Chapter 321: Invasion of the Brain Cell 29

Falling, suddenly falling .

At the same time came pain all over the body . The shifting of scenes took only an instant . The four players’ eyes flew open like they had just woken up from a dream, and they realized they were falling . Of course, it was only several meters . It was not high enough to kill them . The four dropped onto some red carpet .

Groaning was heard everywhere, and eyes lifted to look around . Surrounding them was a sea of books . It looked like a library . There were six extremely high bookshelves joined together, forming a hexagon, trapping them in the middle . The ceiling was about ten meters tall, and there were several large chandeliers . They could look around just fine . Just above the four players hung a rectangular cage . At that moment, the bottom of the cage was open, which would explain the falling .

“So, this is the real ‘real world’, huh?” Autumn Zither asked as he reached out to touch his chest . Thankfully, the wound was not there anymore .

“It should be . ” Feng Bujue stood up . “How are your Life Points?”

“I’m practically undamaged,” Ambitionist replied .

Weighty Words added, “Me too . “

Autumn Zither concurred . “The loss suffered before has been recovered as well . “

Feng Bujue looked at his own Life Points . They had risen back to ninety-six percent . It seemed like in the ‘real world’, their Life Points had always been full, and the small drop was due to the fall minutes ago .

“Hmm… This feels about right,” Feng Bujue commented . “The items we gained in that psychological world have all disappeared . “

He referred to the lighter, notebook, and wallet that had been in his pocket .

“Ha! The consumable that I used in my memory space is still here . ” Autumn Zither gasped with surprise . With that reminder, Feng Bujue opened the menu to check his inventory . The one SCP-500 and health potion had returned . Looking at the skill tab, the Flying Dragon Fist that he had learned in the psychological world was still there .

“In terms of items, we should have returned to the status when we first entered the scenario,” Feng Bujue observed . “But… I have retained the skill I learned in my memory space . If I hadn’t learned the skill then but kept it as a skill card, perhaps it would have disappeared…”

“You were quite lucky,” Ambitionist said, “to have gotten a skill . “

“Weren’t you given a chance to learn some skill as well? You chatted so long with the middle-aged Peter Pan, why didn’t you ask him to teach you how to fly?” Feng Bujue replied .

“I really did ask him that,” Ambitionist replied . “He told me, to fly, one needs the fairy dust and the ‘belief’ that one can fly . Now that I think about it… that appears to be a hint of the truth . Unfortunately… at the time, I merely thought he was retelling me the setting of his fairytale of origin, so I brushed him off .

“Oh, other than that, I tried to ask him to teach me some swordsmanship . But he told me, two years after he left Neverland, he was arrested for illegally possessing a weapon, and his blades were permanently confiscated by the related department . “

Autumn Zither sighed . “The world of the adults is so scary…”

Weighty Words commented, “Aren’t we all adults? You make it sound like…”

However, his tone was not that different from Autumn Zither .

“Looks like you guys had wonderful childhoods . After you grew old, you gained this lamentation… for the ‘bliss that you didn’t know you had back then’,” Feng Bujue said .

Ambitionist looked at Brother Jue and said, “Hmm . Let me guess… Brother Feng, you had a not so normal childhood?”

“It’s fine . My personality when I was about eight was not so different from how I am now,” said Feng Bujue .

“Then, not so normal it is,” Autumn Zither added .

“In any case, at the time, I thought, children, including young adults, are a societal group that is heavily discriminated again,” Feng Bujue said . “So, when I was eleven, I wrote a thesis themed ‘the prejudice adults have against children and teens . “

“And that was to prove that in this millions of young flowers, there are a few that have grown mutated like you?” After this scenario, Autumn Zither’s power of mockery had obviously increased .

“What would a Pichu like you understand?” Feng Bujue naturally would not lose in a fight of words .

“But… it is undeniable that you, Brother Feng, are an unusual person,” Weighty Words commented . “When I was eleven, it was hard to even write a five-hundred-word passage . “

Feng Bujue scoffed . “That was nothing . When I was ten, I finished my first novella God of Blades on an exercise book . A societal commentary would require less time than I would need on the toilet . “

The group appeared to be chatting, but they were not idling . The four split up to each corner, and as they chatted, they examined the surrounding bookshelves to find a way out .

“If nothing works, how about we try to climb up the shelf?” Weighty Words said after some observation . “We can first leap onto the cage and then use the chain above the cage to climb upward . When we reach the same height as the top of the shelf, it shouldn’t be too hard to make the jump . “

“None of you… considered reading the books around us?” Feng Bujue’s reading habit was triggered, and that caused him to give this startling statement .

Autumn Zither lifted his head to look at the eight-meter-tall bookshelves that were filled with books . He laughed drily . “Even if we split up the sections, I don’t think we can finish half of these books before we are forced offline . “

Ambitionist did not join their banter . His focus was mainly on the hidden world-building . The world-building of this scenario had been written out on the expanded quest tab .

“Hidden World-building: Mental Imprisonment

“A powerful organism who has read a lot pulled the players into its mind . In this world, every virtual character that he knows will be turned into conscious creatures that can influence each other . When X-23 tried to recover SCP-233, she was stopped because… she had difficulty entering the boss’ mental world . If not for this reason, the boss wouldn’t have been able to stop her . For this level twenty-three Anomaly, infiltrating the scenario from the Inner World was nothing . Even the system would not be able to stop her, much less data who is weaker than the four Pillars of Divinity . “

After studying the world-building, he turned to look at his teammates . “It’s not hard to leave this place . The current mission seems to hint at us that the real ‘boss’ is very powerful . Is it really safe for us to leave this zone?”

“Indeed, a selectable main quest like defeat the real ‘boss’ or escape from the Detective Club will normally have one incredibly difficult option where a group wipe is possible, so the system provides an easier path for the players to clear the scenario,” Autumn Zither agreed .

“But the more difficult path means more exp and skill points,” Feng Bujue said arrogantly .

“But if all of us die, we’ll end up with nothing,” Ambitionist interrupted . “We have to consider the cost and benefit…”

“Before we meet the ‘boss’, no one knows how powerful he is,” Feng Bujue said . “Everyone here is smart, and no one is injured and our inventories are unlocked . We shouldn’t underestimate ourselves so soon but try to objectively assess our overall power .

“Furthermore, this is just a normal difficulty Team Survival Mode scenario . Even if it is a hidden boss, how strong can he be?”

“I mean… Brother Feng, from what you said, have you killed a Nightmare difficulty boss before?” Weighty Words asked .

Ambitionist scratched his chin and said, “Brother Feng hasn’t reached thirty, so he couldn’t queue for Nightmare Team Survival Mode . It looks like…he managed to clear a Solo Nightmare Mode . “

“Isn’t that a given?” Feng Bujue replied matter-of-factly . “We’ve been in the open beta for more than a month already . Clearing Nightmare Scenario should be nothing new . “

“I’ve tried Nightmare Scenario thrice and lost all three times,” Autumn Zither admitted .

“I’ve given it five tries and failed all of them,” Weighty Words added . “Twice, I thought I was near the end, but it was all for naught…”

“I am a personal player . I do not have missions to complete like those who are affiliated to gaming studios, so I am free to try anything I want . From the moment I reached level fifteen until now, I’ve tried Solo Nightmare Mode twenty-six times, and I’ve only cleared it once,” Ambitionist shared . He pushed on his glasses . “Honestly, I’ve been through some stuff in life, and I would say that I can suffer quite a lot, but playing Nightmare Mode really ground my confidence down . There were several times when I was forced offline because I overshot the Terror Points…”

“But Brother Feng, from your tone, it sounds like it’s an everyday thing for you to clear Nightmare scenarios,” Autumn Zither said .

“Of course not . ” Feng Bujue started to act dumb again . “I’ve only cleared one nightmare scenario before, and the scenario was a puzzle scenario without boss fight . What I mean is, compared to Nightmare scenario where insta-death triggers are everywhere, I’m sure this normal scenario’s boss will be a piece of cake . “

“Hahaha… A piece of cake?” Suddenly, a strange voice echoed and interrupted the players . “If you believe that, a cake I shall be . “

The voice came from all corners, surrounding them . Most surprisingly, this voice was similar to the system notification voice .

The four players quickly exchanged a look as their expressions changed, and they asked in unison, “Boss?”