66: Chapter 66 A Silent Warning and the Third Answer

Just as Zhang Hao's fingertips were about to touch the black and white crystal ball that radiated a sense of negation—

A hand wearing a white glove, yet covered in dried traces of colored foam and shiny confetti, abruptly reached out from the side and grabbed his wrist with astonishing speed!

The icy sensation and the sudden force made Zhang Hao's hair stand on end! Almost instinctively, he exerted force to break free, retreating several steps to instantly create distance. Within him, the [Origin Heart-Wall], which was a Fusion of order, life, and Silence, instinctively accelerated its operation. A trace of Purification Power swirled around the wrist that had just been touched, dispelling that unfamiliar coldness. He snapped his head up, his gaze sharp as a falcon's, looking toward the source of the attack.

It was the Black and White Clown who had been following him all along, yet had never been noticed due to the "Ignored" trait!

At this moment, this bizarre existence stood in the black and white light area on the right, facing him head-on. The clown was a mess, covered in foam, confetti, and some dried paint from the previous trap room. Those black and white clothes appeared even more tattered and comical, and the eternal sorrowful crying face on his visage stood out remarkably in the dim light.

Seeing Zhang Hao staring at him warily, the Black and White Clown hurriedly waved his hands, making exaggerated gestures to stop him. He first pointed at Zhang Hao, then pointed forcefully at the colored and black-and-white crystal balls, before crossing his hands in front of his throat and shaking his head desperately, his face showing an expression of urgency and warning.

Zhang Hao's brow furrowed. He didn't attack rashly but observed calmly instead. He noticed that despite the Black and White Clown's large movements, he didn't make a single sound in such a silent environment—no rustling of clothes, no footsteps, not even the sound of his rapid breathing could be heard. It was as if an absolute "Silence" Domain existed around him.

"You can't speak? You can't even make a sound?" Zhang Hao asked tentatively, his voice producing a slight echo against the stone walls.

The Black and White Clown nodded vigorously, the black tear stains on his face contorting as he did so. He grew even more anxious, gesticulating wildly in an attempt to convey more complex information, but with little success. Zhang Hao could only barely understand that he was strongly warning him not to touch any of the colored crystal balls.

In his desperation, the Black and White Clown seemed to remember something. He fumbled through his seemingly bulky black-and-white checkered outfit and soon pulled out a blank [Prompt Board] he had seen earlier on the way, along with a black-and-white brush that looked like it was made of solidified cream.

He squatted down, placed the Prompt Board on his knees, and began writing rapidly with the Cream Brush. The strokes were clumsy and the handwriting crooked, but the meaning was clear:

[Both types of crystal balls are traps!!!]

After finishing, he immediately held the Prompt Board high, facing Zhang Hao, his eyes peering through the tear stains filled with urgency and entreaty.

Zhang Hao's gaze froze on that line of text, his heart skipping a beat. Traps? Both of them?

Driven by his [Logical Connection] Talent and combined with Silver Star's auxiliary analysis, his brain began to operate at an unprecedented speed. The Black and White Clown's manner of appearance, his "Ignored" and "Silence" traits, his incongruity with the entire Dreamland, and this desperate warning... all pointed to one possibility: this Black and White Clown might be a rebel within this "happiness" system, or at least someone in the know.

He chose to temporarily trust this sudden warning.

His gaze turned once more to the three questions on the stone wall and the binary choice of either color or ink. If both types of crystal balls were traps, it meant that neither total affirmation nor total negation was the correct answer.

Why?

[Question One: Were you happy before coming to Dreamland?]

[Question Two: Are you happy after coming to Dreamland?]

[Question Three: Do you want to be happy forever?]

His thoughts pierced through the surface of the questions, heading straight for the core. "Happiness"... could human emotions really be so black and white, easily defined by a simple "yes" or "no"?

Extreme joy begets sorrow, and when misfortune reaches its limit, prosperity comes. Strength can be drawn from sadness, and emptiness can be hidden within happiness. Human nature is a complex tapestry, woven from countless subtle, contradictory, and constantly shifting threads of emotion. Joy and sorrow, peace and anger, satisfaction and longing... they depend on each other, serving as each other's background, together forming a complete, living "human."

Forcibly compressing complex, multi-dimensional emotions into an absolute binary answer was itself a distortion. Acknowledging past imperfections and enjoying present pleasure did not mean one desired to eternally freeze this single emotion—how would that be any different from spiritual imprisonment?

The true answer perhaps didn't lie in choosing "yes" or "no," but in... rejecting the preset, narrow binary choice itself!

Having realized this, Zhang Hao felt a chill of lingering fear creep up his spine, and cold sweat instantly soaked his undershirt. If he had rashly touched any of the crystal balls just now, whether colored or black and white, he would likely have fallen into an unknown, but certainly negative trap, with unimaginable consequences!

He took a deep breath and stopped looking at any of the crystal balls. Instead, he raised his head, his gaze calm and firm as he looked at the motionless Two-Toned Clown Head on the stone wall, and said loudly, "My answer is—to not choose."

As soon as he finished speaking, the frozen Two-Toned Clown Head suddenly moved. The colored half and the black-and-white half contorted simultaneously, letting out a blood-curdling laugh that was a mix of joyful cackles and sorrowful sobs:

"Hahaha... The answer is correct!"

Amidst the laughter, that massive, seemingly indestructible stone wall began to rise slowly with a heavy rumbling sound, revealing a deeper, darker passage behind it.

Zhang Hao looked at the rising stone wall, then at the Black and White Clown beside him, who seemed to breathe a sigh of relief after the successful warning and was clumsily putting away the Prompt Board. His heart felt a chill. The trials of this [Nightmare Haunted House] were far more dangerous than he had imagined, striking directly at the most fundamental complexities and vulnerabilities of the human heart.