Medium

The bones scattered across the riverbed made it clear: these goldfish fed on flesh. The moment anything foreign fell into the water, they all surged toward it.

Captain Wu was stunned. "Damn it, has that kid lost his mind?"

Lin He, meanwhile, thought eagerly, Yes, yes! That's it! Bite him to death!

Just as the sharp teeth were about to tear into his arm, Chen Feng gave a sudden heave. The fishbowl burst from the water with a goldfish inside.

At the same time, the system chimed in: [Ding! Congratulations on successfully checking in at the Horror Amusement Park's Goldfish Catching attraction.]

Lin He's face darkened. They missed him? What luck!

In fact, they had bitten him.

Chen Feng shook his hand. A few faint white marks showed where the goldfish had sneaked in several bites during the chaos.

Fortunately, his transformed body had inherited the physical strength he had built through the Proficiency System. The bites felt like pinches: a little painful, nothing more.

Meng Chengcheng rushed up to him and scolded, "Xiao Hu! You nearly lost your arm just now. Do you know you're playing with fire?"

Chen Feng waved a hand. "You've got it wrong."

Meng Chengcheng blinked. "What did I get wrong?"

Chen Feng answered with a straight face, "I'm clearly playing with water."

The answer caught Meng Chengcheng off guard, and she burst out laughing.

Watching the two of them laugh together, Lin He nearly ground his back teeth to pieces. He had never taken his supposed love rival seriously before, but today the man seemed like a different person. For the first time, Lin He felt threatened.

With Chen Feng's example to follow, the other visitors tried the same thing. Some were lucky and cleared the attraction unharmed, just as he had. Others reacted a little too slowly and were bitten bloody. But they all completed it and received a Game Coin.

As for the visitors who were too afraid of being bitten and stayed on the bank, an hour later they seemed to fall under a spell. One after another, they plunged into the water.

That was the Horror Amusement Park. Play the games, or die.

They left the riverbank.

Meng Chengcheng sounded relieved. "That's one attraction done already? Maybe this Horror Amusement Park isn't as bad as the rumors say!"

Captain Wu took out his phone. It was past eight, leaving them plenty of time for another attraction. "Then next we'll go to—"

Before he could finish, Lin He cut in. "The air rifle, right? Like Brother Liu said, catching fish and shooting are attractions where we have some control. We've had firearms training, so why wouldn't we choose the air rifle?"

He had an ulterior motive.

Chen Feng knew Lin He had seen how badly he had handled a gun earlier and wanted to make a fool of him at the air rifle attraction.

Or maybe he wants me dead.

That guy's pretty devious.

Chen Feng noticed Captain Wu giving him an odd look. Clearly, the captain had thought of the same thing and was asking for his opinion.

So Chen Feng replied, "Let's go."

He would deal with whatever came.

Chen Feng couldn't shoot, but judging from what had happened at the hospital and here, the rules set by these monsters had to be something ordinary people could manage.

If clearing an attraction required a specific skill, no survivors would ever escape.

The air rifle attraction was in a forest near the river.

Even from a distance, they could see a long line in front of the trees. At least that felt a little like an amusement park.

The air rifle vendor was no more human than the others. He had messy black hair, pale skin, and two blood-red scissors instead of hands. Whenever new visitors arrived, he waved in welcome, making a soft click, click.

Chen Feng heard visitors nearby talking:

"Damn, that vendor's costume is terrifying."

"He looks just like a real monster."

He is a real monster, damn it!

Chen Feng corrected them silently.

At the scissor-handed vendor's feet stood another board listing the rules:

[1. Collect an air rifle and 10 rounds of ammunition from the stall, then enter the forest.]

[2. Monsters will attack players in the forest. Please be extremely careful!!!]

[3. You can defeat a monster with the air rifle. One monster, one bullet.]

[4. One player at a time. Each game lasts ten minutes. Players may leave the forest only when their game ends. Other players are strictly forbidden from watching in the meantime.]

[5. Players who take down ten monsters during the game may receive one Game Coin from the vendor.]

Chen Feng frowned.

Fire the gun, take down the monsters, clear the attraction.

Judging by the rules, a good shot had a huge advantage. Each bullet had to take down a monster. With his aim, he would be lucky not to shoot himself.

Was I wrong? Does this attraction really require shooting skills?

While Chen Feng was doubting himself, Captain Wu turned to the team's strategist as usual. "Chengcheng, any ideas?"

Meng Chengcheng had no good ideas yet, but she noticed one detail. "They actually put the ban on watching in the rules. That means there's a secret you could spot by watching, something that would make it easy to clear."

That's a good way to look at it!

Chen Feng couldn't help giving her a thumbs-up:

Liu Xiaohu might not be much, but he has good taste in women.

While they waited, the vendor led several visitors into the forest. Not one came back.

Did they all fail?

Everyone grew more uneasy.

The other visitors began having second thoughts.

One, then two, then three visitors abandoned the line.

Watching them leave made the team anxious too.

Captain Wu lit a cigarette. "Facing ten or more monsters would be dangerous, even if they're only Imposters. Chengcheng, use it."

Meng Chengcheng nodded. "Okay."

She took three sticks of incense from her backpack and lit them. Then she closed her eyes, held the incense in her left hand, and extended four fingers on her right while curling her thumb inward.

She was about to perform Spirit Communion.

Thanks to Liu Xiaohu's hopeless devotion to her, Chen Feng knew quite a bit about Mediums from his memories.

Every Medium passed through four stages. The first three were Aperture Opening, Tempering, and Aperture Binding.

Aperture Striking, also called Aperture Opening, involved working on a Medium's channels and meridians to open a path through which a spirit could possess them. A Medium who had undergone Aperture Opening could perform Spirit Communion, letting a dead soul possess their body so they could communicate.

Tempering began when an Immortal Patron took an interest in a Medium, who then started to receive a spiritual affinity with them. The Medium suffered a great deal during this stage, but the number of times they could perform Spirit Communion each day rose rapidly. Once they succeeded, they could advance to Aperture Binding and form a pact with the Immortal Patron.

A Medium who had undergone Aperture Binding could summon their Immortal Patron to possess them, gaining power beyond comparison.

Meng Chengcheng was still at the Aperture Opening stage, so she could only summon dead souls into her body, and only once a day.

A Medium at the Aperture Binding stage could use divine power to kill most ghosts and monsters.

A minute passed. Much of the incense had burned away, but Meng Chengcheng still showed no response.

Captain Wu asked in surprise, "Chengcheng, why is it taking so long this time?"

Meng Chengcheng frowned. "I don't know why, but a ghost that didn't die here keeps hovering around and interfering with me... Wait! I've made contact!"