Chapter 348: No Matter What Happens, We Won’t Meet
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
Lin Sanjiu leaned forward and drew in a few big gulps of air. She only noticed the radiating pain from all over her body when she stopped running. To escape from Santa Claus, she pushed herself to an incredible speed in a split second. Now that she had stopped, she could still feel the spasms from her legs and abdominal muscle.
Even though she had a ten-seconds headstart, Santa Claus nearly caught up with her…
While they were running away, Lin Sanjiu was separated from Livia and Zagger so she didn’t know which route they had taken and whether they were even alive. As she heard her own punctuated hissing breaths, she straightened her back. Her eyes drifted past the bumper kart rink and toward the entrance of the arena.
Santa Claus, in his full suit of green, stood directly at the entrance of the arena. The entrance doors cast an ominous shadow over him. Amidst that gray-green shadow, two white eyes were glaring at Lin Sanjiu. The door frame of the entrance only reached the top of the man’s eyebrows. As his eyes pierced through the shadows, it created a disturbing impression as if they were about to fall from his eye sockets.
Facing Santa Claus’ threatening presence, Lin Sanjiu stared back at him without any attempts to avoid his gaze. She raised one corner of her lips. She smirked at Santa Claus as she got into the nearest bumper kart.
Santa Claus immediately narrowed his eyes. He took a step forward almost as if he had the intention to enter the arena. Just as Lin Sanjiu’s chest tightened, he stopped the next instant.
The two of them glared at each other for a few seconds, stuck in a deadlock. When the old woman in the F1 uniform pressed the bell to start the first round, Santa Claus finally let out a sinister chuckle. He turned away and disappeared from the entrance.
Lin Sanjiu let out a huge sigh of relief as she collapsed into the bumper kart seat. Her previous confidence—looking as if she had a trump card—was all an act. When Santa Claus turned around, her heart nearly froze for a second.
Even though Starry Carnival Amusement Park was supposedly designed for Growth-types, the rules in this amusement park were too vague and ambiguous. It was clear that the difficulty for each game station would be adjusted to the capabilities of the stronger player if two Growth-type posthumans joined. However, what would happen if Santa Claus actually joined? Would the difficulty be determined by the Growth-type posthuman or the person with the higher combat capabilities?
If it was the latter, Lin Sanjiu would have been in deep trouble.
If Santa Claus really wanted to challenge the difficulty of the game stations in Starry Carnival Amusement Park, he would definitely die without a doubt. However, he certainly could drag Lin Sanjiu down to the grave with him without any hassle. After all, the difference between their capabilities was an undeniable fact.
Lin Sanjiu actually lucked out as Santa Claus refrained from joining as he did not understand the situation and decided not to take unnecessary risks…
Lin Sanjiu could only pray inwardly that Aker’s words were true. Especially that part where Santa Claus’ ability would only last till today. Hopefully, that was the reason why she was still alive now. If she really had to collect her “present” today, Lin Sanjiu would be no different from a dead person. After all, there was no way Santa Claus would give her that “present” now.
As she had played Bumper Karts quite a few times, it wasn’t difficult. On top of that, without Hei Zeji watching, she felt less pressured. As Lin Sanjiu swerved her vehicle to avoid another bumper kart, she couldn’t help thinking of a problem.
The green Santa hat magnet was most likely a Special Item that would “attract” Santa Claus to its location. According to Santa Claus’ plan, he probably wanted to bypass all the stations and reach Lin Sanjiu’s location directly…
After Lin Sanjiu finished the first round, she mumbled to herself as she organized her thoughts. “If I were Santa Claus, I wouldn’t give up after going through so much trouble. If that is the case… I would retrieve the magnet and just wait at the entrance of the amusement park so that I could get another Growth-type and have him bring that magnet in…”
In any case, after ensuring that Santa Claus’ ability no longer affected her, none of these matters would concern Lin Sanjiu. She didn’t even want to be involved in Aker’s plan. She just wanted to find Puppeteer before those people and get the whereabouts of Reno and Rena. After that, she would leave this Starry Carnival Amusement Park pocket dimension.
“As for Aker, Puppeteer, and Santa Claus… They can go ahead and fight among themselves. Hei Zeji is probably the only person that treats this place as heaven because he can train here and get sweet treats.”
After Lin Sanjiu’s combat capabilities had improved, the three rounds were also harder. However, after completing “Hei Zeji’s” version of the game, it didn’t take her much effort to complete all three rounds again.
“Congratulations, you have received 46 Stamina points,” the old woman looked at Lin Sanjiu lazily as she added 20 bonus Stamina points for completing the station, “Do you want to choose a different route?”
Lin Sanjiu hesitated. She felt a little curious. “What other routes can I choose?”
“You can choose any of the 11 routes in the amusement park,” the “eternally disinterested” old woman answer with a yawn. “However, you can only move to the section of the route between the first and the second station.”
The remaining 11 routes were named after either an animal or a cartoon character. Lin Sanjiu had no idea how they differed from each other based on their names.
“I’ll just randomly pick one, ” she thought to herself, feeling a bit hesitant. She had met Aker on Frog Route. Now that she had dumped the magnet, she had nothing to do with Santa Claus. Considering these two points, the best course of action was to choose to avoid both of them. “I will go for Grizzly’s Route, no, forget it. I will go to Swan Route.”
“The Growth-type posthuman that was decapitated by Santa Claus came out from Grizzly’s Route.” Lin Sanjiu remembered. That also meant that that person had helped her rule out Grizzly’s Route…
“Okay, you will be switched to Swan Route.” The old woman repeated drearily. She operated something and the walls at the back of the arena slowly opened. As the wall rumbled, sunlight flooded in. The path that was revealed had a very different style. She could hear the sound of tinkling music. The path was laid with white rectangular bricks that stretched to the end of her field of vision.
No matter how many pocket dimensions she had been in, she found them very mysterious.
The scent wafting around Swan Route was also different from Frog Route. There was the sweet fragrant of cakes and the delicious smell of barbeque hotdog. Even after walking for a while, Lin Sanjiu still had no idea where the stalls selling these two kinds of food were. Unlike Frog Route, there were quite a few bookstores, grocery stores, and cosmetic shops. Lin Sanjiu couldn’t figure out why these stores were there in the first place.
Even after walking for five minutes on Swan Route, Lin Sanjiu did not see the next station. After fighting for two days, she had accumulated quite a number of injuries. With adrenaline coursing through her body during those fights, she didn’t notice the pain. Now that things had settled down, her every step felt labored.
“Huh?” Lin Sanjiu remarked when she saw the perfect shop that she needed after she consoled herself many times inwardly. “This is a ‘treat-only-symptoms’ pharmacy?”
There was a pharmacy behind a roasted maized stall. It had a minimalist blue-white design. The store’s door was directly behind the stall and it had a large blue cross. Lin Sanjiu couldn’t decide if the blue cross or the name of the store was more eye-catching.
“Who came up with this name?” Lin Sanjiu muttered as she opened the door skeptically. “How does it get business?”
Ironically, the store did get Lin Sanjiu as a customer.
The pharmacy was clean and orderly, with the items on the shelves neatly arranged, yet it did not seem to have anyone around.
“Welcome! Are you feeling unwell? What sort of medicine are you looking for?” A warm greeting rang from the corner of the pharmacy.
Lin Sanjiu did not sense that person even in her hypersensory state. A nimble plump man wearing a white coat stood up suddenly from behind a counter. The air current in her surroundings did not change even one bit as the man smiled at Lin Sanjiu and nodded his head.
“He isn’t a human.” Lin Sanjiu thought to herself. Anyway, this wasn’t the first non-human entity she had met.
“Yes, I am hurting all over,” Lin Sanjiu replied casually while she scanned the counter near her. The things around her looked unusual as well. There saw some medicine with names like “Awe-Inspiring Pill”, “Kidney Boosting Capsule” and others, and they didn’t seem cheap.
“Are you a doctor?” Lin Sanjiu asked.
When the plump man heard her question, he sighed and replied with a long-winded answer. “Oh, I really need a doctor right now! It is difficult to hire a doctor in this lousy place. There is a doctor on Grizzly’s Route, but I suddenly lost track of him…”
While Lin Sanjiu thought about her own wounds, she walked over to the shelves selling topical creams. She wasn’t really paying attention to the man’s words. However, when she reached for the bottle of “Bone Growth Ointment” she suddenly stopped.
“Did you say that there is a doctor on Grizzly’s Route?”
“Yes,” the plump man answered as his eyes drifted to the Bone Growth Ointment. He quickly forgot what he was saying and grinned at her, “Oh! That’s really effective! Do you have any broken bones now? Where? Your rib bones? Oh, then you must have injured your organs as well. I am not boasting here. You can feel your bones growing ten minutes after you rub that ointment…”
“Of course, things sold in a pocket dimension can’t be any normal medicine,” Lin Sanjiu thought to herself. When she realized that the item she was holding was a Special Item, she realized a shocking fact.
“Is that doctor… a player?”
“Ah, of course. We have only that many staff in our amusement park, we don’t have any doctors around— But, I think the doctor left. He isn’t in the amusement park now. In my opinion, you don’t need a doctor,” the plump man did not give up on promoting his product. He brought a small shopping basket for Lin Sanjiu and added, “We have a 10% discount on all items as we just opened. I will only charge you 41 Stamina points for the Bone Growth Ointment! It’s not expensive, right?”
There were no price tags in the store yet the price that the plump store owner quoted left her with only sufficient Stamina points for one game station. Lin Sanjiu held the [Bone Growth Ointment] and watched the man with narrowed eyes. She didn’t move.
There were many people in the Twelve Worlds Centrum so it wasn’t that strange that a doctor would appear on the island. Lin Sanjiu didn’t care about that comment, she was more interested in the information that the man unwittingly revealed.
“Oh my, 40 Stamina points is a little too expensive,” Lin Sanjiu gasped, pretending she was shocked by the price. “I wanted to buy one BBQ hotdog to eat… As you know, since I have these wounds, it isn’t good for me to go hungry.”
The plump man stared at Lin Sanjiu, dumbfounded. He looked at her then at the medicine. He found himself in a rather difficult position. “Our prices aren’t negotiable… That is the lowest price..”
“Oh, I’m not saying that I won’t buy.”
The woman dangled the [Bone Growth Ointment] in her hand but she did not put it into the basket. “Mr. Shopkeeper, I will buy your medicine but I feel that it isn’t really worth 41 Stamina points. Why don’t you give me a freebie?”
“A freebie?” Ever since his shop opened, this was the first time that he had met someone that would try to bargain with a character in a pocket dimension, so he had a slightly stunned expression.
“You mentioned that one of the players on Grizzly’s Route is a doctor and that you lost track of his whereabouts…” Lin Sanjiu flashed a smile at him. “In other words, even though you are not in the same area, you can track the status and position of that player in the amusement park, right?”
The smile on the plump man’s face melted away like ice. He pursed his lips and stared at Lin Sanjiu without saying a word. Lin Sanjiu treated the man’s reaction as a silent admittance. Her grin grew a little wider.
“If you can track that player, we can logically assume that you can also track other players, right? Don’t try to tell me that you can only detect doctors. I won’t believe you.”
Under Lin Sanjiu’s watchful gaze, the man remained silent for a moment before suddenly letting his shoulders drop. “Alright, which player do you want to get information on? However, you must buy the medicine before I tell you.”
Lin Sanjiu’s heart raced. She made the right guess!
Apparently, information about Starry Carnival Amusement Park was not only limited to the few rules on the noticeboards, but they were scattered around for the players to discover…
According to the plump man’s request, Lin Sanjiu bought the [Bone Growth Ointment] without even batting an eye. After that, she thought for a while before she formulated her question. “I haven’t seen that person for a few years. I am not sure what he looks like now. However, he is called Puppeteer. He is a man who is about this tall… Do you know where he is right now?’
After she tried her best to describe Puppeteer’s appearance, the plump store owner nodded calmly. “Yes, I do.”
