2: Where is my wooden fish?

Along the dirt road, Cheng Zhen walked towards the village to gather clues for this instance.

The thin mist made the air slightly cool, and everything around him became blurred and profound under the cover of the fog, as if hiding countless unspeakable secrets.

Cheng Zhen vaguely heard children's laughter coming from the mist, but when he looked closely, he saw nothing.

However, the laughter did not disappear; instead, it grew closer and clearer.

"Aroro, off to the mountain we go, Grandma is taking little sister out.

Little sister and dolly sing a song, following big brother up the mountain..."

The children's rhyme, coming from an unknown source, drifted into Cheng Zhen's ears, making his eyes slightly unfocused for a moment.

His steps even moved uncontrollably into the fog.

Slap!!!

Cheng Zhen slapped himself hard across the face.

The crisp sound of the slap echoed around him.

The laughter stopped abruptly.

With a slap to the face, Cheng Zhen's eyes cleared, losing their previous dazed look.

Something was wrong, nine-tenths of it was wrong.

No wonder those veteran players looked so grim as soon as they entered; this four-star instance was causing trouble right from the start!

Cheng Zhen became even more vigilant, quickening his pace towards the village.

That slap earlier seemed to have suppressed the presence in the fog, perhaps fearing a similar smack, as it caused no further trouble, allowing Cheng Zhen to reach the village smoothly. (skr~)

Cheng Zhen looked up and saw an old, emaciated man standing at the village entrance. His skin, like tree bark, was covered in wrinkles, and his sunken eye sockets resembled a skull.

As he looked at Cheng Zhen, his eerie gaze made Cheng Zhen instinctively uncomfortable.

"Distant guest, I am the village chief here. Welcome to our village to participate in the 'Sacrifice Mountain Child'."

A deep, hoarse voice sounded, and the old man grinned, saying, "As long as the 'Mountain Child' is pleased, the village will have good weather, abundant harvests, and prosperity!"

Hearing clues about the instance, Cheng Zhen immediately became serious, wanting to ask a few more questions.

What is the 'Mountain Child'?

Does he also have to participate in the sacrifice?

But the village chief said no more, his eyes rolling around as he looked behind Cheng Zhen, "During the sacrifice, guests should rest well. Please follow him to your accommodation."

As he spoke, a burly villager appeared behind Cheng Zhen at some unknown point, silently staring at him.

Cheng Zhen looked at the villager's arms, hardened by years of farm work and exercise, then glanced at his own small, student-like arms and legs.

Cheng Zhen: Understood, forced cutscene.

Unable to refuse, Cheng Zhen followed behind the villager, his eyes constantly observing his surroundings.

Rows of low mud houses, it looked like an ordinary village.

However, every window and door of the houses had old, yellow talismans pasted on them, and some dark red marks could be seen on the doors, indicating that this place was not so ordinary.

The villager led Cheng Zhen to the other end of the village, where several mud houses stood in the distance.

Beside the houses stood several familiar figures to Cheng Zhen, who were the other participants.

From their appearance, they seemed to be allocating rooms.

"Each guest has a room."

The villager NPC, who had been silent the whole way, finally spoke: "But remember, you cannot open other people's doors, and you must stay in your own room at night."

"Otherwise, if you anger Lord Mountain Child, you will be punished."

After speaking, the villager turned and left.

"Don't disobey the NPC; do as he says."

Jacket Uncle decided to follow the villager's instructions and assigned rooms to his teammates.

It was clear he was very cautious, choosing a more secluded spot when selecting a house.

Green Hair tried to snatch a room but was taught a lesson again by the bald guy.

Cheng Zhen ignored their dispute. Seeing the villager leave, he planned to look for clues and information in the village.

Following the path he came from, Cheng Zhen looked left and right. Many houses were tightly shut, as quiet as if abandoned, yet the feeling of being watched through door cracks and window gaps made him feel like he had thorns in his back.

Cheng Zhen didn't want to encounter a door-kill, so he didn't bother with the closed houses.

Along the way, he sporadically encountered a few male and female villagers. Cheng Zhen tentatively greeted them, but the villagers seemed deaf and didn't respond, only staring at him with strange eyes, as if he were a big piece of fat meat.

These NPCs were also abnormal.

Unable to find anyone to communicate with, Cheng Zhen went to look elsewhere.

He strolled around twice and suddenly heard a sound.

The overly quiet village, where not even a rooster crow or dog bark could be heard, made the children's voices exceptionally noticeable.

"Aroro, off to the mountain we go, Grandma is taking little sister out..."

The same children's rhyme as before made Cheng Zhen raise his guard. When he walked over, he only saw a child sitting on a stone, playing with a rattan ball in his hand.

"Oh, are you a guest from outside the village?" The child saw Cheng Zhen, his dark, curious eyes full of wonder.

"Yes."

Finally, he met an NPC he could communicate with. Although it was a child, as long as he could get some information, it was fine.

Cheng Zhen asked, "Little brother, do you know what the 'Sacrifice Mountain Child' the village chief mentioned is?"

"I know!" The child smiled, narrowing his eyes. "It's going to play with big brother Mountain Child! Little sister Erya went to play!"

"Big brother Mountain Child lives on the mountain and makes white mist! That must be fun, because little sister never came back after she went. But Grandpa never lets me go, though Auntie next door said it's my turn this year..."

Halfway through his sentence, the child suddenly raised his hand to block the dazzling light from the sky.

"Ah, it's getting dark."

"Grandpa said I must be home before dark!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he scurried away and quickly disappeared from Cheng Zhen's sight.

Cheng Zhen looked at the setting sun, frowning.

Both NPCs emphasized not going out at night, which clearly meant the night here was not peaceful.

Cheng Zhen quickly ran back to his small house, primarily to heed the advice.

The others had already chosen their rooms, leaving Cheng Zhen with the outermost one.

Unlike the dirty houses in the village, the houses here looked quite clean. Pushing the door open, the room only had simple furniture, all looking very old and worn.

Cheng Zhen first carefully inspected the interior of the room.

[Name: Old Wooden Table]

[Quality: Worn]

[Attribute: None]

[Note: A dirty, worn wooden table, with old stains that can no longer be wiped away.]

...

[Name: Old Wooden Bed]

[Quality: Worn]

[Attribute: None]

[Note: A rickety wooden bed that creaks when you turn over, seemingly easy to break.]

They were all ordinary furniture, with no special features other than being very dilapidated.

Cheng Zhen then observed the outside through the door and window cracks, confirming no one was peeking, before opening the app in his mind.

Clearly, the 'Mountain Child' the village chief was sacrificing was no benevolent entity.

What kind of good person would demand child sacrifices?

And with talismans and dog blood plastered on every house, it couldn't possibly be some kind of avant-garde art decor, could it?

Cheng Zhen couldn't help but complain. In horror stories, these groups performing sacrifices almost always end up being wiped out by the very entities they summon.

According to the child's clue, the 'Mountain Child' the village chief was sacrificing was probably the thing Cheng Zhen encountered in the fog.

It felt a bit like the mountain spirits and monsters from 'Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio'.

Recalling his experience on the way, Cheng Zhen also deduced that the 'Mountain Child' should possess some abilities of bewitchment and hypnosis, but its combat power was unknown.

Furthermore, based on the guess of 'not being able to go out at night', there was a high probability that the 'Mountain Child' would be strengthened at night, its danger level unknown.

Cheng Zhen had already gathered intelligence; it was time to choose a countermeasure.

The app in his mind lit up again, and Cheng Zhen unhesitatingly selected the 'Ad Realization' function in the member center.

[Beep, distinguished Tomato member, each time you enter a new instance, you will receive an 'Ad Slot'.]

[After selecting an ad and placing it in the slot, you can use the 'Realization' ability—to bring the target into the real world, maintaining its original state, attributes, and abilities.]

[Current available Ad Slots: (1/1)]

[Each time the ability is used, it will consume varying degrees of stamina or mental power based on the target's size, weight, abilities, and the member's strength, spirit, and other factors.]

[Upgrade your membership with points to get more Ad Slots and member benefits! (Current membership level: Level 1, points needed for upgrade: 500)]

Readers who frequently read Tomato novels know that this app contains a variety of advertisements.

He didn't use the ability immediately before because only one ad slot could be activated per instance, so Cheng Zhen couldn't just click randomly.

Based on the information currently available, the Mountain Child should be a supernatural type of evil, so a corresponding method of resistance should be chosen.

Cheng Zhen stopped wasting time, swiped the app to the bookstore page, casually opened a novel, and frantically scrolled through it.

"The author of this gourmet novel is truly heartless, poisoning us late at night."

He criticized a certain author's malicious act of posting food pictures in the middle of the night, then continued to swipe a few more pages and saw the first advertisement—

[Dream Travel, have fun!]

The page showed a merge mini-game with a bunch of small fish, flowers, and crabs.

This certainly wouldn't help his current situation. Swipe, next.

Readers without ad-free subscriptions know that after swiping a few pages in Tomato novels, ads will pop up. However, the content is random, so Cheng Zhen could only frantically search for ads.

[Chain Challenge, come and conquer the castle!]

A small blue castle with the number 1 on its head trembled under the encirclement of three 999 big brothers.

This also isn't suitable. Swipe, next.

[I want to be a boss, can play all day without WiFi!]

Swipe, next.

...

Cheng Zhen swiped for a long time, never realizing that finding ads in a novel could be so tiring.

He only stopped when a figure as round as a ball appeared.

[overbearing fierce immortal, tapping a wooden fish to fight ghosts!]

Fierce Immortal? How fierce?

Well, since he's an immortal, dealing with a small mountain village monster shouldn't be a problem, right?

And looking at his weight, he should also be very good at physical exorcism, capable of handling both ghosts and human calamities.

Cheng Zhen felt this was reliable, so he immediately selected it, placed it in the ad slot, and activated the ability.

[Beep, target selected—overbearing fierce immortal.]

[Current available Ad Slots: (0/1)]

After using the ability, he felt as if his consciousness had turned into a transparent hand, reaching into the ad page.

It seemed as if with a tug, he could pull things out of the advertisement.

So Cheng Zhen, following his intuition, gave a tug at that chubby, spherical immortal—

...

It didn't budge.

Cheng Zhen felt like he was pulling on a lead weight; he tugged for a long time, but the guy didn't move an inch.

The spherical immortal in the ad page seemed to scratch his head in confusion, feeling as if something was tugging at him.

What's going on? Is there something wrong with the ability?

Cheng Zhen was very puzzled, then casually tried to tug at something nearby.

Unexpectedly, with too much force, that thing flew directly out of the app and 'thudded' onto Cheng Zhen's head.

A good hit means a good head.

He clutched his head and looked up, seeing a wooden fish on the ground.

Cheng Zhen: ?

He looked at the fat, spherical wooden fish on the ground, then at the spherical immortal in the ad page, question marks appearing above his head.

And the spherical immortal inside the app seemed even more bewildered than him.

Where's my wooden fish?

Where's my big, karma-adding, Buddha-summoning, ghost-fighting wooden fish???