Chapter 611: Chapter 510: The Paranormal Incident at the Kongming Mountain Amusement Park_3
Could it be... people frequently go missing inside the amusement park?
With suspicion, Yang Xiao walked toward the woman who had earlier hustled him out of the tent. The woman was an employee of the amusement park and should know something, but asking her directly would probably not yield any answers. After pondering for a moment, Yang Xiao approached the woman.
Seeing Yang Xiao approaching again, a flash of impatience crossed the woman’s face, "Sir, this is the room where we store gifts, no admittance is allowed..."
"Who wants your damn gifts? I’m asking you, when exactly will you deal with my family’s matter?!" Yang Xiao demanded, his voice filled with anger.
The woman was taken aback by Yang Xiao’s attitude but quickly seemed to think of something, and her tone immediately softened, "Sir, please don’t yell. We..."
"Shut up! You must give me an answer today!" Yang Xiao immediately raised his voice by three decibels, aiming to attract the attention of bystanders and escalate the situation.
Indeed, as people began to look their way, the woman’s expression turned to panic, and she had no choice but to pull on Yang Xiao’s sleeve in an attempt to coax him into the tent, pleading in a low voice: "Sir, we sympathize with what your family is going through, but you must understand, although the disappearance occurred here, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the park’s fault. People have legs. Who knows where he could have gone? Perhaps he snuck out of the park under the cover of night without anyone noticing. We have reported to the police as well, and they’ve investigated, but to this point, there’s been no body or person found. Maybe... maybe you should think positive. It’s possible that your family member is unharmed. Maybe they just felt suffocated and went off somewhere by themselves to have some time alone, you know? Isn’t that possible?"
"I get the same excuses every time I ask you!" Yang Xiao persisted relentlessly. The woman’s words confirmed his suspicions—there were indeed people who had mysteriously disappeared in the amusement park, and not just one person, but rather cases where neither the living nor the dead could be found.
"Please be patient a little while longer. If there is any news, the police will inform your family. Also, we’ll update the notice board with any new findings from time to time."
By the way, whose family member are you? Let me take down your name. Leave your contact information with me, and I’ll call you when there is news."
The woman fumbled in her pocket and, failing to find paper, only pulled out a crumpled park guide map, then took a plastic ballpoint pen from the pocket of her jacket.
"Don’t bother, I’ll check for myself!" Yang Xiao grabbed the park guide map from her irritation, and he took the ballpoint pen as well, his voice breaking slightly, sounding pitiful, "You don’t understand what we family members of the missing go through. I can’t sleep night after night, my memory has deteriorated, I... I can’t even remember where the notice board in your park is."
"Don’t be anxious, I’ll point it out for you." The woman gently took the park guide map back and circled a spot with her pen, "The nearest one is here. When you exit, turn left, walk straight along the path, and you’ll see a pink van that’s been decorated. Behind the van is where it’s located."
Before leaving, the woman thoughtfully gave Yang Xiao a bottle of mineral water. After exiting the tent, Yang Xiao quickly found the two pink vans parked in a secluded spot on the roadside, following the markings on the park guide map. He walked around the vans and saw a metal notice board standing behind them. The board had sustained weathering and showed signs of rust.
To Yang Xiao’s shock, the board was plastered with one missing person poster after another, easily more than a dozen in count.
The posters had portraits ranging from children aged 5 or 6 to the elderly in their 70s or 80s, encompassing both genders and all ages. Some posters had turned yellow from being displayed too long, and the colors of the original photographs were fading away, creating a chilling visual at first glance.
From the barely discernible information, Yang Xiao discovered that all these disappearances occurred at night, with each case being strange and peculiar. Some vanished from a restroom in the park. Family members waited outside for ages, and when the person didn’t come out, they went in after them and couldn’t find them anymore. Despite there being only one entrance and exit, it seemed as though people vanished into thin air.
Another case involved an 8-year-old boy who disappeared within the few seconds it took for his father to turn around and retrieve something from a backpack. When the father turned back, the child was gone.
The most bizarre case was a 40-year-old woman who disappeared while riding one of the park’s amusement facilities. It was the park’s signature attraction, the Mine Water Curtain Cave—a boat ride through a dark water cave with some tunnels along the way.
The woman’s husband and child hadn’t joined her on the ride; they waited at the exit point, but all that returned was an empty boat. The woman was gone.
The resort organized a search team to enter the water cave, but not a single clue turned up. The water cave was man-made, with no hidden rivers or diverging paths, and the water was just over half a meter deep—certainly not deep enough to hide a grown person.
"Shh—"
"Shh—"
Footsteps sounded behind him. Yang Xiao turned around cautiously, only to see two people approaching him, both wearing masks as well.
Prisoner No.199, Sky No. 84.
Yang Xiao slipped his hand inside his clothing, slowly gripping the Human Bone Staff. Sky No. 84 immediately spoke up, his voice muffled, "Brother, don’t be hasty, we mean no harm."
Seeing that Yang Xiao didn’t respond right away, Prisoner No.199 let out a cold laugh, "Don’t be ungrateful. If we wanted to kill you, we would have done it already."
"Cut the crap, go ahead and try," Yang Xiao taunted Prisoner No.199 with a tilt of his chin, leaving no face for the other, aware of Prisoner No.199’s malice mere seconds before when he had grasped the Human Bone Staff. Sky No. 84 had shown no such intent.
"Let’s all calm down. This place has an eerie energy. We have a better chance of surviving if we stick together. There are four spots available this time; that’s enough for the three of us," Sky No. 84, a burly man in an old leather jacket, said, his whiskered face poking out from under his mask.
"Brother, are you willing to join us? If not, we won’t trouble you; just go," the man with Sky No. 84 stated candidly.
Seeing Yang Xiao slowly withdraw his hand, the bearded man from Sky No. 84 chuckled, "That’s more like it. Meeting here is fate. We have the same goal. Being alone here means either the ghost gets you or you get ambushed. We need to stick together. Brother Dao, you’re not bad; you found the notice board so quickly. We came for it too. Any discoveries?"
"A lot of people have disappeared, all at night, alive and not seen, dead without a trace," Yang Xiao stepped aside, gesturing for the two to come and look.
As Prisoner No.199 passed by, he gave Yang Xiao a glance, to which Yang Xiao replied with a cold laugh. After examining the missing persons notices, the bearded man from Sky No. 84 couldn’t help but inhale sharply and murmured, "This ghost doesn’t seem to have a specific target. It’s all the same to them, old or young, and the attack locations are all over the place."
"Have you found any clues?" Yang Xiao asked. As long as the ghost remained unsolved, teamwork could be maintained, unless the ghost marked someone and one had to be left behind. Yang Xiao’s recent mission teammates had taught him a valuable lesson.
You don’t have to outrun the ghost, just run faster than your teammates.
