“Aha~ You are a clever player.” The snow globe smiled cheerfully. “And I am a highly qualified and conscientious inspector — so I can’t give you any more hints~”
Li Li’s expression was grim. “If the toy bears are the bear’s children, then what about the summer treasure? We’ve searched this whole house top to bottom already, and we haven’t seen anything that could count as treasure.”
“It looks like this is a find-the-object game. If the corresponding item can’t be found, the guest won’t leave, and the Doll House will remain stuck in that season.” Yan Qingwen thought it over, then asked the inspector: “If we guess wrong, will there be a penalty?”
Ball: “Of course! If you anger a guest, the guest will go berserk!”
At this point, the ball seemed particularly animated — its built-in snowflakes swirled even more vigorously.
“The first time you bring the wrong item, the guest will rampage for 1 minute! The second time, 3 minutes! The third time, a full 5 minutes~! Trust me — there won’t be a fourth time, because no player has ever survived 5 minutes of their rampage!”
That last sentence was deliberately drawn out and slow, exactly like a villain in an animated show.
The ball was gratified to see several players visibly pale. Quite satisfied — in addition to the swirling snowflakes, the small colored lights inside began flashing on and off, flickering rapidly.
Bai Youwei and Shen Mo exchanged a glance.
After a brief silence, Bai Youwei asked a seemingly unrelated question:
“Why did you arrive so late? Are inspectors understaffed?”
The snow globe gave a little shake, mimicking a shaking of the head. “Each inspector has no fewer than 99 shells — more than enough to oversee every game. Besides, the number of active game participants has been continuously dropping lately. We’ll have less and less to do going forward~”
“Shells? Are they copies?” Shen Mo asked.
“Copies?” The ball paused, then burst out laughing. “HAHAHA — humans with only one body must really struggle to comprehend having multiple bodies! Honestly, I can’t understand it either — why did you only evolve one body? Doesn’t that make everything incredibly inefficient?”
“You’re not so efficient yourself,” Bai Youwei said coolly. “You were late.”
“Ah, well — this particular game is being run for the first time, so there were many things that needed to be calibrated. The preliminary work was extremely tedious~”
The inspector ball showed not the slightest trace of remorse and said cheerfully:
“Alright, let’s start the game now!~ I’ll provide guidance and hints throughout — just wind my key whenever you need!~ Ahh, I’m so excited, it’s the Doll House’s very first run!”
Its colored lights flashed, its snowflakes swirled, and it recited:
*”In spring the bear awoke, it lost two children, oh how frantic…”*
The moment it finished speaking, a bear’s roar suddenly echoed from outside the house!
The crowd: “……”
There was actually a real bear?
A large brown-grey bear slowly lumbered up the hillside. Its build was massive and stocky, its fur thick and coarse, its paws as large as a human head.
Now the bear stood upright on the slope, its height exceeding two meters. For all its raw ferocity, there was a red bow tie fastened around its neck — as if it had just walked out of a circus.
Hanging from its left paw was an iron bucket, inside which a few fish could faintly be made out.
Everyone stared at the bear through the windows, momentarily speechless.
The bear swayed and waddled up to the door, looking rather endearingly clumsy. It then crouched down, raised its paw, and knocked on the door.
— Thud, thud!
Everyone looked at one another.
“……So do we give it the toy bear now?” Li Li looked around at everyone’s expressions, and finally settled his gaze on Yan Qingwen. “Yan Qingwen, if we give it the toy bear, will this round be cleared — and then it becomes summer?”
Yan Qingwen considered it. “We have 8 hours in each season. There’s no rush. Let’s search the house first.”
—