Chapter 306: Chapter 306: Park
“At the beginning of the cobblestone path, a forked road to the left led towards a decrepit, makeshift shrine.
The wooden pass purchased from Mr. Aha began to tremble subtly, seemingly attracted by the shrine.
“The pass should lead us to the interior of this shrine.”
They approached the shrine on foot.
Suddenly, an old man with only his upper body left crawled out from the inner gate, which was truly terrifying… Winry was so frightened that she almost hit him with a hammer.
“Winry…”
Han Dong quickly stopped Winry, upon inspecting through Little Demon Eye, he realized that this is just a pitiful man who lost his lower body.
The elder issued a series of hoarse warnings.
“The path you are to take leads to the ‘Forest Ghost Realm’… those who enter will generally not come out alive, and will eventually become malevolent spirits trapped there forever. Are you sure you want to go in?”
“We are sure.”
There was no turning back.
In the ‘commercial area’ where Han Dong was currently located, almost all the clues had been bought out, leaving no possibility of earning more points.
At the same time, many other convict teams were active in other areas… it’s been a week since they entered the World of Fate, and the clues on the periphery have been basically exhausted.
To earn enough points, to get a high enough rating in this Fate event, they had to delve deeper.
Most importantly, even if they stayed on the periphery, they could not find a way to escape from the paradise.
“Please put your passes into the wooden box…”
Ring! Ring! Ring!
As the pass was put into the wooden box within the shrine,
The old man, who was only left with his upper body, spewed out a bell tied to a red string from his mouth.
“Every time the bell rings, it means you need to stop and wait for the ‘mist’ to disperse before continuing… don’t rush. The Forest Ghost Realm is right ahead.”
“Thank you.”
Han Dong, not caring about the saliva on the bell, immediately grasped this important item in his hand.
Taking advantage of the team members being refreshed just after waking up, they had to hurry to the [Inner Layer of Paradise].
Han Dong estimated that the most common ‘Speed Up’ in the Fate event was coming… the pace of the game was going to change completely, and once they couldn’t adapt, they would die.
In the time to come, ‘sleeping’ might become a very extravagant thing.
Walking on the winding cobblestone path, a breeze would blow every once in a while.
The white clothes hanging between the trees would sway with the wind,
The strong fog would envelop the current area,
Various bizarre laughter would sound from all directions,
A large number of bifurcations would appear on the road ahead, making it impossible to discern the right path.
“Ring! Ring! Ring…”
The bell they got from the shrine rang at this moment.
Like throwing a small stone into the pond, the ripples slowly dispersed the white fog… and the road returned to its original state.
Just within these thirty seconds of change, Han Dong was covered in cold sweat.
If they hadn’t used the pass to exchange for a bell and tried to forcefully enter the inner layer of the park, they would have completely lost their way and been devoured by countless lonely ghosts.
It took about four hours.
The bell rang 32 times in total before they finally reached the end of the cobblestone path. The woods on both sides, filled with white clothes, no longer extended.
They had reached the [Inner Layer of Paradise].
Similar to the ‘outside’ of the world where Han Dong and the others were… the sunlight was obscured by thick clouds of yin attribute.
Only less than 10% of the sunlight penetrated the clouds and shone down here.
It was very similar to an urban environment at nine o’clock at night with only a little moonlight.
However, everyone in the team had night vision ability, and Winry also had night vision goggles ready.
The cobblestone path ran to the back door of what appeared to be an abandoned park.
Clearly visible on the park fencing, there were withering vines all over, and a sense of danger emanated from within the park.
“According to the map, all we need to do is cross the park, turn right and walk two blocks, and we’ll reach the nearest ‘store’…
We currently don’t know anything about the inner layer of the Paradise, so don’t make any unnecessary movements. Our primary goal is to get to the store.”
“Understood…”
The palpable ominous feel made Winry in the team instinctively huddle towards the most reliable vice-captain.
Mia had entered combat mode.
She was ready to transform into a spider and draw her Demon Sword at the first sign of any danger…
Abe had taken on the role of ‘Scout’.
His Beast Perception fully opened, assisting Han Dong in carefully observing their surroundings and trying to detect any potential danger as soon as possible.
“What is this!?”
As everyone huddled next to the rotting back gate and stepped into the abandoned park,
their attention was immediately drawn to the public restroom in front of them.
As mentioned before, darkness loomed over this land… naturally, there was no lighting facility inside the abandoned park.
However, a white light kept flashing inside the public restroom, which was extremely odd.
Click… Click… Click…
At the same time, sounds like chopping wood kept coming from the restroom.
Just as the two girls in the group had their attention drawn to the restroom.
Han Dong grabbed Mia, Abe grabbed Winry from the other side, and both whispered simultaneously: “Retreat!”
The four of them immediately hid in the weeds at the edge of the park.
It was not because of the restroom.
Something was approaching along the small road on the right side of the park…
“What…”
Within their line of sight,
A ‘dog walker’ was slowly walking along the park’s walkway.
Walking the dog in the park at night is a very common thing.
But here, it was a little different…
As the dog walker approached, revealing his features, Winry was scared into covering her mouth.
The ‘dog walker’ was a fat man, dressed in a spiked outfit.
His eyes and nose were covered by a black mask, only revealing a large mouth… a large belly hung in front, his weight would have been over 800 pounds at least.
In his hand was a ‘human dog’ altered through ‘Sitching’ modifications.
The unnerving scene caused Winry to lean towards Han Dong… and it turned out leaning towards Han Dong was the right choice.
Apparently, the ‘dog walker’ had acute senses too.
Han Dong quickly reached out and forcefully pulled Winry into his arms.
Using the characteristics of the ‘Bone Feather Robe’, he spread out the crow feathers, covering Winry, further concealing her presence.
Mia and Abe also had their strategies.
Even so…
When the dog walker got close to the bushes,
The ‘pet dog’, sniffing his ‘nose’ that was cut off and fitted with tubes, made motions to crawl into the bushes.
Han Dong subtly raised his hand, alerting the whole team…
Ready to instantly kill the dog walker and his pet.
At the crucial moment.
Ha ha ha… laughter echoed from the public restroom.
Instantly, the dog walker stopped his search of the bushes.
He turned his head towards the public restroom, as did his ‘pet dog’ with its huge mouth full of fangs and suturing threads, staring at the restroom. “
