Chapter 1 The Flourishing Forum

The lively scene on the forum was still in full swing after two days. Many people who posted and argued with each other had even developed feelings... although those feelings were hatred…

What kind of person is most likely to form grudges and turn them into growing hatred? A petty person.

Therefore, before the public beta even started, many small-minded people were already making appointments for duels on the forum, preparing to engage in a life-or-death battle in the "Slaughter Game" mode to determine who was superior. Of course, the prerequisite was that they had to reach level fifteen or higher to enter the mode. And both sides had to believe they had a sure win before the match would begin.

Petty people fear losing face the most, because their inner selves are so unsightly.

They are afraid of losing face if they lose, but if they win, petty people won't leave any face for others, that's why they are petty.

If a petty person loses unfairly, they will have all sorts of excuses, such as "You've been playing the game longer than me," "You're a higher level than me," "Your equipment is better than mine," and the two most incisive – "I'm not feeling it" and "No comment."

It's easy to win against a gentleman, but to win against a petty person, you need the ability to dismantle a Gundam with your bare hands, and find dozens of witnesses to testify, and preferably film the whole process. That way, the petty person can only admit defeat, and then resent you in their heart for the rest of their life…

These past two days, Feng Bujue hadn't paid much attention to the game. He spent two days eating plain noodles and focusing on writing, and finished this month's manuscript. In addition, Assas finally understood that the sandbox was the toilet.

On Tuesday morning, Thriller Paradise reopened, this time with the public beta version.

Feng Bujue didn't log in immediately. Obviously, the opening time overlapped with his sleep time. He had finally adjusted his biological clock, and he didn't want to disrupt it again. After all, waking up at twelve and sleeping at four in the morning could save him a meal…

At one thirty in the afternoon, Feng Bujue filled Assas's bowl with cat food, cleaned the sandbox, and took care of this little ancestor before lying down in the game pod.

A series of system prompts are omitted here. After arriving in the login space, Feng Bujue didn't find any obvious changes.

He opened the touch screen and looked at his friend list. All four names in it were grayed out, indicating they were offline.

"Ah… I really am free…" Feng Bujue said with a lazy tone of self-mockery.

There weren't any new additions to the operation interface, it just looked more complete and aesthetically pleasing. In addition, the game instructions became more comprehensive. The question that Feng Bujue raised last time about "which items are not displayed when结算 (jiesuan - settlement) after bringing them out of a script" could now be found in the FAQ.

Seeing this, Feng Bujue thought of organizing his inventory.

The current inventory capacity was 7/10, containing the following items: Mario's pipe wrench, Eye of Hatred, Western-style kitchen knife, baseball bat, M1911A1 pistol, Echo Armor, and a bag of garlic.

The anti-toxin serum for the Z virus was a story item that could not be brought out of the script. In the last script, on the way back to the gun shop from the Elub Building, Feng Bujue threw away the serum in his inventory. At that time, he and Xiao Tan had already injected the serum, and the two GMs said they had passive skills that were enough to resist all viruses in low-level scripts, so those were useless.

His flashlight was lost and damaged when he was besieged by a horde of zombies in the basketball hall. Fortunately, he still had one stored in his space, which he could use to replace it. As for the bag of garlic, Feng Bujue felt that it wouldn't be used again, and it wasn't a difficult prop to obtain, so he destroyed it in the game menu. He gave the Winchester and its corresponding bullets to Xiao Tan; the M1911A1 pistol was fully loaded, but had no spare ammunition. After throwing away the garlic and taking out the flashlight from the storage space later, the inventory would still occupy seven slots.

After organizing his inventory, Feng Bujue turned around, thinking of going to the metal room next door to claim the extra reward for the Fear rating, but suddenly heard a system prompt:

[Now, you can choose the area you want to go to]

After the voice prompt, next to the elevator door, where it was originally empty, a data stream formed a light flow, outlining a rectangular operation area. After the image materialized, there were five fist-sized buttons, all with words on them, namely:

[Storage Room] [Meeting Room] [Mall] [Scare Box] [Don't Press This]

Feng Bujue's gaze was naturally attracted to the last button.

"Hey… what does 'Don't Press This' mean…" His expression was subtle. "If you don't want people to press it, then don't create it… Writing 'Don't Press' makes people want to press it even more…"

He hesitated for a few seconds and couldn't help but reach out and press it. The light on the button lit up for a second when it was pressed, and then… nothing happened.

Feng Bujue waited for thirty seconds, looked around, and there was still no abnormality. He couldn't help but say, "What's this… a cold joke?"

"Hehehe… you really pressed it." A very lewd laugh accompanied by words suddenly came from behind Feng Bujue.

He turned around and saw that a few steps away from him, in the corner that was just empty, stood a person.

This was a Caucasian man who looked to be in his twenties, dressed in a black suit, thin, with pale skin, short hair, and wearing glasses with a layer of white light covering the lenses. It must be said that although his temperament was lewd, objectively speaking, this man was very handsome.

"Hey… buddy, how did you get in here?" Feng Bujue asked.

"Hehe…" The man snapped his fingers, and the button that said [Don't Press This] disappeared as a data stream. "Isn't it just moving in a game space? It's very simple, hehehe…" He seemed to like making a few lewd laughs from his throat like this, the laughter was incomparably lewd.

"Are you… an NPC? An administrator?" Feng Bujue asked doubtfully. "Wait… you can't be an NPC, I'm not in a script…" He paused. "Hmm… after the public beta, will each person's login space be equipped with an AI similar to a little assistant? That's not right! Shouldn't that kind of NPC be a scantily clad, buxom beauty?"

"You're overthinking it." The man laughed. "Hehehe… just think of me as an administrator, but you probably won't be able to get any information about me from the official channels. They're likely to tell you that I don't exist."

Hearing this, Feng Bujue's expression changed slightly, and he said in a serious tone: "Are you a Derivative?"

"Hahahaha…" The man laughed loudly, shaking his head. "Hehe… Derivatives are at least two dimensions lower than me." He pushed his glasses and continued, "You can call me Woody, w-o-o-d-y…"

"Wait a minute." Feng Bujue interrupted. "Who exactly are you? What do you want with me? Was that button your prank?"

"Hehe… that button was just a harmless joke." Woody replied. "I came to you because I have some questions to ask you."

"Let me get this straight… are you representing Dream Inc. to ask me, or is it out of personal interest?" Feng Bujue always felt that there was something indescribably strange about the person in front of him.

This guy can appear in his login space like this, and can even adjust the environment, so he's probably an administrator from Dream Inc., but what he's saying is very problematic. What does "just think of me as an administrator" mean, and "they are at least two dimensions lower than me," how the hell did you calculate that?

"I come from Hell, and I need to confirm some questions with you for work purposes." Woody's glasses always had a white glow, making it impossible to see his expression clearly.

"You administrators are all late-stage chuunibyou (delusions of grandeur)..." Feng Bujue immediately thought of Pan Feng and Hua Xiong.

"As a person with mental abnormalities, are you talking to me about chuunibyou?" Woody replied.

Feng Bujue thought to himself: As expected… the game company already knows. That's right… no matter what, all the scripts so far have been cleared with 0 Fear, so they've long been listed as abnormal data by the system. So… this guy's job is to specifically deal with players suspected of cheating?

"Hehe… you can think of it that way." Woody said with a lewd laugh.

"Huh?" Feng Bujue was stunned. "What?" He thought to himself: That's impossible, right? Does he know what I'm thinking?

Woody didn't follow up and glossed over it with a few laughs: "Hehehe… first I want to ask, do you believe in Christianity?"

Feng Bujue also knew something about fortune-telling tricks like mind reading, so he didn't delve into Woody's words just now, and just thought that the other party was playing tricks. Hearing Woody's question, he replied: "I'm more of a believer in science."

"Hehehe… very good." Woody laughed. "I'm done asking."

"Hey… big brother, what's going on? Is this a prank show? Is the system filming?" Feng Bujue asked.

"I've already digested the pictures and sounds that exist in your memory, you don't need to tell me, I finished them a minute ago." Woody said. "I just need to confirm this."

Feng Bujue glanced at Woody and took two steps back, saying: "This… Big Brother Woody, where did you say you were from just now…"

"Where I come from is where you will go, hehehe…" Woody was still laughing lewdly. "Okay, I'm leaving. I think you'll be very angry when we meet again, but that's life, anger is always more useful than despair, isn't it?"

"Wait, you…" Feng Bujue was completely confused by him, this guy was simply inexplicable.

"Mortal, you are excellent and interesting, a suitable candidate. I'm going to bet on you… hmm… I'll bet Judas's bag of coins. That's a big deal, hehehe… don't disappoint me." Woody shrugged and smiled, then turned around and walked into the mirror wall of the elevator.

After Woody entered the mirror, his figure suddenly twisted. His figure turned into a black demon shadow in an instant, and its image was difficult to describe in words. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then the demon shadow broke in through the window in an instant, directly tearing apart the human spiritual world.

At this moment, Feng Bujue felt an emotion that shouldn't exist – fear.

This feeling, which could no longer be aroused in him physiologically, emerged as clearly as a brand on his heart. Without a doubt, this was fear, and it was the kind of unforgettable, eternal, terrifying experience.

Staring at the formless and source-less demon shadow was like having your soul firmly grasped by an all-encompassing demon palm, ready to be drawn out of your body at any time and turned into nothing.

He didn't know how long it had been, but Feng Bujue came back to his senses. He was still in shock and instinctively looked at the time on the wall. Only a few tens of seconds had passed since he last looked away. He couldn't calm down and asked himself in his heart: What exactly was all that just now? Reality or illusion? Could it be… that the shadow in my brain has spread, leading to new symptoms?