Chapter 1 The Beginning

Feng Bujue quickly returned to cell number zero, heading straight for the plastic bucket in the corner. He then lowered the magnet tied to the end of the cloth rope, attempting to "fish" out a key or some other clue.

But unexpectedly, he didn't catch anything...

"What's going on? Not close enough?" Feng Bujue thought, because he hadn't allowed the cloth rope or magnet to directly touch the contents of the bucket, only suspending it in mid-air to fish.

"Wait... no... the item isn't here." Something suddenly occurred to him, and he quickly pulled up the cloth rope, taking the magnet in his hand. "If the system placed the clue I need for this step in cell number zero, what if I found it before escaping the room... then in the game's progress, the dentures and magnet would become skippable clues."

He read the item description of the magnet again:

[Name: Severed Iron Bar]

[Type: Story-Related]

[Quality: Common]

[Function: Generates a magnetic field]

[Can be brought out of this scenario: No]

[Note: This section of iron bar is crafted from natural lodestone.]

"The dentures can be brought out of the scenario and turned into a puzzle card, so theoretically they could be useless. But this magnet is a story item that can't be taken out of the scenario, so it's definitely going to be used somewhere," Feng Bujue muttered. "Hmm... since the magnet is necessary, the clue for the next step can't be hidden here. Because without the magnet, I could still find the item hidden in the latrine bucket, it would just be more disgusting..."

He held the magnet and began to reconsider: "What exactly... has to..."

"Could it be..." Feng Bujue quickly had a new theory. He jogged back to the entrance of cell number four, looking at the iron door. "Is it really like this..." He chuckled dryly, tiptoed, and reached his hand through the gap of the small iron window above.

With all five iron bars in place, the gap in this small window had limited width, only allowing the forearm to pass through. But after removing one iron bar, the entire arm could pass through.

Feng Bujue leaned against the door, reached his arm through the window, and groped upwards. Before long, he felt a key directly above the door on the other side.

[Name: Key to Cell Number One]

[Type: Story-Related]

[Quality: Common]

[Function: Disappears immediately after use, after which the door to cell number one can be freely opened or closed.]

[Can be brought out of this scenario: No]

[Note: Suspended behind the door of cell number four by a thin thread]

"This note is nonsense, I already have the item in my hand, do you still need to tell me?" Feng Bujue muttered unhappily.

The hiding place of this key was truly insidious. Its position was slightly higher than the door frame, almost touching the wall, making it invisible from any angle outside the door. Even if a player could see through the wall to the key's location, their hand wouldn't be able to reach it until a section of the iron bars was removed.

The only way was to remove that iron bar and reach inside. Only by passing the elbow through could the key be retrieved.

"Son of a..." Feng Bujue cursed as he walked towards cell number one. "Does every step have to be like this? Might as well have hidden it in the shit! Simple and clear!"

With a click, the door to cell number one opened.

Feng Bujue pushed the door open and entered, first standing at the entrance to observe for a minute. After confirming that opening the door hadn't triggered anything strange, he continued to act with peace of mind.

This cell also had a small wooden cabinet. So, without further ado, he opened the drawers...

In the top drawer, there was a clipping, only the size of a palm. The text on it was similar to English, but not quite. Feng Bujue didn't recognize which language it was. Of course, Thriller Paradise's system came with a translation function, so it didn't affect reading.

As soon as Feng Bujue saw this item, he was like an addict seeing drugs, impatiently taking it in front of his eyes to read.

The article's title was "The Demon Remains Active." The article read: "Since the Tarantula Moon, the number of missing persons in this town has exceeded forty. The National Wizarding Association and the Church have both declared themselves helpless. An official spokesperson stated that the seals in various parts of the town are intact, and there is no obvious evidence of demons. The victims' families and local nobles have issued a high reward. Anyone who solves the case or provides assistance can receive a maximum reward of twenty thousand Sati."

"Recently, this newspaper obtained reliable information from a bounty hunter that the instigator of the disappearances is a descendant of the 'Xing Clan.' The perpetrator..."

The text stopped abruptly here. The following content was nowhere to be found.

"What's going on... is this news or a novel?" Feng Bujue flipped the clipping over, wanting to use the information on the other side to verify it. Unfortunately, the writing on the back was blurred and unrecognizable. However, judging from the material of the paper, it should be a newspaper.

"Hmm... so this scenario is a fictional setting. This world has a Wizarding Association, demons, and bounty hunters... Sati should be currency, but it's unclear how much purchasing power twenty thousand has. The date calculation method is also unclear. Although there is a concept of months, it's impossible to determine how many days there are in a month, how many hours there are in a day, and even how many meals they eat a day... It's now difficult to say how long the carvings on the walls of cell number zero represent..." Feng Bujue had already begun a series of deductions in his mind. "This piece of paper is undoubtedly explaining the plot. If there are no accidents, this place I am in now is where those missing people were imprisoned. And the small figure in the opening CG is the mastermind behind the disappearances, the 'Xing Clan' descendant mentioned in the newspaper."

Feng Bujue unknowingly sat down on the ground, thinking with great interest. "Since it's this kind of setting, then it's not surprising that he could drag me with one hand. Perhaps it's because the Xing Clan people are naturally stronger than ordinary people, or perhaps the 'ordinary people' in this world also have this kind of strength." He touched his chin. "Hmm... speaking of which, it's still difficult to say what the so-called 'people' in this world look like. Maybe they all have three eyes, men and women both have beards, or maybe their faces are covered in hair..."

A normal person's thinking, at this moment, should be thinking: This should be a scenario with a Western magical civilization and a technological level after the Industrial Revolution, right?

But Feng Bujue's out-of-this-world thinking was pondering something else... He had only seen one person in the opening CG so far, and he hadn't seen his face. From a scientific perspective, a single individual obviously couldn't be used as a basis for confirming a theory. He would have to see at least a hundred residents of this world before he could draw a preliminary conclusion about which people belong to "ordinary people." Before that, Feng Bujue could propose hypotheses for any "unseen" things.

He hadn't seen the face of anyone in this scenario world, so he could assume that these people had any appearance; he hadn't seen people in this world do addition or subtraction, so he could also assume that they used a duodecimal system; he hadn't seen what Sati currency looked like, so maybe this thing was made of animal tongues...

In short, the world is finite, imagination is infinite, and what imprisons people's minds is just the mind itself. In Feng Bujue's view, "worldview" is something that can be whatever you want. Countless transmigration novels depict transmigrators going to another world dominated by humans, with only differences in civilization or history. But in the eyes of people like Feng Bujue, if people can travel to parallel universes, then transmigrating to a place ruled by a group of gorillas or rhinoceros people is the normal situation.

He sat on the ground for a long time, using the limited content on the newspaper, combined with what he had seen and heard after entering the scenario, to reorganize his thoughts.

Those daily necessities, the size of the bed, the size of the door, the size of the plastic bucket... were all his basis.

"Hmm... still no clue." More than ten minutes later, Feng Bujue shrugged with a smile. "Interesting."

He put away that small piece of newspaper, pulled the first drawer out of the small wooden cabinet, and checked it three hundred and sixty degrees, confirming that there were no words or carvings anywhere in this drawer, before he opened the second drawer.

The contents inside could almost make a person burst into tears of joy.

[Name: Key to Cell Number Two]

[Type: Story-Related]

[Quality: Common]

[Function: Disappears immediately after use, after which the door to cell number two can be freely opened or closed.]

[Can be brought out of this scenario: No]

[Note: A key that is very easy to obtain.]

"I always feel like this note has no guiding significance, it's just mocking the player..." Feng Bujue muttered, then put the key away and thoroughly examined the second drawer as well. After that, he opened the bottom drawer.

This drawer was empty, but inside, the Arabic numerals 38 were written in blood.

"According to the general pattern of puzzle-solving... this should be a section of some password, right?" Feng Bujue said, pulling out this drawer to check it as well. After confirming that this was the only hint, he stood up and searched the entire room again.

Before leaving the room, he made a new discovery, which was that on the inside of the iron door, the side facing the room, there was an arrow drawn. The arrow was painted with oil paint, just like the numbers outside the door.

The line of this arrow was not straight, but a curved line protruding upwards, and the direction of the arrow was to the right.

"Oh, oh... so that's how it is, I think I already understand." Feng Bujue said with a smile as he looked at the hint.

After that, he entered cell number two. The same small wooden cabinet, with another clipping in the top drawer, but its content was not continuous with the one in cell number one.

"With the death of Sheriff Karl in pursuit, rumors about the 'Xing Clan' have been further confirmed. The Royal Arcanist Corps has finally taken action, and has dispatched three armed alchemists and five mechanical corps officers to this town. The amount of the public reward has reached an unprecedented one hundred thousand Sati. According to sources, the mysterious bounty hunter who uses black magic—the Scarecrow—has also appeared in town."

"Heh... it's getting more and more interesting." Feng Bujue commented.

Similar to cell number one, in this small wooden cabinet in cell number two, the middle drawer contained the key to cell number three, and the bottom drawer also had Arabic numerals written on it, this time it was 69. The inside of the iron door of this cell also had an arrow drawn on it, this arrow was pointing to the left, and the line was also curved upwards in a semicircle.

The design of cells number three, four, and five was similar.

The three clippings are as follows...

"The Scarecrow and the bodies of three armed alchemists were found in the suburbs of the town. Officials refused to comment on this matter, and panic is spreading in the town. This morning, the new sheriff announced that he would urgently mobilize troops from the neighboring town and the Iron Blade Knights to come to support, and issued a nighttime curfew. Anyone who leaves home and walks on the streets at night can be arrested, and those who resist can be directly suppressed with force."

"The curfew has been in effect for two weeks, and the situation has been effectively controlled. According to the latest news released by officials, the number of missing persons has remained at sixty-seven and has not increased further. However, the curfew is unlikely to be lifted until at least the Badger Bird Moon."

The third clipping also had a title, the title was: "Xing Clan Manhunter, Dead?"

"Yesterday, the long curfew was finally lifted. The Iron Blade Knights have all withdrawn from the town, and the troops from the neighboring town are also withdrawing in batches. The Royal Arcanist Corps' investigation team has rushed to this place. All signs indicate that the case has been solved, but officials are still keeping silent. The terrifying shadow that has plagued this town for nearly a star month season seems to have dissipated, but none of the missing people have returned, and there are no reports of finding corpses. Has the Xing Clan mastermind already been captured? Or is he temporarily lurking in the darkness?"

Feng Bujue stacked all the clippings he found in order and put them in his pocket. As for those numbers and arrows, he remembered them all in his mind.

He took the key to cell number six and walked in. As expected, this cell didn't have a small wooden cabinet, but a large safe.

"Hmm... mechanical combination lock, eighty increments... automatically destroys the code after unlocking, leaves no trace, small size, fully mechanical structure, no power supply required, can adapt to various harsh environments... classic is classic." Feng Bujue muttered as he squatted in front of it. "Too bad I know the password..."

"So... first clockwise, 38, then... counterclockwise..." As he said this, he began to operate the lock.

After seeing the hint in cell number one, he had roughly guessed the nature of this set of puzzles. That curved arrow and number were the direction of rotation and increment, and the room number represented the steps.

After fiddling with it a few times, the safe's lock was opened. Anyone with half a brain could guess that inside was definitely the key to the prison door on basement 1F.

But unexpectedly...

"What the hell..." Feng Bujue looked at the thing in front of him, and felt a sense of being played.

It turned out that the large safe contained a small safe...

This small safe was only half the size of the larger one outside. There was also a small glass bottle on top of the safe. Feng Bujue took the glass bottle in his hand and looked at the item description:

[Name: Perfume]

[Type: Story-Related]

[Quality: Common]

[Function: Unknown]

[Can be brought out of this scenario: Yes]

[Note: Fragrant and rich, with a lingering aroma.]

"What the heck... I thought it would be lasting fragrance, one bottle lasts forever." Feng Bujue said, "Hmm... but this is already the third item that can be brought out of the scenario, soap, dentures, perfume... what's going on? Next time, is it going to be a toothbrush?"

This item wasn't suitable to put in his pocket, so he put it in his knapsack. Now, Brother Jue was also someone who had a fifteen-slot knapsack, which was indeed much more convenient than the days when he only had a ten-slot knapsack.

"Okay, let's see how to open this small one..." Feng Bujue immediately tried the password of the large safe, but it failed.

"Ha! As expected." He said, resetting the lock and trying it again with the same password, but in reverse. It still failed.

"Can't underestimate you..." He divided all the increments by two and tried again, failing miserably.

"Ah!!!" Feng Bujue began to envy those purely combat-oriented players. He held his fist, which was as big as a sandbag, and looked at the small safe. "All martial arts under heaven... are unbreakable..." In the next second, he activated his title ability [Watch This!] with Fighting Specialization.

After a punch hit the small safe, a burst of air erupted, with impressive power.

Three seconds later, the technique stopped, and the object remained still. The safe was undamaged, but Feng Bujue's survival value dropped by 3%, and the surface of his fist was sore.

"Okay, I just wanted to say that line." Feng Bujue mocked himself.

After sighing, he continued to try using the method of unlocking... but as he himself said, the design of this lock was very classic, with millions of possible combinations. Could he really try them all? Taking a step back, even if this was just a six-digit combination lock, there were theoretically nearly a million combinations. With Feng Bujue's luck, he would have to try at least five hundred thousand times, right...?

"Ah..." A nameless fire rose in Feng Bujue's heart. "Is this scenario... forcing people to commit suicide by crushing their balls?"

He simply stopped trying, stood up, and entered reasoning time again. "What other information am I ignoring? Reversing the numbers... addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division... whether it is a prime number..."

He pondered for a while, and then tried again for a while. Before he knew it, half an hour had passed. In these thirty minutes, he had tried almost all possible combinations, and thus confirmed one thing... the password of this small safe had nothing to do with the large safe at all.

"Damn it!" In a fit of anger, Feng Bujue dragged the small safe out of the large one. "If only I couldn't use grenades..." Before he could finish his words, the safe, due to the inertia of his movement, pressed down on his foot.

Feng Bujue didn't expect that the weight of this safe was much heavier than it looked. With his current strength in the game, he could snatch-lift a hundred-kilogram barbell without any problem, so he didn't think much when carrying the safe out, resulting in the situation of lifting a piece of iron and smashing his own foot.

This smash caused him to lose another 3% of his health. Don't underestimate this little bit of survival value. Feng Bujue was now level twenty-seven, after all. He wasn't the kind of level where he would lose health by breaking a rotten wall with his elbow.

"I'll go... so heavy..." Feng Bujue said, "Lead-antimony alloy?" As soon as he said this, a flash of inspiration appeared in his mind. "Wait... could it be..."

He sat down and pushed the safe over to check it. Sure enough, he saw a small circular hole at the bottom...