Chapter 183: Hide-and-Seek Challenge 5

「Half an hour later.」

Perry Yates stood on a cloud, looking down at the grievously injured Hunters below. She stretched her short, small limbs.

The Hunter squad this time had withdrawn early after sensing danger, so there were no fatalities. However, every single one of them was injured to some degree, a truly miserable sight.

With the second round of the game over, Perry Yates finally stopped hiding. Her recent movements quickly caught the attention of the Hunters.

"Look! There she is!"

Everyone looked up, their eyes meeting a doll with a sweet yet eerie smile. She looked down on them like a god, her smiling face sending a chill down their spines.

"Are you the Croupier for this game? Did you set up the traps inside just now?"

Perry Yates ignored the clamoring Hunters below and turned to enter the third round of the game.

What she didn’t know was that shortly after she vanished, an image of her doll-like form looking down on the world appeared on the bounty list. Her price had doubled, from ten million to twenty.

Trap Doll. Ability: Can manipulate plants to strangle prey. Proficient with the Earth Attribute or Gold Attribute. Capable of creating various traps...

Meanwhile, Perry Yates didn’t immediately enter the third round. She still had game rewards to collect. As before, she was going for quantity over quality.

Perry Yates made up her mind. Unless a five-star card appeared, she wouldn’t change her decision.

After smoothly entering the third round of the game, Perry Yates looked at the number of people, which was clearly much larger than in the previous two rounds.

The previous two rounds each had ten people, but this time...

Perry Yates glanced around. A flash of light flickered across her eyes, and she quickly ascertained the exact number.

One hundred people. There were exactly one hundred people.

’Looks like there are new rules this time.’ A flicker of confusion crossed her eyes.

Perry Yates thought to herself. She decided to wait and see what this third round had in store.

The location for this game was an amusement park. The rides and facilities were all in working order, and everything looked new.

Perry Yates looked at the amusement park rides. Every single one looked like a lot of fun.

"All these rides look like so much fun."

The one who spoke was a girl in a high school uniform.

Based on the uniform alone, Perry Yates was certain this person wasn’t from the same place she was. After all, student uniforms in Drakonia were notoriously ugly; there was no way they’d include little skirts.

However, seeing the girl’s clear eyes and innocent expression, a sense of caution secretly rose within her.

Just then, the system’s voice finally rang out.

[This round of hide-and-seek: Ghost Hunting.]

[Among the 100 players, there are 90 normal players and 10 ghosts.]

[The normal players’ task is to find a ghost, obtain their name, and write it on an elimination box hidden in the amusement park.]

[Attention: Each player has only one chance. If you are wrong, you fail this round of the game.]

At the same time, a completely different voice sounded in Perry Yates’s ear.

[Congratulations, you have been chosen as a ghost for this round. You must survive for four hours and, during this time, eliminate as many normal players as possible.]

[There are clues to your identities hidden throughout the amusement park, so please be very careful.]

The moment she heard the game’s rules, Perry Yates had a bad feeling. A second later, that bad feeling came true.

’Sigh...’

Perry Yates sighed silently to herself.

How should she put it? Upon learning she was a ghost, she felt a strange sense of affirmation, as if it was only natural.

’Whatever, no point overthinking it.’ Perry Yates looked at the people around her and had a sudden thought. ’It seems like all the players are here. Wouldn’t it be easiest to just get rid of them all at once?’

She scanned her surroundings again. Good, there were plenty of plants this time.

She twitched a finger, and the surrounding plants stirred in response.

The others didn’t notice the movement, assuming it was just the wind.

Just as Perry Yates was about to make her move, she vanished from the spot. Immediately after, the other players also disappeared one by one, teleported by the game system to various locations throughout the amusement park.

[Game countdown initiated!]

Hearing the system prompt, Perry Yates tsked.

But soon, she made a new discovery.

"Well, well, what have we here? A red mailbox."

Next to the mailbox sat a white card and a black permanent marker.

The three items together immediately brought to mind the elimination box mentioned by the game system.

’Since I can’t wipe out all the players in one go, why don’t I just take all these elimination boxes?’

Perry Yates fused an Earth Attribute poker card into the ground. A second later, the ground began to tremble slightly.

Soon, the earth seemed to gain a will of its own, wrapping tightly around the entire elimination box until it formed a mud ball. Perry Yates then stored the mud ball in her system backpack.

Yes, that’s right, the system backpack.

Because she had acquired a Space Backpack right when she entered the game, her system backpack saw very little use, to the point of being almost forgotten.

This time, Perry Yates didn’t want to put the dirty-looking lump of earth into her Space Backpack, which is when she remembered her forgotten system backpack.

After Perry Yates left, all that remained was a deep pit in the ground.

Perry Yates didn’t know how many of these elimination boxes there were in total, but she was certain there was more than one. She had to find the others before anyone else did.

With this in mind, Perry Yates began to search. However, the amusement park was simply too big. There was no way she could find them all by herself in four hours, not to mention she also had to avoid the other players.

At this thought, Perry Yates stopped in her tracks and suddenly slapped her forehead.

’How stupid. Why am I searching for them one by one?’

Looking at the surrounding plants, Perry Yates activated the energy within her. Soon, an energy wave, nearly imperceptible to ordinary people, began to spread out from her position.

As the energy wave expanded, plants began to burst from the ground throughout the amusement park, growing at an astonishing rate.

However, the targets of these plants were not people, but the nearby amusement park rides.

Just then, a scream suddenly pierced the air from not far away.

"AHHH!!!"

Hearing the sound, a curious Perry Yates went to investigate.

By the time she arrived, several other people were already there. A young man lay on the ground, breathless. Blood pooled around him. His eyes were wide open in disbelief, as if he never imagined he would die.