【Welcome to use our company's products, scanning has started, please wait.】

【Scanning complete, confirmed citizen ID: sh13***313, name: Feng Bujue; connected device: nL2055 standard single-person game pod, no abnormal external hardware detected; cardiopulmonary function within normal values; neural connection program ready, please select the access type.】

【Access type is non-sleep mode, adjusting... adjustment complete, please confirm loading the game or returning to the previous option.】

【Program starting, loading game in ten seconds...】

After hearing the countdown, Feng Bujue quickly entered the world of the game. He found himself in an environment very similar to an elevator, but there were no floor buttons next to the door. On the wall to his right was a thirty-two-inch touch screen. The entire wall facing the door was a complete mirror, reflecting the player from head to toe.

Feng Bujue looked at his reflection in the mirror. He was now a high-resolution 3D CG character. His clothes had become a black long-sleeved T-shirt and trousers, nothing special. The game character's face was almost identical to his own in reality, less than 1.8 meters tall, with messy hair and slightly feminine facial features.

With the support of fourth-generation optical brain technology, players in neural connection games can obtain a realistic five-sense experience, but the game graphics are still limited to CG images and cannot allow players to load into environments similar to live-action shooting.

【Welcome to the game login space. The following are all game projects provided by Dream Company. Please select a login.】

The system prompt sounded in his ears again, and selectable icons appeared on the touch screen beside him.

"There's only one option, and they still made this login space... Is this company hinting that they will launch many more games in the future..." Feng Bujue thought to himself, tapping the only game project on the screen - Thriller Paradise.

【Players logging into this game must be sixteen years of age or older. This company does not recommend that users with heart disease, mental illness, or a related medical history access this project.】

This sentence was displayed on the screen, and the system voice reiterated it. Then, three icons appeared on the screen: "Confirm Login", "Cancel", and a very eye-catching link option "Related Disclaimer".

"Mental illness..." Feng Bujue muttered to himself, "It's better to take a look." He selected the third option, and a dense array of text clauses immediately popped up on the screen. One glance at the scroll bar on the right was enough to tell that this disclaimer was extremely long.

When playing games, most people would probably close similar agreements or instructions directly, or just scan them, scroll to the bottom, and click "Agree".

But Feng Bujue was not an ordinary person...

He was twenty-four years old, a mystery novelist, whose hobby was shamelessly calling himself an "artist" or "great writer" when people asked about his profession, but these were not the main points, so let's talk about his peculiarities first.

First of all, the reason he was playing this game was to "cure" a disease. Of course, this disease was definitely not internet addiction, but a real illness.

About two months ago, Feng Bujue suddenly discovered that he had developed some kind of abnormality. He spent about three days finally confirming that he had lost the emotion of "fear".

No matter how terrifying the sounds and images were, they could not stimulate him. He watched horror movies and read horror novels day and night, and tried to use his imagination to scare himself, but it was useless. It was as if a door in his brain had closed. He clearly knew what the elements of horror were, and he completely understood what the scary parts of horror movies were, but he just couldn't feel afraid.

So he went to a nearby hospital. It would have been fine if he hadn't gone, but as soon as he went, a big problem was found. An MRI showed a blurry shadow in his brain, near the amygdala, and the possibility of a tumor could not be ruled out.

Later, Feng Bujue went to three or four of the best hospitals in the country, but none of them could make a diagnosis, and the proposed treatments varied widely. After countless tests and consultations with N famous doctors, Feng Bujue basically understood... this disease was probably going to be recorded in history. As a patient, there were two things to consider: first, which doctor should be given the right to name the disease, and second, whether to donate his brain to medical experiments after his death, so as to make a contribution to the field of science.

Two months passed, and the shadow in Feng Bujue's brain did not change in any way. It did not worsen, nor did it shrink or disappear. All other aspects of his body were completely normal, even healthy. After some consideration, he simply refused treatment and was discharged from the hospital.

Since the loss of fear was the only symptom, and no one could explain whether he would die, or how soon he would die, he would just leave it to fate.

One day, Feng Bujue happened to see an internal beta advertisement for Thriller Paradise. The tagline at the time was "Breaking the traditional game mode, putting you in despair, shock, and ever-present terror, allowing you to experience an unprecedented gaming experience." Then, he checked the game's settings description, watched a well-made promotional video that was said to have scared children into wetting their pants, and noticed the link that said "Purchase a new game pod and receive an internal beta account".

So, although it seemed unbelievable, Feng Bujue's purpose in entering this game was not just to "play", but mainly to be "scared". He also had the mentality of trying anything, hoping that this immersive horror experience would stimulate him to regain the feeling of fear.

Of course, just having this bizarre mental abnormality only meant that Feng Bujue was a patient. The reason for saying that he was not an "ordinary person" was not just because of his brain tumor. Because before he got this disease, he was already different, in a certain dialect – a weirdo.

Feng Bujue had many quirks, although not to the extent of obsessive-compulsive disorder, most of them were very puzzling. Let's start with one: a reading addiction...

His desire for reading was difficult for ordinary people to understand. For example, he would read all the words on the shampoo packaging; for another example, he could read the instruction manual for household appliances from beginning to end, word for word; and even more amazing... he didn't even let go of the labels cut from new clothes.

As long as something or someone would have a stake in Feng Bujue's interests, he would instinctively collect all information related to it. Moreover, he didn't just read it casually without thinking. He also had amazing reading and memory abilities. Although not as good as the ancient Zhang Song's level of photographic memory and reciting backwards, he could remember at least 60% of what he had seen, even after a long time.

"Hmm... it's similar to the agreements of other games." Feng Bujue spent two minutes reading through the several thousand words of clauses, "The only thing that's a bit special is those clauses in the sixth paragraph..." He lowered his head slightly, supported his right elbow with his left hand, and placed the index and middle fingers of his right hand on his forehead, then gently slid them down his nose bridge. This was his habitual action when thinking. "That is to say... the company has nothing to do with players dying from heart attacks or mental illnesses being triggered." He recited as if summarizing.

Feng Bujue felt that it couldn't be ruled out that this clause was a gimmick deliberately made by Dream Company. He had seen the game settings on the official website before. The biggest selling point of this game was the concept of "scare value", which used the functions of the optical brain and game pod to achieve real-time monitoring of players' heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, brain nerve reactions, etc., to measure the degree of fear. If the player's scare value instantly exceeded the critical point in the game, they would be forcibly disconnected from the nerve connection and immediately logged off. If the player's physical condition was seriously abnormal, such as cardiac arrest or suffocation after going offline, the game pod would notify the ambulance as soon as possible. Anyway, all nerve-connected networks were connected to the police and emergency services. According to this design, the possibility of being scared to death should not be high.

After clicking "Continue", Feng Bujue heard the system prompt again: 【This is your first time logging into the game, please enter the nickname to be used in the game.】

An input area appeared on the screen, with some restrictions written next to it, such as the nickname must be at least four bytes long and cannot contain swear words or sensitive words. In the era of optical brains, such restrictions were even more thorough. The system's intelligence and calculation ability were so terrifying that "it" only needed a harmonious vocabulary, or even a general category, to exert its reasoning ability and restrict any skirting-the-edge behavior. For example, names like f***, or putting a symbol after fuC and adding a k, these anti-harmonization methods were useless for fourth-generation optical brains. More than ten years ago, some people worried that the Ai of these computers might turn around and attack and enslave humans, but so far, there is still no reliable factual basis to support this claim.

In short, the intelligence of the optical brain is very strong. The specific extent of its strength will be supplemented in the following text...

【Detection complete, nickname "Feng Bujue", can be used, please confirm.】

Feng Bujue's real name was very uncommon, so it should be usable, but he used "Feng" (疯, mad) instead of "Feng" (封, seal), firstly because he didn't want to use his real name directly, and secondly because it was a bit of self-deprecation.

After clicking "Confirm", the system voice said: 【Next, there will be a newbie tutorial. This tutorial can only be completed once. The script is randomly generated. Upon completion, you will receive the corresponding initial rewards. Please note that the result of the newbie tutorial will not affect your character's initial attributes, only the rewards are different. If you interrupt the tutorial due to excessive scare value, voluntarily disconnecting the connection, leaving the game pod, etc., you will not be able to continue the original script the next time you enter the game, and the system will generate a new tutorial for you.】

After listening to the prompt, Feng Bujue reached out and pressed the "Confirm" option again. Who knew that just as his finger touched the icon on the touch screen, the entire elevator suddenly became pitch black.

The next second, a voice rang out, completely different from the mechanical system voice just now. Now, the person speaking sounded like an old witch: "Welcome to Thriller Paradise..."

As soon as the voice fell, the elevator car suddenly shook violently without warning. Then, this pitch-black box began to move, slowly sinking downwards.