This shouldn't be a carousel, this should be the "Crazy Carousel."
All the horses, no matter what color they were, whether or not they had horns on their heads, had all gone mad. They flung their hooves wide and began a wild sprint, and even the roof of the carousel ride kept rising. Sometimes, these horses could leap three meters high in a single bound!
Is this reasonable? This is not reasonable!
The only thing Mu Anqi was thankful for was that they hadn't gone to the second floor. At the rate the carousel was rising, wouldn't the second floor be galloping through the sky?
She tightly gripped the unicorn's throat, feeling the scenery on both sides fly past and rise and fall erratically, seeing the black holes under the horses ahead and the grayish-white arms reaching up from deep within those holes… Mu Anqi could already imagine what kind of scene was under her own horse. She heard the giggling of ghosts outside the carousel, and when she turned her head with difficulty to glance over, she saw those ghosts all standing on tiptoe, craning their necks to look inside. Even more absurd, one ghost actually took off its own head and held it high above to get a better view.
These ghosts are so capable—why not just pluck out their eyeballs and throw them in to watch the live show? Ridiculous.
On the third lap, even the carousel's background music seemed to triple in speed.
On this lap, the horses began performing acrobatics. They were no longer just carousel horses, or even ordinary horses. They had surpassed the limits of their species. Mu Anqi used all her strength just to barely avoid being thrown off. This unicorn… it actually stood up on its hind legs and started tap dancing.
At the moment when she was being jolted so violently that her limbs were weak, she felt nauseous and helpless, Mu Anqi struggled to glance at her bank card balance. She extracted the odd digit—9 Guan Coins—to generate a red envelope. The red envelope appeared in her hand, and as she clung tightly to the unicorn's neck, she activated her skill.
"Please behave like a carousel in the real world for one minute!"
Mu Anqi didn't know how long this carousel ride was supposed to last, but one minute was enough for her to recover. At the moment she activated the skill, she vaguely heard a cold, aloof cat's meow amidst the noise, but she didn't pay it any mind. The unicorn's tap dancing came to a halt, and it seemed to hesitate. Seeing this, Mu Anqi quickly extracted another 10 Guan Coins to generate another red envelope. Two or three seconds later, Mu Anqi received a notification: skill successfully activated.
The unicorn beneath her finally planted all four hooves on the ground and behaved itself, rising and falling like an ordinary carousel horse.
With this one-minute breather, Mu Anqi could finally relax a bit. Just now, she had been using every muscle in her body, afraid of being thrown off and falling into the black hole. Of course, she didn't waste this minute—Mu Anqi immediately took out 20 Guan Coins, generated a red envelope, and threw it toward Zhao Guogu's horse, which was attempting a backflip!
[Ding! Skill successfully activated!]
Zhao Guogu's face was pale. She weakly clung to the now no-longer-spasming horse beneath her and looked at Mu Anqi with immense gratitude. "Sugar mommy, boss, mama!"
Mu Anqi: "…That's a bit much."
After saving Zhao Guogu, Mu Anqi generated two more red envelopes worth 20 Guan Coins each and held them in her hands. If the game didn't end after this minute, she'd have to bribe again.
What? A blessing? There were black holes and ghost hands under these horses—who knew if falling down meant instant death? Bless the horse at a time like this? What if it suddenly did a 720-degree backflip?
Mu Anqi began looking for that female player she had seen earlier. Unless it was a life-or-death confrontation dungeon, she usually wouldn't take the initiative to attack other players. Besides, no one knew that woman's identity card. As she turned her head, she spotted a figure swiftly darting across the backs of the horses.
Mu Anqi tried to get a better look, but the horse beneath her let out a screech and was about to go crazy again. She immediately used a red envelope to pacify (bribe) it and did the same for Zhao Guogu's horse. Then she looked again carefully, rubbed her eyes, and saw that the cold and aloof beauty from earlier had now…
That snowy white cat on her head, the swaying white cat tail behind her… those sharp claws and soft pink paw pads—was this all real?! A humanoid cat?!
Because she had to constantly move across the backs of the rampaging horses to find moments of balance and safety, this cat… no, this player was completely tense, her tail puffed up. Mu Anqi couldn't help but watch her for a while, and accidentally locked eyes with the player's dazzling, gem-like blue eyes. At that moment, those eyes were vertical pupils—clearly the eyes of a cat.
Zhao Guogu also followed Mu Anqi's gaze. When she saw that adorable kitty… no, that aloof player, Zhao Guogu disgracefully felt her heart flutter. She turned to Mu Anqi with a serious expression and said, "I take back what I said before. Ice-cold beauties are amazing too!"
Hah, do you really think cold beauties are amazing? You're obviously just into anything fluffy!
Mu Anqi rolled her eyes and looked toward the female player. "Hey, kitty over there, are you a carnivore?"
Those upright white ears suddenly twitched. The female player shot a fierce glare at Mu Anqi, clearly displeased with the nickname. She didn't respond, but with her agility and speed, she swiftly dashed across the spinning carousel horses and finally leapt over, landing on the horse Zhao Guogu was riding.
Zhao Guogu: Ah~ it's a kitty~
Zhao Guogu: Wait, I'm catnip!
The shift from bliss to terror took just one second. After confirming that her passive skill for turning danger into luck hadn't activated, Zhao Guogu trembled as she asked, "Your identity card… it's not a cat, is it?"
"Not meow." The aloof kitty lady replied in a calm and icy tone—perhaps due to a skill effect, a soft "meow" was inevitably added at the end of her sentence. "You're a plant? The scent on you…" The cat-faced lady kept a straight face, but her tail was raised high with a slight curl at the tip.
"…If I said yes, what would you do?" Zhao Guogu asked stiffly. She didn't feel any danger.
"So am I," the female player said. "You're catnip? I'm mimosa."
A minute passed, and with a loud hiss, all the horses returned to normal and came to a stop. The black holes and ghost hands beneath the platform vanished without a trace, as if they had never existed.
Mu Anqi climbed off the unicorn with shaky legs. She glanced at Zhao Guogu, who seemed to be chatting happily with the female player, and couldn't understand why that player had such a strong aversion toward her. Could it be… just because she drew the Lily card?!
Cats are just not supposed to eat lilies—it doesn't mean they hate them!
After claiming the carousel's token, they left the carousel instance together. Then they exchanged identity cards, and upon confirming they were all classified as plants, they officially formed a team.
"My name is Si Suying—'Si' as in refined, 'Su' as in hangover, and 'Ying' as in Wang Ying." After exiting her cat form, the aloof player returned to her usual cold and unapproachable demeanor. However, without her ability state active, she clearly no longer held any prejudice against Mu Anqi, nor did she have that inexplicable fondness for Zhao Guogu.
Mu Anqi and Zhao Guogu also introduced themselves. They didn't waste time chatting idly and instead hurried toward the next ride. As players who had drawn plant identity cards, if they wanted to protect themselves, they needed to quickly complete five attractions. Otherwise, they'd only end up being preyed upon by other players.
Mu Anqi touched the pistol-shaped accessory on her wrist and suddenly thought: If she killed another player in her current state… would carnivorous or herbivorous players still die? Or would they indeed die or be injured, just without giving up their mark?
If that was the case, then the identity cards didn't seem overly dominant. Even in the early stages, there might be ways to counter them. Players who drew carnivore cards weren't necessarily in a position of absolute power.
Even a plant… could be a "man-eating flower."
For the next game, after some thought, Mu Anqi decided to try the go-karts. After all… if she got on the Ferris wheel and finally reached the top, only for it to start "clubbing" mid-air, wouldn't that be a total disaster?
On the way to other attractions, they could also observe what the other players were experiencing while playing.
So, as they passed by the spinning swing ride, Mu Anqi saw the chairs spinning at high speed—comparable to an electric fan. Five or six black shadows were even flung off directly. One of them landed right in front of Mu Anqi.
But this one was clearly a ghost. The ghost, unfazed, climbed back up as if used to it, groped around on the ground to find its fallen head, reattached it, and happily went back to queue again.
Mu Anqi: Ah… the entertainment options for ghosts in the Shattered Mirror Continent sure are diverse.
In this "cheerful" atmosphere, they arrived at the entrance to the go-kart attraction. As usual, there was no need to line up—the living aura of players was the best entry pass.
Mu Anqi had played the go-kart ride at amusement parks before, and she'd always found it boring—just adults riding with kids, going around a track once, and that was it. With that in mind, Mu Anqi figured: no matter how the ghosts twisted things, the basic rule of "reaching the finish line ends the game" probably wouldn't change, right? It was just one lap, at most full of ghosts popping out to scare you—what's the big deal?
Before getting in the car, Mu Anqi had thought so optimistically.
The three of them—three players—got into three go-karts. The remaining six karts were occupied by ghosts.
Mu Anqi sat in her kart and tested the steering wheel, brakes, and accelerator—everything was simple and easy to use. However… she didn't quite understand why there were red, yellow, and blue buttons on the kart.
She tried pressing them, but nothing happened.
Suddenly, the ghost acting as the "referee" raised its hand and shouted, "Ready? Go!"
Mu Anqi instinctively accelerated and rushed forward, only to feel shocked a moment later. Wait—did that ghost just speak English?! And why did that sound exactly like a game voice line?! Mu Anqi suddenly had a bad feeling.
She glanced at the other racers. She was currently in second place, with player Si Suying in the lead—probably thanks to her cat reflexes. Zhao Guogu was following close behind Mu Anqi's kart. Behind them were the six ghost racers. Mu Anqi let out a small sigh of relief.
Until she saw it.
In the middle of the track appeared a golden, sparkling, obviously photoshopped-looking treasure chest—and her whole mood changed.
She drove her kart right through it and "picked it up." A red missile icon flashed before her eyes, and the red button on her kart lit up.