Chapter 17 Main Quest Progress Update

[Main Quest Progress Updated]

[Explore Ye Jie High School and Break Seven Supernatural Phenomena; Current Progress: 1/7]

Hearing the system prompt, Si Yu breathed a sigh of relief. Her courage should be far above the average person's level, perhaps even braver than players like Long Ge. Therefore, when she saw that chilling newspaper clipping, she didn't react too strongly.

However, she couldn't help but worry... Because during their last call, Feng Bujue had clearly stated that he had found the well and was preparing to deal with it. Having learned some information from the newspaper clipping, Si Yu naturally came to the conclusion that one "must not look down the well," combining it with the nursery rhyme she had heard earlier. But she couldn't notify Feng Bujue until their next call. This feeling of wanting to help but being powerless was truly tormenting.

That was the effect the system wanted. Perhaps their worries for each other were unnecessary, but these worries would undoubtedly become a burden for them, and both frustration and fear could lead to mistakes.

After hearing the prompt, Si Yu felt somewhat relieved. She looked at the time on her phone, there were still two minutes until 25:00. She had basically finished searching the first floor of the main building, so she stopped temporarily and prepared to go up to the second floor after completing this call.

At that moment, she heard a system prompt: [In this scenario, if you stay or linger in previously explored areas for an extended period and do not attempt any actions to advance the game's progress, it will be considered "passive gaming," and your Fear Value baseline will increase over time.]

Hearing this, Si Yu sighed helplessly, picked up her phone, grabbed her lantern, and walked forward along the corridor.

The concept of "passive gaming" mentioned by the system just now didn't exist during the closed beta; it was introduced during the open beta. Taking the current scenario as an example, suppose it wasn't Jue-ge and Si Yu in the scenario, but two players who didn't know each other. One of them was very timid and had questionable character. After the scenario started, they found a place they considered safe to hide. They made or answered calls when they had to and would never take responsibility, while their teammate braved life and death on campus, solving various incidents and possibly becoming the target of pursuit because of the calls. It was also possible that both players were like this, each finding a place to hide and repeatedly calling each other...

This was just one example; in other scenarios, players might also try to survive by "inaction." To prevent similar situations, the system added the "passive gaming" concept during the open beta. If a player was determined to be in a state of passive gaming, their Fear Value baseline would slowly rise regardless of whether they were frightened. The longer the passive gaming time, the higher the Fear Value baseline. When it reached 100%, they would be forcibly disconnected. Only by summoning the courage to actively return to the game could this effect be gradually eliminated.

Of course, this setting wasn't in every scenario. Some scenarios, such as the Saw game that Feng Bujue experienced, or the lonely city controlled by Samodier, were closely related to time in terms of difficulty and completion. Delaying often led to danger or direct death.

Two minutes passed quickly, the call time was up, and Si Yu happened to arrive at the stairwell. She walked upstairs while pressing the speed dial button on her phone.

"One, two, three, four..." Si Yu silently counted the number of steps in her mind, and put the phone to her ear.

Beep—beep—

After two rings, Feng Bujue answered, "I'm fine, are you okay?" This was his first sentence, quickly answering a question the other party might ask, followed by asking what he wanted to ask.

"Everything's normal, I'm on the stairs leading to the second floor." As Si Yu spoke, she finished the first flight of stairs, turned one hundred and eighty degrees to the left, and in front of her was the second flight of stairs. After going up, it would be the second-floor corridor. "I just finished the first flight of stairs, there are twelve steps." As she spoke, she continued to walk forward, "You don't need to tell me about the nursery rhyme, I basically understand it, the hints are obvious."

Feng Bujue was stunned for a moment, then smiled, "Heh... if you say so, then what should we talk about during the next call?"

"Just report our mission progress to each other." Si Yu replied, and then added, "Don't ask each other if they're okay or injured, because asking is useless, knowing won't help, it'll only add to the trouble."

Feng Bujue wholeheartedly agreed with Si Yu's suggestion, but Feng Bujue didn't feel comfortable saying this, at least not first. Because if a man said such a thing, it would be seen as indifferent, cold, and heartless... But if Si Yu said it in such a detached way, it wouldn't feel out of place at all...

"Wow... you're so understanding, that's what I was thinking too!" Feng Bujue immediately quickly reported his progress, "By the way, I'm in the northwest building now, the music room seems to be here, I'm going to check it out."

"Thirteen..." Si Yu suddenly said, "The second flight of stairs leading to the second floor on my side... has thirteen steps."

Before Feng Bujue could speak, the call time was up, the phone disconnected, and a busy tone sounded.

"Hello? Hello!" Feng Bujue shouted twice, but had no choice but to hang up the phone, muttering to himself, "Hmm... the result is still quite concerning."

At this time, he also arrived in front of the music classroom door.

After opening the door and entering, Feng Bujue first used his flashlight to scan the entire classroom. The rows of seats below didn't show any obvious abnormalities, and there were no bloody handprints or ghostly drawings on the four walls. The only relatively conspicuous thing was the piano in the classroom.

Feng Bujue hummed, "sofare, Lasore..." He took a deep breath, "Is it telling me to press them? Would pressing them trigger some mechanism, and then something would fall from the cabinet?" He immediately turned his head and shone the flashlight on the glass cabinet next to the wall that held sheet music and textbooks, but the top of the cabinet was clearly empty.

"Hmm... if there was really something there, you could reach it by standing on the piano stool." Feng Bujue said thoughtfully.

Feng Bujue's gaze slowly shifted to the Beethoven statue on the low cabinet in the corner. This was a very common white plaster sculpture, depicting Beethoven's head and chest, with a size ratio close to one to one.

Feng Bujue walked over and shone the flashlight on the sculpture, saying, "Fen-ge, what do you think?"

He obviously didn't expect the statue to answer him. As he spoke, he put his phone and flashlight on the cabinet on his right, and immediately tried to move the statue. He found that the weight of the thing was normal, and there were no hidden buttons or other mechanisms underneath. It seemed to be just an ordinary decoration.

"Fen-ge, we're both artists, you're not giving me enough face." Feng Bujue joked to himself, and picked up his phone and flashlight again.

He finally came to the piano. Although he knew it would trigger some bad flags, he still had to bite the bullet and do it. He stretched out his fingers and pressed each key according to the notes given in the nursery rhyme...