Medium

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

Captain Wu was stunned. "What the hell? Has that kid lost his mind?"

Lin He, meanwhile, was silently rooting for them. Yes, yes! Just like that! Bite him to death!

Just as the sharp teeth were about to tear into his arm, Chen Feng yanked hard. The fishbowl shot out of the water with a goldfish inside.

At the same time, the system chimed: [Ding! Congratulations, user. You have successfully checked 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 amid the chaos.

Fortunately, his Incarnation had inherited the powerful body he had developed through the Proficiency System. It had felt no worse than being pinched, with only a little pain.

Meng Chengcheng rushed up to Chen Feng and scolded him. "Xiao Hu! You nearly lost your arm! Do you realize you were playing with fire?"

Chen Feng waved a hand. "You're wrong."

Meng Chengcheng blinked. "About what?"

Chen Feng said with a straight face, "I was clearly playing with water."

The answer caught Meng Chengcheng so off guard that she burst out laughing.

Watching the two of them laugh and chat, Lin He nearly ground his back teeth to dust. He had never taken this so-called rival seriously before, but today the man seemed like a different person. For the first time, Lin He felt threatened.

With Chen Feng having shown them how, the other visitors followed suit. Some were lucky enough to pass unharmed, just as he had. Others reacted a little too slowly and were bitten bloody. Still, they all completed the attraction and received Game Coins.

As for the visitors who were afraid of being bitten and kept watching from the shore, an hour later they seemed to fall under a spell. One after another, they plunged into the river.

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

They left the riverside.

Meng Chengcheng relaxed. "That's one attraction done already? Looks like the Horror Amusement Park isn't as formidable as the rumors say!"

Captain Wu took out his phone. It was a little past eight, leaving them plenty of time for another attraction. "Next, we should go..."

Before he could finish, Lin He cut in. "The Air Rifle, right? Like Brother Liu said, catching fish and shooting air rifles are attractions where we have more control. We've had firearms training, too. There's no reason not to choose the Air Rifle."

He had an ulterior motive.

Chen Feng knew Lin He had seen him embarrass himself with a gun earlier and wanted to make him look foolish at the Air Rifle attraction.

Or maybe he wants me dead.

That kid's got a nasty streak.

Chen Feng noticed Captain Wu looking at him with an odd expression. Clearly, he had thought of the same thing and was asking for his opinion.

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

He would deal with whatever came.

Chen Feng did not know how to shoot, but judging from what had happened at the hospital and just now, the rules set by these monstrous urban legends had to be possible for ordinary people to follow.

If an attraction absolutely required a particular skill to pass, 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 stretching out in front of the trees. For once, it looked a little like an amusement park.

The owner of the Air Rifle stall was no more human than the last one. He had messy black hair and pallid skin, and instead of flesh-and-blood hands, he had two blood-red scissors. Whenever new visitors arrived, he waved, making them click softly in welcome.

Chen Feng heard visitors nearby talking.

"Damn, the owner's costume is terrifying."

"He looks just like a real monster."

Because he fucking is one!

Chen Feng corrected them silently.

At the scissor-handed owner's feet stood another wooden board bearing the rules:

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

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

[3. You can defeat monsters 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 after their game ends. Other players are strictly forbidden from watching during this time.]

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

Chen Feng frowned.

Fire the gun, take down the monsters, pass the game.

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

Was I wrong? Is there really an attraction that requires shooting skill?

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

Meng Chengcheng did not have a good answer yet, but she had noticed one detail. "They went so far as to put 'no watching' in the rules. That means there's a secret you can discover just by watching, one that makes it easy to pass."

That's a good way to look at it!

Chen Feng could not help giving her a thumbs-up.

Liu Xiaohu might not be much, but he has good taste in the woman he admires.

While they waited, the owner had already led several visitors into the forest. Not one had come back.

Had they all failed?

Everyone grew more uneasy.

The other visitors began to lose their nerve.

One, two, three—more and more visitors fled the line.

Seeing them leave made the team anxious too.

Captain Wu lit a cigarette. "Facing ten or more monsters is dangerous enough, even if they're only Imposters. Chengcheng, use that."

Meng Chengcheng nodded. "All right."

She took three sticks of incense from her backpack and lit them. Closing her eyes, she held the incense in her left hand. On her right, she extended four fingers and bent her thumb inward.

She was about to perform Spirit Communion.

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

Every Medium went through four stages. The first three were Aperture Opening, Tribulation, and Aperture Binding.

Aperture Striking, also known as Aperture Opening, involved working upon 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, allowing the souls of the dead to possess them and communicate.

Tribulation began when an Immortal Patron took an interest in a Medium and the Medium started to receive that patron's favor. During this stage, the Medium endured great suffering, 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 contract with the Immortal Patron.

A Medium who had undergone Aperture Binding could summon their Immortal Patron to possess them, transforming their power completely.

Meng Chengcheng was still at the Aperture Opening stage, so she could only invite the dead to possess her, and she could do it only once a day.

A Medium at the Aperture Binding stage, on the other hand, could use Divine Power to kill most ghosts and monsters.

A minute passed, and much of the incense had burned away, but Meng Chengcheng still had not reacted.

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 who didn't die here keeps hovering around and interfering with me... Wait! I've made contact!"