Magic Farm 123

Chapter 123: The Final Round of the Racing Carnival: The Journey Balloon

“Congratulations to all players for successfully clearing the first two rounds of the Racing Carnival.”

The host, who not long ago had been so impassioned—nearly urging the teams behind to gang up on the “God of Games”—now sounded almost gentle.

“The tense and thrilling competition phase has come to an end. Next, it’s time to relax and enjoy yourselves.”

Everyone: ?

The host’s tone grew lighter. “The third round of the Racing Carnival, Journey Balloon, is about to begin.”

“Players, you will have three hours to ride a flying balloon, to tour and experience the beauty of this world.”

As he spoke, the arena shifted once again.

Sunshine, flowers, grasslands.

One by one, enormous balloons like clouds appeared before the players.

Beneath each balloon, a fresh, green, square platform awaited for players to rest upon. The platforms were thoughtfully furnished with tables and chairs, and on the tables were drinks and snacks.

All the players felt a breeze rise from beneath, lifting them up and setting them gently onto the platforms.

The balloons began to ascend, drifting slowly into the sky.

“Wow!” Dan Xingyu leaned on the platform’s railing, watching as the ground fell farther and farther away.

“Is this magic?” He looked up at the seemingly ordinary cloud-shaped balloon. It didn’t look like a Blue Star hot air balloon—there were no visible mechanisms—yet it could fly.

And it could fly so high.

In the blink of an eye, they were carried above the clouds.

Qi Yu couldn’t help but reach out, his fingertips passing through a wisp of cloud—cool and damp to the touch.

“Ah—€€€€”

A long, exuberant cry rang out from a nearby balloon—another player.

“I’m—flying—now—€€€€”

“Survival Game, I won’t curse you today—€€€€”

One person began to shout, and soon several joined in.

The shouting turned into wishes:

“I want a dragon too!”

“Survival Game, can we go home?”

“If not, then bring my parents here to be with me—€€€€”

“……”

【Damn it, Survival Game, why are you suddenly getting sentimental?】

【Ah, this looks so fun—I regret not signing up even more now. I’ve never even ridden a hot air balloon on Blue Star!】

Dan Xingyu leaned on the railing, turning to look at Qi Yu, who was still playing his finger-through-the-cloud game. “Don’t you want to shout too? Make a wish—who knows, it might come true.”

Qi Yu shook his head. “No need. I have nothing to wish for.”

He was already more than satisfied with his life now.

“If you’re not shouting, then I won’t either,” Dan Xingyu said solemnly. “We’re still on livestream—shouting and screaming isn’t dignified at all.”

【I can’t take it—Second God is such a dignified man.】

【Look, what’s that?】

The players noticed it too.

All shouting ceased as they saw the massive silhouette hidden in the clouds.

The wind carried the balloons toward that shadow. As the mist parted, its vast form appeared before them.

“Holy crap!”

“Keep wishing—here comes the dragon for real!”

Qi Yu’s eyes widened as well.

A dragon.

Unlike Dan Xingyu’s little dragon, the one soaring through the clouds was fully grown, its body powerful and graceful, every scale shining as if kissed by the sun.

With each breath, the clouds swirled around it. Compared to this colossal being, the players’ balloons were like insignificant leaves.

Such beauty, such majesty—a creature of legend.

“So beautiful…” a player murmured in awe.

The great dragon seemed to notice them.

Its golden, slit-pupiled eyes swept over them like miniature suns, and everyone caught in its gaze broke out in goosebumps.

This was the threat of a top predator.

“Roar!” Whether annoyed by their presence or not, the dragon beat its wings and dove straight toward them.

“Holy crap, holy crap, the dragon’s coming, the dragon’s coming!”

“Survival Game, you said the wristband’s protection system activates for fatal injuries, right? Does that work against a dragon?”

“Ahhh—here it comes, I’ll just slide tackle—€€€€”

Even though the livestream wasn’t as nerve-wracking as being there in person, the viewers held their breath.

【Damn, this sense of oppression—this is a real dragon.】

【Will Second God’s little dragon grow up to be like this? I’m even more jealous of him now.】

【Am I the only one worried that everyone in the top arena is about to get wiped out?】

The first player faced the dragon head-on.

Nervous yet exhilarated, he opened his arms wide, as if surrendering, and shouted, “Ahhh, I never thought I’d get this close to a dragon—come on! Don’t pity this delicate flower!”

Boom!

The expected collision never came.

The moment the dragon’s massive body struck the balloon, it dissolved into golden motes of light.

Like a shower of illusory stardust.

“It’s fake?” The players’ hearts were still pounding, uncertain whether to feel relieved or disappointed. “With that kind of pressure, it was fake?”

The host’s cheerful voice chimed in at just the right moment: “Everything you see on this journey is a constructed illusion. Of course, as long as you don’t touch anything, we can guarantee a hundred percent realism.”

The dragon’s appearance was like a key, unlocking entry to a fantasy world.

Strange creatures began to appear among the clouds: beautiful birds trailing long, feathered tails; golden trees from trunk to leaf; snow-white, flawless unicorns…

They seemed to emerge from another world on the far side of the clouds, curiously observing these sudden human visitors.

A small bird, glowing with a gentle sapphire light, flew over with a twig in its beak, a string of bright red berries dangling from it.

It fluttered its wings, startled by the sudden appearance of balloons and humans, but it was also tired and hesitated, wanting to rest here.

Even knowing it was fake, Qi Yu couldn’t help reaching out his hand.

The little bird alighted lightly in his palm, tilted its head, chirped twice, and dropped the twig from its beak.

Before Qi Yu could smile, the bird and twig both dissolved into a wisp of cloud.

“So beautiful,” Dan Xingyu said, standing beside him. “Who would’ve thought the Survival Game would actually hold a real entertainment event when it said so?”

And in this final round, they’d been gifted such a romantic “journey.”

No one knew how much time had passed, but eventually the clouds parted, and the beautiful, fantastical creatures faded away with them.

Below the sky stretched a vast blue sea.

The balloons began to descend, drawing closer and closer to the water, until, to the players’ astonishment, they plunged straight into the sea.

This time, the players were prepared and didn’t panic. Sure enough, there was no suffocating sensation.

A layer of shimmering bubbles enveloped the interior of each balloon.

The players passed fierce sea beasts, swam through migrating schools of fish, and wove their way among coral reefs…

【Ahhh, what is this, a free vacation? Why didn’t I sign up!】

【They say it’s fake, but it feels so real there’s no difference.】

The players had thought this was just a chance to experience the beauty of the deep sea, but they’d underestimated it.

After traveling through the ocean’s deepest wonders, marveling at countless dazzling sights, their eyes suddenly widened.

Everyone stared in disbelief. “That’s…”

A colossal human statue, hundreds of meters tall, stood in silence—a crowned man with a solemn face, gripping a sword pointed downward.

A string of information appeared before everyone’s eyes.

[Darian, founder of the Deep Sea Nation of Glien.]

Deep Sea Nation? Glien?

The balloons passed through the statue and seemed to tumble into an undersea vortex, plunging downward.

“What’s happening?”

As they began to spin rapidly, Qi Yu felt Dan Xingyu seize his wrist in a tight grip.

Fortunately, the dizziness passed quickly.

Suddenly, the air was filled with noise.

The players stared, stunned, at the scene before them.

It looked like a marketplace.

Men and women with pearly white skin hawked baskets brimming with pearls.

Humanoids with fish tails, creatures with shrimp-like antennae, beings with turtle shells, faces covered in scales… all mingling and trading with clearly human-dressed people.

[Every summer, Glien opens its ocean market, attracting countless visitors from afar.]

It was all so lifelike that a player couldn’t resist reaching out—only for the mermaid he touched to dissolve instantly into bubbles.

The scene shifted again.

Majestic black mountains sprawled like a slumbering dragon.

Players saw bands of warriors and mercenaries laughing as they explored the range. In a blink, they glimpsed countless powerful, mutated beasts, each occupying its own territory.

[Blackrock Mountains, the largest adventurer hub in the central region. Home to countless powerful exotic beasts.]

Then came biting winds, ancient glaciers that never melted, and all manner of creatures and treasures born from snow and ice: snow sprites, ice demons, ice crystals, snowgrass…

[Winterfrost Tundra, the coldest region at the continent’s northern tip…]

From the initial noisy excitement and exclamations, the players gradually fell silent.

At last, they seemed to understand the host’s words: to tour, to witness the beauty of this world.

Was what they’d just seen the world of the Survival Game?

It wasn’t, as they’d once thought, just a “competition game” between players. It was a world with a history longer than Blue Star’s, with older civilizations, vaster lands—a… complete world.

In the hush, the balloon drifted through a patch of white cloud, and the scene changed again.

A tall, solemn, elegant building.

The dense aura of magical energy made Qi Yu’s spirit stir.

The balloon passed through the walls, entering the building.

A young man in a mage’s robe wailed, “I’m doomed! I messed up the potion ratios again!”

In a classroom-like room, a woman in a black robe demonstrated water magic with her staff.

Several people chatted in the corridor.

A line of text slowly appeared:

[Headquarters of the Mage Association.]

As the words appeared, the balloon drifted into a conference room.

An old man at the head of a round table was speaking, but suddenly stopped.

His gaze pierced the boundary between illusion and reality, fixing unerringly on the players inside the balloon.

“Which friend is visiting the Mage Association?”

Everyone felt as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over their heads, shivering with a sudden chill.

When they came to, the building and the Mage Association were gone.

They were sitting in their balloon, drifting leisurely among the clouds.

“Oh dear, we’ve been discovered.” Host Hakimi spoke with mock regret. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, this journey must end half an hour early. As compensation, the Survival Game will award every player in this arena an extra [Holiday Surprise Blind Box].”

“What just happened? Wasn’t everything we saw an illusion? Why did it feel like we got caught peeping?”

“There’s no way what we saw was real, right?”

“But anything we touched disappeared, so either we were fake or they were fake. One real, one fake, and we still got caught—how is that possible?”

The livestream audience snapped out of their trance:

【The top arena’s stream really is something else.】

【Seriously, I watched other streams earlier and only realized the difference when I saw the regional chat. Same balloon journey, but in other arenas it’s just swimming in the sea, interacting with little fish and birds. Here it’s dragons, unicorns, magic trees, and even undersea civilizations and the Mage Association.】

【Double standards! This is totally double standards!】

【Maybe it’s because everyone here is top-ranked? Or is it just because the God of Simps is here, haha.】