Chapter 151: The Peculiar First Place

That night gradually melted away.

As the early morning sky began to grow faintly pale, the crowing of a rooster could be heard from an unknown direction.

Qingyan walked out of her tent, stretching lazily. "Xiyan, would you like to go inside and catch a wink of sleep before we start today's work?"

Xiyan smiled and shook his head, then recounted everything that had happened the previous night to Qingyan, handing her the piece of paper as well.

After reading it, Qingyan was overjoyed. "I never expected him to give this to you. It seems he isn't quite as terrible as the legends claim."

"What do the legends say he's like? It feels like you were really..." Xiyan stopped midway, realizing that if he said Qingyan was afraid of Bai Yuan, she would surely get angry.

"Really what?" Qingyan frowned.

"N—nothing..." Xiyan offered an awkward smile.

"It's not just legends. I watched with my own eyes as he slaughtered more than twenty level-seventy and level-eighty survivors. Wouldn't you be scared if you saw that? That's why it's best to stay away from someone like him, and besides, he's extremely capricious," Qingyan replied.

Bai Yuan was actually that formidable? It seemed this Bai family held some genuine weight.

After finishing the contents of the paper, Qingyan said to Xiyan, "So you're planning to follow this method to grind the leaderboard and secure first place, right?"

Xiyan nodded.

Qingyan pursed her lips, saying with a hint of worry, "Just like I said, he's capricious. Even if you win, there's no guarantee he'll let you go."

"You're worried that even if I win against him, he'll still kill me, aren't you?"

Qingyan silently nodded.

Xiyan smiled and affectionately stroked Qingyan's head. The moment he made the gesture, however, he instantly regretted it; if Qingyan suddenly got angry over this action, his fate probably wouldn't be pretty.

"Think about it from another angle though—even if I don't win, wouldn't he want to kill me just the same?"

Hearing this, Qingyan suddenly raised her head. What Xiyan said made a certain kind of sense, yet something still felt off.

"Think about your own affairs however you like; anyway, it has nothing to do with me. Go eat something in the tent, and then we'll continue tackling the trials." With a haughty toss of her head, Qingyan turned and went back inside her tent.

After finishing breakfast, the two of them headed once again toward the amusement facilities in the park. Today, they didn't try any new rides, but instead re-experienced all the ones they had participated in yesterday.

Although the entertainment projects here seemed identical, you only realized once you played them that they were not the same every day.

For instance, every project they took part in today occupied the exact same locations as yesterday, and even the puppet guides assigned to them were identical, yet every single attraction they experienced today was completely normal.

The carousel spun at a very steady speed, the haunted house wasn't all that frightening—in short, everything appeared entirely ordinary.

Yet it was precisely because it was so ordinary that it felt abnormal.

"Why is this amusement park so strange today..." Qingyan looked around, deeply puzzled.

Xiyan didn't understand the reason either. After pondering carefully for a moment, he replied, "Perhaps the mechanics of this instance are just like this. Sometimes the entertainment projects become terrifying, and sometimes they're completely normal."

Qingyan nodded. She didn't entirely believe this explanation, but there were no better ones available at the moment.

Over the next half month, the two of them spent every day just like this: tackling various entertainment facilities, grinding points, and racking up completions.

Throughout these two weeks, Bai Yuan never appeared again, as if he had cashed out and skipped town.

With one week left until the full month was up, Xiyan and Qingyan were currently standing beneath the leaderboard, gazing at the rankings.

He was currently ranked second, and Qingyan was right beside him, tied for second.

Their current score was 970,000, while the player in first place boasted a staggering 3,460,000 points.

The gap between them was immense. With only a week remaining, Xiyan had no idea if he could surpass this person. If he couldn't, he would be forced to endure another month here, which was definitely not what he wanted.

However, the top player's score deeply puzzled him. He and Qingyan had been grinding points and matches almost without sleep or rest, so how could anyone possibly have accumulated that many points?

Could it be... cheating?

Xiyan suddenly recalled that in his society, many people playing games would write scripts or use bots. Since this instance bore such a striking resemblance to a game, could someone have exploited a loophole in the instance?

"Qingyan, let's go find this first-place player," Xiyan suddenly proposed.

Qingyan looked at Xiyan in bewilderment, failing to understand what he wanted with the number one player. Could it be...

At this thought, a smile belonging to a witch—one that had vanished from her face for a very long time—suddenly bloomed at the corners of Qingyan's lips.

Placing a hand on Xiyan's shoulder, Qingyan said, "I understand. You want to make a clean sweep of it, right? Don't worry, leave this to me. I am absolute perfection when it comes to this kind of work."

Looking at the confident Qingyan, Xiyan suddenly suspected she had misunderstood something, so he hurriedly explained, "No! That's not what I meant. I'm not asking you to kill him, I mean..."

Xiyan shared his thoughts with her. Realizing she had misinterpreted his intentions, Qingyan felt no embarrassment whatsoever; instead, she curled her lips in disdain.

"Don't you think that's too much trouble? Wouldn't it be much faster if you just went ahead and wiped him out?" Qingyan retorted.

Xiyan felt as though three cold sweat drops were sliding down his forehead.

Qingyan's temperament was truly a bit terrifying. If she didn't harbor affection for him, who knew how many times he would have already died...

A sudden wave of joy of having narrowly escaped death washed over Xiyan.

"Well... because living life can be dull, you have to look for some interesting things to do, right?" Xiyan laughed awkwardly.

Having spent so much time with the well-behaved Qingyan, he had often forgotten that she was, at heart, a ruthless witch who killed without blinking an eye!

"Fine, fine, whatever you say. I'm just here accompanying you anyway," Qingyan replied impatiently.

Xiyan nodded and began leading Qingyan through the amusement park in search of the elusive number one player.

Yet they searched for an entire day without catching a glimpse of this top player. Throughout the day, they made inquiries everywhere, but failed to hear even the slightest whisper of news regarding the person in first place.

The first-place player seemed as though they didn't even exist.

As the sky gradually grew dark, the two of them returned to their usual resting spot. Qingyan produced the tent, but neither of them went inside; instead, they sat outside and began discussing the events of the day.

"How can the person in first place be so mysterious?" Qingyan asked. "Why hasn't a single person ever seen him? Or could it be he messed with everyone's minds so they wouldn't remember such a person even existed?"