Chapter 184: The Last Day

"Come on, let’s get moving. There’s far too much trouble brewing in this amusement park right now. We can’t afford to get tangled up in it, or we might end up flat on a board somewhere without even realizing what hit us."

Having finished his assigned tasks for the day, Lin Yun could hardly wait to get back to the shelter.

She checked the time — nearly six o’clock already. By six-thirty, those little green-vested staff would start pestering her about mealtime again.

Even with meal tickets in hand, it still felt far safer to simply head back to the shelter instead.

Song Xizheng quickly realized Lin Yun was right once again — the real secret to survival here was staying well clear of all that messy business entirely.

The two of them broke into a run toward their shelter without a moment’s hesitation.

"Meow, meow — the cat wants ice cream."

As they passed by an ice cream cart along the way, Sang Biao let out a small, pointed meow.

Lin Yun stopped in her tracks, turned back, and bought three original-flavor ice creams, tucking them into her backpack before turning to leave, completely ignoring the red-vested vendor’s attempts to push other flavors on her.

Once back at the shelter, Lin Yun shared the ice cream around with the rest of the household, then checked how many more mission points she still needed before hitting her daily limit.

After collecting her rewards for the day’s completed tasks, she found herself only thirty points short of the cap.

Lin Yun flipped through the mission center once more, her mind already made up about what came next.

With only a handful of days left, there was simply no telling how many of the survivors dropped into this place were still alive out there.

After closing the interface panel, Lin Yun headed out to the backyard to tend to her small garden plot.

She practiced her Wood Spirit Breath daily, growing steadily more skilled at it. Several of her vegetables had mutated recently, which brought her a fair bit of quiet satisfaction.

Over the next two or three days, Lin Yun and Song Xizheng avoided any of the more dangerous amusement rides entirely, sticking carefully to the rules Yan Yue had laid out for them.

Each day, they made a point of finishing three tasks early and heading straight back to the shelter, refusing to get swept up in any of the ongoing chaos.

They were worried that they might otherwise stumble unknowingly into trouble they had no business being part of.

[Special World Amusement Park, Day 14, 11:39]

Weather: Sunny

Temperature: 26°C

Lin Yun was in the middle of bathing Sang Biao and Tuan Tuan at that particular moment. The two of them had gone a bit wild for no apparent reason and rolled around the backyard until they were thoroughly filthy.

Neither the cat nor the tiger dared make a sound, obediently letting her hold them still for a nice, fragrant scrub.

Knock knock knock.

The bathroom sat quite close to the front door, so Lin Yun heard the knocking right away.

She glanced at the time on her personal panel — it was only a little past 11:30. Surely those black monsters weren’t already making their appearance?

Lin Yun ignored it entirely and kept right on pouring water over Sang Biao.

"Lin Yun, are you in there? Come open the door, please."

Lin Yun paused mid-motion. Linglan?

"Please, open the door quickly, Lin Yun! They’ve found me! I had no choice but to come find you here!"

The voice outside sounded genuinely anxious, as though someone really were trying to hunt her down.

"Get out of here right now! I’ll help get you out of this amusement park entirely! It isn’t safe here anymore, not for anyone!"

"Vivian’s already captured quite a number of people, and it sounds like she’s even caught the man who was traveling with you!"

The commotion outside continued on, but Lin Yun remained completely unmoved by it.

As far as she was concerned, whoever this Linglan outside really was seemed highly suspicious indeed.

The real Linglan, after all, was a survivor herself. She knew perfectly well she’d die if she ever tried leaving the amusement park, yet here she was claiming she’d help someone else get out safely.

Besides, at that very moment, Song Xizheng was safely tucked away inside the shelter, which was about as secure a place as they had. He certainly wasn’t foolish enough to wander off on his own and get himself caught somewhere.

Linglan kept talking for a long while outside, but whoever was inside showed no sign whatsoever of opening the door.

She gritted her teeth in frustration. Could she possibly have come to the wrong place entirely?

After a moment’s thought, she stepped off to the side, tucking herself away into the surrounding shadows.

She wanted to check whether anyone was actually inside the little mushroom-shaped house at all.

Yet after more than ten minutes had passed, there was still no movement whatsoever from within.

Linglan’s eyes turned cold. She stepped out from the shadows, pushed open the door to the mushroom house, and found it standing completely empty inside.

She shed her Linglan disguise then, revealing her true face beneath it.

If the real Linglan had been present to see this, she would have recognized this woman’s true identity at once.

Nalan circled the area twice, making certain no outsiders were hiding anywhere nearby, before finally leaving the mushroom house behind.

Not long after, though, she returned once more, settling in to hide somewhere close by.

Soon enough, the black monster arrived as well.

The black monster shot Nalan a puzzled look, clearly wondering what she was doing lurking around there, but ultimately paid her no further mind, since it made no real difference either way.

The black monster knocked on the door just as it had before.

Lin Yun stood by the window once again, watching the scene unfold outside. She hadn’t noticed Nalan’s return at all.

All she knew for certain was that the Linglan she’d seen earlier had actually been someone else in disguise — though it had been far too dark for her to make out exactly who.

But how had that person known all of this in the first place? Had Linglan told her? Lin Yun distinctly remembered she’d never once shared her own name with Linglan.

Beep beep beep.

Song Xizheng: "Sister Lin, how are things on your end? Someone impersonating Linglan just knocked on my door a moment ago. It gave me quite a scare — I thought I’d genuinely been discovered."

Lin Yun quickly typed back, "Same thing happened here, but I have no idea who it actually was."

Song Xizheng: "Something feels distinctly off about this. Why would anyone bother impersonating Linglan specifically? And they seemed remarkably certain that I was somewhere nearby."

Lin Yun turned the earlier encounter over in her mind and realized the same held true — the other party had indeed seemed quite confident he was close by.

Song Xizheng: "On top of that, something’s felt wrong these past couple of days. I keep sensing a pair of eyes watching me from somewhere behind. Every time I head back toward the shelter, I have to wander around outside for a good while first just to shake off the feeling before going in."

Song Xizheng: "It’s genuinely strange, all of it."

Lin Yun added, "There’s only one day left now, and quite a few survivors still haven’t been caught. The people running this amusement park must be growing anxious."

"All the survivors who came before us ended up captured eventually. This time around, we’ve still got a fair number hiding out in shelters. Couldn’t they simply find some way to root us out too?"

After sending her reply to Song Xizheng, Lin Yun herself was suddenly struck by a troubling thought.

Right — how could she have overlooked something so obvious?

Vivian had captured a considerable number of survivors by now, and if she had any sense at all, she would surely have locked them away somewhere, using threats and enticements to pry information loose.

In order to survive, plenty of people would likely end up revealing whatever they knew, shelter details very much included.

But then again... if whoever had shown up disguised as Linglan really had come from that direction, could something terrible have happened to the real Linglan too?

Before she could turn that thought over any further, the system’s mechanical voice suddenly rang out clearly in her ears.

[System notification: Congratulations to the remaining survivors for reaching the final day of survival within the special world.]

There are currently 38 survivors remaining. Please do your utmost to conceal your identities and survive.

Tomorrow will be your most dangerous day yet. Please do everything within your power to make it through!

Lin Yun let out a sharp hiss of frustration.

[Host, you really need to pull yourself together! There’s only one single day left now!]

"Why don’t you just go ahead and tell me exactly what’s going to happen tomorrow, then?"

The system fell instantly, completely silent.