Earth’s Redemption: Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Question and Answer Amusement Park (7)

Proofread by Cloud Chip Cake

The second person to go in also found no clues, even when they deliberately broke the rules.  

“Did anyone figure anything out?” Luo Xiang’s face was grim. This challenge was significantly harder than earlier challenges posed by the Clown and Black and White Rabbits.  

No, there had to be something they were missing—some key detail they had overlooked. That was the only explanation for why they felt so helpless.  

“I’ll go in next,” Luo Xiang stood up and said. “Maybe I can find more information. There must be something we’ve missed; otherwise, the difficulty wouldn’t have ramped up this much.”  

“Wait, don’t be so hasty,” Mo Xiaoyou quickly pulled her back. “Let us cannon fodder go first, alright? You strategists can just sit tight and watch. If you go in and fail, we’ll be totally out of options.”  

Zuo Qingcang, who hadn’t figured anything out, turned to Ning Buwen. “Did you notice anything?”  

“It’s strange,” Ning Buwen frowned. “Black Cloak definitely didn’t cheat. I’m sure the joker was in the correct spot, but when the card was flipped, it wasn’t the joker. Maybe there’s something wrong with the cards themselves. However, with two people already sealed inside the cards, we can’t afford to act rashly.”  

“When you think about it, there are only five cards in total. Once you take the joker out, only four remain. He’s sealed two people already, so there are only two cards left. Let’s send in two more people and see what happens,” someone suggested, before decisively removing one of their own eyes and heading toward the haunted house.  

The third person was also sealed away.  

Not long after, so was the fourth.  

“He’s out of cards now,” someone suddenly said excitedly. “Let me go in and see what happens.”  

“Wait,” Ning Buwen called out, stopping him. “Try destroying the card table when you’re in there.”  

“The card table?”  

“Yes,” Ning Buwen nodded. “Do you have any powerful item cards—something that can blow up the entire area in one go?”  

“I don’t, but I’m strong enough. I’ll try my best to destroy it.” The person trusted Ning Buwen, especially since he had single-handedly cleared two of the previous challenges. If Ning suggested this, it had to be useful.  

“You’re thinking there’s something suspicious about the surroundings?” Luo Xiang quickly caught on to Ning Buwen’s line of thought. “That does make sense. The haunted house’s environment is unusually eerie. If Black Cloak didn’t cheat, maybe the surroundings are aiding him.”  

After all, the eye-based ability had its limitations. It could only show what the user was focusing on. When their attention was entirely on Black Cloak, they would naturally overlook any abnormalities in the environment.  

When the fifth person entered, Ning Buwen’s expression remained grim.  

“Is it that difficult?” Mo Xiaoyou asked. It was his first time seeing Ning Buwen look so troubled.  

“No, I feel like this challenge shouldn’t be so hard. It’s just that we’re approaching it the wrong way,” Ning Buwen rubbed his temples. “It’s all because the guy surnamed Cheng came over just now and caused me a bit of excitement. I need to calm down and think about it carefully.”  

He grabbed an apple from the fruit basket and began munching on it, finishing half of it in no time.  

Seeing the juicy apple in Ning Buwen’s hand, Mo Xiaoyou couldn’t help but crave one too.  

“That apple looks so fresh and juicy…”  

“I’d offer you some, but this was given to me by Cheng Yuxue. Are you sure you want to eat it?” Ning Buwen glanced at him.  

Mo Xiaoyou shuddered. “No, no, never mind. You shouldn’t share it with anyone either—it’s not worth the risk.”  

“Well, at least the apple’s pretty tasty. It’s helping me calm down a bit.” Ning Buwen sighed and reached for more fruit.  

He squatted down and started eating alone: Finishing the apple, then moving on to a banana, and then some cherries. He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself.  

In a post-apocalyptic world, even the wealthy rarely got to eat fruit so freely. While this was an opportunity in the game, few dared to indulge, given rumors that such food sometimes turned out to be rat or cockroach infested, leading to days of vomiting after clearing the game.  

Meanwhile, the fifth participant entered the haunted house and faithfully followed Ning Buwen’s suggestion: Ignoring Black Cloak’s dialogue and focusing solely on destruction.  

By this point, Black Cloak had already used up the four kings to seal people and had no extra cards left.  

Thinking this, the man struck without mercy.  

“You thought I only prepared four cards?” Black Cloak sneered, retrieving the sealed king cards and replacing them with four new ones. “We don’t need vandals in this amusement park.”  

The fifth participant hadn’t anticipated Black Cloak having more cards and was quickly sealed away like the others.  

“The fifth one didn’t find anything new either,” Luo Xiang said, frustrated. 

“I’ll go.” Zuo Qingcang’s finger had already healed. “If I notice anything, I’ll shout. You and Ning Buwen stay here and observe carefully.”

“I’ll go instead. You’ve already cleared a level,” Luo Xiang shook her head while pointing at the props on her body. “Right now, we’re just newcomers. Even if we have special physiques and can heal ourselves, they still consume a lot of energy. We still have so many people here. Why the rush? I’ll go first, maybe I’ll clear it straight through. We can’t let you lot steal the limelight.”

With that, Luo Xiang took the eye prop, removed one of her eyes, and confidently walked toward the haunted house.

To investigate more thoroughly, Luo Xiang didn’t hold back. She activated several of her props that had surveillance and alert functions. The more clues she could gather, the better.

Strange.

As Luo Xiang stepped into the haunted house, she felt something was off.

From the outside, it had seemed eerie and terrifying. Like Ning Buwen and the others, she had thought there might be something wrong with the haunted house itself.

But now that she was inside, she realized it was just a normal haunted house setup. The creepy scenes seemed like they had been deliberately staged to scare people.

Black Cloak is misleading us!

“Ning Buwen, there’s nothing wrong with the haunted house,” Luo Xiang suddenly shouted.

After saying that, Luo Xiang’s heart sank.

The people ahead should have noticed something was wrong. Anyone participating in the selection process couldn’t be that foolish. But why didn’t they alert anyone? No, they probably did, but they didn’t realize an issue.

Black Cloak had blocked some information from circulating, fooling everyone into walking in on their own.

It’s a trap!

“Sit.” Black Cloak didn’t show any mercy. “No matter what you say here, the people outside won’t know. Once the mystery of the haunted house is revealed, it won’t be scary anymore, right?”

Luo Xiang felt a chill run down her spine.

She saw that the items inside the haunted house were cheap and crude. There was no way these things could be tampered with.

It was like the difference between a buyer’s showcase and a seller’s showcase.

This Black Cloak had deliberately created a terrifying, eerie atmosphere, making us think it was something else. But now that we’re inside, we realize we’ve been deceived.

“You did it on purpose,” Luo Xiang said with certainty.

“All the players, when they hear that I’m going in one-on-one with you, will try every means to uncover the mystery of the haunted house. I’m just fulfilling your wishes,” Black Cloak said, shuffling cards again. “Now, tell me, where is that joker?”

The table was now filled with five cards again.

“No matter which one I choose, it won’t be the right one,” Luo Xiang scoffed. “You think I’ll give up just because of this?”

“Pick a card.”

“Wait.” Luo Xiang took a deep breath and pulled out a long needle from her bracelet, muttering to herself, “Luckily, I did learn a bit of medicine back in the day.”

“You have one minute to think,” Black Cloak said casually.

“A minute is enough,” Luo Xiang retorted without hesitation.

With that, Luo Xiang pierced the long needle into a pressure point on her head.

“Ah.” Luo Xiang grabbed the table with one hand while the other firmly pushed the needle deeper.

The scene before her blurred, and sweat began to pour from her forehead.

Eventually, she became completely blind.

Even if she closed her eyes, the others outside could still see what was happening inside the haunted house. She was just the looking medium.

So, to block the false information from circulating, she had to make herself blind.

Black Cloak didn’t seem to expect this little girl to be so ruthless with herself.

“You…”

“We’re not playing house,” Luo Xiang gritted her teeth. “We’re definitely going to win. Once I’m blind, they won’t be able to see the scene inside the haunted house.”

Ning Buwen and the others should understand her hint, right?

If nothing can be transmitted out of the haunted house, then she herself could become a signal.

“Your turn to pick a card.”

Odd.

After becoming blind, her other senses seemed sharper.

Wind?

How could there be wind here?

Luo Xiang slightly perked up her ears. The series of events from the moment Black Cloak appeared flashed through her mind, and suddenly, she had a realization.

I got it!

I’ve figured out where the solution for this level lies!  

“Time’s up.” Black Cloak interrupted Luo Xiang’s thoughts. “Young lady, I’m sorry, but your time is up.”  

“Let’s go with the leftmost card, whatever.” Luo Xiang smiled faintly. “I’ll just join them then.”  

But what I can figure out, they’ll definitely figure out too.  

Luo Xiang swiftly carved a word under the table with her fingernail before reaching for a card on the table.  

The rest is up to you all.  

—

Outside the haunted house.  

The eyeball had completely failed.  

“What’s going on? Did Luo Xiang get attacked?” Mo Xiaoyou was taken aback by the eyeball’s sudden deactivation.  

“Impossible. Luo Xiang has so many prop cards on her. She wouldn’t be subdued so easily.”  

“I’m certain of Luo Xiang’s capabilities,” Zuo Qingcang said, shaking his head slowly. “Even if she were attacked, she’d find a way to stall for time. But the eyeball’s failure was instantaneous. We only saw her picking a card, and then it went dark.”  

“There’s another possibility,” Ning Buwen said, glancing at Zuo Qingcang. “Luo Xiang may have deliberately deactivated the eyeball’s ability herself.”  

“Was she bewitched?”  

“No.” Ning Buwen proposed a bolder hypothesis. “Maybe this is Luo Xiang’s way of warning us. She’s telling us that what we see isn’t trustworthy—or that what we’ve been seeing is fake. She cut off the connection on purpose.”  

“That’s not out of the question.” Zuo Qingcang followed Ning Buwen’s reasoning. “In the first level, that woman died because of the balloon model in the haunted house. Since Black Cloak is in charge of this haunted house level, he’s probably well-prepared for sight-related abilities. Several people have gone in before us; there’s no way he hasn’t noticed by now.”  

“So, you’re saying he’s using our abilities against us?”  

“That’s the only explanation for how Luo Xiang could lose so quickly,” Zuo Qingcang said with certainty. “Among us, Luo Xiang’s abilities are at least in the top three. But what we saw was her not even using her abilities before cutting off the connection. That suggests she may have figured out a way to clear the level but realized it was already too late. So, she had to resort to this method to give us a clue.”  

“Then… what did she discover?” Mo Xiaoyou felt completely out of sync with these two.  

He was supposed to be one of the top rookies too!  

Why did he suddenly feel like an idiot?  

Is it that I’m too dumb, or are they just absurdly sharp?  

We’re all supposed to be rookies here! Could it be these two secretly got some sort of cheat-sheet for clearing the game?  

Mo Xiaoyou was on the verge of forgetting all the bold words he’d said earlier about surpassing Ning Buwen.  

Once upon a time, he was truly young and naïve.  

Turns out, the gap between people can really be this wide. 

“We don’t know for now. There are too few clues,” Ning Buwen said helplessly. “It could be that Black Cloak deliberately concealed the information, or it might be that Luo Xiang failed before she could pass anything on. However, she might have left some hints inside the haunted house, so we’ll only know by going in to check.”  

“You guys keep thinking. I’ll go in and give it a try,” Mo Xiaoyou said, feeling that staying any longer would lead to an existential crisis. “If I manage to find anything, I’ll make sure to pass the information to you.”  

“You’re going in?” Ning Buwen looked at Mo Xiaoyou in slight confusion.  

“Ahem, actually, I forgot to tell you—I have a special ability called [Detective: Five Minutes]” Mo Xiaoyou rubbed his nose sheepishly. “Maybe it’s because I grew up loving detective novels, but could never become one myself, so when my special ability awakened, it leaned in that direction.”  

“I was wondering. You don’t seem particularly adept at thinking things through, yet you’ve managed to clear the levels so far. It didn’t make sense,” Ning Buwen said, finally understanding.  

“Hey, that’s a bit harsh!” Mo Xiaoyou looked utterly dejected. “My ability sounds fancy, but its effectiveness is pretty limited. It can only deduce based on existing clues—strictly within the realm of logic and science. Have you ever seen a detective solve real supernatural cases? Plus, with a five-minute limit, I can’t activate it unless there are actual clues to work with.”  

No matter how good the detective, they can’t solve cases with nothing to go on.  

But if Luo Xiang left any clues, that would make things much easier.  

“Five minutes won’t be enough for me to clear the level or escape, but it’ll definitely be enough to pass on some intel to you,” Mo Xiaoyou said, puffing up his chest. “Just wait here for my good news!”  

With that, Mo Xiaoyou dashed inside, clearly unwilling to endure any more of the oppressive intellectual pressure.  

“Am I really that scary?” Zuo Qingcang couldn’t help but ask Ning Buwen. “It feels like he’s afraid of us.”  

“Maybe… he’s just feeling inferior?” Ning Buwen hesitated, not entirely sure either.  

The others, however, exchanged knowing glances and silently expressed their full understanding of Mo Xiaoyou’s sentiments.  

Honestly, they wanted to escape from this brain-crushing environment too.

If you're enjoying the story don't forget to support the author! You can also support me on KOFI for site maintenance, raws purchase or as an energy boost~ 

Join discord to get notified whenever a new chapter is uploaded since I'm  incapable of keeping up with a schedule~