Chapter 3 Stairway

“This staircase should lead to the fourth floor… or somewhere else. Anyway, it can take us forward,” Feng Bujue said, shining his flashlight upward.

Before the four of them was a spiraling staircase. It was made of stone, and its shape was very peculiar. From an architectural standpoint, this staircase was impossible to build because it lacked sufficient support points. But considering that this was a game, and the script wasn't very scientific to begin with, no one dwelled on the matter…

“Mm… there are indeed footprints on the steps,” Ji Chang said, leaning closer to look at the stairs.

“And only tracks going up…” Honghu added.

Qiu Feng mused, “Aside from the possibility that they walked backward to return to this floor… the Scarecrow and the Tin Man must have gone to the fourth floor and not come back.”

Feng Bujue said, “I circled the entire perimeter of the third floor and calculated the area. It's much larger than the two floors below with lights. It's obvious that there's a spatial anomaly, and the lack of lighting is likely to conceal this. " He paused. "I think the guiding clue on this floor is the smell. As long as you smell the stench of corpses during the investigation, you can find one of the two murder scenes. Then, follow the bloody footprints to find the other scene and the staircase to the fourth floor.”

“So… you're judging that there are no other clues on this floor besides these three locations?” Honghu said.

“At least that's what I think. Of course… it's not impossible to explore the central area of this floor in detail, but doing so in this dark and spacious environment would take a lot of time and might not yield any results,” Feng Bujue said. “Currently, there are several more floors above, and whether those floors have lighting is unknown… It's better to conserve the flashlight's power.”

“I also think there's no need to further explore this floor,” Qiu Feng said. “Brother Feng has already explored the surroundings and found these three locations that can form a complete information chain. If we explore further, with only two flashlights, we'd have to split into two groups, and the exploration efficiency of one group would likely be much slower than Brother Feng's.”

“Seconded,” Ji Chang said.

Honghu said, “I have no objection either, but…” He looked up at the end of the spiral staircase, where there was a rectangular wooden board embedded in the ceiling. “Who will push open that wooden board? What if there's an axe waiting up there…”

“Just have Qiu Feng use the broom to push it open,” Feng Bujue said. “At most, the axe will chop the broom.”

“You're so damn clever…” Qiu Feng replied, the seemingly vulgar interjection strangely not blocked by the system. But after he finished speaking, he still reluctantly led the way up the stairs.

Feng Bujue shrugged, glanced at the other two teammates. The three didn't speak, just smiled, and followed Qiu Feng's pace.

The staircase wasn't long. After circling around one and a half times, Qiu Feng approached the ceiling. He picked up the broom, pointed the wooden end upward, braced it against the wooden board, and pushed upward with force. The wooden board creaked open.

Some light shone down. Looking upward through the wooden board, the fourth floor seemed to be a space with a high ceiling, and a curved wall was very close. Since the light was shining from the side, it was unclear what the light source was.

“Hey… what's that smell…” Qiu Feng, standing at the front, smelled a strange odor as soon as he opened the wooden board.

“Probably another corpse,” Feng Bujue replied from behind him, his tone calm.

“Is it okay for me to go up like this…” Qiu Feng asked again.

“They're already corpses, what's there to be afraid of?” Feng Bujue said.

His words were open to interpretation. Although most people in this world fear corpses, many also believe that the living are more terrifying.

After taking a few deep breaths, Qiu Feng went up in one breath. He knew that if there was an axe waiting in his blind spot ready to fall, sneaking a peek would be more dangerous. It was better to rush up instantly and face the opponent from an equal angle.

Feng Bujue, following closely behind, went up unhurriedly with a relaxed and contented expression. Honghu and Ji Chang were blocked behind Brother Jue and could only follow his pace.

After the four of them walked onto the fourth floor one after another, they finally saw the situation above the wooden door.

This was the inside of a windmill…

The surrounding walls were made of brick and wood, arranged in a circular shape. And that light… seemed to be sunlight, shining in from a small window above the windmill.

As for that strange smell… it came from the Scarecrow. On the wall on one side of the windmill, the four players discovered its corpse. Its death was unprecedentedly bizarre.

A rusty long spear pierced through the brick wall from outside the windmill and pierced the Scarecrow standing inside the windmill. The Scarecrow's corpse was hanging on the wall like a sausage.

Because its straw head was stuffed with the witch's brain, and the spear pierced through its head, brain matter covered the Scarecrow's entire body.

“Where do I even begin to complain about this…” Qiu Feng said, gazing at the scene.

“We'll know what's going on if we go out and take a look at the situation outside,” Feng Bujue said, already walking to the door of the windmill, preparing to push it open and go out.

His teammates didn't stop him, just followed behind him and walked out together.

Outside the windmill was a space like a theatrical stage.

The area of this fourth floor was about the same size as the first floor, and the ceiling was more than ten meters high, but there were no supporting pillars. On the ceiling, blue sky and white clouds were painted in oil… On the distant four walls, in addition to the same sky and clouds, green mountains, rivers, and so on were also painted.

In one corner of the ceiling and two walls, there was a “sun” suspended by four steel wires. This thing was about three meters in diameter and seemed to be made of paper, but for some reason, it was indeed emitting light… and the light it emitted was no different from real sunlight. It even made people feel a trace of warmth when it shone on them.

“Each floor is more bizarre than the last…” Ji Chang exclaimed.

Feng Bujue circled half a circle around the windmill and saw the truth of how the Scarecrow was killed. “Hmph… I guessed it was this guy…”

The other three also looked over there, and saw… outside the windmill, the rear half of the long spear that killed the Scarecrow was still hanging in the air, but the “knight” who used the long spear to attack had already died on the ground.

The deceased was wearing a standard medieval knight's armor, and his head had been chopped off along with his helmet. The wound on his neck was very neat, apparently the work of another axe.