on a few bewildered solo players standing behind them.
"Everyone," the Themisia Guild representative said calmly, his manner frank and serious. "This game requires a minimum of 10 participants to operate at the same time. For the sake of order and everyone’s safety, I suggest that we coordinate our entry in turns."
Adrian stepped closer, clasping his hands behind his back. He tilted his head at the man from Themisia Guild and smiled. "And how exactly are we supposed to coordinate?"
The Themisia Guild representative adjusted his white gloves and replied in an unwavering tone, "Very simple. Five of us will go in first to test the mechanism. You will arrange the remaining five. Once we’re done, we’ll exchange information to ensure that no one suffers any unreasonable losses."
The viewers in the chat immediately began discussing it:
[That’s Themisia Guild for you. Always so principled.]
[That actually sounds pretty fair, doesn’t it?]
[But that wooden horse looks seriously creepy...]
[Those stitches on the horse’s back... did they just twitch?]
Adrian did not answer immediately. He walked right up to the rope barrier around the game and leaned forward to look inside.
One of the wooden horses had just rotated past him. Its cloudy glass eyes slowly shifted to the side, fixing directly on Adrian. Then its half-closed mouth made a soft krrk sound, as if it had just swallowed something.
Adrian blinked, the corner of his lips curling slightly upward. He turned to Nick and Ember. "I think they’re hungry."