The lion is alive, and the crocodile might be too.
The crocodile staff A who Yu Liang met for the first time handed him the Night Exhibition ticket, probably intending to lure him to the exhibition hall, have crocodile B in the display cabinet there eat him, and then have crocodile staff A eat the crocodile B that had turned into a monkey specimen.
There are two weird things here.
First, why wouldn't crocodile A eat the monkey itself, and how was it so certain that crocodile B at the Night Exhibition would eat the monkey? Their way of thinking should be exactly the same.
Second, a normal person, even if they got this ticket, wouldn't stupidly come to the Night Exhibition alone when it's clearly fraught with risk. The sole possibility lies in the Night Exhibition hiding something that could make any visitor risk danger.
What could it be?
Yu Liang felt that even mutation careers wouldn't be so attractive. He quickly caught up with Old Du and Xiao Zhize who had walked away. He didn't want to be too far from them, after all, he wasn't sure if the specimens in the display cabinets could come alive during the day.
Wait a minute.
Yu Liang looked at the crocodile counter at the corner and suddenly remembered the strange tale that crocodile A had told him when they first met.
The crocodiles' way of thinking is the same, but crocodiles A and B would make different choices facing him— the root cause still lies in the information gap between them. If he could bridge this information gap, maybe he could find some room to maneuver.
As for the other point...
Well, he is indeed curious about the "treasure" in the Night Exhibition. He thinks he should at least know what it is and what kind of attraction it truly holds.
"I know you can hear me," Yu Liang crouched in front of the crocodile display case, boldly admitting his identity, "I am the monkey, turned into this by a bloke who wears a doll's mask. I think you know who he is."
The crocodile specimen remained motionless, maintaining its head-up and mouth-open pose.
"It revealed itself as a crocodile-headed man, grabbed me, but did not eat me, just gave me this." Yu Liang waved the Night Exhibition ticket in his hand, "You should know why."
He chuckled, confidently asserting, "One crocodile has already left the zoo."
He kept his words to a minimum, afraid to say the wrong thing. It's better to be cryptic; even if he's wrong, it could make the crocodile feel unsure; that's the effect he wants.
So he stood up and said casually, "If I get the chance, I'll come here again. As for what I've said, feel free to verify it yourself."
Running towards Old Du, he was quite certain that the specimen here was the second crocodile. After all, he saw drool dropping from the crocodile's mouth.
As for what he said, he had mainly guessed most of it. He speculated that the information gap between the two crocodiles was here.
Originally, the zoo had three crocodiles, so whichever one found the monkey would unquestionably eat it. But now there were only two crocodiles left. Crocodile A knew, but crocodile B didn't. Therefore, A wouldn't eat himself; it would entice B to strike first.
Moreover, the third crocodile might have found a way to leave the zoo. If it found the monkey, it would not let such an information gap arise. It would blatantly eat the monkey in front of the other two crocodiles and become the monkey itself. Otherwise, it couldn't guarantee its own safety in the future.
The footsteps gradually grew distant, and the crocodile in the display cabinet slowly turned its head, its vertical pupils staring in the direction the monkey had gone. It took a deep breath, its nostrils capturing the sweet scent left by the monkey.
Its two brothers were as smart as it was, it had always known.
They gave up their animal bodies for the right to move freely in the zoo, but rights always come with a price.
——
The simple circular stage was at the lowest point, surrounded by auditorium-like terraces. Old Du and the others arrived at the performance hall, the main body of the whole exhibition hall, which occupied a large area.
Yu Liang tried to detect the smell of blood near the stage, but didn't find any. There was a strong smell of disinfectant. The cleaning was thorough, masking everything that had happened here.
"It's a shame, if we were lucky, there would be animal performances," said Old Du, "I heard from others that occasionally some vulnerable herbivorous animals seek help from visitors. If they succeed, they get some reward."
He said regretfully, "Of course, I've never come across such a thing. It may have something to do with my profession."
"Your profession affects these things?" Xiao Zhize nodded thoughtfully. He didn't care about this. As a financial analyst, he figured it wouldn't have anything to do with animals.
Yu Liang didn't pay much mind to their conversation. His eyes were quickly searching around the room.
Logically, that thing shouldn't be hidden too deep; he should be able to spot it easily...
The ceiling of the performance hall was constructed from a large painting. The main subject was humans and animals living in harmony. Under the immature brushstrokes, all creatures wore smiles on their faces. Hand in hand, they circled a big tree. Maybe because the performance hadn't started, the sun on one side of the painting was dim, lacking radiance.
Upon closer inspection, Yu Liang realized the sun was not painted, but a real sun model.
The sun?
A thought crossed his mind. He squinted and closely inspected the part of the ceiling where the sun was. There was something resembling a ridge bulging there.
He couldn't resist the thing hidden in the Night Exhibition after all.
The moon...
It really is in the sky.
The daytime exhibition is a sun model, connected to the ceiling, and there seems to be some kind of transformation mechanism connected to it. Therefore, it's a high probability that the nighttime exhibit would be a moon model.
Owning the moon and adding metal material would produce the "key," which could lead to leaving the zoo...
Any tourist would find this temptation irresistible.
At least now, in Yu Liang's heart, planning has begun, contemplating how to secure this unseen moon safely.
"Yu Liang?" Xiao Zhize called out to Yu Liang, pointing in the direction Old Du was leaving, "Old Du says there's no performance today, and things are different in the museum. He's going to look somewhere else."
"Okay, let's go." Yu Liang took one last look around the auditorium, deeply imprinting the scene into his mind. He knew he would return here, but only after he was ready.
By the time they caught up with Old Du, he was standing at the entrance of a room. Yu Liang could see the rusty, worn-out signboard, barely making out the words "Security Room".
Old Du first entered the Security Room. Yu Liang followed but immediately covered his nose as he entered.
The room was filled with the smell of mold and rotting rodent carcasses. Dust filled the small Security Room as the three of them entered. The light from the lamp revealed tiny white specks in the air.
A musty small bed, a desk and chair covered in thick dust, a standing coat rack in the corner. The coat rack held two crumpled blue security uniforms, and two security ID cards hung off one branch.
"Has this place... been abandoned for a long time?" Yu Liang guessed that this Security Room hadn't been opened in a while.
Old Du nodded, "The last time I visited, this room was locked and couldn't be opened by human strength. Now it seems some conditions have been triggered."
He walked over to the coat rack, removed the security ID cards, and wiped the dust off with his thumb.
One was named Jiang Xiangdong, the other Hu Wei. Just like the scene they had seen in the exhibition hall, the date information on the ID cards was blurred, as though deliberately wiped out.
Yu Liang noted these two names. Looking at the names, they seemed to be popular in the 1970s, and the faces in the ID card photos appeared to be in their thirties or forties.
"Night shift security? You can't even get in at night." Old Du noticed the content marked on the ID card and grumbled a sentence of dissatisfaction, then hung the ID cards back up.
Night shift security?
Are there people whose occupation is night shift security?
Aren't night shifts the result of shift work?
But Old Du's comment of "We cannot enter at night" confused Yu Liang. He detected disappointment in it, and turned to ask Old Du, "What's wrong?"
"You'd understand if you 'inspect' it." Old Du pointed to the ID cards that were hung back up.
——
ID Card
Material: Unknown
Note: You can participate in the "Role-Playing Game" at the appropriate time with it.
Role-playing game?
Yu Liang's eyes landed on these words on the page, and there were additional explanations below. So he prompted further.
Role-Playing Game: A horror replica created based on real events, where you will participate in the horror story from the perspective of the experiencer.
Note: You can take back all the items obtained in the copy and receive a generous reward, if you can come back that is. Of course, when you enter the Role-Playing Game, we will ensure your safety in reality.
"I have heard of such games before, you can get a lot of critical information," Old Du shared his knowledge, "Like this zoo, it was running normally many years ago, but then it was gradually abandoned as horror stories kept surfacing and there were no normal people other than us, the foreign visitors."
He continued: "To leave, either find the key or find the truth, solve the original horror story. Both routes may be possible in the replica, but it is just as dangerous there, because everything related to the text rules will be disabled."
"This 'appropriate time'…" Xiao Zhize also inspected the ID card and was confused about the note.
Old Du laughed, "They are night shift workers. Since there is no button to enter the replica now, it should only be possible to trigger it at night, but we can't get into the auditorium at night."
"That's too bad, it seems we have no connection with this replica. Of course, the replica is more dangerous than our daily lives, you might have to face the original horror of this zoo." He shrugged, with a hint of mockery in his voice, "We are probably the first group to enter this Security Room, let's carefully check if there are any clues here."
The office desk was empty, Xiao Zhize pulled out the drawer without thinking, and a ton of ID cards poured out like a fountain, scattered all over the floor.
The sudden change left Xiao Zhize a little stunned. He arbitrarily picked up several ID cards; they were all night shift security, but the names were all different.
"How many security guards have been hired here?"
He lowered his head and the faces on the different ID card photos were staring right at him, each with a different expression.