"Welcome to Thriller Paradise."
[Download complete. You are currently in Team Survival Mode (Normal).]
"A scenario introduction is provided in this mode, and there is a chance to trigger hidden side missions and special world-building.
"Reward for clearing the scenario: Randomly draw a learnable skill card.
"Playing the scenario introduction soon. The game will start immediately after that."
Feng Bujue entered the first-person perspective to watch the introductory cinematic. A picture appeared before his eyes. It was a normal village with a river and a mountain by its side. There were fields and forests on the outskirts of the village, and the town was well-equipped with modern facilities. There were schools, shops, residences, offices, and so on. This small town reminded Feng Bujue of Hirata's hometown, and a bad feeling rose in his heart.
"Sakura Town, a place far away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
"In this quiet town, there is a ghost story.
"About thirty years ago, during the first few days of November, the town's police station received many missing persons reports. Several young men and women in the town disappeared, and the last sightings of these people were all on the same day, the 31st of October.
"The missing people were never found alive, and the dead were never found. Initially, everyone thought that these young people had eloped or run away from home to go somewhere outside the town. But year after year, there was no news of these people, and from then on, on the same day every year, similar cases would happen.
"Various signs pointed to the fact that the missing people had not left the town. Therefore, the police started a thorough investigation into this case.
"Even though the police interviewed many townsfolk, and their testimonies piled up like a mountain, the investigation still did not yield any real progress. The only clue that could be considered a clue was the superstitious words from some of the elders.
"The legend of the Well of Resentment's Curse started to spread due to this investigation.
"According to legend … inside an abandoned shrine in the mountains, there is a cursed well. Every year on the last night of October, the music of the country of the dead will come from the well. That night, those who hear the music will come to the shrine and jump into the well.
["They will never come back because they have gone to 'another world'," the old men said with certainty.]
[The investigation has reached a stalemate. Out of desperation, the police came to the mountains with a tentative attitude and searched the abandoned shrine. They did not expect to find a few items that were lost by the missing people.]
"On the night of the 31st of October of the same year, a team of police officers guarded the well, trying to find out the truth behind the 'divine disappearance' incident. But they didn't come back either …]
[The investigation has been put on hold indefinitely. The local government has banned the villagers from entering the mountains at night and has sealed the well in the shrine with cement.]
[But every year at the end of October, disappearances still happen …]
Along with the voice prompt, the camera gradually zoomed in. Facing the mountain, a small path could be seen in front of it, extending all the way up into the forest.
[Time flies, and many years have passed in the blink of an eye. Sakura Town's urban area has increased, and its population has increased by more than three times. Such cases of missing persons have gradually been ignored, and the legends have been forgotten.]
[One autumn night, six young people from the small town came to this place. They wished to head to the shrine in the mountain for a test of courage. That night was coincidentally the 31st of October.]
"Is this a test of courage?" Feng Bujue complained as he listened to the introduction. "This is clearly a death wish!"
He thought that the introduction would end there, but to his surprise, the introduction that was similar to the 'Seven Unthinkables in School' scenario appeared again.
"Starting from the start of the scenario, the system will randomly select a player in the team to gain the 'main character's halo'.
"Players with the main character's halo will not be judged as dead unless their Terror Points are too high and they are disconnected, voluntarily disconnected, or voluntarily exited from the scenario. Any other method of death, like monster attacks, falling from a high place, and Life Points reaching zero will be 'fortunately' stopped before it happens. Even if the probability of stopping is infinitely close to zero and goes against logic, it can still happen.
"The main character's halo will be transferred due to different special flags. Players, please explore and use the rules to transfer the halo.
"When the number of players in the team is less than two, the main character's halo will disappear.
"Currently, the player with the main character's halo is — Invincible Champion."
After that introduction, the scenario officially started.
There were five people standing next to Feng Bujue. He had met one of them before; it was Invincible Champion, who he had tricked once. Invincible Champion was a player who was in charge of researching and gathering information on the fighting specialization "Fist" during the closed beta period of the Order Workshop. Currently, his job scope hadn't changed, but he had reached level 23. His title had changed from [Reckless Fighter] to [Xingyi Boxer].
Of the other four, two were also players from Regulation. One of them was Meng Jingchan, also level twenty-three, and his title was Cold Killer. Once he showed up, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket, put one in his mouth, and lit it up. He ran his fingers through his permed hair and blew out a smoke ring.
The third member of Regulation was a female player. There was no need to talk about her appearance; she was a beauty as well. Her lips were red, her teeth were white, and she had a pretty face. She had long black hair, and she was wearing the standard white jacket of Regulation. Underneath it was a green outfit, and her nickname was Ye Zhi. Feng Bujue had no idea what that meant, but Feng Bujue believed that this ID was a homophone to her real name. Ye Zhi was level 20, and from her title [First Aid Medic], she was undoubtedly a Medic.
There were two other players, both male and level eighteen. One was called Copernicus, and the other was Galileo. One was called Discoverer, and the other was Investigator. There was no doubt that they had queued up together as a team. However, neither of them had any guild badges on them. Their appearance didn't look special either. They were wearing plain t-shirts and trousers that were obviously cheap. The color and style were only slightly different from the newbie uniform.
In other people's eyes, these two were casual players, and their titles were probably related to the Investigator mastery. Their gaming skills were definitely not that good since they did not even join a guild. Either they were too weak for other guilds to accept, or they were too poor for their own guilds. In any case, from their attire, they were definitely poor, but whether they were weak or not remained to be seen.
However, from how Feng Bujue saw it, there were two possibilities for their strength, and they were on two extremes.
The first one was that he suspected they were GMs.
The experience of clearing the scenario with the Anomaly allowed Feng Bujue to know one thing, and that was that the Anomaly would only appear in a six-man Team Survival Mode. Even though according to Pan Feng and Hwa Xiong, the chance of that was very low, and the chance of the same player running into it twice was even lower, Feng Bujue had quite a bit of confidence in his bad luck.
If this scenario was really about the existence of an Anomaly, then … from head to toe, these two fit the standard of a GM perfectly. Average level, common IGN, low-key attire; they moved in a group of two, no guild badges, and their titles looked like they were trying to fool others. Perhaps they had purposely made them that way …
They did not seem that strong, and it was hard for them to leave a deep impression on others. Such players would be easily ignored after clearing the scenario. Even if someone sent them a friend request out of politeness, they would not think too much of it after being rejected.
The second extreme that Feng Bujue considered was that there was a higher chance that these two were not GMs, and he was just overthinking things. Then … the strength of these two people was very likely to be extremely weak.
This was because the combination of the three from Regulation was not weak. Whether they were superstar players or not, Feng Bujue had no idea. But from the level and title, the three had a clear division of labor, and their combat ability was not to be underestimated. Furthermore, their guild was at the top of both leaderboards, so the buffs they received from the two guilds must be very strong as well, and that had to be factored into the players' actual strength.
When the system generated a scenario, the difficulty of the scenario and the reward of the team would be proportional. If six super strong players formed a team, then naturally, they would run into a very difficult scenario, and that was their own doing. However, this kind of team of three, two, one, and one, had a high chance of forming a strong team. After all, not everyone in a game was an expert. Casual players would always be the majority, and they would be the majority.
When Feng Bujue first met Brother Long, the first Team Survival Scenario was a good example. A powerful high-level player was leading two low-level players who were of a certain level and two mid-level noobs.
Therefore, Feng Bujue's second hypothesis was … these two players who were very bad at the game had sneaked into the team. They were so weak that no guild would accept them. It was not easy for them to spend Game Coins on cheap apparel, so they could not afford to open a guild.
Of course, no matter which extreme the truth was, this scenario would not be considered 'easy'. Feng Bujue hoped that these two were not GMs. It was fine if they were not that good at the game, but if they followed the team and listened to the orders at key moments, clearing the scenario would not be a problem. But if they were really GMs … the difficulty of this scenario was scary just thinking about it …
"Oh! It's you! "Invincible Champion recognized Feng Bujue and walked to his side to greet him.
"Brother Invincible, how have you been?" Feng Bujue asked.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk … don't try to get close to me." Invincible Champion was not an idiot. Before this, he had suspected that it was Passing Rain, Laughing Soul, and Long Aomin who cleared the scenario at the House of Usher, but when he saw Feng Bujue's title, Plot Explorer, he understood everything. "You knocked down the door, right? You wanted to remove the doorknob, right? You sure know how to act. After I died, you cleared the scenario, right? "
"Indeed, I did not expect you to die that time." Feng Bujue replied with a smile. "But at the start of the scenario, it was not wrong to split up and expand the search area. Later, reality proved that …"
"Fine, fine … There's no need to explain. After all, I have no idea what happened next," Invincible Champion interrupted. Invincible Champion interrupted, "Last time, I indeed underestimated you. This time, I'll call you big brother. Can you please stop acting dumb and help us clear the stage?"
"You flatter me like that," Feng Bujue said politely, but his face was filled with pride.
"Invincible, is this your friend?" Zen Dream walked over. It was unknown when he had taken out a small bottle of beer from his backpack, but he was already drinking it.
"Ah … Not really, but we've met once in a previous scenario," Invincible Champion replied before turning to address Feng Bujue. "Eh? Based on your title, you're a player who specializes in solving puzzles, right? " This question was natural for him. Even in Regulation, there was no player like Feng Bujue who had all his masteries leveled up equally and was good at both fighting and strategizing.
"I'm more of a puzzle solver," Feng Bujue said. "Of course, I'm not that bad at fighting either."
"Oh? You sound like you're a master of both brawn and literature? " Meng Jingchan said. Before Feng Bujue could answer, he sighed. "Ah … It's good to be young. Even though I look like this now, I used to be quite cool …"
"Erm … Brother Zen, based on my observation, you're in your twenties, and you look like you have everything …" Feng Bujue's lips twitched.
Even Invincible Champion felt awkward. "That's his catchphrase, don't mind it …"
The six of them chatted for a few minutes to get a general understanding of their respective specializations. During this time, Feng Bujue used Strategic Victory once, and the information he saw was:
Name: Well of Resentment
Race:???
Level: 30
Depth:???
Diameter of Well: 122 centimeters
Combat Style: Illusions
Weakness: Will turn into a normal well after the supply of energy is cut off
[Skills: Soul Devourer]
Danger Level: High.
This information matched the description of the well provided by the scenario, but the 'weakness' was worth considering. After the 'power supply' was cut off, the well of resentment seemed to have lost its power, but where did the power of the well come from?
If the source of energy came from the 'other world', would one have to be swallowed by the well and then cut off from the other world? Not to mention whether the act of being 'swallowed' would lead to immediate death, even if the player survived to the other side and successfully destroyed the power supply of the Well of Resentment, the player would definitely not be able to return because the Well of Resentment would become an ordinary well by then, and the connection between the two worlds would naturally be cut off.
The other hypothesis seemed more plausible, and that was … the energy supply of the well actually came from this world and was hidden somewhere in the small town or the mountain. The players only needed to find out the truth, and they would be able to clear the scenario.
About five minutes after the introduction, when the group was about to depart, the system announcement came.
"Main quest triggered.
"Enter the mountain to search for an abandoned shrine."
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