I Became the Most Popular Character by Acting as a Villain in the Manga

Chapter 21

"Ma... magical girl what was it?" Zhou Chenhao raised the magic wand with one hand, placing his other hand on his hip, and coquettishly lifted one foot, "Magical girl, transform!"

Silence was the Magic Horror House tonight.

No one spoke; only the transformation sound effects from the magic wand kept ringing, and the scattered starlight illuminated everyone's silent faces.

Xia Xiaoxi turned her head away, pursing her lips, which trembled slightly. It was clear she was trying very hard to hold back her laughter.

Zhou Chenhao put down the raised magic wand and pouted: "What a bummer, I thought the props would also be imbued with special abilities. Transforming would have been super cool; I got my hopes up for nothing."

Bai Xuechao: "?"

I didn't quite understand the male lead's thought process.

And even if he were to transform, shouldn't he be shouting "magical boy"?

"There's also a slip of paper inside; it should be the instructions," Ling Feng pulled out the slip of paper from the box, illuminating it with the light from the magic wand, and read word by word, "After activating the magic wand, the tourist designates a ghost and shouts 'Transform with me,' and all transformation actions performed must be mimicked by the designated ghost."

Zhou Chenhao and Xia Xiaoxi suddenly realized: "So that's how it's used."

"B-but I wonder if it works?" the little girl reminded, trembling, "Maybe it's just a normal toy, but the vampire isn't a staff member anymore."

Zhou Chenhao thought for two seconds, then said: "Let's open all the blind boxes! If they're useful, we'll eventually use them; if not, we'll discard them immediately."

Xia Xiaoxi said: "I agree!"

The others had no objections, so everyone began opening the other two blind boxes.

Bai Xuechao took a moment to reply to Duan Xingzhi: [You search. Pay attention to Qiao Jing's location and send it to me anytime. Change your clothes when you have time.]

He thought for a moment, then added another message: [Task priority 321.]

He was afraid that if he didn't add this sentence, Duan Xingzhi might see Qiao Jing escape before finding the documents and go directly after Qiao Jing.

Duan Xingzhi replied instantly: [Okay.]

On the other side, the group opened the remaining two blind boxes. After seeing what was inside under the light, they all simultaneously let out a "hiss."

The two blind boxes looked roughly the same size. The one on the left contained a wooden fish, and the one on the right... was actually an urn.

Ling Feng picked up the instruction manuals inside.

The first one: "Ghosts will not attack tourists who strike the wooden fish."

The second one: "Ghosts will not attack tourists crying while holding the urn, but please be careful, inside is actually flour. If the ghosts discover it's not ashes, you will be attacked."

Zhou Chenhao couldn't help but say: "They even fake the ashes?"

In any case, all three props were opened. Regardless of whether they were useful or not, they were distributed first.

There were now six people. They temporarily decided to use the props in pairs. If a situation arose, they could pass the props to others. Zhou Chenhao and Xia Xiaoxi used the magic wand, Ling Feng and Bai Xuechao struck the wooden fish, and two tourists jointly held the urn—only this prop seemed usable by two people at once.

Zhou Chenhao led the way, holding the magic wand with one hand on his shoulder, while Xia Xiaoxi, behind him, illuminated his path with her phone's flashlight.

A chorus of "squeak squeak squeak" sounds, and over ten bats flew over their heads.

Zhou Chenhao lifted a coffin lid; it was empty.

"It's fine, empty is better than opening up a vampire," Xia Xiaoxi said.

Zhou Chenhao continued to lift coffin lids, two, three, four... he opened ten in a row, and they were still empty.

He said: "There won't be any on this floor, will there?"

Bai Xuechao said: "But the staff members aren't here."

If there were no special ability creatures on this floor, the staff members should have appeared, but they hadn't, suggesting they had likely met with an accident.

Just as everyone's mood grew heavy, Zhou Chenhao opened the next coffin lid. The moment the vampire inside leaped out, he reacted extremely quickly, pressing the magic wand's button and shouting at the vampire: "Transform with me!"

After shouting, he began to twist wildly.

The vampire also started twisting along.

Just as the others wanted to let out a sigh of relief, the vampire, still twisting, stepped out of the coffin to grab Zhou Chenhao.

"He's twisting, but it's not stopping him from moving!" Zhou Chenhao gasped, giving the approaching vampire a slap. When the vampire became enraged, he took off running: "I'll lead him away! You all continue looking for the key!"

"...No need," Bai Xuechao said. By then, Zhou Chenhao had already run off. He took the key from the coffin where the vampire had been. "The key is right here."

If tourists wanted to find the key, they would 100% have to encounter a vampire; there was no other solution.

The group could only chase after Zhou Chenhao.

After passing through rooms full of coffins, it was once again pitch black. Suddenly, a centaur leaped out from the side!

"This is a projection!" Xia Xiaoxi said, "Did it turn real too?!"

Ling Feng handed the wooden fish to Xia Xiaoxi, pushing them with his special ability to escape. The two tourists let out fake cries of "Ahhh ahhh wuwu" and ran wildly, carrying the urn together.

Behind them, projections of centaurs, Western dragons, and goblins were chasing them. More accurately, they were chasing Bai Xuechao and Ling Feng, who had no props.

Over there, Zhou Chenhao had already run to the end of the second floor, performing "King Qin's Pillar Dance" with the vampire, twisting a Yangko dance as he circled. The vampire was forced to join in the Yangko, twisting and circling the pillar to try and catch him. The transformation sound effects were still playing, like a background music for them.

Xia Xiaoxi struck the wooden fish and shouted: "The key is here!"

Bai Xuechao forcefully threw the key towards Zhou Chenhao. Zhou Chenhao caught the key, twisted as he went to open the door, while Xia Xiaoxi rushed forward, striking the wooden fish, and vines grabbed the vampire's foot.

The vampire fell forward, still wiggling its butt on the ground with Zhou Chenhao, like a caterpillar.

The door on the second floor opened, revealing the staircase behind it.

The vampire broke free from the vines and then had its head wrapped in water by Bai Xuechao.

Xia Xiaoxi pushed the two tourists to the very front: "You two run first!"

The two tourists, holding the urn together, nodded repeatedly, not forgetting to fake cry: "Wuwuwu wahwahwah ahhh!"

They rushed into the stairwell, holding the urn.

"You go first," Xia Xiaoxi said, handing both the wooden fish and the mallet to Bai Xuechao.

Bai Xuechao then handed the wooden fish to Ling Feng: "You go first."

He planned to stay and help Xia Xiaoxi.

"Stop arguing about who goes first, let's run together!" Zhou Chenhao shouted, running towards them while doing the Kunka dance, like a gorilla that had just learned to walk upright.

The vampire, with its head wrapped in a water ball, was also doing the Kunka dance, stubbornly running towards the door.

The four people ran out of the second-floor door, with the vampire still chasing them, until they reached the starting point of the third floor. Only then did the vampire stop, but it was still doing the Kunka dance.

Bai Xuechao leaned against a ruined prop on the third floor, continuously panting. Because of his poor health and small lung capacity, he had run too fast just now and was now struggling to catch his breath.

Xia Xiaoxi tugged at Zhou Chenhao, who was still awkwardly dancing face-to-face with the vampire: "Stop dancing, stop dancing, we're here!"

"Oh," Zhou Chenhao turned off the magic wand, and the vampire stopped its movements, glared with its red eyes, and turned to go downstairs. He let out a sigh of relief and smiled slightly, "I feel this magic wand suits me quite well, my chosen wand!"

Xia Xiaoxi scoffed: "Chosen wand? More like 'mentally challenged' wand."

Xiao 6: Puns are grounds for a deduction!!

Zhou Chenhao said: "You're just mad that I didn't take you dancing."

Xia Xiaoxi's mouth twitched: "Yes."

Bai Xuechao, still panting beside them: "..."

He really couldn't understand the communication between these two.

"Are you alright?" Ling Feng asked him.

Bai Xuechao said: "I'm fine, I'll be good after a moment."

Zhou Chenhao's eyes shifted, and he saw two tourists holding urns in the shadows. He was stunned for a moment: "What are you two doing standing there?"

"Cough, waiting for you all," the little girl chuckled awkwardly, "But you guys have been interacting since you came up, I felt awkward interrupting."

"Interacting"... that word was quite spiritual.

Xia Xiaoxi cleared her throat and said: "The third floor is a zombie siege. Just run straight ahead with your head down, directly to the fourth floor."

"I have a question!" Zhou Chenhao raised his hand like a primary school student.

Xia Xiaoxi said: "Speak."

Zhou Chenhao asked: "Isn't this a Magic Horror House? Why are there zombies? They don't fit with magic, do they?"

Xia Xiaoxi put her hands on her hips and said: "Go ask the Marine amusement park's person in charge about that!"

"Alright, let's go in," Bai Xuechao said.

The group, led by Zhou Chenhao and Xia Xiaoxi, with two tourists in second place, and Bai Xuechao and Ling Feng bringing up the rear, rushed into the third floor's ruined set.

Zombies made sounds from behind the broken wall: "Roar—"

Seven or eight zombies surrounded them!

"Don't stop, don't stop, keep running!" Zhou Chenhao once again brought out his "chosen wand," lit up the magic wand, and shouted at the zombies, "Transform with me!"

Amazingly, all the zombies started dancing with him. It turned out that the magic wand could designate more than one target.

Zhou Chenhao whistled, excitedly saying: "Whoa—oh!"

"Just keep running forward!" Xia Xiaoxi shouted, "The third floor and fourth floor are connected. Just run past that slope! The fourth floor is all mummies. Just follow the red arrows on the wall, and when you see the staircase, you've passed the level."

The two tourists, carrying the urns, fake-crying and screaming, ran at the very front. Bai Xuechao and Xia Xiaoxi, without props, ran in second place. Zhou Chenhao, the "King of Dance," danced in third. Ling Feng, striking the wooden fish, ran at the very back, using his special ability to accelerate them. The wind speed was so fast that with each step, they could be blown half a meter through the air.

The group rushed up the slope. Behind it was a simple maze made of bricks, with red arrows on the walls indicating the correct route.

The two tourists continued to run at the very front, screaming and yelling.

Bai Xuechao and Xia Xiaoxi followed them, occasionally using their special abilities to fend off mummies that ran out of coffins. Behind them was Zhou Chenhao, twisting with the magic wand in ecstatic abandon. Finally, there was Ling Feng, with a blank expression, striking the wooden fish and watching Zhou Chenhao twist wildly. He was also pushing everyone with wind, and around him were mummies twisting along with Zhou Chenhao, letting out low growls.

Xiao 6 quietly said: "I feel like they're even noisier than me!"

"Well, you're still noisier," Bai Xuechao said mercilessly, "because sometimes you're so loud in my head it gives me a headache."

Xiao 6: QAQ

They weaved through the brick maze, watching as the two tourists were about to run out of the maze first. The Pharaoh's coffin standing at the maze exit suddenly opened, and a mummy walked out.

"Waaah ah ah ah——" Both of them simultaneously slammed on the brakes, their bodies swayed unsteadily, and they pushed the urn in their hands forward.

Just then, Ling Feng blew with wind from behind——

The fake ashes, which were actually flour, flew out, hitting the mummy's face.

The mummy froze.

The two tourists were also stunned.

Two seconds later, the reacting mummy swung its arms, which were wrapped in linen, and pounced on the two tourists. Bai Xuechao snapped his fingers, and a turbulent water column suddenly erupted in the air, pushing all of them out of the doorway from behind.

The mummies were all stuck at the doorway and couldn't get out. Zhou Chenhao's "happy magic wand" and Ling Feng's wooden fish were also left inside. The group, meanwhile, was swept into the stairwell before they stopped.

The water on their bodies, under Bai Xuechao's control, dripped away, falling onto the ground.

The two tourists, still shaken, asked: "We... we're out?"

The little girl's hairstyle was a mess from running, and the glasses of the man with glasses were lost, so now he could only squint to see everyone.

Xia Xiaoxi showed a relaxed smile: "Mhm, we're out!"

Zhou Chenhao looked at his empty palm, sighed lightly with some regret. His "chosen wand" was gone, and so was his happiness.

Walking down from here was the exit of the Magic Horror House.

The group walked down the dimly lit stairwell.

Zhou Chenhao seemed to have received another message from the SAIDB and was replying on his phone.

Bai Xuechao also took out his phone and glanced at it, discovering that Duan Xingzhi had sent him a message three minutes earlier.

[Stars: I finished 3. Qiao Jing went in the direction of Raging River Rapids.]

Bai Xuechao put down his phone. They had just walked out of the Magic Horror House, and the wristband lights on everyone's wrists went out.

They found a small standee nearby, which read "Congratulations on receiving 20 minutes of Lights-out time."

Bai Xuechao's attention was drawn to the white hot air balloon in the distant sky, inscribed with "奠". If he remembered correctly, the position of the hot air balloon corresponded precisely to the "Raging River Rapids" ride on the app map.

Could it be that the location of the hot air balloon was related to Qiao Jing?