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Chapter 187 Catgirl’s Hypnosis?

This city isn’t too small, but it’s not exactly large either.

From their downtown area to the airport located at the edge of the island, it only took them about half an hour to get there by taxi.

Of course, they didn’t pay the fare.

“I still can’t figure out what kind of currency this city uses,” the fat guy said, watching the taxi drive away, recalling how Xia Xinyan had swindled that poor driver when they got out, smacking his lips. “I wonder if there’s a fee to check tickets at the airport.”

After all, this is a game, and any confusing setups are possible.

Who knows, the game system might just set up something insane to prevent them from leaving.

“But now that you mention it,” the fat guy stroked his chin, “we don’t have any money; it’s getting a bit tricky to move around in this city.”

Tian Yi glanced at Xia Xinyan, “Can’t she hypnotize others?”

He had just seen Xia Xinyan make that driver give her money without a second thought, so that hypnotic ability was pretty impressive.

Speaking of which, that burly guy from before also seemed to have a hypnotic ability.

…Could it be that hypnosis abilities are common in this game?

“My ability isn’t exactly hypnosis; it’s just one of my extended abilities,” Xia Xinyan explained simply, “this ability can only make minor changes to others’ perceptions and has significant limitations.”

Ling Mo looked at Xia Xinyan for a few seconds, deep in thought.

He had only just discovered that Xinyan had this ability.

Truly, his girlfriend is amazing!

—However, Xia Xinyan was a bit worried that Ling Mo would doubt her ability.

After all, the only ability she had displayed previously was being a catgirl— and no matter how you looked at it, being a catgirl didn’t relate to hypnotic abilities at all.

Of course, she couldn’t say that her actual ability was charm, which was even less relevant, so she could only slightly explain it in relation to her identity.

As for why she chose this moment to reveal her ability… well, they just remembered they had no money after reaching their destination.

And she didn’t want to let such a minor issue cause their plan to fail before it even started. Hiding her power was fine, but hiding it all the time wasn’t necessary.

Moreover, as long as she exposed this ability now, she wouldn’t have to disguise it anymore going forward.

However, Ling Mo didn’t doubt her, but Murong Yue couldn’t help but curiously ask, “By the way… aren’t you a catgirl? How does that relate to hypnosis?”

Upon hearing this, Ling Mo also showed some curiosity.

He simply wanted to understand his girlfriend better.

Xia Xinyan paused and spoke the lie she had just prepared: “My ability leans towards assassination; this ability can increase my margin for error after being exposed.”

Murong Yue slightly frowned, “Ah… sounds really strong.”

No, it was extremely strong.

She had seen this girl’s battle prowess before, and now with this new ability, she felt more and more like this girl was a tough nut to crack.

“Well, that’s good, that’s good,” the fat guy said, unfazed, thinking the stronger the teammates, the better, “So from now on, any places that need money will be entirely up to Miss Xia.”

Xia Xinyan nodded and led Ling Mo toward the airport.

On the way, she leaned closer to Ling Mo and whispered, “Mo Mo.”

“Hmm?”

“…Forget it, it’s nothing.”

She initially wanted to ask Ling Mo if he was upset with her for hiding her ability, but then thought that question sounded strange, so she didn’t ask.

After all, it seemed like Ling Mo had no strong feelings about it.

Ling Mo: “…”

Did he not do something right?

Everyone entered the airport with varying thoughts; it looked pretty similar to reality, the ticket hall was crowded, exuding a holiday vibe, and outside the building, planes occasionally took off and landed, proving that this airport was quite busy.

So busy that— all available tickets had sold out, with the soonest booking dates already pushed a month ahead, and even then, there were no guarantees.

Not far from the airport was a large passenger terminal, where the situation was the same; all ship tickets were sold out as well, with even the earliest queues starting a month later.

It was quite magical.

“Do you think the game is using this method to restrict us from leaving the city?” the fat guy asked while a group of people sat chatting on the curb outside the terminal.

Tian Yi nodded, “It’s possible. After all, we can’t stay in the dungeon for more than half a month.”

“No… don’t you think something’s off?” Murong Yue suddenly interjected, “Didn’t Ling Mo mention before why those rebels don’t choose to leave? I’m wondering if this setup is to prevent them from running away, not us from leaving.”

“But what’s the point of that?” Zhu Di retorted, “They’re just NPCs; isn’t everything just a sentence from the game?”

Ling Mo frowned, looking contemplative.

If they viewed everyone in the city as real people… that would be too abnormal. Even if this setup was to prevent the rebels from escaping, who were the people boarding the planes and ships leaving the city?

They couldn’t possibly be empty, right?

He felt like he was missing some crucial clue but couldn’t quite figure out what was wrong.

“Squatting here isn’t really going to help,” Tian Yi flapped her wings a couple of times and suggested, “Why don’t we split up and investigate? Maybe we’ll discover something new?”

The fat guy thought for a moment and nodded, “Let’s split up. We’ll meet back here in half an hour, how does that sound?”

The others naturally had no objections, thus the six people scattered at once.

Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan planned to head back to the airport to check things out.

Just as the two hadn’t walked far, Xia Xinyan suddenly noticed a figure out of the corner of her eye.

It was a beggar by the roadside, wearing tattered clothes and pleading for money from every passerby.

And that beggar’s face looked exactly like her “father” in the family photo she saw just after entering the dungeon.

Xia Xinyan immediately grabbed Ling Mo and pointed at the beggar, “Mo Mo, that person…”

Ling Mo looked in the direction she was pointing and was taken aback, “Isn’t that our dad?”

He quickly corrected himself, “Cough cough, I mean… our dad in this dungeon.”

Xia Xinyan didn’t mind the issue in his words, “That woman said he’s already dead.”

It sounded like he had died in a car accident and was already buried.

So who was appearing here?

Even if it was a coincidence, it was unlikely someone would look that similar.

Thinking for a couple of seconds, she pulled Ling Mo towards the beggar and called out, “Hey, have we met before?”

Hearing the voice, the beggar lifted his murky eyes to look at them for two seconds.

Then…

He turned and ran.

Xia Xinyan: “…”

Ling Mo: “…”