“Are you three years old?” Bai Youwei had long had her fill of him and couldn’t hold back. “You make a fuss the moment you see someone eating, then when it’s handed to you, you ask question after question — should I buy you a copy of *One Hundred Thousand Whys* and let you read it yourself?”

Tan Xiao drained several gulps of yogurt, let out a belch beside them, and wrinkled his nose: “Exactly — grow up a little. It’s just a game. With Bro Xiao here looking out for you, what are you so nervous about?”

Shen Fei felt aggrieved and bottled up, sending a pained look toward his cousin.

Shen Mo didn’t look at him. He pushed Bai Youwei forward as he walked, and as he passed, gave his younger cousin a light pat on the shoulder: “No need to be so tense.”

Shen Fei felt as though his chest had taken yet another blow — even more bottled up than before.

…

After leaving the castle, they continued searching through the Fairy Tale Kingdom, visiting in turn the Seven Dwarfs’ cottage, Pinocchio’s carpenter’s workshop, the Alice in Wonderland maze, and the festive stage that brought together all manner of fairy-tale characters.

The amusement park’s many attractions were enough to dazzle the eye — searching this one themed section alone had taken them over an hour, leaving less than one hour remaining. They quickly moved on to “Future World.”

There was no time for a thorough exploration — only enough to get a rough sense of the terrain and memorize each fork in the path, so that if anyone ended up fleeing here, they wouldn’t be lost.

Two hours later, everyone regrouped in front of the carousel.

Zhao Mingdeng, Luo Bin, Jiang Hao — all three came back empty-handed.

Yan Qingwen and Yu Yaqing had stripped the rope from a wrecked-ship-shaped building on Adventure Island and brought it along as a weapon.

Lu Ang alone had come back with a massive iron anchor on a chain — apparently not even minding the weight!

Shen Mo had Tan Xiao set the chest of weapons down on the ground.

The lid came open, and ornate cold weapons encrusted with gold and gemstones came into view. Everyone drew a sharp collective breath.

“You two had incredible luck! You actually found weapons!” Zhao Mingdeng was the first to speak. “All we found over on Fantasy Avenue was a few coat hangers — not even a pair of scissors!”

Yan Qingwen picked up a falchion, weighed it in his hand, and looked toward Shen Mo and Bai Youwei, his tone carrying a note of meaningful suggestion: “The amusement park props are quite exquisitely made.”

Yu Yaqing selected a battle axe and lightly drew a fingertip across the blade’s edge, her brow rising slightly. The silver-white axe head reflected her resolute face.

“These weapons are sharp,” she said. “With them, our odds of winning improve considerably.”

“But why wasn’t this mentioned in the game data,” Zhao Mingdeng couldn’t help muttering. “Could it be the previous players all failed because they never found weapons?”

Jiang Hao, wearing white gloves, picked a double-handed hatchet from the chest and smiled: “Quite possibly — after all, the game’s requirement is for us to kill the cat, yet the amusement park provides no weapons. That itself is already contrary to logic.”

Luo Bin, the athlete, rummaged through the chest without finding anything that suited him, and simply put it down, frowning coolly: “Go ahead and pick — I’m used to using my fists.”

“You definitely want a big cleaver for a fight~ Ugh, all these blades are too thin…” Tan Xiao reluctantly settled on a broadsword.

Shen Fei deliberated for a long while and took an axe.

He wasn’t skilled at fighting — though he had practiced for a period out of admiration for his cousin, his work by nature leaned more technical.

An axe presumably required less technique than a sword, he figured. Better to try it out.

The style of all the blades was highly archaic. Though their materials felt disconcertingly genuine, no one raised any suspicion.

Once everyone had chosen their weapon, Jiang Hao looked toward Bai Youwei with a hint of curiosity: “Aren’t you picking a weapon?”

“No need.” Bai Youwei patted the canvas bag hanging on the side of the wheelchair. “My weapons are all in here.”

—