Strolling

Just then, Ren Yi suddenly felt a chilly emotion lingering around him.

He was momentarily stunned. Due to the influence of his own abilities, he had always been able to clearly capture positive emotions, but his perception of negative emotions was relatively dull.

For him to clearly sense a chill meant that this negative emotion was incredibly intense.

Strangely enough, Ren Yi's rules involved positive emotions, so he didn't particularly like negative ones; Ren Man's rules involved pain, yet he hated pain.

So, what was going on with this place?

Ren Yi looked up and realized he had already followed the waitress deep into the corridor outside the restaurant. Against the wall, a group of emaciated stowaways stood out like sore thumbs.

There were quite a few of them. It seemed Dr. Lin was right—permanent Instances like the Entertainment City were bound to be a bit of a "sieve."

These stowaways were easy to distinguish. Like Battle-Damaged Guy and his two companions, they showed no signs of their limbs becoming transparent, but every one of them looked haggard, their eyes hollow.

They either huddled in corners or wandered aimlessly, exuding a bone-deep despair that was completely at odds with the boisterous atmosphere around them.

Ren Yi locked onto his target immediately. He stepped forward and, without any superfluous words, held out a chip. "I'm buying you."

The stowaways were wary at first, but the moment they saw the chip, a spark of light erupted in their eyes. It was as if they had caught their last lifeline. Trembling, they took the chip and hurried away from the crowd.

Ren Yi frowned.

The scent of "despair" here was far too strong.

Unlike Battle-Damaged Guy and the others, the stowaways here seemed completely overwhelmed by despair, to the point of losing their judgment.

He glanced at the waitress beside him. The Entertainment City shouldn't be associated with despair, so could this be the Alliance's method of reclaiming them?

If that was the case, what would happen if he introduced positive emotion contamination?

A clash of contaminations?

Still, he might encounter such situations in the future, so it was good to experiment beforehand.

Ren Yi continued, taking the opportunity to plant a Seed in each person the moment they accepted a chip.

What Ren Yi found strange was that the waitress stood by the entire time. Not only did she not stop him, but she even stepped forward to help him confirm. "Mr. Ren Yi, this person is not on the customer list; they are a stowaway."

Her tone remained gentle, but Ren Yi felt something was off. Her proactive attitude made it seem like she couldn't wait for him to find more stowaways and give away more chips.

By the time Ren Yi finished touring the entire second and third basement levels, he felt a clear sense of fatigue.

He glanced at the Anomaly Web panel and saw that the progress had reached 【137/1000】.

Subtracting the few points he had before, that made about a hundred samples—roughly enough.

"The stowaways on the second and third basement levels are mostly accounted for," the waitress said, putting away her terminal and smiling at Ren Yi. "Would you like to visit the fourth basement level now? There are official shops exclusive to Anomalies there, with many interesting things."

Ren Yi's eyes lit up slightly. He had always been curious about the Anomaly products in this Instance. Hearing this, he nodded immediately. "Alright, let's go take a look."

He followed the waitress into a private elevator down to the fourth basement. As soon as the doors opened, the atmosphere was completely different from the floors above.

There were no noisy gambling games and no crowds. There weren't many Anomalies in the corridors, making it quite peaceful.

Ren Yi finally saw some NPCs in the casino, each guarding a shop.

In the Entertainment City, a single Anomaly could have dozens or hundreds of clones, so they didn't really need NPCs.

The NPCs here were likely arranged by Anomaly shopkeepers who didn't have the time to look after their shops personally.

"The quality of the shops here is guaranteed by the management. Transactions are entirely voluntary, and there is no danger," the waitress reminded him timely.

Ren Yi looked at the NPCs around him. After confirming with the waitress that it was safe, he pulled Wang Zhixin out of his pocket and placed him gently in his palm. "You go ahead and explore too. Don't go too far, and call me if anything happens."

Wang Zhixin floated in his palm, his transparent crystal body swaying as if nodding. Then, he drifted out slowly, curiously observing the shops around them.

Ren Yi first walked into a shop that looked the most minimalist. The sign at the entrance read "Crystal Shop," and the store was filled with all kinds of ability crystals.

"Mr. Ren Yi, the crystals here are mostly low-tier ability crystals, mainly for your convenience in exchange," the waitress introduced as she followed behind him.

Ren Yi picked up a crystal that was completely transparent with fine specks of light floating inside.

The clerk immediately stepped forward to explain, "Sir, this is a Teleportation Crystal. After use, you can instantly teleport to any location within your line of sight up to fifty meters away."

Ren Yi raised an eyebrow. He remembered that Lu Zihan's rule crystal ability was quite similar to this.

Then there was no need to buy this; he could just get it for free later.

Ren Yi then picked up a dark green crystal with small eye patterns embedded inside. "What about this one?"

"After using this crystal, you can make any inorganic object grow a pair of eyes. You will be able to see everything within the object's field of vision through the crystal. It lasts for one hour."

Ren Yi's eyes brightened. This was quite interesting.

In addition to that, Ren Yi enthusiastically selected several other simple and practical ability crystals.

He paid with his remaining chips and tucked the crystals away. The waitress suddenly suggested, "Mr. Ren Yi, there's a Puppet Shop up ahead. The puppets inside are very unique. Would you like to take a look?"

Ren Yi agreed and arrived at the front of the shop she mentioned. Looking up, he saw the shopkeeper behind the counter wearing a rabbit mask and the exact same uniform.

Ren Yi's mouth twitched.

So she had just led him straight into her own shop, hadn't she?