Chapter 1 A Glimpse

A pale, aged face appeared outside the crack in the opened door. In this black and white world, the old woman's bloodshot pupils looked black as she stared intently at Feng Bujue.

The door wasn't fully open yet, and Feng Bujue had two choices. First, he could just yank the door open and smack her with his wrench. Second, he could watch, wait, and think…

"Did I disturb you?" The woman actually spoke.

Feng Bujue didn't answer the question directly. Instead, he probed, "Excuse me… are you feeling unwell? I heard shouting."

"It's an old ailment. I'm sorry if it caused you any trouble."

"Not at all… I didn't understand the situation. I'm sorry," Feng Bujue replied.

The old woman heard this, gave Feng Bujue another look, then turned her face and slowly walked back into her room.

Feng Bujue closed the door and muttered, "Is this thing human or a ghost…" He walked toward the tatami mats. "If it's human… then she has a severe case of rheumatism. If it's a ghost…" He sat cross-legged, picked up the teapot, and poured himself another cup of tea. "Then since I entered this scenario, I haven't even met a single person. All I've seen are demons and monsters."

Creak, creak—another sound rang out above him.

"What is it this time?" Feng Bujue looked up at the crossbeam beneath the ceiling. The sound was coming from up there.

Suddenly, the lightbulb above him flickered a couple of times. The next second, the wire holding the lightbulb snapped, and the bulb naturally went out, falling to the floor with a crash.

The room plunged into darkness, and a flash of lightning outside the window cast an eerie shadow on the floor through the window bars and curtains.

Two seconds later, another light source illuminated the room.

Feng Bujue calmly took out his flashlight, turned it on, and shone it directly upward, muttering, "Please, please let it be a rat."

Unfortunately, it wasn't a rat.

Only a few seconds had passed from the moment the light went out to when Feng Bujue turned on his flashlight, but now, hanging from the beam was not a lightbulb, but a corpse.

It was a woman's corpse, dressed like a housewife. She looked young, not even thirty years old, with a distorted expression, rolled-back eyes, and a half-open mouth with saliva trickling from the corner.

The corpse's face was directly facing Feng Bujue, as if looking down at him. In this atmosphere, it wouldn't have been surprising if the female corpse suddenly came to life and attacked Feng Bujue.

But what happened next once again exceeded Feng Bujue's expectations.

He suddenly lost control of his body and returned to the state he was in while watching the opening CG of the scenario. The scene before his eyes began to change on its own.

Then, the image in Feng Bujue's eyes transformed from a dilapidated room into a misty street scene, and he was standing on the sidewalk.

Even more inexplicably, the system voice sounded again at this moment:

[It is an afternoon in November, and you are preparing to visit a friend in town on your own.]

"What's going on? Another scenario introduction?" Feng Bujue was encountering this situation for the first time, but he still listened attentively and recorded every word of the system's提示.

[An hour ago, the sky was clear and bright, with bright sunlight and not a single cloud in the azure sky. But an unexpected fog descended without warning, and the surroundings were shrouded in an unknown darkness. A sense of fear surrounds you, your will is on the verge of collapse, running wildly, escaping some non-existent threat. You eventually lost your way in the fog.]

[Your mind is in a state of chaos, your memories are becoming blurred, you do not know whether everything around you is a real existence or a false fantasy, you do not know… whether you can reach your destination.]

As the speech ended, Feng Bujue regained his ability to act, and received a new task:

[Main Quest Triggered]

[Find your friend's address and arrive there.]

"No way… two main quests?" Feng Bujue indeed saw another main quest in the game menu. The previous one, [Stay in the house until dawn], still existed and was not checked off, but now another one had been added below it.

"Hmm… what about that corpse earlier? How did I get here? Am I supposed to play several different characters in this scenario?" Feng Bujue pondered. "Or… am I still in that house, just seeing a hallucination similar to a death scene replay?"

This nightmare-level scenario was becoming more and more incomprehensible to him. The main quest only indicated what to do next, but did not reveal any information about the scenario's ultimate goal. Feng Bujue currently had no clue about the plot and could only be led by the nose.

The thick fog churned heavily, hovering slowly around him, without a single breeze. It seemed as if the fog was being driven by its own will.

As usual, Feng Bujue first checked if he had any new plot items on him. As a result, he discovered that the string of keys was gone, and in his suit pocket, there was a note.

He took it out to examine it. The paper read: 6 Ban-cho, 4-5.

"I'm screwed… here we go again…" Feng Bujue said.

This time, there were indeed figures around him, appearing and disappearing in the fog… indicating that he was not alone. Feng Bujue could hear the footsteps of these figures, as if they were moving around him, keeping a certain distance, with none of them approaching.

Click, click, click…

That annoying sound was still there, very faint, very far away, almost imperceptible, and disappeared again when he listened carefully.

Feng Bujue took a step forward, cautiously dragging his feet, walking through the suffocating darkness. Occasionally, vehicles would pass by on the road beside him. With such visibility, in such a small town, the cars naturally drove very slowly. Like huge, slowly wriggling monsters, blurry shadows appeared suddenly from afar and then disappeared just as suddenly.

Although the eerie and dark environment shrouded Feng Bujue, he did not sink into this atmosphere, still observing and analyzing everything around him vigilantly.

The cold, damp air spread through this sea of darkness, and even the headlights of the occasional passing car could not bring much light. Feng Bujue tried to illuminate the way with his flashlight, but the light could not penetrate the thick fog in front of him at all. The visibility was less than three meters.

He couldn't even see the road clearly, let alone find a strange address in a strange town.

After walking for a while, he saw a street lamp not far away, the pole standing firm and straight, emitting a weak, flickering spot of light. Feng Bujue held onto the railings on the side of the street and quickly approached.

Next to the lamppost was a bus stop. Feng Bujue quickly approached, wanting to see if there was a town map or something similar.

The result was gratifying. There was indeed a map here.

Feng Bujue quickly found the location of the bus stop where he was and checked the location of 6 Ban-cho. Estimating from the scale of the map, it was only about two kilometers away on foot, and with his pace, it would take at most twenty minutes to get there.

Knowing the route made things much easier. Feng Bujue had a good memory and would not get lost after seeing the map once. Just in case, he also memorized all the street names near his route to prevent going astray, and then set off.

After walking for a few minutes, he thought of something else. What would he see if he used [Winning Strategy] now?

Currently, this scenario didn't seem to have a final Boss, but was composed of many miscellaneous monsters, and the plot was also confusing, bizarre. However, if all of this was a hallucination created by a single entity, such as an evil spirit, then using the skill might give him some breakthrough clues.

Anyway, the skill had no consumption, and he felt like he would be wasting it if he didn't use it. With this in mind, Feng Bujue activated it.

Who knew, the next second, his own face quickly flashed before his eyes. A bewildered, terrified face with wide eyes, but without a trace of life in its pupils.

There was no information in the menu, only a severe headache. Imagine the feeling of a hammer hitting your finger hard happening inside your skull…

"What the hell?" Feng Bujue held his forehead. "What was that just now? What's wrong with this scenario? Could it be that my skill is ineffective in Nightmare difficulty?"

Like everything else that happened in this scenario, he couldn't get an answer. Everything seemed mysterious, unknown, and chilling.

…………

Feng Bujue walked this stretch of road for nearly thirty minutes. The actual distance was somewhat different from his estimate, and moving forward in this strange fog inevitably affected his speed.

But he finally managed to reach his destination. It was a Western-style mansion with a small garden outside. Flowers were blooming in the flower beds, but he could not smell any fragrance in the damp fog.

The iron gate outside the garden was not locked and opened with a push. Feng Bujue walked straight through the garden and came to the front of the mansion. He knocked on the door, but no one answered. He waited for a moment, but it was still the same.

Feng Bujue tried to turn the doorknob, and the door actually opened. He pushed the door open and entered the dark foyer. Although the house was fully furnished, it still felt very spacious.

[Current Task Completed, Main Quest Updated]

[Explore the mansion]

A cluster of flickering lights lit up from the second-floor corridor. Feng Bujue naturally gladly accepted such a clear indication. He walked up the stairs to the second floor, his steps firm and his breathing steady, but every step he took, the wooden planks he stepped on made a creaking sound that was very harsh.

When he reached the second floor, the light disappeared, but Feng Bujue still had his flashlight to illuminate the way. There was a corner ahead. He quickly walked to the first door directly in front of him and opened it without hesitation.

The moment the door opened, a strange scent entered Feng Bujue's nose, a very strong smell, a mixture of perfume and blood.

In the room, there was a huge double bed, and lying on the bed was a woman, or rather… a female corpse.

Although she was stark naked, her body was completely festering, and blood had stained the entire bed red. Her eyes were open, and her face was facing the door, her hollow eyes staring at the spot where Feng Bujue was standing.

And standing beside the bed was a monster, hunched over, with a neck and head like a vulture, an upper torso like a human, and a lower half like a spider, with huge silk sacs and eight insect legs.

The monster's mouth was full of blood, which was slowly dripping from the corners of its mouth. It seemed that Feng Bujue, this uninvited guest, had disturbed its meal.

Seeing someone push the door open, the monster made a strange, cackling sound in its throat and bypassed the bed, approaching Feng Bujue.

Feng Bujue didn't want to engage in any close combat with this strangely shaped creature. He quickly pulled out his gun and fired at the monster, pulling the trigger five times in a row. At this distance of less than five meters, and indoors, Feng Bujue, who had a D in Shooting Specialization, hit every shot.

What he didn't expect was… this monster was surprisingly vulnerable. The first two bullets hit it in the chest, seemingly causing it to lose its ability to move. By the time the next three shots were fired, it had fallen to the ground and stopped moving.

"What the hell…" Feng Bujue looked at the disgusting-looking monster and felt that this scenario was becoming more and more inexplicable.

He put away his gun and walked to the female corpse on the bed, wanting to see if there were any clues. The corpse was lying stretched out, not moving at all. Feng Bujue suddenly realized that the female corpse's face looked a little familiar.

"Wait… isn't this the one who hanged herself?" Feng Bujue suddenly realized.

At this moment, the female corpse suddenly moved. Her festering body suddenly sat up, turning her face towards Feng Bujue, opening her mouth wide, and letting out an extremely shrill scream.

Feng Bujue felt like his eardrums were about to be pierced. Just as he was about to swing his wrench to shut her up, he didn't expect that another bizarre scene would occur…

Once again, he lost control of his body, and what he saw became CG footage again. The woman who suddenly revived, the strange monster, the mansion behind the garden… all disappeared, and the scene changed again.

In the blink of an eye, the environment in front of Feng Bujue became a busy office. He was sitting behind a large desk. The computer on the desk still used a CRT monitor, and the case was also on the desk, piled with documents and office supplies.

[The company you work for is facing a crisis of bankruptcy, and the superiors have made the decision to lay off employees.]

"This jump is too big! There should be a limit to stream of consciousness!" Feng Bujue was really confused this time.

[As the company's youngest deputy director, you have been assigned as the person in charge of the layoffs. You must dismiss a large number of seniors who are more experienced than you, and are responsible for explaining to them, and therefore face enormous pressure.]

"Hey! What kind of plot is this? Please, just let me stay overnight in a haunted house or kill monsters in a mansion!" Feng Bujue exclaimed in his heart, "Suddenly it's become a social reality plot! This is the scariest thing! And is this related to the previous two plot lines? Could it be the same person? No way! This guy's house was destroyed by a typhoon, he's responsible for layoffs at work during the day, his house is haunted at night, and his friend is a weird uncle who lives in a mansion and raises monsters? Is this guy even human?"

[After the lunch break, the office became busy again…]

The introduction ended again, only explaining some dispensable settings, and then throwing another main quest at Feng Bujue:

[Main Quest Triggered]

[Work until quitting time.]

Only one thing remained the same, and that was that everything around him was still black and white.

Feng Bujue could move again, but now he really wanted to smash his head against the monitor: "Saying to work until quitting time… at least explain what 'my' job is… also, what time does this place close…"

Everyone in the office was busy, running around with documents or sitting in front of their computers, typing rapidly on the keyboard with both hands. He couldn't see anyone slacking off.

Several young female employees seemed to be rushing around even just to print something, let alone eat snacks, look in the mirror, or even chat. The male employees were even more like they were facing a formidable enemy, with constipated expressions. Some even had a white band tied around their heads with the word "Guts" or something written on it, making it seem like they were taking the college entrance exam.

"Hmm… is this the power of layoffs?" Feng Bujue said, "Speaking of which… they're actually doing this to show me, aren't they."

"Hirata-kun!" A voice interrupted Feng Bujue's thoughts.

Feng Bujue turned his head and saw a balding, middle-aged man wearing black-rimmed glasses, about forty years old.

"Is he talking to me…" Feng Bujue thought, "So my name is 'Hirata'… I can't even begin to complain about this name that's destined to be a painful and short one…"

"Um… yes." Feng Bujue looked at him and replied.

"This is the financial report for the last quarter, the director wants it by the end of the day." The middle-aged man said as he handed over a document.

Feng Bujue thought: The director wants it by the end of the day, what does it mean that you're giving it to me, the deputy director… Even if the director goes to take a dump, you can put it on his desk, right? Are you trying to show off your work ability in front of me? Or are you afraid that after putting the report you made on the director's desk, other colleagues will secretly throw it into the shredder to screw you over?

Feng Bujue sighed and muttered, "Why am I thinking about this… none of my business."

"Hirata-kun, what did you say?" The middle-aged man didn't hear him clearly and asked somewhat confused.

"Ah? Oh… oh, I understand, I'll pass it on to the director, you can just give it to me." Feng Bujue casually replied.

The middle-aged man respectfully bowed to a junior: "Thank you for your trouble, Hirata-kun." Then he turned and left.

"What's going on… does this scenario want to tell me that unemployment is more terrifying than being haunted…" Feng Bujue grinned to one side, loosened his collar, casually threw the report aside, and then began to search for clues related to the game.

There were so many objects on this desk and so many people in the office that he didn't believe he couldn't even find out the basic situation of "Hirata-kun."