Chapter 1 A Greeting

A series of changes in those few seconds just now could be regarded as the game's greeting to the player at the beginning of the newbie tutorial.

A normal person would be startled when the surrounding environment suddenly turned dark without warning, and then they would feel uneasy after hearing that creepy voice. At this moment, the elevator suddenly sank downward, and although the feeling of falling only lasted for a brief moment, it was enough to make their heart race and give them a fright.

But Feng Bujue was calm and composed, without any reaction...

After the elevator shook, it began to move downwards at a normal speed. At this time, the game menu automatically appeared in front of Feng Bujue.

The game menu only appears in the player's vision and cannot illuminate the surrounding environment. Moreover, browsing the menu is a non-public action. Even if another player is standing next to you, they won't know whether you are looking at the options or daydreaming.

At this moment, no system voice sounded, but Feng Bujue saw a text prompt in the menu: 【You can open this menu at any time. Your character attributes, status, equipment, items, etc. can be found here.】

Feng Bujue saw that most of the areas in the menu were covered in shadow at this time. It wasn't until that line of text disappeared that an area in the upper left corner of the menu lit up, where three rectangular graphics resembling health bars appeared.

An arrow appeared, first pointing to the first bar, which was a green energy bar in a filled state. Then new subtitles appeared: 【This is your Survival Value, displayed as a percentage, the specific value is not visible. When the Survival Value is 0%, your character is considered dead. Current Survival Value: 100%, Abnormal Status: None.】

The arrow moved to the second energy bar, also a green energy bar, but this one displayed numbers instead of a percentage: 【This is your Stamina Value, the specific value is visible. Running, walking for long periods of time, carrying heavy objects, fighting, using skills, and other actions will reduce this value. It can be recovered through rest or items. Current Stamina Value: 100/100.】

The third energy bar was empty, and this was also the item that Feng Bujue needed to pay the most attention to: 【This is your Fear Value, displayed as a percentage, no specific value. If the Fear Value is higher than 100% and exceeds three seconds, your connection to the game will be forcibly disconnected, and your character will be considered dead. Current Fear Value: 0%】

Because he had read the basic settings online before, Feng Bujue just glanced at this content and finished reading it. He thought that other areas in the menu would be unlocked next, but the menu automatically closed after about ten seconds. He actively summoned the menu again, but the places that were in shadow just now were still unchanged.

Obviously, this newbie tutorial was not just about looking at text and familiarizing oneself with the interface in a dark elevator, otherwise the system would not have given the assumption of "interruption of the tutorial due to excessive Fear Value" before entering.

Sure enough, the elevator stopped quickly, and the darkness was still all around. Feng Bujue could only hear his own breathing.

Suddenly, the light came on for a second, just a second, and then immediately returned to darkness.

In that one second, a scene that was enough to make people jump up and scream was left on Feng Bujue's retina.

You should all remember that one wall of this elevator is a mirror, and in that second when the light returned, Feng Bujue saw two figures reflected in the mirror.

One was obviously himself, and the other... although he only caught a glimpse of it, Feng Bujue was basically sure that it was an upright creature covered in blood.

It would have been better if it had been dark all the time. It was better not to see it than to deliberately show it for a glance.

If it had been someone else, they would have screamed long ago. Now, they would either be backing away and shrinking into the corner of the elevator, or frantically waving their fists or kicking the spot where the bloody shadow stood in their memory.

But Feng Bujue stood there expressionlessly and muttered to himself: "Well... since it's a tutorial, it's unlikely that the player will be put in a situation where they are bound to die at the beginning. At most, I'll lose some survival value or get scared again, and then there should be some changes to allow the game to continue."

Thinking of this, a ray of light really shone into the elevator and soon expanded. It turned out that the elevator door opened by itself, and a musty, rotten smell wafted over. Outside was a straight corridor with a wooden ceiling and wallpaper on both sides of the walls. The patterns on the wallpaper were quite strange, like human eyes. The floor was covered with green carpet. There were no windows or doors on either side of the corridor, only sconces with dim yellow lights every certain distance.

The corridor seemed very long. Those sconces looked like grains of rice-sized yellow lights in the distance. The visible distance was less than twenty meters, and the farther places were shrouded in shadow. Only by moving forward could one see clearly.

A normal person would probably have rushed out sideways and ran away as soon as the elevator door was fully opened. But Feng Bujue was not in a hurry. For him, this quiet path in front of him might not be safer than this elevator. Now that it was no longer completely dark, he wanted to turn around and see clearly what the shadow next to him was.

As a result, as soon as Feng Bujue turned his head, he saw a bloody claw with fingers like hooks attacking his face. He shrank his neck and barely avoided it. Squatting down, he darted out of the elevator. Looking back again, he finally saw the full appearance of the shadow.

It was a skinless blood corpse, similar to the human muscle model in the infirmary, but this one was alive and bleeding all over.

The elevator door was slowly closing. The blood corpse tilted its head and grinned, with a smile that was not a smile. Its eyes were fixed on Feng Bujue. As the door was about to close, it stretched out a hand and squeezed out from inside.

"According to the general train of thought, I should run away here..." Feng Bujue thought, "But this guy doesn't seem super strong. Should I try to fight...?"

At this time, the blood corpse happened to walk out of the elevator, and immediately roared with great momentum, waving its hand and hammering a wall of the corridor. The thick wooden board behind the wallpaper was instantly shattered, and about a sack of cockroaches "flowed out" like a tide.

"I concede." Feng Bujue turned around and ran when he saw this scene.

Since it is a newbie tutorial, it is natural to guide the player to continue, and killing the player is not the primary goal. The blood corpse's action is actually wasting time, obviously to allow the fleeing player to escape a greater distance. However, the system has also considered other possibilities, such as the player being paralyzed with fear on the ground and not moving, or some players attempting to fight it in a place with light after seeing the appearance of the blood corpse clearly. In that case, the blood corpse's action can make the frightened person jump up and run for their lives, and dispel the fighting desires of those tough guys.

Of course, if the player is too scared to stand up, or insists on risking their life, then they may have to game over and regenerate a random newbie tutorial script.

"First of all, I probably can't break the wall. Secondly, there's no way out even if I break it. Thirdly, I'm doomed if I fight this monster, very good..." Feng Bujue silently sorted out the confirmed situation in his heart. It seemed that he didn't have many choices in this newbie tutorial.

After a considerable distance, Feng Bujue saw the end of the corridor, where there was a door, a very thick wooden door!

He turned the doorknob and it opened! He didn't have time to consider whether there was danger on the other side of the door, so he could only go in first, because the blood corpse was chasing very closely, not allowing him to delay. At this moment, Feng Bujue understood that he should have run as soon as the elevator door opened. That was the usual choice. Lingering for a moment made his current action time very tight.

He flashed into the room, closed the door, and found that there was actually an iron bar for bolting the door on the back of the door. Feng Bujue bolted the door without hesitation. Almost at the same time, that thing outside began to slam into the door.

Feng Bujue ignored it, turned around and began to look around the environment. This was a square room of about sixteen square meters. There was no furniture in it, only a wall lamp and two doors. One door was being slammed by the blood corpse, and the other was in the middle of the wall opposite the room.

He came to the only door that could escape and pulled the handle, but found that it was locked. He tried kicking the lock, which seemed to have some effect, but his kicking power was obviously not enough. It was estimated that it would take a few more strenuous attempts to be effective.

The next second, the game menu suddenly popped up in front of him, and another shadow area in the menu was unlocked, displaying a number, but it was 0 at the moment: 【This is your Skill Value, the specific value is visible. Skill Value can be used as currency, accumulated according to the character's actions. Any behavior that improves game efficiency will be rewarded with Skill Value. Current Skill Value: 0】

"Giving a hint about Skill Value at this time is suggesting that there is some optional shortcut..." Feng Bujue also took the opportunity to look at his Fear Value in the menu, which was still 0%, completely unmoved.

He sighed and looked back at the door that was being slammed. The iron bar was slightly deformed, and it seemed that it would not last long. Under the pressure of this monster that could rush in and kill people at any time, bystanders could not possibly be as calm as him.

Feng Bujue carefully looked at the room again. There were indeed hints in this seemingly empty room. In a high place on a wall, a corner of the wallpaper was turned down. It didn't look very obvious, but it wouldn't be missed if you observed carefully. When Feng Bujue tiptoed, he could just reach the corner. He tore off the wallpaper, and sure enough, there was a symbol drawn in blood on the wooden board behind it. The symbol looked like a circle connected to a "卜" character shape, which should be a key pattern.

At this time, a roar accompanied by the sound of wood being shattered rang out from behind. Feng Bujue turned back and saw that one of the blood corpse's claws had pierced the door panel, and was waving randomly through a bowl-sized hole. It was unknown whether its intelligence setting would allow it to open the door latch after touching it.

The occurrence of this scene undoubtedly indicates that the blood corpse will rush in soon. Whether it is solving puzzles or kicking the door, there is not much time left.

Feng Bujue quickly used his elbow to slam the wooden board with the key symbol. A realistic pain came, but the wooden board was obviously relatively brittle and was broken with one elbow. He thought that a lot of bugs would涌 out, but there were none, only a little dust was raised. Behind the wooden board was a small space, and a key was lying in the middle.

When Feng Bujue picked up the key, the game menu appeared again, and another shadow was unlocked: 【You have obtained an item. Since the backpack and equipment slots have not been opened yet, you can only hold it in your hand or discard it.】

Then he saw the item attributes in the new menu display area:

【Name: Rusty Iron Key】

【Type: Consumable】

【Quality: Common】

【Function: Unlock a door lock】

【Can it be taken out of this script: No】

【Note: I think you know what to do.】

Feng Bujue felt that the note column of this item was full of malice, but he didn't have time to think about it. After glancing at the item attributes, he closed the menu and ran to the locked door. After the door was opened, the key disappeared. At the same time, the long-lost system prompt sounded: 【You have obtained Skill Value, 30 points. This prompt is only once. In the future, you can check the changes in Skill Value in the game menu.】

Feng Bujue had no time to manage the things that could not be used temporarily, and he continued to move forward. Behind the door were stone steps going upwards, with stone walls on both sides. There was no ceiling, and you could see the night sky. The moonlight shone brightly on the steps in front of you. But he could not escape from the top, because the stone walls were built extremely high, with smooth surfaces, and the distance between the two walls was more than two meters, obviously to prevent him from climbing up.

Going up the steps and running for a distance, Feng Bujue took the time to look at his Stamina Value again and found that it had dropped to 24/100. He calculated silently in his heart that after leaving the elevator, he had run hundreds of meters, then kicked the door and smashed the wall, plus the current climb, these actions had actually spent three-quarters of his Stamina Value. The consumption speed was much faster than he expected. Moreover, the Survival Value had also become 98%. It seemed that the system determined that the elbow strike on the wall had caused damage.

The blood corpse broke through the door about five seconds after Feng Bujue unlocked it and followed closely to chase and kill him. At this moment, it began to let out bursts of hideous laughter. The sound was like ringing in the ears, extremely frightening, but Feng Bujue had no feeling for this level of interference.

At the end of the steps was a hillside, and a giant sword was inserted on the slope. Under the moonlight, the sword's edge reflected a cold, dark light. When Feng Bujue's sight came into contact with the sword, the blood corpse seemed to sense something, and its speed increased crazily. The distance of tens of meters was instantly shortened.

This time Feng Bujue really rolled and crawled. He didn't want to be killed at this juncture when he was about to complete the level. Stumbling and rushing to the sword, he gripped the hilt with both hands and lifted it. Unexpectedly, he easily picked up the weapon. It turned out that it was not as heavy as it looked.

Turning around, the blood corpse had already rushed close, and a miserable wail went straight into his eardrums. A pair of bloody claws pounced on his face.