Feng Bujue continued to move down the tunnel. The scary scene from before did not affect him at all. He continued to move forward normally without any pressure.
Soon, he reached the end of the tunnel. It was a small and damp cellar.
It was not surprising that there was a prison door in the cellar, for in more remote times the cellars under such large houses were generally used as prisons for some evil purpose, and were now used as a place of rest for the dead. The floor and the walls of the corridor were carefully covered with copper, and the heavy iron door was extremely heavy. Once it was pushed open, the hinges would make an unusually ear-piercing squeak. There was a coffin placed in the middle of the cell. Using the flashlight several steps away, Chen Ge realized that the coffin lid was not nailed shut. In fact, it was not even closed properly.
Feng Bujue pushed the door open and walked in. However, he was not in a hurry to open the coffin lid. Instead, he used the flashlight to search the surrounding walls. He found something. On one of the walls, he found another passage from The Haunted Palace. This time, it was written in blood.
"But the demon in the robe of sorrow,
Killed the noble king;
Ah! Let us mourn, the dawn will not descend upon him, the sorrow is unparalleled!
The glory that shrouded his old home,
Was like a flower in full bloom,
But now it is a dark past,
Buried by time. "
"Hmm … So, it's the fifth paragraph," Feng Bujue said softly after reading it.
The system announcement said, "Side quest progress updated."
The quest tab also changed. "Find all six paragraphs of The Haunted Palace. Current Progress: 3/6."
Feng Bujue walked to the coffin. With one hand holding the flashlight and the other holding a fist, he knocked on the coffin lid three times like he was knocking on a door. "Hey, Miss Madeleine, are you still there?" It was unclear how he knew that name.
…
As time moved on, Invincible Champion's Terror Points increased to fifteen percent before stabilizing at that number. The reason he was panicking was not because he had run into a real monster but because after searching for a while, he could not find the way out of the second floor.
Every corridor, every room, as well as the paintings, lamps, and decorations on the walls, they all seemed unfamiliar yet familiar.
The building displayed an obvious spatial anomaly. Its interior was much larger than what it looked like from the outside. The length of the corridor seemed to be constantly changing. When he counted the number of doors on both sides of the corridor, he would get a different number every time. So far, Invincible Champion had yet to reach the end of any corridor. Whenever he reached the end of a corridor, he would see a new corner or T-junction.
The consumption of Stamina Points while walking was minuscule. Only after walking for a long time would there be a significant decrease in Stamina Points. This was similar to the situation in reality. If you let a person walk continuously for more than 20 minutes, he would feel a little tired. After 40 minutes, his legs would feel sore. After more than an hour, he would definitely have to stop and rest. Of course, the examples used here were ordinary people, not professional athletes.
This kind of exhaustion accumulated gradually, and the longer it lasted, the more obvious it became. Under the influence of fear, Invincible Champion's reaction speed increased. When he saw his Stamina Points dropping at a visible rate, he did not choose to rest but chose to move faster.
He was no longer exploring; he was running.
He received a strong psychological warning that if he did not do something soon, he would not only be trapped. When his Stamina Points dropped to a certain level, something in the dark would find him …
"Hah … Hah …" Invincible Champion's breathing became heavy. He looked at the game menu. He still had about 1,000 Stamina Points, and he wasn't running. He was just walking. This shouldn't be happening.
He stopped moving and placed his hands on his knees. He caught his breath and swallowed. At that moment, he suddenly felt a strange feeling in his stomach, but he could not tell what it was.
"What's going on …" Invincible Champion mumbled to himself. Talking to himself could help him reduce the effect of fear and help him focus.
Suddenly, his eyes caught something. He turned around and saw a mirror beside him. It was a rectangular mirror about two meters tall, and it was embedded in the wall of the corridor. It was surrounded by a wooden frame, and the carvings were simple but exquisite.
"That's strange … Was this here?" He could not help but ask. Confusion appeared on his face.
At that moment, Invincible Champion was looking ahead numbly. He focused on the end of the corridor and no longer paid attention to the doors on both sides of the corridor. He definitely did not pay attention to the paintings, wall lamps, and sculptures. However, the corridor was not that wide, and this was the first time he had seen something like a mirror. Furthermore, it was such a large mirror, so there was no reason for him not to notice it.
When he saw the mirror, Invincible Champion's side was facing the mirror. He was bent over with his hands on his knees. However, when he turned his attention to the mirror, he instinctively straightened his body and turned his face away. This turn scared him so much that he almost fainted.
The reflection in the mirror looked no different from the real Invincible Champion, but the Invincible Champion in the mirror had his stomach exposed. There was no clothing or skin on his stomach, and with one glance, one could see a ball of intestines.
Invincible Champion sucked in a cold breath, and his face blanched. He staggered back until he leaned against the wall on the other side of the corridor. His eyes widened, and his breathing stopped for ten seconds.
"Illusion … This is an illusion …" After he regained some of his composure, he walked to stand before the mirror with a hateful expression. "Who are you trying to scare? It's just seeing my own intestines." Even though he said that, the Terror Points would not lie. He was still afraid, but when one was scared to the extreme, they would react in many different ways, and anger was one of them.
Invincible Champion's eyes involuntarily fell on his stomach in the mirror. He could see that the intestines were still wriggling inside it. Upon closer inspection, one would be able to see some strange details …
The more he looked at the intestines, the stranger they became. It looked … like a corridor!
He felt a chill run down his spine, and his neck was so stiff that he could not move. Two seconds later, he roared angrily and kicked the mirror to shatter it. Then, he turned to leave.
However, as he turned around, he saw many similar mirrors on both sides of the corridor. The original doors had all disappeared, and the mirrors were everywhere.
"Ah!" Brother Invincible roared and rushed out. He didn't know whether this situation was an illusion or a real change in the big house, but he felt fear and danger. He didn't want to stay in these corridors for a second longer.
Clang! Clang! A figure smashed through the glass window and came out from the second floor of the big house.
The moment he fell from the sky, Invincible Champion was not prepared. One second ago, he was still in the corridor, and he was running in the middle of the corridor. There was a path ahead, but the next second, the pain of glass cutting through his skin came. He seemed to have run into something, and his body lost its center of gravity and started to fall.
In the short moment before he died, he saw the scene outside the room.
The stone wall was covered in mold, the withered trees that surrounded it, and the large black reflection in the stagnant water of the mountain pool. An eerie presence seeped out from the pool, the wall, and the depths of the room. Darkness leaned on both the physical and mental world.
Amidst the formless silence, Invincible Champion fell into the pond outside the house. The eerie pond swallowed him up, and he could not make a sound. The mansion before him was like a cold demonic shadow, looking down on another life.
The last thing that was reflected in this professional player's eyes … was a blood moon in the sky.
…
"Team Member: Invincible Champion has died. A plot item has been transferred."
The system announcement shocked Wang Tanzhi and Long Aomin.
"No way! A level fifteen professional player died just like that! "Wang Tanzhi gasped. He opened the game menu to look at the team tab to confirm. As he expected, the player's name had turned gray, and the 'Alive' next to it had turned into 'Dead'.
By then, Long Aomin and Feng Bujue had searched through quite a number of rooms, but they had not found anything substantial. Other than the few times when the floor suddenly caved in and the traps that were filled with spikes, there were no clues or rewards.
"If the two of us had split up, then the few dangers that we ran into earlier might have been fatal," Long Aomin replied. Long Aomin replied and then added, "I wonder if Brother Feng will be in danger on his own."
"Brother Jue … you don't have to worry about him. Since it was him who suggested splitting up, he must have considered the risk." Wang Tanzhi said. "By the way, when I was idle in the log-in lobby, I read the game manual. If a player dies while carrying a plot item, the item will randomly spawn around one of their teammates."
Long Aomin had been through more team scenarios, so he was more experienced than Feng Bujue. He replied, "Okay, I know. Let's look around now."
The two of them immediately rummaged around, but as the saying goes, an unintentionally planted willow yields shade. They did not find the letter, but under a pile of junk on the floor, they found a poem from the Ghost Palace:
"Wanderers in the valley of joy,
Through the two bright windows you can see:
Elves dance to the music,
To the music of the lyre,
Around the throne of the king,
His Majesty 'Reason',
His presence is noble and majestic,
The king of a country, his majesty is extraordinary.
"Side quest progress updated.
"Find all six sections of The Haunted Palace. Current Progress: 1/6."
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