Chapter 11 Putting on a Show

After storing the Hero ID Card, Feng Bujue returned to the elevator. He stood before the display screen and brought up the mode selection interface again.

"Hmm... which mode should I queue for next..." Brother Jue muttered, looking at the screen.

The previous Free Exploration Mode was relatively relaxed and pleasant overall, but the rewards were quite meager, so... Brother Jue was already starting to feel restless.

"Hmph... might as well go for the hardest one to liven things up." Feng Bujue muttered, clicking on the mode he had never cleared before.

[Laughing Bones, Level 43]

[Please select the game mode you wish to join.]

[You have selected Team Survival Mode (Nightmare), please confirm.]

[Confirmed. The random team size has been generated: Five players.]

[You have entered the queue, searching for other ready individuals or teams.]

[Match complete, coordinating neural connections, script generating...]

[Loading begins, please wait.]

"Welcome to Thriller Paradise." A sweet female voice spoke these words.

Before the voice faded, Feng Bujue was surrounded by darkness, and he lost all sensation of his body.

[Loading complete. You are currently in Team Survival Mode (Nightmare).]

[This mode provides a script introduction and has a chance of triggering side hidden quests and special world settings.]

[Script Completion Reward: Puzzle Card *3.]

[The script introduction will now play, and the game will begin immediately after.]

The next second, the opening CG smoothly began, and a pale purple mist appeared before his eyes.

[Here, is the end of the world, the border of hell.]

A voice rang out, and the mist dissipated...

In the night sky, a blood-red moon hung high; below, a black, silent ocean stretched out.

Viewing the CG from a first-person perspective, Brother Jue seemed to be floating high in the air, overlooking this rather desolate scene.

[Here, is a land of exile.]

At this moment, a shadow faintly appeared on the distant sea.

[The beings banished here were once incredibly noble. They toiled under the banner of light and order, receiving respect and worship.]

[But, they fell.]

[Innate evil is the choice of the universe; but depravity... is one's own choice.]

[This is intolerable to the gods who believe in order, so those fallen beings suffered the most severe punishment...]

As the narration continued, the scene moved forward, and the outline of the distant shadow gradually became clearer... It was a very large island. If the camera hadn't started its approach from a great distance, those watching the CG might have thought they were looking at a continent rather than an island.

[Chew-Demon Island, filled with pain and absurdity, hatred and madness.]

"Hmm... the name of this island sounds familiar..." Feng Bujue felt a sense of foreboding when he heard this. "If I remember correctly, Samodir was exiled here..."

[There are only two ways to leave this place, and that is...]

Suddenly, the script introduction was interrupted.

A familiar voice said sinisterly: [Laughing Bones! I said... one day you will pay the price, and that day... has finally come!]

"Huh?" Brother Jue was stunned. "Hey, hey... I haven't even officially started the game and I'm already being targeted? And it interrupted the crucial hint! What exactly are the ways to leave here?"

Although he really wanted to know the answer, the system voice would not sound again...

In fact, this "interruption of the narration" was just a dramatic effect created by the system... The hint was meant to end there. The specific details of those two ways were something players had to find out for themselves.

"Sigh... the prospect of clearing this time seems even more remote than usual." Feng Bujue sighed and muttered.

At that moment, the scene before his eyes changed abruptly, and his body regained its ability to move.

"Ah!"

"Ah?"

"Ah~"

"Ah..."

Four different voices uttered four different "Ah"s, and judging from the intonation... the four cries contained surprise, doubt, annoyance, and pain...

On the beach, five players stood in a circle, looking at each other. Except for Feng Bujue, the other four "Ah"ed upon seeing the faces of the other players.

Feng Bujue's gaze swept over his four teammates, and an extremely ominous premonition instantly arose in his heart... because the team roster for this script was: [Laughing Bones] [Honghu] [Tianma Xingkong] [Worthless Uncle] [Atobe-shao ye].

"Hmm... aside from Jin Fugui, this lineup is actually quite strong..." Brother Jue calmed himself and thought, "With this configuration... taking down Samodir isn't impossible."

"Heh heh... this is going to be bad." Worthless Uncle was the first to laugh. He took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, pulled one out, and lit it for himself. "According to the settings... the script difficulty is generated based on the players' strength. What does it mean that a few of us are together... you all know, right?"

Feng Bujue continued, "Yeah... it'd be fine if it was normal difficulty, but this is a Nightmare difficulty team script. At this stage, this is undoubtedly the hardest mode in the game. Meeting you all here means that the upcoming difficulty... is probably going to be nethack level."

(nethack is a single-player adventure exploration game that was originally released in 1987. It has only simple graphics, a crude user interface, and no music; the levels of the enemies encountered by players are completely random, and the protagonist and teammates are permanently dead once they die, and you can only choose to start over. And death does not only come from enemies, there are many ways to die without warning or sign, for example, you drink a bottle of unknown potion and die; you wear a cursed piece of equipment and die; you bump into a cute kitten and die... Many times your death doesn't need a reason at all, but it is full of wonderful fun.)

"How about I force quit now and you pretend I wasn't here..." Atobe looked at his teammates' basic information in the team bar and said half-jokingly.

His words were directly ignored by everyone...

Honghu looked at Brother Jue and said, "Brother Feng, can you explain... what was going on with the script introduction just now?"

"Eh? You guys heard it too?" Feng Bujue asked in confusion. "I thought I was the only one who encountered that situation." He rubbed his chin, thoughtfully, "Hmm... everyone's introduction was interrupted... that means no one knows the way to leave..."

"You've been muttering to yourself and avoiding my question!" Honghu shouted with a look like someone owed him money.

But two seconds later, he quickly calmed down, adjusted his glasses, and continued, "Hmph... never mind, you don't need to answer. According to my deduction... you must have made an enemy of the Boss here in some previous script..." He sighed, "Sigh... why am I not surprised at all... You truly are a man being hunted by the Court of Truth... If I could, I'd really like to offer you to the Boss to claim the reward... I'd definitely get a legendary equipment reward."

"Heh... your trash talk skills have improved in the few days we haven't seen each other." Feng Bujue replied with a smile.

"Hahahaha!" At this moment, a hearty laugh rang out. Tianma Xingkong still had that passionate expression as he looked at everyone and said, "Everyone looks so energetic! Let's all have a pleasant time clearing this!"

"Where did you see that I'm energetic..." Atobe muttered with a twitch in the corner of his mouth.

Honghu shook his head, forehead in his hand: "I almost forgot... there's still a living treasure here."

"Oh! Yulong, so you're here too!" Tianma Xingkong turned his head to look at Honghu. "I didn't recognize you just now."

"Your reaction time is a bit long!" Honghu shouted. "My appearance is exactly the same as it was during the Peak Competition! What exactly are you recognizing!"

"Hahaha..." Worthless Uncle laughed. "It's good that everyone's familiar."

"Hey, hey... Uncle, I'm really not familiar with you guys..." Atobe lamented in his heart. "I was just bored and wanted to play a Nightmare difficulty game, but I didn't dare to queue for a solo game, so I queued for this mode with a try-it-out mentality... If I had known I would meet you bunch of weirdos, I would have rather queued for a solo game!"

"Yo! Jin Fugui, you're quite ambitious too. You've already reached level forty and queued for Nightmare-level Team Survival." Feng Bujue looked at the changes in Atobe's expression and couldn't help but feel a little sympathetic, so he decided to encourage him.

"T-That's of course!" Atobe tried his best to put on a confident expression. "This young master is still the leader of Hyotei, after all!"

"Oh? You're the captain of Hyotei?" Worthless Uncle's gaze shifted over from under his sunglasses. "Long time no see." He thought to himself: "A man who can make the Naming Difficulty Trio bow their heads is no ordinary person... Although he looks a bit girly and didn't qualify for the Peak Competition, it can't be ruled out that he's deeply hidden... Even Laughing Bones took the initiative to greet him, which already explains a lot."

Just as these five were trash-talking and chatting, the system prompt came...

[Main Quest Triggered]

The five responded, each opened the game menu, summoned the quest bar, and a quest appeared before their eyes: [Search Chew-Demon Island and enter the "Temple of Faith" within three hours. Players who fail to enter the temple within the time limit will be eliminated.]

That wasn't the end of it. About ten seconds later, another very unpleasant prompt came, this time appearing with both text and voice, indicating that it was very important...

[Important Reminder: On Chew-Demon Island, many uncomfortable physical sensations will be highly realistic, such as hunger, thirst, fatigue, pain, etc... Please find ways to alleviate them. Ignoring the effects of these physical sensations may cause a sharp decline in various stats.]