Chapter 1 Setting

The five players who entered the script with Feng Bujue were unaware that the script was set inside Zhuan Jie Zun's brain, nor did they receive the special treatment that Jue Ge did.

To them, this was just a normal loading process.

After the opening CG, they arrived in a dilapidated wooden cabin.

Regaining their vision, they found themselves in a small room. In the center of the room was a four-legged wooden table, on which sat a glowing oil lamp. Besides the table and the lamp, there was no other furniture in the room.

[Main Quest Triggered]

[Find "My" corpse.]

The system prompt sounded in their ears as soon as they were settled. At first glance... the main quest seemed conventional and orderly, with no restrictions given by the system.

"Eh? Where's Jue Ge?" Xiao Tan was the first to notice someone missing from the team after regaining the ability to move.

"Judging from the team roster, he's still 'Alive'..." Ruoyu immediately replied, "Perhaps his teleport location is different from ours."

"Ah! Feng Bujue!" At this moment, one of the two unfamiliar players, the slightly plump one, also saw Jue Ge's ID in the team roster, and he immediately exclaimed, "Hey, hey... this couldn't be that~ Feng Bujue, could it?"

The skinny one next to him added, "Is there any other Feng Bujue? Isn't it that~ Feng Bujue!"

These two players were both male, looked to be around twenty years old, and were just over 1.7 meters tall. Their distinguishing feature was that one was fat and the other was skinny.

The fat one had a crew cut, bright and piercing eyes, and rectangular eyebrows that looked like seaweed. His ID was 【Mingzhentan Buu】 (Detective Buu), and his title was "Human Firewheel."

The skinny one had long hair, looked malnourished, and seemed as if he would fall over with the slightest breeze. His ID was 【Laojunyi Oubu】 (Old Doctor Oubu), and his title was "Human Supply Station."

From their game names, it was clear that these were definitely casual players. And before playing the game, they had already decided on their specializations.

If the few from Hell Front represented the highest level of casual players, then Buu and Oubu would be considered second-tier. Of course... that wasn't bad either. Players at this level, while unable to perform some incredible feats like the "top" experts, would not make low-level mistakes; their understanding of equipment, skills, specializations, and scripts... was very mature. As long as there was an excellent leader, this type of second-tier player could also bring great help to the team.

To use an analogy... these players were like "role players" in the NBA. It wasn't difficult for a team to play cool, just have one or two superstar players; but to win a championship, they needed these role players. They were the cornerstone of the team, representing "bench depth."

"Wow! You guys... you're all from 'Hell Front'!" A few seconds later, Buu looked up at the badges on the three people in front of him and shouted in surprise again.

"Yeah..." Xiao Ling replied, squinting, "But... our club isn't that famous, what are you so excited about?"

"Because you're in the same club as 'Mad God'..." Oubu's weak voice sounded, "Isn't that a very amazing thing?"

"Very... amazing?" Even Xiao Ling was stunned by what the other person said.

"I see..." Ruoyu observed the situation and quickly made a deduction, "You're both fans of Bujue in the game..."

She deliberately added the prerequisite "in the game" mainly to distinguish herself (a fan in reality) from them.

"That's right!" Buu said, staring with his round eyes, "We are determined to become super-first-class experts as unique as Mad God!"

"I agree with the unique part," Ruoyu replied coldly. Her implication was... the word "super-first-class" was wasted on Jue Ge.

Afterward, the five of them chatted for a few minutes, getting to know each other.

Both Buu and Oubu were peripheral members of "Tian Di" (the studio where Yu Zhong Ji Chang was), similar in nature to Cai Bupa Ne from Jianghu. Although they weren't salaried professional players, they were also the backbone of the club.

…………

It's worth explaining here... In the world of this book, regardless of size, 95% of game studios recruit peripheral members—that is, "non-professional players recruited in the game." Even Atobe's "Hyotei" club recruited online members like Hei Bai Hui, which shows... this is basically common knowledge in the industry.

Because in large-scale online games, "numbers" are also a symbol of strength, a factor that cannot be ignored by any club, guild, gang, or nation. The elite mindset of the Straw Hat Pirates is impractical in most games.

For a simple example, in a certain game, a Boss spawned in the wild. Guild A sent a hundred people, and Guild B sent two hundred people. Who do you think will get the Boss? It's obvious... Even if Guild B splits off a hundred people to PK with Guild A to delay them, they still have a hundred people left to farm the Boss...

Most games that allow forced PK are like this, there's no reasoning to be had. Whoever is stronger has the right to speak. Things like "first come, first served," "martial world rules," "give me some face," etc.... are all negotiation terms used when the strengths are equal; when the strengths are vastly different, there's another set of negotiation terms, such as "f*** your mother!", "get out of here!", and "are you tired of living?"

In short... numbers are important. One more person means one more strength. Even a studio like "Order," which is full of professional high-level players, wouldn't dare to say, "I don't need peripheral members." In fact, they not only need them, but they need a lot... Besides those small team personal combat games similar to e-sports, Order offers very generous conditions in every online game to attract those peripheral members with a certain level of strength. Not only them... Jianghu, Xingchen, Zhushen, Shi Dao, etc.... studios of various sizes and styles all do the same.

Only a "studio" like Daofeng, with some unspeakable secrets, wouldn't take in any outsiders.

…………

A few minutes later, Xiao Tan's expression suddenly changed slightly, and he said, "Did you guys smell something?"

As a surgeon, Xiao Tan had a very sensitive sense of smell, especially when it came to certain chemical agents...

"Now that you mention it, it seems like there is a..." Buu said, sniffing while wrinkling his nose, "...weird, pungent..."

"Formalin," Xiao Tan said the answer directly, and walked towards a corner of the wooden cabin, "It seems to be coming from behind that door."

At this moment, the room they were in was about thirty square meters; the roof was arched into a triangle, supported by two intersecting main beams and several support pillars; the floor under their feet, though old and dirty, wasn't rotten enough to give off an odor; the surrounding four walls were wooden walls made of horizontally stacked logs, with not even a window, but there was a door on each of the adjacent two walls.

"Uh... can't open it." Xiao Tan walked to the door, grabbed the doorknob and turned it, and heard a prompt in his ear: 【This door is locked】. "Looks like you need a key to open it." He paused, "Hmm... I'm pretty sure the smell is coming from behind this door."

"This door is too..." At this time, Oubu, who was closer to the other door, also tried his door, and heard the same prompt.

"Strange..." Xiao Tan pondered, "Both of the room's only two exits are locked..." He thought for a moment, "In that case... there should be at least one key in this room."

"Hmm... it's not under the table." While Xiao Tan was speaking, Xiao Ling had squatted down and checked. In the shadows under the table, on the inside of the four table legs, and on the back of the tabletop... there was nothing.

Whoosh—

At this moment, a soft sound rang out in the room.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw... in a corner that was originally empty, a man wearing a long purple suit appeared.

"Sorry, I'm late." Feng Bujue's gaze swept across the faces of the five people, and then he showed a relaxed smile, "Because of some trivial matters... I was slightly delayed."