Chapter 1 The Sound

The sound wasn't coming from the direction Feng Bujue had come from, but from the side he hadn't explored yet.

The soft groan was followed by footsteps.

*Pa, pa, pa…*

These weren't ordinary footsteps; they were the sounds of bare feet treading on the floor.

"Great… a barefoot guy's coming to mess with me, a guy with shoes…" Just from the sound, Feng Bujue knew he was in trouble.

In a Nightmare Difficulty scenario, especially one that limited the player's abilities, being ambushed by a monster… could very easily mean instant death.

Even players without much Nightmare Difficulty experience knew this, let alone old hands like Feng Bujue, who frequented Nightmare Difficulty scenarios every other day.

Therefore, even though Brother Jue had a weapon at his disposal, his first choice was still to hide.

"Hmm… gotta grab something useful first." In that instant, Feng Bujue quickly scanned the trolley and grabbed a weapon.

[Name: Scalpel]

[Type: Weapon]

[Quality: Common]

[Attack Power: Medium]

[Attribute: None]

[Special Effect: None]

[Equipment Requirements: General Mastery E, or Medical Mastery F]

[Can be brought out of this scenario: Yes]

[Remarks: No. 3 handle, No. 22 blade.]

Without equipment or physical enhancement, this kind of common, lightweight, bladed weapon was still pretty good.

Of course, according to Feng Bujue's self-ranked "Ordinary Person Melee Weapon Tier List," scalpels could only be considered T2 bottom-tier… above them were baseball bats, golf clubs, folding stools, cleavers, and so on. T3 would be kitchen knives, bricks, brass knuckles, hammers, and the like. A slightly worse T4 would be frozen meat, scissors, wine bottles, shoe soles, walking sticks, and frying pans. As for what the T1 god-tier item was, we all know… a chainsaw, no explanation needed.

*Pa, pa, pa…*

The footsteps grew more rapid, closer and closer.

Feng Bujue glanced around. There really wasn't anywhere to hide in this room… the cabinets were all too small; even elementary school students couldn't fit inside. The mechanical equipment wasn't big enough to create blind spots. There wasn't even a nook to squat down in.

Looking around, it seemed the only place to go was behind the curtain…

So, Feng Bujue decisively pulled back the curtain. Then, he saw a hospital bed; on the bed, there was a head and a foot.

Let's talk about the foot first… the foot wasn't moving anymore, because most of the fluorescent fluid inside it had already leaked out. "It" was just placed on the bed, like a common, severed organ.

But the head… was still "alive."

"It" was secured to the headboard with several leather straps. Several tubes of varying thickness and material were connected to the base of its neck, and those tubes were connected to several pieces of equipment by the bedside. One of them had a transparent casing and a rubber pump inside that was rhythmically rising and falling, seemingly an "artificial lung." Another was similar in principle, but it was filled with fluorescent fluid instead of air…

When Feng Bujue pulled back the curtain, he found that the head's eyes had already locked onto him, meaning… this head had long sensed that someone was outside the curtain.

"So the senses of sight and hearing haven't disappeared…" Feng Bujue glanced at the head and thought, "I wonder if he can still think, and if he's hostile towards me… but a guy who's lost his vocal cords can't expose my position, even if he wanted to."

He was pondering this when suddenly, a "bang" came from behind him. Without a doubt, that was the "barefoot guy" pushing the door open and coming in…

Then, there was a silence lasting ten seconds.

Feng Bujue, who had slipped under the bed in a flash, knew even without looking… that the newcomer was scanning the room.

*Pa, pa…* Ten seconds later, the footsteps sounded again, heading straight for the bed.

*Sssrah—*

The curtain was ripped open violently, and a pair of gaunt feet appeared in Brother Jue's sight.

They were a pair of somewhat deformed feet, not only skin and bones but also as if they had been gnawed on by some animal. In several places, the skin on the instep was missing, revealing the bare white bone… the toes on both feet were also twisted and crossed, but they maintained the balance of the entire foot in a strange way…

If possible, Brother Jue really wanted to see the other person's whole body, but unfortunately, from his angle, he could only see these feet. If he wanted to look further up, he'd have to stick his head out… doing that was too risky, not worth it.

"Ugh—" The barefoot guy stood by the bed and let out another groan, then… sniffed a couple of times, like a hound tracking prey.

Fortunately, the smell of disinfectant in this room was very strong. Unless it was something with a strong odor like excrement, the smell of other things could easily be masked.

"Heh… hehe…" For some reason, after sniffing around for a while, the barefoot guy suddenly chuckled twice. His laughter sounded like an old-timer who smoked industrial waste as cigarettes every day for decades, that hoarse, smoky voice… made people want to spit immediately.

After those few chuckles, the barefoot guy turned and left. After he walked a little further away, Feng Bujue leaned his head forward slightly, making sure he didn't leave the shadows.

At this moment, Brother Jue barely managed to see the monster's body below the ribs… Overall, that guy was just a dried-up corpse; not only were his collarbones prominent and his skin shriveled, but there were also many places on his body where the skin was torn open, directly exposing bone.

Perhaps due to considerations of harmony, this monster, who was shirtless and barefoot, was still wearing a pair of capri pants (I, your humble narrator, distinguish the length of the pants of humanoid monsters in horror games by the degree of damage to the pant legs; torn to the root of the thigh is a one-point pant, only torn at the pant legs is a nine-point pant, and so on)…

*Bang—*

Accompanied by the sound of a door panel being kicked, the monster went out…

This barefoot guy came and went in a hurry. From entering the room to pushing the door open and leaving, it took less than a minute in total.

However, this one minute was undoubtedly a very terrifying experience for the person hiding under the bed…

The tension of being discovered at any moment…

The fear that made the blood in one's whole body run cold…

The repression that made one's heart almost jump out of one's throat, yet one didn't dare to breathe loudly…

"Hmm… heading towards the room at the end of the corridor…"

Feng Bujue had none of the above reactions…

"Looks like… just a mutated human, and a trashy mutation with a crippled form…"

After experiencing this "terrifying" hiding scene, ordinary people would usually breathe a sigh of relief and hide under the bed until they couldn't hear the monster's voice at all before coming out.

But Feng Bujue immediately thought of counterattacking…

"Take advantage of this opportunity to quietly follow and deliver an unexpected backstab… the success rate is definitely over seventy percent."

Thinking of this, Brother Jue took advantage of the situation and smoothly rolled out from under the bed, followed by a carp-like leap to his feet… then, he quickly grabbed a bone saw from the trolley.

He held a bone saw in one hand and a scalpel in the other and headed for the door.

Seeing this scene, even the Head Guy who was fixed to the bed frame showed a shocked expression…

"Moving pretty fast…" Three seconds later, Brother Jue opened the door without making a sound, using his shoulder to push it open, and returned to the corridor. At this time, the barefoot guy had already passed the corner ahead. Judging by the sound of the footsteps, he was heading for the room with the locked door.

"At this speed, I should be able to catch up in about thirty seconds…" Feng Bujue continued to maintain silence, taking large strides to shorten the distance between him and the other party.

However, just as he approached the corner and was about to dart out…

*Bang—*

A loud noise came.

The sound was like a car rear-ending another car, and it was a rear-end collision at a speed of over seventy kilometers per hour.

"Hmm?" In that instant, Feng Bujue almost instinctively realized something. He quickly stopped and didn't take that crucial step.

*Bang—bang-bang—bang!*

Immediately afterward, there were four more loud noises in a row. Then, *clang*—a heavy, metallic plate hit the concrete floor.

"Damn it!" Half a second after hearing the sound, Feng Bujue cursed a particularly fresh swear word in his heart.

He could tell that the series of noises just now… were the sound of the barefoot guy crashing into the door.

If the other party had just "broken the lock," that would have been fine, but judging from the sound… this guy must have knocked the entire door down.

Thinking about the thickness of that metal door, and then looking down at his own frame… Feng Bujue licked his lips and decided… to retreat.

A moment later, the Head Guy, who had watched Brother Jue leave with a shocked expression, looked at Brother Jue returning to the room and crawling back under the bed with a puzzled expression…

To make a long story short…

After lying on his stomach under the bed for five minutes with surgical instruments in both hands, the barefoot guy's footsteps passed by the door again, meaning he must have searched the room at the end of the corridor and was returning the same way.

This time, Feng Bujue waited until the other party's footsteps had completely disappeared, and then another full three minutes had passed, before rolling out from under the bed.

"Ah… you really can't judge a book by its cover~" He stood up and muttered to himself softly, "This is Mr. Haha's physique and Cairne Bloodhoof's power…"

After Brother Jue finished complaining, he looked back at the Head Guy, then approached him and said, "Blink once for 'yes,' blink twice for 'no,' understand?"

His first sentence was very purposeful. Two seconds later, the Head Guy blinked deeply and forcefully, indicating that he understood.

"Oh… reason still exists." After Feng Bujue muttered this, he… left.

Now, the Head Guy was even more confused… He originally thought that the other party would use blinking to communicate with him, but he didn't expect Brother Jue to only confirm one question before turning around and leaving.

"Don't worry, I'll come back to find you later. You just… well… you can only wait, it seems." Feng Bujue seemed to be able to see through the other party's thoughts, and he turned back and said this to the Head Guy before going out. After saying that, he returned to the corridor and rushed towards the previously locked room.

According to Brother Jue's analysis, the previous segment of the plot had three meanings: first, to introduce the main monster Boss of this scenario; second, to create a scare segment; and third, to have the monster help the player open a door.

"So far, it's still a typical linear scenario, with almost no extra choices and no side quests…" Feng Bujue thought to himself as he arrived at the door of that room, "So, following the direction of the plot guide is probably the right thing to do."

With the help of the light in the corridor, Feng Bujue could roughly see the scenery in the room… It was a square room with sides of five meters, smaller than the first room where Brother Jue had been; at this time, the metal door of the room had been completely knocked off and was lying on the ground; and in the center of the room, there stood a rather large black shadow, completely still…

"This is… a statue?" Feng Bujue cautiously stepped into the room, reached out to touch the wall next to the door, and as he had guessed… in a similar position to the first room, there was a light switch.

*Click—*

After flicking the switch, the second room lit up as well.

Appearing in front of Feng Bujue was indeed a statue…

The statue was about two meters tall, and the main body was a worker wearing a uniform. There was nothing unusual about the base and body, but the statue's head wasn't a human head, but a set of tools. These tools included axes, sickles, hammers, pliers, and so on, but there was nothing particularly strange about them.

In addition, there were words engraved on the base of the statue…

Feng Bujue walked over to take a look and found that it said—"People are the most important thing in production," and next to it was engraved a year—"1927."

"This is…" The instant those words entered his sight, a set of information flashed through Brother Jue's mind like lightning, "…Crap!"

In the next second, he quickly turned around and averted his gaze from the statue.

However…

"Tch… seems like it's already too late…" Then, he muttered in a low voice and quickly strode out towards the third room… the room where the Head Guy was.

The Head Guy looked puzzled seeing him come back so quickly, but Feng Bujue's strange behavior was only just beginning…

After returning to the room, Feng Bujue completely ignored the Head Guy on the bed and started rummaging through the cabinets on his own, successfully finding a pen, a bottle of ink, and a stack of paper.

Then, he moved a stool, sat in front of a piece of equipment, spread the paper on it, and started… writing a novel.

Yes, he was writing a novel in a Nightmare Difficulty single-player scenario… Not only was he writing, but he was writing with a joyful expression on his face.

The energy with which he was writing furiously made the Head Guy on the bed completely confused (literally confused in the head). The latter had no idea what he was doing…

And the system didn't make a "negative game" judgment on Brother Jue's behavior, but just let him keep writing.

And so… Feng Bujue wrote a novel for a full three hours in this bizarre environment…

Until three hours later, his expression suddenly turned cold, and he put down the pen in his hand.

He looked down at his already swollen knuckles, took a long breath, and said, "Ah… damn it, it finally stopped working."