abcnovels
Chapter 172 - Ferris Wheel
Chapter 172 - Ferris Wheel
Chapter 172 - Ferris Wheel
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
Fog shrouded the entire mountain range.
The air was full of moisture and carried a rusty smell. It was as though the metal frames of all of the amusement park facilities had started to decay.
Wu Jin faced the amusement park’s old ticket machine. His watch beeped twice, and soon, the machine spat out two all-inclusive tickets.
A single ticket was worth 300 credits and allowed the bearer to enjoy 8 rides.
The surface of the ticket was damp and sticky to the touch.
“The Tuwala theme park has 126 entertainment facilities...” Wu Jin read the introduction on the back of the ticket out loud, “Theme park?”
Wei Shi was the first one to check in his ticket and step through the gate.
The humid mountain wind whistled by, dispersing the fog obscuring their field of vision in seconds, lifting up a corner of the veil––
The amusement park was located amongst the grey-black mountains.
The sun shone down from high above, but it was half covered by dark clouds, making the entire amusement park seem drowsy and dead. The moment Wu Jin stepped completely through the gate, he even felt as if he’d entered some kind of enclosed space.
At this time, the cameras were spread out all over the map.
Wu Jin was very well-behaved as he stayed beside the big boss, and he didn’t act out at all. Fortunately, the competitions were something that they were now very familiar with, and after the two of them entered the right mental state, they immediately entered a non-ambiguous teammate mode.
The Crosson Show’s live stream room.
The audience was unimpressed by this.
Taking advantage of the time while Blood Pigeon was explaining the competition, the ‘Scarf CP’ faction immediately opened up an independent scrolling comments channel and started praising the two idols to the heavens!
Wei Shi handed Wu Jin a gun.
––“Sweeping the blade and opening up the path ahead for you, accompanying you everywhere!”
Wei Shi stepped forward to explore ahead.
––”Taking down demons and monsters, ensuring your way ahead is unimpeded!”
Wei Shi transferred the credits on his watch to Wu Jin.
––“Handing over 500 taels of silver!”
Wu Jin bought the tickets and handed them to Wei Shi.
––“Rewarding you with a gold medal!”
The densely packed scrolling comments were basically a carnival zone for the CP fans. Not only the Scarf CPs, but also the Wei-Thin, Jingyi, and Double Fools CPs also became extremely enthusiastic once the players had entered the competition.
Only the hard core survival show fans were able to focus on the two instructors’ explanation through the gaps in the scrolling comments.
Blood Pigeon’s mouth opened and closed, and words like ‘Europe’ and ‘two rivers’ came out of it.
In the theme park.
As Wei-Thin and Jingyi stepped into the map one after another, Wu Jin followed the big boss all the way into the depths of the map and finally saw the first figure appear in his field of vision.
Wu Jin suddenly lifted his head.
In front of him was a slender and strange figure. He could roughly see the outlines of a huge body with a particularly long head that was nearly two sizes larger than that of ordinary people. It was unknown when this person had come out to stand in the thick fog, standing silently there like a sculpture.
The youth’s spirit tensed up, and his finger touched the trigger––
Then, he slowly lowered his hand.
It was a stone figure.
The stone man was carved simply, and his arm pointed in a certain direction.
Wei Shi looked out into the distance and squinted slightly, “Labyrinth.”
The two of them headed in the direction the stone man had indicated. After about 200 meters, the scenery suddenly changed. Huge stones had been placed upright on the lawn, and sometimes, two boulders would hold up a third one. Numerous stone gates divided up their field of vision, and ditches and earthen platforms could be seen nearby.
The stone man pointed towards the entrance of the labyrinth. A half rusted ticket machine had been placed beside it.
Labyrinth single entry fee: 50 credits/person.
Wu Jin marked down the position, “Let’s first find the Ferris Wheel. There’s still 30 minutes to go.”
In their itinerary, the time for the Ferris Wheel was at 9:45AM. In the sixth elimination match, the wrist watch didn’t provide the function of keeping time, so Wu Jin and Wei Shi were taking turns using their pulse to keep time.
––Although, Wu Jin felt that the big boss’s own biological clock was already enough.
Before they left, Wu Jin looked at the stone array behind him once again.
It seemed that there was something at the back of his mind, but the thought disappeared quickly. Before the sixth elimination match began, the Crosson program group hadn’t given them any kind of background introduction. If there was any logical reasoning involved, then it would either test their common sense, or be related to the first five elimination matches in some way.
However, this massive amusement park didn’t seem to be able to recreate a ‘Cellular Automata’ no matter how one looked at it.
After figuring out the general structure of the amusement park rides, Wu Jin sped up his process of exploring the map. Not only were there stone formations in the fog, there were also bonfires, a giant billboard engraved with 12 copper plates, and Greek mythology reliefs on the low walls––
Wu Jin pondered, “Is the theme of the amusement park ‘Ancient Mythology’?”
Another gust of mountain wind blew over. In the next second, Wu Jin suddenly looked up.
A section of his dimmed vision had suddenly cleared up.
About one kilometer away, half of the giant Ferris Wheel was hidden in the fog. The exposed half could be seen slowly turning clockwise.
Wu Jin’s eyes brightened.
The youth practically rushed over in a straight line.
There was an uneven wall in front of him. Wu Jin grabbed the protruding sections and was about to climb up...
From behind him, the big boss suddenly flipped off the gun safety, “Step back.”
Wu Jin was stunned. his first reaction was to look down at what he’d just grabbed, and his gaze suddenly shook violently.
He’d grabbed a face that was embedded in the wall.
The skin on the face was mottled, like the bark of an oak tree that had fallen off. While Wu Jin was looking at ‘it’, ‘it’ suddenly opened its eyes!
“!!!”
Wu Jin was scared into jumping down in a hurry.
Wei Shi stepped forward and firmly blocked the path in front of Wu Jin.
At this time, the entire wall began to shake. It wasn’t so much shaking as wriggling, and the originally hard wall slowly softened and collapsed. The face that had originally been blurred was now revealed clearly––
The walls finally stopped moving.
Wu Jin looked at the strange pattern on the ‘face’.
The ‘face’ was a sculpture made of a strange material and depicted an elderly man. Just now, he’d touched the mechanism and caused the eyes to light up. The ‘face’s eyes looked to the left and seemed to be guiding the two towards that direction.
Wu Jin murmured to himself, “What exactly is this?”
Wei Shi: “Druid.”
Wu Jin stilled.
He followed the big boss’s line of sight and saw a small line of text written in a corner beside the ‘face’.
Druid.
The walls were covered with green patterns and leaf-like ornamentation. The face looked neither sad nor happy, and the carving techniques were ancient and unsophisticated, and seemed to carry strong mystical significance. In Wu Jin’s memories from the 21st century, druids were commonly seen in movies and games. They were usually a symbol that represented ancient sacrificial rites, receiving offerings, and control over the power of nature.
Wu Jin lowered his eyes slightly.
Druid.
He had also been exposed to relevant knowledge in the 31st century. It seemed that he’d only come across it briefly on occasion, but he vaguely remembered that it was related to the Crosson Show training.
The Ferris wheel was just a kilometer away.
According to the two people’s sense of time, they had less than 25 minutes left until the first item on the itinerary. Wu Jin ultimately didn’t go directly over this strange wall.
Along the way, as long as they could pick up more of these sporadic clues, they would be able to link it all together.
Wu Jin followed the lines along the wall as they walked and didn’t notice that the big boss was looking at the Ferris Wheel in the distance. His eyes kept flashing, but it was soon suppressed by Wei Shi.
Most of the engraved lines depicted huge oak trees, burly soldiers, plentiful production tools, tomahawks, and––
Wu Jin suddenly beckoned to Wei Shi to look at a specific spot.
There was a tiny totem there.
A cross with a circle.
Wu Jin whispered, “The Celtic cross.”
Wei Shi raised his eyebrows.
Even he hadn’t expected that Wu Jin would be able to recall the knowledge from the third elimination match and pull it out from memory. The Celtic Cross tarot spread was derived from the Celtic cross from the ancient civilization.
Wu Jin was obviously the type of straight A student who would only be comfortable if he reviewed the materials again even after the examination was over.
Wu Jin finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“The Celtic cross. The Celts, one of the founders of European civilization, were the most powerful group of ‘barbarians’ that existed during the Roman Empire. I scanned over their information before the third elimination match. In Celtic civilization, druids were also responsible for sacrifices. The entire Celtic people were brave and powerful fighters, and they only had two kinds of people. Other than druids, the rest were all fighters.”
Wu Jin looked behind him. The road had been closed up by the fog once again.
“Civilization.” The youth’s eyes suddenly grew excited, “The theme for the amusement park is ‘civilization’! I should have thought of it earlier... the druid is from the Celtic civilization, the stone labyrinth represents the mysterious, prehistoric structure, Stonehenge, the mythology represents Greece, and the billboard symbolizes the Twelve Tables from Ancient Rome––”
Wu Jin’s eyes were bright and sparkling as he looked at the big boss.
He had practically lifted up his bangs and written the words ‘requesting praise’ on his forehead in big letters.
Wei Shi casually stroked the small curls.
All around the wall, the cameras that had caught wind of this small action quickly shifted over.
At the same time, the Crosson Show live stream’s scrolling comments broke out into so much excitement it was like the Spring Festival had arrived––
“A killer head stroke move ahhh!! ––Wait a minute, why is he so skilled at it? Could it be that God Wei touches! His! Head! Often!”
“Little Witch’s hair looks good to touch even at a glance! It’s soft, and Little Witch is so cute. It must also feel very good if it’s cut short!”
In the live stream studio.
Ying Xiangxiang wasn’t surprised by Wu Jin’s understanding of the amusement park. “Little Witch’s moving very quickly. As a matter of fact, if the contestants headed out a little further, they’d see the pyramids and the Great Wall appear, and then it would be easy for them to guess the clues for this elimination match. However––”
Ying Xiangxiang smiled like a fox as she looked at Blood Pigeon.
Blood Pigeon: “However, the key to this elimination match is time.”
In the theme park.
It would take less than 10 minutes to arrive at the Ferris Wheel that would start up at 9:45.
Wu Jin had only glanced briefly at the entertainment facilities corresponding to the Celtic civilization and the single ride with the ticket machine that was labelled ‘bumper cars’. Wu Jin thought really hard, but couldn’t figure out what the bumper cars had to do with the Celts.
Five minutes.
The two of them finally made it to the Ferris Wheel.
There was the faint sound of footsteps in the distance.
Wu Jin roughly estimated the time. According to the program team, they would release teams of contestants every 30 seconds starting from 9:00 AM. By 9:45, all 90 players would have entered the map.
From the entrance of the amusement park to the Ferris Wheel, at least 10 minutes was required, under conditions where the fog hadn’t yet dispersed. Therefore, there were bound to be some lower ranked players who would miss the first 9:45 ride in the morning and be unable to pass the game within a day.
That wasn’t fair.
Wu Jin frowned slightly.
The popularity votes only determined the order of admission, and it was a gimmick that the program team used in order to earn voting money. However, the Crosson Show would never use money to determine whether a player won or lost.
Wu Jin looked up to see the big boss standing there with his back to him, staring at the Ferris Wheel in silence.
“Brother... Brother Wei?”
Wei Shi turned.
The man was frowning, his fists clenching and loosening, his face expressionless, “Figured it out?”
Wu Jin shook his head repeatedly. He looked at the big boss and suddenly started to chuckle as the 16 year old Wei Shi from the big boss’s consciousness, who had shown up during the emotional lock therapy, came to mind.
A soft cub! A handsome cub! A 16 year old cub!
In the final moment before leaving the emotional lock, the big boss had also formed a Ferris Wheel from the descriptions he’d given in his subconscious!
It had been big! And round!
Unfortunately, they hadn’t made it to the Ferris Wheel before he was shot in the waist!
9:42.
The team with Wei Yan and Thin Fire appeared.
Wu Jin and Wei Shi were the closest to the bottom of the Ferris Wheel. Wei Shi was armed with a shotgun, and his momentum was fierce. Wu Jin unlocked the gun safety lock at the same time.
The two teams confronted each other across the distance.
Within a 50 meter range, Wu Jin’s dynamic shooting level was also enough to cause trouble for Thin Fire.
Wu Jin called over from afar, “Hello, Brother Thin! Hello, Brother Wei!”
Thin Fire: “... Little Witch, can you put down the gun before talking?”
9:44.
Six other teams, including Caesar and Qin Jinbao’s teams, appeared at the same time.
No guns were fired.
Everyone’s goal was the same, and no team would dare to make a rash move before boarding the Ferris Wheel at 9:45.
Wei Shi: “The fog has dispersed slightly.”
Wu Jin’s expression changed a little, “Jingyi didn’t come.”
At this time, almost all the players had arrived in succession, and there was a lot of activity around the Ferris Wheel.
If Jingyi wanted to clear the game before 9:45 the next day, there was no way that they wouldn’t show up. Unless they’d found other important clues––
What clues could make Zuo Botang give up coming to the Ferris Wheel?
One minute left.
Wu Jin looked at the towering Ferris Wheel amidst the fog.
The cable rotated slowly around the central axis, and the passenger cars wobbled in the breeze. If there was no fog, they would be able to see a panoramic view of the entire amusement park from the highest point on the wheel.
Wu Jin pondered the situation. The Ferris Wheel had dozens of passenger cars. The program team couldn’t have installed cameras in every car, right!
If they managed to get a car with no cameras, and the fog blocked the view...
He could catch the big boss and give him a kiss!
Beneath the Ferris Wheel, the V-shaped frame formed an acute angle of less than 30 degrees. It was covered with murals similar to those found in the Palace of Versailles, and the style was roughly similar to that of the 15th and 16th centuries.
It seemed to represent Western European civilization.
Wu Jin speculated that since the area around the huge, towering Ferris Wheel was filled with indications of cultures including those relating to the Greeks, the Romans, the Celts, the Germanic peoples, and the Vikings, they all seemed to add together to create a civilization ladder for ‘Medieval Europe’.
9:45.
Wu Jin and Wei Shi decisively snatched up the first passenger car.
As expected, Wei Yan snatched up the second.
The other players behind them swarmed together into a group.
Jingyi still hadn’t appeared.
The passenger car moved as the Ferris Wheel rotated, rising up slowly.
Wu Jin looked quickly at his watch.
There was no reaction there.
The mission card and amusement park tickets hadn’t changed, either.
Wu Jin paused. Perhaps it would take sitting in the Ferris Wheel for an entire cycle to count as completing the task––
Right then.
A sweet voice sounded out over the broadcast in the passenger car.
“Welcome to the Tuwala Ferris Wheel. Your journey has just begun. The current time is: 1:02 AM.”
“......” Wu Jin looked out at the faint sunshine above his head, “Morning??! 1:02AM?!”
Juurensha: ?????
xiin: what, did you think that this would be a simple, fun round where we get to see WJ and WS kick ass everywhere and go on fun rides and be OP? YOU WERE WRONG.