As the mournful cries echoed, the Witch's hand began to slip from Bai Mu's grasp. She tried to pull her hand away, but there was little force behind the movement. Given her immense strength, if she truly wanted to break free, Bai Mu would not have been able to hold onto her at all.
Bai Mu was well aware of this fact. After all, he had tested his own limits before. At best, he could snap a Zombie's neck, but he could never twist through the flesh, bone, and sinew of a Zombie's spine and neck like twisting a bottle cap three and a half times to completely decapitate it.
The Witch's erratic behavior was not triggered by anything Bai Mu had done wrong. Her mental state was simply unstable to begin with, causing her to experience periodic bouts of anxiety.
Bai Mu knew he had to do something to soothe her. If he did nothing and just let her cry, it would not be long before she threw a full-blown tantrum.
She might forget that she was the one who approached an "adult" in the first place, and instead start wondering, 'Who is this? When did he get next to me?' That thought would then twist into, 'I do not know him, and him being this close is dangerous.' From there, she would react like a startled cat, arching her back, shrieking, and tearing into Bai Mu with a wild frenzy of claws.
As for exactly how to comfort her, Bai Mu had never raised a child, but he had been one himself.
He recalled the time he spent with his grandmother. Growing up, she was his only family. She had taken excellent care of him, making sure he was always well-fed and dressed warmly. At night, she would play cards with him. They played a simple matching game, one he still remembered to this day—whenever two cards of the same rank were played, you could scoop up the pile, and whoever ended up with the most cards won.
After the apocalypse arrived, he would occasionally take out a deck of cards and play by himself. Playing cards alone was rather dull, but when he reminisced about those nights spent in good company, the boredom faded away.
When he was sad or bullied in the past, how had his grandmother comforted him?
He delved into his past, mimicking the scenes from his memory to soothe the "little kid" beside him.
He first reached out tentatively toward the Witch's forehead. When she did not react adversely, he went a step further, placing his hand against her brow and stroking it gently.
Most elders comforted their children this way. It was one of the most common forms of body language. Regardless of race or nationality, body language was universal. It was the most primal language, one that even a caveman could understand.
Since the Witch still retained fragments of a human child's cognition in her subconscious, she should find this gesture familiar.
From a psychological perspective, people spent their entire lives seeking out familiar environments.
A child who was frequently beaten, scolded, and controlled by their parents would grow up feeling a sense of familiarity toward romantic partners who possessed those same traits, even developing an infatuation with them. Although they felt physical pain, that sensation of being controlled was so familiar that it would trigger a safety mechanism in their brains: equating pain with security, rendering them unable to leave that toxic environment.
Of course, judging from the clothes the Witch wore during her time as a human, she certainly was not the type to have suffered abuse in her family.
Bai Mu had been observing her carefully. She wore an intricately designed princess dress. Its original color must have been beige or pure white. Even though it was severely torn and frayed from slaughter and a long period of neglect, one could still judge the dress's value by the lace trim, prints, and piping.
This dress was not cheap. At the very least, Bai Mu had never worn clothes with so many intricate patterns growing up, nor had he ever seen any of the other girls in his village wear anything similar.
Her hairpin matched the style of the plushies outside the Children's Park, something she had likely asked to buy herself. When she was alive as a human, her parents must have provided for her exceptionally well materially.
She must have been deeply cherished by her family.
Therefore, what would make her feel a sense of familiarity had to be this gentle physical affection.
[You have pacified the Witch.]
Under Bai Mu's gentle stroking, the Witch's crying ceased, and she once again led him forward.
Bai Mu followed her as she wandered in circles around the Children's Park. Every so often, she would become anxious, and Bai Mu would have to step in and soothe her.
However, Bai Mu could feel the effectiveness of his comforting gradually diminishing. With each successive attempt, it took longer to calm her down.
Yet, as he comforted her more frequently, she stopped wandering aimlessly on her own. Sometimes, she would even stop and allow Bai Mu to take the lead.
Realizing this, Bai Mu used the opportunity of the Witch's fourth crying fit to guide them over to the generator.
Three cans of gasoline were well within reach. Bai Mu stretched out his hand and gripped the handle of a gas can.
[Do you wish to store the "Gasoline Can" in your inventory?]
'Yes,' Bai Mu muttered in his mind, storing all three cans of gasoline into his inventory.
He still had plenty of inventory space left. As an F-grade Player, his Script inventory had sixteen empty slots. Since the gasoline cans were identical items, they could stack in the inventory, occupying only a single slot.
After taking the gasoline, Bai Mu pacified the Witch once more. This time, it took considerably longer. Initially, it only took about three seconds to quiet her down, but now it required a full ten seconds.
At the same time, Bai Mu could feel the force of the Witch trying to pull her arm away growing stronger.
'Just what exactly does she want to do?' Bai Mu realized that his time was not infinite. If this continued, she would completely lose her mind sooner or later.
He had at most three to five more chances to pacify the Witch. Added together, the total time he had left would not exceed three minutes.
Bai Mu pondered, summarizing the logic behind the Witch's actions. Ever since she grabbed his hand, she had been circling an area near the generator.
This matched the behavior he and Yan Yu had initially observed. The Children's Park was massive, yet even when undisturbed, she paced and cried within a relatively fixed area.
It was not until she discovered a "reliable adult" like Bai Mu that she changed her pattern of behavior.
Yet, even after holding Bai Mu's hand, she still led him to the vicinity of the generator, walking here and stopping there.
She was not wandering aimlessly; it seemed like... she was looking for something.
In a Children's Park that functioned much like a daycare, there must have been staff dedicated to handling the children's needs.
For example, if a child was hungry, they would provide snacks. If a fight broke out, they would step in to mediate and comfort. And if... a child lost something, they would help find it.
If she was asking him to help her find something, what could it be?
An item a little girl would carry around constantly... a vanity mirror, a doll, a stuffed plushie...
Various objects flashed rapidly through Bai Mu's mind. He had scavenged through many residential homes, so he had a relatively clear idea of what families with daughters would buy for them.
He quickly searched for what the Witch might have lost. His eyes had mostly adapted to the darkness, so even though the lighting was dim, he could see things fairly clearly.
After pacifying the Witch for the sixth time, he finally spotted it next to the Swimming Pool—a rabbit plushie floating atop the water and a pile of Corpses.
It was a stuffed plushie of the exact same design as the Witch's hairpin and the rabbit mascot outside the Children's Park, only much smaller.