Mu Anqi was slightly startled. General Ji didn't seem to be a strict person. She averted her gaze evasively, then couldn't help but sigh in admiration: So good-looking.
"General, have some candy!"
On the other side, Xia Fenghua, who was enjoying the scenery with Mu Xiaobai, shrank her neck and couldn't help muttering softly, "This world is too scary." Mu Anqi was just too naive.
To actually dare covet the beauty of a ghost like General Ji—truly daring to lust beyond reason.
"Why?" Mu Xiaobai withdrew her gaze from outside the window, looked at Xia Fenghua, and earnestly corrected her, "I think this world is already very nice."
"Mm, really?" Xia Fenghua scratched her head. "Sister Xiaobai is right~"
The airship was very fast, and before long, they reached the high platform near the Amusement Park of All Things, where airships could dock. Mu Anqi and the others got off the airship, and Xia Fenghua quickly bought four tickets, and they entered the amusement park together.
"Just… go along and play?" Mu Anqi glanced at the crazy octopus beside her. "General, are you sure this is the normal mode?"
"Just go up," Ji Huaichu replied.
Mu Anqi hesitated for a moment, but still got on the ride. She felt that she was no longer the timid person she had been in life. With something like this under normal circumstances, what was there to be afraid of? She could even sit on a Ferris wheel and watch a ghost frog jump twenty times! Moreover…
They could sit together.
"Scared?" Ji Huaichu sat down and asked.
"A little." Rarely being this close to Ji Huaichu, Mu Anqi was nervous and uneasy. She instinctively sat up straight, behaving extremely properly. "I can overcome it."
After answering, she looked toward Mu Xiaobai and Xia Fenghua. The little Xia Fenghua was sitting in a cabin with Mu Xiaobai. Mu Xiaobai was curious about everything—touching here, poking there, seemingly always asking Xia Fenghua questions. Xia Fenghua looked a bit bored, but whenever Mu Xiaobai turned her head toward her, she would explain seriously.
With a hiss of air, cheerful music gradually began to play, and the crazy octopus's tentacles started moving up and down.
Mu Anqi gripped the handrail in front of her tightly. The instant the feeling of weightlessness hit, she no longer had time to feel nervous about being alone with the general—she didn't even have the mind to admire her beauty anymore. Her whole body went stiff like a frozen fish just taken out of the refrigerator, clinging desperately to the "last life-saving handrail."
Ji Huaichu looked at the expression of the little money tree beside her and couldn't help but doubt her ghostly existence a little. She felt absolutely nothing toward a ride of this level. "Is it really that scary?"
Mu Anqi's voice was hoarse, unable to speak, and she only cast a trembling, fragile gaze toward General Ji's face.
"Can you overcome it?"
Mu Anqi: "…"
"Y-yes." Mu Anqi's voice trembled slightly. It was just a crazy octopus—when she was a child, it wasn't like she hadn't played it at the amusement park before! Though she completely didn't understand why rides she wasn't afraid of as a child now made her uncomfortable. "I-I'm not afraid at all."
Ji Huaichu stared at her, and from those pitch-black pupils, Mu Anqi saw her own stiff face. She immediately took two silent deep breaths, moved her numb and weak body slightly, and looked seriously into Ji Huaichu's eyes. "I can overcome it."
"Mm."
A little money tree working hard to grow strong—truly not bad.
The ordinary mode of the crazy octopus ended in no time. Compared to Mu Anqi, whose legs were a little weak but who forced herself not to show it, Mu Xiaobai looked completely satisfied and excited. "This was really fun! Thank you!"
"…You don't have to be so polite," Mu Anqi said helplessly. She glanced at Xia Fenghua— the little one had fallen to the back of the group, thinking no one noticed, and yawned out of boredom. When she saw Mu Anqi's gaze, she blinked innocently and gave her a dimpled smile.
Mu Anqi suddenly felt that she didn't belong in the amusement park at all!
Whether it was Ji Huaichu or Xia Fenghua, neither could muster any real interest in these normal-mode amusement rides! As for Mu Xiaobai, she was interested, but purely out of excitement and curiosity for new experiences—never out of fear.
Mu Anqi: So the clown was me all along.
"How about… you guys go play something else? I think I might not be very suited for the amusement park. There are too few rides I can actually handle…" Mu Anqi said hesitantly. She was at least self-aware—she could grit her teeth and endure the pirate ship, but this park also had roller coasters, sky loops, free-fall towers, and even 80-meter-high spinning rides!
Mu Anqi didn't even know if she could survive the giant pendulum.
"Xia Fenghua, you take Mu Xiaobai to play," Ji Huaichu said. "Take her to experience every ride."
Xia Fenghua: "?!"
"Yes, General!" Little Xia Fenghua accepted the mission with a serious face, then pulled Mu Xiaobai toward the next amusement ride.
The sudden change left Mu Anqi stunned. She looked at General Ji, only to hear the general ask her, "What rides can you handle?"
"…The carousel?" Mu Anqi answered softly. "Ferris wheel? Go-karts? Sharpshooter? Bumper cars? Haunted house?" All rides that weren't thrilling in the slightest, suitable for all ages. Well… maybe not the haunted house.
"Then let's go."
Mu Anqi followed behind Ji Huaichu. Looking at the general's back, she couldn't help but feel… Was General Ji being a bit… nice to her? Was this how ghost kings normally treated players? Some kind of special treatment for being recruited?
What a good leader.
Mu Anqi couldn't help but smile, hurrying to catch up with Ji Huaichu, and went with the general to the carousel.
Sitting on the horse, feeling the ordinary up-and-down motion and the ordinary rotation of the platform, Mu Anqi finally regained the correct understanding of what a carousel was. This was the real carousel! What were those things with black holes and ghost hands appearing beneath, or horses parkouring and dancing on the platform—what kind of monsters were those!
A real carousel was for entertainment, relaxation, easing the body and mind—and admiring beauties! Hugging the horse's neck, Mu Anqi looked at Ji Huaichu beside her, truly understanding the meaning of "pleasing to the eye." Without her military garb, the general had withdrawn all her sharp edges, and Mu Anqi even sensed a trace of "gentleness" in her.
That was until Mu Anqi noticed that the ghosts in the queue area outside the carousel seemed to be acting a little strange. Her gaze still clung to the beauty, but she spared some attention to listen to what the ghosts below were saying.
"…I think my eyes might not be working right."
"I think so too. But, tell me… would General Ji actually come to an amusement park?"
"Maybe, but I don't think the general would ever play this kind of ride."
"Haha, no way that's the general, right? With the general's aura, just one look could scare my soul out of my body. This is probably just a ghost who happens to look like the general, right?"
"But the general doesn't have a younger sister…"
…
Mu Anqi's expression stiffened slightly, and she began to reflect: if the news of General Ji coming to an amusement park to ride a carousel got out…
"General, General? Um, is it really okay for you to be playing this with me?" Mu Anqi asked softly.
"What's not okay about it?" Ji Huaichu looked over. "Do you care a lot about other people's opinions?"
"…Not exactly, I just think this might hurt the general's dignity?" Hugging the carousel horse, Mu Anqi thought for a moment and said, "It's just… this kind of thing seems like something only kids would play."
"No one has ever made a rule about such things," Ji Huaichu said. "And my dignity isn't something decided by others."
"Then… does Xia Fenghua really not like candy?" Mu Anqi blurted out without thinking.
"…Yes, she doesn't eat candy," Ji Huaichu turned her head slightly.
"Then… does the general like candy?" Mu Anqi's previously slightly panicked mood instantly calmed down. She suppressed a smile and asked softly.
"Average," Ji Huaichu said lightly. Just then, the carousel ride ended. She smoothly dismounted and looked at Mu Anqi. "Do you want to ride again?"
"No, no, let's ride the Ferris wheel!" Mu Anqi tried to hold back her smile, but her eyes couldn't help curving. She quickly caught up with Ji Huaichu. "General, have you ever come here to play before?"
"No."
"General, you've never recruited a player before—why is that?" Seeing Ji Huaichu in a good mood, Mu Anqi couldn't help but ask more questions out of curiosity.
"Never met a suitable one," Ji Huaichu said lightly. As for the suitable players she'd seen before… best not to mention them. She glanced at Mu Anqi. In truth, she was also a little interested in the "innate fortune" that came with Mu Anqi's team, such mysterious abilities were fascinating and hard to grasp.
But that person was Mu Anqi's friend, so Ji Huaichu was only slightly interested.
"!" The way she said that—didn't it mean she was the suitable one?! Mu Anqi steadied herself and continued asking, "Other players have joined other Shattered Mirror powerhouses. Does that mean players can team up to clear Black Mirror vortexes without needing a team card?"
"They can, but both powerhouses must agree," Ji Huaichu explained. Clearly, the little money tree had friends who were recruited by other powerhouses. "The Black Mirror vortexes that appear are like temporary missions and can be accepted and cleared by various powerhouses."
"Will there be Black Mirror vortexes so powerful that they're hard to clear?" Mu Anqi couldn't help but ask again.
"Yes," Ji Huaichu said. "But that's something for the Kaiyuan class to handle." Many Shattered Mirror powerhouses had chosen to dissipate or fall in the process of clearing Black Mirror vortexes. The Feast of Bliss, held every five years by Taiyin and the Underworld, was precisely to commemorate those powerhouses and players who had sacrificed themselves for the Shattered Mirror Continent.
"I think I can clear Black Mirror vortexes with the general," Mu Anqi said. "If the general needs me, I'll definitely be a qualified support." Even if she only had the Blessing and Curse skill, it was enough to make her an excellent support.
Ji Huaichu glanced at her and said, "Alright, I'll remember that."
One person and one ghost chatted casually as they arrived at the Ferris wheel's queue area. Upon seeing the Ferris wheel, Mu Anqi immediately thought of the encounter in the game and looked up at the scenery a little guiltily.
Since this was an ordinary Ferris wheel, there shouldn't be any illusions this time, right? Otherwise, if two Ji Huaichus suddenly appeared in the cabin—one dressed as a dashing general and the other as a leisurely beauty…
That would actually be kind of nice to imagine?