Chapter 204: Where Did This Oddity Come From?

"Oh, right! My skill! Quick, draw my random skill!"

After returning to the shelter that morning, she had claimed the reward for raising her affinity with Suzuran. She had told herself she would draw the skill once she was back at the transfer station, and then she had nearly forgotten about it altogether.

The system obligingly summoned the lucky draw wheel. [Go ahead and spin!]

Lin Yun sprang up from the sofa, hurried into the bathroom to wash her hands, and came back to tap the large rotating wheel with something close to reverence. A skill this important deserved clean hands and proper respect.

The wheel whirled for a few long seconds, the pointer ticking past one slot after another. Then it slowed, wobbled, and finally came to a stop.

[Congratulations to survivor Lin Yun for gaining another special skill: Random NPC!]

"...?"

She blinked at the screen and read the words twice, just in case they would rearrange themselves into something more useful. "Is this a legitimate skill?"

[Yes, of course it is!]

"..." Lin Yun’s silence was deafening.

Special Skill: Random NPC

Skill Effect: Randomly impersonate an NPC. While doing so, the skill owner must play that NPC convincingly and must not let anyone discover the impersonation. Once the disguise is exposed, that NPC’s identity is invalidated and can never be used again.

This skill refreshes every five days. During that period, the role-play can be switched on or off at any time, and once the owner is playing a role again, she may switch roles whenever she likes (but only among NPCs she has already played).

Note: This skill cannot be upgraded.

After reading through the details, Lin Yun decided the skill was actually rather interesting. A second thought crossed her mind, and she narrowed her eyes at the panel.

"System... tell me honestly. Is this skill related to the next world?"

After all, the toy bear she had won at the transfer station’s amusement park last time had come from an amusement park in a special world. It was not hard to imagine the two things being connected.

[?]

[What nonsense are you talking about?]

[You chose this world yourself. I clearly presented you with three options. What tricks could I possibly pull?]

[Please do not slander me.]

The system gave an indignant snort. It had no power to manipulate such things. At most, it could randomly pull three options from the database and know in advance what those three survival worlds were like.

That was all. Nothing more! The system sounded genuinely wounded, as though its professional integrity had been called into question.

"Okay, okay, I believe you."

Lin Yun scratched her head sheepishly and promptly pushed the matter out of her mind. There were far more pressing things to think about than the origins of one quirky skill.

She opened the points shop again and found five new item slots. Every one of them was still empty, with nothing listed, so she would have to wait until the next world to find out what they would hold. She tapped each blank slot in turn, hoping something might flicker into view, but the panel stayed stubbornly silent.

Having flipped through the individual character panels, she headed straight for the chat area to watch everyone talk. The messages were already scrolling past at a dizzying speed.

Su Zimu: "Oh my, you guys have no idea! The special world we went to this time was shut down! And the system even gave us a huge reward!"

Li Ping: "That’s right, that’s right! Out of 100 survivors, only nine made it out alive. We nine are the lucky ones!"

Su Zimu: "Didn’t expect that, did you? A special world can actually be shut down completely, hahaha."

Xiong Qi: "?"

George: "?"

Su Zimu: "Why are you all sending question marks? These are all facts!"

Su Zimu: "Let me tell you, that’s not even all of it. Near the end of the morning, the indigenous people asked us to come over and pick out prizes. The nine of us got a whole pile of them."

Li Ping: "The prizes filled more than half a box. The indigenous person said we should divide them equally among ourselves, since we wouldn’t need them later anyway."

Jiang Buming: "Hehe, the nine of us really are amazing. We actually shut down a special world, hahaha!"

Lu Xiaoxiao: "??? Are you guys bragging? You don’t look like the kind of people who could shut down a special world."

Ye Fan: "Hilarious. I’d sooner believe the special world shut down on its own than believe they did it."

Baili Sheng: "+1 on not believing it. They couldn’t wait to come out and show off right after midnight. I’m sure there’s something fishy going on."

Pan Mingyu: "You people are ridiculous. Is it really so hard to admit that someone is excellent? Why are you making such a fuss?"

Baili Sheng: "? Did I make a scene?"

Ye Fan: "You’re crazy. Is this your personal chat area? Fine, fine, I’ll be the one to say it."

Song Zhenzhen: "Have you considered that it might not have been the special world you nine closed? After all, the place where special worlds get shut down isn’t in the amusement park."

Lu Xiaoxiao: "Oh my! It’s Song Zhenzhen! Sister Zhen, do you know something? Tell me everything!"

Song Zhenzhen: "It’s nothing much. I was in that special world too, and I happened to take part in a battle, so I happen to know who actually shut it down."

Xiong Qi: "I can vouch for that, hahaha. What a coincidence, George and I were there too, hahaha."

Baili Sheng: "The fastest face-slapping in history."

The moment Song Zhenzhen finished speaking, the survivors who had claimed credit for shutting down the special world fell silent.

They had never expected that they were not the only nine people to survive the amusement park. At the time, they had all assumed that the people teleported to the visitor center were the last survivors left inside.

Who would have thought...

That slap really did hurt, all the more because they had been so proud only moments earlier.

Still, one or two of them refused to give in. It simply seemed too much of a coincidence to have been in the same world as the people they were bragging in front of.

Su Zimu was one of them.

Su Zimu: "You say you and we were in the same special world? Who would believe that?"

Li Ping: "I certainly don’t. I think you’re just trying to steal our credit, aren’t you?"

Sitting in front of the screen, Lin Yun typed yet another question mark, her expression somewhere between amused and baffled.

Where had these weirdos come from? The whole scene was faintly absurd. She couldn’t quite put it into words, but she had no plans to get involved, lest she end up tangled up with them.

Song Zhenzhen: "Vivian. Lily of the Valley. The amusement park being razed to the ground and then rebuilt. The tricolor vests. Tourists who weren’t human."

Song Zhenzhen: "Shall I explain in more detail?"

Those few lines extinguished the tension between the two sides completely.

All right, then. This person really had been in the same special world as them!

Song Zhenzhen: "Oh, and by the way, the items you split among yourselves were the ones the five of us didn’t want~ Hehe~"

Ouch! Right in the heart!

The nine fell quiet and behaved themselves at last.

Because Song Zhenzhen and the other two had stepped forward to refute the boasting, everyone’s attention was quickly diverted. They began to focus on the revelation that a special world could be shut down completely, and they pressed Song Zhenzhen and the others to explain how it was done.

But after launching their strike in the chat area, Song Zhenzhen and the other two went silent.

At that very moment, Song Zhenzhen was busy harassing Lin Yunyou like crazy.

Song Zhenzhen: "Youyou, where are you? Are you still in the outer ring area? I’ll bring you some steamed buns."

Song Zhenzhen: "Let me tell you, a few little idiots survived in the amusement park, and they’re still dancing around in the chat area. I don’t even know what they’re dancing about. Aren’t they afraid of being exposed?"

Song Zhenzhen: "Sigh, you missed it. It was so exciting. I should have asked you to slap me in the face back then."

...

Song Zhenzhen’s messages kept pouring in, each notification arriving before she could finish reading the last. Lin Yun hurriedly replied, "Wait a moment, let me see which building I’m in. The outer ring area is a bit big, and I can’t find the building markers."

Song Zhenzhen: "Look at the house numbers! The outer ring area has been updated. There are house numbers now!"

Seeing this, Lin Yun quickly got up and opened the door to take a look.

There really was a nameplate on the door. Neat numbers were engraved on its surface, exactly as Song Zhenzhen had said.