Chapter 0 Side Mission Completed

The system prompt sounded, and Feng Bujue finally breathed a sigh of relief, slumping to the ground.

"Strange…it's still invisible after it died?" Kuangzong Jianying squatted down, trying to touch the monster's corpse.

"That means..." Feng Bujue said, taking out his steel blade and groping to cut off a piece of the monster's skin, placing it on his palm. "Its invisibility mechanism isn't actively activated, but a passive characteristic." He casually flicked the piece of skin away. "Its invisibility isn't like a chameleon, creating an optical camouflage effect on its body surface to blend into the environment…it's completely transparent." He picked up his flashlight with one hand and used the knife to cut at the corpse on the floor with the other. The *zhi ga* sound of tearing flesh and spurting blood echoed from the empty space. "Not just the skin and muscles, but also its internal organs, bones, bodily fluids, etc.…all transparent, huh..."

"Um...Brother Feng," Kuangzong Jianying said, "I understand, could you please stop playing with the monster's corpse?"

"I'm not playing, I just want to see if its skin or flesh can be used as a disguise prop," Feng Bujue said, pouting. "Turns out it can't..."

"If it could, were you really planning on skinning it and wearing the pelt as a cloak..."

"Worth considering," Feng Bujue replied.

"Hmm..." Kuangzong Jianying mused, "My grenade was a real waste...I think as long as the reward is high enough, you'd even bite that fat bug to death if you had to."

"Of course...if killing that bug with my mouth gave me five million game coins, I'd not only bite it, I'd eat it."

"Okay, okay...stop describing it..." Kuangzong Jianying felt disgusted just imagining it.

"Then back to the main topic," Feng Bujue stood up. "Now that the side mission is done, whether we win or lose this killing game, at least there will be an extra reward from the side mission during the settlement." He walked to the door, put away the flashlight and knife, and used both hands to pull open the heavy metal door. The corridor lights illuminated a small area at the entrance. "Next, let's continue forward along the opposite fork in the road. Stopping to rest and conserve in this script is tantamount to attrition. I suggest staying in a state of action." He said, stepping out the door.

Kuangzong Jianying responded and followed Feng Bujue out. The two stepped through the pus and decaying metal left by the giant monster for five or six meters, then walked another dozen steps, passing through the T-shaped corridor intersection, and heading toward the other side of the fork.

The lighting in the corridor was the same as before, a dim path followed by a bright area, stretching into the distance.

The cold iron walls and poor air quality created a feeling of oppression and discomfort. To put it another way...every second in this underground lab, one's lungs felt like they were breathing gaseous iron rust. This discomfort was ever-present, unavoidable, and steadily eroded the players' Survival Value…

When Feng Bujue and Kuangzong Jianying's Survival Value dropped to 50%, Feng Bujue took out two (Medium) Survival Value supplements from his bag, handed one to his teammate, and drank the other himself.

"Brother Feng...you only have four of these supplements, right?" Kuangzong Jianying did not take the medicine, but said, "Don't be so generous at a time like this, keep them for yourself. I have large-capacity ones in my bag."

Feng Bujue did not put the supplement down, but replied, "I suggest that you don't only bring large bottles of health in the future. (Large) Survival Value supplements are a waste whenever they're consumed. Their recovery effect is 100%, and the theoretical minimum value when drinking is 1%, but in general, players will drink them when their Survival Value drops to around 10%, because at that low health, they can easily be killed in one hit, resulting in losing the chance to heal.

"In short, under normal circumstances, a large-capacity supplement that can restore 100% can provide 80% to 90% of the recovery amount, and the rest is overflow data. But there is a simple way to solve this problem."

Although Kuangzong Jianying hadn't finished listening to Feng Bujue's entire theory, he had already taken the medium-capacity supplement and drank it, because he felt strongly...that he would soon be convinced.

"Considering the diminishing characteristics of Survival Value supplements..." Feng Bujue turned his head and continued forward, saying, "As long as you prepare several small or medium-capacity supplements in your bag...I personally recommend five, because every five supplements take up one inventory slot. When there is health loss, prioritize drinking the smaller capacity supplements to fill up your Survival Value, so that at some point in the future when you need to drink a large bottle supplement, there will be no wasted loss, because the large supplement won't recover 100% anyway…" He paused, then said, "In terms of this script, aside from the damage caused by combat, our current strategy of drinking supplements is more economical, has a lower healing cost, and the recovery amount won't be wasted."

Kuangzong Jianying walked almost side-by-side with him, and after listening, was silent for a few seconds. He felt that this passage was very reasonable, but it seemed like something was not quite right…

"Brother Feng...can I understand it this way: you're giving me a medium health pot now, and then in this script, as long as there's a need, we'll both start drinking the large health pots I brought, until they're all gone…"

"That's right, but my inventory is limited, so the large bottle supplements should be kept with you first. Anyway, as long as you see that your Survival Value is almost due for recovery, just consciously share a bottle with me," Feng Bujue's expression and tone were so confident when he said this.

"Let me sort things out…" Kuangzong Jianying said, "You first forcibly stuffed a medium health potion worth 6000 game coins on me, and then I have to infinitely supply the two of us with 12000 big health potions."

"Yeah," Feng Bujue replied, "Isn't that what you just said? Was it necessary to say it twice?"

"You really don't treat yourself like an outsider, do you…" Kuangzong Jianying said.

"According to my observation, this level of team resource sharing will not exceed your psychological expectations and economic affordability," Feng Bujue said, "Besides, if we can find a way to stop the loss of Survival Value within the next hour, given the Survival Value ratio at that time, we may not need your big health potions. In that case, you'll have earned a free health potion from me." He held up a finger and waved it, "Moreover, you've gained a set of theories on how to make health potions yield greater benefits, which can save you an unpredictable amount of Survival Value recovery in the future, converting that into money…" He turned his head, "Why are you making that face?"

"Because I think you're evolving from deception to extortion…"

"I'm just discussing it with you, two adults, casually chatting about intellectual property rights, it's very normal."

"Big brother, I was wrong…take as many health potions of mine as you want…"

The two walked and chatted like this, when suddenly, from their side front, came a *pong pong pong* sound…

The sound came from a corner dozens of meters away, approaching from far away. Listening to the frequency, it sounded like footsteps, as if it were a bipedal creature.

"Could be a person…heavy, messy, somewhat staggering footsteps, running close to one side of the wall…" Feng Bujue muttered, "This person is running away…"

Kuangzong Jianying also listened intently. He added, "Why doesn't the thing chasing him make any footsteps?"

"And the person running away isn't panting or calling for help, this isn't right…" Feng Bujue vigilantly drew his steel blade.

Soon, the figure that ran out from the corner answered all their questions.

The person was wearing an orange protective suit with a helmet, the collar of the suit connected to the helmet. At this moment, their head was tightly held by an octopus-like creature, only the lower edge of the mask was still exposed. The "octopus'" tentacles had already penetrated the helmet, piercing into their brain.

The octopus monster had replaced this person's brain, controlling their actions. This monster didn't seem to be very good at using a human body. When running, the person's hands just hung down limply, swaying with the shaking of the body, which affected their balance, so they always staggered when running.

Kuangzong Jianying looked at the guy running towards them and said, "Do you think…if we pull off the thing on his head, will this guy still be alive?"

Feng Bujue shook his head, stepped forward a few steps, and with a baseball-like posture, swung the steel blade with all his might, chopping off the guy's head as it came towards them.

"I miss the shotgun a bit," Feng Bujue walked towards the head that had fallen to the ground. "In these scripts derived from European and American science fiction horror films, the monsters are really as disgusting as they can be…"

The octopus monster was still alive, and detached itself from the severed head. When its tentacles were pulled away from the helmet, one could clearly see that the person's head inside the helmet was already a bloody mess, with at least seven or eight large holes in their skull. A lot of brain matter flowed out from the octopus monster's tentacle suckers, and flowed onto the ground along with the blood.

Feng Bujue was really glad that he bought a knife before entering this script, saving him from having to use a blunt instrument to kill this kind of mollusk. Even zombies at least have a skull. Smashing their skulls with a pipe wrench only takes a few hits, but to smash this chewy-looking creature in front of him, the difficulty would probably be about the same as rolling dough…

The octopus monster did not resist too violently, and was easily chopped into several pieces by the steel blade. The unclear liquid of subtle colors flowed all over the ground in its body, and then it stopped moving.

"The way this thing attacks people should be similar to the 'facehugger' in *Alien*…" Feng Bujue shook off the debris from the steel blade, and then came to the head, observing as he said, "But the parasitic method seems to be a bit different. Facehuggers don't drill so many big holes in people's heads and stick their tentacles in."

Kuangzong Jianying had already come to the dead body and started looting it while Feng Bujue was chopping up the octopus. He found something that looked like a weapon in this person's pocket. When he held it up to his eyes, he could actually summon the item menu.

【Name: Anti-Gravity Ejector】

【Type: Weapon】

【Quality: Excellent】

【Attack Power: Medium】

【Attribute: None】

【Effect: Can make objects weighing less than ten kilograms and with a volume of less than one cubic meter levitate, and eject them forward.】

【Equipment requirements: Shooting Specialization D, Mechanical Specialization E, Level 15】

【Remarks: Please do not try to suck out your own eyeballs. I can clearly tell you that the results will be terrible.】

"Brother Feng, come and see if you can use this weapon?" Kuangzong Jianying handed the item to Feng Bujue.

This 【Anti-Gravity Ejector】 looked like an iron, but not as thick overall. There were two buttons where people could hold it, obviously one for "Lift" and one for "Eject". Feng Bujue looked at the item attributes, and then casually aimed in another direction, "sucking over" the dead man's head that was a few meters away. The helmet holding the head was suspended a few inches in front of this equipment, and at the same time, this ejector made a continuous buzzing sound.

Feng Bujue raised his arm and pressed the eject button in the direction they came from. The head flew out at a speed of about seventy miles per hour, disappearing into the other end of the corridor like a cannonball.

"This is high technology," Feng Bujue praised, "It's a pity this guy couldn't use this to save his own life."

Kuangzong Jianying stared blankly at the head that had gone away, "You're playing with corpses again…"

"I say, Lao Kuang…" Feng Bujue put his arm around Kuangzong Jianying's shoulders and was about to say something, but the latter interrupted, "You can call me Jian Shao…" (Young Sword)

"Jian Shao is it… Alright…" Feng Bujue replied. (TN: 贱少, Jian Shao, means Cheap/Lowly Young Master)

"You should know that I'm talking about the *jian* of sword, right?"

"Know~ Of course I know~" Feng Bujue said, "I say, Jian Shao, this equipment…"

"If you want it, just take it. My shooting and mechanical specializations are still pretty bad," Kuangzong Jianying also guessed that Feng Bujue was about to bring up this matter. He had only handed it over to Feng Bujue so readily because he couldn't equip it himself.

"Then I won't be polite," Feng Bujue put away the equipment, looked at the corpse on the ground and said, "This script is really not simple…there are still humans in this lab."

Kuangzong Jianying replied, "Didn't the plot introduction say that the 'archaeological' research team had already left with Jason's body… Could it be… besides them, there are other human teams that have entered here?"

"For the time being, that's the only explanation," Feng Bujue replied, while starting to strip the dead body's clothes.

"Hey… what are you doing… this is a man," Kuangzong Jianying raised his voice. "Are you addicted to playing with corpses?"

Feng Bujue took off the headless corpse's protective suit. Inside the protective suit, the corpse was also wearing a white undershirt and a pair of shorts. Feng Bujue raised one of the corpse's arms, pointed to the tattoo on the outside of the left arm and said, "Look at this."

Kuangzong Jianying leaned closer to take a look. There was a ship-shaped pattern tattooed there, as well as the word scavenger. He pondered for a moment, then looked up and asked, "Hey… this person wouldn't be a member of some future tomb raiding organization, would they?"

"That the tattoo is the emblem of some organization is a reliable guess," Feng Bujue was already checking the dead man's hands. "Of course… it's also possible that this tattoo doesn't mean anything, and this guy just thought it was cool to draw a pattern like this and a title similar to a tramp on his arm."

"Would there be such a person?" Kuangzong Jianying replied.

"That's hard to say," Feng Bujue brought the dead man's palm extremely close to his face, his nose almost touching it. "When I was in elementary school, I saw some kids in some online game naming their guilds something like 'BEEP', the specific full name I can't remember, they seemed to think they were pretty cool, each with a swastika symbol above their heads, wandering around in the game." He finished looking at the corpse's palm, and began to check the back of his hand and fingernails. "So, you see… planting a seed of stupidity in the soil of ignorance, fertilizing it with装【BEEP】fertilizer (TN: zhuang bi, acting cool), and then irrigating it with the poisonous juice of exam-oriented education, will probably result in some scum who bring humiliation upon themselves."

"Wow… Brother Feng, have you studied this game's language filtering system… You can actually say this passage, and there's only one censored word, and it doesn't affect the meaning…"

"This person has worn down his fingerprints," Feng Bujue did not take Kuangzong Jianying's cue, but switched to the main topic. "Maybe with glue, or maybe another more brutal way… In short, he has no fingerprints." He paused, "These hands don't look like the hands of someone who does heavy physical labor, and his body can't be considered muscular…"

"With anti-gravity ejector devices, naturally you don't need to use much physical strength to get a lot of things done," Kuangzong Jianying said.

"Judging from the wrists of his left and right hands, he doesn't look like someone who uses computers often," Feng Bujue continued, "But we can't rule out the possibility that people in the future have completely abandoned peripherals like the mouse."

"I say, detective, you're not planning on stripping this corpse naked here, and then analyzing him from head to toe, through every detail, are you?" Kuangzong Jianying asked.

Feng Bujue smiled, "Not that much time, besides, if I really wanted to do that, I wouldn't have casually thrown away his head." He replied, "I just want to see if his limbs have mutated, and…" Feng Bujue said, lifting the corpse's undershirt, and looked at the torso, "If he has strange organs growing on his body, or has skin that is different from what we know of humans."

"What do you mean?" Kuangzong Jianying said, "The setting of this script comes from *Friday the 13th Part X*, right? It's not from *X-Men* or something, right?"

"I just have a hypothesis…" Feng Bujue replied, "What if these guys aren't the same as the humans on those spaceships? What if they don't come from the universe? Perhaps on this old Earth, there are still human cities, but those humans who 'immigrated' out don't know. Maybe there are still descendants of a few survivors hiding somewhere, and civilization is still continuing…"