Thriller Paradise

"Flashes of Sword, level 17.

"Feng Bujue, level 16.

"Please select the game mode that your team wants to join.

"You have selected the Killing Game (2v2), please confirm.

"Your team has joined the team queue. Currently searching for other readied players or teams.

"Adjusting nervous connectivity, generating the scenario…

"Please wait a moment. Downloading."

This was the system announcement that Feng Bujue received on his end. It was slightly different from the one that he got when he was the team leader. This time, he heard the system say in a Beijing accent, a hoarse, male voice, "Make your opponents cower in fear, have them understand the true meaning of terror!"

"Download complete. You are currently in the Killing Game mode.

"This mode comes with introductory cinematic and the chance to unlock side/hidden missions and special world-building.

"Reward for victory: 30% of current maximum EXP.

"The introductory cinematic is going to begin soon. The game will start immediately after the cinematic is over."

In the cinematic, a voluptuous woman wearing a white coat walked down a dim corridor.

"In the year 2000, in the Crystal Lake lab, an unkillable murderous fiend was detained—Jason. The government's science team wished to turn him into an experiment, conducting research on the body's recovery on a cellular level."

Following the narration, the female researcher walked through a door. The camera did not follow her and stopped in the corridor.

"But Jason was not so easily detained. Any careless mistake, a lowering of one's guard, would lead to irrevocable and unimaginable results."

The cinematic skipped over most of the shots in the movie. It used darkness and screams to skip over the scene where Jason went out of control and when he was frozen by that female researcher.

"In the year 2455, human beings entered the space age, and the humans' former home became known as 'Old Earth', a place filled with savage storms, toxic swamps, and polluted oceans.

"A human research team returned to Earth for an archaeological mission. They found Lauren and Jason's bodies and took them back to their carrier ship…"

That was where the cinematic ended. When Feng Bujue could move, the system announced in his ear, "Main quest activated. Kill all the members of the enemy team."

"So, this scenario is based on that horrible series." Flashes of Sword stood next to Feng Bujue. They were standing in the corridor that was shown in the cinematic. For some reason, the lights in the corridor were on, meaning that this place was supplied with electricity.

"Something's not right," Feng Bujue said. "Why are we in the lab and not on the spaceship?"

"What's wrong with that?" Flashes of Sword commented.

"The fifteenth series of Friday the 13th basically occurs on a spaceship, but this place… Cough… Cough…" Feng Bujue suddenly coughed twice. "This place is not even habitable for human beings."

After taking in the air around them, Flashes of Sword was overcome by bouts of discomfort. He opened his menu to take a look. He was not affected by a negative effect, but his Life Points had decreased by one percent. The air around them seemed to possess some kind of effect that would lower their health indiscriminately.

"They have found Lauren and Jason's bodies and brought them back to the carrier ship…" Feng Bujue mocked the plot. "After they all left, are we supposed to act out the movie's epilogue in this underground lab that has been abandoned for hundreds of years?"

"In other words… this scenario is merely borrowing the movie's setting and has no connection to Jason or the characters in the movie?" Flashes of Sword added. "Haha… Isn't that great? There is no need for us to get entangled in the complicated plot; we only need to fight for a victory in this enclosed space."

"There are three things that I hope you understand." Feng Bujue raised his left hand and pushed out his index finger. "One, according to the movie's setting, even if we do not leave the lab, just standing here will kill us. The only reason we're not dead is probably because we are 'players', and this is a special set up by the system."

He extended his second finger. "Two, this is something I noticed when I watched this movie for the first time. The creative liberties taken by the scriptwriter and the director's lack of ability aside, the setting for this movie falls under the sci-fi category, containing things like self-repair modules on the spaceship, androids, and so on. In other words, this is a world with very advanced technology. If we can find a way to communicate with the human civilization in this world and send out a rescue signal to leave this lab, the reward that we get will be much greater than by just killing the enemies.

"The two from the enemy team will eventually die in this lab. Even with life potions, that will only buy them some time. We can make use of this opportunity to harvest some items, equipment, skills, and so on and perhaps even take advantage of this world's technology to strengthen ourselves."

Feng Bujue raised his third finger.

"Three…" He coughed again. "The third point, and also the most important, I suggest you pay close attention to this… I seriously suspect that Jason is not the only monster held here."

He withdrew his sword and added, "For a lab this size, it would be normal for it to contain more than ten monsters on a similar level to Jason. If I were the scriptwriter, that would be my focus should I want to expand the plot… Even though 455 years have passed, if the system wishes to add more flair to this 2v2, adding some living monsters into the mix is the best solution."

After hearing all that, Flashes of Sword gasped internally, Sounds like you're the real monster here…

"Brother Feng, how did you manage to come up with so much just from the cinematic?" he asked with the reverence of a new convert.

"Temporarily, that's all I can figure out. If there's anything else to add, I'll inform you," Feng Bujue replied.

"No wonder you're the Plot Explorer. Color me impressed!" He was being sincere with that.

"By the way… we should take a look at the opponents' condition first," Feng Bujue said.

They opened their menu to look. From the enemies' IGNs, it was clear that they were from the same team. One was called Doomsday Assault, and the other was Final Assault. They were both level nineteen. Other than IGNs and level, the only other information was that they were both 'alive'.

"So, it's the assaults…" Flashes of Sword claimed with a frown.

Feng Bujue astutely noticed something from his teammate's expression. "Do you know them?"

"I can't say that I know them personally, but I've encountered similar IGNs before," Flashes of Sword said. "They should belong to the gaming studio, 'Zombie Blade'… The members of Zombie Blade mostly have their names end with either Assault or Victor."

"Oh? I remember seeing their guild in fifth place on the combat ranking," Feng Bujue said.. "Higher than your Jiang Hu."

"And that is where I'm annoyed at them…" The man's tone was laced with helplessness. "Actually, these goons are not that powerful, but they have their ways of squeezing to the top."

"Oh? You mean…" With Feng Bujue's brilliance, he understood the words that was left unsaid. Therefore, he merely urged the man to continue.

"It might not be appropriate for me to say this, and it is up to you to believe me or not," Flashes of Sword explained. "There is a shared consensus among the industry that Zombie Blade is bunch of cheaters."

"Cheaters? You mean, the members from that whole studio are…"

"They have many tricks. Basically, anything that you can think of, they have done," Flashes of Sword said. "Like coming up with some illegal support hardware, and in terms of software, they have apps like aimbot and so on… The normal players wouldn't know about these things, and at most, it would merely be a rumor. However, for us professional gamers, after a few fights with these guys, we pick up on these things."

"The gaming companies allow them to cheat like that?" Feng Bujue asked.

"It's too hard to police activities like that, and it's not worth it." Flashes of Sword sighed. "The gaming companies' main target is to earn money, and for many gray areas, they choose to close half of their eyes as long as it does not cut into their profits or raise too big a fuss.

"After all, one need to invest plenty of resource, manpower, time and technology to police these things… From how I see it, unless you can present the company with the evidence of their crime, they are too lazy to mind this thing."

Flashes of Sword was suddenly reminded of something and added, "Oh, there's one more thing. Like I said, the people from Zombie Blade have many tricks, but they might not be limited to the games alone. Sometimes, they might hire fifty cent armies to do some little tricks like releasing fake info on the forums to vilify another guild or purposely go to the official websites of the studios who are in direct competition with them to leave negative reviews. All in all, they'll ruin other people's reputation.

"The memory that stuck with me the most was during a previous game. The gaming company organized an open election for all the players to select the most powerful 'gang'. Zombie Blade allegedly used money to purchase the votes and thus beat Regulation and Brahman. But no matter the result, the gaming company would earn money from this event, so do you think they would get involved or not?"

"Is that so? Sounds like you're harboring plenty of resentment," Feng Bujue observed.

Flashes of Sword shrugged and laughed sadly. "You won't understand it. Only those in our field will understand this feeling. Many times, even if you think you've grown stronger, only failure awaits. Losing to cheaters like this is very demoralizing, but such is the reality of life."

He paused and looked up at Feng Bujue. "I'm sorry. You probably think I'm being too biased in my assessment of the enemy…"

"No, I believe you," Feng Bujue said. "And I believe Jiang Hu would not stoop to their level.'

"Of course, that's a guaranteed." When Flashes of Sword said that, he sounded like a young hero from a wuxia movie.

"And my philosophy has always been," Feng Bujue said, "either join the dark side or step forth to vanquish the evil.

"Therefore… we should pick up some slack and make life kind of a living hell for these two to have them understand the true meaning of power."