Massive, bloated flesh and blood tissue grew from the water. These flesh and blood tissues quickly covered the entire park and formed an area composed of flesh and blood around the park's perimeter.

Lin Ye was surrounded by a large amount of flesh and blood tissue in the middle, the entire world dyed a deep crimson.

Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump...

A cacophony of noise flooded into Lin Ye's mind. He could clearly hear the sound of every organ inside his body moving, as if these organs had gained consciousness of their own.

As this static grew clearer and clearer, Lin Ye's consciousness began to blur. The whole world started to spin, with his sense of distance and the perceived volume of surrounding objects constantly shifting.

Fortunately, Lin Ye's physical structure was exceptionally stable. If it were anyone else, they would have long been mutated into various fragmented flesh and blood structures, assimilated into this area.

Lin Ye used the Cross Scepter to brace against the ground and began to mutate the surrounding flesh and blood structures, using mutation to counter mutation, just like when he answered the questions posed beneath the lake surface before.

Before long, Lin Ye managed to maintain his own stability and began attempting to counterattack those flesh and blood tissues.

Regarding flesh and blood mutation, Lin Ye's skill level was extremely high. He possessed the Flesh and Blood Rule Fragment and had studied and practiced a vast amount of knowledge related to flesh and blood mutation.

Although the monster in the lake far surpassed Lin Ye in quantity, in terms of quality, Lin Ye was much stronger than it.

Moreover, Lin Ye could also obtain energy through Blood Burning. Due to the gap in scale, he couldn't eliminate the monster in the lake, but he could ensure his own safety by mutating the surrounding flesh and blood.

Centered on Lin Ye, the surrounding flesh and blood structures continuously mutated, forming various complex mutation structures. These mutation structures were Lin Ye's shields. The monster in the lake could only target these complex mutation structures first.

This confrontation lasted for half an hour. Only after Lin Ye had consumed the majority of his mental energy did the monster in the lake give up its continued attacks on Lin Ye, slowly retracting back into the lake water.

Lin Ye put away the Deep Sea Potion he was holding in his hand. If the monster in the lake had persisted a while longer, he would have had to use the Deep Sea Potion and fight it with everything he had.

When the monster in the lake sank beneath the water's surface, all the surrounding flesh and blood structures vanished. Even that body of water transformed back into an ordinary artificial lake.

However, something appeared in the lake water that was completely out of place with its surroundings. It was a metal treasure chest whose surface was crawling with flesh and blood structures.

'Is this the reward for resisting the monster in the lake?'

Lin Ye cast out the Dragon Fishing Rod and hooked that treasure chest up.

[Festival Gift *1 obtained]

'So this is the festival gift? The mission difficulty is pretty high.'

Lin Ye placed the treasure chest into his loot space, then sent the information about the festival gift to the chat room.

Amy: You were wrapped up by that thing and you're actually okay?

Lin Ye: It was fine. With my fishing skills, this is just basic operation.

Amy: What does that have to do with fishing?

Lin Ye: You've never fished, you wouldn't understand.

Chess: So you're saying we also need to participate in some activity to obtain a festival gift?

Lin Ye: Didn't you guys go participate in the barbecue restaurant's big eater challenge earlier? You're actually not dead yet?

Caris: Someone participated in the challenge before us. In the end, he exploded from overeating.

Chess: After that, we gave up. The cake shop's free sample cakes are much tastier anyway.

Lin Ye: A wise choice. I suggest you keep sampling cakes here until the event ends... But this also carries some risk. If you *must* participate in an activity to survive until tomorrow morning, then you're definitely dead.

Amy: I think the latter possibility is higher.

Chess: Then what do we do? These activities are clearly beyond our capabilities.

Caris: Big boss, save us! I want to learn fishing from you!

Lin Ye: Too late. The artificial lake has already been fished so hard it ran away. But I can accompany you to participate in other activities.

Amy: What are you guys good at? I can help you find suitable activities.

Chess: I'm only good at fighting...

Caris: I quite like cooking, but I'm not good enough to participate in an activity for it.

Lin Ye: Then let's first find an activity related to cooking, preferably one in a group format.

Amy: There are activities like that in the city center... Could you guys help me get down first? Please take me in your team. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Caris: We're heading over now. Actually, it doesn't necessarily need to be cooking-related. We just need to find an activity the big boss is good at.

Lin Ye: I'm good at driving. Is there a bus driving competition?

Amy: Yes, there's a drag racing competition in the west of the city. But there's a tunnel section there. All the participants who entered the tunnel disappeared.

Lin Ye: That sounds good. Put it on the backup list.

Lin Ye walked out of the park. A row of shared sports cars was parked in the roadside garage. Renting one for an hour only cost one Trade point, and any damage caused by accidents during use didn't require compensation from the user.

The currency used in this city was Trade points. Lin Ye suspected that this station appeared precisely because he had too many Trade points.

Lin Ye unlocked a shared sports car. Driving the sports car, he quickly arrived at the city center.

At this moment, Chess and Caris were squatting by the roadside eating cupcakes, while the staff from the adjacent cake shop watched them with complicated expressions.

"Get in the car."

Lin Ye opened the car door, then said to the cake shop staff:

"Give me one of your signature desserts, to go."

"Please wait a moment."

The staff member bowed respectfully to Lin Ye. His attitude towards Lin Ye was extremely deferential, not even daring to look up and meet Lin Ye's gaze directly.

"Big boss, you're already driving a sports car?"

Caris and Chess got into the back seat of the sports car. Seeing the staff member's attitude, they both felt a bit heartbroken.

They had originally thought this place was very different from their original world, but in essence, there wasn't much difference.

"This is a shared sports car. If you can rent something, don't buy it, unless you absolutely have to."

Lin Ye took the packaged dessert from the staff member. One dessert here cost 3 Trade points.

The payment method was somewhat similar to thought-based payment; you just needed to think about it to complete the transaction.

Lin Ye took out Alice's snack bag and placed the dessert inside.

After the dessert disappeared, a bag of black jerky appeared inside the snack bag.

'... Is this burnt? Or does this kind of meat turn black after being roasted?'

Lin Ye took out a piece of the unknown jerky and put it in his mouth. A complex flavor, difficult to describe with words, spread from his mouth throughout his entire body.

After a while, Lin Ye started the sports car and drove towards the hotel where Amy was staying.

"Wait for me in the car. I'll go get her down."

Lin Ye entered the hotel alone. An attendant walked over and respectfully spoke:

"Hello, may I ask what you need?"

"One of my friends is on the rooftop of your hotel. I need her to come down quickly and go participate in an activity with me."

Lin Ye stated very directly.