The wise monster: Someone's got their eye on me!

Seeing the wind-up goat toy walk past her again, Ye Jiang couldn't help but turn to Yu Hai and ask, "Can't it see the door?"

Yu Hai considered carefully. "Perhaps they want to give Wu Si more time to hide..."

Before he could finish speaking, he saw Ye Jiang walk behind the goat toy. His eyes twitched, and he had a bad feeling. The next second, he saw the Healer reach out and grab the goat toy's thick waist from behind, and pull it off forcefully.

Ye Jiang picked up the goat toy and carried it outside the shop.

Yu Hai: "!!"

"I still think it can't see the door," Ye Jiang said with a blank expression.

Yu Hai: "..."

Click click click!

Suddenly, the goat toy began to shake violently. It looked familiar; the people in the building had witnessed an even grander scene not long ago. Yu Hai was startled and, disregarding everything else, grabbed Ye Jiang and ran, hiding in another shop. Peeking through the crack, they saw the goat toy shake for a long time before returning to normal. Then, it suddenly accelerated, its clumsy body disappearing from its spot, and began to wander around the first floor of the mall.

"Ah!!"

A familiar scream rang out from somewhere in the mall; it was Wu Si's voice. He had been caught by a goat.

Wow, so fast!

The game has a long wind-up animation, but the main gameplay is surprisingly short.

Yu Hai was still wondering whether he should go check on the result, but the person beside him had already headed towards the sound and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Yu Hai: "..."

... In terms of speed, this one is also very fast.

It seems to be faster than a goat toy.

Ye Jiang found the source of the sound and saw the goat toy leaving after finishing its game. The clockwork sound was light and cheerful, and she seemed to see the goat toy's happy mood in its departing figure.

Her eyes flickered slightly, and she turned her gaze to the side, spotting Wu Si slumped on the ground.

He's still alive; he wasn't eaten by the toy.

It turns out that toys do indeed have their own unique standards.

but--

Are toys really that easy to satisfy?

Is the goat toy enough for you after just a short while?

A flicker of emotion crossed Ye Jiang's eyes. She sensed something amiss. The Goat Toys had set the waiting time for the game far too long, while the actual playtime was far too short—the two seemed completely mismatched. If the Goat Toys truly used satisfaction as the standard for completing its tasks, it shouldn't have ended the game so quickly. It was like...

It's as if it derives its satisfaction from somewhere else.

Even Ye Jiang, who wasn't good at thinking, noticed this. She thought Wu Si was actually participating in the game, should have noticed it too. She looked at Wu Si, but the latter wasn't thinking about it at all. Instead, he was immersed in the joy of surviving the ordeal. He was both confused and happy, and his expression was distorted and out of control.

Ye Jiang frowned slightly. She was about to walk towards Wu Si when she was suddenly attracted by a bright light. She looked up and saw that one of the elevator floors in the center of the atrium had lit up.

Wu Si, who was slumped on the ground, also saw it. He suddenly stood up, a hint of jealousy on his face. He stared at the lit-up elevator, counting up the floors one by one, and said, "88th floor, someone has reached the 88th floor!"

He was filled with disappointment, "When will I ever be able to climb to the 88th floor...?"

Just then Yu Hai walked over and, upon hearing this, asked, "Climbing stairs? What do you mean by that?"

Isn't there an elevator?

Upon seeing it was him, Wu Si pouted, "Didn't I tell you?"

He explained, "People who are dropped to the first floor by the door can't see the elevator buttons, while people who are dropped to other floors can see the buttons, but out of the 99 buttons, they can only press the ones below that floor."

You can only press the button for the floor you are on; you cannot press the button for floors above that floor. In other words, once you are on a certain floor, you can only move around on that floor and the floors below it; you cannot go up to higher floors.

He said, "If you want to go to the next floor, you have to complete the tasks on the toys on this floor before the elevator button will be activated for you."

"You can't see the elevator buttons because you were dropped to the first floor, and you didn't complete the task of finding the toys on the first floor."

"As for why we went to a higher floor," Wu Si said, "It's because the exit from the mall is on the top floor, the 99th floor!"

The crux of the problem is that people fear toys, but to completely get rid of toys and leave the mall, they have to actively approach them.

Yu Hai: "..."

On the other side, Ye Jiang, who had just been given a sudden sip of information, asked, "?"

How do I get out of the building?

The highest floor is 99 floors?

Ye Jiang, who had just come down from the 100th floor. "?"

Chapter 112 The Wise Monster: I'm Being Watched!

According to Wu Si, in this shopping mall, the first person to reach a new floor will light up the central elevator of that floor, as a kind of honor recognized by the toys in the building. And in the building, the person who is far ahead in climbing the stairs is an A-Rank superhuman named Chen Hong.

People are afraid of toys, don't want to touch them, and even less want to actively complete any tasks, as the danger is too high. It is said that the higher the level of the toy, the more difficult the task. Only that superhuman named Chen Hong seems to be particularly loved by the toys. He has only been in the building for two years, but he has already climbed to the 88th floor in one go.

"No one who's gone in has ever come out yet. If someone is destined to leave, it'll definitely be that kid Chen Hong. He's so lucky!" Wu Si said with a hint of jealousy. But Yu Hai and Ye Jiang, who were listening to him, weren't moved by his jealousy. Yu Hai thought to himself that this guy named Wu Si was really slippery. He had promised to tell everything he knew, but now he was revealing all this important information.

and--

"No one who went into the building has left yet," Yu Hai said skeptically, because he knew that people had left, and more than one. Weren't those Logistics Team members from the Ability Control Bureau who went out through the doors people?

But judging from Wu Si's expression, he seemed to genuinely believe that no one who went into the building had left, because he was truly jealous of the person who had climbed to the 88th floor.

Is it because Wu Si hasn't been here long enough to know everything?

Yu Hai pondered.

On the other side, Ye Jiang was also pondering how many floors the mall had—100 or 99? They were both preoccupied with their own thoughts when suddenly Yu Hai looked up and asked Ye Jiang which floor she was placed on upon entering. Ye Jiang paused her thought, her face expressionless, and replied, "100."

"100?"

"Um."

"Oh."

The exploration team leader responded calmly. Ye Jiang had thought the leader would think about it with her, but all she got was an "oh." She blinked, somewhat surprised.

This was actually because Yu Hai thought she was joking. How could it be 100 floors? He had counted them before when he couldn't find the elevator button, and the mall only had 99 floors.

The Healer didn't want to tell him, so she played a joke on him.

Yu Hai understood.

Out of respect for the Healer's every thought, he simply said "Oh" in agreement with her joke.

Captain Yu of the exploration team treated the distinguished guests from the Ability Control Bureau with great care.

Ye Jiang's grasp of human relationships was still abysmal; she failed to notice this, instead thinking, "Oh, the Ability Control Bureau probably doesn't think this is important." With that thought, she dismissed the issue. Anyway, Wu Si said the door was on the 99th floor; if his information was correct, what did the 100th floor have to do with it?

Hmm, it doesn't matter. Whether this shopping mall has 100 floors or not is irrelevant.

Unaware that he had missed an intelligence point, Yu Hai discussed going upstairs with Ye Jiang.

Regardless of whether the way out is on the 99th floor or not, Yu Hai always goes upstairs. What kind of exploration mission is it if you don't even explore the map completely?

After discussing it, the two decided to split up. Ye Jiang, who could see the elevator buttons, would go to the second floor first to see if there were any members of the Bureau of the Ability Control Bureau, while Yu Hai would look for an opportunity to complete the toy mission on the first floor and then go to the second floor to meet up with her as soon as possible.

The two didn't hide their conversation from others, but they also didn't mention the Ability Control Bureau. Wu Si, who had been looking up at the building and more interested in the lit-up elevator on the 88th floor, listened to their discussion with an increasingly strange expression. Just as they were about to take action, she couldn't help but ask, "Are you really going upstairs?"

After he finished speaking, the two of them turned to look at him. Yu Hai squinted at him and said, "From what you're saying, it seems like you're hiding something?"

If they weren't hiding something, it wouldn't seem strange that they wanted to go upstairs. He himself had said that the way out was upstairs, so climbing upstairs to complete a mission is a normal person's thinking.

Wu Si shrank back. "I just felt that dealing with toys was too dangerous. I only escaped disaster because of the master's advice to take an unconventional approach. That was lucky, but not all toy quests are games. They're very dangerous! Why are you guys still so foolish as to actively seek out toys for quests?"

His eyes darted away as he said this. Ye Jiang glanced at him, then suddenly raised her hand towards him. Startled, he tried to dodge, but couldn't escape. She easily grabbed him by the back of his collar. Without a word, Ye Jiang dragged him toward the elevator. He realized what was happening and struggled in terror, shouting, "Let go of me! I won't go upstairs! I won't go upstairs!"

Yu Hai hadn't expected Ye Jiang to have this kind of personality. He was stunned for a moment when he saw the man being dragged away. He chased after him, intending to say something, but upon hearing the man's words, his expression immediately changed. His eyes, like a hawk's, hooked onto the man. "Wu Si, didn't you finally complete the mission? Why don't you want to go upstairs?"

Seeing the elevator right in front of her, Wu Si shouted, "Because the second floor is dangerous! There's a big problem on the second floor, no one can go up!"

Upon hearing this, Ye Jiang released him. The man, now free, shrank back in a wronged manner. Yu Hai didn't give him time to compose himself, asking, "What happened?"

Wu Si glared at them resentfully and confessed honestly. "An unidentified Pollution appeared on the second floor, a terrifying Pollution. Everyone who tries to go to the second floor is driven back by the Pollution as soon as they get off the elevator. It started happening recently! It's said that the mall has never had Polluted, only strange toys, but suddenly one day, the Pollution appeared on the second floor. Now no one in the building dares to go to the second floor, and people coming down from upstairs deliberately avoid the second floor."