Chapter 122 Agreement

After this conversation, Feng Bujue and the succubus had reached an "agreement." At this point, the succubus transitioned from being a monster to an NPC, no longer harboring any intention to attack.

However, the system didn't provide any notification about this. Whether to release the succubus after receiving the key was a decision Feng Bujue had to make himself.

"Hmm…" Feng Bujue first examined the key for a few seconds, looking at the item description.

[Name: Key of Curse]

[Type: Story-Related]

[Quality: Normal]

[Function: The holder will be plagued by misfortune (this item cannot be discarded, destroyed, or traded)]

[Can it be brought out of the script: No]

[Note: The key is consumed after opening the corresponding door.]

Upon seeing the effect of this thing, Feng Bujue immediately thought of the second message: [When you think you've gotten what you wanted, you've actually lost more.]

"Sigh… I think I understand why you were trapped on my bed," Feng Bujue muttered.

"I'm just unlucky," the succubus replied. "Your room is so small. After I came through the wall, I only flew forward one meter before I was above the bed. Who would have thought… someone would use King Solomon's magic circle as a bedsheet pattern."

From her response, she didn't seem to know the nature of this "Key of Curse."

Feng Bujue wasn't surprised because he fully understood why… the perspective of a script character was different from that of an "otherworldly traveler" like himself.

In the succubus's eyes, it was just a key. If no one told her that it would bring misfortune to the holder, she naturally wouldn't know.

But from a player's perspective, one could directly see the relevant description of this item through the game menu.

Of course, the player's perspective also brought corresponding problems. For example, the succubus could hand over the key, but Feng Bujue couldn't discard or transfer it…

"Can I ask where you got this key?" Feng Bujue asked again.

"The boss asked me to bring this to you," the succubus replied.

"Huh?" Feng Bujue asked, puzzled. "He asked you to bring something to me, so why didn't you just state your intentions? Instead, after falling into the trap, you kept trying to seduce and kill me."

"Who said I wanted to kill you?" The succubus patted the edge of the bed and smiled charmingly. "Just because I asked you to come over, does that necessarily mean I wanted to kill you? Couldn't I have done something else? I could have given you the key afterward."

Hearing this, Feng Bujue reconsidered. It seemed that this sentence was in response to the saying [When you think you've gotten what you wanted, you've actually lost more.]

However, he also knew very well that Thriller Paradise wouldn't have any erotic elements. It was probably because the key was already in hand that the succubus said this line, as if the player originally had an opportunity. In fact… if he had really gone over just now, he would definitely have been attacked, possibly triggering an instant death flag.

Feng Bujue had seen this kind of trick a lot when playing single-player games. Some depressing games loved to play this card… giving you an option before the ending. If you chose A, you would end up with a terrible ending. Then you would reload and choose B, thinking you could see the true ending this time, only to find that the true ending was even more terrible.

It was like someone putting a cake in front of you and letting you choose whether to eat it or not. If you ate it, you would die from poisoning; if you didn't eat it, he would eat the cake himself and smack his lips, saying, "It's so delicious, but too bad you can't eat it."

*Whoosh*

Just then, the water in the kitchen boiled, and the kettle started buzzing.

Feng Bujue turned to leave.

"Hey! You haven't…" the succubus wanted to stop him.

"I'll be there after I turn off the stove," Feng Bujue knew what she was going to say, so he interrupted her and walked towards the kitchen.

Two minutes later, he turned off the gas stove and returned to the bedroom with a pair of scissors.

To be absolutely sure, Feng Bujue took out the Vajra Bell before approaching the bed and activated its special effect. The triggered instruction was one (Observe the detailed information of an NPC).

[Name: Succubus]

[NPC Faction: Deduction Club]

[Level: ???]

[Height: 165 cm]

[Weight: 42 kg]

[Can combat be triggered: Yes]

[Attached Storyline: Key of Curse]

"Since it's not showing monster data, it means that combat can be avoided. Judging from the current state of my communication with her, as long as I don't attack her first, there shouldn't be any problems…" Feng Bujue thought.

"What are you dawdling about?" the succubus urged.

Worried about complications, Feng Bujue didn't delay unnecessarily. "Um… it's nothing." He took two steps forward, grabbed a corner of the bedsheet, and quickly cut toward the center area.

A creature trapped by a Solomon's magic circle cannot break the circle with its own power. No matter how fragile the circle is, even if it's made of fallen leaves or building blocks that would scatter with a gust of wind, the trapped creature would still be helpless. But if a creature unaffected by the circle, such as a human, entered the circle, the trapped creature could use that creature's blood to defile the circle and escape.

Earlier, when Feng Bujue pushed open the bedroom door, he wasn't moved by the seductive scene at all. Instead, he quickly saw through the fact that the succubus was trapped in the circle, thus gaining the initiative and embarking on a storyline that could be advanced without combat.

A dozen seconds later, at the moment a gap was cut in the outer edge of the heptagram, Feng Bujue suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder. An invisible pressure suddenly appeared, undoubtedly a sign of the succubus regaining her strength.

At the same time, the small bat wings on the succubus's back trembled slightly, and then she floated up. "Hmph… I guess I was unlucky today," she said unhappily, turned around, and left the room through the wall.

"Sigh~" Feng Bujue lowered his head and looked at the key in his hand. "From now on, it's my turn to be unlucky." He put the key in his coat pocket and left the bedroom.

Returning to the kitchen, Feng Bujue put the scissors in the drawer and closed it completely. Then he scanned the surrounding scene with a wary gaze. "How serious is this 'misfortune' exactly…" His eyes quickly fell on the knife rack. "Is it the 'Final Destination' kind of thing where I could die at any moment…" As he spoke, his gaze shifted to the floor. "Or is it the kind of thing where I'm walking normally and trip on flat ground, breaking two of my front teeth…"

Actually, he was overthinking it. If the Key of Curse really had such an immediate and deadly effect, the succubus would have noticed something was wrong on the way here, and wouldn't have been careless enough to fall into the trap in Feng Bujue's bedroom.

…………

Five minutes later, Feng Bujue came to the living room with a cup of instant coffee brewed with hot water. He put the coffee on the coffee table first, then put the overturned sofa back in place and sat down comfortably.

He picked up the coffee, took a sip, and then let out a satisfying "Ah—", as if he were an addict who had just taken a hit of powder.

"If I remember correctly, pages 599 to 602 should be…" Feng Bujue put down the coffee cup, crossed his legs, and opened the book he had placed there earlier. "Aha! It's definitely *The Return of Sherlock Holmes*."

That's right, S.H.'s hint referred to *The Complete Sherlock Holmes* on Feng Bujue's bookshelf.

A reading addiction isn't developed in a day.

As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. For Feng Bujue, this book was the starting point of a long journey.

When he was a child, he was indeed different from other children. Although he also liked playing games and reading comics, his talent and passion for reading were obviously much stronger than his peers, even surpassing adults.

This copy of *The Complete Sherlock Holmes*, which contained all the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Conan Doyle, was bought by Feng Bujue with the pocket money he had saved for a long time when he was in elementary school. His family wasn't well-off, and his pocket money was pitifully small, so he bought a reduced-size edition. The book had more than 1,400 pages, and the font was very small, making it quite difficult to read.

But Feng Bujue still read this book countless times and kept it in good condition. He never flipped through the book while eating, nor did he touch the paper with greasy or dirty hands. He didn't even want to fold the corners, and always remembered which page he had read to.

More than a decade had passed, and the book was still on his bookshelf. Although the paper looked slightly yellow, the words inside were still very clear, and not a single crease could be found.

"I never thought I would open this again," Feng Bujue muttered, his attention quickly turning to the words in front of him.

Pages 599 to 602 contained a passage from the story "The Empty House," which was one of the stories in *The Return of Sherlock Holmes*.

From the perspective of Feng Bujue, a seasoned reader, *The Return of Sherlock Holmes* should be considered the beginning of the decline of the entire series. The later stories, *The Valley of Fear*, *His Last Bow*, and *The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes*, were no longer as rigorous in their logical reasoning as the earlier works. In this period, Sherlock Holmes seemed to be able to correctly determine a person's thoughts and judge the cause and effect of a case from "the changes in the face, the changes in the eyes, the closing of the lips, and the tightening or loosening of the fists…"

This phenomenon also reflected to some extent that Mr. Conan Doyle had gradually lost his enthusiasm for creating these kinds of stories, and was only writing to satisfy the wishes of publishers and readers. This was why the Sherlock Holmes stories after 1902 were not as successful as the previous works.

The current Feng Bujue could actually understand Conan Doyle's state at the time. Many writers were like this: when they wrote stories with great creative enthusiasm, no one paid attention. But when they became famous, even if they were in a creative slump, people would be willing to pay a high price to get them to submit manuscripts.

*A Study in Scarlet* was written in April 1886, and Conan Doyle submitted it everywhere at the time, but couldn't get it published. It wasn't until Christmas 1887 that it was published in a Christmas annual.

But only five years later, even though he was reluctant to do so, *The Strand Magazine* was willing to pay him a fee of one thousand pounds for twelve short stories.

As a writer who had long wanted to stop writing, but had been "forced onto Mount Liang" for many years and couldn't get down, Conan Doyle was indeed quite pitiful.

"Oh… is it the passage where Sherlock Holmes recounts his escape at the Reichenbach Falls to Watson…" Feng Bujue finished reading the contents of page 599 and basically recalled what was written on the next three pages, but he continued to read.

"'I did not drop into the abyss.' 'When I saw the sinister figure of Professor Moriarty peering over the narrow pathway which led to safety, I knew that it was touch-and-go with me.' 'I could not doubt that he had come to see me off.' He was describing the battle… Hehe, there was basically no description, and then Old Mo fell down. The scene was… 'I stooped to look over, and saw him fall for a long distance. Then he struck a rock, bounded off, and splashed into the water.'"

Feng Bujue picked up his coffee and took another sip. "From this passage, Moriarty is definitely dead. Unless his physical fitness is close to Captain America, and he can still get out of the lower reaches of the waterfall after suffering such serious injuries." He paused. "In that case… is the boss of the Deduction Club essentially a ghost?" Something suddenly flashed in his eyes. "If he's a living person… could the one who fell down have been a substitute? But what kind of substitute could fool Sherlock Holmes's eyes…"

He put down the coffee cup. "Hmm… or perhaps the Old Mo of the Deduction Club is just a projection of a certain period of Moriarty's life, like the other fairy tale and novel characters in the test building."

This question could probably only be answered by the professor himself, so Feng Bujue put it aside for the time being and continued reading.

Although he could read ten lines at a glance, he was now reading every word very carefully, and recalling what the original English sentences of this passage were like (he also had English versions of Sherlock Holmes stories, but those books were divided into series volumes, each with no more than 500 pages).

"'In that moment that Moriarty tumbled into the abyss, I made up my mind that it was my last chance.' 'On the absolute face of the precipice there were places where one could get a foothold, and though the climb was exceedingly precarious, it was not altogether impossible. It was, as you say, an exposed and dangerous climb; but the alternative was death. As I moved slowly along the ledge, I could see that it was not difficult to climb down into the narrow path.'", Feng Bujue couldn't help but complain when he saw this. "Worthy of being a role model for us, once he decides to fake his death, he carries it through to the end, willing to risk a real death to climb the cliff."

Looking further ahead, pages 600 to 601 mainly described Sherlock Holmes's climbing experience. During this process, one of Moriarty's accomplices, who had been ambushing nearby, attacked Sherlock Holmes twice with large rocks. If this were a xuanhuan novel, our great detective would probably have fallen, followed by not dying from the fall, obtaining divine power, magical treasures, beauties, or a personal old grandpa to guide him…

Unfortunately, in this novel from the beginning of the 20th century, the effect of the protagonist's halo was merely: "As I held on to the edge of the ledge with both hands, my body suspended in the air, another rock came down whistling past my ear. I missed my foothold, and, as I fell, I clutched at some shrub which grew upon the face of the cliff. For one moment I hung there, and then with a supreme effort drew myself up, till I was once more upon the ledge. A few yards farther there was a jutting shelf, which I could descend behind, and I was not a moment too soon, for there again came a hurtling mass, which whistled over my head and broke against the rock beyond. In the end, I succeeded in gaining a foothold, and, scrambling down, I made my way to the bottom of the precipice. I was, of course, tired and shaken, and had sustained a good many bruises, but I was able to walk, and, making my way along the valley, I was afterwards able to get a conveyance which took me to the nearest village."

After reading this passage, Feng Bujue said again: "Hmm… the content of this week can be written into a *Man vs. Wild* fanfic…"

Finally, there was the content from 601 to 602, which was also the end of this description.

This passage mainly consisted of two parts. The first part described where Sherlock Holmes went to level up during the years he was missing.

"I travelled for two years in Tibet, and amused myself by visiting Lhassa, and spending some days with the head Lama. You may have read an account of the remarkable explorations of a Norwegian named Sigerson, but I am sure that it would never have occurred to you that you were receiving news of your friend. I then passed through Persia, looked in at Mecca, and paid a short but interesting visit to the Khalifa at Khartoum, the results of which I have communicated to the Foreign Office. On my way home I spent some months in a research into the coal-tar derivatives at Montpellier, in the south of France. Having concluded this investigation, I was then in London, when my friend informed me that the last of my enemies was no longer in that city, and that I could safely return."

The second part was about the situation of Moriarty's remaining forces.

This passage wasn't described very clearly, because on page 600, Sherlock Holmes said, "I have three such men at least who have sworn my destruction."

But in the narrative on page 601, this number became two, and these two were said to be important figures in Moriarty's criminal gang, and were successfully acquitted during the trial, remaining at large.

By page 602, it had become one person.

Feng Bujue had already thought about these problems when he read it back then. Of course, the simplest explanation was that the author was just writing casually. Indeed, this change in numbers wasn't important in the original work and had no connection to the main story.

Moriarty's criminal empire had already collapsed when its king fell.

However, now in Thriller Paradise, in a script that directly faced the virtual character of Moriarty, the system had set such a clear hint of 599-602. Then Jue-ge had to treat this as a real situation to consider…

"The 'Swiss boy' who appeared in *The Final Problem* escaped. Watson's analysis is reliable. This kid should also be a member of Moriarty's gang, but he's obviously insignificant." Feng Bujue closed the book, raised his head, and recited, "Assuming that the person who attacked Sherlock Holmes on the ledge was one of the 'three,' then the other two are characters who never appeared, only existing in the description." His brain was working hard. "Was the decrease in numbers due to death, arrest, or hiding…" He turned his gaze to the key in his hand. "Also, what is the direct connection between the content of these four pages, this key, and my escape from this room?"