Chapter 0 Main Quest Progress Update

【Main Quest Progress Updated】

【Exploring Ye Jie High School, Breaking Seven Supernatural Phenomena, Current Progress 1/7】

Upon hearing the system prompt, Si Yu breathed a sigh of relief. Her courage was definitely far above the average person's level, perhaps even braver than players like Long Ge, so she didn't react too much when she saw that chilling news clipping.

However, she still couldn't help but worry... because during the last call, Feng Bujue had clearly stated that he had found the well and was preparing to deal with it. Having learned some information from the clipping, Si Yu naturally came to the conclusion that one "must not look down the well," based on the ballad she had heard earlier. But she couldn't notify Feng Bujue until the next call. This feeling of wanting to help but being powerless was truly tormenting.

That's exactly the effect the system wanted. Perhaps their concerns for each other were unnecessary, but this worry would undoubtedly become a burden for them, and like fear, anxiety would make them make mistakes.

After hearing the prompt, Si Yu was temporarily relieved. She glanced at the time on her phone; there were still two minutes until 25:00. She had basically finished searching the first floor of the main building, so she stopped temporarily, preparing to go up to the second floor after completing this call.

At this moment, she heard a system prompt: 【In this scenario, if you linger or wander in areas you have already explored for a long time, and do not attempt any actions to advance the game, you will be considered "passively playing." Your scare value baseline will increase over time.】

Hearing this, Si Yu sighed helplessly. She picked up her phone, grabbed the lantern, and walked forward along the corridor.

The concept of "passive play" that the system just mentioned did not exist during the closed beta; it was introduced during the open beta. To illustrate with the current scenario, let's say that instead of Jue-ge and Si Yu, there were two players who didn't know each other. One of them was very timid and of questionable character. After the scenario started, he found a place he thought was safe to hide, making and answering calls when necessary, never taking responsibility, while his teammate was risking their life in the school, solving various incidents, and might even become a target because of the calls. It was also possible that both players were like this; they each found a place to hide and repeatedly called each other...

This was just one example; in other scenarios, players might also try to survive by "not acting." To prevent similar situations, the system added the "passive play" concept during the open beta. If a player was determined to be in a passive play state, their scare value baseline would slowly increase, regardless of whether they were frightened or not. The longer they were passively playing, the higher the scare value baseline would be, and they would be forcibly disconnected when it reached 100%. Only by summoning the courage to actively return to the game could they gradually eliminate this effect.

Of course, this setting was not present in every scenario. Some scenarios, such as the Saw game that Feng Bujue experienced and the isolated city controlled by Samodir, were closely related to time in terms of difficulty and completion. Delaying often led to danger or direct death.

Two minutes passed quickly. The call time was up, and Si Yu had just reached the staircase. She pressed the speed dial button on her phone as she walked upstairs.

"One, two, three, four..." Si Yu counted the steps in her mind, holding the phone to her ear.

Beep—beep—

After two rings, Feng Bujue answered, "I'm fine, are you okay?" This was his first sentence, quickly answering a question the other might ask, followed by asking what he wanted to know.

"Everything's normal, I'm on the stairs leading to the second floor." As Si Yu said this, she had finished the first flight of stairs, turned one hundred and eighty degrees to the left, and the second flight of stairs was in front of her. After going up, she would be on the second-floor corridor. "I just finished the first flight of stairs, there are twelve steps." As she spoke, she continued to walk forward, "You don't need to tell me about the ballad, I basically understand everything, the hints are obvious."

Feng Bujue was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Heh... if you say so, what should we talk about during the next call?"

"Just report our mission progress to each other." Si Yu replied, then added, "Don't ask each other if they're okay or if they're injured, because asking is useless, knowing won't help, it will only increase anxiety."

Feng Bujue wholeheartedly agreed with Si Yu's suggestion, but it wasn't easy for him to say what Si Yu had said, at least not for him to say it first. Because if a man said such a thing, it would be considered cold, indifferent, and heartless... but coming from Si Yu in such an detached manner, it didn't feel out of place at all...

"Wow... you're so considerate, that's exactly what I was thinking!" Feng Bujue immediately quickly reported his progress, "By the way, I'm in the northwest building now, the music room seems to be here, I'm going to take a look."

"Thirteen..." Si Yu suddenly said, "The second flight of stairs leading to the second floor on my side... has thirteen steps."

Before Feng Bujue could speak, the call time was up, the phone disconnected, and a busy tone sounded.

"Hello? Hello!" Feng Bujue called out twice, but helplessly had to hang up, muttering to himself, "Hmm... the result is still concerning."

At this moment, he also arrived in front of the music classroom door.

After opening the door and entering, Feng Bujue first scanned the entire classroom with his flashlight. The rows of seats below showed no obvious abnormalities, and there were no bloody handprints or ghostly drawings on the four walls. The only thing that stood out was the piano in the classroom.

Feng Bujue hummed, "So fare, Lasore..." He took a deep breath, "Is it telling me to press them? Would pressing them trigger some mechanism, and then something would fall from the cabinet?" He immediately turned his head and shone his flashlight on the glass cabinet next to the wall where sheet music and textbooks were stored, but the top of the cabinet was clearly empty.

"Hmm... if there really was something there, I could reach it by standing on the piano stool." Feng Bujue said thoughtfully.

Feng Bujue's gaze slowly moved to the Beethoven statue on the low cabinet in the corner. This was a very common white plaster sculpture, depicting Beethoven's head and chest, with a size ratio close to one-to-one.

Feng Bujue walked over and shone his flashlight on the statue, saying, "Fen-ge, what do you think?"

He obviously didn't expect the statue to answer him. As he spoke, he placed his phone and flashlight on the cabinet to his right, and immediately tried to move the statue. He found that the weight of the thing was normal, and there were no buttons or other mechanisms hidden underneath. It seemed to be just an ordinary ornament.

"Fen-ge, we're both artists, don't be so uncooperative." Feng Bujue said jokingly to himself, and picked up his phone and flashlight again.

He finally came to the piano. Although he knew it would trigger some terrible flags, he still had to bite the bullet. He reached out his fingers and pressed the notes one by one according to the sounds given in the ballad...