Chapter 193: Can I Talk to You Alone?

The room turned out to be remarkably spacious inside, far larger than she had expected from looking at it from outside.

There were even full walls here, each one absolutely covered from top to bottom with locks of every imaginable shape and size.

It really was asking too much of her to use that one special key to figure out which lock here needed opening or closing.

"I’m telling you, system, can’t you just tell me directly whether this key is meant for opening a lock or closing one?"

[Hmm... Host, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you, it’s just that this particular detail is vague in my own data, so I honestly can’t give you a definitive answer.]

[All I can tell you is that the key belongs to one specific lock somewhere in here; either opening it or closing it will complete your task.]

Upon hearing this, Lin Yun let out another sigh.

It seemed the only real option left to her now was to try each lock, one at a time, patiently.

Lin Yun then pulled out the key Linglan had given her — the very same special token from before.

The small rectangular token had somehow, quietly and without her noticing, transformed itself into a golden key at some point.

She began testing locks near the entrance, and for some, a single glance at the keyhole was enough to tell whether the key could fit.

"Damn it, why do forced mandatory tasks even exist? I really need to file a complaint about this system of yours!"

[You can’t insult me just because you want to insult the main system, you know!]

[This is entirely the main system’s own setting — it has absolutely nothing to do with me!]

The system quickly shifted the blame elsewhere, refusing to take responsibility on the main system’s behalf.

An hour passed, and Lin Yun had only managed to finish checking a single wall’s worth of locks.

"This is so unbelievably annoying, honestly, I just want to smash every single one of these stupid locks to pieces."

Lin Yun rested briefly, then resignedly got back up and continued her search.

Out in the wider world, things were going just as wonderfully as ever.

The tourists had somehow already managed to rush their way into the castle itself.

After hearing Gardenia’s screams, Rose hesitated only a moment before rushing out regardless.

Gardenia had helped her out plenty of times before, and had always treated her quite well in return.

She couldn’t bear the thought of Zhizi dying out there without lifting a finger.

Tong Yin didn’t go out, though. She was the one who’d let the tourists in to begin with — how could she justify rushing out to save anyone now, out of fleeting pity?

Without hesitation, she walked straight toward the dungeon instead.

She threw the sleeping powder she’d kept unused for two years down into the dungeon, waiting until it took effect before continuing onward.

Tong Yin remembered clearly that, before Rose had whisked her away earlier, the clown NPC had also been locked up somewhere in this very dungeon.

After scanning the dungeon, Vivian discovered a great many survivors still locked away in cages. She’d apparently been tormenting them quite extensively during this period.

After a moment’s thought, she pulled out a knife and broke the lock on the cell door, allowing these people a chance to escape once they finally woke up.

Only then did she finally turn her attention to helping the clown NPC up to his feet.

The clown NPC was a large, burly man, and it took Tong Yin considerable effort just to get him up onto his feet and moving.

As she passed a black vest lying motionless on the ground, Tong Yin paused for a breath, set the clown NPC aside, and finished off the remaining black vests one by one.

Once she’d finished all this, she helped the clown NPC back up onto his feet and led him carefully away from the dungeon.

These particular black-vested guards had all, at some point, offended or humiliated her personally; killing them off brought her a small measure of satisfaction.

She didn’t travel far with the clown NPC, settling instead for a secluded spot within the castle to hide temporarily.

Meanwhile, the tourists had already surged into the castle in full force.

Rose, Gardenia, and the other two had vanished entirely without a trace.

The tourists, catching a whiff of food somewhere inside, searched frantically for whatever they could find.

The first things they stumbled upon were the drugged, sleeping black-vested guards and the survivors trapped in the dungeon.

Once they’d eaten their fill there, the tourists made their way upstairs, drawn by some faint, lingering trace of life.

Although the aura felt faint and didn’t seem especially promising, they figured it was worth checking out, just in case more food waited up there.

The food back at the amusement park had been so thoroughly unappetizing by comparison; this place was proving far better, and they’d eaten their fill here already.

Rose and her two companions had taken refuge inside a small greenhouse.

This particular spot was where the tools used for trimming the flowers around the castle grounds were normally kept.

The three of them huddled inside together, trembling with fear, not daring to make a single sound.

They were terrified that the maddened tourists outside might stumble upon them and devour them whole.

Some fertilizer happened to be stored there. Once inside, they smeared it over themselves, hoping to mask their scent and avoid being spotted.

"What are we supposed to do now? Are we just going to hide here forever? Why did everything suddenly turn out this way?"

Rose and Gardenia had been walking the road earlier, intending to check the situation at the front gate, when they’d unexpectedly run into a crowd of tourists who’d rushed in after finding the gate standing open.

The two of them had been utterly terrified, realizing the tourists had gone completely mad, and immediately turned and fled.

But the tourists had already spotted them and chased closely after them.

Rose had sensed something was wrong, rushed over, pulled the two away, and hid them all inside the greenhouse.

Gardenia stayed silent after hearing what Rose had just said.

She understood perfectly well what they were all about to face, but had no idea how to respond to Rose’s unspoken question.

If they were lucky, perhaps they’d manage to leave this amusement park entirely and go on living somewhere out in the wider world.

If they weren’t so lucky, though, they might end up stuck here permanently, bound forever to this amusement park.

Gardenia patted Rose gently on the back, unsure what else there was left to say.

Just then, the greenhouse door suddenly swung open.

The three of them: !!

"It’s just me." Tong Yin’s figure appeared framed in the doorway.

"It isn’t safe here anymore. Come with me."

Having said that, Tong Yin turned and walked off at once, not particularly concerned whether the three would actually choose to follow her.

After a moment’s hesitation, Rose got up and followed along.

Gardenia tugged Rose along too, following right behind.

Although Gardenia didn’t particularly care for Tong Yin, and rather disliked her, she still reluctantly followed when her own life hung in the balance.

Tong Yin led all three of them toward the garden tucked behind the castle.

She pulled back a bit of camouflage covering the ground in one corner. "Climb down here — it’s safe inside."

"And what about you, then?" Rose asked her, clearly concerned.

"Could we talk privately for a moment, just the two of us?"

Rose stayed silent for a couple of seconds, then told Gardenia to head down ahead of her first, before following Tong Yin off to some more secluded spot nearby.

Not long afterward, Rose and Gardenia reunited safely with each other down below.

Tong Yin carefully erased the marks left on the ground and departed from the garden.

She took a roundabout path to leave the castle grounds, steering clear of the troublesome tourists near the gate, and eventually made her way to the visitor center.

She didn’t reveal herself openly there — she simply watched quietly from within the shadows instead.

Vivian stood flanked on either side by her NPCs, eyes locked onto Linglan with unmistakable predatory intent.

Linglan, meanwhile, had plenty of her own NPCs and tricolor-vested defectors who’d betrayed Vivian’s side to join her instead.

Neither side made the first move; the two of them simply remained locked in a tense, drawn-out standoff.

...

While working through the locks, Lin Yun had gradually picked up certain tricks, like telling at a glance whether a given keyhole might actually match her key.

As a result, her pace had picked up considerably.

She only bothered trying the key itself whenever a keyhole looked similar enough to plausibly be compatible with it.

Unfortunately, none of the many locks she’d tried so far had actually matched the key at all.