Chapter 219: Fantasy Land: Talented Cage
Dear visitors, your next stop is the Gifted Cage. Please be prepared if you wish to visit the Gifted Cage and follow the passenger regulations when exiting the station.
"This attraction is quite interesting." Xu Shengkai stared at the tourist map and thought, although he might encounter unknown people selling goods, at least he wouldn't have to fight monsters. He was determined not to fight monsters again during this period.
He put the tour map and bus rules in order and put them back into the bag on the back of the seat. He saw that the "Gift Cage" station was getting closer and closer, and he could even see the scenery behind the station.
Feeling a little excited, he stood up from his seat at the sound of the train stopping. As the door opened, a sharp breeze blew over him, making Xu Shengkai shiver.
It is April in the Gregorian calendar, and the weather in the south is quite warm at this time of year. People with weak bodies can go out wearing a thin coat. People like Xu Shengkai who often fight monsters and exercise in the amusement park can go out wearing only a short-sleeved shirt. At this moment, he was suddenly chilled by the cold air, and felt cold all over his body, and got goose bumps.
As expected, the tourists who got off at this station together started to complain.
"What's going on? Why is it so cold?"
"That station was apparently quite warm before!"
"Is this site going to be in the style of an ice and snow world?"
"No, it doesn't say that on the tourist map!"
"It's okay. I'll be fine once I get used to it. It's okay if it's a little cold. I won't be afraid of the heat when I play later."
After getting off the bus, Xu Shengkai felt the temperature and found it wasn't freezing cold. It was closer to the Mid-Autumn Festival in the south. It was just that it had been so warm before, and everyone was wearing so little, so the sudden change in temperature made him feel cold. He adjusted for a moment, getting used to the cool feeling, and then strode forward.
The "Talent Cage" is not a huge cage. On the contrary, it looks like a small town. At first glance, there are long houses. However, the colors of those houses are gray and look a bit gloomy.
The distances between each house are exactly the same, and there are irregular lines on the ground. The main door is a black-painted iron door with four large characters "Talent Cage" hung on it. Combined with the dark sky and the cold air, there is a gloomy sense of order.
Xu Shengkai walked to the gate and found a bird's-eye view of the scenic spot hanging on the door. Each long strip of house connected together really looked like a square cage.
There were few people who looked at the map as carefully as Xu Shengkai. Most tourists rushed in excitedly as soon as they got off the bus and spread out in a short while.
"Are there any staff here?"
"There's no one here, and no introduction. How are we supposed to play?"
"There are so many houses, it would take a long time just to explore them. Let's go look for them."
"It looks like an escape room!"
Although it looks gray and empty now, the park never disappoints, which has become a consensus among old tourists. So some people complain in their mouths but still explore it excitedly in their actions.
Xu Shengkai also planned to pick a house to go in and take a look. Who knew that as soon as he walked in, he heard a girl's voice coming from behind. The voice was tender, soft, sweet, and a little nasal. It was as charming and adorable as the soft Wu dialect. "Excuse me, are you buying anything?"
Xu Shengkai's heart felt numb as if it had been electrocuted. His male instinct made him turn around immediately with renewed energy. However, the person behind him was not a sweet and lovely girl at all, but a floating ghost!
"What the hell!" Xu Shengkai was so frightened that he jumped three feet away as if his feet were equipped with springs.
The thing that made the sweet sound turned out to be a humanoid thing supported by a sack. The sackcloth hood stood up in a triangular shape, but there was no head inside. Instead, it was pitch black and nothing could be seen. The torso was bulging, and the bottom of the sleeves were also bulging. No one knew what it was filled with. There was a basket on the right hand, but the lower body was empty, with a few pieces of sackcloth floating, suspended more than ten centimeters above the ground.
If such a thing suddenly appeared in a haunted house or an escape room, it would definitely scare people to death.
Xu Shengkai patted his chest and complained, "Even in broad daylight, it's still pretty scary!"
The thing seemed to be startled by his reaction and stopped moving. Seeing that it was motionless, Xu Shengkai reacted and became curious. He had carefully read the riding rules and tourist map before. The riding rules reminded him that there would be unidentified people selling goods. The introduction of "Talent Cage" also mentioned that there were many unidentified people selling goods near this station, but he had never thought that the unidentified people would be like this.
Looking at it carefully, it's not scary at all, but it feels very strange, like the ghosts in foreign horror movies that can only reveal their shapes when covered with sheets.
Seeing him approach again, the floating hemp-clothed girl with the basket slung over her shoulder spoke in a sweet girlish voice again, "Excuse me, are you buying anything?"
Although the ride rules clearly warned against breaking them, aren't rules meant to be broken? Furthermore, these weren't safety or moral rules like "no climbing over railings, no littering," but rather rules with a distinctly amusement-focused tone. Furthermore, the vendors weren't outsiders, but were clearly park merchandise. How could they possibly just ignore this?
Xu Shengkai asked excitedly, "What are you selling?"
Upon hearing this, Xuanxuan Mayi immediately lifted the cover of the basket. Xu Shengkai took a look and saw some straw-woven butterflies and dragonflies, as well as a few flowers covered with dew.
Xu Shengkai was baffled, not knowing what this was for. Thinking it might be a quest level, he tentatively asked, "Then should I buy a flower?"
Xuanxuan Ma Yi picked out the freshest flower and handed it to him, thanking him several times before saying, "Sir, one dollar."
It was a very pleasant sound. Xu Shengkai took the flowers and felt playful. Instead of giving her money, he took out a few candies from his pocket and threw them into her basket. These were the snacks he had bought but had not finished eating in the car.
Seeing this, Suspended Mai seemed to be stunned, or perhaps paused for a moment, before she spoke again, "Sir, is this... candy?"
Xu Shengkai: "Yeah, I don't have a dollar, so I'll just use candy to pay for it!"
"Thank you, thank you, you are such a generous and kind person."
Then, the floating hemp garment vanished, leaving nothing behind. Xu Shengkai's app didn't even register a single message. Confused, he turned around with the flowers in his hand, only to bump into a door and stumble into a long, gray house.
Unlike the gray exterior, once you enter, you will see circles of light of various colors flying around in the house, but they are not dazzling at all. At the same time, a familiar female voice of a mechanical radio sounded.
Welcome to the Talent Cage. Here, you will learn the secrets of talent and gain a deeper understanding of yourself.
【Now, please grab an aperture according to the color you want most. 】
Xu Shengkai took a look around and found that there were a lot of light circles in this room, and there were also a lot of colors. There were many colors with only slight differences that could not be distinguished without careful observation. Some of these light circles were very lively, flying and jumping around, some were hanging quietly on the wall, and some were hiding behind the curtains. If they were not knocked away by other light circles, Xu Shengkai would not have been able to find them at all, as if they did not want to be caught by him.
Hey, he was told not to catch it, but he insisted on doing so. Xu Shengkai pretended to grab a red circle of light, but actually turned his hand halfway and directly grabbed the green circle of light hiding behind the curtain!
The circle of light he caught did not hide, but just shrank quietly into a bracelet and was put on his wrist.
At the same time, the announcement sounded again, "Congratulations, you have correctly grasped your own talent. Your talent is farming. Please cherish it and fully develop it!"
Xu Shengkai was stunned. What the hell? His talent was farming?
Xu Shengkai came from a well-off family. His family had enrolled him in various interest classes since he was little, exposing him to a wide variety of subjects: music, sports, art... His parents had introduced him to everything, letting him learn whatever interested him and showed him a natural talent. Xu Shengkai, convinced of his talent and passion for music, had always insisted on studying piano. While not a professional, he was more than capable of playing as an amateur. And now this radio broadcast was telling him that his talent lay in farming?
Then, the room changed drastically, turning into a simulated greenhouse environment. There was also a white-bearded teacher next to him, who said to him, "You are such a talented child. Now, come and farm with me!"
Xu Shengkai thought to himself: No, I'm here to have fun, I don't want to farm. But he said: "Since I'm here..."
He began to learn farming from this white-bearded man. The white-bearded man was obviously a professor with a very high level of knowledge. As Xu Shengkai learned, he was shocked to find that he could understand the knowledge taught by the other party as soon as he heard it, and he could get started as soon as he learned it. Moreover, he could apply it to other similar situations after reading it several times and learn from it. It turned out that he really had a talent for planting!
Listening to Whitebeard's praise over and over again, and feeling his own rapid progress in such a short period of time, Xu Shengkai felt very happy. Although he had previously been resistant to farming, thinking it was dirty and tiring, now, this feeling is quite good!
In another long house a few dozen meters away from Xu Shengkai, a girl on crutches jumped forward and struggled to catch a golden circle of light.
[Congratulations, you have discovered your talent. Your talent is music, and the most suitable instrument for you to learn is the flute.]
The girl didn't react. She simply treated this as a game, uttering an "oh," and even finding it rather uninteresting. The broadcaster, seemingly aware of her thoughts, continued: "There are six billion people in this world, but only a tiny minority are able to stand on the right stage and receive the spotlight. Of this small minority, the vast majority come from well-off families."
The girl uttered "oh" again and said nothing. In her heart, she was thinking, of course, those who come from wealthy families have plenty of money and time to cultivate their abilities, so how can they not be excellent?
The broadcast continued: [Money, connections, and looks can be passed down to future generations, but talent cannot. It is a latent instinct within each person, a gift from their genes. Like birth, aging, sickness, and death, it is fair to all humans and cannot be altered by material conditions.]
Just as one cannot know when they will die, the rich cannot know where their natural talents lie. They can only try and learn one thing after another, ultimately choosing the one they excel at and express with all their might. This creates the illusion in the world that the children of the rich are always versatile and outstanding, while the children of the poor are mostly mediocre, without talent or special skills.
[In reality, it's because the poor are so busy, spending most of their lives just trying to survive, that they never have the chance to discover where their talents lie. If they occasionally have a desire, it's quickly suppressed, wasting their excellent talents.]
Dear guest, now that you know your talent, why not give it a try? 】
The girl, leaning on a cane, stared blankly at the room that had suddenly transformed into a music classroom. On the table in front of her, a bamboo flute rolled slightly, the mouthpiece facing her...
Many years later, when she walked towards the world's top music halls with a cane, no one paid attention to her disability and poor background.
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