FPE Chapter 27

Due to the sheer shock of it, Chi Yizhen even blanked out for a moment before realizing what had happened. Staring wide-eyed at the empty player inventory, Chi Yizhen asked, “Game, what’s going on?”

As he asked, he opened the park model projection on the game panel. As the model projection unfolded before him, countless red and green dots appeared simultaneously — the vast majority clustered around the Abandoned Park, the Magic Beast Viewing Corridor, and Jasmine Town. Unlike before, two small golden dots had appeared among the green ones, blinking on and off, extremely conspicuous. Golden dots had never appeared before, and it was too much of a coincidence — they were obviously the two missing character cards.

At this point, Chi Yizhen still hadn’t grasped the seriousness of the situation. Seeing that the two character cards were still within the park rather than out in the world somewhere, he breathed a sigh of relief — but then suddenly noticed the character cards were moving, and the golden dots weren’t overlapping with any green or red dots, which clearly meant they weren’t being carried by anyone.

Chi Yizhen: ???

He exclaimed in surprise, “Wait, these things can grow legs and walk off on their own?”

[If not that, what did the player think was how the character cards left the inventory?]

Chi Yizhen felt like things were getting a bit serious. With a thought, the park’s model projection instantly switched modes, transforming into a panoramic view — the scene inside the security room. The camera continuously moved forward following Chi Yizhen’s line of sight, and in under two seconds it reached the park entrance. His eyes widened slightly. His second character card — Chi Xiaozhen — was standing at the park’s main gate helping to maintain order. She was tall and well-proportioned, with lightly curled long hair draped behind her ears, her expression gentle and patient. Around her, some visitors had even forgotten to buy their tickets and were just standing there staring blankly at her; some visitors who had only been passing by had turned their heads to glance at her and involuntarily joined the queue; there were people who had bought tickets but still wouldn’t enter the park, just standing there staring blankly; and a group of primary school children of varying ages had formed a circle around her at the park entrance. On top of all that, quite a few people were filming videos of Chi Xiaozhen — the spectacle was on par with a national goddess.

Chi Yizhen watched Chi Xiaozhen’s smiling, radiant face and quietly swallowed, then silently called out Sal’s name. The scene before him shifted again as the invisible camera swiftly changed angles, revealing the image of Purple Lake.

Purple Lake was a stunning sight. The faces of the visitors standing at the lakeside were all bathed in a faint pinkish-purple glow. Chi Yizhen saw a weeping rural girl sitting by the lake, saw the visitors crowding nearby to watch the commotion, and also saw Sal, who was tugging and pulling at Cao Xiaoliang. Sal’s physique made him stand out from the crowd like a crane among chickens. Chi Yizhen had almost never looked in the mirror while using the Sal character card, so seeing Sal now from a third-person perspective — that icy face and the arrogance in his eyes — gave him a strong urge to punch the man.

“Really want to deck him,” he muttered to himself — and then watched in shock as a transparent fist materialized in the air, swung forward, and punched Sal right in the face, sending that handsome face tilting to one side.

“What the — that’s possible?!” He was utterly incredulous, then immediately got up and locked the security room door and windows.

This sequence of actions was clearly beyond what the game had anticipated. A giant question mark appeared in midair, expressing the game’s confusion.

Chi Yizhen said, “I’m a little worried they’ll come charging at me.” As character cards he had created one after another, Chi Yizhen felt “siblings” was the most fitting way to describe them.

[Why would the player think that?]

Chi Yizhen said, “They were both able to turn into people and go outside without me knowing, and they can communicate with others without any barriers — doesn’t that mean they’ve developed self-awareness? If that’s the case, they must be extremely unhappy about having been controlled and used.

Game: [Please note that character cards are not yet people; the player need not empathize with them. Furthermore, character cards are created by the player — equivalent to the attendants created by gods in mythology, or robots created by humans. They will regard the player as their master, and under normal circumstances their loyalty rating is 100 or above.]

A moment later, the mechanical voice sounded again: [Please observe the character cards’ words and actions carefully, and take action as soon as possible.]

Under normal circumstances, Chi Yizhen was still willing to follow the game’s advice. Rather than immediately recalling the character cards, he split the screen before him in two and carefully observed Chi Xiaozhen and Sal. After watching for a while, he discovered that although Chi Xiaozhen and Sal appeared to be human, they apparently didn’t yet possess human consciousness — because Chi Xiaozhen could only gently guide visitors into buying tickets and entering the park. Her expressions and words seemed fluid and natural, but close observation revealed she was locked into just this one mode. Sal was the same — either putting on a profoundly mysterious front, or playing the cool, icy heartthrob. Their verbal and behavioral repertoire was extremely limited; compared to real people, they were more like NPCs written with fixed programming.

As for the punch he had just thrown at Sal — none of the visitors reacted at all, which suggested they apparently couldn’t see his actions.

Having determined that these two character cards hadn’t truly become real people, Chi Yizhen relaxed slightly. He chose to recall Chi Xiaozhen, and in the blink of an eye, she transformed into a card and flew back into his inventory. From everyone else’s perspective, that strikingly beautiful female staff member had simply turned and walked into the park, disappearing into the crowd shortly after.

Chi Yizhen spent one point to put a lock on his inventory. He noticed that although the character cards were not inside the inventory, the game panel still showed the option to use them. So he chose to use the Sal character card — and in the next instant, the scene before his eyes shifted. He found himself at the Purple Lake experience area, facing Cao Xiaoliang and the others, who were considerably shorter than him.

Cao Xiaoliang had noticed something was off about Sal — talking to him was like asking about a horse and getting an answer about a donkey. He had asked Sal to deal with the girl’s situation, but Sal just gave him a bland sideways glance and said, “Boring. This kind of thing is too boring.”

Cao Xiaoliang was left speechless. “But aren’t you the park manager?”

Sal suddenly reached up and touched his face, then broke into a smile that seemed to be seducing someone, leaving Cao Xiaoliang feeling dizzy. Then Sal said, “Shh. With the strength I’ve demonstrated, I think I’m qualified enough to seek an audience with your Queen.”

Cao Xiaoliang stared at him blankly. What did any of that have to do with anything?

The next second, the look in Sal’s eyes suddenly changed — sharper and more composed than before. The hand he had used to stroke Cao Xiaoliang’s face moved downward, and he patted the young man on the shoulder. “Sorry about that — our park director is planning to open a themed event and I’ve been running lines. I just blurted it out.”

That explanation sounded much more normal. Cao Xiaoliang nodded in understanding. Then he watched as Sal stepped past him and walked over to the girl. “Little miss, why are you crying? Did Fantasy Amusement Park treat you poorly in some way? I’m the park manager — if something’s wrong, you can tell me.”

Hearing the question, Zhao Xiaomei finally came back to herself a little. She had been crying so hard earlier that she was still hiccupping with sobs. She lifted her head slightly, caught a glimpse of a very tall man, and instinctively shrank back, not daring to say anything.

Chi Yizhen, wearing Sal’s shell, took a walkie-talkie from his inventory and spoke into it briefly. A female staff member arrived shortly after. This woman had never met Sal before, but she knew a person of his description existed within the park. Moreover, a visitor was clearly in distress, and that was something they needed to handle right away — so without overthinking it, she immediately went to comfort the girl and before long led her off to the staff office that had been set aside inside the park.

“That girl must have run into some kind of trouble — you don’t cry like that for nothing.”

“She doesn’t look very old either — still in school, probably!”

Some nearby visitors exchanged a few comments, but soon they were absorbed once again in the Purple Lake, which had returned to its peaceful beauty.

Seeing there was nothing else to attend to, Chi Yizhen hurried back to the security room still wearing Sal’s shell, then shed the disguise and carefully examined the character cards’ detailed information. What he saw gave him a start — the prestige ratings of both character cards had already exceeded 2,000.

—

Character Card: Sal 

Race: Human 

Height: 188 cm 

Skills:

1. Precognition Lv.2 — Can foresee events up to one day in the future, or by touching an object, briefly foresee the short-term future of its related person.
2. Air Blast (gray — unavailable)

Prestige: 2,300 (When prestige reaches 10,000, Sal will break free from the card face and become real. Please note: the current prestige value has already endowed the card with basic chaotic consciousness. The card will be drawn toward the park’s dense aura of faith. Escape probability: 20%.)

Current Personality Setting: A seemingly profound con artist; a straight man who enjoys luring gay men into the park to spend money.

—

Character Card: Chi Xiaozhen 

Race: Human 

Height: 175 cm 

Skills:

1. Charm Lv.2 — Those who hear or see her will be involuntarily drawn to her; possesses extraordinary talent for persuading others.

Prestige: 2,100 (Please note: the current prestige value has already endowed the card with basic chaotic consciousness. The card will be drawn toward the park’s dense aura of faith. Escape probability: 18%.)

Current Personality Setting: Gentle, considerate; hobby — handing out flyers.

—

Chi Yizhen: ……

Because he knew that character cards would become real people once their prestige exceeded 10,000, and that everything he did would affect their personality and skills, Chi Yizhen had been very cautious about using character cards. Apart from the very beginning when he had used them to attract visitors, he hadn’t used them at all since. But he vaguely remembered that both cards’ prestige ratings had been below two hundred back then — so what on earth had happened? How had they both broken two thousand?

With a sinking feeling, Chi Yizhen searched for Sal and Chi Xiaozhen online — and that was when he discovered that, entirely without his knowledge, the two of them had become internet celebrities.

On a certain short-video platform he almost never browsed, there were quite a few videos featuring Chi Xiaozhen and Sal. The highest view counts were in the hundreds of thousands; even the lowest were in the tens of thousands. Because no one had added the Fantasy Amusement Park hashtag, he had never come across them. He searched by date and found the earliest video came from a street photography account, timed to right around when his park had just opened.

Chi Yizhen finally understood where all those prestige points had come from. He was a little indignant — how could these people be so inconsiderate, posting candid videos online without a word of notice! But since they hadn’t monetized it, there was nothing to be done beyond getting the videos taken down. And besides, many people saved and shared videos of attractive people — even if he got one taken down, others would still spread them around. That meant the character cards’ prestige would keep rising, and if one of them suddenly became a real person someday while Chi Yizhen still hadn’t properly fleshed out their personality settings, the park might end up with two people who were, in the most literal sense of the word, cognitively impaired.

“Sigh, I’ve been a pretty unqualified father,” he muttered.

He suddenly remembered the new features the game had added when he leveled up, and thought to himself that now that there were staff members, the pressure had eased considerably — it was time to properly flesh out the character cards. When that was done, he would have two helpers with extraordinary abilities on his side.

During this period of managing the park, he had keenly noticed that the hole suppressed beneath the park had grown somewhat larger, and that more Level 2 and Level 3 magic beasts were crawling out than before. One obvious example was that previously there had been only a single three-headed serpent jammed in place and unable to get out, whereas now there were countless three-headed serpents available for the visitors of Jasmine Town to gang up on.

[Ding-dong. The amusement park is a place that brings joy and happiness to people. Your believers hope there can be a children’s play area here. Please build a children’s play area as soon as possible so that visitors can leave behind the joy and happiness of a whole family within Fantasy Amusement Park.]

Chi Yizhen thought to himself, You really know how to give me headaches. The character card situation isn’t even resolved yet — where am I supposed to get a children’s play area from?

He let out a sigh. If only he had known, he wouldn’t have taken that three million to the bank to pay off the loan. Just as he was fretting over this, staff member Chen Hui suddenly knocked and came in. “Director, shouldn’t we call the police about this?”

Chi Yizhen: ???

Chen Hui explained, “It’s about the young girl at Purple Lake. She says she wants to find her biological parents.”