Chapter 158: The Park Is Closed Due to Rain

After handing everything over to Song Xizheng and seeing him off, the others gathered their own supplies and set off to finish the day’s remaining tasks.

Lin Yun passed along the rules Yan Yue had left behind for them, and from there, the rest of the group’s activities went smoothly without a hitch.

She made it back to the shelter before six o’clock.

She had no interest in getting stopped by another green vest, dragged off to eat something questionable, or subjected to yet another round of strange stares from the tourists.

"You’re back early today, Youyou."

The moment she stepped through the door, Sang Biao spotted her and came bounding over immediately, practically climbing all over her.

"Yeah, a bit earlier than usual today."

Lin Yun scooped Sang Biao up into her arms and made her way toward the sofa.

The ghost vine had already climbed its way onto Sang Biao’s body. [Sigh, I can’t so much as lift a finger in this amusement park — it’s downright suffocating being here.]

Why is that?

"Because aside from the survivors, nearly every native creature in this place is abnormal in some way. Better to keep you hidden from them for now."

Lin Yun reached over and gave Tuan Tuan a gentle scratch as well, and it hopped straight up onto the sofa, clearly hoping for more attention.

It wasn’t until they’d already left the puppet theater that she remembered the little girl sitting in the front row.0

While the rest of them had been busy fighting off the tourist-puppets, that little girl had stayed almost eerily still the whole time — never once rising from her seat.

Was she something different from the rest of those puppet-tourists entirely?

Lin Yun kept absentmindedly stroking Sang Biao’s glossy fur, lost in thought.

Meanwhile, the ghost vine had already slipped off toward the backyard to go find its usual companions.0

Her gaze suddenly landed on the Xiao He doll sitting on the table. "Has it made any noise today?"

Sang Biao lifted its head to glance over. "Nope. It’s really good at playing dead, isn’t it? Doesn’t it get tired of holding still all day?"

Lin Yun’s mouth twitched slightly, and just as she was about to respond, the sound of rain began drumming steadily against the window.

She set Sang Biao and Tuan Tuan down together and got up to walk over and look outside.

Rain was falling outside now, steady and unmistakable.0

The tourists lingering near the mushroom house scattered quickly, hurrying off in every direction.

As the downpour grew heavier, the chatter and noise from the tourists gradually faded into silence.

Lin Yun pulled up her personal panel to check the details.

[Special World: Amusement Park — Day 3, 17:49]

Weather: Light rain shifting into heavy rain (expected to continue for the next two days)

Temperature: 22°C

Location: Mushroom House, Parent-Child Interaction Zone

Goodness. Two full days of heavy rain ahead, then.

Right at six o’clock sharp.

A familiar sound drifted in from outside once more — the amusement park’s official announcement.

"Dear visitors, due to sudden heavy rainfall, and given that most of our attractions are located outdoors, we’re concerned this may cause significant inconvenience. As such, the park will be temporarily closing for the next two days."

The park would reopen once the storm passed.

Of course, during this closure, staff would continue maintaining the park’s various attractions behind the scenes, ensuring an even better experience once things reopened.

And once the heavy rain finally let up, every visitor would receive a small token of appreciation as a gift.

The park is closing?

Lin Yun blinked, processing that. "So what happens to everyone’s daily tasks in the meantime?"

Before long, the system’s familiar mechanical voice chimed in as well.

Good evening, fellow survivors currently within the amusement park.

The park has been temporarily closed due to sudden heavy rainfall. Rest assured, the system isn’t entirely without mercy.

As such, the system has decided that all daily tasks will be suspended for the duration of the park’s closure, resuming automatically once the park reopens.

That said... please remain careful throughout the storm.

[Additionally: a total of 100 survivors were originally deployed into this special world. Current system records indicate only 62 survivors remain.]

Lin Yun froze, genuinely stunned by that number. A hundred people had gone in, and after only three days, barely more than half of them were still standing.

The other survivors scattered throughout the park seemed equally shaken by the announcement — none of them had anticipated the amusement park being quite this dangerous, this fast.

Out of the original hundred, only sixty-two remained.

At this rate, would any of them realistically survive all the way to day fifteen?

Lin Yun was still standing by the window as the rain outside continued to intensify by the minute.

Then, movement caught her eye — several staff members in raincoats making their way steadily in her direction.

"Honestly, these kids. It’s pouring out here, and he’s still off running around somewhere. Isn’t he just making extra work for the rest of us?"

"Exactly. He’s just a child, and this park is enormous — there are a hundred places he could be hiding right now. How are we supposed to find him in all this? What a headache."

"Frankly, it’s the parents’ fault too. If the kid didn’t want to leave yet, they could’ve just stayed a little longer. Nobody kicked them out."

"All right, all right, let’s just keep looking. This is the parent-child interaction zone — kids love it here. He’s probably somewhere around this area."

"Ugh, this rain shows absolutely no sign of letting up."

The staff worked their way methodically through the parent-child zone, checking each structure in turn, and soon enough arrived at the mushroom house.

They pushed the door open, poked their heads inside for a quick look, and once satisfied that no one was hiding within, shut it again and moved on toward their next target.

After combing through the entire parent-child area without any luck, they finally gave up and hurried off to widen their search elsewhere.

Just then, Lin Yun spotted a small head peeking cautiously out from behind another mushroom house up ahead, around the corner.

The child glanced around nervously, and only once he’d confirmed that every last staff member searching for him had moved on did he finally dart out from his hiding spot.

He was bundled up in a raincoat, its hood pulled down low enough that Lin Yun couldn’t make out his face at all.

As he ran, something suddenly slipped loose from inside his raincoat and tumbled to the ground.

The rain was pouring down so loudly, and the boy seemed so desperate to get away, that he never noticed anything had fallen from him at all.

Lin Yun naturally couldn’t call out to warn him — doing so would only risk giving away her own hiding spot.

By the time he’d vanished into the distance, whatever he’d dropped was left lying alone on the ground, slowly soaking through in the rain.

"Youyou, want the cat to go fetch that for you?"

Sang Biao had somehow already climbed up and settled against the windowsill, watching the whole scene unfold right alongside Lin Yun.

It looked up at her expectantly.

Lin Yun glanced down and gave Sang Biao’s head an affectionate pat, noticing that Tuan Tuan had wandered over as well at some point, though it lacked the agility to leap straight up onto the windowsill the way Sang Biao had.

"In that case, I’ll leave it to you, Sang Biao. Let me get the door for you."

"You got it!" Sang Biao hopped down from the window at once and darted straight toward the door.

It could, in truth, open doors perfectly well on its own — but it always seemed to prefer putting on a little show for the benefit of any two-legged creatures watching. Better safe than caught out unexpectedly, after all.

Of course, Lin Yun already knew perfectly well that it was capable of opening doors by itself. Every plant in the house besides the green ivy and the rose could manage that trick without any help — she simply chose to play along and pretend otherwise.

She cracked the door open just enough and left it slightly ajar.

Sang Biao moved fast, darting out into the rain, snatching up the fallen item, and racing straight back inside.

It dropped the item unceremoniously onto the floor before dashing off into the bathroom to shake the rainwater from its fur.

"Wow! Is this cat seriously that fast?!"

Even though it had only gone out to retrieve one small item, Sang Biao seemed thoroughly pleased with itself all the same.

At last, a chance to run around outside, however briefly. Even with a proper backyard of its own now, it still couldn’t resist the occasional urge to slip out for a stroll.

"Yeah, this cat’s basically got wheels built in."