"Congratulations, User Has Been Deregistered."
Fuck.
For the first time, Zhu Yan thought he had chosen a bad nickname. He had cleared the instance, yet it had still given him a scare.
"You used an ingenious method to complete your task and carry your companion, successfully clearing the instance [Cat-and-Mouse Game]!"
"You have returned to the real world."
"Rewards will be distributed in ten minutes. Carnival Paradise looks forward to your return."
In the blink of an eye, the scene before Zhu Yan changed completely.
Guan En and the darkness were gone, replaced by a station bustling with people in the early morning.
Zhu Yan slowly straightened up as a middle-aged woman hurried past him, her heels clacking crisply against the floor.
She suddenly looked down, then quickly turned back toward Zhu Yan.
"Young man, you dropped your bag!"
Zhu Yan felt as though he had returned from another world.
He looked down. A black backpack lay quietly at his feet, the very one he had left on the train when he fled.
The red glow from a billboard was faintly reflected on the black backpack—
Zhu Yan picked up the bag and slung it over his shoulder, then saw a liquor advertisement glowing festively above him.
The aroma of breakfast shops on both sides drifted through the air, and a multitude of small, vibrant sounds filled the world.
Zhu Yan stretched his muscles and slowly walked into the sunlight.
The morning sun was gentle, like a warm tide, and felt comfortable.
After enjoying it for a little while, Zhu Yan decided he should find somewhere else as soon as possible.
The police were still after him, and it would not be wise to stay here.
With that in mind, he listened for the woman's announcements as he walked.
He could tell that this instance's mode was markedly different from the previous Beginner Instance.
In Zhu Yan's Beginner Instance, there had only been players and Pseudo-humans.
But this time, there had been many more beings in the instance who were not players.
Had [Merry Happy Land] pulled innocent people into the instance, or were they merely NPC projections created by [Merry Happy Land]?
Zhu Yan walked in the sunlight, hoping to soak up a little more warmth.
What exactly was this [Merry Happy Land]?
"Your companion was a tremendous help, carrying you through the task single-handedly."
The woman's voice made its merciless announcement in Guan En's mind.
He heard it, but an emotion stronger than the joy of clearing the instance gripped his entire heart.
His colleague lay on the floor, his head and nearly half his flesh gone.
Dark red liquid had soaked into the carpet, and the mangled body looked like a medical anatomy model.
The Pseudo-human responsible had vanished without a trace. The passengers originally in the carriage had all been evacuated, while the dozen or so people on the mission had stayed behind, standing in a circle with grim expressions.
They had all suffered injuries to varying degrees, and some looked solemnly at Guan En, who had suddenly appeared in defiance of all reason.
"Xiao Guan, what on earth happened?"
"What happened to your superior? We all saw it."
"He..."
Guan En bit his lips until they turned deathly pale.
He had made too many mistakes that morning.
The gruesome scene revealed a bloody reality: he had gotten the [Cat] and [Mouse] sides wrong from the very beginning.
His companion meant one of his own kind, not someone on his side as a police officer!
And Zhu Yan, whom he had thought was cunning and treacherous, had seen through it from the start.
It was just as Zhu Yan had said: if not for him, Guan En would have lost his life.
But his colleague was innocent. His colleague was not even a player.
His colleague had died because Guan En himself had misunderstood the task and had been too frantic to use his ability to suppress the Pseudo-human!
"Guan En, what exactly happened last night?"
"Who exactly is that Zhu Yan?"
"Is all of this because of him?"
As his thoughts raced, the woman's voice and his colleagues' questions rang out at the same time.
"You have returned to the real world."
"Rewards will be distributed in ten minutes. Carnival Paradise looks forward to your return."
In previous instances, only players would die.
Then would his colleague come back to life?
Guan En's heart hung in suspense, then plummeted hard the next moment.
Dawn was breaking outside the windows, and passengers waiting to board abruptly appeared on the platform.
Yet everything inside the carriage remained unchanged—
His colleague did not even have a chance to come back to life for ten minutes.
He lay sprawled on the floor just as he had died, prompting waves of terrified screams from the passengers outside the windows who saw it all clearly!
"We're very sorry," the woman's voice said with considerable humanity. "We are merciful, but only to players of [Merry Happy Land]."
Zhu Yan, of course, knew nothing of any of this.
The long, strenuous run had left him tired and hungry.
Although he had yet to recover from the tension of clearing two instances within twenty-four hours, he bought a fragrant jianbing and a bag of soy milk, forcing himself to eat to replenish some energy.
Anwu City was enormous.
Zhu Yan took out his phone and searched, quickly settling on an old district in the city.
The map showed that demolition was underway nearby. Though the facilities were old, there were still some surveillance blind spots.
He could not be sure what was happening on train G3075, much less whether the Pseudo-human had eaten anyone.
Zhu Yan did not dare gamble on the reward [Merry Happy Land] would give him, either.
If he reached the old district before the police station caught on, he would at least have some time to prepare if anything happened.
Zhu Yan stood up and surveyed the cameras around him.
He took a deliberately awkward route toward the entrance, passing a corner beneath the steps.
An elderly man was resting in the corner.
Zhu Yan took a few careful looks at him. When he emerged again, he was a frail old man with a hunched back.
He quickly got into a taxi by the roadside and, watching the train station recede into the distance, involuntarily clutched the hem of his clothes!
Five minutes later.
The woman's voice rang out as promised. Zhu Yan looked at the streets bathed in morning light outside the car window, concentrating nervously.
He prayed he would receive some useful items.
"Congratulations again, User Has Been Deregistered. We've grown tired of praising you, so let's get straight to the point."
"The overall results for the [Cat-and-Mouse Game] instance are as follows."
"Two players in total. Two cleared the instance. One ordinary civilian died."
"During the police station's evacuation, several people were driven into a world that was not real, resulting in multiple disappearances."
One person had died, and several were missing?
Zhu Yan's thoughts stalled. The image of the Pseudo-human running into the pitch-black corridor at the end of the previous instance flashed into his mind.
During the police station's evacuation, [Merry Happy Land] had not yet transported the platform back, so had the crowd disappeared after leaving?
It seemed this instance had pulled innocent people into [Merry Happy Land]!
And one person had died.
Had the Pseudo-human eaten an ordinary civilian after failing to eat Guan En?
His younger brother's gruesome state rose in his mind again, and Zhu Yan's face involuntarily scrunched up.
"Among the players, you ranked first with the highest score. Your basic rewards are as follows."
"Days off: ten days."
"Your days off from both instances can be combined, for a total of 20 days."
"You may choose to enter an instance early."
All right, that did not matter.
Even if he took a break, the police station would still arrest him anyway.
"Instance clearance bonus: 40,000 yuan."
Not bad.
With enough money, he could exchange some at the [Hall of Mourning] and keep enough for tuition, fees, and living expenses.
But would he really still have a chance to go to school?
"In addition, we have taken into account the predicament you face in real life and issued you a special item."
Zhu Yan's eyes lit up.
A subtle delight swept over him. He felt that addiction again and could not help wanting to hold on to the feeling.
A special item was a surprise!
He slowly sat up straight.
In any case, it had to be better than nothing.
"Congratulations on obtaining the single-use item [Concealed but Unreleased]."
"The item's instructions are as follows."
"Please be patient and listen to the broadcast..."