“Heh!” As the task prompt sounded, Feng Bujue put down the slingshot in his hand and launched another [Baseball Fist] toward an empty area.

“Again?” Jibu echoed.

“Ah… yeah, the skill has a one-hour cooldown.” Feng Bujue replied, “Actually… I wanted to use it just now… but those few minutes didn’t matter much, so I decided to explain things to you before using it.”

“Speaking of which, what’s the use of that move of yours?” Jibu wondered aloud, “The cooldown is a whole hour, but the power seems pretty average.”

“Hmph… how do you know my move is an offensive skill?” Feng Bujue said mysteriously.

“Then what is it?” Jibu guessed, “A skill that permanently boosts attributes?” He said jokingly, “Don’t tell me… every time you do that action, you slightly increase some hidden stat?”

“Oh? You saw through that, not bad.” Feng Bujue bluffed without changing his expression, “Alright, I’ll tell you then, actually… every time I use this skill, something on my body gets a little bit longer…”

“It’d be great if that ‘something’ you’re talking about was your integrity…” Jibu retorted, looking at Brother Jue with disdain.

“Alright, let’s save the chatting for after we finish the task…” Honghu interrupted the bickering pair, reminding them, “Judging from the completion of the last task, the difficulty this time won’t be low either… we won’t have much extra time to spare.”

“Of course, this is a nightmare-level team instance.” Feng Bujue turned his head and replied, “Every step we take is like walking a tightrope… our lives hang by a thread…”

“If you know that, hurry up and help find the way, time waits for no one.” Uncle Scumbag had already taken out a flashlight and was searching for the path to the next level.

“No need.” Feng Bujue picked up the slingshot from the ground again, aiming the light at a corner of the space, “I already found it while I was talking to you.”

Hearing this, everyone looked in the direction he was pointing and indeed saw the entrance to the next level—another hatch.

Let me briefly describe the surrounding environment…

The space the players are currently in has walls and floors made of gray stone bricks, covering an area of about eighty square meters; although the roof of this stone chamber is conical, there are no pillars or beams inside.

At the moment, the area that Feng Bujue is illuminating with his light has a hatch inlaid in the ground (one meter long and one meter wide, a small metal door that can be opened with a push, and automatically returns after a few seconds of releasing the force), its appearance is no different from the one at the entrance above, only its location is on the ground.

“Whoa… you’re really efficient, Brother Feng.” Uncle Scumbag added.

“You flatter me.” Feng Bujue replied casually.

“By the way, did you guys notice something?” Tianma Xingkong, whose reaction arc was super long, said from the side, “Generally speaking, the prompts ‘Current task completed’ and ‘Main task updated’ should come out together. But this time… there was a gap of about ten minutes in between.”

“Ah, of course I noticed.” Feng Bujue replied, “I guess… the system needs to leave a certain buffer time between the two ‘time-limited tasks.’”

“Is there a need for that?” Uncle Scumbag asked, “Since it’s nightmare difficulty, it would be normal to give time-limited tasks one after another without any mercy, right?”

“There is a need.” Honghu replied first, “Because the system needs time to complete the ‘obliteration.’” He paused slightly, then continued, “You also said this is a nightmare instance… how could it let players die so easily? I think the ‘obliteration’ in the task description is definitely not as simple as turning the player into white light and instantly sending them out of the scenario.” His eyes changed slightly, “I’m afraid… the system will arrange a more desperate and painful death.”

“Right, for example… suddenly a pile of shit falls from the sky and lands on your face, and seals all your abilities. You can only leave the scenario when you suffocate.” Feng Bujue added with a gloomy face.

“Heh…” Honghu chuckled twice, neither sincerely nor insincerely, and stopped paying attention to Brother Jue’s吐槽; he turned around and walked towards the hatch, squatted down and said, “Since the scenario started, I haven’t explored the path yet, right? Then I’ll go down first this time.” As he spoke, he took out a flashlight from his knapsack and pushed open the hatch on the ground.

“Hmm… it seems to be a room similar to this one.” Honghu shone the flashlight down below, then turned his head back and said, “I’ll go down first.” Before the words left his mouth, he stepped to the side and fell through the hatch.

The sound of him landing was very soft and steady.

After a few seconds, Honghu’s shout came from below, “Safe, everyone come down.”

Thus, the other four also entered the stone chamber on the lower level one after another through the hatch.

The area of this stone chamber was exactly the same as the one above, the only difference was that the top of this level was no longer a raised pointed top, but a flat stone ceiling.

“Look over there.” After his teammates were all standing still, Honghu raised his flashlight and pointed to one side of the stone chamber, saying, “That… looks very suspicious, doesn’t it?”

Everyone turned their heads and saw the object Honghu was pointing at at a glance.

…

(Some content including "special suppression measures" has been omitted here because it is not closely related to the main text)

Item Number: ***-645

Item Security Level: safe

Description: ***-645 is a huge pavonazzetto marble disc with a human face embedded in it (also made of marble, of course), looking like the so-called Mouth of Truth sculpted in the Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome, Italy (see the movie Roman Holiday for details); its mouth and eyes are empty holes.

At any time, putting your hand into the mouth of ***-645 will feel warm and humid.

***-645 must be cleaned after each activation.

Anyone who puts their hand into the Mouth of Truth, as long as they lie, will awaken the sculpture and cause their hand to be bitten off by ***-645 and then swallowed… The whereabouts of those swallowed limbs are unknown, and the results of probing its interior with a probe show that it has no esophagus.

…

“This looks a lot like the Mouth of Truth.” Jibu said, staring at the statue. He had traveled to Europe and visited the real Mouth of Truth, so he recognized it.

“Oh, I seem to have seen it in an old movie too.” Tianma Xingkong added.

“Actually…” Uncle Scumbag said, “We don’t necessarily have to touch it, do we?” As he spoke, he pointed to the other side of the stone chamber. The hatch leading to the next level was in the direction he was pointing, “Our goal is to reach the bottom floor, so… we just need to keep going through these downward entrances. It’s best not to touch those strange things if we can avoid it.”

“That’s right.” Feng Bujue responded verbally, but he… had already walked to the statue.

“Hey! What are you doing walking over there?” Honghu asked.

“Looking for equipment.” Feng Bujue replied in a matter-of-fact tone, “There’s a high probability that there will be rewards hidden in this kind of dead end that can be ignored.” As he spoke, he had already put his hand into the mouth of the statue, “As the saying goes, ‘There are many traps on the main road, and supreme treasure chests are hidden in the alleys.’ This is the law of the game, how can you guys still be professionals and lack this common sense… Ah!”

Before he could finish speaking, Brother Jue’s expression suddenly changed, and he screamed.

“What’s wrong?” Tianma Xingkong was the first to rush forward, striking his “heroic face” pose, ready to fight, “Were you bitten? Do you need a Meteor Fist?”

“Fist your second uncle! You use Meteor Fist to solve every situation?” Feng Bujue’s voice was still quite loud, so it seemed he wasn’t seriously injured.

“Ah… as the saying goes, when in doubt, use a rising dragon…” Little Ma actually replied seriously.

“That sentence is a 吐槽, okay! And it refers to Rising Dragon Fist! Not Meteor Fist!” Feng Bujue shouted.

“Alright… stop arguing about this boring question…” Uncle Scumbag rubbed his temples with both hands, his head was starting to hurt, “What exactly happened?”

“I seem to have touched something…” Feng Bujue replied very quickly, “It’s a spherical object, its surface is smooth, its size is similar to a tennis ball… In short, the moment I touched that object, my hand was bitten.”

“Then try letting go of that thing.” Jibu said.

“I can’t let go, that part of my arm in front of the elbow is completely bitten.” Feng Bujue replied, “And I can’t pull my hand out either…” He paused, “It feels… if I force it, my hand will shatter.”

“Alas… this is a real case of being a dumbass.” Honghu shook his head and sighed, “You said ‘There are many traps on the main road, and supreme treasure chests are hidden in the alleys’… I think it’s more like ‘Heroes die on horseback, and swimmers drown in the river’, who told you to be so cocky?”

“An——swer——me——one——ques——tion——” Suddenly, a muffled voice came from the mouth of the statue, each word drawn out (the dashes in the statue’s words will be omitted later), “And I will let you go.”

Hearing this, everyone looked at each other, and no one responded.

“Um… ask away.” Feng Bujue hesitated for two seconds, but still agreed.

“You must tell the truth, otherwise I will bite off your hand.” The statue said again.

“Okay.” Feng Bujue replied.

Brother Jue was not afraid of having his hand bitten off at all, because he still had a few ***-500s in his knapsack, and his survival points were almost full, so he wouldn’t die from the injury. In short, the worst case scenario was just losing a pill and losing an unknown item that he hadn’t even obtained yet.

“Then listen carefully…” The statue immediately asked…