The morning was cold, the sky was blue, and the sunlight looked particularly grimmer than usual, dying everything in its path a ghoulish white color. The half-moon still hung in the sky while a hue of pinkish tangerine had appeared on the sky in the east.
Retracting her gaze from the beautiful horizon, Lin Sanjiu sighed. She looked over to the cat and the Soul and decided to go rough this time. She asked, again, the question with a stern tone, "Have you two decided? It's way too risky--"
"Don't you worry about that. We'll be fine," The cat doctor interrupted her while giving her a comforting nod. His watery emerald eyes blinked owlishly, "Although his temper is bad, I think he's not a bad guy. Besides, as a doctor, I can't leave my recovering patient roaming around freely alone."
The idea put forward by Puppeteer was great, but it was entailed a huge risk. As such, Lin Sanjiu couldn't agree to his suggestion without getting the consent from the parties concerned as it involved a matter of life and death. However, never once had she imagined that the cat doctor would agree to the plan without batting an eye. She didn't understand at all where he got that sense of security from.
Lin Sanjiu fell into her deep thoughts after she heard what the cat doctor had said. After that, she then looked at AYU.
Surprisingly, AYU didn't keep quiet as she used to. Her eyes bulged, filled with questions. She yanked her arm and said in a loud tone, "Seriously? Are we really about to talk about this matter right now? Right in front of him?"
Puppeteer remained silent. He closed his eyes, sitting cross-legged to himself and his world. His pointy, ashen-white chin loomed between the strands of his wet black hair.
"Ahem," Meowie Hu cleared his throat as he swung his tail aside. "Nevermind, there is no place for us to carry out our conversation in secret anyway. He can hear all he wants."
AYU's expression sank, and she fell silent. After spending some time with Lin Sanjiu, the expressions and movements of these Souls were getting more and more human-like. After a short moment, she replied, albeit with a definite hint of objection, "The Queen has agreed to this plan. Also, here is her message to you: Don't worry your pretty little head about it. It's much better if you put more effort into searching for your friends and help us reproduce."
Lin Sanjiu didn't take the harsh comment to heart. She knew Soulsqn agreed to this plan with good grace because of the special attribution of Souls being able to remove their human skin, thus nullifying the puppetification. However, Lin Sanjiu wasn't at all as confident as Soulsqn since neither of them knew the full extent of Puppeteer's ability. She wasn't sure whether or not his ability could reach the core of Souls.
Nevertheless, she didn't voice her doubt. It wasn't wise to break their morale at the moment, "Everything should be fine since the Souls had their hidden move and I think Puppeteer wouldn't be ungrateful enough to do bad to his savior."
With the thought in mind, her hanging heart landed. Heaving a sigh, she placed her palm on the door handle, "I should go now. Please be careful."
Puppeteer had to restart his round since he had stayed outside for too long. Also, to avoid the recurrence of similar incidents that happened in the bumper kart round, the two decided not to start the game at the same time. Nevertheless, they made it clear that once they had completed their round of game, they would rendezvous at the final pitstop. Just as her hand fell on the brass handle, Lin Sanjiu turned to the black haired man and pleaded, "I'll leave my friends to you. Please take good care of them and remember to undo your ability when you reach the final pitstop."
At her words, Puppeteer was willing to open his eyes. He gave her a sidelong glance as a seductively sly grin appeared on his lips and said with a menacing tone, "Aren't you aware that your very presence has already explained everything? Don't take me for granted."
"All right, all right. Woe is me."
Lin Sanjiu raised both her arms in the air as if she had surrendered. She looked at the cat doctor for one last time. Her mouth opened, wanting to say something but nothing came out. Then, she turned around and pushed the door open. Before the door closed, she somehow caught the whisper of the cat doctor amidst the creaking of the door.
He sighed, "After the dinner, comes the reckoning."
Lin Sanjiu face reddened.
Before she had come out from the first round, Puppeteer had already been conscious for a few hours. He didn't allow the few hours go to waste. He returned to the previous attraction and finished where he left off. There's a great saying that what goes around comes around. To complete the second round without getting wrecked badly, Lin Sanjiu had no other choice but to borrow some Stamina Points from Puppeteer.
After she entered "Cartoon World" for the second times, she understood what Puppeteer meant when he said "the best part."
Never once had she ever thought that everything she did, and everything decision she had made in the first round would cause such a significant impact in the second game. As the perpetrator of all of this, Lin Sanjiu was like a boat drifting in the middle of a nasty storming sea. There was little she could do aside from pressing forward while dodging the onslaught of the devastating effect of the chain reaction.
There was a time when she was trapped on a clock tower surrounded by hundreds of thousands of "Minnie." At that time, the only escape route for her was the doorway opposite of the clock tower that hung a hundred feet above the ground in mid-air. She took a broad glance, and she could only see the azure sky and nothing else. To make things worse, the facade of the clock tower she was standing on wasn't built with any platforms whatsoever that could act as a footrest for her.
Seeing that she was soon to be drowned in a sea of "Minnie," Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth and clung to the wood that was used to ring the bell. She cut the rope attached to the other end of the wood and flung herself towards the doorway. Judging from the length of the wood, she surmised that it could at least launch her a hundred meters high into the sky, so she would fall in the forest not far away. However, life threw a curve ball at her. The moment she reached the sky, a subtle cracking sound drifted into her ears. She turned her head and realized with a shock that the wood was starting to fell apart.
At this moment, a picture which she almost had forgotten appeared in her foggy brain. Only now she noticed that the wood was made from the tree that she nearly shattered in the first round of the game.
If her disconnected brain hadn't reconnected in the very last moment and summoned the [Tornado Whip], she might have smashed herself to death. Even if she were lucky enough not to be summoned back to His side, in the minimal worst case scenario, she would at least have gravely injured herself. Nevertheless, the reaction force caused by the [Tornado Whip] was huge. It flung her in another direction, and she only broke one of her ribs.
All she did in the first round was break a tree, and she had to suffer an after-effect of such severity. Mayhap the thing that happened in the second round had rendered her brain useless; she never expected that her actions in the second round would cause a butterfly effect that would come back at her an even larger scale—almost fifty percent more severe—in the third round.
All in all, when she finally cleared the attraction and came to Mickey, she was already on the verge of collapsing. Her body was bathed in blood as she slumped to the ground in front of Mickey. Then, with blurry eyes, she saw the wall inside the attraction rumble for a second before sliding open. It sounded like a sacred song of the angels to her.
Her soul was devastated, her body was drained, and when she finally crawled herself out from the cartoon hell, she wasn't at all certain that she should summarize the experience as challenges or simply a catastrophe. When she was outside, she immediately found a pole. Leaning against the pole, she slumped to the ground and cherished her little solitary time to take a break.
Fatigue consumed her whole. Her hands trembled profusely, and after a few failed attempts, the [Bone Growth Ointment] finally flickered to existence in her palm.
After she applied the ointment on her injuries and took a brief rest, Lin Sanjiu felt alive.
Lifting her gaze, she looked into the all-new Pumpkin Route that lay before her. It seemed the same as the previous Pumpkin Route. Each side of the route were lined different kinds of stores with refreshing color and design of their own.
If she was to count the rewards she had gotten from the "Cartoon World," it had to be the [Scrooge McDuck Power] and the hundred plus points of Stamina Points. Although she still couldn't get her Special Items back, at the very least, she could make good use of those Stamina Points to purchase herself some merchandise from the stores along the route. She felt that a single [Bone Growth Ointment] wouldn't be sufficient enough to support her in the later rounds of the game.
After taking some careful steps along the route, she stopped in front of a pink hotel.
Although the color of the building might suggest something else, what caught her attention was the "medicated spa" fascia that hung above the door. Below the fascia was a line that read: "Indulge yourself in the wonderfulness of our medicated spa concocted from various kinds of rare and precious medicinal materials. It is beneficial for insomniacs; injuries from falls, fractures, contusions, strains, flu, and fatigue. It can also revitalize your skin and soothe your injuries from battle. 50 Stamina Points per entry."
Lin Sanjiu stared at the fascia for a good amount of time. At last, she gave in to her desire and walked into the hotel.
The advertisements of Starry Carnival Amusement Park would never lie. When she emerged from the hot, brownish, aerated water, she felt refreshed as if she had washed away a thousand years of dirt that had accumulated on her body. It even wasn't an exaggeration to say that she had reincarnated as a new person. Her honey-colored skin glowed, and the wounds on her body had disappeared. Her ruptured muscles and broken bones were slowly recovering with a slight itching sensation. Although she had yet returned to her zenith form, she felt she was ready to face the next attraction.
After wrapping herself in a bathrobe, Lin Sanjiu lifted the drape.
"Hi, how's our spa? Feeling good?" A servant, donned in a red uniform greeted her.
He smiled amiably while holding a salver with his hand, "Here's a cold drink for you, miss. It's on the house. Please enjoy it."
Her body puffed with steam, and her hair dripped with water. As she blotted her hair dry with a towel, she cast a glance at the servant. With the effect 1 of [Scrooge McDuck Power] activated, not only did she receive a 20% discount, but she was now also offered a free drink. In addition to that, the [Scrooge McDuck Power] might have affected her in a way that she began to behave like Scrooge McDuck, "Oh, is it free? Give me one, then."
Very soon, a golden-orange cold-pressed cocktail garnished with a tropical flower was served to her. Lin Sanjiu took a sip from the concoction and reveled herself in the fizzing alcoholic drink. However, she didn't allow the alcohol to make magic to her brain as she was still sober enough to make a plan in her mind.
She had stopped here for more than an hour, and she had to get going now. However, there was something she would like to make clear of before leaving the hotel.
"Hey, can you wait for a sec," Seeing that the servant was leaving, Lin Sanjiu quickly yelled, "There is something I would like to ask."
"You're our VIP customer, miss." said the servant. He gave Lin Sanjiu a warm smile, "Of course, you can ask anything you want to know."
"Can you tell me," When Lin Sanjiu traced back what she saw just now, her brows knitted together, " Why I haven't seen another attraction even though I had walked for a long time? May I know how long should I walk to reach the next attraction?"
The servant, who looked like a youngster, tilted his head. Lin Sanjiu's heart seized when she saw the expression of the servant.
"If I may be so bold, is miss heading to the final pitstop?" The servant asked as he maintained the broad smile on his face, "For your information, Miss, there will be no attraction starting from here, and you can't walk yourself straight to the final pitstop either."
"What do you mean?"
"Being able to arrive here shows that the agility, strength, combat skill, and intelligence of Miss has heightened to a certain extent. However, starting from here, having those are not enough to bring you to the final pitstop," The servant blurted everything quickly and orderly, "If you continue to walk, you will never reach the final pitstop, and all you see will be an endless stream of stores."
Lin Sanjiu was dumbfounded. She was so overwhelmed by the information that she had forgotten to take a sip from her drink.
"I can't reach the final pitstop like that?" She still couldn't comprehend his words, "What do we need, then? To reach the final pitstop."
Maintaining his friendly smile, the servant showed his eight sparkling white teeth at Lin Sanjiu, "Stamina Points."
"Stamina Points?" Lin Sanjiu wasn't prepared for this answer. She held a dazed expression on her face as repeated the servant's answer. "I need to have enough Stamina Points to see the final pitstop?"
"Exactly."
"How much do I need, then?"
"For ordinary players, they need at least 3,500 Stamina Points." The servant tilted his head to another side, "But since you are our VIP, I believe you will get a certain discount."
The numbers had given Lin Sanjiu a shock that she almost spilled her drink. "How am I supposed to earn so many Stamina Points?" As the thought swam into her mind, the image of Scrooge McDuck surfaced. However, she instantly pushed the image down as Scrooge McDuck had never shown himself after the first round. It seemed to her that he was avoiding her so that she couldn't blackmail him again.
"But there are no more attractions starting from here as you said. You aren't suggesting me that I have to go back and clear all the attractions again?" As she spoke, she became even more nervous, "If I did that, I'd be getting charged for staying overnight, and I still have to pay for the entrance fees! With that small amount of reward from the attractions, how long would it take to earn 3,500 Stamina Points?"
"It isn't that easy to get the grand prize, Miss." The servant wasn't affected by Lin Sanjiu's complaint. He continued to smile, "Since you're our VIP guest, here is an extra tip for you. If you can accomplish this mission, you can get a chance to draw a prize before entering the final pitstop. Besides, there's more ways than you've thought you could accumulate 3,500 Stamina Points."
Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes. "What do you suggest?"
"Let me put it in a way that is more understandable for you: you can perform two-way trade with every single store in this route." The servant gave Lin Sanjiu a smirk. He lowered his head as he turned his body toward the exit. While Lin Sanjiu was digesting the information, she somehow had heard the servant's whisper. He said, "Please explore the potentials to earn Stamina Points on this route."