Chapter 19
Xing Nuo furrowed his brows and took two steps back, covering his ears.
Although young, he seemed to have an innate sense of danger. A growing unease in his gut made him keep retreating.
He finally stopped when he reached the wall on the other side of the living room, far away from the toy town, and lowered his hands from his ears.
The noise lessened considerably, no longer as piercing.
But the toy town sat on the coffee table in the center of the living room. No matter where Xing Nuo looked, his gaze would inevitably fall upon it.
And after a few glances, the toy seemed to become like an addictive drug, impossible to look away from.
This was Xing Nuo’s current predicament. His head ached from the clamor, yet his eyes remained glued to the toy town.
Leaning against the wall, Xing Nuo clenched his fists, struggling for a long time before finally managing to avert his gaze slightly.
Perhaps sensing his attempt to escape, the cartoon sun on the east side of the toy town suddenly set, replaced by a moon.
The bright, vibrant colors of the town instantly faded, covered by a pale gray shadow.
The smiles on the figurines’ faces vanished, replaced by cries and wails.
“Little friend, can you please save me?!”
“I’m trapped here! This damned instance, how do I get out?!”
“Let me out! I just glanced at the toy store on the street, answered a question, and I was pulled in!”
“Please, someone help me!”
The soft cries echoed in his ears. Xing Nuo shook his head, his mind a confused mess.
The little figures who had just been enthusiastically inviting him to eat bread and play games were now crying?
Xing Nuo was too young to fully understand these strange occurrences.
An adult in this situation, witnessing the change from day to night in the toy town and hearing the figurines’ pleas, would most likely ask what was happening.
Some of the figurines were even giving out their home addresses.
“My home is on the sixth floor of Building E, Happy Family Residence! I’m not lying! I was restricted by the rules during the day! What I’m saying now is true! The town is temporarily free from the rules at night!”
This little figure in green even lived in the same complex as Xing Nuo.
Xing Nuo’s curls fell around his face. He looked at the agitated green figurine, his mouth opening slightly.
The green figurine’s anxious expression instantly transformed into one of elation.
But in the next second, Xing Nuo yawned and closed his mouth, showing no intention of responding.
Zaizai wasn’t stupid.
These little figures were so strange; he was too smart to fall for their tricks!
The figurines tried everything they could think of, shouting for over ten minutes, before finally falling silent, exhausted and despairing.
The cartoon moon on the east side of the town was slowly covered by dark clouds, plunging the town into a perpetual twilight.
The figurines fell asleep, scattered across the streets, looking like corpses from afar.
All the noises vanished instantly, giving Xing Nuo’s sensitive eardrums a much-needed respite.
Just as Xing Nuo breathed a sigh of relief, thinking it was finally over, a lizard monster with glowing red eyes slowly crawled down from the only mountain in the toy town.
The monster was dark green, with snake-like patterns on its back, hissing softly as it slithered down the small mountain.
It crawled into the miniature town that barely filled the coffee table.
Its forked tongue flicked out, snatching up a fallen figurine, devouring half of it in a single gulp.
Xing Nuo stared, stunned, his eyes widening. He couldn’t help but take two steps forward.
The monster, having devoured a figurine in seconds, looked up and saw Xing Nuo through the toy town.
It flicked its long, sticky tongue, hissing, imagining the deliciousness of this small human.
Unfortunately, the monster and Xing Nuo weren’t in the same world.
Restricted by the rules, even if it wanted to devour this delicious human, it would have to wait until the human was pulled into the toy town instance.
[Instance: Toy Town
Type: Rule Escape
Rules: The town has three states. During the day, when the sun is out, the figurines must smile and attract human “customers” to become residents of the town;
At night, when the moon appears, the figurines cannot lie. If a “customer” responds to them, they can swap places and the customer becomes trapped in the instance;
When the sun and moon are covered by clouds, the town’s residents fall asleep, and the monster begins to hunt, until the sun rises again.]
Before being pulled into this game, a player who had cleared the instance had summarized the rules of this B-level instance.
For players, or ordinary people caught in the instance, the quickest way to clear it was to gain the sympathy of another human during the night, when the figurines couldn’t lie, and induce them to respond.
As soon as someone responded, regardless of the content of their reply, they would be pulled into the game.
The player who received the response would then receive a clearance notification and be able to leave.
In the infinite flow world, a third of a team of highly ranked players, almost all above B-level, had perished in this Toy Town instance.
Back then, when the instance was new, no one knew the rules. Several players, being cautious, refused the figurines’ requests.
But the rules were cruel; refusal was also considered a response, and they were instantly pulled into the town.
Those who remained silent, however, escaped.
After that, the rules of Toy Town quickly spread, and the instance, unable to trick anyone, had to change its tactics.
It used the gaps between worlds to create a more elaborate and intricate virtual toy town in the real world, luring ordinary humans.
A department in the human world called the “Special Incidents and Abilities Management Office” had been searching for this toy town.
After the first anomaly appeared in the human world, humanity hadn’t resigned itself to its fate. Instead, they proactively established the “Special Incidents Office” to combat these anomalies.
Humans who encountered these anomalies often awakened special abilities, becoming what were known as ability users.
The current leader of the Rongcheng Special Incidents Office team was the new resident on the third floor of Xing Nuo’s building.
The third-floor resident ordered a burger for lunch. It came with a toy car, which he decided to give to Xing Nuo.
He had seen the little cub going to kindergarten these past few days, always crying, his little face streaked with tears, and it made him chuckle.
Thinking this, he smiled and went upstairs with the toy, knocking on the fourth-floor door.
But the moment he knocked, his smile froze, and his eyes widened in disbelief.
He sensed it, the aura of the B-level anomaly he had been tracking for half a month!
It was inside his upstairs neighbor’s apartment!
Inside the apartment.
Xing Nuo watched as the lizard monster devoured another figurine, stunned.
As the lizard flicked its tongue to grab another figurine, the figurine suddenly woke up, screamed, and scrambled into a nearby building.
The moment it was inside, the effect of the instance prop it had used wore off, and it slumped over, falling asleep.
The figurine knew that, once asleep, it would never again see the eternally bright, artificial sun of the toy town.
The lizard seemed enraged.
Ignoring the other motionless figurines, it slowly crawled towards the one that had dared to escape.
Just as the lizard was about to snatch the figurine, Xing Nuo blinked and made his move.
He raised his little wooden sword, mimicking the little knight from his picture book, and let out a soft “Hya!” He poked the lizard monster with the sword.
The lizard monster and Xing Nuo were separated by two worlds. Under normal circumstances, they could only see each other, not even smell each other, let alone touch.
The lizard monster continued crawling, hissing mockingly, ignoring Xing Nuo’s action.
But then –
The little wooden sword seemed to pierce a soft membrane. With a soft pop, it touched the lizard’s back.
The moment the wooden sword made contact, black smoke started to emanate from the lizard’s body, its back sizzling.
It hissed in pain, trying to roll away, but the small, seemingly weak wooden sword held it firmly in place.
As its energy dissipated, the lizard monster looked up at the small wooden sword it had previously ignored.
Its red, vertical pupils narrowed sharply.
An SSS+ level prop?!
Why was it such an ordinary-looking wooden toy sword?!
The gem embedded in the sword had a special property that allowed it to ignore spatial distances to a certain extent, directly targeting its intended location.
The sword also carried Shen Yan’s strong aura, which made the B-level lizard monster tremble uncontrollably.
The monster’s pained roars gradually weakened, the black smoke dissipating, until it became a limp, motionless lizard.
Xing Nuo, seeing the monster defeated, let out a triumphant “Hya!”, sheathed his little wooden sword, and wiped his forehead, pretending to be tired.
That was close!
Zaizai had narrowly defeated the lizard monster!
Xing Nuo sighed in relief. Seeing that the lizard monster was no longer moving, he poked it repeatedly with his little wooden sword, pushing it back into the small mountain from which it had emerged.
