Time quickly passed and night arrived. During this period, another player died—the Green Vest Girl from Slicked-back Guy’s trio.
She was killed by the Clown. With her skills leaning toward puzzle-solving, it was truly hard to handle a relentless physical chase; even with her teammates’ protection, she couldn’t escape.
There were now two men and two women left on the field, all still being hunted by the Clown.
Compared to all previous Copies, the elimination rate in this one was undoubtedly much slower.
But considering the Copy time was much shorter than other C-level Copies, and there were a full twenty-four people, Su Shisan found this elimination rate acceptable.
If it had been only twelve players, there might not have been any strong ones matched in, and one or two dragging the team would have been impossible to carry.
By now, they probably would have all been wiped out.
Because of the short time, the real difficulty in this Copy was the Ghost House.
And the Ghost House’s challenge wasn’t something they could clear just by knowing the trick—Su Shisan had deliberately sacrificed the difficulty of the earlier stages to create this hard gate.
Even if players knew how the ghosts formed, it would be useless.
Ghosts were formed by the deaths of Original Inhabitant tourists; the more Original Inhabitants died, the harder the Ghost House became overall.
But even if players didn’t kill the Original Inhabitants, even protected them, once the Copy was halfway through, if the Native Death Count hadn’t reached the target, the Park Director would activate Plan B:
increasing the difficulty of the challenge and using employees to cause a mass death among tourists.
In other words, no matter what the players did, the Ghost House was basically always at maximum difficulty.
What did maximum difficulty mean? It meant that as soon as you entered, you’d be surrounded by hundreds or thousands of ghosts.
The ghosts’ attacks dealt 10 points of Spirit Damage + 1 point of Physical Damage (Cold).
For players with an average HP of one or two thousand, one or two ghosts were nothing. But what about one or two thousand?
Without doll protection, the players were doomed. It was almost impossible to clear the Ghost House under such a barrage.
But because Su Shisan had created dolls, giving players a chance to clear it, the system acknowledged the difficulty.
Moreover, for this Ghost House stage, the Punch-in Task was checked directly on the ticket by the Park Director. As the only NPC of its kind, the Amusement Park Director could not be swapped out by any skill.
Trying to force him to sign wouldn’t work either; only if the Park Director willingly signed would the punch-in be valid.
After all, in a sense, the Park Director was His agent, and only those recognized by him could leave the amusement park.
And the only way to be recognized was to clear the Ghost House—this was a rule that forced his recognition, and he had no choice but to comply.
Fu Mingxu’s immunity to all control abilities perfectly patched this bug in the setup—players couldn’t control the Park Director to make him “willingly” sign. It was foolproof.
With this kind of stage, Su Shisan wasn’t worried about not being able to kill the last four players.
“I did it!” Suddenly, He Feixian’s excited voice came through the earpiece. Her voice matched her face very well, extremely pleasant to the ear. “I destroyed all their tickets!”
Hearing this, Su Shisan, who had been resting with her eyes closed on a bumper car, opened her eyes—not exactly surprised.
Since the other party had volunteered, she’d already expected her to succeed. But she was still a bit curious: “How did you do it?”
He Feixian had finally completed her task, so of course she wouldn’t miss the chance to show off when the boss asked.
She replied happily, “First, I called the three of them over and told them there were only five players left in the Copy; the others had all left early.”
Creating panic—Su Shisan nodded in understanding.
“Then I gave them some Ghost House tips, like wearing warm clothes because it’s really cold inside.”
There was a special clothing rack in the Energy Station specifically to deal with the Ghost House’s cold, but almost no one bought from it. This tip was basically a reminder that they could buy some clothes.
No doubt, this was to gain the players’ trust.
In such a dire situation, she’d never helped them before, and then suddenly gave them a hint—like a tour guide with a neutral bias, naturally lowering the players’ guard.
Once trust was gained, it was time to carry out the plan. As expected, He Feixian didn’t keep them in suspense and cheerfully explained the final step:
“Then I asked them to show me their tickets. They were a bit wary but still took them out. I used the dye on my fingernails to scratch off a bit of the text on each ticket.”
Tickets had to be perfectly intact to be accepted at the checkpoint. A small scratch was fine, but if any text—even a comma or period—was missing, the ticket would be deemed invalid.
Players who survived this far weren’t stupid enough to let their ticket out of sight, so swapping tickets was nearly impossible.
But destroying them was doable. It was a beautiful plan—destroyed three tickets right under their noses without anyone noticing.
Now, all tickets were ruined, so by rights, nothing could go wrong. But Su Shisan still felt it wouldn’t be that simple.
She shook her head and encouraged her employee, “Well done. I’ll give you a raise when you get back.”
After thinking for a moment, she added, “What kind of role do you want to play next time?”
When she heard the first part, He Feixian was happy but not overly so. She valued material rewards, but in the real world, her needs were mostly met—she was simply unaccustomed to having less.
A high salary was nice, but not necessary. She didn’t crave it, just wasn’t used to not having it.
But when she heard the second part, He Feixian’s eyes instantly lit up. This was the value she truly wanted: “Boss, are you going to customize a role just for me?”
“We’ll see.” Su Shisan didn’t promise outright.
But that was enough. He Feixian answered happily, “Thank you, boss! I’ll think about it carefully when I get back!”
As soon as she finished, Fu Mingxu’s voice chimed in: “Boss Thirteen, if you can customize a role for a D-Rank NPC like her, does that mean you’ll design a Copy specifically for higher-rank NPCs in the future?”
Hearing this, Su Shisan took off her earpiece and checked to confirm it was just the two of them in the private channel before replying, “I treat all my NPCs equally.”
As long as they were useful, she didn’t care about their rank. Black cat or white cat—as long as it catches mice, it’s a good cat.
“What about when you have more NPCs in the future? Will you still pay this much attention to her?” Fu Mingxu, seemingly unsatisfied, pressed on.
Even someone slow would sense something off by now, let alone Su Shisan, who was always sensitive to emotions. She immediately picked up on the hidden envy in his tone.
She couldn’t help but wonder—this guy was a B-Rank NPC. Even if his employer was an A-level Builder, he couldn’t possibly be neglected. Why would he have such doubts?
But other NPCs’ psychological issues weren’t her concern, so she simply replied, “I said I treat everyone equally. The role goes to whoever is most capable.”
No matter the rank, as long as an NPC was suited for a Copy role, she wouldn’t hesitate to use them.
With his question resolved, the time just happened to hit midnight.
On the way to the Ghost House, another player fell—the Chuuni Boy. His Clown Balloon was popped by a Red-Clothed Employee as it floated toward the Ghost House.
Now he was trying to go to the Ghost House with Slicked-back Guy.
But that was the wrong move. Each balloon took one person to the Ghost House because it wasn’t just a guide—it was the ticket. Without a ticket, even if you found the Ghost House, you couldn’t enter.
The right move was to quickly find a Red-Clothed Employee and pay for guidance and a ticket to the Ghost House.
Once at the door, it would be too late—after midnight, all Red-Clothed Employees could only operate inside the Ghost House, and bribing them then was impossible.
So Su Shisan was sure he was doomed.
As she expected, at the entrance to the Ghost House, Chuuni Boy looked dejected.
“What do I do? I can’t get in! The Gate of Fate is closed to me—why does destiny toy with me so? No! That NPC was actually telling the truth!”
As soon as he reached the entrance, he ran into an invisible barrier, while everyone else could enter freely. No need to guess—it was because he didn’t have a balloon.
Slicked-back Guy was in a bind. He didn’t want to abandon his teammate, especially since the other two players were clearly a pair. Without his own teammate, he’d be the first to be ditched if things went south.
Those two players were smart—they understood that delay brought trouble, so they entered the Ghost House early.
The moment they went in, their balloons popped, not even giving a chance to exploit a bug or steal a balloon.