Chapter 1 Welcome to Thriller Paradise

“Welcome to Thriller Paradise.”

[Loading complete. You are currently in Team Survival Mode (Normal).]

[This mode provides a script introduction and has a chance of generating side hidden missions and special worldviews.]

[Script Completion Reward: Randomly draw a learnable skill card.]

[The script introduction will be played shortly, and the game will begin immediately after the playback is complete.]

Feng Bujue once again entered the state of watching the opening CG from a first-person perspective. A distant view appeared before him, an ordinary rural town nestled against mountains and rivers. Fields and forests were visible on the outskirts of the town, and modern facilities were complete: schools, shopping streets, residential buildings, office buildings, etc. This town reminded Feng Bujue of Ping Tian's hometown, and an ominous premonition vaguely rose…

[Sakura Fruit Town, a corner away from the hustle and bustle of the city.]

[A strange tale is circulating in the quiet town.]

[About thirty years ago, in the first few days of November, the town's police station successively accepted several reports of missing persons. Several young men and women in the town went missing, and the last date these people were seen was the same day, October 31st.]

[The missing people were never seen alive or dead. At first, everyone thought that these young people had eloped or run away from home to places outside the town. But year after year, these people remained completely without news, and every year after that, similar cases would happen on the same day…]

[All the signs indicated that the missing people had not left the town… So, the police launched a thorough investigation into this incident.]

[Although the police visited many residents in the town, and the records of statements were piled up like mountains, the investigation still did not make any substantial progress. The only information that could be called a clue was the superstitious words in the mouths of some elders…]

[The saying of the “Curse of the Resentful Well” also began to spread because of this investigation.]

[Legend has it… in an abandoned shrine in the mountains, there is a cursed well. On the last night of every October, the music of the land of the dead will come from the well. On this night, the person who hears this music will come to the shrine and throw themselves into the well.]

[“They will never come back, because they have gone to ‘another world.’” The old people said with certainty.]

[The investigation fell into a stalemate. In desperation, the police came to the mountains with a try-it-out attitude and searched the abandoned shrine. Unexpectedly, they really found some items lost by the missing people in those years.]

[On the night of October 31st of the same year, a team of police officers guarded the well, trying to explore the truth of the “Spiriting Away” incident. But they, too, failed to return…]

[The investigation was shelved indefinitely, and the local government ordered villagers not to enter the mountains at night and sealed the well in the shrine with cement.]

[But every year at the end of October, missing incidents still happen…]

Along with the voice prompt, the camera had gradually zoomed from a distant view to a close-up, facing the big mountain, and a path was visible in front, extending upwards into the mountains.

[Time flies, and many years have passed. The urban area of Sakura Fruit Town has increased, and the population base has increased more than three times. These types of missing cases have gradually been ignored, and the legends have been forgotten.]

[One autumn night, six young people from the town came here, wanting to go to the shrine in the mountains for a trial of courage. And this night happened to be October 31st.]

“Is this a trial of courage…” Feng Bujue complained while listening to the introduction, “This is obviously courting death!”

He thought that the introduction should end here, but unexpectedly, a setting description similar to the “Seven School Mysteries” script appeared again:

[From the beginning of the script, the system will randomly select one person from the player team to obtain the "Protagonist Aura."]

[The player with the Protagonist Aura will not be judged as dead, except for disconnecting due to excessive fear value, voluntarily disconnecting, or voluntarily exiting the script. Any other form of death, such as monster attacks, falling from heights, or depletion of survival value to zero, will be "luckily" terminated an instant before it occurs. Even if the method of termination is infinitely close to zero in probability and contradicts logic, it can still occur.]

[The Protagonist Aura will be transferred due to many different special fLAgs. Please explore the rules yourself and use them well for transfer.]

[When the team size is less than or equal to two, the Protagonist Aura disappears.]

[The current player with the Protagonist Aura is—Valiant Invincible.]

With this explanation finished, the script officially began.

Five people were standing next to Feng Bujue, one of whom he had met, the Valiant Invincible brother who had been tricked by him once. Valiant Invincible was a player from Order Studio who was responsible for researching “Fist” in the Melee specialization and collecting intelligence during the closed beta. Currently, his work content has not changed, and his level has reached twenty-three. His title has changed from [Rash Brawler] to [Xingyi Fist Master].

Among the other four, two were also Order players. One was called [Meng Jingchan], also level twenty-three, with the title [Cold-Faced Killer]. As soon as this guy appeared, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, put one in his mouth, lit it, straightened his permed hair, and blew a smoke ring.

The third person from Order was a female player. Needless to say about her appearance, she was also a beauty, with red lips, white teeth, and a delicate face. She had long black hair and wore Order's standard white coat over her shoulders, with a set of azure blue suits underneath. Her nickname was [Ye Zhi], which was somewhat inexplicable. Feng Bujue's deduction was that this ID was a homophone of her real name. Ye Zhi's level was twenty. Judging from her title [Emergency Medic], she was definitely a Medical specialization player.

The other two players were both male and both level eighteen. One was called [Copernicus] and the other was called [Galileo]. Their titles were even more amazing, one called [Discoverer] and the other called [Investigator]. There was no doubt that they had queued up together as a team, but neither of them had a guild badge, and their appearances were nothing special. They were wearing obviously cheap ordinary t-shirts and long pants, and the colors and styles were slightly different from the newbie clothes.

In the eyes of others, these two were very ordinary casual players. Their titles were probably related to the Reconnaissance specialization. Their game skills were definitely not very good. They hadn't even joined a guild. Either they were too weak to be accepted, or they were too poor to afford it. Anyway, judging by their clothes, they were definitely poor. Whether they were weak remained to be seen.

However, in Feng Bujue's opinion, there were two possibilities for the strength of these two people, both of which were extremes.

The first extreme was that he suspected that these two were GMs…

The script completion experience of the Derivatives at least let Feng Bujue know one thing, that is, the Derivatives could only appear in the six-person Team Survival Mode. Although according to Pan Feng and Hua Xiong, the probability of encountering them was very low, and the probability of the same player encountering them twice was even more negligible, Feng Bujue had considerable confidence in his terrible luck.

If this script really had Derivatives, then… these two people, from head to toe, could be said to meet the standards of GMs in every way. A mediocre level, a popular nickname, and understated clothing; they acted in groups of two, had no guild badge, and their titles seemed to be meant to conceal their identities, perhaps deliberately set up like this…

They didn't seem very strong, and it was difficult to leave a deep impression on people. These kinds of players were easily overlooked after completing the game. Even if someone sent a friend request out of politeness, they wouldn't think too much about it after being rejected.

The second extreme that Feng Bujue considered was that there was a higher probability that these two were not GMs, and he was just overthinking it. Then… the strength of these two would probably be extremely bad.

Because the combination of the three from Order was obviously not weak. Feng Bujue wasn't sure if they were star players, but judging from the obvious strength of their levels and titles, the three had clear divisions of labor and were extraordinary in combat. Furthermore, their guild was ranked first on both leaderboards, and the two guild buffs they received must also be very powerful, which had to be counted into the players' strength.

When the system generates a script, the difficulty of clearing the team and the rewards are proportional to each other. If six super-strong players teamed up, they would naturally encounter a very difficult script, which they brought upon themselves. But the possibility of strong and weak combinations in the queue was very high with a three-two-one player composition, after all, not every player in a game was a master. Casual players were always the majority, and the vast majority at that.

Feng Bujue's first Team Survival script with Brother Long was a good example. A high-level, powerful player leading two low-level but somewhat skilled players, plus two mediocre newbies.

Therefore, Feng Bujue's second hypothesis was… that two very bad players had mixed into this team. They were so weak that no guild would accept them, and they had a hard time earning game coins to buy cheap clothes to add stats, so they couldn't afford a guild.

Of course, no matter which extreme the facts led to, this script would not be easy. Feng Bujue secretly hoped that these two were not GMs. It didn't matter if they played poorly, as long as they followed the team and listened to the command at critical moments, clearing the game would be no problem. But if they were really administrators… the difficulty of this script was terrifying to think about…

"Oh! It's you, kid!" Valiant Invincible recognized Feng Bujue as well, and walked up to him and said.

"Brother Invincible, how have you been?" Feng Bujue said.

"Tsk… don't try to get familiar." Valiant Invincible wasn't stupid either. Before, he might have suspected that the final clear of the Usher House script relied on Si Yu, Bei Ling, and Long Aomin, but at this moment, when he saw Feng Bujue's [Story Explorer] title, he basically understood everything. "Kicking the door, huh? Breaking the doorknob, huh? You were pretty good at pretending to be a noob. You cleared the game after I died?"

"Your death that time was indeed not within my expectations." Feng Bujue replied with a smile, "But it was definitely right to split up and expand the search range at the beginning of the script. Later, the facts also proved…"

"Okay, okay… don't explain. Anyway, I don't know what happened after that." Valiant Invincible interrupted, "I did underestimate you last time. I'll call you big brother this time, okay? Please don't pretend to be an idiot anymore and help me clear the game."

"I'm so embarrassed by your praise." Feng Bujue said politely, but his face was full of得意(déyì - pride/satisfaction)

"Invincible, is this your friend?" Meng Jingchan walked over. He had already taken out a small bottle of beer from his pack at some point and was drinking it.

"Ah… not very familiar. I met him once in a previous script." Valiant Invincible replied, then turned to Feng Bujue and said, "Hey? Judging by your title, you're a pure puzzle-solving type player, right?" This question was obvious to him. Even in Order, there was no player like Feng Bujue who had an average growth in all specializations and could fight and scheme.

"I prefer puzzle-solving." Feng Bujue said, "Of course, I can't say I'm very weak in combat."

"Oh? Judging by your tone, you're skilled in both literary and military arts?" Meng Jingchan said, and before Feng Bujue could answer, he sighed, "Ah… it's good to be young. Don't look at me like this now… I used to be quite cool, handsome, and domineering too…"

"This… Brother Chan, I estimate you're only in your twenties, and you seem to have all the vices…" Feng Bujue said with a twitching mouth.

Even Valiant Invincible felt a little embarrassed, "That's his catchphrase, don't mind it…"

The six of them chatted for a few minutes on the spot, roughly understanding each other's strengths. During this time, Feng Bujue had taken the time to use [Decisive Victory Thousands of Miles] once, and saw the Boss data:

[Name: Resentful Well]

[Race: ???]

[Level: 30]

[Depth: ???]

[Wellhead Diameter: 122 cm]

[Combat Method: Illusion]

[Weakness: Will become an ordinary dry well if the power supply is cut off]

[Skills Possessed: Soul Devour]

[Danger Level: High.]

This information coincided with the description of the well in the script introduction, except that the "Weakness" item was worth pondering. After the "power supply is cut off," this Resentful Well seemed to lose its function. But where exactly did the well's power come from?

If its source of power existed in "another world," did they have to be swallowed by it first, and then cut off the power on that side? Not to mention whether being "swallowed" would lead to direct death, even if they survived and successfully destroyed the Resentful Well's power supply, the players would definitely not be able to return, because the Resentful Well would have become an ordinary well at that time, and the connection between the two worlds would naturally be broken.

Another hypothesis seemed more reliable, that is… the Resentful Well's power supply actually came from this world, hidden somewhere in this town or mountain. The players only needed to find out the truth to clear the game.

About five minutes after the script introduction ended, when everyone was preparing to set off, the system's task prompt sounded in a timely manner:

[Main Mission Triggered]

[Enter the mountain and find the abandoned shrine.]