"Um... after employees at your amusement park die, can they be brought back to life?" Mo Bai asked.

With a stiff expression, the Phantom Butterfly replied, "Once the lockdown on Disease Town is lifted, I'll recruit new employees from other instances."

So they really couldn't be revived, and every death permanently reduced the staff count. Being the park director clearly wasn't an easy job for the Phantom Butterfly.

Mo Bai didn't want the Phantom Butterfly to work so hard. She was even thinking of helping it out by sending it on its way. Then it would no longer suffer for love, nor would it have to struggle as an illiterate amusement park director.

Seeing the unfriendly look on Mo Bai's face, the Phantom Butterfly quickly added, "But we have over a hundred employees. Even if a few more die, Qiu Xuerong won't need them anymore."

"Why?" Mo Bai asked.

The Phantom Butterfly said, "After repeating it enough times, she'll no longer need a lover's company. She'll drive to the cliff by herself and make the leap again and again, as if someone were always there with her."

At that moment, Mo Bai understood the difference between the Love Amusement Park and Disease Town.

A powerful mental contamination worked like this. The moment you looked at it, you would be dragged into that vortex of pain and become unable to escape. It was absolute corruption.

The contamination in the Love Amusement Park wasn't that strong. It was more like conditioning.

Through repeated practice, a certain idea would be planted in your mind, becoming a habit, then a conditioned reflex, until eventually there was no way to break free.

Those dating games designed to increase Love Value were all part of that conditioning process.

Qiu Xuerong was currently being contaminated. She was difficult to wake up, but she could still be saved.

Trying to snap her awake right now would be a waste of time. It would be better to deal with the domain itself.

Smiling, Mo Bai said to the Phantom Butterfly, "Forget about everyone else. Let's try the Cliffside Love Roller Coaster too."

"Aren't you going to build up some Love Value first?" The Phantom Butterfly blushed. "I still want to ride the Love Seesaw with you."

Mo Bai replied, "You can go play by yourselves. I'll wait here. If you won't ride with me, I'll find a staff member to clear the three stages with me instead. I can customize one, right? Then I'll make a handsome one, someone like Gu Tiandong."

The Phantom Butterfly's face darkened.

"Then let's begin."

The staff prepared three cars. The Phantom Butterfly chose to input Love Value into Mo Bai's and Pang Mian's cars, while Mo Bai and Pang Mian each input Love Value into the Phantom Butterfly's car.

With both of them supplying Love Value to the Phantom Butterfly, it was already guaranteed victory.

No outsiders were allowed to be present during the Love Value input process. Mo Bai sat in the Phantom Butterfly's pink car for quite a while before getting out.

"Do you like this color?" the Phantom Butterfly asked, pointing at Mo Bai's pure black car, which looked ominous from every angle. "I can have the staff change it for you."

"No need. I think it looks pretty cool."

Mo Bai sat down in the car and allowed the mechanical arms to secure her in the seat.

She tried struggling against them and felt an invisible force restricting her movements.

It was the amusement park's rules.

Even if she transformed the mechanical arms into cotton, the car still wouldn't allow her to damage that cotton.

The three cars started simultaneously.

The host shouted enthusiastically, "Another couple! No, three lovers! They've come to challenge our Cliffside Love Roller Coaster! Let's wish all three of them success in overcoming the test, growing old together, and remaining united forever!"

Mo Bai: "..."

The park's views on relationships were really a little too progressive.

The three cars sped off together, soaring high into the air toward the platform on the opposite side.

As expected, Mo Bai's car began falling midway through the jump and plunged toward the black vortex below.

At the critical moment, moisture in the air condensed beneath the vehicle, gathering into an ice bridge.

Environmental Optimization. It was an ability Mo Bai could use whenever her understanding of the environment exceeded fifty percent.

Qiu Xuerong's case had already proven that players in the Love Amusement Park weren't allowed to use violence to destroy things, but they could use their abilities to save themselves.

Mo Bai couldn't jump out of the car or break free from the mechanical restraints, but she could optimize the environment around the cliff, for example, by creating an ice bridge to make the scenery a little more attractive.

Perfectly reasonable.

The car landed steadily on the ice bridge.

The bridge was arched, and Mo Bai happened to touch down at its highest point. Even though the car no longer had any propulsion, it could still slide all the way down using inertia and gravity.

A few minutes later, Mo Bai arrived at the platform completely unharmed.

The Phantom Butterfly and Pang Mian had already gotten there.

Pang Mian's car had landed exactly on the platform: 210 meters. Not a meter more, not a meter less.

That meant the Phantom Butterfly only wanted him alive as a helper and wasn't willing to spend even a single extra point of Love Value on him.

As for the Phantom Butterfly itself, its car had gone more than twenty meters farther, stopping beneath the Lovers' Cliff monument.

Once the vehicle came to a halt, the mechanical restraints retracted, and the Phantom Butterfly stepped out, looking guilty.

It jogged over to Mo Bai and said sadly, "Mo Bai, I didn't mean to hurt you. But Pang Mian has been really good to me. I couldn't let him die. I only had so much Love Value. To save him, I had to give you less. Fortunately, you're strong enough. You're not angry with me, are you?"

Mo Bai looked at it with an ambiguous smile.

"I'm not angry with you. I pity you."

She reached out and patted its head the way one might comfort a foolish child.

The Phantom Butterfly frowned slightly.

It could sense Mo Bai's emotions, and she genuinely did pity it.

"Why?" it asked in confusion.

Mo Bai said, "Phantom Butterfly, you count as my lover, right? You can see my Love Value, can't you?"

"Of course. I'm the one who gave them to you. I love you very much," the Phantom Butterfly said proudly.

Mo Bai continued, "Then you also know what my base Love Value is, right?"

"Yes."

Mo Bai opened the status screen on her wristband and held it right in front of the Phantom Butterfly's eyes.

The Phantom Butterfly clearly saw the words:

Love Value: 310

"Elementary-school math. You can handle that, right? Try this subtraction problem: what's 520 minus 310?" Mo Bai asked mockingly.

Startled, the Phantom Butterfly quickly worked it out. Even it could solve a problem that simple.

210!

Mo Bai had given it 210 Love Value.

In this stage, Mo Bai hadn't wanted it dead!

"Y-you really love me?" the Phantom Butterfly asked, overjoyed.

Mo Bai rolled her eyes.

"Would you please drain some of the water out of that lovesick brain of yours? I gave you 210 Love Value not to save you, but because I wanted you dead!

"In the Cliffside Love Roller Coaster, one Love Value equals one meter. Two hundred and ten Love Value means a jump of 210 meters. Four hundred and twenty Love Value means 420 meters.

"I calculated the height of the Lovers' Cliff monument and discovered that if your jump distance was 420 meters, then according to the laws of physics, which you know nothing about, you would slam into the monument at extremely high speed. You might not die, but I'd be very happy.

This instance doesn't allow violence, so I'll use physics to attack you instead.

What surprised me, though, is that even though I gave you 210 Love Value, you only traveled a little over 230 meters. What does that prove? It proves that someone only gave you... about 20 to 25 Love Value."

Based on a visual estimate of the car's travel distance, Mo Bai gave a rough figure.

Pang Mian had only input a little over twenty Love Value into the Phantom Butterfly's car.

The Phantom Butterfly looked utterly incredulous, while Mo Bai watched Pang Mian with great interest.

As expected, a player chosen by the Six Paths to enter the town instance would not be corrupted so easily.

"I'm certain he loves me deeply," the Phantom Butterfly said.

"If he loves you, then go ask him why," Mo Bai replied.

Furious, the Phantom Butterfly marched toward Pang Mian.

Unexpectedly, after looking at the Phantom Butterfly's face and then at his own hands, Pang Mian suddenly dropped to his knees and burst into tears.

He slapped himself hard across the face and cried out,

"I meant to enter 210! When I pressed the final zero, my hand slipped, and I didn't hit the button properly. It turned into 21 instead! I'm useless! I almost got you killed!"

The Phantom Butterfly: "..."

Pang Mian grabbed the Phantom Butterfly's hand with complete sincerity.

"You can cut open my heart and look inside if you want! My feelings for you are genuine! I never wanted to hurt you. I'm just too stupid!"

Suppressing a laugh, Mo Bai walked over to the Phantom Butterfly.

Grinding its teeth, the Phantom Butterfly whispered,

"How is he an even better actor than I am? His emotions are real. He's not lying!"

After years of romantic experience, this was the first time the Phantom Butterfly had ever been deceived emotionally.

Shaking her head, Mo Bai said, "I didn't expect it either. If I'd known Pang Mian would betray you, I would've entered 21 as well and let you fall into the Whispers of Betrayal, doomed for all eternity."

"I really did slip! You have to believe me!" Pang Mian wailed.

The Phantom Butterfly looked like it desperately wanted to kill someone with its Scale Poison ability, but was being restrained by the instance rules.

Meanwhile, Mo Bai put on the Prying Lenses and used Environmental Optimization to enhance them, allowing her to observe Pang Mian's condition.

After meeting Liu Congyi, Liu had repaired the Prying Lenses for Mo Bai. She still had three uses remaining of the upgraded version.

Through the lenses, Mo Bai saw countless transparent threads attached to Pang Mian's body.

The threads hung limply over him. The lens level wasn't high enough to see where they originated. Aside from his head, all four of Pang Mian's limbs were connected to the threads, making him look like a puppet.

Mo Bai began to understand what was happening.

Pang Mian wasn't lying. He really intended to enter 210, but someone had prevented him from pressing the final zero before confirming the input.

His condition was very strange.

Mo Bai stepped forward and tapped him on the head.

"What are you doing?" Pang Mian said, covering his head.

"Checking whether your brain is still in there," Mo Bai replied.

She suspected that Pang Mian had found a way to separate his consciousness, or even his brain, from his body.

After being trapped in the Love Amusement Park by the Phantom Butterfly, he realized he couldn't escape the instance and would be continuously contaminated by it.

To resist the contamination, he detached his consciousness and allowed his body to continue being corrupted.

His consciousness was manipulating the body through threads, waiting for a chance to kill the Phantom Butterfly and leave the instance.

The love was real. The actions were also real.

The only problem was that the body was no longer fully under his control.

To verify her theory, Mo Bai quietly said to the Phantom Butterfly, "Look how dangerous he is. I'm the only one who can save you. I'm the only one who can help you figure out what's really going on with Pang Mian. You need to cooperate with me."

The Phantom Butterfly looked at Mo Bai, and that sense of security that only Mo Bai could give it surged up once more.

Back at the research institute, it had been this very side of Mo Bai that captivated it.

This was what had made it believe that Mo Bai was the love of its life, incomparable to anyone else.

Mo Bai said, "Go ask him what ability he has, what cards he brought into this instance, and how many cards he's used."

Though doubtful, the Phantom Butterfly chose to trust her.

Following Mo Bai's instructions, it questioned Pang Mian and told him that he had to answer if he wanted to prove the sincerity of his love.

Pang Mian hurriedly said, "I'll tell you! My ability is External Brai… aba aba aba aba…"

Halfway through the sentence, he suddenly became unable to speak and could only babble incoherently.

Through the lenses, Mo Bai saw that his tongue had been pulled tight by one of the threads, making speech impossible.

External what? External Brain?

Mo Bai was beginning to piece together Pang Mian's ability.

"Can't speak? That's fine. You can write," Mo Bai said from behind the Phantom Butterfly, tempting it like a devil whispering in its ear.

The Phantom Butterfly immediately said, "I don't care why you can't talk. You can write it down."

Pang Mian nodded frantically.

He bit his fingertip until it bled and prepared to write on the ground.

But after drawing a single stroke, his finger froze.

The threads attached to both his finger and tongue tightened simultaneously.

Mo Bai noticed that only a few threads were actually restraining him.

They controlled only his tongue and fingers.

She suspected that manipulating his body through an External Brain required tremendous effort, making it impossible to control too many body parts at once.

Controlling his body was essentially a constant battle against contamination.

Naturally, it consumed enormous energy. Thus, Mo Bai decided to test his limits.

Continuing her devilish encouragement, she said, "If he can't write, that's okay. He has ten fingers."

"Try all ten!" the Phantom Butterfly ordered.

The threads attached to all ten of Pang Mian's fingers instantly became taut.

Mo Bai added, "He still has his toes."

"Toes!" the Phantom Butterfly echoed.

Pang Mian began taking off his shoes.

Soon, all ten of his toes were restrained as well.

Mo Bai continued, "That's fine. Even if he can't make sounds, he can still communicate with lip movements. I can read lips."

She couldn't actually read lips.

But that didn't matter. Neither Pang Mian nor the Phantom Butterfly knew that.

"Lip-reading!" the Phantom Butterfly repeated like a parrot.

Pang Mian opened his mouth.

Immediately, his upper and lower jaws were both pulled tight.

At this point, twenty-three threads on his body had become taut.

Mo Bai still wasn't finished.

"No problem. I'm very good at deduction. I'll ask questions. Blink once for yes, twice for no."

"Do as she says!" the Phantom Butterfly demanded.

What the Phantom Butterfly believed was under its complete control had betrayed it, and that betrayal created an intense sense of danger.

If Mo Bai hadn't given it 210 Love Value and saved it, it would already have fallen into the vortex.

As an S-rank monster, the Phantom Butterfly probably wouldn't have died there and could resist the contamination.

But even if it survived, it would have suffered greatly.

Mo Bai had saved it.

It absolutely had to discover why Pang Mian had betrayed it, and right now, listening to Mo Bai was the best option.

Mo Bai asked, "Is your ability called External Brain?"

Pang Mian blinked.

The eyelids of his left eye tightened and became immobile.

Only his right eye blinked once.

Twenty-five threads.

That appeared to be the limit of Pang Mian's true self.

Mo Bai continued, "Can the distance between you and your External Brain exceed one hundred meters?"

Pang Mian blinked twice with his right eye.

That meant no.

The External Brain could not be more than one hundred meters away from him, so it was nearby.

The Phantom Butterfly immediately began looking around for anything that resembled a brain.

"Don't bother," Mo Bai said. "He won't let you find it."

"Then what?" the Phantom Butterfly asked.

"We're going to the Explosive Love Ferris Wheel."

"The Ferris wheel? You're done questioning him?"

"At the moment, we don't have enough information. We don't know where the External Brain is, and I don't want to alert him. If you want to deal with him, just use the instance rules and eliminate him on the Ferris wheel."

The Phantom Butterfly nodded in agreement.

What it failed to realize was that, without noticing, this instance boss had become Mo Bai's obedient echo and was now helping her deal with one of the Six Paths' people.

Beneath the surface, all three harbored their own schemes and calculations, yet the host continued cheerfully according to procedure: "Congratulations to our three lovers for successfully clearing the Cliffside Love Roller Coaster! Please stand in front of the Lovers' Cliff monument and make heart poses for a commemorative photo!"

The three stood before the monument.

Mo Bai had no desire to make a heart gesture with anyone else, so she made one by herself.

Pang Mian wanted to make a heart together with the Phantom Butterfly, but the Phantom Butterfly refused.

The Phantom Butterfly wanted to make a heart with Mo Bai, but Mo Bai refused.

Thus, beneath Lovers' Cliff, the three of them each made their own completely different heart pose, resulting in a group photo that was utterly out of sync.

The love story among the three of them was just that bewildering and impossible to untangle.