Chapter 11 Approaching the Soul-Snatching Array

The closer they got to the Soul-Snatching Array, the more terrifying the environment became.

This was no longer a subtle atmosphere; it was a direct sensory assault. Among the swaying shadows of the trees, corpses of various shapes and appearances repeatedly materialized around the players. Most were emaciated, missing limbs, or grotesquely disfigured, each death a testament to suffering.

The place was like some kind of "miserable death exhibition": bodies hanging from trees, faces half-melted away, entire figures burned into charred, rotten masses, exposed skulls… virtually every imaginable form of death was represented, combined with an intense and realistic stench of decay. It was arguably the most disturbing and disgusting scene Feng Bujue had ever encountered in Scary Paradise.

Seeing broken corpses, smelling foul odors, and hearing faint, ghostly moans in his ears… Apart from Feng Bujue, who was immune to fear, the other five experienced changes, large or small, in their fright level.

"Even though we know it's all illusion, this kind of scene presents a potential threat," Ye Zhi said. "If an actual monster gets close, we…"

"We might not be able to tell the difference?" Feng Bujue finished for her, smiling. "No need to worry. I think our two Investigation specialization experts will be able to distinguish between monsters and illusions." He glanced toward Galileo ahead with ill-concealed amusement. "Right?"

"Uh… yes." Galileo had a nagging feeling that this player called "Madness Not Knowing" was trying to set them up.

Ye Zhi found Feng Bujue and the two GMs increasingly strange. She whispered to Meng Jingchan, who was walking at the rear, "Captain… don't you think these three are a little… odd?"

Meng Jingchan took a swig of beer and replied, "Burp…"

Ye Zhi glared at him, shook her head, and sighed, thinking, *I need to apply for a transfer…*

In truth, Meng Jingchan seemed nonchalant, but his mind was sharp. He couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong with the three players from outside the guild. If he had to point to something unusual, it was that Feng Bujue's deductive abilities and the other two's "investigation skills" were all unexpectedly strong, almost to the point of feeling like they were cheating. But this was just a vague feeling, with no evidence to support it, so Meng Jingchan decided to keep his opinion to himself for the time being.

"Something's coming," Copernicus suddenly said, his voice deep. He stared ahead, a long blade already in his hand. Even though the lighting equipment couldn't illuminate very far, he knew that two mini-boss-level monsters had spawned and were rapidly approaching.

Galileo drew his weapon almost simultaneously, adopting a stance ready for battle. Seeing this, Feng Bujue naturally followed suit, drawing his steel knife and preparing to meet the enemy.

Before the Soul-Snatching Array outside the mountain, Feng Bujue had used Death Poker directly because he had judged from the plot synopsis that the enemies in this script were likely ghosts, and cold weapons might be ineffective. But now, judging from how these illusions were generated and the monster that had appeared before, he felt that these arrays were closer to the Western "magic" category, and ordinary weapons would suffice.

This was a good time to elaborate on Feng Bujue's personal views on ghosts and monsters, mainly the classification of species and their strength…

As a man who had seen countless movies – note that the "movies" here specifically referred to horror movies – he believed that the danger and terror of Eastern ghosts were greater than those of Western ones.

According to general horror movie settings, Eastern ghosts were obviously more troublesome for ordinary people. Those without spiritual power could be strangled to death by ghosts and still not be able to touch them. Moreover, ghosts in ghost movies often used tools to kill people, such as rapidly descending elevators, falling steel bars, bathtubs that could suck people in, and so on… These vengeful spirits were virtually omnipotent, with instant teleportation, possession and control, creating illusions, telekinesis… the protagonists of ghost movies were often just played to death.

Sadako, Kayako, Chu Renmei… even the ghost couple from *He Lives by Night* could bring intense terror and despair.

The terror of Western monster settings, on the other hand, tended toward more substantial harm. Vampires and werewolves were too common to mention, their characteristics known to all. In the 21st century, they had become closely associated with words like "tall, rich, and handsome," "rich and beautiful," "lolita complex," and "love triangles." To satisfy the romantic fantasies of many young men and women, they shed blood, risked their lives, and successfully transformed into two enduring and frequently mocked groups.

Leaving those two monsters aside, let's talk about ghosts, ogres, mummies, and demons, which were also relatively common settings. When it came to Western ghosts, the first thing that popped into Feng Bujue's mind was Casper the Friendly Ghost, and that line that was repeated countless times, "I want to be your friend." It was really hard to associate this guy with danger or terror. Of course, there were also more powerful ghosts like Freddy Krueger from *A Nightmare on Elm Street*, but after watching the third film in the series, viewers would have realized that this guy could be defeated in both the real world and the dream world, and it wasn't that difficult… That was why the victims in the series were all immature, brainless kids. Only the protagonist had normal intelligence and a certain level of combat ability. If the film had cast an action movie tough guy as the lead, Freddy the pedophile would probably have suffered the same fate as picking up soap in prison…

Ogres made Feng Bujue think of a unit in *Heroes of Might and Magic*, an elegant, cool, and highly intelligent killer, and a bunch of ugly monsters appearing with many crude human-flesh props in B-movies.

A mummy could be a dried-up corpse wrapped in bandages displayed in a museum, or it could be a handsome bald guy using sand magic…

Demons seemed to be a relatively powerful race, and in terms of settings, they were the closest to Eastern ghosts because they could use non-physical forces to inflict harm. However, their methods and motives for killing people were very different from those of vengeful spirits. Demons with some status would either transform into middle-aged handsome men or beautiful women, messing up people's lives, making "deals" and the like, ultimately driving people to their deaths. As for those low-level demons, their killings didn't seem to be much different from those of serial killers, except that they weren't afraid of legal sanctions.

In short, Feng Bujue had a strong bias against Western monsters. Even before he had lost his sense of fear, he felt that encountering Western monsters was nothing more than two situations: first, he couldn't beat them and would be killed; second, he could kill them with a chainsaw. He had never imagined being so scared by Western monsters that he would be cornered or even die.

"I'll take the one on the left," Copernicus said, already transforming into a blur as he rushed forward.

Galileo didn't say a word. He took a lunge and shot out five or six meters, lightly stepping on a few tree trunks, his figure flashing in a way that was dazzling to the eye.

The three members of Order, upon seeing this, were greatly surprised and their expressions changed, not with terror, but with astonishment. The skills of those two were definitely not below the top experts of Order. To have such speed and agility at level eighteen, were they really "Investigation specialization" players? It would be more believable if they were star players with super-strong Fighting specializations pretending to be pigs to slaughter tigers by using alternate accounts.