Chapter 124 [Shopping Street Battle] [VIP]
As more and more monster patterns appeared on the scroll, the recovery operation was nearing its end, but the last few seemed particularly cunning.
In a sparse clearing in the woods, the players encountered a troublesome combination: [Ear Man] and [Yes-Man].
The two little creatures moved incredibly fast, like two faint streaks of light, darting between the grass and tree trunks, emitting harsh whispers and meaningless repetitive echoes.
Just as the player was about to remind them, Clue Number One suddenly covered his ears and growled in pain, "Shut up! Stop talking in my head!"
Then, he couldn't help but say, "Shut up! Don't talk in my head!"
The voice was exactly like his own.
"Huh? There's a monster repeating what Natsume said!" Clue No. 3 exclaimed, subconsciously hugging the scroll tightly.
The player's eyes lit up. A combination monster? Interesting.
She immediately looked at clue number one, and [Insight] told her that there seemed to be something tiny wriggling in the NPC's ear, and there was also an abnormal movement in the throat.
"Don't move." The player took two steps to Clue No. 1, his tone unquestionable.
Clue number one, E, was getting distracted by the noise and repetition in his head. Before he could react, the player forced him to squat down by holding his shoulders.
The player himself also squatted down and got very close, almost face to face with clue number one.
She reached out her left hand and pinched Clue One's chin between her thumb and index finger, holding his head steady. Her red eyes fixed sharply on his left ear, which was throbbing with a foreign sensation. Clue One froze at her sudden close contact and forced movements, his eyes widening.
"Ears are fragile. I'll be careful," the player said softly. She extended her right index finger, placed it on the edge of Clue One's earlobe, and carefully used [Vector Manipulation].
An extremely subtle, directional and gentle repulsive force instantly acts on all motion vectors in the human body in the ear.
The little thing that was proudly making noise in Clue No. 1's ear canal felt like it was instantly tied up and pulled by countless invisible threads. It couldn't even scream before it was pushed out of the ear canal by this terrifyingly precise force, turning into a sesame-sized, terrified little dot of light.
The player was quick-eyed and quick-handed. As soon as he released his chin with his left hand, he used his free left thumb and index finger to gently pinch the small light spot.
At the same time, her right hand, which was pinching Clue No. 1's chin, was not idle either. The vector control was activated again, targeting the yes-man in Clue No. 1's throat.
A gentle shockwave penetrated the tissue with pinpoint precision, affecting only the tiny parasite. The echoer felt as if it had been thrown into a high-speed centrifuge, instantly becoming disoriented and losing its ability to speak. It was also forced out of the air above Clue One, transforming into another tiny point of light, which was grasped by the player's right hand.
The whole process takes less than three seconds.
Clue No. 1 felt his ears clear, and the foreign body sensation in his throat and the urge to repeat himself disappeared. All that remained was the player's close breathing and the touch of fingers pinching his chin and ears, which made him unable to help but turn his face slightly to the side.
"Ahem... is it over?" Clue No. 1 blinked rapidly.
"Yeah." The player replied, and stood up, pinching the two struggling little light spots, as if they were pinching two annoying little flies.
She walked over to the unfolded scroll of Clue No. 3 and pressed the two small objects directly into it. Two almost invisible black dots appeared on the scroll.
"Done." The player clapped her hands, as if she had just dusted off her clothes. She ignored the NPCs' puzzled expressions and urged, "Hurry up and continue."
The scene changes again.
This time it was a sunny grassy slope full of wild flowers. A cute snow-white little rabbit with watery eyes was limping and jumping beside the grass. Its hind legs seemed to be a little injured, and its ruby-like eyes were watery. Anyone who saw it would want to hug it.
Number Three, who loves furry things, stared with his eyes wide open, and rubbed the fat cat in Number One's arms hard to satisfy his craving.
Fat Cat Monster: "Hey!"
The player sneered inwardly. She had already known from her [Insight] that this monster "liked to lie" and "couldn't tell the truth after eating meat." So she decided not to say anything more and simply walked over. Before the rabbit could react, she grabbed its long ears and lifted it up.
"Squeak!" The beast let out a scream that was not like a rabbit's. Its disguise instantly faded away, revealing its hideous mouthparts and cunning eyes hidden under the rabbit's body, trying to scare the players with its terrifying appearance.
The player felt nothing, and didn't bother to listen to its nonsense. She picked it up and smashed it to the ground. The [Evil Beast] fell into a baby-like sleep without any resistance. Then, she walked over to Number Three, who tactfully unfolded the scroll.
With a snap, he pressed it directly onto the blank space. The beast's screams abruptly stopped, and a dizzy rabbit with a little star hanging on its head appeared on the scroll.
This time the scene changed, it was completely different from the previous times.
The room in front of them seemed to be an abandoned house near the NPCs' homes. As soon as the players approached, they felt that the atmosphere was wrong.
There was an oppressive feeling of voyeurism in the air.
Then, a boy with one eyebrow, about fourteen or fifteen years old, appeared silently in the shadow of the corner, holding a bulging gray cloth bag in his hand.
"Wow!" something suddenly appeared.
Upon hearing this, the young man raised the gray cloth bag and said, "It's an eye."
He said,!
Crash——!
Countless eyeballs of various sizes and shapes poured out like a flood!
Some of them bounced and rolled on the ground, some crawled along the walls like spiders, and they were so dense that they instantly covered the surrounding walls and ground, and even began to bounce towards the players!
"Wow!" Clue #3 screamed in fear, hugging the scroll tightly. Clue #1 and Clue #2 also felt their scalps tingle, pulling her back.
This scene is really too embarrassing!
The player also frowned, not because of fear, but because he felt... disgusted.
Just as she was about to use vector manipulation to stir up a gust of wind to blow the eyeballs away, Clue No. 1 next to her made an astonishing move - he was frightened to death by a cold eyeball that bounced onto his face. It was a completely instinctive reaction. He closed his eyes and punched the boy who was approaching him with a cloth bag!
Bang!
This punch hit Mu Dai's face hard!
Mudai obviously did not expect to be attacked so quickly by a physical attack. He staggered and fell to the ground with the cloth bag covering his head. The innocent and weird smile on his face froze, and his eyes were full of confusion. The eyeballs that were crawling on the ground and the wall also stopped in an instant and fell down.
Good opportunity!
The player immediately used [Vector Manipulation] on the bag, and the open bag was suddenly zipped up by an invisible zipper. At the same time, the player took a step forward, and the unfolded scroll covered the still dazed bag like a net.
There was no time to resist. The eyeballs, along with their strange cloth bag, transformed into a stream of light and were sucked into the scroll. The disgusting eyeballs on the ground and the wall also disappeared without a trace in an instant.
Clue No. 1 was still in the posture of punching, breathing heavily, looking at the empty space ahead with a look of shock on his face.
The player looked at the newly added image of a boy holding a cloth bag with a slightly dazed expression, then looked at Clue Number One and happily gave a thumbs-up. "Nice punch! Clue Number One!"
Clue No. 1: “…”
He didn't want to be praised like this at all!
Just as the player rolled up the scroll and handed it to No. 3, preparing to continue searching for the monsters, the surrounding space distorted without warning.
The light became blurred and the color saturation suddenly increased, as if suddenly falling into an old color film movie.
[Enter the special area: Event - Shopping Street Battle]
Description: The 99th No Blink Contest is in full swing! Use your iron will (and eyelids) to win limited-edition candy!
[Status: A small amount of transformed monsters mixed in.]
The player's eyes blurred, and when he looked again, he found that he, three NPCs, and a fat cat monster were standing at the entrance of a retro shopping street with flashing neon lights.
The streets were lined with bizarre shops, the air tangy with the cloying aroma of candy, and the center was bustling with people... no, there were even monsters! But upon closer inspection, the air was thick with a faint, unreal mist, and the end of the street seemed shrouded in even deeper night.
Monsters of various shapes and sizes crowded together with people, excitedly rushing in one direction.
The player immediately looked at the scroll in the arms of clue number three, Toru - it was still there.
But when [Insight] scanned the excited monsters around her, the feedback made her raise her brows:
Reggae (Ape with Lightning Wings)
Human-faced owl (owl face and human body)
[No harm (like a skinned frog)]
[Broken Straw Sandals Demon]
【… (More unknown monsters)】
[Note: Some targets carry the [Present Tense of the Story] energy marker.]
Tsk, the players get it.
Not only did this place have its own Pokémon, but this place also had a whole bunch of local monsters! It was so mixed up that it was impossible to tell who was who!
At the end of the street, in front of a candy store with a giant lollipop sign, a half-human, half-snake figure in a gorgeous kimono was shouting through a megaphone, "The 99th No Blinking Contest is about to begin! Any challengers?! If you miss out, you'll have to wait a hundred years!"
The player's eyes lit up. Huh? This was the competition mentioned in the event? Winning limited-edition candy? That sounded like the goal! And... she glanced at the three NPCs and the cat around her.
Obviously, they already have a considerable advantage in terms of numbers!
She waved her hand confidently and pointed to the candy store: "Let's go to the competition! Everyone join in!"
"Eh?!" "Competition?" "Without blinking?" The three NPCs were all confused.
"To increase my chances of winning!" the player said in a decisive tone, not giving them any chance to refuse. He controlled them and took the lead to squeeze into the group of monsters.
Therefore, under the players' unquestionable "encouragement" (physical threats), Clue No. 1, Clue No. 2, Clue No. 3, and even the reluctant fat cat monster, were forced to sign up for the "99th No Blinking Contest" where monsters gathered.
The competition was brutal.
Clue No. 1 was teased in the third second by a kappa that made a deliberate face; Clue No. 2 tried to fight back with meditation, but was driven to tears by a farting bug monster next door; Clue No. 3, Tou, was defeated by a fluorescent butterfly that suddenly flew onto her nose.
The fat cat monster was surprisingly calm, squinting its eyes (although it often squinted), looking calm and composed, and managed to survive several rounds.
And the players?
She sat cross-legged on the cushions, her eyes unblinking, like two inorganic rubies. Any faces, flashes, or strange smells that tried to disturb her were completely ignored by her, without causing a single ripple.
In the end, only the players and the fat cat monster who was trying hard to keep his eyelids open and whose eyes were twitching, advanced to the semi-finals.
"Hey, Fat Cat Monster," the player said with a completely innocent expression, without even turning his head, "Give up and let me take over."
Her original intention was to save time. After all, the cat looked like it was about to collapse and could not beat her in the first place. If it admitted defeat now, it would give it more time to rest its eyes.
Unexpectedly, this sentence instantly ignited the fat cat monster's desire to win!
"Ha?! Who are you looking down on? How could I lose to you!" The fat cat monster roared, and forced his eyelids that were about to close to open a little more, glaring fiercely at the player opposite who was motionless like a stone.
The result is predictable.
After holding on for ten minutes, the fat cat monster was still a flesh and blood body (cat body?), his eyelids were as heavy as a mountain, and he was finally defeated.
It jumped off the cushion angrily, muttering, "Damn it... Is this guy made of stone? He doesn't even blink!"
The players advanced to the finals without any pressure.
The opponent in the finals was none other than the charming half-human, half-snake candy store manager.
The player sat cross-legged on a cushion, staring into the eyes of the store manager across a small coffee table. The atmosphere was extremely tense.
Even the Komainu officers maintaining order were so nervous they forgot their duties and devoured a large bucket of dog food. The biker boy handcuffed to the nearby biker held his breath.
"Surrender, little one." The store manager spit out a scarlet tongue, her voice full of seductive magnetism, the tip of the forked tongue almost touching the player's eyelashes. "Let alone in the shopping district, even in the entire Benzai Heaven, there are only a handful of people who can defeat me in a competition."
The player's breathing didn't even slow down. His red eyes continued to stare at the store manager's vertical pupils, and the corners of his mouth even curled up slightly, almost mockingly. "Then I am one of those few."
Her voice was calm, yet full of absolute confidence.
Time passes by every second.
The surrounding yokai audience went from breathless concentration to whispering to yawning. The candy store's neon sign flickered. Komainu Officer finished his dog food and licked his paw in boredom. A biker boy leaned against the wall, nearly falling asleep.
The store manager's charming smile gradually became stiff, and a hint of disbelief and... fatigue flashed in his pupils.
She had never encountered such an iron-hearted opponent! Those red eyes were like solidified flames, without a trace of wavering!
Finally, after a stalemate that seemed to last for a century, the store manager's long eyelashes trembled uncontrollably and very slightly!
“Oh——!!!” All the monsters in the audience were instantly boiling with excitement!
The player wins.
"Yeah!" The player jumped off his chair happily, raised his hands, and happily high-fived and hugged all the people and monsters in the audience.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss..." The store manager made a sound of reluctance and frustration, but soon regained his charming smile. "Really... the young are formidable. Congratulations, little one, you are the champion of the 99th No Blinking Contest! Come, choose your prize!"
She swung her tail and brought over an exquisite tray with three boxes of glittering candies on it.
One box is filled with red gummy candies that dance like flames—[Gummy candies so spicy you'll question your life]
One box contained purple hard candies that flashed with dangerous arcs of electricity—[Hard candies so numb they'd make you suspect a demon]
One box is filled with fruit candies that change color constantly and seem to have bubbles swirling inside—[Jiligulu Wuyu Fruit Candy]
Without blinking, the player grabbed all three boxes of candy with lightning speed and quickly stuffed them into his system backpack. He then glanced warily at the NPCs and monsters around him who were staring eagerly (mostly curiously) at him, and emphasized, "I won't share any of this with you!"
Clue No. 1, Clue No. 2, Clue No. 3: "..."
No one would want to eat this, right?
The fat cat monster rolled his eyes: "Who cares!"
"Hiss, don't be too proud." The store manager looked at the player guarding his food, chuckled softly, and said, "I am only the weakest of the Four Unblinking Heavenly Kings."
As soon as she finished speaking, the entire colorful and bustling shopping street scene began to fade and disappear rapidly like paint washed away by water.
The surrounding monsters, including Reggae and the human-faced owl that ran out of the player's scroll and mixed in, as well as the native residents of the "incident" such as the store manager, Komainu, and biker boy, all turned into streams of light.
The player felt a sinking sensation in his hand and looked down. The scroll of [Present Tense of the Story] automatically closed, and at the same time, a thin, glowing card fell on the scroll.
The front of the card depicts the candy store with flashing neon lights. The half-human, half-snake store manager is smiling sweetly at the door, while the store and the street are filled with silhouettes of monsters of various shapes and sizes.
A line of words appeared on the back of the card:
【A battle in the shopping street】.
The space completely returned to normal. The players, along with the fat cat monster, stood again in the clearing in the forest where they had disappeared before, with the afterglow of the setting sun shining down.
The player put away the cards and scroll with satisfaction. She looked at the NPCs around her, each with a different expression, as if they had just experienced an absurd dream, and happily announced, "Finished! Yay!"
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