After the danger had passed, Yang Xiao turned to look at Prisoner No.199 and demanded, "Why didn’t you do anything?"
"Helping doesn’t always an taking action, you greenhorn. I was on guard, watching out for the unknown dangers," Prisoner No.199 muttered under his breath.
This ti, No.84 didn’t try to diate the dispute. It was clear that he too was dissatisfied with Prisoner No.199’s behavior, but he kept quiet for the sake of team unity.
"No.31, thank you," said No.84, extending his hand to Yang Xiao in gratitude. After all, he had been the last one chased by the Ghost and would have been the first one attacked had it caught up, so it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Yang Xiao had saved him.
"No need to thank , we’re all teammates. Anyone who just runs and doesn’t help out a teammate in trouble is a complete bastard," Yang Xiao scoffed.
Perhaps knowing he was in the wrong, Prisoner No.199 just snorted coldly and turned away from Yang Xiao without continuing the argunt.
Looking around, the tourists were still enjoying themselves, with n, won, the elderly, and children all wearing happy smiles. But the longer you looked, the more fake and nauseating it felt, as if everything had been rehearsed and the smiles were painted on.
There was sothing off about these tourists. They weren’t people, at least not the flesh-and-blood kind that Yang Xiao was used to.
"What do we do now?" No.84’s attitude toward Yang Xiao had noticeably changed since the latter reached out to help.
Yang Xiao looked in the direction the clown had left, "Let’s follow and see. Attacks like this won’t just happen once. If we don’t figure it out, we’ll be hunted continuously."
"Alright."
The two of them headed in the direction where the clown had disappeared. And Prisoner No.199, marginalized as he was, had no choice but to follow; otherwise, he’d be on his own. In this eerie place, being alone usually didn’t end well.
They passed through the crowd and reached a fork in the road. According to the signpost, the left path led to Section A, while the right one led to Section D.
Looking around, they saw no staff mbers in uniform, but there was an old man squatting by the roadside, guarding a small cart hung with various photos of tourists enjoying the amusent park.
On the other side of the cart was a thick white quilt, beneath which Yang Xiao knew lay either a small refrigerator or an insulated foam box filled with ice cream and cold drinks. The old man was a vendor, also offering to take photos for the visitors.
No.84 approached the man, politely asking, "Excuse , old man, is there a circus or sothing nearby?"
The old man seed hard of hearing and, seeing a potential custor, quickly stood up, his cloudy, bloodshot eyes squinting as he trembled and asked, "Would you like a photo? I also have mineral water and ice cream, very cheap..."
As they had sneaked in without tickets, they had no money to buy such things. No.84 walked away, grumpy. Yang Xiao suddenly rembered he had a park map and pulled it out to search. Indeed, he found a place called the Crazy Circus located in the distant Section F, but strangely, the icon for the Crazy Circus on the map was colored grey.
Before he could ponder this, he noticed a group of uniford staff heading their way, including a few in grey security uniforms. Conscious of not having tickets, the three of them imdiately lowered their heads and walked away briskly.
After they’d gone about 30 ters, they looked back to see the cart-pushing old man surrounded by a dozen staff mbers. Noting that the old man wasn’t in uniform or carrying a staff ID, Yang Xiao guessed that he was a local villager who had sneaked into the park at night to make a small profit, and now he’d been caught, which probably wouldn’t end well for him.
But to Yang Xiao’s surprise, the staff casually lifted the quilt off the foam box, took out ice cream and soda, and after counting the items, the leading three took out their wallets, stuffed money into the old man’s cash box, then picked up several plastic bags from the ground, neatly stacked them, placed a broken brick from the cart on top to weigh them down, and then left.
"Is that so sort of insider connection?" No.84 was also baffled by the scene, which did not seem to match the normal script of events.
Yang Xiao didn’t care about that. He was only interested in the clown, and the Crazy Circus, inexplicably shaded grey on the park map.
The two could very well be linked; perhaps a serious accident had happened at the Crazy Circus years ago, resulting in the clown’s tragic death.
After stowing the map, Yang Xiao planned to head to Mad Animal City in Section F. This was extrely important and dangerous, as it could likely be the clown’s place of death, and any carelessness could lead to fatalities. Before undertaking such a crucial endeavor, he decided he needed to deal with the unstable elent at his side first.
Scanning the surroundings, he quickly chose a spot. About 30 ters to his left were several tents, in front of which stood a few cartoon character statues. Apparently, the park had tried to create a hotspot for social dia, but the statues’ poor workmanship and sloppy setting ant that the area was virtually deserted.
Seeing Yang Xiao stride toward that place, No.84 subconsciously followed, "Have you discovered sothing?"
"Those statues might have sothing to do with the clown," Yang Xiao replied.
The three of them arrived at the statues, which could be considered downright ugly. Prisoner No.199, staring at the cartoonish cal-like rabbit, couldn’t help but frown, "What clues can you find here?"
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