Chapter 55 Park Tickets "Hello, do you need a ticket?"...
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Water droplets that had accumulated on the ceiling dripped down the metal edge, and splashing sounds came from the puddles below.
The scene was so eerie it was chilling, and Gu Keke felt a chill run down her spine.
"It seems...yes..."
The other five also composed themselves, their expressions becoming uniformly serious.
The familiar, known rules did not arrive as expected—making them even more at a loss in a world full of restrictions.
Without rules to guide their actions, the players are essentially dancing blindfolded on the edge of a knife, each step fraught with deadly risk.
The six remained silent.
Everyone remained in the raging wind that kept swirling up yellow dust, trying to blow away the restless feeling in their hearts.
"Then what should we do?"
Pushing his wheelchair, Wang Jianping suddenly asked, "Are we just supposed to stand here and do nothing?"
Liang Jun's heartbeat seemed to resonate with the falling water droplets. She felt that her condition had stabilized considerably.
A sense of responsibility as a team leader welled up in her heart, and Liang Jun released her grip on Gu Keke's hand.
“Let’s go around to the main entrance of the bumper cars first,” Liang Jun took a few steps back, distancing herself from the dilapidated area, “but stay as far away from it as possible, since we don’t know what might happen.”
Based on the game's background, the rides and attractions in the amusement park are naturally the most important part, and therefore, they must contain most of the rules.
Given that they are currently unaware of any rules, maintaining a proper distance is never a bad thing.
Wang Jianping pushed the wheelchair forward a small step.
“Wheelchairs can withstand physical damage. I don’t mind getting closer to help you scout out the situation first.”
The person pushing the cart and the person riding it are one and the same, and Wang Jianping naturally did not forget that either.
"Qi Zhixia," his tone softened slightly, "can you do it?"
"Of course I can."
Qi Zhixia readily agreed, "Don't worry, my observation skills are pretty good. If anything seems amiss, I'll let you know immediately."
The group quickly divided the tasks and started working together. Wang Jianping and Qi Zhixia took the lead, while the others followed cautiously behind them, their eyes never leaving the circular area for even a moment.
Several rows of metal railings were piled up haphazardly next to the entrance. It seemed to be a place to regulate people's queuing.
The metal, worn smooth by wind and sun, bears scars; the orange-red rust resembles a wound after the skin has been peeled away, starkly exposed before people's eyes.
After stepping over the pile of scrap metal, the group successfully circled around to the front of the bumper cars.
Contrary to their expectations, no other players stayed in the area because of them.
It seems they didn't want to waste time on this nearly wrecked bumper car.
"Nobody's playing?"
Gu Keke tried her best to keep her voice down, afraid that her whispers would be overheard by others, "Why are we the only ones here?"
Luo Chuange was a head taller than her, and his eyes were already blurred by the wind and sand.
“The facilities aren’t good, and this is the first project at the foot of the mountain,” he shifted his position slightly to shield Gu Keke from the yellow sand, “They probably prefer projects with higher completeness, so they just continued up the mountain.”
During the transfer, Liang Jun vaguely caught a glimpse of green on the edge of her field of vision.
This splash of green stood out starkly against the backdrop of barren mountains. She initially thought she was seeing things, but when she moved closer to see it in person, Liang Xun realized that it was actually a living person dressed in green.
Qi Zhixia naturally noticed it as well.
Sitting in her wheelchair, she turned around and called out to them, "There are people here!"
Then, her gaze shifted slightly upwards, landing on Wang Jianping's wind-blown, disheveled hair.
"Director Wang, shall we go over and take a look?"
"I'm not going."
Unexpectedly, Wang Jianping directly rejected her request.
"for……"
Before Qi Zhixia could ask the reason, she caught a glimpse of a figure brushing past her and walking straight toward the green mass.
Liang Jun walked calmly to him and stopped, a faint smile on her lips. She really did look like a tourist about to ride bumper cars.
"Hello."
Liang Jun's dark pupils paused slightly, but after glancing at the tiny metal badge on the other person's chest, she subtly withdrew her gaze.
The staff member in green also responded with a polite smile, his upper body leaning slightly forward, as if he had received very formal training.
Hello, how can I help you?
It turns out it was an NPC.
All of Liang Jun's interactions with the staff in green were observed by the others. They stopped watching from the sidelines and instead tacitly approached, surrounding Liang Jun, but none of them spoke or interrupted her plans.
Liang Jun met the staff member's gaze directly, even though it was pitch black and unfocused, making her feel uneasy.
"Is this a bumper car area? Can we try it out?"
The staff member in green nodded. "Yes, this is the area for the bumper cars."
Then, his gaze fell on Liang Jun's empty hands. "Excuse me, do you have tickets?"
"Tickets?"
Old Ren, listening from the side, scratched his head repeatedly, "When we came in through the main gate, we weren't told we had to buy tickets..."
"Pfft."
The staff member in green suddenly laughed out loud, startling Old Ren so much that he quickly shut his mouth.
But he didn't seem to notice the old man's fear of his actions, and the staff member in green patiently explained, "Our amusement park has never sold pass tickets. The tickets here refer to individual tickets for the bumper cars."
As he spoke, the staff member in green reached out and straightened a wooden sign that was lying face down next to him.
The wooden sign appears to be chalk writing by a child, the characters now a smudged mess. Although it's impossible to read them as a sentence, words like "ticket" and "vehicle" are still recognizable.
After observing the green-clad staff member's every move and finding nothing unusual, Liang Jun continued to inquire, "Then, may I ask where we can purchase these single-item tickets?"
The staff member in green still wore the standard, template smile, but shook his head.
"I'm sorry, I don't know the exact location at the moment. If you need a single ticket for the bumper cars, please purchase it at any authorized ticket office within the bumper car area."
"What is..."
"Okay, thank you, we understand."
Gu Keke was about to ask more questions when Liang Xun's voice drowned her out.
The staff member in green didn't hear Gu Keke's question. After politely saying goodbye to everyone, she watched them leave with a smile in her eyes.
After walking to a slightly more open space, Gu Keke asked, somewhat puzzled, "Sister, why didn't you let me continue asking questions earlier?"
He just said he didn't know the exact location of the ticket office, and then he told players to find a legitimate ticket office themselves. Isn't that a contradiction?
Moreover, the use of the word "compliant" here is rather strange. Does it mean there are "non-compliant" ticket outlets? And what are the criteria for distinguishing them?
There were just too many suspicious points, and Gu Keke looked at Liang Xun with confusion.
The others watched her silently, wondering what Liang Jun had come up with.
In the distance, the green-clad staff member remained steadfastly at his post. Although no player approached him, he still wore a genuine smile, like a robot programmed with a fixed sequence of instructions.
Liang Xuan took all of this into account.
"We probably won't be able to get any information about the ticket office from them."
Liang Xuan carefully sorted out her thoughts, "The staff member in green is an NPC in this game—you should have already figured that out."
Everyone nodded in unison.
Liang Jun added, "The NPCs appear in this instance as amusement park staff, so they should be playing the role of those who understand the known rules. The information we can get from them, and the clues they are willing to share with us, should be the rules that the system wants to proactively provide to the players."
“And those things they keep quiet about, those they downplay, or those things that might need to be deduced from their actions,” Liang Xun’s logic gradually became clear, “maybe those are the hidden rules we need to trigger.”
Luo Chuange pondered, "You mean the green-clad staff didn't mention anything about the ticket office because it's essentially a 'hidden rule,' and since we didn't successfully trigger that clue, the NPC won't provide us with that information no matter how much we ask—is that what you mean?"
Liang Xun took a deep breath and nodded, "Yes."
This explains why the system hasn't assigned them any known rules until now.
As the embodiment of the rules, these staff members, who require players to interact with them, have been scattered throughout every corner of this desolate mountain amusement park.
The group immediately felt an increased pressure.
Sitting in her wheelchair, Qi Zhixia then asked, "So, are we going to find the ticket office next?"
"right."
Liang Xun quickly divided the six of them into three teams. "Director Wang, you and Summer are in one team; Luo Chuange and Lao Ren, you two are in one team; Coco and I are in one team. We three teams will split up and go find the ticket booth that sells individual tickets for the bumper cars."
She then recalled the issue of the search area mentioned by the staff member in green, and advised, "Don't go too far. Keep your search within the area where you can see the bumper cars. Anything outside that area is very likely not related to the bumper cars."
The others echoed, "Understood."
Liang Jun took out a walkie-talkie from her bag. "If you find the ticket office, or if you encounter any emergencies, remember to contact us via walkie-talkie immediately."
After a brief exchange, the three teams went their separate ways.
Liang Jun and Gu Keke were in charge of the northern part. But this area was a wasteland that stretched as far as the eye could see. Not to mention a ticket office, the two of them couldn't even find a decent building.
Ten minutes later, just as they were about to return to the center, a burst of noise suddenly came from the walkie-talkie.
Then, Lao Ren's voice came through the walkie-talkie.
"We've found the ticket office!"
Old Ren's voice was filled with barely concealed excitement, "It's just south of the bumper cars, in a mushroom-shaped building. We're standing right at this entrance; you'll see it when you get here!"
Upon hearing the news, Liang Xun and Gu Keke immediately ran over there.
When they arrived at the location Lao Ren had mentioned, Wang Jianping and Qi Zhixia were already waiting there.
Seeing that everyone had arrived, Lao Ren smiled and approached them.
"We didn't expect it to be here at first; we thought it was strange for a mushroom to be standing here. But then we thought, this is a children's playground after all, so we can't think about things like adults. So I went up and asked, and it really was the ticket office!"
Luo Chuange chimed in, "These are all Lao Ren's ideas; we owe it all to him."
This mushroom-shaped building is small and tucked away in a corner on the south side.
Liang Jun looked back and found that from this position, she could see just one corner of the bumper cars.
The mushroom was bright red all over. Someone had painted several large dots on the cap at the top with white paint.
But it seemed to have been washed away by the rain, the white liquid flowing downwards and drying into tear stains.
A window was cut into the middle of the mushroom.
Upon seeing someone approach, the person inside the window immediately became interested.
The staff member in red spoke softly, "Hello, do you need to buy a ticket?"
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Author's Note: Hello, could you please add this to your favorites? (cute)
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