Words: 4341
(Edited)
“Grab the body.” Mr. Heart only dared to come back during the day in fear of Bunny’s ghost. It seemed that she could only be active at night.
King nodded and grabbed the child’s body before hauling it over his shoulder. “Where to?” His facial expression didn’t show a sign of being shocked or startled, today nor the day before, perhaps this was a normal occurrence for him.
Unlike the rollercoaster, Mr. Heart was definitely the one in charge at the moment. Of course that could change, but Li Yan doubted it. King worked under Mr. Heart, and Mr. Heart held no regard for him as a person. Treating him like a cleaning robot instead.
“The junkyard.” Mr. Heart said. “First hide the body in some kind of bag. We can’t just drag it out, I’ve already told the orphanage that the girls ran away.”
“Sir, should we look for the other girl?”
“Although, it was a shame, we probably shouldn’t. She must have ran far away by now.” Mr. Heart sighed. “Let’s go.”
Mr. Heart pulled out a bright pink and purple bag that was in the shape of a huge bear and stuffed Bunny’s body in it.
“We might have to cut apart the body, sir.” King nodded towards his employer and Mr. Heart nodded. “I’ll go get some tools.”
Mr. Heart walked out to go get the tools needed while King sat in the office waiting. Soon, Mr. Heart came back and they began to dismember the body. Li Yan turned away slightly at the sight. The body parts he collected before were confirmed to be Alice’s, so why is Bunny also getting taken apart?
“They ate me.” Bunny suddenly said. Li Yan was shocked and looked over to see Mr. Heart nod towards King and leave for a bit. King looked at the body in his hands before suddenly taking a bite. Li Yan’s expressionless face suddenly became colorful as he cringed.
“He’s not innocent either. Bring both.” Bunny said. Li Yan looked down at the girl and then turned away slightly.
“What happened to the group from earlier?”
“I tried to get people’s attention.” Bunny simply answered, but Li Yan understood what she truly meant. They stayed silent for a bit staring at each other while in the background they could hear the horrendous eating noises from King.
Mr. Heart eventually came back and gave a slight shake of his head at King. “You can’t always eat people.” He put the remaining body parts in the bear and they both walked out of the storage room. Since it wasn’t cleaned up yet, he threw on a maintenance sign on the door to stop people from going in.
It seemed like this definitely was not their first time. Li Yan sorrowfully looked on and felt much sympathy for the past victims. Especially as a child, this was certainly not the way to go. Alice this time was lucky because she had Bunny, but what about the other children?
Li Yan and Bunny continued to follow the two men dragging around a big bunny bag all the way to the familiar junkyard area. Except, this time they opened a hidden door which led them to the junkyard. Whenever Li Yan and the others were escaping this door was not there, or at least none of them found it.
“Where at?” King asked. “Put it in the incinerator or something. Unless you eat it all.” Mr. Heart nonchalantly waved as he started to walk out of the junkyard. “I’ll come back later tonight to see if the ghost is gone.” He was now relaxed because it was day, but there was still a remnant fear in him of the vengeful ghost.
Li Yan watched as the world around him slowly dissolved and then Bunny and him were left in a black open space. The girl's ghost waved her hand and the world suddenly developed again. This time it was night again.
The two were in front of the gates at night looking into the park. Mr. Heart pushed King forward and told him to test it out first to which King complied.
King walked forward into the gates and stood by the entrance, ready to run in case something tried chasing him or killing him.
“It appears safe, sir.” King nodded after standing still for a bit. Mr. Heart hesitated before walking in, right as his foot touched the ground inside the gate, the gate forcibly slammed shut and the lights in the park came on.
“King!” Mr. Heart glared. King also looked scared, his poker face crumbled and he was now slightly shivering. “Sir we must leave!” King desperately looked towards Mr. Heart’s empty eyes.
Mr. Heart quickly turned to try to pull open the gate, but it was to no avail. Suddenly, a big animatronic bear, the amusement park’s mascot, Alice came running towards them with a big toy hammer. Similar to how the one chasing Li Yan and them before was.
“Burning the body didn’t work! The ghost is still here!” Mr. Heart yelled out to no one in particular, almost as if he was cursing himself. King felt that his life had flashed before his eyes. He always knew that one day he’d have to face the consequences of his actions, but over the years the gluttony and pleasure he got overrode that fear.
“Bad men deserve to die.” King said. “What?” Mr. Heart asked. “You’re worse than me. At least I don’t eat them.”
King just shook his eyes that slowly started to turn red. He suddenly tried to pounce towards Mr. Heart, but luckily Mr. Heart dodged in time. The two got so distracted that they almost forgot about the 9ft bear coming towards them!
“Die!” The bear yelled, finally reaching the two. Both of the men scattered and ran in opposite directions. This didn’t seem to stop or hinder the bear any because Li Yan saw the bear split apart and then separately chase the two men. Li Yan was trying to decide on who to follow when suddenly the world in front of him became transparent.
Suddenly the illusion stopped, the screams of the men disappeared into the night and the void enveloped both of them. It was abrupt and a bit frightening to see everything dissolve into darkness.
“What happened?” Li Yan asked. Bunny shook her head while looking down at her feet. “Nothing.”
“Impossible. You didn’t take revenge?”
Bunny just nodded. “They never came back to the grounds.”
“So the last part was fake?”
“Partially.” Bunny answered. “Now go. We are running out of time. I saved you, now you owe me.” The girl pushed him forward and Li Yan found himself in the air falling down.
“Wait!” He shouted, but it was too late and his body quickly started to accelerate downwards. How was he supposed to save her if he died from falling? He shut his eyes a bit to comfort himself during the fall, but unlike what he expected there was no hard fall or body being demolished.
“Li Yan!” He heard Li Bao shout before he could open his eyes and she gave him a hug. “Thank god! You’re alright.” He looked to see his cousin and the others surrounding his body that was laying on the ground.
“Where is this?” Li Yan asked, looking at the unfamiliar place.
“We found you asleep half in this bear.” Li Yan looked down in horror as he saw the bloody bear bag from before. Since Li Yan wasn’t a small child, he naturally didn’t fit in the bear, so only the top part of his body was placed in the bag. They seemed to be in a stall of some sorts, probably the game and food stalls that Lars explored.
He quickly got out of the bear in a panic and checked his clothing. Luckily, the blood was old and dry so he was clean. “What happened?”
“That bear Alice made us play Hide and Seek, but after we found you the noise stopped. What happened to you?”
Li Yan quickly explained to the others what he experienced and they all stared at him slightly shocked. Everyone here were veterans except Li Yan, so they naturally understood the importance of what happened.
“This is very rare. You are lucky.” Li Bao nodded and Ji-Yoo echoed an agreement in the back. “Sometimes in certain rooms you can get the favor of the ghost by doing a certain task. This can usually go one of two ways. One, you go against other players and become part of the ‘ghost’ team per say. Two, you help the ghost and in turn the ghost aids you in escaping while the others tag along.”
“What’s the benefit of the first one?”
“There are a few, sometimes the livestream will get more views if they turn against other players. You got lucky in this game, but in most games there will be many players trying to pit you. Especially if you are new.” Li Bao explained.
“Take Nikolas for an example, but instead imagine if he was a veteran with many items.” Lars added. “Newbies are basically doomed then.”
Li Yan silently thanked the IER gods for his fortune as he listened to their experiences.
“So what do we do now?” He asked. “We can only wait until tomorrow to catch King and Mr. Heart.” Li Bao said.
“I can catch them.” Lars said. They nodded in acknowledgement that he must have an item to help him since most NPCs were very powerful even if they looked normal.
“I’ll help.” Soren said as he saw Ji-Yoo was about to step in first. “You’re hurt.” Soren frowned. “That doesn’t mean I can’t do anything.” Ji-Yoo helplessly smiled.
“We just need to bring them on the grounds of the amusement park. Bunny should handle it from there.” Li Yan nodded. They all agreed on the game plan and began to wait until the next day would come.
~~~
They didn’t have to wait that long because minutes later they were transported back to the gate at the start. Lars and Soren nodded at each other as they saw the security guard approach with a middle aged man that Li Yan had seen before. This was King and Mr. Heart.
If it was before, they may have had an okay impression of Mr. Heart. He was middle aged, but he was dressed neatly. He didn’t look like a corrupt predator like Li Yan had seen in the illusion.
“Sir.” They all bowed in unison. Mr. Heart looked satisfied and nodded. “This is a good batch you got.” The security guard looked at them in scrutiny before also releasing a small smile. “Yes, I have.”
“They all survived?” Mr. Heart confirmed. “Three nights, sir.”
King and Mr. Heart seemed to be in their own world as they discussed the players right in front of them. Li Bao glanced at Li Yan and he shrugged. He mouthed to her that there must be something else. She nodded in confirmation before turning back to look at the two men.
“Okay well, we have a simple task for you guys.” Right before Lars was about to put his plan into action with Soren, Li Bao stopped them. “Wait.” She mouthed. They nodded and held back their items.
“As you know this park is haunted.” The guard began. “We need your help to clear this park, then we can free you.”
“A pit.” Lars whispered. Li Yan nodded. It was a pit for if they didn’t figure out the real story.
“There are two ghosts that haunt this place. If you can get rid of them then we can give you this.” King showed them a whole key that was in one piece, unlike their glued together one. “This is an unlimited pass to the park.”
Naturally, the NPCs didn’t have much self-awareness on the rooms, so they had to make an excusable story behind the items. But, any logical player could tell this was the key. If they were to choose between getting rid of two ghosts to get a whole key or digging in corpses to get only parts of a key, Li Yan was sure most would try this as a last resort. Especially since it was the last day left.
“We have everything you need, you just have to follow this paper.” King pulled a paper and handed it to Li Bao.
“An exorcism ritual?” Li Bao exclaimed, acting shocked. “Sir, of course we can help.”
She nodded towards Lars and Soren who suddenly jumped into action. Mr. Heart and King were caught off-guard as Lars grabbed one and Soren grabbed the other.
“What are you two doing?!” King’s face began red as he angrily tried to get out of their grasps. In Lars’ hand was a bright green goo, and Soren had a pair of red gloves. Both seemed to be a kind of trapping item, making it impossible for the NPCs to break through no matter their strength.
“King, these are your highly acclaimed new hires!” Mr. Heart spat. He tried biting Soren behind him, but Soren dodged swiftly.
“Bring them in.” Li Bao said, her face darkening. She couldn’t stand what these men had done. One was a cannibal while the other was a creep.
Lars and Soren nodded while tossing them in the park. As soon as the two men were inside the gates, the red gates slammed shut forcefully. A strong gust of wind began to rush around the group as they watched the ghost of a girl show up in front of the two men.
It was Bunny. But, Alice was not in sight. Before any of them could think on it further, another girl showed up behind the group. It was Alice.
“Don’t take her!” Alice let out a fierce scream and tried to latch onto Li Yan, but before she could Bunny stopped her. “Stop, Alice.”
Alice’s eyes were red and desperate. “They will separate us, Bunny.”
“They won’t.” Bunny shook her head. “I have your body.”
Alice’s eyes went wide and she let her mouth drop open before calmly backing off. Her former anger seemed to have rubbed off as she stepped back. She shyly hid behind her sister and looked at the group innocently, as if she never tried to kill them.
“Sorry.” She let out a smile, but the group didn’t appreciate it in the slightest. Though, both of the girl’s looked normal to their looks from before, their bodies were covered in blood. They both had on white dresses, making the red contrast distinctly in the white. This made her apology feel sinister.
Bunny nodded towards Li Yan before turning back to the frightened guard and owner. King looked at the group with many emotions swirling in his eyes, and the owner looked at King with the same gaze. He seemed to blame King for everything.
“If you hadn’t eaten her, we wouldn’t have to bend down like this!” Mr. Heart scolded. King just laughed maniacally at him. His teeth suddenly turned sharp, as if he was a vampire and were bright yellow with red stains. As if a magical veil on them fell off, both Mr. Heart and King seemed to turn to worse versions of themselves.
“You’ve benefited off of me too.” King looked at the withering Mr. Heart and smiled. “At least we can die together.”
It seemed as if Mr. Heart wasn’t just a creep, but he was an occultist creep. Though, Mr. Heart and King didn’t have the best looks, they were not as bad as they were now. King’s former body started to rapidly shrink until he was almost a skeleton, his eyes turned yellow to match his teeth while Mr. Heart was no better. Both looked like rotten skeletons. The only difference was Mr. Heart didn’t have the same yellow and bloody teeth as King, maybe due to the fact he wasn’t as active in cannibalism.
“It seemed they not only saw these girls for pleasure purposes, but also for vitality.” Li Yan muttered. The others threw a look of disgust at the two men on the ground.
King just laughed, neither confirming nor denying Li Yan’s statement. A horrible red ritualistic tattoo that was on his chest was revealed as his clothes all fell down from his body’s change. Mr. Heart’s clothes stayed intact, but Li Yan could see hints of a similar tattoo on his chest. Bunny raised her small hand towards the two men as more girls showed up around her. These girls were unfamiliar to Li Yan, but Mr. Heart and King went paler. They were all similar to Bunny and Alice in terms of appearance and age, making it known that the two would target similar people.
“Y-You!” They both started to frantically point out girls, most likely being their past victims. Bunny gave a smile before her raised hand clenched in a fist. The two men began to choke and their faces turned more and more lifeless.
Right before they fully died, Bunny released her fist. Then, the other ghost girls started to slowly move in towards the two before the group could no longer see them. They seemed to have been devoured by the ocean of ghosts.
Bunny turned towards Li Yan as her body began to shine brightly. She handed a child’s head to Li Yan along with the other body parts. “Please free her.”
The head in his hand was Alice’s. It looked just like the ghost child’s next to him, except this head was duller with more bruises and blood. Twisting the head around for a bit, a small key piece fell out of her matted hair. Li Yan got the last piece to the key and gave it to Lars who quickly went to assemble the key together while the others also sighed.
Alice turned to look at the group, staring dead at Li Yan. She seemed to refuse to take her eyes off him until she burned her body. “Quickly!” She muttered, waving her arms at him.
Li Yan just gave her a small smile as he asked one of the others for help. With the use of a few items they found, Alice’s body began to burn and her soul was slowly released. She let out a small laugh like a child her age should as she went to run toward where Bunny went.
“It’s over?” Li Bao sighed. “I almost thought it was the end of us!” She hung her arm around Li Yan’s neck while Hailey just gave them both a cold stare. Seeming to be tired of her disguise, she gave herself a cut on the arm before she transformed to a taller woman with dark hair.
Li Yan was slightly shocked, and “Hailey” seemed satisfied as she grabbed Li Bao back. “My name is Rev. May we meet again.” She bowed towards Li Yan and then dragged Li Bao’s hand towards the gate. The others also looked a bit startled but didn’t say much after that.
Li Yan recovered slightly and watched as Lars inserted the key into the gate. He nodded towards Li Yan before giving him a white button, similar to what he got from Lily earlier. Li Bao escaped from rev for a bit and gave him another button as well. Ji-Yoo decided to join in on the fun and threw his own white button at him. Li Yan was overwhelmed with buttons and told them to stop as he gathered them.
“Stay alive!” Li Bao shouted as she was about to leave from the gate. Before she could, a big cloud of black blocked her way and Rev quickly pulled her back. The other’s all grouped up away from the gate in confusion.
“Did we miss something?” Li Bao asked.
“It’s a manager.” Soren said.
As he spoke, the cloud dispersed and a tall man walked out. Just from his posture and aura, one could tell he was very good looking. The only thing that threw others off was a kitsune mask over his face. He paired it with a black suit making the outfit look formal, but mystical at the same time. Li Yan saw no eye-holes on the mask, and he wondered how the man could see.
On his suit was a small name tag that said, “Discipline Management.”
“Any of you broke the rules?” Ji-Yoo asked. “If anyone it would be you.” Soren muttered behind his back to which Ji-Yoo selectively ignored.
“Is there anything wrong, sir?” Li Bao asked cautiously. She did not have much experience or knowledge on the managers.
The man was silent for a bit as he looked around at the group and nodded his head. “Six of eleven survived. Good.”
He bowed down to the group. “My apologies for the late arrival. Things have been hectic, but it seems you guys did fine on your own.”
“What happened?” Li Bao asked. The man looked at the group and his gaze lingered on Li Yan for a little before he moved them away.
“As you could tell, this room was a melding room.”
“Melding?” Ji-Yoo asked.
“It’s extremely rare, and I’ve only heard of it happening once. It’s when a room is about to level up to a different difficulty, but there were people in the room during the process, making the room have a lot of issues and be unbalanced.” Rev explained to which the masked man nodded.
“So this slowly turned into a medium room after we entered?” Ji-Yoo confirmed. “That explains it.”
“Since everyone has managed to escape you should be fine. I will go now.” The masked man glanced towards the group before leaving a lingering gaze towards Li Yan. “I hope to see more of you soon.”
It seemed as if the statement was aimed towards everyone, but Li Yan had a gut instinct telling him that this man was talking to him only. He wondered if he knew this person, but he quickly disregarded the idea.
“Ahhhh, that’s so unlucky.” Ji-Yoo frowned. “No wonder I didn’t feel as relaxed.”
“I had a feeling.” Lars muttered while looking off to the side, probably using his system for something.
The group discussed a bit more in idle chatter before finally walking out of the gate. “Keep in touch.” Li Bao seriously looked at Li Yan once again before leaving.
Li Yan and Lars were the last ones to leave.
“You really don’t want to join?” Lars asked. Li Yan shook his head. “I’ll be okay on my own.” Lars glanced at him before deciding to give him some helpful tips.
“The rooms will really get harder later. You got lucky because all of us have higher values than the average person here. Your next game might not be as smooth.”
“I know.” Li Yan nodded. “If I can’t beat it now though, then how will I survive later on?”
Lars gave the man a smile before walking out. “See you later.”
Li Yan watched the man’s back as he left before he walked out too. As he left, he felt a cool gust of wind wrap around his neck. He looked around slightly at Wonderland, before continuing to leave.
As the man left, Wonderland began to slowly collapse. The game stalls fell apart, the Ferris wheel crumbled, and the whole place seemed to be placed in fast motion. Leaves began to grow all over, and the amusement park that was once fully functioning began to look abandoned. The lights of the rides all burst, leaving pieces of glass mixed in with the vines and fungus growing.
[System 901: Congratulations on completing Wonderland. Calculating rewards…]
Li Yan was now back in his room watching the screen in front of him calculate his score.
[Completion: S
Coins: 2,000
Stars: 3,000
Transform stars to coins? Yes/No]
Naturally, Li Yan never bothered with his livestream, so he didn’t know when he had gained so many stars. He hit yes to transform and the stars turned into coins.
[Coins: 2030
Item Obtained]
Li Yan was slightly shocked as he had never picked up anything. He was quite curious about what item he obtained.
[Item name: Blice
Rank: S
Status: Bound
Description:
She might have been called Bunny, but she’s actually a cat now! Alice is just Alice. A two headed cat, with two tails, double the fun! Alice and Bunny appreciated you a lot and wanted to follow you. They have their own consciousness so whether or not they can help you is up to your own abilities. In cat form, they prefer you to just call them Blice]
Li Yan looked slightly shocked as a two headed cat with two tails appeared before him. It gave a soft meow, seeming to be unable to communicate in human language like they had before. It rubbed on his legs around him before jumping up on the bed.
From what Li Yan heard about items, this one was certainly very rare. He probably should try to keep it a secret if possible. But it was bonded, so that must mean it couldn’t be taken anyways? He still didn’t want to risk it and draw attention, so he decided in his head to tell Blice later that they couldn’t appear all the time.
[Results finished
Rest time: 3 days left]
Li Yan put away the system’s interface and sat on his bed with his new pet cat. He grabbed the buttons given to him and spread them out on the bed. The cat looked at them curiously and pawed at them a bit.
“No, don't touch.” Li Yan said. “I need to use these.” The cat gave him a meow before going to the pillow to lay down. Li Yan still felt a slightly angry gaze on his back, but he ignored it while figuring out the new things he had unlocked.
~~~
Noice, now he has a cute cat!