Chapter 11 She's a Beauty

"You are... Feng Bujue?" the Repenter asked using her "ventriloquism."

"Looks like I'm quite famous after all..." Feng Bujue muttered casually, then, in a very relaxed tone, he said to the terrifying undead creature before him, "My dear beauty, I haven't had the pleasure... who might you be?"

"Repenter." The Repenter replied in her hoarse, weak voice, "I am one of the Nine Undead Commanders under the command of the Netherlord of the Abyss."

"Oh?" Upon hearing the words "Netherlord of the Abyss," Feng Bujue instantly perked up, exclaiming loudly, "So it's you! It's an honor, truly." Even in front of a creature with sewn-shut eyes, he spared no effort to clasp his hands and bow, putting on a flattering face, "You are all my idols, to have the good fortune of meeting you today, I am truly blessed beyond measure."

At this moment, both Xiao Tan and Matcha Su in the fire truck were squinting, watching Jue-ge in front of the car with disdainful eyes.

"Does he use 'beauty' to address all members of the opposite sex..." Matcha Su muttered softly, her lips twitching.

Jue-ge had indeed addressed Matcha Su as "beauty" several times before, but now it seemed these words had no credibility whatsoever.

"Not necessarily," Xiao Tan replied, "He's always claimed to have an avant-garde aesthetic that transcends race and secular views..."

"Which means he has a really heavy palate?" Matcha Su interjected.

"Not that exactly, well... how should I put it... For example, when we look at foreigners, we always think they look similar, and foreigners often get Asians mixed up too," Xiao Tan explained, "But Jue-ge is the opposite extreme, he's the kind of person who can distinguish the appearance and name of every single Minion (from the movie *Despicable Me* directed by Chris Renaud, made by Gru and Dr. Nefario using mutated DNA, fatty acids, and banana puree) … even if you put two hedgehogs of the same breed in front of him, he can discern which one is more handsome..."

"Oh..." Matcha Su stared blankly for a few seconds with an expression of bewildered admiration, then shrugged and said, "I'd rather accept the conclusion that 'a compliment from Feng Bujue is very cheap.'"

Xiao Tan said, "Actually, his kneeling is the cheapest... but you can think of it that way too."

Just as the two were starting to criticize Jue-ge's aesthetic sense, Feng Bujue had finished his conversation with the NPC and opened the passenger side door.

As soon as he opened the door, he said, "There are two things I need to tell you."

Xiao Tan and Matcha Su exchanged glances, both their faces showing puzzled expressions, and a hint of ominous premonition rising in their hearts...

"First, your body seems to have a little problem." Feng Bujue said to Xiao Tan first, "So much so that the Repenter mistook you for a Temporal Officer under the Time Lord... that's why she suddenly attacked in the middle of the road. Luckily, she realized you were just an interdimensional traveler a moment before launching her attack, and the three of us escaped with our lives."

"Hey hey..." Xiao Tan's face turned increasingly pale, and he broke out into a cold sweat. He turned his head to look at the Repenter standing in front of the car, "What kind of problem is it? I don't feel anything?"

"Oh, it's nothing major, just that the temporal dust that seeped into your left hand more than a month ago has now traveled through your entire body via your bloodstream..." Feng Bujue pursed his lips, "Speaking of which... at the scene of the Death Quiz, that guy named Hephaestus did say to you—'The \[time] belonging to that left hand of yours has been overdrawn, if you don't deal with it, that hand will turn to dust before long'."

"But I'm fine!" The more Xiao Tan listened, the more nervous he became, his horror value steadily increasing.

"You're a doctor, you should know better than me... many diseases have no symptoms until they reach the terminal stage." Feng Bujue spread his hands.

"But that Hephaestus said 'before long,' right? More than a month has already passed in real time! And my hand hasn't turned to dust!" Xiao Tan said quickly.

"Well... we have to consider it this way, first of all, Hephaestus is a god in Greek mythology, these guys whose lifespans far exceed ordinary people may have a different understanding of the term 'before long' than we do..." Feng Bujue replied, "Secondly, the influence of the 'System' on you is something no one can predict. After you returned to the login space, maybe the wound was sealed, and the effect of the temporal dust was also temporarily suppressed, but its existence was never eradicated."

"Then what do we do now?" Xiao Tan asked.

Before he could finish asking, Feng Bujue handed him a [Item Name Omitted]-500 and said, "A loss may turn out to be a gain. Currently, we can't determine what kind of follow-up effects the temporal dust will have on your body, so let's wait and see for now... Anyway, I'll give you the medicine first, and you can use it as you see fit." He was very cautious, deliberately not saying the name of the item, but using the word "medicine" to refer to it, in case Matcha Su got any evil ideas.

Of course... Jue-ge was being too paranoid at the moment. Matcha Su was very unfamiliar with the [Item Name Omitted] setting, even if he said [Item Name Omitted]-500 in front of her, she wouldn't know what it was.

"Okay, let's talk about the second thing," Feng Bujue then said, "I'm leaving."

"What?" Matcha Su's delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly, her expression changing, "Where are you going?"

"I've already persuaded this Repenter, and she's agreed to take me to see the leader of the Nine Undead Commanders. If nothing goes wrong, in this scenario, I can officially become a henchman of the Undead Kingdom..." Feng Bujue had a look of longing on his face, as if he had passed the civil service exam.

"Heh..." Matcha Su sneered, "You spent so much effort persuading me to form an alliance with you, but we haven't even encountered an enemy yet, and you're just going to pack up and leave?"

"Not to mention... if I hadn't given you the opportunity to form an alliance, you would have already turned into points... but as it stands, you haven't lost anything, have you?" Feng Bujue replied, "On the contrary, you've gained a very strong vehicle and a reliable thug." He paused for a moment, "Anyway... if you trust me, you and Xiao Tan continue to move towards the source of the roaring sound. I'll be back to join you soon, don't worry, I'll definitely find a way to find your location." As he spoke, he observed the changes in the other party's expression without leaving a trace, "If you want to break up with us here and now, that's fine too, Golden Maggot Number One can be given to you, but 'our agreement' will be void, and we'll all go our separate ways."

After Jue-ge finished speaking, Matcha Su fell silent...

Feng Bujue was very good at persuading people, because he had a talent, a talent that all first-class strategists have had since ancient times—calculating. Calculating his own accounts, calculating his boss's accounts, calculating his friends' accounts, calculating his enemies' accounts, calculating the accounts of the people of the world... The same thing has different meanings for different people. Only by calculating the other person's account clearly can you guess their bottom line and find the possibility of cooperation.

The more thoroughly you understand the other person's inner thoughts, the more room there is for negotiation. From a negotiation point of view, you can be in an invincible position.

"Hmph... fine... I'm already on the pirate ship, I don't plan to get off." Sure enough, more than ten seconds later, Matcha Su replied with feigned helplessness.

Jue-ge had known for a long time that she was unwilling to break up the partnership, Matcha Su's bottom line was undoubtedly the ownership of Golden Maggot Number One. She was absolutely unwilling to give away this powerful combat machine. And it was meaningless for her to drive the car away alone, because the power of this thing could only be brought into play if both the driver's seat and the gunner's position were occupied.

"Very good, I'll go ahead, you two be careful." After Feng Bujue finished explaining everything, he took a step back. Before closing the car door, he kept a straight face and recited in a cold voice that he thought was very cool, "I will be back."

…

At the same time, inside the sealed zone, on the top floor of a certain building.

Swallowing Sky, Shiva, Uncle Worthless, and Corpse Blade King, these four seed players were gathered together, watching a distant intersection stealthily.

The scene there was not much different from other places in the city, the streets were dotted with piles of corpses and bones, and the buildings were covered with strange vines and bloodstains. The only difference was... above this place, a black spherical spacetime rift was suspended.

"What is that? Some kind of controllable black hole?" Uncle Worthless asked.

Corpse Blade King continued, "You two didn't compete properly, and forcibly dragged us here... just to let us see this?"

"No..." Shiva reached out and pointed to the distance, "Look over there..."

Uncle Worthless and Corpse Blade King followed the direction he was pointing and shifted their gazes together.

They saw that on the street below the rift, a tall, sturdy creature, half-man, half-beast, was walking forward. On its shoulder, it was carrying a player (the guild emblem on the back of the clothes showed that it was a player). The player was not struggling, almost motionless, probably because his stamina had been exhausted... Soon, he was brought directly below the roaring tunnel.

In the middle of the intersection stood a woman, wearing a set of gray clothes and pants, looking very ordinary, like those passers-by in sandbox games, it could be said that she had no distinguishing features.

"What is that monster grabbing players for?" Corpse Blade King muttered, "Wait... that monster actually has the ability to defeat players in this scenario?" His expression changed slightly, "With this kind of strength, it must be a direct subordinate of the Four Pillar Gods."

"No," Swallowing Sky replied, "It's a Derivative."

"What?" Corpse Blade King turned his head, "Isn't that just a rumor on the forums?"

"Hey... that Derivative is killing people," Uncle Worthless, who was using binoculars, still hadn't taken off the sunglasses on his face, God knows how he could see the scene in the distance so clearly.

Corpse Blade King heard this and refocused his gaze on the street.

At this time, Lute had already taken the life of that player. The method she used was very simple, first pointing at the other person's head from a distance with her right index finger, then, her finger suddenly turned into a mercury-like substance, and grew rapidly, piercing the other person's skull like a cone.

Effortlessly, one strike to kill.

"What's going on?" Corpse Blade King asked, "If she wanted to kill him, why did she grab him in the first place?" He looked at Swallowing Sky and Shiva in confusion, "Could it be that the bestial Derivative wants the other humanoid one to grind experience?"

"According to our observation..." Shiva replied, "That woman seems to be doing some kind of screening work..." His expression was very solemn, and there was a hint of fear between his eyebrows, "Her subordinates help her capture players, and then bring them to her, for her to make the final decision."

"Screening for what?" Uncle Worthless turned his head and said.

"Don't know," Swallowing Sky replied, "We only know that... so far, no one has met her requirements."

Uncle Worthless pondered, "In other words... all the players who have been captured have been killed..."

"I say... does this have anything to do with us?" Corpse Blade King said, "What if there's a NPC force in this scenario that specializes in hunting players?"

"Not NPC, Derivative," Swallowing Sky corrected.

"Okay, okay... Derivative," Corpse Blade King replied dismissively, in his view, no matter what those things were called, they were just virtual characters in the game, there was no essential difference, "I just want to say, I find your actions very puzzling. Even if you know these things, as long as you make sure you don't get caught, why bother to notify other people? Don't you want to win this compe..."

"You still haven't figured out the situation?" Swallowing Sky's face was very ugly, and his tone seemed very suppressed, he directly interrupted the other party, and said in a low voice, "Look at that dead person..."

Corpse Blade King and Uncle Worthless looked at the street again, but they saw... the corpse of that player did not turn into white light and dissipate, but was lying straight on the ground, brain matter and blood gradually flowing out of the wound, covering the ground.

That beast-enhanced Derivative seemed to have said a few words to Lute, and then he picked up the corpse like throwing garbage and threw it aside.

At this time, Corpse Blade King and Uncle Worthless realized... the pile of bloody corpses at the street corner was not a scenery setting on the scenario map. Those... were all contestants in this Peak Invitational Tournament...