Chapter 1 A Dead End?

The monster army surrounding them was a vast, dark mass. Although its edges could be seen, any strategy involving breaking through seemed impractical. Five level 30 players might consider charging out of a circle of a few hundred monsters, but for their team, with an average level of 6.6, the idea was unthinkable.

"Brother Feng... they're still getting closer..." Long Aomin reminded Feng Bujue, who seemed lost in thought.

"It's alright, let me think a bit more," Feng Bujue replied. "Judging by this situation, retreating through the door is the last option the game is offering us. There's bound to be a tough boss inside. Defeating it will lead to a standard ending, like, 'Although the players successfully escaped this space, Samodir forever occupies it' or something similar."

"Okay, but I don't want to die at the very end. If they really pounce on us, let's just retreat through the door," Long Aomin said.

Feng Bujue nodded. He simply sat down cross-legged on the spot, examining the two keys in his hand. The gradually closing-in demon army around him didn't seem to put too much pressure on him. He propped his elbow on his leg, lowered his head, and gently tapped his forehead with two fingers. After a few seconds, he slowly raised his head, his fingertips sliding down the bridge of his nose. During this process, his gaze moved upward until his eyes met the hazy moon in the sky. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and something flashed in his mind.

"Do you remember what the plot description said when we first entered the script?" Feng Bujue asked.

Wang Tanzhi, staring at the approaching horde of monsters less than a hundred meters away, felt his breathing becoming increasingly erratic: "Didn't it just explain that the location was a city, the time was night, and the characters were us few survivors?"

Feng Bujue recalled and repeated, "The second paragraph... Until one night, the sun set, but never rose again. The hazy moonlight, appearing and disappearing behind the drifting dark clouds, reflected on this desolate, lonely city." He spoke without missing a word.

"So?" Long Aomin asked.

"That sentence isn't just telling us that the event is happening at night," Feng Bujue said, "but pointing out the phenomenon of 'cycle'." He suddenly asked, "Until now, have you seen any clocks or timing devices?"

The other four were in a state of chaos. Visible fear was approaching, and the closer the monsters got, the more vivid and terrifying their images became. How could they calm down and recall such trivial details? Jimo replied almost without thinking, "Who even remembers that! What does that have to do with the current situation?"

Feng Bujue said, "The law behind this script... the so-called cycle, and that darkness... I understand it now." He said, "If we regard time in this virtual world as a straight line, with the two ends extending infinitely, a line that cannot trace its source, nor see its end... then, the city extracted by Samodir, its time is like a line segment, with a beginning and an end, about thirty minutes long." He stood up and gestured, "He bends this line segment, connecting the head and tail, making a circle. This city is forever running on this circle..." As he spoke, he pointed at the demons, "These guys, and us, don't belong to this city. We are all inside the circle, not on that line segment, so Samodir's power can't swallow us. He can only directly attack things running on the line segment."

At this moment, Gudu had a look of shock on his face, staring at Feng Bujue: "Brother! My dear brother! I really didn't study science! Math requires three parts talent, seven parts effort, and the remaining ninety parts are fate!"

"I'm not talking about geometry, I'm just using a shape to metaphorize the concept," Feng Bujue explained unhurriedly.

"Brother Feng... no, Brother Jue! You don't need to explain it to us, really, just understand it yourself. Just tell us if there's any other way besides retreating into the door!" Long Aomin became yet another person calling Feng Bujue "brother"... and he was four years older than Feng Bujue.

"Actually, restoring the seal doesn't require any special actions," Feng Bujue said, picking up the two keys and holding them in his hand, his actions unchanged from before.

"Hey! Isn't that just waiting to die!" Wang Tanzhi shouted. The monsters were getting closer and closer, only about twenty meters away.

"This is a challenge to our courage, seeing if we dare to stand until the last second." Feng Bujue could even laugh, "Heh... this system really is focused on creating this kind of last-minute escape from death."

"What escape? You're just holding the keys!" Little Gudu also shouted.

"When we were at the police station, I said the Fire Key's puzzle was too simple. I take that back." Feng Bujue's thoughts jumped back to that, "69185, is also another hint. Combined with the element of 'time', we will know the answer."

"I say, Brother Jue... right now..." Long Aomin hadn't finished speaking.

Feng Bujue interrupted him: "The minute hand on the clock starts rotating clockwise from 6, first reaching 9, that's fifteen minutes; then from 9 to 1, twenty minutes; then from 1 to 8, thirty-five minutes; finally from 8 to 5, forty-five minutes." He was still holding the keys, "Under the premise that the minute hand doesn't reverse, that is, time doesn't go backward, 69185, takes a total of one hundred and fifteen minutes, and the game time from when we entered the script until now is..." He looked at the monsters who had revealed their sharp claws or opened their mouths wide, having arrived right in front of them, but he still said calmly, "If my estimation is correct, at this moment, it is precisely..."

The flash of the keys interrupted his words. The brilliant light shot straight into the sky, and even the heavy air in the night seemed to clear up a bit. The two keys flew up and embedded themselves in the missing pattern above the door. The divine glyph array lit up, and the fire and wood magic circle was restored. The pentagram reappeared, and the door began to slowly close.

The monsters were terrified and let out heart-wrenching roars, scattering in all directions. They were much faster than when they came, almost charging away as they fled, away from this plaza...

"Wha... what's happening?" Long Aomin had already raised his shield, preparing to meet the attack. He didn't expect the situation to reverse so dramatically in such a short amount of time.

Xiao Tan, Gudu, and Jimo were completely in a state of mental shutdown. They had been somewhat annoyed by the surrounding pressure and Feng Bujue's calmness amidst despair, but at this moment, they didn't know what to say. This was understandable, as the joy of a miraculous recovery often takes half a day to erupt.

"At the one hundred and fifteenth minute, bringing the keys to the door will restore the seal, that's all," Feng Bujue said. "As for the monsters, it's simple. The system will arrange for the encirclement to close in right at the last moment, just to see if we will be forced into the door. The monsters surrounded us so slowly just to create this dramatic effect of surviving a desperate situation when the seal is activated."

"If gathering the two keys and coming to the Demon Gate is the trigger for the monster encirclement flag," Wang Tanzhi asked. "What if we come early or late?"

"It's probably difficult to gather the two keys and return here at an earlier point in time. The script's difficulty is arranged according to the team's strength. We've already done quite well, and we're only a few minutes away from the time limit. Don't forget that we first went to the police station and then discovered the quest, saving the time required for a round trip. Walking that road back and forth would have taken up those few minutes. Later, we did delay for a while in the shopping center. If we had found the flashlight and gone straight down without searching for equipment, we might have been able to gain a few minutes. However, we only spent less than a minute dealing with that illusion monster, which made up for it," Feng Bujue replied. "In short, even though there are gains and losses in the total time, the dividing line set by the system is constant. Arriving here with the two keys before the one hundred and fifteenth minute will allow you to play out the current scenario.

As for what happens if you arrive late... naturally, you'll miss the sealing time and end up being forced into the door."

"Then what now? Have we cleared the game?" Long Aomin said, "Why isn't there a system prom..."

[Current quest completed, main quest...] At this moment, the system prompt did sound, but unexpectedly, it didn't finish speaking.

[Ants from another world, do you know what you have done?]

This sentence appeared directly in the minds of the five, interrupting the system voice. The voice speaking was the same clear whisper from the third darkness.

Feng Bujue alertly opened the menu to observe. Although the system didn't finish speaking, the "Restore the Seal" quest in the quest bar was already checked as completed, and a new quest had been added below: [Survive Samodir's Attack]

"See the new quest?" Feng Bujue's tone made it seem like it was no big deal.

"Could that guy be tangible?" Wang Tanzhi asked.

"According to my speculation, Samodir doesn't have a physical body, or rather, according to his settings, his physical body exists in a higher dimension. If he wants to appear in front of us, he has to transform into some kind of matter that we can understand in this dimension," Feng Bujue replied. "Just like how Galactus shows his image as a purple-clothed, lewd uncle, if Samodir wants to deal with us personally, he has to first create a physical form, and then physically harm us."

"Speak human..." Wang Tanzhi interjected.

"Look, like that..." Feng Bujue said, raising his hand and pointing to a certain spot in the plaza.

At this moment, the dark clouds had dissipated, and the moonlight covered the stone pavement of the plaza like frost. The others looked in the direction he was pointing, and saw that on a certain area of the ground, there was an unusually thick, circular shadow with a diameter of about five meters, like a black abyss, even absorbing light.