FPE Chapter 23

Jasmine Town

Meng Le was among the crowd of onlookers, but because too many people were queuing and she was not particularly tall, she couldn’t catch a glimpse of Cao Xiaoliang himself. She laughed to her friend beside her, “Unmatched War God Defying Heaven and Earth, haha — what kind of name is that? He’s definitely a middle schooler!”

Her friend said, “You’re overthinking it. Children aren’t allowed in the park.”

That’s true — Fantasy Amusement Park still had entry requirements even now. Meng Le thought Fantasy Amusement Park handled that well. Children were quite a handful; if they got frightened by the Magic Beast Viewing Corridor and started wailing inside, it would ruin the experience for every other visitor. So she said with conviction, “He’s definitely some little brat who just started middle school!”

It was a Saturday, and for a working adult like Meng Le to have shown up at Fantasy Amusement Park so early in the morning, it wasn’t only out of some special sentimental attachment — the park had genuinely drawn her in. Every time she came out of Fantasy Amusement Park after battling monsters, she was tired, yes, but there was a sense of relief she couldn’t quite put into words. Her sleep quality on those nights was noticeably better than before, and over the past few days, Meng Le had looked in the mirror after waking up and noticed her skin had become a little smoother than before. She told her friend, “Exercise really is the best skincare.”

Her friend touched her own face and nodded with exaggerated seriousness.

The park had set up more than one ticketing machine, so the queue moved faster than it used to. Meng Le remarked, “Looks like the park really has opened new experience zones! Before, the Abandoned Park took batches of twenty — other visitors either had to enter the Magic Beast Viewing Corridor or wait at the entrance. Just now when the previous group went in, I’d say there were well over fifty people.”

Finally it was the two of them at the front to buy tickets. Meng Le’s nickname on the Merit Leaderboard was Le Xiaomeng — simply her real name reversed — but she had a reserved personality and didn’t particularly like this style of ticketing the park used. She also felt that since people chose nicknames instead of their real names, most of them were just playing a game, and having your casually chosen nickname and battle record announced in front of so many people felt rather awkward.

Good thing I didn’t pick some chuunibyou nickname like that person earlier. I wonder if I could talk to the park director about not having it announced.

While thinking this, she paid for her ticket with her phone.

[Please collect your ticket.]

When the mechanical female voice sounded, Meng Le froze. Somewhat surprised, she took out her ticket. Her friend was behind her, and the ticketing machine proceeded to announce her friend’s nickname and battle record as normal.

Her friend was thrilled. “I’m in the top ten on the Merit Leaderboard! Did you see just now — those guys behind us who heard my nickname and ranking were absolutely stunned, haha. Built like tanks, and their battle records still can’t beat me with my scrawny arms and legs…”

Her friend chattered away excitedly. Meng Le shared what had been going through her mind when she bought her ticket, then asked, “Did you also not hear the ticketing machine announce my nickname and ranking just now?”

Her friend nodded. “You’re right, I didn’t hear it. The machine must have glitched at that moment.” Seeing that Meng Le looked thoughtful, she added, “Don’t tell me you think the ticketing machine can read minds?”

When Meng Le thought about it that way, it did seem absurd — could the ticketing machine really read minds? It must have had a minor malfunction, or maybe it was just set to random. With that thought, Meng Le set aside her small suspicion and went off to enjoy the park with her friend in high spirits.

It had only been five short days, yet Fantasy Amusement Park had changed considerably. Before, walking through the park’s main entrance would bring you directly to the entrance of the Abandoned Park, with the Magic Beast Viewing Corridor entrance to the left and its exit to the right. But this time, alongside the signpost for the Magic Beast Viewing Corridor, there was an additional sign indicating that a new fork in the path to the left led to both Jasmine Town and the Purple Lake.

“Just like what they announced online — two new experience zones have opened!”

“Jasmine Town — what’s that? A town with jasmine flowers?”

“And Purple Lake. They both sound pretty ordinary.”

The voices of other visitors surrounded them. Meng Le and her friend had originally planned to go to the Abandoned Park first to fight some monsters and get some exercise, but it was already at full capacity — the next group would have to wait half an hour. So they decided to check out the two newly opened experience zones first.

Following the directional signs, they found that a path that hadn’t existed before had indeed appeared beside the entrance to the Magic Beast Viewing Corridor. That area had once been a stretch of enclosure wall, but after Fantasy Amusement Park’s expansion, the wall had been demolished and replaced with a wide, spacious road paved with colourful pebbles. Pebbles weren’t uncommon in the city, but a road paved entirely with pebbles this beautiful was rare. And for some reason she couldn’t quite explain, from the moment she had entered the park today, Meng Le had felt a sense of ease — though she couldn’t pinpoint exactly where it came from.

“Maybe it’s because the weather is nice today, so the air is fresher,” her friend suggested.

There were quite a few other visitors around. The two of them walked and took photos along the way, and before long, after following the path a short distance, a small town built entirely of stone and wood appeared before them. At the entrance stood a wooden board with the words Jasmine Town carved on it — the lettering seemed to carry the worn, weathered look of something that had endured the passage of many years.

Stepping inside the town, they could see that Jasmine Town contained roughly twenty to thirty small houses, along with a water well, a woodshed, a cultivated plot, and other facilities suited to the daily lives of residents.

“The architectural style of this Jasmine Town is quite distinctive,” Meng Le remarked. Given her professional background, she was familiar with a wide range of architectural styles both at home and abroad, but she had never seen anything quite like what stood before her now.

Most of the houses in the town were built from stone, while the doors, windows, and household items were largely made of wood. Each house had several windows, yet they were all very small — small enough, it appeared, for only one person to squeeze through. Meng Le found this puzzling. If the purpose was to let in light, why not simply make the windows larger? And if the purpose was to deter theft, why were there no bars on any of them, and why were they made just large enough for a person to crawl through?

If a thief came along, couldn’t they just smash the wooden window and get in?

The wooden doors were also rather odd. They were clearly made from thick solid timber, yet they were very narrow — wide enough for only one person to pass through at a time — and each door had a small opening built into it that could be opened and closed.

“The way this is built, it looks like it was designed to keep something out — something fairly large,” Meng Le murmured.

Without a second thought, her friend said, “Isn’t it just to keep out magic beasts?”

The realization hit Meng Le at once. Right — since Fantasy Amusement Park had opened, the magic beasts had all been enormous in size. Even the smallest among them was bulkier than a fully grown adult man. The architecture here looked exactly like what a village, relentlessly harassed by magic beasts, might have been forced to build as a defensive stronghold. With that connection made, everything in this small town suddenly felt as though it had a story behind it, and looking at its every brick and beam felt entirely different from before.

Meng Le grew a little excited. Fantasy Amusement Park really puts so much thought into everything!

Just as she was thinking this, someone cried out in alarm. “Ahh! A magic beast!”

Meng Le jerked her head up and saw a great serpent with three heads slithering out from a corner. Each head bore a set of bone-chilling fangs, and with its upper body reared upright, it stood at least three metres tall.

This time the park had not given them any headsets, and the visitors faced the monster with their bare eyes. Every single person felt a wave of bone-deep, suffocating dread wash over them. Meng Le’s legs gave way almost involuntarily beneath her, and she felt as though she were back the very first time she had entered Fantasy Amusement Park — so terrified by the impossibly lifelike creature that even the will to flee had drained out of her completely.

Most of the other visitors were in the same state. The oppressive presence of this monster was simply overwhelming.

Then, at that moment, a mechanical voice rang out from above:

[This is a Level 3 magic beast that has seized Jasmine Town and slaughtered every last one of its residents. Brave warriors, defeat the Three-Headed Serpent and make it answer for its crimes!]

At the same time, a sequence of images materialised from thin air. The visitors watched the Three-Headed Serpent burst into Jasmine Town and slaughter its inhabitants; they watched those simple, humble townspeople fight back with everything they had to protect their homes; they watched as, in the end, the townspeople failed to drive it away and collapsed helplessly into pools of blood…

There was no sound, only images — yet the innate human capacity for compassion made many of the visitors’ eyes grow red.

“Kill the Three-Headed Serpent!” Someone shouted first — no one could tell who — and almost immediately, nearly every visitor surged forward. Some of them were armed with only the basic wooden sticks provided by the park; others already had weapons like the Mountain-Cleaving Axe. They let out battle cries and charged ahead. Even Meng Le, whose legs had gone soft with fright, snapped back to her senses with a start.

Right — this is just a holographic projection, isn’t it? What in the world am I afraid of?!

Meng Le let out a shout. “Come to me, my precious hammer!”

The next instant, a great hammer materialised out of thin air and dropped into her hands. Amid the envious chorus of holy crap, holy crap from the visitors around her, Meng Le brought it crashing down squarely onto the Three-Headed Serpent’s head.

Nobody is getting in the way of me and my Merit points!

****

That day, Fantasy Amusement Park’s Jasmine Town and the lingering visions of its townspeople together trended on social media.