Chapter 49: Order Supervision Contract

Faster! Run faster!

Panic-stricken, Li Ya pulled out item after item from her inventory, but none of them worked.

Even her cherished Mental Immunity Potion was completely useless in this situation.

The Mental Immunity Potion only stopped her Mental Immunity Value from dropping, but the moment she walked out of Terror Station, her Mental Immunity Value had already hit zero!

She fought through the agonizing pain of her wounds and ran for her life, but compared to Yan Jing, whose speed was already superior, she was still far too slow.

The distance between them rapidly shrank, and the ticket booth was still at least a kilometer or two away.

In a blind panic, Li Ya pulled out a tuft of hair.

The hair was a brownish-yellow, stained with an unknown red-black filth. It looked incredibly dirty, but Li Ya clutched it like a lifeline and screamed, "Lion! Lion! I need speed, give me speed!"

Wisps of ink-black weird energy surged from the tuft of hair and clung to her legs.

Two seconds of extreme speed.

The hair Lion had given her could grant her a portion of his power for two seconds.

This was the final resort Lion had provided. Using it meant allowing his power into her body, essentially handing her fate over to him.

From then on, whenever she entered the Inner World, she would be under Lion's control.

But right now, she could no longer care about that.

Even though it only lasted two seconds, Li Ya watched the distance widen as Yan Jing fell behind again, wild ecstasy filling her eyes at having survived the ordeal.

As long as she reached the ticket booth, she would tear this damned cameraman to piece—

"Click—"

The sound of a camera shutter rang out behind her, abruptly severing her thoughts.

Li Ya stared blankly at the ticket booth just a short distance ahead.

For some unknown reason, she felt the small ticket booth had suddenly grown taller.

The flat-roofed hut had transformed into a towering skyscraper in an instant, swaying in the wind.

The sky above her head also seemed to rise higher, and the clouds morphed into the giant roofs of the White House, pressing down upon her.

She couldn't move.

She simply couldn't move anymore.

This was the only thought left in her mind.

The fear of being caught by Yan Jing grew madly.

She couldn't turn her head, but she felt that terrifying figure wreathed in black flames steadily approaching.

That Thorn Spear, blooming with withered flowers, felt as if it would pierce right through her chest in the very next second.

Yet none of what she imagined came to pass.

The moment Li Ya regained her mobility, she stared blankly at the blood spurting out in front of her. A trembling hand reached up to touch her neck. Somewhere along the line, a wound several centimeters deep had appeared there.

Blood gushed like a fountain, spilling endlessly from her severed artery and staining her hands red.

Gazing at the ticket booth that was merely a hundred or two meters away, Li Ya's vision began to blur. Her expression filled with absolute despair and regret.

Why...

Just a little bit more...

Just the very last little bit...

I shouldn't have provoked him...

A short distance behind her.

Yan Jing calmly stuffed a photograph he had torn in half into his pocket.

Sure enough, after advancing to the first tier, a player's physical constitution also improved. Previously, Lin Mian and An Ranran, who had not yet reached the first tier, lost their heads entirely when their photos were torn. This time, however, this woman named Li Ya only suffered a deep cut across her neck.

If her Day Selection Ritual had been a type that enhanced physical strength, tearing the photo might not have even damaged her blood vessels.

If that had been the case, he still would have needed his spear.

He walked slowly up to Li Ya's corpse and dragged it back with him.

From the ticket booth behind him, faint roars of furious rage echoed out.

It was Lion's roar.

"Clap, clap, clap—"

Yan Jing let go of the body, turned his head, and offered a smiling round of applause.

Just as he had done when he first arrived at the gates of this Amusement Park.

This was his appreciation, as a tourist, for the performance of a lion locked in a cage.

Such a scene was quite common in a zoo.

As a result, the roaring behind him only grew louder. With it serving as background music, Yan Jing dragged the corpse further and further away.

He didn't stop until he reached the spacious plaza.

The battle in the plaza was still raging; few people had noticed what happened on his end.

Yan Jing shot a meaningful glance at Tiger, who was standing off to the side, too shocked to speak.

Tiger quickly caught on. His weird energy surged, and he threw his head back to let out a long, resounding howl.

As if someone had pressed the pause button, everyone involuntarily ceased their movements the moment they turned toward the sound.

Be it the humans or the Amusement Park staff, their hearts trembled as they stared at Yan Jing, who radiated billowing black flames, and Li Ya's corpse lying at his feet. A bone-deep chill sprouted within them.

The woman who had just dominated the battlefield, single-handedly injuring both Hippo and Zebra, was just... dead?

And judging by that despairing expression, she had died a truly miserable death.

Yan Jing felt the fear power rapidly pool in the air above the plaza before transforming into streams of warmth that drilled right into his body.

He could noticeably feel the Cameraman's power steadily growing under this nourishment.

"I stand with Zebra."

He calmly stated his position.

It was over.

The sentence felt like a decree of judgment. Those who had sided with Lion couldn't help but feel their legs go weak.

With no other choice, they quickly broke—some surrendered, while others fought to the bitter end. They were completely and utterly purged.

Every single player from Evil Ghosts was wiped out.

This internal conflict within the Amusement Park had begun quietly and seemingly ended just as inexplicably.

By the time everything was handled, night had quietly fallen.

A crescent moon climbed to the edge of the sky, its pale moonlight illuminating the war-torn mess of the Amusement Park.

Zebra brought Hippo over to find Yan Jing and Mantou, who were squatting by an ice cream cart stealing bites of ice cream. Zebra's expression was solemn:

"Thank you for your help! Mr. Yi Ji, if it weren't for you today, our Amusement Park would have likely been turned upside down by Lion and left completely ruined."

"I should have known. Why would a guy like Lion ever request that we lower the difficulty of the trials for humans?"

"Regardless, Mr. Yi Ji, you are the one who saved our Amusement Park."

Zebra's tone was incredibly sincere. It was obvious that Mantou, standing right there, likely had a higher combat strength than Yan Jing, yet she hadn't even made a move today.

And anyone with eyes could tell that this terrifying girl only listened to Yan Jing.

It was no exaggeration to say that the presence of Yan Jing, an outsider, had become the biggest deciding factor in today's internal war.

In the face of Zebra's gratitude, Yan Jing lowered his matcha ice cream and smiled.

"Even without me, I'm afraid someone else would have stepped in."

"This wasn't a random accident; it was an inevitable outcome."

Just now, while eating ice cream with Mantou, he had finally figured out the one detail he had been missing.

Namely, who exactly had killed Rabbit.

"However, Mr. Zebra, you should know that my intervention wasn't purely out of the goodness of my heart. In truth, I don't care at all who oversees your Amusement Park."

"Tell us what you want. As long as it's something we can provide, we will do absolutely everything to fulfill it."

Zebra caught Yan Jing's implication and immediately responded.

Then he remembered something and embarrassedly lowered his voice:

"But if you are after that so-called mysterious grand prize, Mr. Yi Ji, that might be..."

"I want some of your ice cream."

As Zebra and Hippo looked at each other in dismay, Yan Jing smiled:

"I'd also like to ride your Roller Coaster of Terror once—the kind that goes a bit slower."

...

...

In the dark of the night, the old section of the Amusement Park was brightly lit.

With operating hours over, the roaring and cheering that once echoed through the air had entirely vanished.

Inside the ticket booth, Lion tightly gripped the iron bars. His features were savage, and his sharp nails dug deeply into his palms.

His face was filled with bitter resentment.

Three years of scheming, three years of waiting—only to be utterly ruined by an outsider in the end.

He was so close, just a little bit closer!

He glared fixedly in the direction of the old park, fury spewing from his eyes.

"You won't get out, you damned bastard! The moment you dare approach the exit, I'll swallow you alive and strip you to the bone!"

He roared in rage, making up his mind to trap Yan Jing within the Amusement Park, turning him into a lonely, wandering ghost just like the park employees.

But right at that moment, the clacking of high heels against the ground suddenly rang out, sounding exceptionally crisp beneath the silent night sky.

"Clack—clack—clack—"

Lion frowned and turned his head, looking toward the slender figure stepping out of the shadows.

"It's you..."

He lunged against the bars, pressing his mask so hard it wrinkled and deformed. His expression was fierce:

"You're with that man, aren't you? Speak! Who sent you?!"

"Order Management Bureau."

The icy woman took a Purple-Gold Triangular Badge out of her pocket, her face as cold as frost:

"Rotten Vegetable Village branch of the Order Management Bureau, level-four executive team leader, Lu Miao."

"Order Management Bureau?"

Lion froze for a moment before letting out a vicious laugh:

"Are you people starting to meddle in the affairs of other domains now?"

"What, does the Order Management Bureau want a piece of the pie from the chaos in Old Sin City too?"

The cold, glamorous woman did not reply. Instead, as if simply completing a standard procedure, she took a piece of paper from her pocket and placed it in front of Lion:

"Three years ago, someone commissioned the Order Management Bureau to supervise the order of this territory and, when necessary, eliminate any adverse factors causing disorder."

"To that end, he signed a low-level order contract with us, granting us full authority to oversee the order here."

"Today, we noticed that this place had reopened for business. Following an assessment, team member An Ze and I were dispatched here to conduct an inspection."

From the moment she started speaking, Lion's expression had completely frozen. An unprecedented terror leaked from his eyes.

It wasn't because of Lu Miao's words, but because of the signature at the bottom left corner of the contract:

[San Shan]

"Mr... Mr. San..."

Just seeing this name made Lion's voice begin to tremble uncontrollably. His messy mane shook as he backed away frantically, as if he had just seen a ghost.

"It's... It's Mr... Mr. San..."

"Mr... Mr... Mr. San is back..."

Facing Lion's total loss of composure, Lu Miao remained expressionless and continued with the established procedure:

"The effective term of this contract is five years; it is currently well within its validity period. Therefore, representing the Old Sin City branch of the Order Management Bureau, I shall forcefully execute the terms signed within this contract."

After she spoke, a black blade materialized.

The moonlight fell like frost upon the blade, turning it into a streak of flowing light that slashed open the silent night sky.