Chapter 1 The Ending

This scene was the last image the script left for Feng Bujue; after watching it, he was teleported. Back in the login space, the touchscreen presented the completion rewards.

[Script completed, rewards being calculated.]

[Experience gained: 5000, Game Coins: 50000]

[Items/Equipment Acquired: None]

[Completed Accepted Quests: 36]

[Special/Hidden Quests Completed: 0, Worldview Unlocked: None]

[Sudden Scare Spikes: 0 times, Highest Scare Value: 0%, Average Scare Value: 0%]

[Your Fear Rating is "Nerves of Steel," granting you an additional reward. Please select shortly.]

[Skill Points Acquired: 500]

[Skill Point Bonus: Experience 5000, Game Coins: 50000]

[Script Completion Reward: Puzzle Card *2]

[Calculation complete. Please continue.]

"Hey! Isn't this a ripoff!" After being teleported, Feng Bujue wasn't too concerned with the data on the screen, but couldn't help but shout, "This ending is worse than adding a line of subtitles saying 'Hirata Shuichi died peacefully in prison'! This kind of standard horror movie ending that shocks you is too depressing! According to general thinking, this ending becomes... Hirata and Mikako, fresh out of college, return to their hometown to get married, and then get killed by a ghost together? Are you kidding me!"

He breathed heavily at the screen, feeling far from relieved despite completing the script. He felt no sense of accomplishment from clearing the Nightmare difficulty, but instead felt quite depressed.

But Feng Bujue was Feng Bujue after all. He quickly calmed down. As a young man who could withstand the wind and waves, he could accept playing one or two depressing works. He imagined himself as a speck of dust in the mundane world, inhaling deeply and exhaling deeply...

"Sigh... always look on the bright side. Nightmare difficulty solo survival mode gives the same experience and Game Coin bonus as team survival mode..." he thought. "And I can draw equipment again. I should forget about that malicious ending as soon as possible."

In fact, looking at the entire script, Feng Bujue's successful completion was quite a fluke. The script was filled with "instant death flags"—plot developments that led to immediate demise. The black-and-white world in the early stages of the script was a severe test of the player's scare value. Even though Feng Bujue had lost his fear, as someone who had normal fear for the past twenty-three years, he knew that those things were quite scary; he just didn't have the appropriate reaction. If it had been another player, they might have made the wrong choices out of fear long ago.

Because the system generates scripts based on the player's characteristics, Feng Bujue, apart from the newbie tutorial, always encountered puzzle-solving scripts in solo survival mode. Accompanied by a sense of urgency and various disturbances of terror, there was almost no opportunity for fair combat. Instant-death flags were everywhere.

Soon, Feng Bujue realized something belatedly. The idea of playing solo mode to grind experience, relying on his characteristic of not increasing scare value… I'm afraid it won't be that simple to implement. To get experience, completing the script is the prerequisite. If you die in solo mode, you get no experience at all. And if you spend the same amount of time playing a team script, even if you get killed midway, as long as your teammates complete it in the end, you can at least get experience proportional to your contribution. Comparing the two, it's clear that multi-player team mode guarantees better returns. Because in team mode, the individual's error tolerance is higher. For example, the Hunter Island script: five players, one disconnected, one recklessly fed the enemy first blood, and they still managed to complete it in the end.

…………

Familiar white light condensed, and two cards appeared in the glass pillar on the side. The puzzle cards only had names, without any detailed item descriptions. Feng Bujue took the two randomly drawn cards in his hand and looked at them. They were: [Puzzle Card: Sunglasses] and [Puzzle Card: Spin], basically unrelated things. If you put them together with his original [Puzzle Card: Monkey], it would be…

The image that appeared in Feng Bujue's mind was a monkey wearing sunglasses, standing on one foot, spinning in place.

"Yeah… probably no chance," he thought to himself.

However, since the card set system had been opened, with the intention of just giving it a try, he still took out the puzzle card-Monkey from the warehouse, and held it in his hand together with the two newly obtained cards, opened the menu, and selected the "Combine" option.

The system prompt he received was: [Failed to retrieve a reasonable sequence]. That is to say, any two of these three cards placed together, or all three together, could not be regarded as a series.

So Feng Bujue simply put all three cards into the warehouse. Anyway, the warehouse's ten storage spaces were just sitting there unused.

"After all, card sets can be exchanged for excellent-grade or higher equipment with 100% certainty. It's indeed not that easy to put together a set," Feng Bujue thought.

He had also searched for card sets in the auction house in the mall before, but found none. It may be because the open beta had just started, and puzzle cards were already rare, so there was no supply. It was also possible that the players were all paying attention to this matter, feeling that puzzle cards were an effective way to obtain perfect-grade or higher equipment, and it wouldn't be worth selling them. Another possibility was… as long as a puzzle card was listed, it would be instantly bought out, so Feng Bujue just didn't see it when he was browsing the auction house.

In short, Feng Bujue himself would not easily put puzzle cards up for sale. He mainly thought that the card set system was very interesting and wanted to assemble a series first to take a look.

"Okay, I don't believe it. Could I possibly draw a children's baseball bat again twice in a row?" He came to another glass pillar with murderous intent, and before he even finished listening to the system prompt, he skillfully chose the equipment reward.

This time, the thing that emerged from the white light was definitely not a children's baseball bat, nor was it a stone. But looking at the outline of the equipment, Feng Bujue already felt very bad…

[Name: Eighteen Arhats' Folding Stool (Number Five)]

[Type: Weapon]

[Quality: Decrepit]

[Attack Power: Weak]

[Attribute: None]

[Special Effect: When attacking humanoid creatures, it will never be damaged, and there is a certain chance to inflict a bleeding effect on the target.]

[Remarks: Folding stool, can be hidden in the residence, readily available; can also be sat upon, concealing murderous intent; since it is not considered a weapon, even if caught by the police, they can't charge you. Known as the top of the seven weapons of street brawls.]

The surface of the folding stool was round, and the support below was ladder-shaped, made of iron. The overall color was black. The appearance did conform to the game's explanation of the "decrepit" grade: old, defective, but better than nothing.