Chapter 108

Half of a senile, ashen face appeared behind the slit of the door. The bloodshot eyes of an old woman, which had been turned into black hue in this world of black-and-white, were staring at Feng Bujue.

At this moment, the door had not been fully opened yet. Feng Bujue had two options. One, determinedly pull open the door and greet her with the wrench; second, take a look, wait for a moment and then think about it again…

“Did I disturb you?” the other spoke up.

Feng Bujue didn’t answer her question directly but tried to probe. “I’m sorry, are you alright? I heard someone screaming.”

“My old illness. If I did disturb you, I’m very sorry for that.”

“Nothing. No problem. It was me who didn’t get the situation. I’m sorry,” answered Feng Bujue.

Having heard that, the old woman looked at Feng Bujue one more time before she turned around and slowly walked back to her room.

Feng Bujue closed the door and muttered, “Is she a human or a monster…” He headed to the place matted with tatami. “If she is human, she must have a very serious rheumatism. If she is a monster…” He sat cross-legged, took the teapot and gave himself another mouthful of tea. “Since I’ve entered this scenario, I haven’t met any normal people. All are monsters.”

Squeak—— squeak—— another kind of noise echoed above his head.

“Now what?” Feng Bujue faced up to see the cross beam under the ceiling. The noise came from there.

All of a sudden, the bulb over his head flashed twice, and one second later, the wire connected to it broke apart, resulting in a blackout. Bang~ it fell broken on the floor.

The room instantly became a space of darkness. At the same time, lightning struck outside through the window and the curtain, leaving a strange shadow on the floor.

Two seconds later, another source of light lit up.

Feng Bujue was calm. He took out his flashlight, switched it on and shone it directly to the ceiling while mumbling to himself, “Please tell me it is a rat…”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a rat.

It wasn’t more than seconds since the light had been off and Feng Bujue had turned his flashlight on; he now discovered that the thing hanging under the beam wasn’t a bulb anymore—it was a corpse.

That was a female corpse dressed like a housewife. She looked young and not more than 30 years old. The corpse had a twisted face with bulging eyes and open mouth. There was a dab of drool at the corner of her mouth.

The dead body was facing Feng Bujue just like she was watching him from above. Under such ambiance, it wasn’t a surprise if this female corpse suddenly attacked Feng Bujue.

But what happened next had exceeded his expectations again.

Abruptly, he lost control of his body and returned to the state when he was watching the CG of the plot introduction. The scenes in front of his eyes started to change.

Next, the shabby room in Feng Bujue’s eyes turned into a foggy street, and he was standing on the footpath.

Even stranger, the system’s narration played again.

[It’s an afternoon in November. You alone are going to visit a friend living in the town.]

“What kind of situation is this? Playing the plot introduction again?” It was the first time Feng Bujue had ever encountered this situation. However, he was still very sincere and listened to every word from the system.

[One hour ago, the sky was still clear and the sunlight was shining everywhere. There was no drifting cloud in the sky. However, a fog came without any prior indications. You were enveloped in the dark. Fear was twirling around you. Your will was about to break as you madly ran away from a non-existent threat. Eventually, you got lost in the fog.]

[It’s now a chaos in your mind as your memory becomes unclear. You don’t know exactly whether everything around you is real or they are just your nonsense imaginations… You don’t even know if you can arrive where you intended to visit.]

After this narration was over, Feng Bujue could move again. Moreover, he received a new Quest.

“Main Quest has been triggered.”

“Find your friend’s address and go there.”

“No way… two Main Quests?” Feng Bujue actually saw another Main Quest appearing in his menu. The one which read [Stay in the room until dawn] was still there without a checkmark, and now, there was another quest that appeared below it.

“Yeah… what does that corpse mean? Why was I brought here? So I have to play many characters in this scenario?” Feng Bujue mused, “Is it… I’m still in that room, and this is just like one of those flashbacks before death?”

The plot of the Nightmare Mode was becoming more and more bizarre. The Main Quest only had one line to say what the player had to do, but it didn’t reveal any information related to the final purpose of the scenario. At this moment, Feng Bujue had no clues about the plot, and he could only let his nose to be led.

The dense fog suddenly surged and slowly hovered around him. There was no wind. It was just like the fog had its own will to wander around.

Just like he had done before, Feng Bujue checked his body to see if he could find any items related to the plot. Turns out the keys had disappeared, and now he had a piece of paper in his shirt pocket.

He took it out. The paper read ‘No. 4-5, Rokubancho’.

“F*ck that… Not again!” said Feng Bujue.

This time, there were still shadows of people near him. In the dense fog, those shadows appeared and disappeared, vanished and reappeared… This meant he wasn’t alone here. Feng Bujue could even hear their footsteps. It seemed like they were just walking around him, maintaining a certain distance. No one had ever come close to him.

Clatter, clatter, clatter… Those annoying sounds were still light and far away. It was vague. If he intentionally listened to it, it would disappear.

Feng Bujue strode, carefully moving forward to get through the darkness that could suffocate people. There were vehicles running randomly on the road. With his current vision, those vehicles were running slowly in the small town. They were like a herd of giant monsters moving slowly. Those hazy shadows came from far to near, suddenly came, suddenly went.

Although he was submerging in this dark and eccentric atmosphere, Feng Bujue didn’t sink into it. He was still very alert to observe and analyze the surroundings.

The cold and humid air flooded this sea of darkness. Even the random light of some vehicles that swept over him couldn’t light up the space much. Feng Bujue tried to use his flashlight, but it couldn’t penetrate the dense fog in front of his eyes. His vision now was less than three meters.

He couldn’t even see the road, let alone find a strange address in a bizarre small town.

After walking for a while, he saw a streetlight pole not far from him. The pole was rigid, jutted to the sky, releasing a dim, weak sphere of light. Feng Bujue fumbled along the parapet on the street side and quickly run towards it.

There was a bus stop next to the pole. Feng Bujue strode to that place to see if it had the town map or something like that.

The result surprised him. It was a map indeed.

Soon, Feng Bujue found the location of this bus station and the location of Rokubancho. According to the map ratio, the route should be around two kilometers. With his walking speed, it would take him 20 minutes max to reach there.

When the route was clear, it was much easier. Feng Bujue had a good memory; if he had read the map, he wouldn’t get lost. To prevent any unexpected events, he even remembered the names of all the streets near his route. Then, he departed.

Several minutes later, he remembered something else. If he used [Plant Victory From A Thousand Miles Away] now, what would he see?

From the current situation, perhaps this scenario didn’t have a final BOSS since it had been formed by different types of monsters. At the same time, the plot was very twisted, odd and confusing. Anyway, all of this was caused by individuals. For instance, evil spirit monsters could create illusions. If he used the skill, perhaps he could have some more clues to make a significant development.

Moreover, this skill wouldn’t consume anything. He was an idiot if he didn’t use it. Upon this thought, Feng Bujue’s mind had flickered.

Unexpectedly, one second later, his own face appeared in front of his eyes. It was a pale, frightened face with rolling eyes with pupils not showing any trace of emotion.

There was no information in his menu. What he had experienced was just a head-splitting pain in his brain. Just imagine that such pain inside his skull was like an iron hammer pounding on the finger…”What is it?” Feng Bujue rubbed his forehead. “What was that? What is happening in this scenario? Is my skill inoperable in the Nightmare Difficulty Level?”

It was like something else had happened in this scenario, but he couldn’t know. Everything was mysterious and unclear that made people shiver without feeling cold.

Feng Bujue had spent 30 minutes walking through the route. There was a certain difference between his calculation and reality. Moreover, groping in this bizarre fog had affected his speed.

Nevertheless, he had successfully arrived at his destination. It was a Yokan (1) house with a small garden in the front. Flowers were blooming there, but he couldn’t smell any fragrance with this kind of dense fog.

The iron gates weren’t locked. They could be pushed open with a light force. Feng Bujue directly walked through the garden and approached the front door of the Yokan house. He knocked, but no one answered. He then waited there for a while. Still, nothing happened.

Feng Bujue tried to pull the knob. It opened. He pushed the door and entered the pitch-black lobby. Although the place was furnished, it brought people an absolute empty feeling.

[Current Quest, accomplished. Main Quest, updated.]

[Explore the Yokan House.]

A flickering light flashed from the corridor in the second floor. With this obvious guide, of course, Feng Bujue was more than happy to follow it. He mounted the steps to the second floor. Firm steps. Stable breathing. However, the wooden treads squeaked every time he stepped on them, which was really annoying.

After he reached the second floor, that faint light had disappeared. Nevertheless, Feng Bujue still had the flashlight. There was a turn in front of him. He quickly approached the first door opposite to him, and without any hesitation, he pushed it open.

Right when he opened the door, a strange smell stormed into Feng Bujue’s nostrils. It was a dense mix of perfume and blood.

Standing in the middle of the room was a large double bed. There was a woman lying there. A corpse to be exact.

Although she wasn’t wearing anything, her body was completely decomposed. Black blood had dyed the whole bed. Her eyes were still open, facing the door as her empty eyes were gazing at where Feng Bujue was standing still.

Next to the bed stood a hunchbacked monster. It had the neck and head of a hawk, a human upper body and the lower body of a spider with a giant silk bag and eight legs.

The monster’s mouth was filled with blood dripping from its corners. It seemed the uninvited guest had disturbed its dinner.

Seeing someone entering the room, some squawk resounded from the monster’s throat as it crossed the bed and approached Feng Bujue. Feng Bujue didn’t want to do a close combat with this dude, whose bones and shapes were so strange. He took out his pistol, then aimed for the monster and shot five bullets in a row. With the distance of fewer than five meters, in a limited space like this room, no matter what, with his Fighting Specialty Grade D, all the bullets hit the target.

Unexpectedly, that monster couldn’t even bear just one strike of his. After the first two shots had hit its chest, it had lost its ability to move. In the next three shots, it fell motionlessly on the floor.

“What the heck…” Feng Bujue looked at the monster whose appearance was so nauseating as a feeling of being incapable of understanding this scenario was gradually growing up.

He retreated the gun and walked towards the female dead body on the bed to check if he could find any clues. The body was laid straight on the bed, not moving an inch. Feng Bujue suddenly realized that the face of this body was somehow familiar.

“Wait a second… isn’t it the hanging corpse?” Feng Bujue got it all of a sudden.

Right at this moment, the female corpse moved. The decomposed body abruptly sat up, facing Feng Bujue as its mouth opened wide and from it came a mournful scream.

Feng Bujue felt as if his eardrums were torn apart. As he was about to swing his wrench to shut the woman up, another odd thing happened… He lost the ability to control his body again. What he was seeing had turned into computer graphics again. The bursting female corpse, the Yokan House behind the small garden… All had vanished. The scene changed once again.

In just a blink, the scene in front of Feng Bujue’s eyes had changed into an office. He was sitting behind a wide office desk. The computer monitor on his desk was a CRT (2) one, and its CPU was also placed on the desk together with piles of documents and stationery.

[The company you are working at encountered some problems that can cause it to close. The director has decided to lay off some staff.]

“Ugh, aren’t the changes too much? My comprehension ability has limits!” Feng Bujue actually couldn’t understand his current situation.

[You, as the youngest vice director of the company, was assigned to do the layoff. You have to fire many seniors whose profiles are more profound than you. At the same time, you have to explain everything to them. Thus, you feel extremely pressured.]

“Hey! What kind of plot is that! Please leave me in the haunted house for a night or let me kill the monster in that Yokan House!” Feng Bujue screamed in his mind, “Why am I suddenly in such a realistic social situation like this! This is the most horrendous story! And, is this related to the previous two stories? Is it just one person facing all of these? Impossible! This guy’s house was destroyed by a storm. In the morning, he goes to deal with firing people; at night, he meets ghosts at home, and his friend raises a monster uncle in his own Yokan House? Can such a person be considered human?”

[After the lunch break, the office becomes boisterous again…]

The short introduction ended like that. It just gave him some unnecessary settings before throwing him a new Main Quest.

[Main Quest has been triggered.]

[Work until your shift ends.]

There was only one thing remained, which was that his surroundings were still in black-and-white.

Feng Bujue could move his limbs again. Anyway, what he wanted to do now was to bang his head onto the monitor. “It said that I have to work until the shift ends; at least, you have to explain what is ‘my’ job… Moreover, when is the end of the working time in this company…”

Everybody was busy in the office: working or holding the files; running back and forth; or sitting at their desks while typing on the keyboard. None of them were lazy.

Some young office ladies were typing hurriedly on their computer. Let alone snacks or checking the mirror, they didn’t even chat with each other. The other male staffs were even more serious; they were wearing the face of having constipation just like they were facing strong opponents. There was even a guy wearing a white ribbon on his head, which read ‘Willpower’, just like a student who was about to take the entrance exam. [3]

“Yep… this is the power of layoff.” Feng Bujue said, “Performing so diligently, they must be showing it to me.”

“Hirata-Kun!” (4) A voice interrupted Feng Bujue’s thought.

Feng Bujue turned around and saw a bald man in his 40s wearing a black pair of glasses.

“He’s talking to me…” Feng Bujue thought, “So my name is ‘Hirata’… who would give such name that could break balls and kill people…”

“Yeah, right,” Feng Bujue looked at the other and replied.

“This is the financial report of the previous quarter. The director’s off work early today.” The middle-aged man gave him a file.

Feng Bujue thought, “The director got off work soon, what do you mean by giving it to me, the vice director… Even if he takes a crap, you can still put it on his desk, right? You want to brag about your capacity to me, don’t you? Or are you afraid that if you put it on the director’s desk, someone will put your good report in the shredder machine to troll you?’

Feng Bujue sighed then mumbled, “Why do I need to think about this… it doesn’t matter to me at all.”

“Hirata-Kun, what did you say?” the middle-aged man didn’t hear what he said and suspiciously asked again.

“Eh? Ah… Ah, I got it. I will give it to the director. Just leave it to me,” answered Feng Bujue casually.

The middle-aged man respectfully bowed to him in a manner of a junior. “Thanks for your trouble, Hirata-Kun.” Then he turned and left.

“What are all these things about… Does this scenario want to say that being jobless is more horrible than ghosts?” Feng Bujue smiled, loosened his collar and threw the report aside. Then, he started to search for the clues.

There were so many things on his desk, also, there were so many people in this office that he didn’t believe he couldn’t find the basic information about ‘Hirata-kun’.

—

Yokan House: Japanese terms. A western house built for formal reception. A few nations’ leaders had constructed this separated western house adjacent to their dwellings.

Cathode Ray Tube

The headband is called Hachimaki. It is a symbol of perseverance or effort by the wearer. Kanji for Konjou meaning “willpower” and “perseverance” associated with a gutsy/never give up attitude. Since wearing a hachimaki is believed to strengthen your spirit, the proper use of a hachimaki would include during a strenuous workout (such as martial arts training), or before undertaking something that will challenge your perseverance and determination (a student taking a standardized entrance examination for college). (Image: http://www.japanya.co.uk/img/product/konjou-will-power-hachimaki.jpg) Source: http://www.farmofminds.com/ai-nihon-hachimaki-traditional-headwear/

Kun: is generally used by people of senior status addressing or referring to those of junior status, by anyone addressing or it can be used when referring to men in general, male children or male teenagers, or among male friends. It can be used by males or females when addressing a male whom they are emotionally attached to or have known for a long time. Although it may seem rude in workplaces, the suffix is also used by juniors when referring to seniors in both academic situations and workplaces, more typically when the two people are associated.