About ten minutes ago. At the time, Invincible Champion was still alive, and Feng Bujue was still inside the cellar.
Feng Bujue knocked on the coffin lid and said teasingly, "Hey, Miss Madeleine, are you still there?"
Naturally, he did not expect the person inside the coffin to reply in an unhappy tone, "Get lost!"
Because he already knew that it should be empty.
After reading the first part of the haunted palace, Feng Bujue believed that the setting of this mansion was probably the Usher Mansion from a certain novel. Now that he was inside the cellar and saw the fifth part of the haunted palace on the wall, he was even more certain.
It was true that Feng Bujue had a good memory, but he had not reached the stage where he could remember everything he saw. Other than the things that were swept out of his memory loft as trash, other memories … like this novel that he had read before, he could recall about sixty to seventy percent of the content.
It was impossible for him to stand there and memorize all six parts of the haunted palace after reading the first part. Therefore, he had Xiao Tan and Brother Long say some words to remind him, and the two parts of the poem in his memory slowly became clearer.
Of course, Feng Bujue could remember the plot of the novel more clearly.
Many people knew the name of Edgar Allan Poe. He was the founder of detective fiction. His Murder on the Rue Morgue was considered the first true detective novel in modern literature. When he published it, he used the term 'mystery novel'.
However, that was in 1841, and The Collapse of the House of Usher was written before that story. It was a gothic thriller, and it was filled with a dark and gloomy atmosphere.
The plot of the story went like this: The main character's old friend, Roderick Usher, had a family that suffered from a mysterious hereditary disease for generations. The large house that he lived in was bound by some kind of strange curse. Over the centuries, the Usher family passed down the family line, and the original name of the house was slowly forgotten by people. This building was equated with this family. When people mentioned the House of Usher, they were referring to both this building and this family.
One day, Roderick wrote a letter to the main character. In the letter, he said that he did not have long to live. Illness had tormented him to the point that he was haggard and mentally unstable. The unknown, terrifying power in the House of Usher would destroy his rationality and take his life.
The protagonist came to visit and accompany his old friend, hoping that he would get better. But on the night of the main character's arrival, Roderick's sister, Miss Madeleine, "passed away" due to an illness.
She was Roderick's only family in the world, his only companion for many years. Lady Madeleine had been sick for many years, and had died, but she had always fought against it, and had never been bedridden. Roderick's abnormal melancholy and near mental breakdown was mainly caused by her.
Roderick requested to find a cellar to keep his sister's body for fourteen days before she was buried. The protagonist helped his friend put Miss Madeleine into the coffin and placed her in the cellar. However, no one knew that she was still alive …
Seven to eight days later, the grief-stricken Roderick had descended into madness. That horrifying night, the main character saw the horrifying Miss Madeleine appear in the house and scare her brother to death. Then, he finally breathed his last. The main character escaped from the House of Usher and saw the building collapse into the lake with his own eyes.
There were many 'illogical' things in this story. For example, how could Madeleine be buried alive without anyone noticing? How could a woman who had struggled in the coffin for seven to eight days still have the energy to fight her way back to the house? How did the house collapse? Was it an earthquake or a directional explosion?
However, the readers of the 19th century would not ask such questions about a horror story. Instead, after the end of the 20th century, there were more and more 'professionals' who relied on 'over-interpretation' and 'nitpicking' in various fields, especially in the field of culture. If Poe lived in the 21st century, any academic fraud who claimed to be a 'professor' would have the guts to criticize him. Or they would rely on 'in-depth' interpretation of his work to express some opinions that were not in the original work.
However, Chen Ge decided not to delve into this topic and return to the story.
Based on the plot of the novel, the coffin had to be empty. Regardless of whether the shadow that Feng Bujue saw in the tunnel was Madeleine's spirit or not, her body was no longer in the cellar but inside the house.
Feng Bujue pushed open the coffin lid. As he expected, it was empty. He waved his hand to disperse the dust and used the flashlight to light up the interior of the coffin. Soon, he discovered that there was a small line of words carved on a wooden board at the head. It looked like it was scratched out by fingernails.
There was only one sentence: 'He knows'. There was no punctuation, and the words were crooked. Putting himself in Madeleine's shoes … there was no light inside the coffin, so she could not tell whether her handwriting was neat or not. She had to maintain a certain posture to carve the words on the top of her head, so it was already impressive that she could be recognized.
"Hidden mission triggered."
When Feng Bujue heard the system announcement, he immediately opened the menu. Then, he saw another notification appear before him.
"The hidden mission in the scenario can provide you with a handsome reward, but the difficulty of discovering and completing the hidden mission will be higher than the main mission and side mission.
"System announcements related to the hidden mission, including audio, text, and the mission content in the menu, can only be seen by the player who discovered the mission. If the hidden mission is discovered in a group setting, all the players present will receive the mission together. However, the hidden mission cannot be shared. After one or more players describe the mission content to the other players, the other players will be able to see the mission content and progress in the menu, but it will not be seen as accepting the mission, and they will not receive the completion reward.
"The above announcement will only appear when the player discovers the hidden mission for the first time. If you wish to read it again, you can search for it in the game manual."
"In other words … whoever discovers the hidden mission will have to deal with it and claim the reward alone." Feng Bujue closed the two windows and glanced at the mission. "Save Miss Madeleine's soul."
"Oh … I see," Feng Bujue said. He already had a theory about the plot, but the problem was, how was he going to escape from this cellar?
He raised the flashlight again and did a more detailed search, but he came up with nothing. He turned his attention back to the coffin. Other than the sentence and some scratches left on the wood, there were no other valuable clues.
Feng Bujue placed the flashlight inside the coffin and tilted the side that was glowing. Then, he bent down to pick up the heavy coffin lid and leaned it against the wall. He looked both the front and back of the coffin, but there was nothing on the large piece of wood.
"Wait a minute …" Feng Bujue suddenly stopped moving, and he thought, The person inside the coffin should be lying on their back, and the carving should be done on the coffin lid. Even if she was worried that someone might miss the carving on the lid when they opened the coffin, she carved it above the head, but how come there is not even a trace of struggle on this board? The scratches and kicks are all on other places, but this coffin lid looks like it's brand new.
Feng Bujue picked up the flashlight and shone it on the coffin lid that was leaning against the wall. He squatted down and stared at the piece of wood. "Hmm …" He reached out to knock on it again. The coffin lid made a sound like it was made of solid wood, and it did not sound like there was a hidden compartment.
At that moment, Feng Bujue made a very bold decision, at least for others. He raised the coffin lid and covered two-thirds of the coffin vertically. Then he crawled into the coffin. After lying down, he used both of his hands to hold the coffin lid. He pulled as hard as he could, and the coffin returned to its original state.
Lying inside, he did not feel very comfortable. It was not because of his mentality but because there was no cushion inside the coffin. It was purely made of wood, and it felt like he was sleeping on a hard bed with nothing on it.
Feng Bujue placed himself in the same situation as Miss Madeleine. He used the flashlight to shine on the coffin lid and said, "How did you manage to get out?" As he spoke, he used one hand to try to push on the coffin lid.
But to his surprise, it did not budge.
"Oh?" Feng Bujue was startled. He immediately placed the flashlight next to his neck and used both his hands and feet to push and kick the coffin lid, but it still did not budge.
After a while, just as he was about to stop to catch his breath, he saw that on the coffin lid, the piece of wood that was facing his face, protruded slightly and slowly turned into the shape of a human face.
It was hard to tell the gender of the face, and the voice sounded like that of an old witch. It said to Feng Bujue, "Man who is about to die, do you wish to leave this place?"
"Yes," Feng Bujue replied. He wanted to see what kind of trick this coffin monster had up its sleeve.
"What can you give me?" the coffin lid asked.
At that moment, the system announcement said, "You can sacrifice a normal or higher quality equipment to have the monster transport you back to the space outside the cellar."
"Oh … so I can 'sacrifice' it, right?" Feng Bujue thought. "In other words, I can choose not to sacrifice it." He pondered. "And … what if the player doesn't have the equipment that fits the criteria? They won't be trapped here, right? Hmm … there must be another way."
"Coffin, I do not wish to give you anything," Feng Bujue replied.
The face suddenly changed. The eyes and mouth opened strangely. It became so scary that a normal person would have been spooked. However, it was just a human face that was protruding from the coffin lid. It could not attack the person inside the coffin. At most, it could scare the person inside.
"Then you will be trapped here forever, dying in fear and hunger. Even if your fingertips are scraped, even if your toes and knees are shattered, you will not be able to break through …"
With a click, Feng Bujue took out the M1911A1 pistol from his backpack and opened the safety.
"Let me introduce you …" Feng Bujue used the barrel of the gun to point at the forehead of the face. "Some interesting gadgets that were born after the second industrial revolution."
"The weapon in your hand will not cause enough damage for you to escape. One or two small wounds are nothing," the coffin lid replied.
"I know you can change and repair yourself, but what about the coffins around me, above me, and below me?" Feng Bujue asked.
"Hahaha …" The face on the coffin lid laughed. At the same time, the words carved by Madeleine above Feng Bujue's head and the markings on the surrounding wood disappeared. "As long as I want to."
"Hmm … So, that's how it is. Since I've already received the quest and discovered the secret of the coffin, I don't need these details like the carving anymore, right?" Feng Bujue said as he put the gun away.
"Now, do you want to change your mind?" The coffin lid asked. "Perhaps you can give me the weapon from earlier, and I will send you out of here."
Feng Bujue took out the Western Kitchen Knife and Mario's Wrench from his backpack. "You have two choices. One, send me back to the house and end this pleasant conversation." He raised his hand and slashed at the coffin lid, leaving a cut. "Two, I'll burn you for firewood."
Several seconds later, Feng Bujue successfully reappeared inside the house, but he was no longer in the living room but in a corridor. There was a painting on the wall next to him, but it was not of a cellar but an ugly and abstract human face.
He did not stop. After confirming that his Life Points were full and that he had plenty of Stamina Points left, he continued his exploration …
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