...A rabbit?
Like the crocodile, it also carries a tale of strange horror?
But it wasn't triggered by me, is it because I haven't met the requirements or something else?
No matter, that isn't the point, the key is what she said.
"Don't tell them you can see."
Who are "they"?
Does she mean Old Du and Xiao Zhize?
"Can see" probably refers to my ability to see the true appearance of these animals on the road.
Why would a store clerk here remind me of this?
Yu Liang gazed at where the clerk disappeared, slightly frowning. He understood why the clerk would hurriedly leave after leaving a small note.
Normal staff at this zoo would not converse with visitors, and it's possibly deadly if you meet an aggressive visitor like Old Du. The clerk still chose to remind him despite such risks. Was it due to ill intentions or kindness?
Due to the crocodile employee previously, Yu Liang is very cautious of everything in this zoo. However, he leans towards the notion that the store clerk was acting out of kindness, as it's difficult to link her words to any traps.
But the nature of this kindness leaves Yu Liang puzzled. Mingxin Lake pondering over and over again, other than his "monkey" status, he couldn't find a reason to explain it.
"Yu Liang, are you done? We should get going." Xiao Zhize walked towards him, raising his cup noodles in one hand, "I talked to Old Du. We'll just stay on Turtle Island for a night. The food we have today will be enough."
"Okay." Yu Liang nodded his head. He looked at the shelves in front of him filled with cookies, the prices were nearly identical to the real world. The conversion rate between the points of visitors here and the purchasing power of cash was roughly the same, he walked towards the other few shelves, "Wait, let me see what else is here."
The variety of goods in this convenience store was limited. Yu Liang initially wanted to search for items like goji berries to combine into a character charm, but clearly, he was overthinking it. The food shelves here contained only items commonly found in tourist shops, like instant noodles, water, unidentified biscuits. On the daily necessities shelf, there were items like tissue paper, sanitary napkins, and the like.
What puzzled him was that no matter how much he searched the non-food shelves, he couldn't find anything resembling food. However, he knew very well, Old Du wouldn't make false claims, so he should avoid any haphazardly displayed items on the shelves from now on.
Yu Liang didn't pick anymore. He grabbed two cups of instant noodles just like Xiao Zhize. When his gaze finally landed back on the daily necessities shelf, he had a new target.
A pen.
He glanced towards Old Du. Both Old Du and Xiao Zhize were already near a facial recognition payment machine by the counter. Therefore, he took two ball-point pens and quickly wrote down a line on a sticky note saying, "There is a wolf disguised as a rabbit near Mingxin Lake, beware."
After grabbing a few packets of tissues, he caught up with the other two. In his mind, he had already tallied the price of all these items, a total of 25 visitor points.
On the self-service facial recognition machine, Xiao Zhize placed all three of their items together. He sheepishly smiled at Old Du and Yu Liang, placed his hands together pleadingly, "I appreciate your help along the way. Allow me to cover these small expenses and anything similar in the future. My visitor points are not important."
"No need, I'm just acting for my own benefit." Old Du shook his head trying to stop him, but seeing Xiao Zhize quickly settled the bill, he didn't add anything more. Meanwhile, he glanced at Yu Liang's purchases, a bit surprised, "A pen? Paper?"
Yu Liang nodded. He had no intention of hiding this and spoke straightforwardly, "There are many 'bamboo-grounded' characters, but we shouldn't rely on finding bamboo in this zoo, having a pen in case can be useful. The same goes for 'paper.'"
"Hmm, makes sense." Old Du nodded, "Indeed, there is no bamboo in this zoo, even the animal feeds are all the same."
"What do you mean?" Xiao Zhize was startled. He glanced at Yu Liang, then back at Old Du, puzzled.
It really seems to be the case.
Yu Liang murmured to himself. His recent words disclosed the usage of second conversion to obtain character charms, Old Du did not correct him, this indicated that his assumption was right.
He didn't hide this rule from Xiao Zhize as a way to reciprocate Xiao Zhize's earlier action. "Most Chinese characters are phonetic characters. It's difficult to find physical representations for the phonetic parts as they are usually abstract, but you can extract the phonetic parts by figuring out their material domains. Then combine them with the corresponding material domains to create the desired character. In comparison to Old Du's direct combination method, second conversion allows you to create many more characters."
Yu Liang tried to make this rule as comprehensive as possible. He came to this conclusion based on the inherent characteristics of the phonetic characters themselves.
"That makes sense." Xiao Zhize was taken aback before realization dawned on him. Although he had already graduated, his foundation in Mandarin Chinese hadn't entirely vanished.
This explanation also made Old Du pensive. Despite being a crude individual who survived in this strange world through brute strength and years of adaptation in the wilderness, this didn't mean he disregarded these character rules. On the contrary, he continuously studied and researched these Chinese characters silently. Yu Liang's explanation enlightened him.
"Should I buy more of other things then?" Xiao Zhize turned around and looked towards the shelves indoors. He wasn't dumb, he naturally understood that an appropriate character charm was far more valuable than visitor points.
"No need." Yu Liang instantly halted him, "There aren't many useful items here. The ones I selected should be sufficient."