Chapter 11 Leaving the House

The process of leaving the mansion went surprisingly smoothly. After the spell formation lost its effect, the Usher house became an ordinary residence. A noticeable change during their return was that all the portraits on the walls had turned into random scribbles, looking like a mess of paint. As for the illusions and spatial distortions, they had naturally vanished as well. The five quickly returned to the living room by the main entrance on the first floor.

This time, Long Aotian kicked the door open with one foot. A gust of cold wind rushed in, but even if it was freezing outside, the five of them wouldn't stay in that house any longer.

As the group walked out of the mansion through the main entrance, the system notification sounded: \[Current quest completed, all main quests completed]

Feng Bujue, who was carrying the corpse of Madeline Usher, heard another message: \[Hidden quest completed]

"So, all I had to do was bring her out of the house..." Feng Bujue said as he placed Madeline's body on the ground.

Soon after the corpse was placed down, it rapidly decomposed at a visible rate, quickly turning into a skeleton. The skeleton gradually turned into sand within seconds, becoming dust.

A wisp of ethereal vapor drifted into the distance, dissolving into the red sky.

\[You have completed this scenario. Automatic teleportation in 180 seconds]

"A pleasant collaboration, everyone," Bei Ling said with a smile.

"Yes, a pleasant collaboration," Feng Bujue replied.

Long Aotian stretched and exhaled, saying, "Phew… this scenario was really depressing. It was just a scary thing. My fear rating this time will definitely be terrible."

"Brother Long, you're still thinking about the fear rating? I'm practically always trembling and scared out of my wits. I only got 'panic-stricken' once!" Xiao Tan said.

"Goodbye," Si Yu said simply, then patted Bei Ling on the shoulder, indicating that she could leave the scenario. She then disappeared from everyone's sight.

Bei Ling waved to the three of them, "Bye-bye." Then, looking at Xiao Tan, she said in an annoyed tone, "Hey, thanks for the flashlight."

Before Xiao Tan could respond, she turned into white light and teleported away.

Feng Bujue then said, "Let's teleport too, settle the rewards, and queue up for the next scenario."

Long Aotian said, "Mad Bro, I'll stop here for tonight. My connection time is set for 11:40 PM. I had already played more than ten hours of game content before you came online, and this scenario took more than three hours. If I continue, I'll probably have a headache tomorrow morning."

"Okay, sure," Feng Bujue said. "Then you go offline first, Brother Long. We'll continue."

Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi said goodbye to Brother Long, and the three of them left the scenario one after another.

The autumn wind blew past the mansion by the mountain pool. This world remained gloomy, obscure, and silent.

The blood moon in the sky descended, and in the darkest hour before dawn, the door of the Usher house was once again closed abruptly by an invisible force...

…………

Long Aotian roughly looked at the settlement content and went offline. In any case, the rewards in the settlement could be claimed at any time before the next scenario started, so it didn't matter to leave them in the login space for the time being. After he left the team, his name in the friend list turned gray.

Before Feng Bujue could look at the settlement content, he noticed two friend requests. He opened them and saw that they were indeed from Si Yu Ruo Li and Bei Ling Xiao Gu.

At the same time, Wang Tanzhi's excited voice rang out in the team channel again: "Brother Jue!"

"I know, they added you as friends," Feng Bujue said directly.

"How did you know again?" Xiao Tan asked. "Oh, right… they should have added you too."

"I could guess from your loud and excited reaction," Feng Bujue said. "What's so exciting about it?"

"Aren't you excited when beautiful women proactively add you as friends?" Wang Tanzhi asked with a justified tone.

"I thought you were a rich and handsome guy… how can you be so shallow?" Feng Bujue said. "Besides, even if they look ugly in reality, they can become beauties in the game."

"Brother Jue, if you always think of others like that, you'll be lonely for life…"

"I don't even know how much longer I have to live, why should I worry about being lonely?" Feng Bujue said. "Besides, I decided when I was ten years old that always thinking about things in the worst possible way is the only way to face all problems calmly." He was indeed very calm when he said this. "Look how calm I was when my parents passed away, and when I found out I had an unknown terminal illness."

"Heh… hehe… okay…" Xiao Tan's mouth twitched, speechless.

"But speaking of which, that Miss Si is really amazing. Purely in terms of combat ability, based on the few moves she showed, I can say… she's stronger than Brother Long," Feng Bujue said as he accepted the two friend requests. "The number of players we've seen at this stage is very limited. So far, she should be the strongest player I've ever seen."

"Then should we invite them to queue up together for the next game?" Wang Tanzhi asked.

"Of course not," Feng Bujue said. "I just said that the number of players we've seen is limited, and you're already suggesting something that would make it even harder for us to meet new players."

"Oh, right…" Wang Tanzhi said. "If four people queue up, we'll only meet two unfamiliar players at most, or maybe none at all."

"Anyway… let me look at the settlement. I'll call you when I'm done. Take a rest first," Feng Bujue said.

"Got it," Wang Tanzhi said. "I also need to check the settlement."

…………

At the same time, in Si Yu Ruo Li's login space.

She was also talking to Bei Ling Xiao Gu.

Bei Ling said, "Cousin, it shows here that they have all accepted the friend requests, well... that Brother Long went offline soon after accepting it."

"Same here," Si Yu said.

"Hey hey, cousin, you already know, right?" Bei Ling asked.

"Are you talking about that Feng Bujue?"

"Yeah, he's a novelist, his name has 'Bujue' in it, and he said he wasn't very famous, it all fits that Bujue."

"Maybe, but the name used in the game can't be used as a basis," Si Yu replied. "Although calling himself a 'great writer'… does fit Bujue's style, and when I asked him if he was a novelist, his rather simple-minded friend answered first… but we can't be completely sure that he is."

"Hehe… what if he is?" Bei Ling said with a mischievous smile.

"If he is, then he is, what are you laughing at?" Si Yu replied.

"Cousin, aren't you his fan? Isn't being able to meet your idol the dream of every fan?"

"I just like reading his novels," Si Yu replied. Her tone sounded very calm, not like she was trying to justify herself. "I know nothing about him, so how can there be any talk of an 'idol'?" She paused for a moment and then said, "Besides, if it's really like you said… then I shouldn't get to know or understand him even more."

Bei Ling shook her head in her own space, thoughtfully saying, "Hmm… so… is admiration the emotion furthest from understanding?"

"Did you think I wouldn't know you were quoting Aizen just because you said it so seriously?" Si Yu said with a cold tone, ruthlessly exposing Bei Ling.

"Hmph… anyway, he's your idol, not mine. Maybe he'll ignore you in the future because you made your face ugly, hey…" Bei Ling stuck out her tongue and made faces at the screen, even though the other party couldn't see her…

"I just didn't want to be too conspicuous, but it seems like I've failed," Si Yu said. "Showing too much strength will also attract many people to apply for friends… it's a pity that appearances can't be changed after going through a scenario, otherwise I should have changed it to be extremely ugly, so that I can completely prevent harassment."

…………

Order Studio, in the rest room.

Yongzhe Wudi sat there drinking coffee, looking depressed. His sleep mode shift had been completed, and he would have to go online in non-sleep mode after an hour of rest.

"What's wrong? Brother Wudi, did you die in the scenario?" A young man who looked only sixteen or seventeen years old and was very thin came and sat on the sofa next to him. He was also one of the studio's players, his game id: \[Tun Tian Gui Xiao].

Within the studio, employees generally addressed each other by their in-game names, because their ids were fixed in all games, just like employee numbers in a company. Top studios like "Order" generally didn't have to worry about members' nicknames already being used when entering a game. They were the first to log in when the servers opened, and sometimes they even paid the game company to reserve these id slots for them.

"Ah… dying doesn't matter, that was my own mistake. I immediately queued up for another scenario, but when I finished that scenario and came out, I saw that the scenario I had died in earlier had been cleared, and it was cleared by three noobs and two female players. I barely got any experience points, which means my contribution was negligible…"

"How did that happen?" Gui Xiao asked.

"I was also wondering about that just now," Yongzhe Wudi replied. "Could it be that I was tricked by someone pretending to be weak… that level 11 noob named 'Feng Bujue' might have been pretending to be stupid, making me think he was a burden, and then acting alone…"

"Oh… I see, you initially thought others were in the way, but in the end, you realized that you were the superfluous one," Gui Xiao said.

"Whose side are you on, kid?" Yongzhe Wudi shouted.

"Hehe… I won't say anything, okay." Gui Xiao stood up with a smile. "I'm going home to sleep."

"What? Is your shift over?" Yongzhe Wudi asked.

"No, the team leader told me not to practice anymore and gave me a day off," Gui Xiao replied.

"What? During these few days of the beta test? Gave you a day off?" Yongzhe Wudi widened his eyes. "Are you level twenty too?"

"Level fifteen," Gui Xiao shrugged. "Here's what happened… I killed Brother Wuju and his two henchmen in \[Slaughter Game] mode. They complained to the team leader, saying that I wasn't cooperating with them to improve their specialization levels." He said with a smile, "Alas… adults these days… can't afford to lose."