“Hmm… best to slip away!” Feng Bujue hesitated for only two seconds before deciding to retreat from this place.

The King Kong Bell had never rung like this before. No matter what kind of monster was about to appear, Brother Jue wasn't completely confident he could win. Besides, there was no "equipment drop" in Thriller Paradise. There was no reason to provoke monsters that weren't related to the main quest.

Therefore, Feng Bujue pondered for a moment (actually, he was waiting for a quest prompt) and chose to run.

But… the system wouldn't let him have his way…

Buzz—

A dull sound suddenly came from behind Feng Bujue. Accompanied by this strange rumble, a huge, transparent barrier suddenly formed. This barrier was like an inverted bowl, "covering" this area.

At that moment, Brother Jue happened to turn around to run, just as he was taking a Moonstep. Under the influence of [Stepping the Void], the effect of this full-force Moonstep was astonishing. Feng Bujue shot forward like a cannonball.

And so… his bear face crashed solidly into the barrier, and his Survival Value dropped by 9%...

Although Feng Bujue had the heaven-defying ability of "Zero Hour Calculation," even if he had calculated the result in this situation, it would have been too late to brake.

"Hmm… it doesn't want me to leave, huh…" Brother Jue murmured, rubbing his face.

Because the loss of Survival Value was still within his acceptable range (the damage from the poisonous fog two hours ago had basically recovered), his attitude was still relatively calm.

"At most, it's just a fight…" Feng Bujue simply turned around, facing the Boss that was gradually emerging from the shit swamp, and muttered, "This Nightmare mode hardly restricts the player's combat abilities. Do you think I'm afraid of you?"

Rumble rumble rumble…

In these few seconds, the hidden Boss's upper body had already emerged from the vortex. Its body shape was exactly the same as a human, but its size was more than five times that of a normal person. Because its entire body was covered in dark brown filth, it was impossible to see its face clearly. One could only judge from the contours… that this Boss was female.

At this moment, the "Death Warning" time was also up, and the sound of the King Kong Bell stopped abruptly…

Feng Bujue took the opportunity to activate the second special effect: [Observe a monster's (excluding Boss-level) detailed information].

As a result, nothing was fed back…

"As expected… it's not an ordinary monster," Feng Bujue thought to himself. "The King Kong Bell's first special effect has already been used on Liesend. I can't verify whether this one is an NPC, but… judging by the way it's showing up, it's probably a Boss…"

"Ooooh—" Suddenly, a long, incomparably desolate wail rang out, interrupting Feng Bujue's thoughts.

The Boss's roar echoed throughout the swamp. Unfortunately… the invisible barrier around it altered its sound quality somewhat. When this wail reached the ears of the few players in the distance, it sounded like the wind. So… no one would be attracted by the sound to come and support him.

"Is this announcing its debut?" Feng Bujue took a few steps in the air, raising his altitude again. After a few seconds, he carefully examined the Boss and commented, "Hmm… not a bad figure."

If there were other players present, they would be amazed at Brother Jue's heavy tastes after hearing these words. Fortunately, he was the only one here, so he could go as crazy as he wanted…

"I… I… hate… it!" At this moment, the Boss spoke its first line with its broken gong voice.

Without mentioning how desolate the tone was… the moment it opened its mouth, an extremely strong, almost tangible stench gushed out, like a gaseous poison dragon, rushing towards Brother Jue in the heights. The latter didn't hesitate to kick off from the air and rise again. Obviously, Feng Bujue had already gone all out. Rather than die from this stench, he'd rather die in the poisonous fog above…

"Eh? Nothing's happening?" After reaching a height of nearly twenty meters, Brother Jue made an unexpected discovery. "So that's how it is. This barrier is keeping the poisonous fog out!"

This small surprise didn't last long, only about three seconds…

Three seconds later, there was a whooshing sound! A shit ball as big as a water tank flew over…

At this time, Feng Bujue's body had just stabilized, but his mind hadn't. Faced with this sudden and terrifying pursuit, his reaction seemed a little slow. It wasn't that he had no way to deal with this attack, but that there were some methods he didn't want to use.

For example, Zero Hour Calculation told him: the safest and least energy-consuming strategy to counter this move was—to curl up and take it head-on.

Could he do that?

The answer was self-evident…

So, Brother Jue had to respond as much as possible without being "contaminated." This approach… would increase the difficulty, increase the risk, and naturally increase the consumption. But… he had no choice.

He activated [Spirit Gathering Technique - Modified] for one second, taking a series of rapid, dense Moonsteps at super high speed, and forcibly twisting his body in the air.

In the end, he succeeded in using an unbelievable posture… to skirt around the outer edge of the dung ball projectile, barely avoiding the attack.

"Miss, what's your name? How should I address you? Can we put the shit down and talk properly?" After dodging the Boss's first move, Feng Bujue quickly spoke to it; although the probability was slim, there was still a chance that negotiating with the Boss would stop the fight, so he had to try.

"I… I am…" The Boss's voice softened a little. It seemed to be recalling, thinking, "I am… Fuling… I am the most beautiful… the purest soul… in the Kingdom of the Dead…"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Feng Bujue thought to himself, "It'd be more believable if you said you were Ragnaros (the final Boss of the Molten Core instance in World of Warcraft, a giant fire demon with a vortex-shaped lower body who always stands in lava during battle) after getting a sex change and accidentally falling into a cesspool…"

"Heh… hehe…" Fuling suddenly chuckled a few times like she was having a mental breakdown, and a strange stench steamed from her face, drifting upwards. "Traveler from another world… do you know what the most beautiful moment in this world… is like?"

"I'm all ears…" Feng Bujue replied, constantly adjusting his position, trying to avoid the foul-smelling gases.

"The most beautiful moment in the world is the moment when something beautiful is born," Fuling replied. Before Feng Bujue could interject, she asked again, "Then do you know… what the ugliest moment in the world is like?"

In that instant, Feng Bujue had a very bad feeling. He knew that this was also a rhetorical question; he wouldn't need to answer, and the other party would reveal the answer. But that answer… would be very tragic, despairing, and likely accompanied by some kind of instant-kill attack…