Mysterious Tale Author's Delayed Update Diary

"Lin Youfeng, the Director of Changhong Zoo, founded the zoo many years ago. It has a history of nearly twenty years."

"As one of the top ten influential figures in the city, he has dedicated several decades to the business of animal exhibitions, creating a fun, educational animal kingdom for children and teenagers."

Upon entering the exhibition hall, the first thing that catches the eye is a photograph of a stern-looking middle-aged man. In the picture, the man is surrounded by animals, with his left hand resting on a lion's head and his right hand holding onto an elephant's trunk.

Next to the photograph is a large exhibit description, mostly about Director Lin Youfeng's background and achievements, but certain parts have been removed, rendering them completely unreadable.

Why would they want to hide the specific founding date and the name of the city?

Are these two pieces of information key?

Or could it be that the management feared the World of Weird Tales would be suspected of reflecting reality if real place names and years were shown, and ultimately get banned?

Unfathomable thoughts began to stir in Yu Liang's mind, but they quickly disappeared because he found no valuable information in the introduction.

He memorized the name Lin Youfeng. Regardless, the Director surely had more secrets about this zoo.

Once again, he mentally reviewed the layout of the entire zoo. The staff center was situated in the middle of the map, and the Director's office must be inside it. There could be significant discoveries to make there.

No, that's not right. There must be plenty of people who have thought about this, and if it's so easy to enter, it would mean that there aren't any significant secrets in the Director's office. Even if there used to be, other visitors' constant investigations would have destroyed some key pieces of evidence.

Of course, Yu Liang believed another possibility was more likely: that the Director's office is at the core of the zoo's mysteries. But it also hides some great horror, and any visitor who wants to get close must be prepared to risk their lives...

He coughs.

"Same-hearted Stone?" Xiao Zhize read out the name of the massive stone in the middle of the exhibition hall. "Why would they put a stone here?"

At his words, Yu Liang approached. He observed that the surface of the stone was covered with carvings of varying depths. A few patches of moss had grown out from the carvings, indicating that the carvings were made at different times. Or perhaps due to other factors such as light exposure or moisture, the scattered patches of moss on the entire stone were of different colors.

"I'm not sure. It only has a name, no history." Old Du shook his head, but they didn't pay much attention to the stone and walked away.

"Everything here looks normal." Xiao Zhize had examined every item in the circular exhibition hall, but like Yu Liang, he didn't find anything strange.

Old Du had anticipated this. He had visited this place many times before, and so had many other visitors. Without exception, none of them had discovered anything unusual. In his mind, the information in this exhibition hall seemed more like background storytelling.

"Are you sure there's no evening show here?" Yu Liang tentatively asked.

Old Du led the way as the three of them were making their way from the left exit of the gallery towards the performance hall. "No, it clearly states in the visitor's information that there isn't," he replied. "I've tried coming here at midnight before. The door was locked, and there were no lights on or any sound coming from inside."

From Old Du's description, it seemed that he had tried many times, only to always come up empty-handed, leading him to firmly believe his conclusion.

Yu Liang opened up the page again, looking at the night safari ticket in the item column. He was now increasingly convinced that the night show was real. As for the information that Old Du had indicated not existing in this zoo, it wasn't an issue. Illusions, alternative dimensions - there were so many anomalies that could explain everything Old Du had seen.

Perhaps only those who possessed a ticket could see and enter the night show. However, there was clearly still one problem. It seemed he couldn't go to the night show himself. Yu Liang didn't think the crocodile had given him the ticket out of kindness. He was almost certain there were surprises waiting for him at the night show.

He remembered how the crocodile had pursued him earlier. The crocodile seemed slower than the mutated Lu Xing. Hence, under the shrieking cold state, he could probably last for about five minutes. However, after five minutes, he could only wait for death.

In a place like this, being able to run fast indeed seemed quite useful.

Yu Liang suddenly realized the key elements needed for survival in the zoo. So far, he hadn't encountered any supernatural phenomena that presented curses or other forms of human resistance. Most likely, the scares leaned more towards monstrous horror in the Western sense.

It was like the lion chasing theory - you didn't need to outrun the lion, just outrun the others.

Body training and such wouldn't have effects in the short term. The only other ways would likely be collecting supernatural tales and utilizing the power of text rules.

The former was the Shrieking Cold, and he had some inspiration for the latter. He still had four chess pieces with "horse" as the radical part. There would certainly be words describing swiftness with "horse" as one of their parts. However, he still needed to collect the other half of the word.

As for the profession mutation, unless all profession mutations can enhance physique, I doubt that the profession of a writer would bring any additional improvements.

And, as for the specific means of mutation, Old Du might be concealing something. But Yu Liang might find the answer with those two crested mynas in the Bird Garden. But that would involve acting alone again, and he would have to wait for the opportune moment.

"Are all the exhibits in this corridor? Why would a zoo have so many exhibits?" Xiao Zhize wondered, walking through the corridor. The display cases made of glass were embedded in the walls of the corridor, each overfilled with animal specimens. The majority of them were common zoo animals like tigers, lions, hawks, etc. Their poses were so lifelike as if they could spring back to life at any second.

As he continued looking, Xiao Zhize started to get goosebumps. He had this nagging feeling that, according to the plot, these specimens could "revive."

Old Du came forward. He bent over and focused his gaze on the gap in the glass door. He then pulled out a strand of black hair from the gap, "Don't worry, they can't move or leave the case. Every time I come here, I leave one strand of hair. It's never moved from its place."

"That's a relief." Xiao Zhize nodded, heaved a sigh of relief, then came to his senses. Indeed, if there were any danger here, Old Du wouldn't bring them.

He admired these finely crafted specimens, leaving him at a loss for words. But he was still somewhat perplexed. Even if they wanted to memorialize the animals with stuffed specimens, shouldn't they only use those that have died of old age? Why did every single specimen here look so energetic and robust, not at all appearing as though they were in their twilight years?

Isn't a zoo supposed to prioritize protecting animals?

"Wait up, Old Du, wait for me." Xiao Zhize felt a chill run down his spine. Seeing Old Du's footsteps fade away at the corner, he hurriedly followed.

An alligator?

Yu Liang stood in front of the display case, a behemoth over five meters long. He was stunned, as he had never observed such a ferocious beast closely before, it was about three times his length.

The slightly agape maws, the armor plating over its entire body, the robust limbs...

No matter how he considered it, it didn't seem like an animal that a human could take on.

At this moment, he could distinctly feel his soul trembling, as if he had met a top predator from the food chain.

The tale of the "Monkey" had quite an effect on me. Does just looking at a specimen instill such fear in me?

Or is this alligator alive?

He started calculating roughly in his head. A large alligator could speed up to ten meters per second, but it lacked stamina. If he activated the "Howling Cold," he should manage to reach Old Du before the alligator catches up, even if it was a mutant.

He could take a little risk.

Yu Liang regained his composure. He looked into the eyes of the alligator. The base color was golden lines, and the center was the black vertical pupils of a cold-blooded reptile. The whole eye reflected the lights above, making it look like a well-crafted artifact, full of spirit, entirely devoid of the emptiness of death.

After observing for a while and seeing no movement from the alligator, Yu Liang moved along onto the other side. There was a small room separated in the middle of the corridor. A metallic silver doorplate hung by the room, with storeroom inscribed on it. Below the doorplate was a rectangle schedule, seemingly a roster. It listed some common names with cleaning jobs in the work column.

Someone cleans here?

Then how could the position of the hair remain unchanged each time?

An alarm bell went off inside his head. "Without exception," this thing itself was of small probability.

Yu Liang subtly glanced at the reflection on the smooth surface of the doorplate to see what was happening behind him.

The lion in the display case tilted its head. It gently lifted the hair from the gap under the door with its paws and hid it underneath its body. Even though its paws were large, they were as dexterous as human hands. It was apparent that it wasn't the first time using it this way.

Ha.

A sarcastic smile spread across Yu Liang's mind.

Inevitably, things like statues, characters in paintings, specimens, and the like couldn't resist making small movements when your back was turned to them, as if it's their natural instinct to behave this way.