Chapter 76: Color Palette

“Don't say anything more.
I can't communicate with you happily,” Gu Yi stood up and looked down at the fortune teller, “I would never compromise with you people.”

Gu Yi turned around and left the room.

The fortune teller's facial colors kept changing until they settled into a melancholic blue.
He picked up the tarot cards, skillfully shuffled, separated them, and drew one card from the deck.

— The card depicted a figure dressed in black armor, riding a black horse, with countless bodies lying under its iron hooves.

At the bottom of the card was a line of English text.

“DEATH.”

After leaving the secret room, Gu Yi noticed that the countdown timer had finally returned to normal.
He looked back, and the fortune teller had already disappeared without a trace.

Based on the previous two questions, Gu Yi had basically determined the direction of his strategy.

The first question.

Gu Yi was certain that his sister had made some kind of agreement with the Dark Moon Circus, transforming herself into the “Unspeakable.” Otherwise, her name wouldn't have appeared on the circus ticket.

Instead of foolishly asking if his sister was “Unspeakable,” Gu Yi inquired if she had transformed into the “unspeakable” using the Dark Moon prize ticket, thus solving two mysteries with one question.

Furthermore, the fortune teller had mentioned the “dream world,” suggesting that his sister's weird powers might be related to the dreams…

The second question.

Similar to the first question, Gu Yi combined two inquiries into one.

First, he asked about the time aspect – whether he could leave the town ahead of time.

Second, he inquired about the spatial aspect – whether there were clues to leaving the town on the third floor of the old house.

The third question.

This was Gu Yi's speculation about the “Weird World,” and it almost confirmed his theory that all the instances in the “Weird World” had their prototypes, possibly even being the original versions of parallel worlds.

— The Dark Moon Circus was one of them.

Gu Yi had a bold idea.
He decided to use this dungeon to conduct an experiment, but for that, he needed to progress quickly and raise the exploration rate of the instance to over 70% to gain a chance to communicate with reality.

Moreover, the fortune teller's final conversation was thought-provoking.

The “Weird World” also needed to recruit people, and they clearly recruited adventurers who performed well in the “Weird World.”

Several outstanding adventurers had died in the “Weird World,” and even the reasons for their deaths were extremely casual, with most succumbing to mental erosion or immense pressure and choosing suicide.

Now, Gu Yi was a hundred percent sure.

These people didn't really die in the “Weird World” but were rather used and converted into a part of the “Weird World.”

“Heh, it's getting more and more troublesome…”

[3 days, 14 hours, 21 minutes]

He had already spent a considerable amount of time in the Dark Moon Circus, with no time for leisurely strolls.

Following the instructions in the crystal ball, Gu Yi finally found the eerie poplar tree behind the school in the small forest.
Instead of immediately opening the cellar, he closed his eyes.

(The deduction begins!)

(You take a sip of almond water.)

(You dig out the cellar door beneath the poplar tree.)

(You open the cellar and crawl inside.)

(The structure of the cellar here is similar to the one at the entrance of the town.
In the depths of the cellar, you find a desk, and in one of the drawers, you discover a whip.)

(The meat in the cellar starts to move.)

(You hit with the whip hard.)

(The lamb meat trembles incessantly and falls to the ground, gradually transforming into a pile of dead flesh.)

(You ponder for a moment.)

(The blindfold and whip are both meant for lambs.)

(Blindfolding their eyes prevents them from finding their way home.)

(If the little lambs misbehave, the whip is used as punishment.)

(Both props, including the metaphor of the meat, reveal the truth about the town's wickedness.)

(You are sure there is no danger in the cellar.)

(You stop the deduction.)

Gu Yi opened his eyes and took a sip of almond water, stepping into the cellar, following his deduction.

It was a gloomy cellar.

The air was filled with the scent of blood.

Dim light barely illuminated the space.

Gu Yi looked at the shelves full of lamb meat, his heart feeling like it was being twisted by a knife.

Each piece of lamb meat on the shelves represented a kidnapped woman or child, a shattered ordinary family, or a lost and lonely soul in the deep mountains.

Gu Yi took out the whip from the desk, and the system prompt sounded in his ears.

“You have found the special plot item [Bloody Whip]!”

“Your plot exploration level has increased!”

“Current exploration progress is 34%!”

The whip emitted a faint red light, and the smell of blood filled the air.

The meat in the cellar began to move strangely.
Gu Yi hit the whip with force, causing all the meat to fall from the shelves, losing its vitality.

How ridiculous it was –

He wanted to help the trapped souls find liberation, yet he had to use the weapon of the perpetrator to deal with them.

“I'm sorry, wait for me.”

Gu Yi put away the whip and hurriedly went to the cellar of the town's convenience store.

This time, as soon as Gu Yi entered the cellar, the meat leaped towards his face.

Gu Yi drew the whip and struck it randomly, causing the meat on his body to fall to the ground immediately.

“Fuck-“

Gu Yi regained his freedom, took a deep breath to calm himself, and then found the other half of the eyepatch on the table.

“You have found the special plot item [One-eye patch]!”

“Your plot exploration level has increased!”

“Current exploration progress is 44%!”

Gu Yi took out another one-eye patch from his pocket, and the two eyepatches attracted each other, merging together.

“This should work now.”

Gu Yi put on the complete eyepatch.

Everything in his vision turned blue, and he looked around, noticing a golden shimmer in the direction of the old house.

“Is this thing an item that can indicate the way?”

Gu Yi hadn't fully grasped the specific function of the eyepatch yet, but he had planned to gather all the items first before heading to the old house to search for clues to leave.

Putting away the eyepatch, Gu Yi opened the desk drawer and found the contract inside.

“You have found the special plot item [Dark Moon Circus Contract]!”

“Your plot exploration level has increased!”

“Current exploration progress is 45%!”

The contract contributed 1% to the exploration progress, indicating that it was also a clue-related item.

However, Gu Yi was now certain that the person named in the contract wasn't his father, Gu Jianjun, but his sister, Gu Yao.

Taking the contract and eyepatch with him, Gu Yi left the cellar and headed straight to the old house.

Standing at the doorstep of the old house, Gu Yi put on the eyepatch.

As expected, the golden shimmer remained on the third floor.

Gu Yi rushed into the house and reached the secret room on the third floor.
He put on the eyepatch and searched around, finding that the golden light was coming from the floor under the long table.

Taking off the eyepatch, Gu Yi climbed under the table and knocked on the floor, realizing that it was hollow.
He went downstairs and found a hammer, then struck the floor with force.

Crack!

The floor split open, and amid the dust, Gu Yi discovered a color palette.

“You have obtained the special plot item [Color Palette]!”

“Your plot exploration level has increased!”

“Current exploration progress is 55%!”