Chapter 12 The Yellow, Blue, and Black

Feng Bujue looked at the item description and said, "Although it still feels a bit nonsensical, this can be considered a hint." He touched his nose. "The red key is hidden in a red place, so the yellow, blue, black, white, and gray keys should be hidden in places that correspond to those five colors?"

He put the key away, the first question that popped into his head was: "The yellow one wouldn't be hidden in shit, would it?" With this question in mind, he left the kitchen and headed toward the third room.

That room was across the hallway. It only had a small window, and it was nailed shut with several pieces of wood. Although the windows in the other rooms didn't let in any light either, this one seemed particularly gloomy.

The room reeked. The wide wooden floor was covered in a layer of dust. Feng Bujue had already switched his gloves to the display state and freed up one hand to cover his mouth and nose to resist the combined effects of the dust and stench.

The room in front of him was empty. Although there were still traces of furniture on the floor near the walls and in the corners, it was difficult to determine the room's original appearance.

Feng Bujue speculated that when the owner of the house started his evil schemes, he hadn't prepared a dedicated prison yet. Therefore, this room was likely used as a temporary cell in the beginning. Of course, now that he had the facilities on the two underground levels, it could be said that he had put his criminal enterprise on the right track.

"The black or gray key should be here," Feng Bujue thought.

He held up the kerosene lamp and began a careful search. This kind of empty room was actually easier to search; the walls, ceiling, and floor were all in plain sight. Feng Bujue wandered around and quickly found a severely corroded floorboard directly below the nailed-up window.

He squatted down, made a fist, and knocked on the wooden board twice. With a *krach* sound, the wooden board broke. He reached his hand into the dark hole under the floor and quickly discovered an item:

[Name: Black Key]
[Type: Plot Related]
[Quality: Normal]
[Function: Permanently unlocks the black iron door, disappears immediately after use]
[Can be brought out of this script: No]
[Note: Hidden in a dark place]

"It always feels like the keys in this step of the quest are hidden too casually..." Feng Bujue muttered, "Compared to the maddening puzzles underground, this is just testing patience and attention to detail, right?"

The fourth room he went to was the hall. Strictly speaking, it couldn't even be considered a room, because the hall was connected to the corridor and didn't have a door leading inside. The door leading outside was the [Unopenable] mansion gate.

There was very little furniture left in the hall. It was lying on the floor in a mess. There was a wall clock on the wall, but it must have been broken, because when Feng Bujue passed by last time, the position of the hour and minute hands hadn't changed.

He stood in front of the clock for a long time, and suddenly blurted out, "Could it be... that it only looks like a clock, but in reality, it's recording the date..."

Feng Bujue was getting caught up in the world's settings again. The clock looked like a normal twelve-hour clock, no different from those in the real world, but he insisted on speculating... that the twelve numbers and the two hands, one long and one short, represented a calendar.

He rummaged through the hall for a while but didn't find the key. However, he did find another plot item:

[Name: Feathered Leather Cap]
[Type: Plot Related]
[Quality: Normal]
[Function: Unknown]
[Can be brought out of this script: Yes]
[Note: A very ordinary leather cap. Even decorated with a bright, long feather, it's hard to hide its poor quality.]

"This is already the fourth plot item that can be taken out of the script," Feng Bujue said. "Soap, dentures, perfume, feathered leather cap... what does it all mean..."

After leaving the hall, he went to the last room on the first floor that he hadn't entered yet – the toilet.

Whether it was because the technology tree in this world was a bit skewed, or because of system restrictions, there were fluorescent lights downstairs, but only kerosene lamps upstairs; the kitchen had a gas stove, but the ventilation used a chimney; and the toilet in front of him had a flush toilet, but not even a light bulb was installed. Next to the door, there was a small table with an empty saucer on it. Some wax residue remained in the saucer.

"Having to light a candle to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, that's gotta be scary..." Feng Bujue put the toilet lid down, stood on it, and tried to see if the toilet's small window could be opened. "Oh, right, there aren't any mirrors here anyway, so it's not that scary." He knocked on the frosted glass. It was very sturdy, and it wasn't big enough for him to climb out.

"Alright, alright, which one will it be, the white key or the yellow key?" Feng Bujue had already looked inside the toilet bowl. There was only clean water, so as he spoke, he opened the toilet tank.

*Bang*, the door behind him closed again.

"Again? What could opening the tank trigger?" Feng Bujue quickly turned around to open the door, but he used all his strength, and it still wouldn't budge, as if someone was holding the handle tightly from the outside. And this time, there was no system notification.

"What's going on? I don't even get a death warning..." Feng Bujue knew how treacherous nightmare difficulty was. Instant-death flags were commonplace. Even saying the wrong thing when interacting with an NPC could get you killed instantly.

His previously relaxed nerves tightened up again, and he was ready to use his skills to deal with any potential crisis. At this time, his survival value had naturally recovered to over 40%, but it was hard to say how much that bit of health could do in a nightmare script.

Step by step, Feng Bujue cautiously approached the toilet. He had already imagined several possible terrifying scenes in his mind, such as the toilet suddenly turning into a monster, opening its "big mouth" to bite him; or... the monster spraying something out of its "mouth," flooding the entire toilet... Either way, it would be worthy of the word "horror."

Of course, imagining was one thing, but the reality was... other than the door being locked, nothing else happened.

He leaned in and looked at the tank. At the bottom of the tank, there was indeed a key:

[Name: Blue Key]
[Type: Plot Related]
[Quality: Normal]
[Function: Permanently unlocks the blue iron door, disappears immediately after use]
[Can be brought out of this script: No]
[Note: Hidden in water]

"So, they're changing the rules again... According to this logic, should the red key be hidden in fire?" Feng Bujue complained and put the key away.

His mind never stopped thinking, and he quickly realized why the door had closed. "I get it... there are six keys in total, three upstairs and three downstairs. When I found the last key downstairs, I triggered the plot. Something must happen next, and then I'll be able to go upstairs."

"The hall is connected to the corridor, so there's no key there. And the kitchen, empty room, and toilet are all rooms with doors. No matter which of these rooms I was in when I found the third key, I would be locked inside," he continued to analyze. "The question is... what will happen... Will the lump of flesh at the top of the stairs move away or disappear on its own after I'm locked up for a while?"

*Patta*, *patta*... A strange sound came from the hallway.

Feng Bujue's expression changed slightly. He took a few steps forward and pressed his ear against the door panel to listen.

*Patta patta*... *patta patta*... It sounded like something was moving quickly on the wooden floor.

The strange noise became more frequent and denser, as if a large pile of rats as fat as cats were swarming through the corridor.

"Seriously..." Feng Bujue swallowed. He imagined those fused chunks of flesh moving like living things,擠在一起经挤在一起经擠在一起经挤在一起经擠在一起经and挤ing together as they passed through the corridor. "Guys with trypophobia might get goosebumps from this kind of psychological suggestion," he said casually. "But this kind of setting is..."

*Bang bang bang*—

"Hey! It's actually knocking on the door!" Before Feng Bujue could finish speaking, the toilet door was hit three times, and the impact was in the upper part of the door panel. "Wait... this door isn't even locked..."

Indeed, the toilet door didn't have a keyhole. It could be opened by simply turning the doorknob. However, there was a bolt lock inside the toilet, which could be used to lock the door from the inside, but at this moment, the bolt wasn't even engaged.

"Oh... I get it, the thing outside doesn't have fingers and can't grab the doorknob," Feng Bujue muttered as he slid the bolt shut. "Ha... you can't do anything about it now."

*Bang bang bang bang*—

The thing outside hit the door a few more times very urgently, and also made some vague noises: "Cough... cough... uh..."

"Eh? Does it want me to open the door by communicating?" Feng Bujue said, "Hmm... no, it should just be the monster's roar from its throat."

The *patta patta* sound outside started again. The thing seemed to have started moving again. Judging from the sound, it circled around the room and then went to the front door. But it didn't seem to be able to open the door either. Two minutes later, it returned to the front of the toilet door and knocked on the door a few more times.

This time, its garbled voice became very strange. Feng Bujue vaguely felt that there was a whimper and a plea in the voice.

"Something seems a little off," Feng Bujue thought.

At this moment, another sound rang out, a very clear sound, human footsteps. The footsteps came from the stairs on the second floor and approached along the corridor.

The sound of knocking on the door also became more and more urgent at this time. The sound made by the thing outside became like a roar.

*Kacha*, the toilet door actually opened.

Feng Bujue opened it.

In the past minute, Feng Bujue had naturally noticed that the doorknob could be turned normally again. Therefore, he made a deduction: this must be a choice, a choice that might affect the ending of the script.

The upper half of the creature at the door was basically still human, but it had no hair, fingers, tongue, or chin. And its lower half was more bizarre. Below its waist, it was connected to more than a hundred "feet." Each foot was composed of human finger joints, about ten segments per foot, which was about the length of three fingers.

After Feng Bujue saw this guy, he didn't say anything, just silently stepped aside, wanting to see its reaction. As a result, it quickly passed by Feng Bujue and fled to a corner of the toilet, shivering.

"So, it really is running for its life..." Feng Bujue held the kerosene lamp and stuck his head out, wanting to confirm who the footsteps approaching in the corridor belonged to. "Then... what does the real monster look like..."