This card was very popular, but unfortunately, it was a high-level card and was not easy to trade, as there were few high-level scrolls on the market and converting it to high-level black magic was not easy either.
Luckily, this time Mu You was fortunate enough to trade a high-level scroll from Libra, which was also of the spatial kind.
[Space Contraction: Once activated, it condenses the space within a 5 meters radius, making all creatures in this range instantly converge.]
According to Libra, he planned to trade with Scorpio last week, but it got delayed to this week as the World Walker arrived unexpectedly.
The content of this scroll also came as a surprise to Mu You - Space Contraction, which is essentially Liu Chen’s "Convergence Curse." He had experienced its actual effect many times and could say it was a godsend for monster hunting!
Mu You had been eyeing this spell for a long time, and now he finally managed to get one.
And now that he had the Spatial Crystal, he could even convert this spell into black magic.
A few moments later, the meeting ended, and Mu You returned to his room.
Even though he only managed to trade one scroll this time, it was a spell that fits him perfectly. Mu You was in high spirits. He checked his phone to see the updates in the Exchange Group chat, confirmed there were no unusual occurrences, and logged into the game.
[You appear in the Southern Area of the Underground Factory.]
[As soon as you approach this area, you hear the laughter and squabbles of many children. Clearly, there are people living in this area, and not a small number of them.]
[You enter the South Area and find that the architecture of the building is almost identical to that of the North and East Districts. There are living quarters, accommodations, playgrounds, and cafeterias, but the buildings here seem to be much newer.]
[You wander around the South Area and discover that it is like a large daycare center. You see countless children who, judging from their height, are mostly between five to seven years old. They gather in the playground, laughing and chasing each other gleefully.]
[A small boy notices you and his eyes light up as if he just found a new toy.]
[The boy runs towards you, pulls at the mechanical rainbow chip on your head, and shouts in the distance: "Come see this, the robot is playing truant!"]
[More children run towards you, and you are surrounded by a group of naughty kids.]
[You feel little hands touching all over you.]
[A gear part from your waist was stolen...]
[Your caterpillar trekker was kicked askew...]
Mu You was mortified and hastily rewound time.
The naughty kids were truly terrifying. He hadn’t been tricked by the Shadow Man, but instead was discovered behaving strangely by these kids.
[You rewind time, and before the small boy gets close to you, you quickly flee the scene...]
Mu You hastily controlled his game character to run away, and only sighed with relief when the game prompt ’the little boy has given up chasing you’ appeared.
Having been mistreated here, Mu You suddenly understood why Luke had complained about the robots breaking so quickly before. It was not because the merchandise sold was defective, but because the robots were being broken by these naughty children!
In fact, in the last couple of days, Mu You had also explored the East District, where some children also live. The ages of the kids there generally ranged from 7 to 10 years old. However, the atmosphere there was gloom and silence, with no laughter to be heard. No child would casually pull and tug at the robots, as they all behaved orderly and cautiously. The text even used words like ’dismal’ and ’numb’ to describe the children there, as if each of them had experienced numerous despairing events.
In contrast, the children in the South Area seemed to have just arrived not long ago, hadn’t experienced any setbacks, and still retained their innocence and vigor. It was hard to imagine what these children had gone through within a short span of one to two years that caused such a drastic change...
Shaking his head, Mu You continued to explore the South District, avoiding children at all costs.
After wandering around for two or three hours, he finally stumbled upon a unique location.
[You see a library in front of you.]
[This is a place for children to read and borrow books. It has a collection of thousands of books, most of which are children’s books. This is one of the places children dislike the most. They’d naturally prefer to spend their time in a playground than read here. Only a few who enjoy reading visit occasionally.]
Coming across a library filled with children’s books was uninteresting to Mu You. However, libraries were known to often contain ’clues’.
[You enter the library. Apart from a robot at the entrance, serving as a librarian and nearing disrepair, there are no signs of anyone else in the library.]
[You enter the library disguised as a cleaning robot. The antiquated robot librarian pays you no mind and allows you to commence your cleaning.]
[You ambush the robot librarian from behind. The worn-out robot can’t handle such a violent attack, and immediately shuts down.]
[You destroy the librarian robot’s ’recording circuit’ and then cover your tracks, making it look like the work of mischievous children.]
After disposing of the librarian, Mu You resumed his vampire disguise and started releasing search spells throughout the library, still looking for clues related to Louise.
It took a search from the first floor to the topmost sixth floor for Mu You to finally make a discovery.
[You found an item related to Codell Louise.]
[You follow the guidance and eventually find a dusty book on the top shelf of the third bookcase against the wall.]
[It’s an old fairy tale book. The unappealing cover and clichéd stories have made it one of the least liked books in the entire library. Judging by the thickness of the dust on its surface, the book hasn’t been borrowed for a long time.]
[Yet you find a note tucked in the crevice of its cover.]
[Louise’s diary fragment.]
[...Our escape plan failed! Mian Mian was right after all, this was a trap they had set up. At the moment, we were caught by the admin; everyone held their breath, and despair and fear spread in our hearts... I had resolved that if the escape failed, I would commit suicide, but when it actually happened, I found myself unable to carry it out. I’m a coward, scared to face death, and I caused trouble for my friends... Including me, the dozen kids who tried to escape were made an example, sent to the unknown West District for punishment... Here, we were thrown into a large pool, swarming with maggots... Countless insects crawled over and bit us, causing unbearable pain... But what scared me more was a terrifying thing on the platform ahead. Like a beast sighting prey, it was salivating, panting heavily, staring at us... This reminds me of the initial ’monster’ legend... for so long, I never felt its proximity like now...]
Another diary fragment, the fifth one, gave a continuation to the story in the previous fourth fragment. Evidently, the children’s escape plan had failed, and they were apprehended, sent to the West District for punishment, which involved them being thrown into a Gu Venom Pool.
With a sigh, Mu You brought his thoughts back to the diary.
The diary mentioned the term ’monster’ again. It seemed that there indeed was a ’monster’ being kept in the West District of this underground factory.
Let’s leave the identity of the monster aside for now and focus on another point that caught Mu You’s attention — the ’Gu Venom Pool’.
A pool specially designated for breeding Gu, it reminded Mu You of the ’Golden Silkworm’, the natural enemy of Gu creatures that he had heard about.
It is said that these silkworms only appear in places where Gu insects gather. If you’re looking for the most concentrated place for Gu insects, then it definitely has to be this Gu Venom Pool!
After two full days of exploration, Mu You now had a basic understanding of the layout of this underground factory: The three zones - east, south and north - were living areas for the kidnapped children. One area was new, one was old and one in abandonment, symbolizing the three stages of children here.
The central area was where the ’admins’ resided. Mu You encountered at least five shadow-admins there.
The only zone left unexplored was the enigmatic West District.
Regardless of whether it was to find the potential Golden Silkworm or to continue searching for Louise’s diary, Mu You had decided to venture into this West District.