Chapter 12 The Fire Key

The few people waiting outside only had to wait a minute before they saw lights turn on inside the police station.

They exchanged confused glances. A few dozen seconds later, Feng Bujue walked out from the same spot: "I found the switch for the backup power. This police station seems to have its own built-in independent power supply."

This was undoubtedly good news. The five of them immediately filed through the hole in the wall and entered the police station.

Once fully illuminated, the scene inside was actually quite terrifying. Aside from the ceiling, which hadn't suffered too much damage, almost all of the movable objects—desks, chairs, benches, computers, files, water dispensers, and so on—were not in their original positions. There were also many things that appeared to be door panel fragments, as well as a dozen or so damaged door frames. The most debris was piled up behind the main entrance of the police station, so it was impossible to open it from the outside, even with a key.

On the first floor, there were a total of three police corpses. The first body that Feng Bujue had found was the closest to the entrance. Searching deeper, they found two more in uniform, both Caucasian males. The second corpse was obese, with a gaping wound on the side of his round belly…; the third corpse was of medium build, with a gash on his left shoulder that severed the collarbone and extended to the left chest. His heart was missing from his chest cavity…

The game's level of realism for these disgusting things was extremely high, but the system suppressed the player's urge to vomit, mainly by making slight adjustments to the olfactory and gustatory senses during neural connection transmission, preventing the player's stomach from experiencing strong discomfort.

Wang Tanzhi didn't care at all; he had dissected many corpses in real life. Of course, this had nothing to do with courage; he was just used to it. As long as the corpse wasn't moving, whether it was disemboweled or not, he wasn't afraid. But he was afraid of all sorts of ghosts, spirits, monsters, and even the darkness. His reaction when watching horror movies or playing horror games was similar to that of a girl.

Speaking of which, even though girls react strongly to horror movies, it doesn't mean they are timid. This is a complete deception. They may be afraid at times in real life, but watching horror movies is another matter… For example, a young couple might sit together watching a horror movie, with the man often wearing an indifferent expression and the woman looking scared. One would make jokes to lighten the mood, while the other would scream from time to time. This happens every day, and eight times out of ten, the man is pretending to be brave and the woman is acting cute. In reality, their level of fear for the horror movie is similar; there shouldn't be such a discrepancy.

But I have to say, a man who doesn't pretend to be brave isn't cute, and a girl who doesn't act cute is too brave. This is how the world needs to operate, so please keep up the good work.

Getting back to the point, let's return to the three corpses. The one that Feng Bujue had searched naturally had no items left to discover. The disemboweled one had a police baton and a pair of handcuffs. When he picked them up, he saw that the handcuffs were broken, and there was no handcuff key on his body.

The police baton was given to Gu Du. Although it was a common-quality piece of equipment, it had no equipment restrictions, and it was at least a specialized weapon, which made the hitherto unarmed Gu Du very satisfied.

The third corpse was in a very small compartment, seemingly a place for storing cleaning tools. Surprisingly, it had nothing on it, absolutely nothing. Just as Feng Bujue was about to strip him naked to see if he had any tattoos or three moles on the soles of his feet, Wang Tanzhi finally found a piece of paper in his pocket.

This obvious puzzle element couldn't be missed.

[Name: Note with Numbers]

[Type: Plot Related]

[Quality: Common]

[Function: Unknown]

[Can be brought out of this scenario: No]

[Remarks: 69185]

The note only had these five Arabic numerals on it. Feng Bujue looked at the item description for a few seconds and actually threw the paper away.

"Hey! Jue-ge, is it okay to throw it away like that?" Wang Tanzhi said.

Feng Bujue took out the bunch of keys he had picked up earlier and examined them one by one: "69185... 69185... Found it." He picked out the key with these five numbers engraved on the end, detached it from the large bunch, and then threw away the entire bunch, leaving only this one. He said, "Mm... that's right, this is it."

When that key was picked out and held in his hand alone, a new item prompt appeared in the menu:

[Name: Fire Key]

[Type: Plot Related]

[Quality: Fine]

[Function: Used on the Seal of Fire]

[Can be brought out of this scenario: No]

[Remarks: A key with magical energy, one of the five keys to the Devil's Gate]

"This should be a plot item required for the main quest," Feng Bujue said. "Even if we don't come to this police station now, we'll still have a follow-up quest that requires us to come here after we get to the Devil's Gate."

"Great, doesn't that save us time?" Wang Tanzhi said.

"Time..." Feng Bujue said, "Hmph... never mind. The item's remarks say that there are a total of five keys. Following this Zelda-style,坑爹 (kengdie -坑爹 means "pit dad" or "screw someone over," implying it is something terrible, disappointing, or a rip-off) routine... I estimate that after we get to the Devil's Gate, the follow-up quest we receive will be to find all five keys and then open or close the gate."

Long Aomin walked over from the other end of the corridor at this time and said, "The stairs leading to the second floor have been completely destroyed. It seems we can't go up."

"As expected..." Feng Bujue handed him the key, letting him see its attributes. "What we need to find is on the first floor."

Gu Du and Ji Mo seemed to have found something. They found a first-aid kit in a pile of debris in a room and brought it over.

When opened, it contained a roll of bandage and two bottles of clear liquid. These were naturally consumables. The bandage's effect was to stop bleeding, while the two bottles of liquid were the standard survival value restoratives provided by Thriller Paradise.

[Name: Survival Value Supplement (Large) *2]

[Type: Consumable]

[Quality: Common]

[Function: Restores 100% of the player's survival value]

[Can be brought out of this scenario: Yes]

[Remarks: Maximum stack size is 5. Continuous use of this item will gradually reduce the effect.]

Feng Bujue understood when he saw this remark. The maximum stack size was obviously to limit the number of items that players could carry, because the knapsack only had ten slots. Even if there were bigger ones in the future, they would still need to leave room for equipment and other items. The setting of diminishing effects with continuous use was to prevent players from excessively relying on the supplement in battle.

"Very good... if one bottle is 100%..." Feng Bujue took out his [Disposable Syringe], handed it to Wang Tanzhi, and said, "Doctor, I'll leave it to you."

Wang Tanzhi was a smart man and immediately understood Feng Bujue's meaning. He picked up a bottle of supplement and extracted about four-fifths of the liquid, then signaled Long Aomin to roll up his sleeve.

While Doctor Wang was giving him the injection, Long Aomin handed the key back to Feng Bujue and said, "What does 69185 on this mean?"

Feng Bujue replied, "A low-level puzzle, just the order of the alphabet, 6f, 9i, 18r, 5e, fire."

Although it sounded simple with his explanation, Long Aomin felt that he might not have thought of it himself.

Wang Tanzhi completed the injection cleanly. The amount he extracted was relatively accurate. This injection restored 83% of Long Aomin's survival value, returning him to 95% health.

Wang Tanzhi first asked Gu Du and Ji Mo if they had lost any survival value. They both said that they were at full health, so Wang Tanzhi didn't hesitate to pick up the bottle and drink the remaining 17% in one gulp, restoring his survival value to 100%.

Some may ask, why didn't the two of them just take a swig each? The reason is... as soon as a player makes the "drinking" action, the item instantly disappears.

As the most common "health potion," supplements will be one of the main products sold in the game store in the future. Unlike the realistic-style items in the script, this is completely a system prop setting. As soon as a player makes the "drinking" action, even if they just lift it to their mouth and pour it down haphazardly, it will be considered completely empty. There won't even be a feeling of liquid flowing down their throat, and even the bottle will immediately disappear. This thing is meant to be "used," not to quench thirst or create a sense of fullness, so it has to be set up this way.

The disposable syringe could be said to be taking advantage of a loophole, and only Feng Bujue, who had thoroughly read the game instructions, could have thought of it. Wang Tanzhi and Long Aomin hadn't completely realized it yet. They were just following Feng Bujue's ideas without thinking. It wasn't until after this script ended that they looked at the relevant instructions for the supplement and understood the reason.

From the system's point of view, this should not only not be seen as a bug, but Wang Tanzhi should also be rewarded with some skill points. Because the [Disposable Syringe] disappears after being used once, the player is consuming one item to indirectly split another item. There is an exchange, a gain and a loss, not creation out of nothing.

"A police baton, a pistol, a plot item for the main quest, and two bottles of health and an item to remove the 'bleeding' status..." Feng Bujue did the math. "Normally, after receiving the main quest and killing the blood zombie, you might indeed have a 'bleeding' wound. The survival value supplement is also necessary. Not mentioning the plot item… killing such a monster and only getting two weapons seems too little..."

Feng Bujue lowered his head, crossed his left arm over his chest, supported his elbow on his left hand, and tapped his forehead with two fingers: "I was originally looking forward to finding a room like an armory or a pile of confiscated marijuana..."

"Hey! What are you holding back? Virtual drug experiences are strictly prohibited!" Wang Tanzhi said.

"That's right!" Feng Bujue's eyes lit up. "That fat guy's intestines were spilling out, so how is his belly still so big? There's something inside!"