NABC Chapter 984 Badge
Chapter 984 Badge
The badge that floated out of the clown statue's mouth was shaped like a bumper car.
The miniature bumper cars are also inlaid with various colorful light bulbs, which are faintly glowing, just like the two badges from before.
This is the "Fun Badge" of this abandoned bumper car area.
But to get it, you must...
Ange pursed her lips, suddenly turned the steering wheel, slammed past a ghost bumper car blocking her way, and sped straight toward the location of the statue.
Getting closer.
Fifty meters.
Thirty meters.
ten meters.
Just as her car was about to crash into the statue—
Suddenly, two eerie green lights shone from the statue's empty eyes.
"Hehe—I'm going to catch you~"
The clown statue's mouth opened and closed, emitting a hoarse sound.
The next second, countless pale hands reached out from under the statue's base and grabbed at Ange's bumper car.
Anjie's eyes turned cold, and she slammed on the brakes. At the same time, she drew a short blade from her system inventory and slashed off the hands that were reaching out to her.
But not long after the hand was severed, more pale hands surged in from all directions, almost completely engulfing her and the bumper cars beneath her.
"Sister An!"
Xu Han, who was watching from the sidelines, exclaimed in surprise.
Chen Yi had already rushed into the arena, his obese body bursting with astonishing speed, smashing through several bumper cars blocking his way, and heading towards An Jie's direction.
He Lingling also gritted her teeth and activated "Ghost Eyes," her huge black pupils staring intently at the source of those pale hands—the darkness beneath the clown statue's base.
She saw it.
In that darkness, countless twisted, overlapping figures—tourists—are hidden.
They were the tourists who didn't make it out of the bumper car game alive.
The bodies of these tourists who didn't make it out alive have become one with the clown statue, completely becoming part of the area.
Those pale, outstretched hands are the tools they use to drag new players down into the ground as well.
"Brother Chen, the clown statue's base! The source of those hands is under the statue's base!"
He Lingling shouted in a hoarse voice.
Upon hearing this, Chen Yi, who was running, suddenly changed direction and rushed towards the base of the clown statue.
His obese body was like a human tank, constantly growing larger and fatter, smashing through one bumper car after another, ignoring the pale white hands that tried to stop him, and charging straight toward the clown statue.
Just as Xu Han was about to reach the clown statue's base—
A giant human hand suddenly reached out from the darkness and grabbed his ankle.
Chen Yi stumbled and almost fell. Looking down, he met a distorted, semi-transparent face.
The distorted face turned toward him, revealing a sinister smile.
"Stay...play together...play together..."
Chen Yi grunted, enduring the cold, stinging pain in his ankle, and kicked the hand away forcefully, continuing to charge forward.
Finally, he rushed to the base of the clown statue.
The clown statue still lay sprawled on the tracks used to decorate the ground, its distorted smile on its faded and cracked stone face somewhat terrifying, and various sounds emanating from its open throat.
"Grab—catch him—"
"Stay—stay—don't—don't leave—never leave—"
"..."
Chen Yi steadied himself and looked into the darkness beneath the clown statue's base.
In this thick darkness, he saw many densely packed, overlapping "people".
No, they are tourists.
The tourists' bodies were intertwined and twisted into a huge, writhing mass of flesh.
The pale, white hands that blocked him and Anjie's way "grew" out of this lump of flesh.
The scene was extremely absurd and disgusting for a moment, giving off an indescribable, nauseating feeling.
Chen Yi took a deep breath to suppress his nausea and slammed his hands onto the ground.
[The dormant acorn—a catalyst!]
hum-
After using the prop, the heavy wooden barrier quickly expanded outwards from him, enveloping the disgusting mass of flesh along with the entire clown statue base.
The pale white hands that kept "growing" were completely isolated by the thick wooden barrier, and could only frantically pound on the surface of the barrier, making muffled thuds.
But the wooden barrier remained completely still.
At the same time, Ange seized the opportunity, floored the accelerator, and the bumper car burst out of the encirclement of the grown-out pale hands, crashing straight into the clown statue on the track.
boom--! ! !
The bumper car slammed its front end into the clown statue with a loud bang.
The clown statue shook violently a few times, and countless cracks appeared on its grinning face.
The sound of the bumper cars colliding with the clown statue echoed like thunder on this track.
"Sister An!"
"Sister An."
He Lingling and Xu Han almost immediately held their breath and shouted out in trembling voices.
Inside the bumper car area, the front of the bumper car that Anjie was driving was deeply embedded in the base of the clown statue.
The remaining paint on the car body peeled off due to the violent impact, revealing the dark red rust underneath.
But when the rust came into contact with the gunpowder smoke in the air, it began to slowly wriggle as if it were some kind of living thing.
"Sister An!"
Chen Yi maintained the acorn barrier, his obese body trembling slightly from overexertion, but his gaze remained fixed on the direction of the clown statue.
The pale white hands, separated by the wooden barrier, frantically pounded on it, the muffled thuds as dense as rain, yet they could not penetrate the defensive line built by the props given to them by Thumbelina.
Anjie, who was inside the bumper car, did not respond.
Her fingers, gripping the steering wheel so tightly they turned white, were pressed against the dagger, which rested across her knee. The cold blade reflected the cracked, painted stone face of the clown statue.
Soon, the two eerie green lights in the deep, carved stone eye sockets of the clown statue flickered several times, and then went out completely.
Ange, who had been tense, slowly relaxed. She picked up the short blade and was about to put it back in its place—
"Gluck cluck-"
A strange laugh, like the clatter of an old machine, came from the clown statue's open mouth.
It wasn't the cheerful tone that used to attract tourists, but a deeper, eerie laugh that seemed to come from the depths of the earth, with a heavy echo and... a kind of liberating relief.
Ange's pupils contracted slightly as she gripped the short blade.
Because she was closest, she saw tiny, colorful specks of light beginning to seep from the cracks at the corners of the statue's mouth.
These specks of light multiplied and thickened in her gaze, eventually converging into a thin stream of light that slowly emerged from the clown statue's mouth—
It was the same bumper car-shaped badge that He Lingling had seen before.
The badge floated in mid-air, its edges radiating a soft light, as it slowly descended.
At the same time, the pale hands that were frantically pounding on the wooden barrier, trying to reach out, all froze.
Then, they slowly began to retreat.
Like the receding tide, countless pale human hands retreated into the darkness beneath the statue's base, disappearing into the enormous mass of flesh formed by the tangled bodies of the twisted tourists.
The mass of flesh, composed of many tourists' corpses, began to writhe eerily before An Jie and Chen Yi, who could barely see anything, and gradually disintegrated bit by bit...
Soon, the overlapping, distorted humanoid phantoms were forcibly summoned back from the bumper cars, and one by one they floated into the air along with the humanoid phantoms that had been peeled off from the lump of flesh.
The eerie, fixed smiles on their faces began to melt and dissipate with the appearance of the badges, replaced by a bewilderment and... relief after a genuine smile.
"Can... I go now...?"
"Finally...finally..."
"I'm leaving... I don't want to... It's so painful..."
"It hurts...I want to go home...I don't want to stay here..."
"Thank you... thank you..."
"..."
Countless soft, overlapping whispers emanated from the transparent humanoid phantoms in mid-air. This time, they were no longer eerie seductions, but real, reassuring voices.
They floated in mid-air and nodded slightly in the direction where Anjie and Chen Yi were.
Then, like smoke blown away by the wind, it slowly dissipated under the dark red sky.
The bumper cars with their lights on in the arena turned off one by one as the humanoid figures disappeared, returning to their previous rusty and abandoned state.
The hurried, tinkling children's music that had been echoing in everyone's ears also came to an abrupt end as it faded away.
The entire bumper car area returned to the same deathly silence as before.
Only the bumper car-shaped badge remained, floating quietly in mid-air, radiating a warm glow.
Chen Yi looked at An Jie and said in a low voice, "Sister An."
"Ah."
Anjie released the steering wheel, stood up from the bumper car, and slowly stretched her hand out into the air.
The badge, radiating light, slowly floated into her palm.
Congratulations to player Ange for obtaining the item: "Collision Fun Badge"
[Item Description: A small prize from the abandoned bumper car area, symbolizing the joy of a collision.]
[Item Effect: When worn, this item slightly increases the player's defense against physical attacks. The side effect is that it slowly accumulates "Charge Value." When the "Charge Value" reaches the player's critical point, the player will be unable to control the urge to charge at others or objects. — (Note: This item is only effective in the dungeon "Shh, Please Be Quiet.")]
Anjie frowned slightly as she looked at the system notification.
This is another "side effect" similar to those of other amusement park rides.
All the badges in this amusement park seem to have some kind of negative effect—
Pleasure level, dizziness level, collision level... it's like using some strange method to gradually "integrate" the player into this amusement park.
"Sister An!"
Xu Han and He Lingling had already run over.
Xu Han's face was still pale, but his spirits were much better than before. He ran to An Jie's side and looked her up and down with concern.
"Are you alright? Did those hands scratch you?"
"fine."
Ange put away the badge and her gaze fell on Chen Yi, who was still maintaining the acorn barrier.
"Chen Yi, we can withdraw now."
Chen Yi nodded and slowly withdrew his hands.
The acorn barrier began to dissipate, and the thick wooden protection, like melting wax, gradually disappeared into the air.
He let out a long breath, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and a relieved smile appeared on his fat face.
"Thank goodness... thank goodness everyone is alright."
"Brother Chen, you were amazing just now!"
After confirming that An Jie was not injured, Xu Han went over to Chen Yi.
Upon seeing the bruises on Chen Yi's ankle caused by the pale, white hands, I quickly reached out and pressed them against his ankle, and a healing glow appeared in my palm.
"It looks really serious!"
Xu Han exclaimed in surprise and quickly said, "Brother Chen, does it hurt? Let me treat it for you."
"It's nothing, just a minor scratch."
Chen Yi waved his hand with a smile, but did not refuse Xu Han's kindness.
Yu Shijiu slowly walked over from the edge of the field.
He had been standing at the entrance the whole time and hadn't gone into the bumper car area.
He Lingling noticed this, stared at him for a few seconds, and asked:
"Shi Jiu, why didn't you go in just now?"
Yu Shijiu blinked, her tone carrying a hint of bewilderment that she herself didn't realize.
"At first I wanted to go in, but halfway there I suddenly felt a little... less inclined to go in."
He looked down at his left hand, his fingers spreading and then closing, puzzled.
"It's so strange. When those people reached out their hands just now, my arm felt a little... restless. I was inexplicably worried that I might not be able to control my hands once I went inside."
This is the truth.
When those pale hands reached out from under the statue's base and grabbed at Anjie's bumper car, the faint burning sensation deep in Yu Shijiu's left arm suddenly intensified.
From that moment on, a strong impulse surged within him—
A urge surged in, to chop off the dense mass of human hands with an axe, to tear apart the lump of flesh, and to devour it...
He stopped himself from having that terrible thought in time.
He's a human being. How could a human being possibly think about eating those meatballs that clearly aren't good?
This is horrible.
It's hard to accept even just imagining it.
"Then you've controlled it very well."
He Lingling simply nodded and didn't ask any further questions.
But she knew in her heart that the "restlessness" Yu Shijiu had just mentioned was definitely not an ordinary physical reaction.
Because Yu Shijiu's condition just now was too similar to the signs he had before the beast claws appeared in his "Return Journey" instance...
But now is not the time to delve into it.
“We have three badges now.”
Ange sheathed her dagger, jumped off the bumper car, glanced at the other four, and whispered:
"One for Shi Jiu, one for Xiao Han, one for me, and we still need twelve more."
She paused, then looked up at the other areas of the amusement park not far away.
Not far away, the roller coaster track meandered and twisted under the dark red sky, and the screams of tourists and the huge noises of the rolling and flipping of the vehicles could be heard from there from time to time.
In another game area not far behind the roller coaster, a huge, exquisitely beautiful Ferris wheel slowly turned, and the lights in the cabins flickered on and off.
The giant pendulum swings back and forth, pausing for a few seconds each time it reaches its highest point, as if something is gazing down at the tourists from the top.
Where do we go next?
Chen Yi inquired.