Final Arc: Chapters 720-727
Since its launch, the immersive holographic online game “Yesterday Reappears” has been wildly popular. The Sun Group seized the opportunity and swiftly built the world’s first horror-themed amusement park based on “Yesterday Reappears.”
The transition from a two-dimensional game into reality once again became a hot topic on the internet.
The land belonged to them, and so did the IP. The Sun Group priced the “Yesterday Reappears” amusement park tickets very low. Tickets went on sale seven days in advance and were almost always sold out as soon as they became available.
A bright yellow taxi slowly stopped outside the amusement park.
The door opened, and a young man in a simple white shirt stepped out.
As soon as he got out of the car, he saw someone waving at him from afar. “Brother, over here! Hurry!”
His phone chimed.
Bai Lixin glanced down. Dijia had only sent one sentence.
[Hide and seek, come find me.]
He quickly replied [Not playing], and walked over to the group in front of him.
The ones waiting were Xia Chi and Tan Yue.
This was why having inside connections made everything easier.
Sun Ning had given them special privileges and registered them in the VVVIP system. They didn’t need to fight for tickets and could enter and exit the park freely with their ID information.
Bai Lixin and Dijia had also arranged false identities for themselves.
For some reason, Dijia assigned Bai Lixin the identity of a young master from a certain family in Haicheng, and himself as the butler.
It was unnecessary, really.
Out here, identities were self-assigned anyway.
Today was the weekend, and Xia Chi had invited him to the “Yesterday Reappears” theme park.
He didn’t know what that old schemer, Dijia, was up to, he had left ahead of him without saying anything.
Now after arriving at the park by himself, he suddenly received that message.
So he wanted to play?
Childish.
Xia Chi: “Brother, you came alone? Didn’t the big boss come?”
A large plush bear happened to pass by them.
Bai Lixin: “He’s sick today. We’ll play by ourselves.”
The bear paused mid-step, walked back, and shoved three balloons into their hands.
Xia Chi thanked it politely but was focused on Bai Lixin. “The big boss is sick?”
Bai Lixin: “He’s got a screw loose.”
Xia Chi & Tan Yue: “…”
The bear that had walked away: “…”
The three of them passed through security. The park was already crowded with tourists, and there were long lines stretched in front of each attraction.
Xia Chi looked around and pointed at a relatively uncrowded black house nearby. “Shall we try that?”
Tan Yue: “The Haunted Asylum… a haunted house? Can you handle that?”
Xia Chi laughed arrogantly. “Tan Yue, who do you think you’re underestimating?”
Tan Yue: “You.”
…
Ten minutes later, it was their turn.
The three of them walked into the Haunted Asylum, led forward by a young woman dressed as a nurse.
It was a three-story asylum, and the deeper they went, the more immersive it became.
The staff wore realistic white coats to match the haunted house theme.
“I have a question for you three.”
The staff member inside was already in character and he looked at the “medical record” in his hand seriously. “You’re outside playing when it suddenly starts to rain, and you want to go home. What’s the first thing you do?”
The three looked at each other.
Xia Chi answered first. “Run home.”
The doctor in the white coat immediately pointed at Xia Chi. “You have masochistic personality disorder. A normal person would check if they had an umbrella.”
Xia Chi: “…You didn’t say there was an umbrella.”
The doctor’s expression remained stony. “Adding another, paranoid personality disorder. Room 4 on the third floor.”
Xia Chi: “…”
Tan Yue snickered.
The doctor immediately shot Tan Yue a glance. “Did I ask you? Laughing without permission, how rude. You, narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, severe case, Room 4 on the third floor.”
The doctor’s gaze slowly shifted to Bai Lixin. “You…”
Bai Lixin: “I’m sick.”
The doctor: “…”
Bai Lixin: “I’m seriously ill. Skip the formalities, let me in quickly.”
The doctor: “No, you seem perfectly fine. People who are sick wouldn’t say they are. This asylum isn’t for you. You should go out.”
Bai Lixin: ?
‘Am I getting kicked out after entering?’
Several nurses suddenly formed a line and took Bai Lixin outside.
Xia Chi reached out to Bai Lixin through the human barrier, and Bai Lixin could only watch helplessly as the other party was dragged upstairs by NPCs in white coats.
The sun shone brightly, and cicadas chirped incessantly.
Bai Lixin stood at the entrance of the “Haunted Asylum”, and his phone chimed.
He opened it.
It was a message from Xia Chi.
[Brother! Save me!!!]
Bai Lixin replied expressionlessly:
[Take care and recover soon.]
Having been forcibly driven out of the haunted house, Bai Lixin was now separated from Xia Chi and Tan Yue.
He stood in front of the haunted house for a while until a young girl dressed adorably and holding a bouquet of colorful flowers bounced over to him. “Big Brother, would you like some flowers?”
Bai Lixin bent down and accepted the flowers from the little girl. “How much, little one?”
The girl giggled, revealing two pointed canine teeth. “I don’t need money, Big Brother. I’m so hungry. Could you help me gather some fresh mushrooms from deep in the forest? I want to bring them to my grandmother.”
Bai Lixin was stunned for a moment, and he looked the little girl up and down. She was dressed in a red puffy dress with a matching hood attached at the back, giving her a familiar appearance.
Was this the Little Red Riding Hood NPC?
Had he triggered some kind of quest?
To perfectly recreate the game scenes, the “Yesterday Reappears” theme park included a task mode. Each day, random quests would be activated, and lucky players selected for these quests could win an exclusive limited-edition “Yesterday Reappears” figurine after completion.
Bai Lixin: “Where is the forest?”
The little girl pointed behind her to a lush green area, at the entrance of which stood a sign that read “Jungle Venice”.
“Big Brother, my house is in Fairy Tale Town. I need ten yellow mushrooms with red spots, ten red mushrooms with white spots, and ten pink mushrooms with blue spots.” The little girl’s dark eyes gazed at Bai Lixin as she smiled sweetly. “Once you pick them, come find me at the mushroom house on the left side of FairyTale Town. I’ll be waiting for you there.”
She handed Bai Lixin the basket slung over her arm. “This basket is for carrying the mushrooms.”
Bai Lixin accepted the basket, suddenly feeling the girl was not sweet anymore.
Yellow mushrooms with red spots, red mushrooms with white spots, pink mushrooms with blue spots…
Was this some kind of poison mushroom combo?
The little girl handed over the basket, then bounced away.
Bai Lixin watched her leave. The heavy puffy skirt bobbed with each jump, and he caught a glimpse of a black, pointed tail hidden underneath.
Bai Lixin: “…”
Holding the basket, he joined the line behind Jungle Venice and began searching for guides on his phone.
The hot topic of “Yesterday Reappears” can be seen at a glance on the hot search.
Bai Lixin typed “Little Red Riding Hood” into the forum search bar, and a few posts immediately appeared.
There weren’t many.
“Help! Does anyone know the plot of the Little Red Riding Hood hidden quest?”
“Did you encounter the Little Red Riding Hood hidden quest?”
“I got flowers from Little Red Riding Hood today, but then I…”
“Who exactly is Little Red Riding Hood?”
“On which day does Little Red Riding Hood appear?”
“Analysis of the Little Red Riding Hood quest”
Bai Lixin clicked on a post titled “I got flowers from Little Red Riding Hood today, but then I…”
As soon as it opened, the first sentence read: “I got poisoned”.
The original poster wrote:
[A few days ago, I was lucky enough to grab a ticket to the Yesterday Reappears theme park. Today, I was even luckier to encounter what’s said to be the rarest Little Red Riding Hood hidden quest. The little girl was super cute and called me ‘sister’ in the sweetest voice. Then she asked me to pick mushrooms in the forest, and I followed her instructions and delivered them to the mushroom house.
The little girl wasn’t there, only an old woman. The old woman said the little girl was her granddaughter and told me to set down the mushrooms and wait while she fetched a thank-you gift.
I thought I was finally going to get the limited-edition figurine, so I let my guard down and waited happily.
Soon, the old woman came back with a plate of pastries. She said she made them herself and asked me to try one.
As soon as I picked one up, a note appeared in front of me: ‘Unfortunately, you’ve been poisoned. The game is over.’
I have no idea how I got poisoned. I didn’t touch the poisonous mushrooms or eat the cookies. Was the air in that house poisonous?
Goodbye to my limited-edition figurine! Aaaaah!]
There were many replies under the post.
[Has anyone completed this quest?]
[I got to the same part. There was only an old woman in the mushroom house. After reading the original poster’s story, I didn’t dare sit down and just stood by the door, but I still got poisoned.]
[Same here. I only saw the old woman, not the little girl.]
[I failed too. I thought I finally had a lucky chance to show off the limited edition in my social circle, but I ended up with nothing and even lost a life.]
[Has no one completed this? Is the quest that hard?]
[Waiting for a strategy player to share a guide.]
Bai Lixin scrolled through the posts for a while but couldn’t find a way to clear the quest.
Before he knew it, it was his turn in the line.
The NPC dressed as a beast glanced at the basket in Bai Lixin’s hand and let him in without saying a word.
This jungle was a mix of real and fake plants, lush and green but with most of the vegetation being artificial. Although the forest built inside the amusement park wasn’t large, finding palm-sized mushrooms was still difficult.
Mushrooms usually grew in cool, damp places, so Bai Lixin walked further into the dark, moist depths of the forest. The number of people around him dwindled, and mushrooms began to appear on the ground.
Yellow mushrooms with red spots.
Red mushrooms with white spots.
Pink mushrooms with blue spots.
He hadn’t found any of them.
The ground was covered in ordinary gray mushrooms.
There were some fresh, messy footprints on the damp ground, as if someone had just passed by.
Bai Lixin suspected that the mushrooms might have already been secretly picked by someone else.
The footprints led deeper into the forest. Following them, he noticed a few broken mushroom caps along the way.
He stepped closer and found half of a yellow mushroom with red spots.
He continued following the footprints for ten minutes until there was no one else around.
Bai Lixin stopped and looked around.
From the outside, the forest didn’t seem this vast.
Ahead, the forest remained dense and dark, stretching forward endlessly.
Large leaves intertwined and formed a massive canopy, blocking the sunlight and trapping everyone beneath it.
The air was silent, and not a single sound could be heard.
The stillness was profound, as if he had been forgotten by the world.
Bai Lixin frowned.
A rustling sound came from beneath his feet.
By the time he looked down, it was too late—a vine had silently crept up to his ankle and wrapped around it just as he lowered his gaze.
Bai Lixin felt himself sway as he was suddenly lifted and hung upside down among the thick branches.
Suspended in the air, his shirt slid down due to gravity, exposing his smooth waistline.
More vines emerged from the branches and wrapped around his other ankle and both arms.
The vines rotated his body 180 degrees in midair, positioning his head upright again.
However, his posture was still awkward, with his arms stretched out in a wide stance and his legs bound together, making him resemble a crucifix.
Bai Lixin tried to move his arms.
But the more he struggled, the tighter the vines gripped his wrists.
“Dijia, is that you?” Bai Lixin tugged at his arm. “Stop messing around.”
Only the rustling of leaves responded to him.
The more he pulled, the deeper the vines dug into his arms.
The sound of footsteps on a branch broke the silence and immediately caught Bai Lixin’s attention.
He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a man dressed as a hunter and wearing a mask approaching.
The man was wearing NPC clothing. Rough animal skins mixed with coarse fabric barely covered his figure, making him appear wild and fierce.
Bai Lixin glanced at the man. “Hello, can you let me down?”
The man didn’t say anything, merely walking up to Bai Lixin and looking up at him.
Bai Lixin spoke again, “I’m caught in these vines. Can you set me free?”
The man, holding a hunting rifle, stood before Bai Lixin. He extended the gun, using the dark barrel to poke at Bai Lixin’s leg, then his arm.
His manner seemed as if he were assessing how much the trapped prey was worth.
“You…” Bai Lixin suddenly bit his lip, frowned and lowered his head.
The previously quiet vines became restless, coated with some kind of sticky fluid, rough yet moist.
In front of the hunter, the vines slithered over Bai Lixin’s body on their own.
The slender vines easily lifted the hem of his shirt and slipped inside.
The hunter’s mask obscured his face, concealing even his eyes.
He stood before Bai Lixin, his expression hidden beneath the mask.
Although his attire was coarse and rugged, it fit him well.
Bai Lixin’s clothes, though modern, were now twisted and disheveled under the vines’ ravaging.
A sense of shame at being watched like this rose up within him, and a tingling sensation spread from the base of his spine up to his brain.
Bai Lixin’s head buzzed.
The hunter, however, appeared oblivious to Bai Lixin’s discomfort.
Or perhaps he noticed but found enjoyment in it.
The hunter leaned against another tree behind him, arms crossed, observing with a relaxed, mischievous demeanor, as if appreciating a painting.
Bai Lixin shot the hunter a sideways glance.
Just when the hunter thought the young man would beg for mercy, the young man did the opposite and flashed a smile at him. “Do you like what you see?”
The hunter froze for a moment, then slowly nodded.
Bai Lixin showed his fair abdomen and looked at the hunter with eyes that seemed to draw him in. “Do you want to touch? Come here.”
The hunter was stunned again, and as if compelled, moved away from the tree and approached Bai Lixin.
He reached out with a rough hand, placing it gently on Bai Lixin’s waist.
The smooth, soft touch was unlike the roughness of his palm. His fingers brushed delicately, as if handling fragile silk.
As he lost himself in the moment, his body suddenly stiffened, and he drew his hand back.
The man staggered back a couple of steps, and the next second, his body swayed and was suddenly pulled up and suspended upside down from a branch.
At some point, Bai Lixin had freed himself from the vines.
He chuckled softly and leisurely picked up the hunter’s rifle from the ground. Imitating the hunter’s earlier move, he used the dark barrel to lift the man’s mask, revealing the handsome face beneath.
