The sudden change of ownership at the Tourist Garden truly caught everyone off guard—even the Weirds.
Some colorful Weirds that crawled out from the humus soil felt like the sky had fallen.
They woke up to find the Park Chief missing, presumed dead or worse, and a new boss in charge. What were they supposed to do, these Weirds who depended on the Tourist Garden for their existence?
The Weird World had no boundaries and was full of bizarre sights. In this world, humans could be weirds, animals could be weirds, and plants could be weirds too.
Weak Weirds offered their loyalty to stronger kin and had a chance to become more powerful themselves.
Before this, Blue 242 had called the colorful mushrooms a specialty product of the Tourist Garden, and it was an apt description from every angle.
In this Tourist Garden, the darker the color of the hat a Weird wore, the more deeply it was bound to the Garden.
They were assimilated by this weird territory until, in the end, they became earthbound Weirds who could never truly leave.
This treatment might sound like a loss of freedom, but for many weak Weirds, it was something they desperately desired.
They lost their freedom but gained a sense of belonging.
Besides, being unable to truly leave the Tourist Garden forever didn’t mean they couldn’t be sent out on short business trips.
Some Weirds who had finally climbed to the mid-to-upper levels of the park, assigned to fixed plots of land, heard the broadcast still looping overhead. They all donned their rainbow-hued little hats and gathered in an open clearing, exchanging bewildered glances. Their expressions were more devastated and confused than if their entire family registry had been wiped out.
“What is the Su Consortium?” one homegrown Weird finally asked. He had been born and raised in the Tourist Garden, rising all the way from gray to green.
A more worldly Yellow Hat Weird beside him spoke up to educate his colleagues. “The Su Consortium is the biggest conglomerate in Tanzhong City.”
As for other cities, he didn’t know the specifics of the Su Consortium’s business empire.
“From the moment a Weird is born until it’s devoured and dies, its food, clothing, housing, and transport—if it’s still in this city—will inevitably have some connection to the Su Consortium.”
The Yellow Hat Weird finished, then jerked his chin toward the group of Weirds standing opposite him. “The human skins you’re all wearing? At least eight out of every ten pieces came from factories under the Su Consortium.”
As for the remaining two, as long as they were sold in Tanzhong City, the processing plants definitely had shares from the Su Consortium.
The other homegrown Weirds in the clearing looked down at their arms and legs upon hearing this and drew sharp intakes of breath.
“My third uncle’s second aunt’s seventh grandfather struck it rich a few years ago. Guess where his family moved to?”
Another Yellow Hat Weird played along. “Where? Don’t tell me Wealth Avenue’s villas?”
That was the best villa district in their city.
The educating Yellow Hat Weird nodded smugly.
Another round of sharp intakes of breath.
“Last time I went to the city center on business, I dropped by to visit my third uncle’s second aunt’s seventh grandfather. Their household’s weird doll said that Mr. Su from the Su Consortium had recently moved into a new place—the whole family right there in the district.
“The local Weirds in the Villa District bullied the new residents, thinking they were just some family scraping by with a tourism group. But then…
Hiss. That was a powerhouse who skinned half the Villa District’s Weirds in two hours.”
Hiss.
All the Weirds present drew in cold breaths, involuntarily putting themselves in the scenario. They felt pain all over their bodies.
“Th-then, when that one arrives later, he won’t skin us all and plant us back in the ground, right?” This came from a relatively stable Weird still asking questions to the others.
An even more stable Weird answered, “Possibly. The zoo next door used to be a circus troupe. When the new boss took over, he couldn’t be bothered to assimilate the old employees and just slaughtered all the Weirds.”
Hearing this, the less stable ones had already turned their eyes blood-red. They tore at their hair, muttering madly to themselves like they’d lost their minds. “I don’t want to be a mushroom anymore! I don’t want to spend year after year in the soil! I don’t want to be bitten by ants! I don’t want to get trampled to pieces and have to regenerate!”
“I… I…” The green-hatted Weird with blood-red eyes stammered “I” for a while before his expression suddenly brightened, as if he’d thought of something.
He remembered a terrifying rumor circulating in the Tourist Garden these past couple of days—the connection who strung up Weirds on the balcony as a public display.
Normally, sneaking around eating a few colleagues wouldn’t draw much attention. But this connection shouldn’t have been so provocative.
Because of that provocation, some Weirds were already planning to cause him trouble these past couple of days.
But now, with this major event, who had the mind for it?
Most crucially…
“Is he surnamed Su? Right, right! I heard Yellow 03 say his name is Su Ximu!”
“Su Consortium, Su Ximu—it all lines up!”
How could there be such a coincidence? A connection surnamed Su had just arrived in the Tourist Garden, and days later, the entire place was acquired by the Su Consortium.
And this Su connection had acted so fearless from the start—definitely had backing!
Maybe he was connected to the Su Consortium.
“He likes planting mushrooms…” The Green Hat Weird spun in circles, muttering heedless of the onlookers. “Right, no problem. I can offer up half. It can still grow…”
Under everyone’s stares, this mentally fragile Green Hat Weird began tearing at his left shoulder with his right hand.
Amid screams that would mentally pollute any player who overheard them, the human skin tore from his shoulder, revealing the fresh red flesh beneath.
Human skin was hard to replace because it fused with the body.
Soon, the Green Hat Weird had torn himself down to half, leaving only his head intact.
He dragged his body—now with just one arm and one leg—wriggling upright. He used his teeth to gnaw at the seam between his other half-body and the ‘clothing.’
This was delicate work. Normally, before he finished, the other watching Weirds would have swarmed the severely weakened Weird.
But at this critical moment concerning their livelihoods, no Weird dared act rashly.
Time flew to noon, with the sun high overhead.
The Green Hat Weird, who had toiled all morning, finally redressed in his ‘clothing,’ looking no longer like a mutilated horror.
He hopped in place twice and sighed sincerely, “As expected from the boss’s factories. Even after being torn apart, it still fits so comfortably and perfectly once put back on.”
With that, he scooped up the half green mushroom from the ground and vanished in a puff.
Behind him, a Weird spoke up. “Do you think he’ll succeed?”
Was that connection really tied to their new boss?
“Hope so,” said the highest-ranking Yellow Hat Weird present, gazing into the distance with genuine blessing.
If it worked, giving up half a body wasn’t so bad.
It was basically asexual reproduction. Send out a ‘child’ to secure their bright future—such a great deal.
As long as the power remained, they could split off more offspring anytime.
The broadcast in the Tourist Garden had been blaring since dawn. Su Ximu was a light sleeper, but that night, thanks to a dream, he wasn’t woken by it.
This was the first dream he’d had since ‘transmigrating into the book.’
At seven in the morning, Su Ximu sat up in bed, recalling the dream.
Ever since that high fever in his childhood, he’d become prone to vivid, repetitive dreams—the same one over and over.
His grandma had been terrified back then, thinking he’d been possessed by something unclean. She’d taken him to the county shaman woman and made him drink talisman water. None of it helped.
By the time he grew up and went to university, he could recite the dream’s contents backward and forward.
But this time…
Su Ximu hugged the blanket, sitting on the bed and carefully recalling.
This dream had a change that never happened before.
In the hazy dreamscape, he gained a clear viewpoint for the first time and saw a face distinctly.
Just one face, though.
He looked down at his palm and slowly traced it out.
Long hair tied in a little tuft, big eyes, straight nose, thin lips with an upward curve—a natural smiling mouth.
It was a very pretty little boy with long hair, looking almost like a little girl.
Su Ximu recalled the contents of his past dreams and tried overlaying this boy’s face onto one of the children from the dream.
That was a kid who had been so, so good to the him in the dream, with an incredibly kind temper.
When he was very young and couldn’t distinguish dream from reality, the thing he wanted to do most every day was sleep—to dream and enter that world.
The only thing that got him out of bed each day was his grandma. There was no grandma in the dreams.
Later, his grandma noticed he slept more and more, even secretly taking her sleeping pills when he couldn’t. She beat him badly for the first time.
That was how he gradually broke the habit and learned to tell dreams from reality.
Thanks to this new discovery in the dream, Su Ximu spaced out on his dorm bed for over forty minutes before snapping out of it to wash up.
After washing, he hurriedly pushed open the dorm door and found Blue 242 Leader sitting there waiting for him.
Before he could say they might be late today, Blue 242 Leader spoke first.
Blue 242 said, “The broadcast announced today that the Tourist Garden has a new boss. The Garden’s closed for three days, and employees are off work.”
Work was suspended?
Su Ximu paused with his hand on the door.
Since work was halted, there was no need to rush.
In the time that followed, he and Blue 242 Leader leisurely ate breakfast in the rest area’s cafeteria.
Several hours later, they returned to the cafeteria for a leisurely lunch.
During this, he learned that the one who acquired the entire Tourist Garden was none other than ‘Big Brother.’
That finally explained why all the park employees had given him such strange looks that morning.
At noon,
On the way back to the dorms from the cafeteria with Blue 242 Leader, Su Ximu spotted a green-hatted park staffer running toward him from afar.
About ten meters away, the Weird dropped to his knees with a thud and slid all the way to Su Ximu’s feet. He bowed low, devoutly kissing the ground by Su Ximu’s feet, while raising his hands high.
“Honored Mr. Su, please accept my most precious gift. Green 132 greets you.”
“I wish to become the Su Consortium’s most loyal slave. Please don’t kill me—use me as you will!”
“I am willing to dedicate my life to the Consortium!”
Slave.
Kill.
Use.
Su Ximu, who had never received such a grand gesture, didn’t react at first. When he did, his immediate thought wasn’t to dodge the prostrating Green 132, but something else.
Was the Su Consortium really a legitimate business?
Had the ‘Original Host’ been involved in company operations? In the memories, the ‘Original Host’ had gone to the company with Big Brother and seemed to have signed some documents.
But he couldn’t recall the contents.
He hadn’t transmigrated here just to take the fall for the ‘Original Host’ and go to prison, had he?
