Her eyes widened.
“You—”
Pei Tinglan added with a straight face.
“I told you back then not to worry about me.”
“You even smacked me with your paw.”
“Zhu Lingxi followed up with another smack.”
“In the end, I fell face-first onto the ground.”
As he spoke, he seemed to recall some unbearable memory, and his voice tightened slightly.
“Did a cat eat both of your memories?”
Cen Yao: “...”
Zhu Lingxi: “...”
Zhu Lingxi lowered her head in embarrassment.
She didn't have a sense of touch, but she still remembered that she had indeed followed Cen Yao's lead and smacked Pei Tinglan.
It did seem... a bit much.
Cen Yao took a sharp breath and pressed a hand to her forehead.
Fine.
She was in the wrong.
She forced herself to calm down.
“Fine, what's done is done.”
“You have your own secrets, and you don't have to tell me everything. Let's not dwell on this.”
Cen Yao lowered her hand, her expression turning serious.
“So, did you find anything today?”
Pei Tinglan also set aside his annoyance.
He glanced in the direction of the coffee plantation's main gate in the distance and lowered his voice.
“Yes.”
“During the day, we can't get close to the main gate in our civet cat forms.”
“I controlled a staff member and had him carry me out.”
Cen Yao and Zhu Lingxi both looked at him.
Pei Tinglan continued, “That person was able to walk out normally.”
“But when he tried to carry me across the threshold, it felt like something pushed me. I fell right out of his arms and back inside.”
“It wasn't a physical barrier.”
“It's more like the gate itself only allows humans to leave, but not civet cats.”
Cen Yao recalled the sudden, chilling gaze that had swept over them when they approached the gate during the day.
She nodded thoughtfully.
Pei Tinglan looked up.
“And at night, there is nothing where the back door is during the day.”
“No iron gate, no walls, and no physical objects to touch.”
“I tried many methods, but I couldn't touch the door at all.”
Cen Yao looked down, her fingers gently stroking her wand.
“It seems we can't escape the coffee plantation in human form.”
“At least, not through the daytime exits.”
Zhu Lingxi looked toward the dark forest in the distance.
“A gate by day, no gate by night.”
“Humans by night, no humans by day.”
She summarized, a beat behind.
“This plantation swapped the path of life with the path of death.”
Cen Yao glanced at her.
“Yes.”
During the day, they are civet cats.
There is a gate, but they cannot approach it.
At night, they regain their human forms.
They have their abilities, but they cannot find the gate.
It seemed like a glimmer of hope was offered during both times, but in reality, it was like a key split into two halves.
One half during the day.
The other half at night.
And they had to find a way to piece them back together.
Cen Yao suddenly thought of something and looked up to ask Pei Tinglan.
“By the way, how many people can you control during the day?”
Pei Tinglan leaned back in his wheelchair, his tone indifferent.
“As many as come my way.”
Pei Tinglan said indifferently, a hint of smugness in his voice that even he didn't notice.
Cen Yao wasn't surprised, however.
He was a powerhouse ranked eighty-ninth on the Peak Leaderboard.
Having cleared countless A-rank dungeons, what kind of ghosts, monsters, or rules hadn't he seen?
A mere C-rank dungeon was indeed nothing to Pei Tinglan.
Even though he was currently crippled and had limited mobility, and even though his Talent was suppressed by the dungeon environment, he was still Pei Tinglan.
He was the player who had been chosen on the very first day the Horror Game arrived, and who still survived now after countless others had died.
“Alright then.”
Cen Yao made up her mind instantly.
“Tomorrow, control all the employees in the coffee plantation and have them find a dozen or so phones.”
Pei Tinglan's brow twitched.
Cen Yao continued, “Then connect them to the live stream equipment.”
“We're going to do a live stream tomorrow.”
Pei Tinglan: “?”
Zhu Lingxi also looked at Cen Yao, hesitating to speak.
The night wind blew.
A civet cat eating cherries looked up at her, then lowered its head and went back to eating.
Pei Tinglan suspected he had misheard.
“What did you say?”
“A live stream.”
Cen Yao looked at him as if he had suddenly turned stupid.
“Are you slow?”
Pei Tinglan: “...”
Rate on N.U.
