Chapter 17 Act

The task then appeared in the taskbar: [Explore the mansion and find a way to escape the manor.]

After reading it, Feng Bujue didn't say a word and turned to open the front door. This was a flat door composed of two solid wooden panels. Feng Bujue gripped the doorknobs on both sides and twisted them until they creaked, but it was clear that the door was locked and wouldn't open so easily.

Valiant Champion snorted, "Amateurs are amateurs. How could this door possibly open?"

*Kacha, kacha…*

Wang Tanzhi also joined Feng Bujue. He held a kitchen knife in one hand, randomly poking at the gap between the two door panels, and pulled the doorknob with the other, using his actions to show his support for Feng Bujue.

"That little brother with 'Panicked' in his title, are you trying to be funny? I already said…" Valiant Champion added.

*Bang, bang, bang…*

The two of them intensified their efforts, each grabbing a doorknob and vigorously pulling on the two door panels.

"I'm telling you…" Valiant Champion was almost at a loss for words.

*Snap! Snap!* Two consecutive sounds rang out, and both doorknobs were broken off. Now, even with a key, the door couldn't be opened.

"Hey! What are you guys doing!" Valiant Champion exclaimed. In that instant, his scare value inexplicably increased again.

*Bang, bang, bang…*

They then used their shoulders to slam into the door without the knobs.

Finally, Feng Bujue, who had been making a racket for two or three minutes, turned around, straightened his collar, and cleared his throat: "It seems it really can't be opened."

Valiant Champion roared in his heart: "F***!"

However, he couldn't curse like that, so he could only shout angrily, "Nonsense! Didn't I say that from the beginning?"

"You just said it," Feng Bujue replied, "but I proved it with practice."

"Why don't you prove the feasibility of quitting the team halfway and the subsequent system penalty?" Valiant Champion retorted.

"Hmm… so what's sealing the door is indeed some kind of supernatural power…" Feng Bujue said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, uttering a useless sentence.

"Ignoring me now, huh!" The fire in Valiant Champion's heart soared.

Si Yu watched for a while, then silently turned and walked towards the dark corridor on the first floor. Since someone had already proven that the door was impossible to open, she didn't bother watching the farce any longer. Bei Ling followed her, and they left the living room together.

Seeing the two gradually walking away, Long Aotian hesitated to speak, and Valiant Champion, who was still angry, noticed their actions and shouted, "Hey! Don't run around, what if you trigger something…"

"It's okay," Feng Bujue suddenly interrupted from behind, "Judging from the task's content, the more things we trigger, the better." As he spoke, he walked towards a glass window next to the door. The window was rectangular, over a meter high and a foot wide, with a pointed top and a wooden frame. Looking out, the other side of the window seemed covered in a layer of mist, preventing anyone from seeing the scenery outside.

Feng Bujue took out a pipe wrench and swung it to smash the window. As a result, after the iron object heavily struck the window glass, Feng Bujue felt his arm go numb, as if he had struck some kind of metal resonator with the wrench.

"Hmm… this window glass is like the door, its surface has some kind of force field." Feng Bujue said.

Valiant Champion shook his head and sighed, "That's why you amateurs have no common sense… how could the system create a script that can be broken through with brute force right from the start?" He turned and headed upstairs, "Are you three together? Please, don't follow me. Being with three cumbersome noobs in an indoor environment might prevent even me from clearing the game. You guys take care of the first floor; I'll handle the second floor alone."

In his heart, Valiant Champion had already determined that these three were the kind of super-lousy teammates. Except for that [Squad Guardian] named Long Aotian, who seemed to have some strength, the other two were seriously unreliable. That [Panicked Sneak Attacker]'s title was already bad enough, and the [Cold-Blooded Headshot Maniac]'s title was meaningless, and his attitude was annoying, and he displayed various ignorant behaviors.

What annoyed Valiant Champion the most was when people asked him about "Valiant Champion" being the first to reach level twenty. Outsiders who knew nothing about their studio especially liked to ask this and that. In fact, in Order Studio, leveling up fast didn't mean anything, it was just due to different job assignments.

Professional gamers were already a very mature industry in 2055. The most numerous and common were some small studios. They considered themselves professionals, but their planning ability and execution were seriously lacking. Often, the boss himself was also the manager, the accountant, and the game leader, and most bosses still harbored the heart of a pure gamer, often doing things for their own benefit, using collective resources to earn a false name for themselves in the online world. Such studios were as numerous as hairs, frequently forming and dissolving, and their income was extremely unstable. These teams formed the bottom layer of the industry's structure.

Looking higher, the middle level of this industry mostly consisted of small-to-medium-sized studios with a certain level of management and talent reserves. The only difference between some small teams and the bottom level was that they had one or two "star players," top experts in a certain type of game. In competitive game teams, sometimes one or two such stars could prop up the entire studio's reputation. However, most studios that could survive at this level had already abandoned the bandit-style management model and were able to use the team's resources in a more planned manner.

In short, no matter which industry, if you want to last, you need long-term planning. A game team without a plan is basically no different from a group of amateur players gathered together, they just have more time to play games.

At the top of the industry were first-class studios like "Order." They had dedicated management teams to oversee operations, and game teams were divided into groups and shifts to work. In the six-person team primarily responsible for leveling up, specializations and individual roles were clearly defined, and item resources, intelligence, and so on were shared in real-time within the studio. All equipment and skills obtained by members had to be prioritized for the leveling-up team.

Players like Valiant Champion who "went out" to solo were on missions. For example, Valiant Champion's level wasn't important; his main task was to raise the level of his Fighting specialization and gather information. It didn't matter whether he trained other specializations or had equipment; these could be improved through internal studio teams in the future. What "Order" wanted now was first-hand information, and what Valiant Champion was responsible for was testing the actual effects of the Fighting specialization after leveling it up.

So, whenever Valiant Champion was asked about the studio by strangers, he felt one word—"annoyed." First of all, this was a trade secret, and he had an obligation to keep it confidential; secondly, even if he could tell, he had no interest or need to explain it to others.

"Alright, but Brother Valiant Champion, you have to be careful on your own." Feng Bujue said with a friendly smile.

Hearing this, Valiant Champion suddenly shivered. An inexplicable sense of eeriness made his scare value rise slightly again, as if Feng Bujue's words foreshadowed something bad about to happen.

He glanced back at the three in the living room, banished the strange thoughts from his mind, turned, and went upstairs alone.

Watching his figure disappear around a corner on the second floor, Long Aotian said, "Brother Feng, why did you deliberately act foolish?" He looked puzzled, "You can't possibly not know the system's meticulousness… the door and window are obviously impossible to open. Even if you want to try, there's no need to be so exaggerated, right?"

"To make the act convincing enough, he'll have to believe I don't know anything," Feng Bujue said, "Then he'll react the way he did now, throwing off us 'burdens' and acting alone."

"Brother Jue, you wouldn't be planning to stab him in the back, would you… you can't attack your own teammates in this game." Wang Tanzhi said. He had helped dismantle the door earlier, not to cooperate with Feng Bujue's acting, but because he really thought the door could be opened…

"I don't want to harm him, I just think it's more efficient to split up in this kind of script," Feng Bujue said, "Those two girls suit my intentions, they left on their own accord. But this guy… I'm afraid he's not the type to discuss how to proceed with us." He paused, "In his opinion, he has the highest level, he's a professional gamer, so he should have the most say in the team. If I suggested exploring separately, he'd probably object immediately. When I was pulling the door, he even tried to stop the other two from leaving the team, which shows that he originally planned to act collectively." Feng Bujue then walked to a wall and squatted down, seemingly observing something, "It's best this way, he left on his own." He gently removed the cobwebs and dust from the wall with his hand, "Let's search separately too, and when we see the hint that the main quest has changed, we'll meet here."

Xiao Tan exclaimed, "We're splitting up too?"

"Didn't I say it's more efficient to split up?" Feng Bujue replied, his eyes not leaving the wall, "Don't worry, this kind of mansion is basically a haunted setting, it's unlikely there will be monsters like aliens. So this script is mainly about scaring people and solving puzzles, and most of the physical harm is likely to be caused by traps, so just be careful."

Before he finished speaking, the system prompt rang again: [Side Quest Triggered]

The three of them looked at the task menu. The original main quest was still there, but a new task had been added below: [Find all six segments of "Ghost Palace," current progress 1/6]