Chapter 37: Bumper Go-Karts

"Two more locals just arrived." After letting the crowd from the Evil Ghosts through, the Lion at the ticket booth reached out the window, hung up a "Service Suspended" sign, and spoke into the Walkie-talkie on the desk.

"...Beep... Zzzt... Zzzt..."

After a burst of static, an elderly voice crackled through.

"How do we handle them?"

"Process the man normally."

The Lion scratched his matted mane, glanced at the fresh blood on his claws, and casually wiped it away.

"But the other one is a bit special."

"Special how?"

the elderly voice asked.

"That little one escaped the park a few years ago. I don't know if you still remember her."

"It's her..."

A strange note crept into the elderly voice. "How do you want to handle it?"

"Keep her here for good."

A smile split the Lion's face, revealing sharp, stitched-together teeth mottled with blood. "We can't let her run away again."

"As for those humans, let's lower the difficulty for now. We just reopened, after all. Let's not scare them off."

"..."

"..."

The figure in the Zebra mascot suit stared at the Walkie-talkie in his hand, his calm eyes tinged with helplessness.

The Lion was always like this when giving orders—completely ignoring the reality on the ground and constantly changing his mind. No wonder he had been locked up.

They had just agreed to attract more humans to use as material, and now he wanted to lower the difficulty.

And then there was that little one.

The Lion hadn't thought it through. If it really was her... was she someone they could keep here just because they wanted to?

Then again, the Lion had never even seen her true appearance.

Zebra picked up the Walkie-talkie, ready to notify his colleagues at the other attractions.

Before he could speak, he spotted a man and a young girl walking toward him.

The small figure beside the man—stumbling along with her head tilted and wearing an Electric Helmet—made him immediately lower the Walkie-talkie.

No need to notify anyone. She was already here.

"Time to work!"

He elbowed the Tiger beside him.

Compared to his calm, the Tiger was practically vibrating with excitement.

This was completely normal. The Tiger was new and didn't know how things worked around here.

Zebra didn't bother to warn him, either.

Sometimes, colleagues were just meat shields—especially the ones who weren't on your side.

That was exactly why they were called colleagues instead of friends.

...

...

The aftermath of a collision between two heavy trucks had yet to fade. Heat waves rippled through the air, and flames leaped high into the sky.

"Y-Yan... Jing... should we... pick another one...? I... I might have... remembered wrongly..."

Mantou's expression was hesitant.

This was completely different from the bumper cars she remembered. She worried she was just too stupid and had gotten it wrong.

But Yan Jing squeezed her hand, signaling her not to worry.

"Let's observe first. The other rides probably aren't any better."

"O-Okay...!"

As they spoke, the two approached the ride.

"Welcome to the Bumper Go-Karts~~~"

Zebra and the Tiger spoke in unison, their tones identical to the Lion's back at the ticket booth.

"Hello. Could you explain the rules for this attraction?"

Yan Jing asked with a smile.

"Of course!!! Sir! You've made the right choice picking our attraction for your very first ride!"

The speaker was the Tiger. He seemed exceptionally eager, his mascot tail twitching where it dragged across the ground. Judging by his voice, he sounded like a gruff man in his thirties or forties.

"Our ride has the lowest danger level in the entire park! Plus, we offer life-saving safeguards. If an accident occurs, our emergency rescue services will trigger immediately."

"By life-saving safeguards, do you mean that?"

Yan Jing pointed into the distance, where two black silhouettes resembling Fear Spirits were hauling a charred, charcoal-like body out of the recently wrecked heavy truck, heaving as they tossed it onto a stretcher.

"Exactly!!"

The Tiger replied, his excitement running high.

"You see, with two such robust security guards responsible for your safety, what is there to worry about?"

Yan Jing didn't know if those two Fear Spirits looked like giants to everyone else, but to his eyes, they were incredibly frail. They couldn't even compare to the one on the Terror Bus earlier.

Even so, he nodded.

"Indeed, it looks very safe."

Hearing Yan Jing agree, the Tiger's gruff voice actually squeaked slightly with excitement.

"Excellent! You are about to make the most correct choice of your entire life."

"The rules for our Bumper Go-Karts are very simple."

"Starting from the line, it's a five-kilometer semi-circular track. Six karts compete at a time; if there aren't enough participants, Fear Spirits will fill the empty slots. You can use any means necessary to ram your opponents out of the race. The first to reach the finish line gets our stamp."

"Do you understand?"

"Understood." Yan Jing nodded.

"How many people have signed up so far?"

"Many, so very many."

The Tiger waved his hand enthusiastically and led Yan Jing to the waiting area.

Just as he had promised, a large crowd was standing there.

The vast majority of them wore black baseball caps.

These members of the Evil Ghosts were clearly split into two factions. One was led by a girl with twin tails and heavy, dark makeup.

The other was headed by a woman with thick white foundation and painted red lips, resembling the retro oriental makeup of his past life.

But Yan Jing merely swept his gaze over the two leaders before his eyes landed on a figure in the corner.

That figure stood out as exceptionally tall among the crowd, her expression as cold as frost. She wasn't wearing her standard uniform from Rotten Vegetable Village, sporting a baseball cap and tight jeans instead, but her casual clothes did nothing to mask her chilling, unapproachable aura.

Not to mention she had her iconic young assistant by her side.

Yan Jing was a bit surprised. He hadn't expected to run into this woman from the Order Management Bureau and the youth named An Ze here again.

"Hello, Officer."

He led Mantou over to them.

Mantou stared at the woman who had taken Yan Jing away last time. Her brown eyes were filled with wariness as she gripped his arm tightly.

Even so, she followed his lead and gave a small bow.

"Hello... Officer..."

The Iceberg Woman raised an eyebrow. She clearly hadn't expected to see Yan Jing and his companion here, either.

She turned sideways without saying a word.

Instead, An Ze lowered his strawberry ice cream and looked at Yan Jing.

"I remember you! The guy who got arrested last time!"

"That's me."

Yan Jing nodded with a smile. He glanced at the Glowing Wristbands on An Ze and the woman's wrists and said, "Are you two officers here to play as well?"

"Of course no—of course we are!"

Under the Iceberg Woman's glare, the words in An Ze's mouth took a sharp turn.

"Are you guys planning to ride this?"

He lowered his voice. "These trucks don't have brakes, and the track is on a slight downgrade. Once they start, the only way to stop is by crashing into the other vehicles."

He waved a hand.

"It's no secret. You'd figure it out just by watching. Consider this me saving you some time."

With that, he clamped his mouth shut and peeked at the woman beside him. His expression practically screamed: 'I really want to chat with you fellow locals, but my boss is right here, so this is all I can say.'

Yan Jing nodded in thanks and led Mantou back to the Tiger.

"This attraction looks good. We've decided to play this one."

"Wonderful! Just wonderful, sir!!"

The Tiger bared his fangs in excitement, his dragging tail trembling along with his body. "I'll go prep a vehicle for you right now, sir."

"Can't I play by myself?"

Yan Jing asked.

"The Couple Wristbands! Sir, since you are wearing the Couple Wristbands, you must participate in the attraction together! It's the rules!"

With that, the Tiger hurried off.

Yan Jing pulled Mantou close and asked softly, "Mantou, what do you think of this Tiger?"

Mantou shook her head.

"Haven't... seen him before... but he's... not strong... Y-Yan... Jing... don't... don't be scared! I'm... I'm here!!!"

Mantou waved her little fists, looking quite imposing.

"Alright."

Yan Jing smiled and rubbed Mantou's head before his gaze returned to a calm stillness.

It matched his own senses.

This Tiger wasn't above the First Tier.

The Zebra from earlier was the same.

He even suspected that in this entire Amusement Park, there probably weren't many entities beyond the First Tier. And even if there were guys with strength exceeding the First Tier, there was definitely something restricting them from making a move.

This explained why this group from the Evil Ghosts dared to walk all the way here from the station with zero Mental Immunity Value.

After all, without Mental Immunity Value, humans had absolutely no safety guarantees in the Inner World.

No one would joke around with their own life.

...

While the Tiger was gone, Yan Jing carefully observed the methods the Evil Ghosts were using to clear the game.

It was simple: human wave tactics.

First, they selected the candidates who needed to clear the run, and then they sent up a scapegoat. Once the race began, all their karts would stick close together and hug the edge of the track, using the scapegoat's kart as a brake to bleed off as much speed as possible and reduce the crash damage.

Of course, this method didn't work in certain situations.

For example, when there were rival competitors.

The few explosions that had gone off earlier were all caused by the two different Evil Ghosts factions planting personnel in each other's races.

The atmosphere on the track was highly volatile. He could easily imagine that once that man surnamed Sun arrived, the situation would become even more complicated.

Naturally, none of this had much to do with Yan Jing.

When the Tiger returned, he led Yan Jing and Mantou toward the heavy trucks. He walked ahead of them, his tail dragging along the ground.

He was still chattering endlessly, hyping up the safety of the attraction.

"Rest assured, sir, it's absolutely safe. We have a speed limit. The maximum speed is only forty kilometers per hour. With your physical constitution, you could just jump out of the car if worst comes to worst. Don't you agree?"

"The reason we're called an Amusement Park is because our main focus is still entertainment."

In the air thick with the stench of charred flesh and gasoline, the Tiger's pitch didn't seem terribly convincing. His tattered mascot head flickered in the firelight, making his smile look inexplicably twisted.

Yan Jing lifted his head slightly, feeling the Fear Power permeating the surroundings, and understood one of the main purposes for building this Amusement Park.

The fear of those players was being drawn out bit by bit by the park. It festered under the influence of the massive silhouettes, the deafening noise, and the deranged attractions, ultimately turning into nourishment for this Domain.

This was indeed an unwelcoming place for beings belonging to other power systems.

Fortunately, he was also a member of the Fear path.

Suddenly, the Tiger's footsteps paused, noticing that Yan Jing seemed to have stopped behind him.

"Just tying my shoelace."

Amidst the overwhelming roar of engines, Yan Jing moved quickly, standing back up before the Tiger could even turn around.

"It's a good thing you two are a couple, sir."

"With the Couple Wristbands, this young lady can ride shotgun and accompany you across the finish line. It only takes one cleared run for both of you to get stamped together."

The Tiger laughed.

"Yeah, these wristbands sound fantastic."

Yan Jing looked at the Glowing Wristband he had just slipped onto the base of the Tiger's tail, replying with a smile.