Chapter 191: Heading to the Castle

"System, isn’t it a little insane to issue a mandatory task at a time like this?" Lin Yun hadn’t expected a mandatory mission to pop up right now.

[Hmm... I didn’t post that one, it has nothing to do with me. Host, just because you insulted the main system doesn’t mean you get to insult me too, okay?]

[Also, every surviving member currently has a mandatory mission assigned to them. Don’t worry, host, you’re not alone in this.]

"One of these days, I’m going to punch the 66666 system and give the main system a good kick too."

Lin Yun gritted her teeth and recited the system’s designation out loud.

System: ...

The system fell as quiet as a startled chicken.

A message notification chimed on her personal panel.

Song Xizheng: "Sister Lin, there’s a mandatory mission going around. Want to team up?"

After thinking it over for a moment, Lin Yun replied, "Five minutes."

Lin Yun quickly stuffed everything useful into the various compartments of her backpack, keeping it all within easy reach.

Once everything was packed away, the two little ones had already climbed inside, fully ready to set off.

Ghost Vine scrambled quickly up onto Lin Yun’s shoulder.

"Sister Lin, I still vaguely remember the way to the castle — shall we head out?"

Once they’d met up, Song Xizheng volunteered to take the lead.

The journey to the castle wasn’t smooth; they had to cut straight through the amusement park’s central plaza.

Meanwhile, the plaza itself had descended into complete chaos.

Three separate factions were locked in an ongoing brawl.

It was no longer clear whether the survivors were being beaten by the other two groups combined, or whether survivors and tricolor vests together were being beaten by the tourists instead.

Or perhaps, honestly, it was simply all of the above at once.

The tourists attacked indiscriminately, and the survivors, eager to take a bite out of the tricolor vests too, wanted in on it as well.

The tricolor vests were people too, of course, but the rules had normally kept them from taking real action of their own.

Now that those rules had completely fallen apart, though, who even cared anymore?

Worst case, they could simply finish off whatever was left here and go find somewhere else entirely.

The survivors, scattered through the crowd, suffered terribly — they could neither run nor find anywhere safe to hide.

Should they feel grateful these attackers could only come at them bare-handed, or grateful that they themselves weren’t novices and actually had weapons of their own to fight back with?

Lin Yun and Song Xizheng crouched in a corner and used Ghost Vine’s tendrils to tie a great many shrub branches over their bodies.

"Does this look right to you, Song Xizheng?"

She strongly suspected he was getting some kind of petty revenge on her right now.

"Just trust me, and drop the word ’doubt’ when it comes to me." Song Xizheng didn’t bother turning his head, eyes fixed on the chaos in the plaza.

Lin Yun sighed. Those photos really had gone out too early — she should have waited until she was back at the transit station, right before release.

The two of them crept sneakily from corner to corner, dodging both the tourists and the tricolor-vested staff scattered among the attractions.

And so on.

Lin Yun suddenly seemed to remember something else entirely.

"What’s the rest of the route like? Is it going to be crowded too?"

Song Xizheng scratched his head. "Once past the plaza, there’s a gate. After that, there aren’t many people on the way to the castle."

Lin Yun nodded in understanding. "Okay, let’s hurry, then."

The two of them kept hiding and dodging as they made their way toward the gate.

Just as Song Xizheng spotted the gate and was about to head for it, Lin Yun yanked him back sharply.

Shh! Someone was there!

At the front gate, a figure with their back turned toward them was busy opening it.

The person unlocked the chain securing the gate, pushed it open, glanced back once, pushed it further open, and tossed the lock into the nearby bushes.

They then turned and walked off without another word.

"What’s that supposed to mean, exactly...?"

"They just opened it up like that, no questions asked? Could this be Linglan’s doing somehow?"

The two of them were more than a little confused, but at least the open gate saved them the trouble of having to climb over the wall themselves.

Once that person had left, Lin Yun stepped out and pulled a small electric scooter out of her backpack.

Honestly, she’d nearly forgotten she even had a small electric scooter tucked away in there.

"Wow, goodness, why on earth didn’t I think to bring an actual car along?"

Song Xizheng was genuinely shocked; his own supplies hadn’t included any vehicle whatsoever.

"All right, since you already know the route, you drive."

Without bothering to grab the keys first, Song Xizheng simply hopped straight onto the scooter.

"Sister Lin, hop on! I’ll get you there in no time flat."

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to ride the cat-shaped or tiger-shaped vehicles instead — those two just moved far too fast, and he’d almost certainly end up losing his grip and falling off.

It definitely wasn’t because the cat car and tiger car simply refused to give him a ride, no, not at all.

With their little electric scooter, the two of them quickly caught sight of the castle up ahead.

Once they spotted it, they climbed off the scooter and didn’t dare ride it any closer.

They had no way of knowing whether Vivian was actually inside, or whether something else entirely might be lurking there instead.

"Sister Lin, may I ask what exactly your mission is?"

Song Xizheng glanced over at Lin Yun, almost longingly. Right now, he desperately hoped their assigned missions happened to match.

"Mine involves heading to the castle’s seventh floor and destroying some kind of mole research lab there."

Lin Yun blinked. "Mine has me heading up to the very top floor instead."

Because she happened to be carrying the key.

Her mandatory task required her to take that key to the top floor, locate the matching lock, and forcibly seal it shut.

Song Xizheng sighed. "Well, that’s fine, at least we can travel together as far as the seventh floor."

The two of them stopped chatting and began carefully approaching the castle itself.

Fortunately, plenty of decorative plants surrounded the castle grounds, giving them ample cover to stay hidden.

Even so, quite a few little red vests still remained stationed inside.

"Sigh, I honestly don’t understand what exactly Linglan’s so dissatisfied with about her current life. She’s even trying to rebel against her own master’s rule now. I just can’t wrap my head around it."

"What do you even know about it? The master’s still just a child. Who wouldn’t want to take his place, given half a chance?"

"It just so happens Linglan was the one who came up with this whole idea, don’t you think, Rose?"

"Hey Rose, you and Linglan always seemed to get along so well — haven’t you ever noticed what she’s actually been thinking?"

Rose remained calm, and despite the pointed insinuations laced through everyone’s words, she simply said, "I haven’t noticed anything in particular, but..."

"But what? Come on, hurry up and tell us already!"

"Exactly, what are you even hesitating for? She’s already gone and done this — you’re not planning on defending her now, are you?"

"Well, she was indeed acting a little strangely most of the time, now that I think back on it. I assumed it had something to do with Tong Yin, so I never pressed her about it further. You all know how much she cares about Tong Yin."

Rose sighed helplessly and said, "So what if we normally get along well? When it comes to anything involving Tong Yin, I still have to step aside regardless, don’t I?"

"That does seem awfully true, doesn’t it? Doesn’t that basically make you sound like the other woman in some relationship — unwanted by either of them?"

"What on earth are you saying? How could you possibly talk like that? If you can’t chat properly, then just don’t chat at all. You’ve practically killed the whole conversation now."

"Oh come on, I’m just sticking up for Rose here. Rose was always so sincere toward her, and yet Linglan not only failed to appreciate that, but now she’s gone and caused this whole enormous mess."

"No wonder the master got so angry about it."

The little red vest kept muttering away to itself.

"All right, all right, that’s enough grumbling out of you. It’s only because Rose is so good-natured and puts up with you, letting you carry on like this in front of her. Try saying any of that to Linglan or Tong Yin instead, and they’d both be more than ready to come after you."

Another attendant chimed in with a couple words of caution.