Chapter 13 After Receiving Three Side Quests

After accepting the three side quests, Feng Bujue stayed in Room 216 for another five minutes or so.

During those five minutes, he checked the remaining beds, confirming that the other two were also empty. He also tried to pry information from the Earl and Victor, but those two ignored him completely, continuing their argument… it seemed he couldn’t get any clues from these two NPCs.

Then, Brother Jue searched the four bedside tables in the room (the Earl and Victor’s bedside tables were naturally off-limits), and successfully found a strange coin in Mr. Harper’s cabinet.

Having done all this, he opened the door and stepped back into the corridor.

“This script’s setting is quite sharp…” Feng Bujue proceeded unhurriedly, playing with the coin in one hand as he muttered, “Judging from the description of this coin… this place shouldn’t be the human world…”

[Name: Coin]

[Type: Story-Related]

[Quality: Common]

[Function: Can be used to purchase items from vending machines in the dining hall]

[Can be brought out of the script: No]

[Note: The most common basic currency in the Monster Kingdom. Due to frequent exchange rate changes, the habit of bartering has not been eradicated, so the coins do not have a specific face value printed on them. Also, because the king is often killed by heroes, adventurers, or his own relatives, and sometimes accidentally self-destructs, the coin also does not have the king’s portrait printed on it.]

“Since it’s the Monster Kingdom…” Feng Bujue couldn’t help but think, “Then am I also a monster?” He scratched his head. “But from the reflection, Lester should be a person… Could there be something special under the clothes?”

This was indeed difficult. Although the other characters in the script saw Feng Bujue as Lester, Brother Jue still saw himself in his purple long suit. Furthermore, even if he found a mirror, he couldn't strip down to his bare chest. Therefore, what kind of monster Lester was, probably only heaven knew.

“Wait…” A thought flashed through Feng Bujue’s mind. “Then what about the bandaged man and the Chad siblings?” he thought. “That bandaged guy asked me ‘Aren’t you afraid of me?’, and he also said, ‘I’m a ghost, do you know what that means?’” He stroked his chin and pondered, “According to normal logic, he means… I, a ‘living person,’ should be afraid of ‘ghosts’.” He frowned slightly. “Also, regarding Chad’s sister, the system defines her as a ‘vengeful spirit,’ which is also a ghost…”

He walked and thought, unconsciously arriving at another corner.

“Eh? Could it be…” Feng Bujue slightly changed his thinking, and suddenly realized, “Oh… so… the general idea is… the ‘monsters’ in the Monster Kingdom are actually the same as ‘people’ in the human world. In this world, ‘ghosts’ are also something very scary…” He said as if he was saying tongue twisters, “In short… this script is a haunted hospital in the Monster Kingdom.”

Thinking of this, he turned the corner ahead.

As soon as he turned, he saw a figure walking towards him.

“Hi~ Lester~” A nurse appeared in front of Feng Bujue, greeting him flirtatiously.

She was wearing a white nurse uniform, with a low neckline, a short skirt, and long white stockings. Her figure was very hot, with a deep cleavage, a slender waist, and a pair of long legs that were very attractive.

However… this nurse had the head of an insect.

Above her neck, her head was a giant mosquito head, with a pair of large, protruding compound eyes, and a drooping proboscis at her mouth and nose. She buzzed as she spoke…

The strangest thing was… she didn’t have antennae on top of her head, but a coil of mosquito incense.

Yes, mosquito incense. And the most traditional spiral mosquito incense, the kind that was burning and slowly emitting smoke…

“Jenny… is it…” Feng Bujue looked at the name on her chest badge, “Hmm…” He stepped aside to pass her, and strode away, “Good night.”

“Eh? What’s wrong with you?” Jenny turned her head and buzzed, “Why are you running away when you see me?”

“How should I answer this question… I feel like there are so many things wrong with that head that I don’t even know where to start…” Feng Bujue thought to himself. On the surface, he still replied politely, “Well… it’s nothing, I just have something to do…”

“Yo~” Jenny put a hand on Brother Jue’s shoulder, leaning closer, “What is it…” She continued softly, “Is it something we did in the storage room on the third floor when you were on duty the other night…?”

“Lester is so strong… strong in every sense!” Feng Bujue roared in his heart, while on the surface, he replied in a serious tone, “Hehe… I really have something to do…”

“Tch…” Jenny snorted, rolling her eyes at Brother Jue (every eye on her compound eyes rolled at the same time), “Such a prude…” With that, she flicked her hand and turned away, swaying her round, curvy hips as she walked away.

Feng Bujue kept shouting in his heart, “What is this… Are you really a nurse? Are you sure you’re not the kind who does cosplay in a nightclub? The Monster Kingdom seems very open! After playing Thriller Paradise for so long, I finally met a super casual NPC in a script… but it turned out to be a mosquito!”

…………

After saying goodbye to Jenny, Feng Bujue continued forward, relying on the map in his memory. Although that map wasn’t very useful, it was better than wandering around blindly. Brother Jue believed… as long as he looked for the "breaks" on the map, he should be able to find the floor change points. If that didn’t work… he had also considered it. He could just return the way he came, stay in Room 216 for a minute, and then run back to the original elevator, changing floors by riding the elevator.

And so, after about another five or six minutes, Feng Bujue finally saw a welcome sight. Not far ahead, on the wall to his left, was a door. It was an electric sliding door that opened to the left and right, much like the ones used in convenience stores. However, at this time, the door was oriented horizontally, that is, opening up and down.

Feng Bujue walked closer, and the door opened automatically. Behind the door was a short corridor, with a T-junction three meters away.

“If the gravity changes…” Feng Bujue muttered as he lay down…

He sat down on the ground, moving forward. When he was close to the door frame, he simply lay flat, pointing his feet at the door in the wall, and then slowly extended his legs into the door. When both of his legs were in, the gravity shifted as expected, and Feng Bujue “fell” into the door in the direction of his feet.

Because he had adjusted his posture in advance, he successfully landed on his feet. Although he didn’t have the support of equipment and skills and his physical fitness wasn’t high, the drop of two or three meters wasn’t enough to kill him (unless he landed head first).

The impact of the landing was much smaller than Brother Jue had imagined. He immediately understood: Lester was, after all, a monster, and his physical abilities must be stronger than those of ordinary humans. The drop when changing floors was just within his tolerance.

“This is…” After landing, Feng Bujue immediately looked around. Judging from the room numbers not far away, this should be the first floor.

He wasn’t completely sure where the dining hall and blood bank were, but it was written in the taskbar that the pediatric emergency room was definitely on the 1st floor. In other words, coming to this floor would at least allow him to complete one side quest.

Furthermore, the Earl and Victor had each used the words "on the way" and "by the way," respectively. Extrapolating from this, there was a high probability that the dining hall and blood bank were also on the first floor.

“The corridor is no different from the second floor…” After Feng Bujue stood still, he immediately chose a direction and went along with it. “Speaking of which… I’ve been walking for quite a while since I left Room 216, but Chad still hasn’t appeared…” He recalled the previous system prompt and pondered, “So… as long as I keep moving, I won’t attract the pursuit?” He quickly overturned his guess, “No… if that’s the case, I can just walk back and forth in the corridor to clear the game.” As he was thinking, another corner appeared ahead.

“Then… let’s assume that the criteria for judgment is ‘passive play’.” Feng Bujue continued to mutter, “This script’s main quest gives players a lot of freedom, so it uses the tangible monster ‘Orderly Chad’ to replace the punishment for passive play.” He licked his lips. “Hmm… the terrain here is complicated, and I’m not familiar with the environment yet. If I trigger Chad’s pursuit and escape into a dead end, and there are no doors nearby that I can open, then I’m dead.” Thinking of this, he slightly quickened his pace, “There are dangers everywhere… Figuring out the rules may require paying a price. It’s Nightmare Mode after all, it’s always good to be prepared.”

As he walked, suddenly, a series of continuous noises came to his ears.

*Bang, bang, bang*—*bang, bang, bang*—

The sound came from the front right, from a room with a 109 sign on the door. It sounded… like someone was hitting something made of metal.

“Is it another scary trick?” Feng Bujue thought to himself, “Or… some kind of event waiting to be triggered…”

*Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang…*

As Feng Bujue approached, the sound became more and more urgent. When he arrived in front of the door, it was almost constantly banging.

“Hmm… this has the feeling of a ‘jump scare door’…” Brother Jue muttered calmly, standing in front of door 109.

It was an unlocked swing door that could be opened with a push, which was indeed very suspicious.

Generally speaking, in horror puzzle games, when you encounter this kind of obviously eerie, not-so-good room, it’s best not to barge in directly. First, look for related clues or items nearby or elsewhere, and then enter, perhaps you can resolve the instant-death plot.

However, Thriller Paradise is a game full of malice… The system is very reasonable in some aspects, but very unreasonable in others.

This door in front of him is likely a typical Thriller Paradise-style trap.

If Brother Jue pushes the door open and goes in, he may face a jump scare, but if he turns around and leaves, he may also die…

“No prompts, no clues…” Feng Bujue muttered, “Pure gambling?” He pondered for a second, “No, this is testing the player’s courage.”

Thinking of this, he took a step forward and pushed the door open.

"Aah!"

A scream.

A terrifyingly pale ghost face flew towards him.

This was the simplest and most straightforward scare tactic, and the foreshadowing was also obvious, but it always worked.

Unfortunately, it was useless against Feng Bujue…

“As expected…” Feng Bujue’s face was calm, even a little disappointed.

After the scream and image flashed by, the banging sound also stopped, and the surroundings returned to silence.

Brother Jue stepped into the room and began to scan the environment.

This Room 109 was small, probably less than ten square meters. The room was filled with many sundries, mostly scene decorations that could not be moved or picked up. However… on a shelf in the corner of the room, there was a very obvious, very eye-catching thing—a treasure chest.

Brother Jue walked to the treasure chest in two steps, and the "unlock interface" appeared as a matter of course.

[Please enter a six-digit password]