The graveyard fell into death.

Bang! Bang bang! Bang bang bang!

The man turned into a ball, being kicked around by countless toys in the building. Soon, all his bones shattered, and his body lumped together, resembling a real ball.

This happened so fast, catching everyone off guard. The "ball" flew back and forth above the people in the building, creating gusts of wind. They watched with their mouths agape, unable to utter a sound.

Wh-what?!

Why would a man be the one to suffer revenge from a toy?!

and...

Without any pre-set tasks, the toys got right to work.

Everyone in the building knows that the wind-up toys inside are incredibly powerful, and no one can resist them. However, the toys don't act without reason; they seem to be bound by some rules, and they can only punish humans if the human mission fails.

That's what the people in the building have always thought.

However, the facts before their eyes overturned their understanding.

The toys in the building aren't restricted by any task rules; they... have a high degree of freedom.

All along, the toys have only pretended to be bound by the rules of the building.

The intelligence gathered over decades had been overturned, and at that moment, the unease among the people in the building reached its peak.

No one noticed that a young man had moved; he had come to the place where...

The woman, whom the residents of the building originally thought would be punished by the toy, was nearby.

"What happened to your hand?" he asked the woman.

Ye Jiang had been standing still for a long time. The commotion of Zhang Fan being kicked around like a ball by the toys hadn't attracted her attention. At this moment, she heard the young man's voice and moved. She raised her head, and a trace of confusion slowly appeared in her deep, dark eyes.

"I..." she raised her hand and said, "I wasn't hit."

Rong Yin's eyes sparkled.

Ye Jiang looked at the ground not far away, where a broken wind-up toy lay.

Zombies

The toy, resembling a gray-blue creature with large, protruding eyes hanging from its face, had just broken off one of its arms. Fragments flew everywhere, one of which struck the toy and lodged in its thin neck, causing its head to tilt sharply to one side.

The toy lay motionless on the floor, only occasionally turning when wound up.

If this were a human, it would be a scene of death.

However, this is a toy.

"... I wasn't hit by the toy," Ye Jiang said, her lips moving slightly.

As the toy was controlled and attacked her, she raised her arm to block, but a second before they made contact, the toy's arm exploded.

It seemed like a self-destructive act done to avoid harming her.

Click.

The tattered zombie toy's spring turned, and the toy's head twitched, seemingly struggling to turn. Ye Jiang's feet moved on their own, and she walked to the other side.

Suddenly, her eyes met those of the zombie toy.

The toy was made of plastic, its eyes wooden and lifeless, but for a moment, Ye Jiang seemed to see joy and excitement in those eyes.

Ye Jiang paused, then squatted down, intending to use her repair ability to fix the toy's body. The moment her hand touched it, a childish voice rang in her mind.

[She touched me! She touched me! Hey, I'm the happiest little zombie!]

A surge of intense joy washed over her like a tidal wave.

anger.

joy.

Are these toys really just "toys"?

Supernatural powers flowed from Ye Jiang's hands, rapidly repairing the zombie toy before her, while thoughts also surged forth.

Chapter 119: Falling to Death in the Graveyard

Suddenly, a commotion arose in the crowd. Ye Jiang looked up and saw the cause of the commotion: the toys seemed to have had their fun and stopped their game of kicking a ball. One of the toys opened its big mouth and swallowed Zhang Fan, whom they had been kicking around like a ball, whole. When Ye Jiang looked over, most of the man's body had already been swallowed, with only his two legs hanging out. Then, the toy tilted its head back and sucked, and the two legs went into the toy's mouth like Noodle. The toy closed its mouth and began to chew, crunching and chewing, the sound of which was chilling.

"Vomit--"

Someone vomited.

Toys really can eat people!

"Ah!!"

The residents of the building were devastated when they first saw the toy eating a person, and screamed uncontrollably.

This shout tore a hole in the atmosphere, and the emotions that had been forcibly suppressed could no longer be controlled and poured out.

fear.

disturbed.

confused.

despair.

A dark mood enveloped everyone.

Most of the people stuck on the fifth floor hadn't been in the building for long, and their mental and emotional state wasn't as strong as that of the people on the higher floors. They were easily affected, and now they were breaking down.

Chaos erupted. Those in slightly better condition panicked and hid, not wanting to touch the toys for a while. Those in worse condition even forgot how to escape, just covering their heads and crying in fear.

Ye Jiang looked at him with deep eyes. She did not sympathize with Zhang Fan's plight, nor could she feel the same fear as the people in the building. It was as if she was born without that emotion.

She just watched.

She felt something strange on her hand. She looked down slightly and saw the little zombie toy quickly remove its gray-blue claws from the back of her hand. It had just patted her with its paw, a very light pat.

The little zombie had been completely repaired, but it was still lying on the ground, tilting its head to peek at Ye Jiang. Seeing that Ye Jiang wasn't angry, it placed its hand on the back of her hand again and patted it gently.

Like...

"Don't panic, everyone! Don't be afraid! Toys won't hurt people for no reason!" Chen Hong, the first person in the building, stood up and shouted loudly to the crowd.

Ye Jiang glanced at Chen Hong and then at the little zombie, and suddenly realized that what the little zombie was doing to her was the same thing Chen Hong was doing to the humans in the building.

It's about appeasement.

Ye Jiang remained silent, her eyes darkening slightly.

Chen Hong's voice echoed throughout the building, but it couldn't break through the illusion created by the people inside. Someone who was escaping heard this and turned back angrily, shouting at Chen Hong, "That person has been eaten! He's been eaten!"

How could they not panic or be afraid!

Chen Hong, oblivious to the other's anger, scratched his head and chuckled, "Because he tried to control the toy, he angered it and ended up like this. He sowed the seeds of his own evil."

He laughed and said, "The toys aren't that unreasonable."

These words left everyone speechless. How could he still laugh? His tone was far too casual! This person, the top individual in the building, had no idea of the gravity of the situation! It turned out the toys had no mission restrictions whatsoever; they didn't need to wait for humans to fail to eat them! With them devouring people without restraint, what hope did humanity have left?

Will they be able to reach the 99th floor?

Thinking about it more deeply, does the 99th floor really have an exit? Could it be that, like the mission rules they firmly believed in, this information is actually false, and there's no exit from the 99th floor at all...?

Will they... ever be able to go home?

They used to admire and envy Chen Hong, but now they genuinely feel that this top figure in the building is missing more than one brain; he's sick.

They didn't even have the energy to argue; the people in the building didn't want to bother with someone who was mentally ill.

Chen Hong, unaware that he had been identified as a patient, continued to gently reassure everyone, telling them not to panic or be afraid.

Ye Jiang looked at him. She didn't think he was sick, she just thought he was a little silly.

She got up and walked to his side.

"What did you mean by the toys in the building?" she asked him.

Chen Hong was calming the crowd and hadn't noticed her arrival. He was startled by her voice, but after regaining his composure, he asked, "Huh? What did you say?"

Ye Jiang asked again, but Chen Hong had long forgotten about it. After thinking for a while, he recalled a sentence he had been interrupted about. He said, "Oh, you're asking about that? I was thinking they were just a bunch of naughty kids."

A naughty... little kid?

Ye Jiang looked around. By this time, most of the humans around had left, and they could no longer be seen. They must have gone into hiding. Only a few people whose mental worlds had completely collapsed remained in the same place, dazed and shedding tears.

The toys... at some point, the toys were freed from their abnormal state. They left the railings on each floor and scattered, leisurely wandering around the building, returning to their usual peace.

A green-skinned dinosaur toy clattered over; it was the same one that had knocked Chen Hong away earlier. It circled Ye Jiang once before walking up to Chen Hong, its long neck lowering down to nuzzle against Chen Hong's palm. Chen Hong smiled and stroked the toy's head.

Just like the slogan Chen Hong shouted to reassure the people in the building, he was genuinely not afraid of the toys in the building at all. When the toys were handed over to him, the smile on his face was definitely not an act.

He seemed to genuinely treat the toys in the building as children.

A small flame shot out from Chen Hong's palm. As a fire-type ability user, he suddenly unleashed his power, causing the air to heat up rapidly. The orange flames abruptly enveloped the green dinosaur toy, and the blast of air blew Ye Jiang's hair to the side. Without her hair to cover her face, her deep eyes were fully revealed, and the blankness in them was clearly visible. She hadn't expected Chen Hong to suddenly attack the toy, even though just a second ago he was saying he treated the toy like a child.

Ye Jiang's finger twitched slightly; she herself wasn't sure if she was going to attack Chen Hong for the toy. Just then, Chen Hong stopped.

Then, something puzzling happened: Chen Hong Ye Jiang at the dinosaur toy with a smile in his eyes and asked it in a tolerant tone, "Is it okay now?"

Upon hearing this, the dinosaur toy shook its head from side to side at Ye Jiang, its two tiny black eyes staring at Ye Jiang.

Ye Jiang didn't understand what was happening, so Chen Hong chuckled and translated for it, "It's showing off the patterns on its head to you."

The dinosaur toy obediently lowered its head, revealing radiating fire patterns left behind after being attacked by the fire power. However, due to the healing effect of the special energy in the building, the fire patterns were slowly disappearing. So Chen Hong raised his hand to help it recover, and the flames suddenly ignited.