Chapter 28 Deeper Night

The night grew darker.

At 7:28 PM, the thick fog in Otaku Town persisted, the only difference from daytime being… the streetlights had come on.

The increasingly damp and cold air made Feng Bujue’s face and hands numb, forcing him to pedal faster to stay warm.

Although he still didn't know where this "Last Supper" was being held, he did have a destination in mind: the post office on the north side of the town square.

Firstly, he could go there to report back to Nelson; secondly, Nelson was currently the only NPC who might communicate with him normally and offer him some help (he couldn't go back to Shooter and Yang, there wasn't time to write another letter to the ghost mailman, and as for Mr. M and that woman with the ethereal voice… they were both elusive and impossible to find); thirdly, there weren't many routes in this small town, so unless he deliberately detoured… there was only one route from the hotel to the post office. Therefore, Enoch must have taken this route this morning. Following the same route might give him a clue as to what had happened to him.

"The visibility really is getting worse after dark…" Brother Jue muttered, using the light from the streetlamps to guide him. "Hmm… I suddenly feel like an empty street is pretty good… at least I don't have to worry about running into… Holy crap!"

Some things are better left unsaid, as the saying goes…

Just as Feng Bujue was thinking this, a rectangular, dark shape suddenly appeared in the fog ahead, blocking the road.

The next second, with a clang, the front wheel of the bicycle slammed into the object, and Brother Jue was sent flying from his seat…

"What the fu—" As he soared through the air, Feng Bujue yelled, his voice full of frustration.

Before the curse was finished, he had already crashed to the ground.

The fall was quite heavy. Brother Jue was stunned for a full thirty seconds before he could catch his breath. He quickly checked himself… his right arm was broken, his ribs were fractured, and he had bruises and contusions all over his body.

The only saving grace was that the road surface here was mostly dirt, and there were no stones or anything like that on the road; if he had fallen on a gravel road or a concrete surface, it could have been much worse, maybe even to the point where he couldn't get up.

"Ptooey…" Feng Bujue spat out a mouthful of blood (his lip was cut), sat up, and looked back.

He quickly recognized what he had crashed into… a hot dog stand.

"Parking in the middle of the road is quite the commitment!" Feng Bujue couldn't help but yell at the stand.

Whether it was arranged by the system or just a coincidence, Brother Jue had been running around town all day and hadn't passed this spot. If he had passed here during the day, he wouldn't have crashed. Because the visibility was much better then, and he wasn't riding as fast as he was now.

"Wait… this doesn't look like a cart…" A few seconds later, Feng Bujue could see more clearly. He noticed that the bottom of the hot dog stand wasn't wheels, but four metal supports buried in the ground. "I was wondering… I flew so far, but this stand didn't even wobble. It's fixed to the ground."

Because of the time constraints and limited conditions, Feng Bujue only sat on the ground for a minute before standing up again. His pain tolerance was already astonishing, and injuries of this magnitude were not enough to hinder his movements.

After getting up, he used his left hand to put his satchel back on and picked up the shotgun that had fallen nearby, and walked towards the hot dog stand.

The stand had bread, sausages, and all sorts of seasonings and sauces needed to make hot dogs, but no vendor.

Feng Bujue didn't stand on ceremony. He put the gun on the table and grabbed the bread and sausage with his left hand, stuffing them into his mouth. After stuffing a wad of food into his mouth, he still used that left hand… to pick up the bottles of mustard, ketchup, and sweet chili sauce, and squirted a bit of each into his mouth.

His method of eating was more disgusting than bold. Of course, his tolerance for disgusting things was also well-known, and examples such as the rancid sandwich and the poop swamp need not be repeated here…

"Tch… only restored this little bit of survival value…" After eating two hot dogs, Brother Jue glanced at his status bar and complained with dissatisfaction.

After that fall, his survival value had dropped below 30%, and eating the hot dogs only barely brought it back to 33%. That was undoubtedly a loss… but the hot dogs did help him recover nearly 500 points of stamina, so it wasn't a complete waste of a fall.

"Eh? What's this?" Just as Brother Jue was about to grab his gun and leave, he inadvertently noticed… something stuck on the edge of the hot dog stand's base.

After picking up the item, he chuckled dryly.

[Name: Enoch's Wisdom Tooth]

[Type: Story Related]

[Quality: Trash]

[Function: Unknown]

[Can be brought out of this scenario: No]

[Remarks: The owner of this tooth is an extremely stingy guy. One morning, he added too much mustard to his hot dog and ended up losing his tooth. He immediately demanded that the hot dog vendor compensate him for his loss, but was refused and mocked by the vendor. Enraged, he secretly stole a bottle of salt from the vendor's stall.]

"What an idiot!" Brother Jue exclaimed after reading the item description.

[Hidden quest completed] At the same time, the system voice sounded in his ears.

Feng Bujue opened the quest log and saw that the "Investigate and solve the reason for Enoch's lateness" entry… had been checked off.

"Wow…" Brother Jue's mouth twitched as he muttered to himself, "So that works too… the reason he was late was because 'he's an idiot'?"

Despite the吐槽, he understood that Enoch was late because he had been arguing with the hot dog vendor after losing his tooth.

"Oh well… in any case, the quest is complete." Feng Bujue said, throwing away the tooth and walking past the hot dog stand. "If the other two quests are as simple as this one, then it'll be a breeze…"

He was clearly overthinking it.

This hidden quest was obviously the easiest of the three, as long as you found the relevant item, read the remarks, and understood their meaning, you would succeed. But the next two wouldn't be so easy…

…………

Fifteen minutes after leaving the hot dog stand, the panting Feng Bujue finally arrived at the post office.

It was now 7:46 PM, with only fourteen minutes left until eight o'clock.

Because the front wheel of the bicycle had been damaged in the crash, Brother Jue had to abandon it and run all the way here.

It really wasn't easy for him… aside from his fractured right hand, he had to endure the pain from his ribs and the swelling all over his body, while also carrying a rather heavy shotgun in his left hand. To arrive within fifteen minutes was already quite fast.

"Haa… not much time left…" Brother Jue raised his hand to look at his watch as he entered the post office, "Hopefully the location of that 'Last Supper' isn't far from here…"

He went upstairs, heading straight for the director's office.

Knock, knock, knock—

At exactly 7:47 PM, Brother Jue knocked on that door for the second time that day.

"Come in," Director Nelson responded immediately from inside the door.

Before he had finished speaking, Feng Bujue opened the door and walked straight to the director's desk. "Director, I've delivered all the letters."

"I know," Nelson replied, "I'm very satisfied with your performance."

"I want to ask you a question," Feng Bujue said quickly, without responding to the praise, "Do you know where the 'Last Supper' is being held?"

At this point, he had no time to beat around the bush with this NPC, he would just ask what he needed to ask. Anyway… if he knew the answer, he would understand the question.

"Oh… that…" Nelson's expression and tone didn't change much, "What? Do you want to attend?"

"Yes," Feng Bujue replied with certainty.

"In that case…" Nelson said, standing up from his chair.

"...Then you can come with us." Suddenly, someone took over Nelson's sentence, saying the second half of the sentence that he had not yet spoken.

Feng Bujue heard the voice and turned around…

He saw that there was now another person standing at the door of the office… a woman wearing a white dress.

She had long hair, and her face was blurred. Her voice was very distinctive - even when heard from close range, it gave people a sense of remoteness and ethereality.