Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Riddle

Food arrived in waves after the bath.

Bag after bag. Box after box.

Soon the dining table was buried under the haul, the scent of meat and spice and grease filling the room like a warm fog. Feng Ling and Huang Fu Miao Miao ate while they studied the Maze clue together.

Huang Fu Miao Miao treated it like sacred work.

“You should understand by now,” she said, gripping a disposable fork as if it were a pointer. “An Ability Card is a special genetic chain. Any living thing that comes into contact with an Ability Card undergoes mutation. And the Maze is an enormous experimental field where mutations happen constantly—”

She spread her arm wide for emphasis. “Huge. Unbelievably huge.”

Feng Ling nodded along, peeling spicy crayfish with practiced hands.

“Because it’s an experimental field,” Huang Fu Miao Miao continued, “the genetics inside the Maze are chaotic and unstable. Creatures mutate, breed, die—over and over—until a special ecosystem forms. Eventually one creature rises above the rest, completes the final evolution, and becomes the owner of the Maze. The players’ mission is to defeat the Maze Lord and destroy the Maze!”

Feng Ling swallowed a bite and said, “So it’s a dungeon. Clear the dungeon boss, and the whole dungeon disappears.”

“Yes. That’s a good way to understand it.” Huang Fu Miao Miao nodded hard. “Killing monsters inside the Maze gives double points, so players chase Maze dungeons like crazy.”

“Do you get Ability Cards from the kills?” Feng Ling asked.

“No.” Huang Fu Miao Miao shook her head. “Only stable genes form Ability Cards. Everything in the Maze is unstable—too messy—so nothing drops Ability Cards. But the Maze Lord is different.”

She lowered her voice, slow and deliberate. “The Maze Lord has a complete, stable genetic chain. If you kill it successfully, it drops a one-of-a-kind rare Ability Card.”

Feng Ling dipped a crayfish in sauce and ate it.

“No wonder your idol is inside the Maze,” she said.

Huang Fu Miao Miao blinked. “Huh?”

“To make sure players can claim the reward without getting punished for it.” Feng Ling kept peeling, her tone calm but sharp. “The Maze Lord’s Ability Card is the highest-value reward in the Maze. But if the traits don’t match, you get severe Corruption. If I were a player, I’d farm minions and leave. Why fight the Maze Lord? I’d work myself half to death for a card I might not even be able to use. That’s a bad deal. So the System put the so-called idol inside the Maze—so you players have a way around the downside.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao chewed on it, then nodded slowly. “That… actually makes sense. I never thought about it like that.”

“Okay.” Feng Ling wiped her hands and eyed the durian pizza with cautious interest. “Tell me the clue you have.”

“…Find the Maze, we go in together,” she added, biting into the pizza. “You get points. I get the idol. Win-win.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao stirred the meat sauce pasta with her fork. “I’m not sure we can find it. The Maze clue is a riddle—three lines. I only solved one.”

“Say it,” Feng Ling told her.

Huang Fu Miao Miao recited it carefully, word for word:

“A top-hatted frog shoots into the clouds. Drooling, it kisses a lone white bird. The skyfire of Serpent Month burns a gate out of the ashes.”

Feng Ling stared.

Her Corruption value was already 29%, and for a second she felt like she might carry it forever if the Maze spoke in riddles like this.

“So,” she said, forcing herself back on track, “which line did you solve?”

“The first. ‘A top-hatted frog shoots into the clouds.’” Huang Fu Miao Miao took a few quick bites, then explained, “Frogs don’t wear top hats, and they can’t shoot into the sky. So when I was running quests, I kept watching for frog-shaped landmarks. I found one at the amusement park—there’s a Ferris wheel with cartoon cabins. Rabbits, ducks, elephants… and one green cabin painted with a frog in a top hat.”

Feng Ling’s shoulders loosened a fraction. That, at least, was actionable.

But Huang Fu Miao Miao’s voice dipped. “The tickets are expensive. I didn’t have money. I couldn’t ride it. That’s why I went on the forum looking for help. I thought if I offered the clue, they’d let me earn a little points…”

Feng Ling didn’t need the rest. She already knew what “help” had turned into.

She ate the last bite of pizza, then opened the foil tray of charcoal-grilled ribs.

“After we eat,” she said, “we’re going to the amusement park.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao’s face twisted with alarm. “No. Your location has been exposed. In the next few days, a lot of players will come looking for you. Some teams might have detection skills. If you go out now, you could run straight into them. It’s too dangerous.”

Feng Ling’s jaw tightened. The players were a nuisance she couldn’t afford.

She chewed the cartilage until it cracked between her teeth.

Huang Fu Miao Miao lowered her head and ate in silence.

After a moment, Feng Ling said, “Message that person on the forum. The one who posted about Qing Jiang City. Tell them you want to buy intel on the hidden Boss. See what they do.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao nodded. “We should probe it.”

She opened the virtual screen, found the thread, then searched through hundreds of replies until she located the one that mentioned Qing Jiang City.

The forum was anonymous. No usernames visible on posts. To exchange messages, you had to add someone as a friend.

Huang Fu Miao Miao sent a request with a short note: Buying Boss intel. High price.

“…They accepted,” she said, surprised. “Fast.”

She read the profile name. “Moonshadow. Probably a woman. Total online time is only two days—either a new player or someone who died and logged back in.”

“Tell her to name a price,” Feng Ling said, patience thinning.

“I’m asking…” Huang Fu Miao Miao worked quickly, then stiffened at the reply. “She wants two thousand points.”

Feng Ling didn’t have a gut feel for points. “Fine. Two thousand. Ask her how she wants to trade.”

“Two thousand is outrageous!” Huang Fu Miao Miao blurted. “That’s not reasonable. It’s just a clue. Why should it cost two thousand? The hidden Boss reward might only be around three thousand!”

Feng Ling’s eyes narrowed. “We’re not actually giving her that many. The point is to lure her out—or at least figure out where she is.”

“She says someone offered eighteen hundred, so I need to offer two thousand before she’ll even consider selling it.” Huang Fu Miao Miao’s fingers moved. “I’m asking where she is now…”

She frowned. “No. She won’t say. She’s cautious.”

Feng Ling’s irritation snapped. “If she won’t give a location, how are we supposed to trade?”

Huang Fu Miao Miao hurried to type again—

The message failed to send.

Her face went tight. “She… she removed me.”

Feng Ling’s temper surged up like flame.

She slammed her fist into the table.

Bang.

Boxes and containers jumped, shifting out of place. Chopsticks rattled. Sauce sloshed.

Huang Fu Miao Miao stared at her, frozen, like a rabbit in headlights.