Chapter 2 Pirate Ship 1 But killing people is not a crime here...
Article 2 of the Park Guide states that the staff are trustworthy, but why would a trustworthy staff allow players to break the rules? Or is it that the staff was faithful to their duty and counted an even number of players to enter the pirate ship, and the captain was just an insignificant and uncounted decoration?
An Rao seemed to see the Grim Reaper grinning and slowly raising his scythe behind everyone.
"Beep! The pirate ship is about to set sail. Players, please take your seats and fasten your seat belts!" The fat rabbit at the entrance raised a small white plastic trumpet and shouted in the direction of the pirate ship.
The rules of the game cannot be violated, and ticket inspection is a natural commitment to participate in the game. An Rao had no choice but to grab the handrail and get on board, then chose a seat near the side of the boat where he could easily escape.
This is a classic-looking pirate ship amusement facility, made of half-old wood. The seats inside are ordinary colorful wooden chairs, but the strange thing is that there are no ornaments in the pirate ship, only a few rows of seats and a wooden sculpture of a pirate captain.
Since there are no other decorations, what is the meaning of Article 5 of the Pirate Ship Rides Rules: "Please do not touch the decorative ornaments on the amusement facilities at will. If damaged, you will be compensated according to the price"?
There were more and more things that didn't make sense, but he couldn't figure out any clues. An Rao tapped his fingers, his fingertips were cold, and the number of people was always on An Rao's mind. There were thirty players entering the venue now. Should it be thirty or thirty-one? Was the Pirate Rabbit doing his job seriously or was he setting a trap for the players? And why was it thirty?
Also, how do you maintain the symmetry and balance of the hull, and what will happen if the symmetry and balance are lost?
An Rao's back was stretched straight, like a cat that was tense with high alert, and every hair on his body was desperately trying to capture danger signals.
Another person came aboard.
Twenty-eight, An Rao counted silently in his heart.
"Crack." There was a loud noise in the cabin, like the wail of wood unable to bear the weight, or like a warning issued by the hull due to unbalanced tilt, causing panic among the people on the boat.
Oops! Captain!
An Ran immediately looked up at the wooden carving of a pirate captain on the bow. The one-eyed pirate captain, who was wearing tattered pirate captain's clothes and had a full beard, was staring at everyone on the boat with his one eye, which was cloudy due to being covered in dust. An Ran saw a faint smile on his wooden carving face.
Immediately afterwards, a young man in black jumped onto the boat lightly, bringing with him a gust of cool, icy air, and walked past An Rao and sat down.
The teeth-grinding sound of wood rubbing against each other disappeared.
Twenty-nine players plus the captain's wooden sculpture, this is an even number and the key to maintaining balance!
After the players on the boat felt the changes in the cabin firsthand, they were horrified and refused to let the last player standing under the boat get on board. Several people even stood up and walked to the entrance of the cabin in an attempt to forcibly lock the entrance.
"Beep, beep! Please take your seats and fasten your seat belts as soon as possible. After ten countdowns, the pirate ship will set sail!" The voice of the pirate rabbit came from the low-quality speakers, and it sounded particularly malicious because of the distortion and jamming.
"You are not allowed to come up. Didn't you see? Only an odd number of players can balance the ship!"
"ten."
"Why can't you let me get on board? I've spent points!"
"If you come up, we will all die!"
"Why should I trade my life for yours? Your dog life is more valuable than mine? Get out of here!"
"Bullshit, your life is worth the lives of everyone on the ship, your death is only natural!"
"Even if I die, I'll take you with me!" The person who was stopped outside the boat was a small man. At this moment, his thin body played a great advantage. He squeezed in through the gap in the wall of people and at least stood in the cabin.
"Creaky—creaky—" The hull immediately creaked and tilted violently accompanied by a scream.
"Stop arguing. Have you forgotten that noise is prohibited in the park?" An Rao stood up. "Did you forget what happened to that person just now so quickly?"
"Nine."
"Let him come up," An Rao quickly stood up and left his seat, saying to the player who was still trying to chase him down, "The ticket inspector let so many people in, which means everyone who comes in has to play the game. No one knows what the consequences will be if he is not playing. Since the pirate ship needs to maintain symmetry and balance, we should find a way to satisfy it."
“Crunch, crunch…”
"It's easy for you to say it, but how do you say it?!" Someone grabbed the handrail tightly and yelled at An Rao.
The hull tilted even more violently, screams were heard everywhere, and the pirate rabbit's countdown was chasing him like a deadly ghost. An Rao had no time to explain, he just kept his body steady and ran desperately towards the captain's wooden sculpture, and kicked it with a "bang".
"Ah!" An Rao's action caused a burst of exclamations, "But you have to pay for destroying the decorations!"
"Rabbit, he's the one kicking it, it has nothing to do with us!"
"eight."
Even though there was a great deal of noise on and off the boat, the Pirate Rabbit had completely lost the enthusiasm he had just shown when checking tickets, and continued to report the numbers in a cold and mechanical manner.
If someone doesn't get on board, we don't know what the consequences will be. We don't know if the boat will capsize due to imbalance, but we have to pay compensation for damaging the decorative ornaments...
But killing people is not considered a foul here.
"seven."
After a few kicks, the nails of the already dilapidated wooden sculpture of the captain loosened, and the whole sculpture fell straight down from the bow. An Rao felt as if someone had pulled him, and at the same time, his lower back felt hot for a moment as if it was on fire. He saw the falling pirate captain staring at him closely, and a weird smile that was no longer concealed broke out on the wooden sculpture's stiff face.
The harsh creaking sound disappeared and the hull regained its balance, but the players on the boat screamed even louder.
"It wasn't us!"
"We are not in the same group with him!"
"He wanted to kick it himself, it has nothing to do with us!"
"I sat quietly in the chair and didn't say a word to him."
"I don't know him!"
…
An Rao looked up and found that the chubby pirate rabbit was standing in front of him, staring at him expressionlessly.
"Article 5 of the Pirate Ship Rules: Please do not touch the decorative ornaments on the amusement facilities at will. If damaged, you will be compensated according to the price." The Pirate Rabbit's voice was flat as he mechanically recited the rules of the game, and his hand stretched out stiffly to An Rao, "Please do not touch the decorative ornaments on the amusement facilities at will..."
The pirate ship was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Seeing that the tragedy of the man with the tattooed arms was about to happen again, the players who were close to An Rao suddenly moved away.
"Wait, I didn't damage the decorations on the pirate ship. The rules of the pirate ship require the pirate ship to maintain symmetry and balance. We have 30 players on board, but the pirate ship tilted because it didn't maintain balance," An Rao said before the pirate rabbit continued speaking, "This is a problem with the amusement facility, not our players."
"If the captain's wooden sculpture is a decorative ornament, it should not be counted in the number of people, causing the pirate ship to be asymmetrical and unbalanced. If the captain is considered a human being, then he cannot be a decorative ornament. There is no such thing as a person and a decoration. Since the pirate ship has determined that this wooden sculpture is a human being, then destroying it would at most be considered murder. There is no rule prohibiting murder here." An Rao finished his reasoning in one breath and felt like he was standing in court again.
The pirate rabbit really stopped moving, and its single black glass eye stared at An Rao. In a trance, An Rao felt that someone or something was using this eye to observe him, like an experimenter observing a subject, or like a hunter observing prey, smacking, playing with, looking down on him, and yet maliciously indulging him.
Anrao clenched his hands uncomfortably.
After the adrenaline subsided, An Rao belatedly realized that his heart began to beat wildly. His previous attempts and observations had confirmed that the rules were the most important thing in this amusement park. The rules must be followed, and violating the rules would lead to danger, but behavior within the framework of the rules was safe. However, no one knew whether his logical reasoning based on the pirate ship's judgment would be accepted by the amusement park.
After a long stalemate, the pirate rabbit slowly withdrew his hand, glared at An Rao with resentment with his inorganic black eye, turned around and walked back to his post without saying a word, and picked up the trumpet again.
"six."
"Huh..." An Rao sat down with a sense of relief. The amusement park also had to abide by the rules.
Soon everyone started to exclaim again, and this time the person being exclaimed was himself. Under everyone's horrified gaze, An Rao bewilderedly lowered his head to check his seat...when did it turn red?
What color was it before? Green? Yellow? Brown? An Rao, who always had a photographic memory, found that he could not remember it anymore. But it was definitely not red. Article 5 of the "Guide to the Park" clearly stated that there were no red seats in the park. Why were there red seats? !
An Rao stared at his seat and his scalp began to tingle. He had never felt the color red so horrible in his life.
The other players who were originally sitting next to him quickly rolled and crawled away from him, as if they would be in bad luck just by staying close to that chair.
An Rao: ...
"five."
The red of the seat under me was not the ordinary red of plastic seats. It was a dark and uneven red, as if... it was smeared with blood and covered with other light colors and then dried.
Anrao immediately changed his seat.
The new seat I sat on turned red again like blood, while the seat I sat on just now returned to its original gray color.
"Four."
An Rao's mind buzzed. The red chair that moved with him was undoubtedly a deliberate target. The red chair that he couldn't escape was the amusement park's punishment for him!
Sitting on the non-existent red chair may mean that the person sitting on the chair will also be judged to be non-existent.
"three."
Without even a second thought, An Rao quickly pressed the emergency button on the armrest of the seat.
The pirate rabbit interrupted the countdown and mechanically walked to the entrance of the pirate ship, his eyes revealing a cold cruelty - just like before.
"How can I help you?" The pirate rabbit spoke in a businesslike tone, without any emotion, and it was impossible to read the hatred value.
"I want to change seats."
"Changing seats is not an emergency. If you use the emergency button in a non-emergency situation, the consequences will be—"
"I have an emergency!" An Rao interrupted before the Pirate Rabbit finished reciting the pirate ship rules. "Rule 2 of the pirate ship rules states that if you feel unwell, please press the button immediately. I feel very unwell now!"
As he spoke, An Rao lifted his foot. Unfortunately, he had sprained his ankle when he kicked the wooden sculpture just now, and now his ankle joint was swelling rapidly.
The one-eyed pirate rabbit's gaze silently fell on An Rao's ankle, which was swollen like a pig's hoof. His gaze was as cold as substance, making An Rao's whole body go hairy.
"The third rule of the Pirate Ship Park states that players must consciously maintain the symmetry and balance of the pirate ship. As a player, I got injured while trying to consciously protect the symmetry and balance of the pirate ship!" An Rao deliberately put emphasis on the word "consciously".
"I was injured because I followed the rules to protect the pirate ship. The amusement park should also follow the rules to ensure my right to press the emergency button and change to a disabled seat."
The pirate rabbit fell silent for a rare moment, but An Rao's heart was pounding wildly. His fingers nervously tapped where the pirate rabbit couldn't see, tap, tap, tap, tap...
"The first rule of the pirate ship ride is that people under 1.4 meters tall, pregnant women, the elderly, or people with heart disease, high blood pressure, motion sickness, etc. are not allowed to ride this ride." After reading it, the pirate rabbit fell silent. Like an artificial intelligence robot, it checked the conditions one by one.
The corners of An Rao's mouth curved slightly, the amusement park rules were indeed ironclad.
"Look, I don't fall into any of the situations listed in the first rule. I can ride the pirate ship, but I got injured and became uncomfortable because I voluntarily followed the rules of the game. I need a disabled seat."
Since everyone has to abide by the rules, why not play word games with lawyers?
Oh.
After a long while, the inhuman coldness in the pirate rabbit's eyes dissipated, and finally nodded reluctantly: "Okay."
"Thank you." An Rao said politely, then stood up and pretended to limp towards the special seat. Fortunately, he only sprained his ankle slightly and did not hurt any bones. It just looked scary.
"I'll help you over there." A pleasant smell of ice and snow came over, and the man in black who had passed by before came over to An Rao and held his wrist and said.
An Rao looked at the man who supported her with some surprise. This man looked very young, as if he had just graduated from college. Although his facial features were gorgeous, his temperament was very cold, like a sharp knife, beautiful but deadly.
This beautiful knife has a pure black earring on his left ear, which is very consistent with his cold temperament. Under the earring is a pure white soft feather, like the flight feather of some beautiful bird.
An Rao pulled his hand back, instinctively resisting this extremely aggressive look.
"Need not."
"It's safer for two of us to sit there." The man's words were emotionless, but they made An Rao's hand pause for a moment.
He understood.
That disabled seat is a double seat. If the red seat was a lynching of Anrao's crazy testing of the rules of the amusement park, then the disabled seat with two people sitting on it could never turn red. The rules cannot punish a person who has made no mistakes at all.
Sure enough, when An Rao and the man in black sat down, the double chair did not turn red again.
"Two." The pirate rabbit went back and continued counting down.
"Very impressive." said the man in black beside him.
"Thank you. After all, Party A is the father. I spent one million to play, and it must prove that the one million is worth it." An Rao accepted the other party's compliment.
An Rao heard a short breath coming from beside him, as if someone was laughing.
"Anyway, thank you." After a moment of silence, An Rao thanked him.
“No need,” the man in black didn’t even look at An Rao, “It’s fun to follow your chair.”
?
"Yo-ho-ho! The pirate ship is ready to set sail, sailors, please sit tight!" The fat pirate rabbit pressed the start button.
"one."
"Beep——" the pirate ship started.
The pirate ship began to shake violently, and a dazzling white light burst out in front of An Rao's eyes.
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