Thriller Paradise

"Side Quest completed," the system announced, and Feng Bujue sighed in relief while collapsing to the ground.

"Strange… This thing is still invisible after death?" Flashes of Sword squatted down and tried to touch the monster's body.

"This explains that," Feng Bujue said as he took out his sword to cut down a piece of the monster's skin and placed it on his palm. "Its invisibility isn't an active mechanism but a passive one."

He then flung the draft of skin away. "Its invisibility is unlike that of the chameleon, which uses the cellular pigmentation on its skin to mirror the effect of the light to meld into its surroundings. It is by all means an invisible lifeform."

Picking his flashlight back up with one hand, Feng Bujue used his other hand to cut a few generous chunks out of the dead body next to him. The sound of dismemberment appeared from the area where there was visibly nothing. "Not only the skin, its flesh, including its internal organ, bones, blood, and so on… It's all invisible. Hmm…"

"Hey… Brother Feng," Flashes of Sword said, "I think I understand it already. Can you stop playing with the monster's dead body now?"

"I'm not playing with it. I'm just trying out to see if you can make use of its skin or flesh as some kind of item or equipment." Feng Bujue pouted and added, "But it doesn't seem like that's possible…"

"If it were possible, don't tell me you would really shear off the rest of its skin to wear as some kind of a mantle…"

"That is one possibility," Feng Bujue admitted.

"Hmm…" Flashes of Sword sounded gloomy. "Looks like I wasted my grenade earlier. From the looks of it, if there's a reasonable reward, even if the system tells you to bite the bug to death, you'd do it, right?"

"Of course. If taking a bite out of the virtual bug can reward me with 5,000,000 Game Coins, I would eat the whole thing, much less take a bite out of it."

"That's enough for me… You can stop with the description already…" Just the imagination forming in Flashes of Sword's mind alone was enough to make the man nauseous.

"Let's get back to the matter at hand." Feng Bujue stood up. "Now that we have completed the side quest, whether we lose or win this Killing Game in the end, at least we'll have the reward for completing the side quest during the rating review."

He walked to the door and put his flashlight away. Using both hands, he pulled the heavy metallic door open. The lights in the corridor shone on a small corner beyond the door.

"After this, we should continue down this other path. It seems rather pointless to rest in this scenario because the environment will still lower our Life Points. I suggest we carry on with this pace," he said as he wandered out the door.

Flashes of Sword nodded before he moved to follow Feng Bujue. The two stepped over the pus and rotten metal that was the remains of the giant bug from before. After another five meters of walking, they walked past the T-junction and proceeded down the other fork, the one that they did not take before.

The situation in the corridor was still the same, a stretch of dim corridor followed by another that was better lit as it extended into the distance.

The surrounding cold, unfeeling walls and the horrid condition of the air combined to create a suffocating atmosphere. If there was a need for comparison… it felt like for every second that they spent in this underground lab, they were breathing in specks of rust. This type of discomfort was unshakeable and formless as it hacked away at the players' Life Points with its own sense and rhythm.

When Feng Bujue and Flashes of Sword's Life Points dropped down to fifty percent, Feng Bujue took out two medium-sized health potions from his inventory. He passed one to his teammate while he downed the other.

"Brother Feng… You only have four such potions, right?" Flashes of Sword did not accept the offering. "You don't need to act generous at a time like this. You should keep this for yourself. I have plenty of large potions in my bag."

Feng Bujue did not take the potion back but replied, "I suggest you do not carry large potions in the future. Drinking large Life Points Recovery Potions at any moment in time is a waste. Its recovery effect is one hundred percent, and theoretically speaking, the best time to consume one would be when your Life Points have dropped to the lowest one percent. But under normal circumstances, players will drink one when their Life Points have plummeted to around ten percent because leaving one percent of Life Points is too fragile. What is the point of a recovery potion when you're dead?

"In summary, in most circumstances, a large health potion would only recover eighty to ninety percent of your health, and beyond that is the excess, but there is a simple solution to this problem."

Even though Flashes of Sword had not heard Feng Bujue finish his whole theory, he had already accepted the medium-sized Life Points Recovery Potion from Feng Bujue because he had a very strong feeling that… it was only a matter of time until he was persuaded.

"After we take into consideration the limitation to the recovery rate of the potions after successive use…" Feng Bujue turned around and continued moving, but his lips did not stop. "If we store small or medium size potions in our inventory… I personally suggest, at most, we should carry about five potions, because every five potions will take up one inventory slot. When our Life Points are gone, we should drink from the smaller potions first to recover the Life Points so that if we need to drink from the large potions in the future, the amount of waste will be decreased to the minimum. After all, the large potions won't have recovered the one hundred percent that they can most of the time…"

He paused before adding, "And for this scenario, the wounds caused by battle aside, my way is more economic. The price of the potion is lower, and there won't be much waste of recovery rate."

Flashes of Sword walked next to him and was silent for a few seconds after hearing his explanation. Even though he felt like there was point to what Feng Bujue said, there was something that did not feel so correct…

"Brother Feng… can I understand it this way? Now that you have given me a medium-sized potion, in the rest of this scenario, whenever there is a need, we will start to consume my large potions until I run out of stock…"

"Yes, but since I have limited space in my inventory, you shall continue to carry the large potions. As long as you see the need to recover your Life Points, please be wise enough to pass me one as well." When Feng Bujue said that, he sounded so matter-of-fact like this was how things were supposed to be.

"Wait a minute, let me understand this again," Flashes of Sword said. "You first shoved a medium-sized potion to me that costs six thousand Game Coins so that I would be required to provide endless large potions that cost twelve thousand Game Coins for both of us until the end of this scenario?"

"Yes," Feng Bujue replied. "That is what you meant earlier, isn't it? Is there a need to repeat it?"

"You really do not see yourself as an outsider, do you?" Flashes of Sword hissed at the shamelessness shown by his teammate.

"Based on my observation, this level of sharing between teammates will not exceed the threshold within your heart, nor will it crush you under the economic weight," Feng Bujue said. "Furthermore, if we can find a way to stop our Life Points from dropping in the next one hour, we will not need your large potions anymore. In that case, it will you who took advantage of one potion from me.

"Furthermore, you have been given a valuable theory on how to economically use and purchase Life Points Recovery Potions. In the future, that will help you save an inordinate amount of Game Coins and potions. If you exchange all of that into money…

"Why are you giving me a look like that?"

"Because I feel like you're slowly moving from emotional manipulation to blackmail…"

"I'm just discussing the situation with you. What's wrong with two adults sharing their views on the splitting of intellectual knowledge? It cannot be more normal."

"Brother, please accept my apology… Just take as many potions as you want…"

The two chatted about such nonsense when suddenly a sound came from the direction ahead of them…

Ping, ping, ping!

The sound came from a corner about ten meters in front of them. From the frequency, it sounded like a two-legged creature moving.

"It could be a person… The gait is heavy, chaotic, and uneven. During the running, it's leaning closer to the wall on one side…" Feng Bujue commented. "Is the man running away from something?"

Flashes of Sword focused his hearing as well. He added, "But how come the thing chasing him does not produce any footsteps?"

"And the one supposedly running does not need to stop for breath or even call for help. This is not right…" The alert Feng Bujue took out his sword. Very soon, the human shadow that ran out from the corner answered all their questions.

The man was wearing an orange protective suit and a helmet. The suit's collar was joined seamlessly to the helmet. At that moment, his head was latched onto by an octopus-like creature. Only the lower seam of the helmet was exposed. The 'octopus' tentacles had squirmed through the helmet to pierce into the man's brain.

The octopus took over the man's brain to control his movement. The monster did not seem familiar with human physiology. When he was running, the man's arms dangled weakly by his side and jostled left and right, following the movement of his body. Since this disturbed the body's balance, he stumbled constantly while he ran.

Flashes of Sword looked at the thing running toward him and said, "By the way… do you think the man underneath will survive once we remove that thing from his head?"

Feng Bujue shook his head. He took several steps forward and assumed the hitter's pose from baseball. He held the sword like a bat and swung it length-wise at the man's neck.

"I kinda miss my shotgun." Feng Bujue walked toward the head that rolled on the ground. "These kinds of monsters that are inspired by western sci-fi horror films are truly as disgusting as they can be…"

The octopus monster was still alive and had already detangled itself from the decapitated head. When its tentacles detached from the helmet, they could see clearly how disfigured the human head inside the helmet was. There were at least eight large holes on the skull. Quite a generous amount of brain matter leaked out from the octopus' tentacles, and they drenched the floor alongside the copious amount of blood…

Feng Bujue was thankful that he had bought a blade before he started this scenario. At least he did not have to rely on a blunt weapon to deal with this kind of boneless monster. Even a zombie had a skull, and they could be taken down with a few whacks of the wrench, but to knock down a creature that looked so slimy and bouncy, hitting it would probably feel like hitting a well-rested ball of dough…

The octopus monster did not put up much resistance. It was sliced into pieces by the blade. The unknown liquid from inside its body splashed all over the place, and then it stopped moving.

"This thing's attack method should be no different from the face-hugger from Alien…" Feng Bujue waved his blade to dispose of the thing stuck to it. Then he walked to the skull. As he studied it, he added, "But the method of possession is slightly different. The face-hugger would not drill so many holes in human skulls to reach into the brain."

Flashes of Sword had started to search the dead man's body when Feng Bujue was making sushi of the octopus monster. He found something that looked like a weapon inside the man's pocket. He picked it up to inspect it and was surprised to see that it did come with an item attribute page.

———

Item Name: Anti-gravity Gun

Item Type: Weapon

Quality: Excellent

Offense Points: Medium

Element: None

Special Effect: Can raise any object less than ten kilograms and smaller than one cubic meter above ground and propel it forward.

Equip Requirement: Marksmanship D, Workmanship E, Level 15

Remark: Please do not try to suck your own eyeballs out. I can tell you now that the result will be extremely disastrous.

———

"Brother Feng, come and see if you can use this weapon." Flashes of Sword handed the weapon over to Feng Bujue.

This anti-gravity gun had the appearance of an iron, but overall, it was not as heavy, and the handle was close to two buttons. It was clear that one was to 'levitate' and the other was to 'shoot'. Feng Bujue inspected the item attributes and then pointed the weapon in a random direction. He 'sucked' over the dead man's head that had fallen a few meters away. The helmet that carried the skull thus floated a few inches before the weapon, and the weapon was making this endless buzzing sound.

Feng Bujue levelled his arms and aimed the weapon in the direction that they had come from. He pressed the other button, and the head flew forward with the speed of about seventy horsepower. It disappeared down the other end of the corridor like a fired cannonball.

"This is such high-tech weapon," Feng Bujue said admiringly. "Unfortunately, this man did not know how to use it to save his life."

Flashes of Sword looked at the human head that was propelled forward blankly. "You've started to play with the dead body again…"

"By the way, Ol' F…"

Feng Bujue put his arm around Flashes of Sword's shoulders and was about to say something when the latter cut him off by demanding. "You can call me Master Flash…"

"Master Flashbang, is it? Sure," Feng Bujue replied.

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

"Fine, fine, you're such a buzzkill," Feng Bujue grumbled. "Master Flash, so about this weapon…"

"If you have use for it, it's yours. My marksmanship and workmanship are not good enough to operate it anyway." Flashes of Sword knew that Feng Bujue was about to ask him about that. It was also because he was unable to equip it that he had handed it so easily to Feng Bujue earlier.

"Then I shall thank you for your generosity." Feng Bujue put the weapon away and turned to study the dead body on the ground. "This scenario sure is complicated. There are human beings inside the lab."

"Didn't the scenario cinematic say that the scientific team who came for 'archaeological' purposes had taken Jason's body and left?" Flashes of Sword commented. "Could it be that, other than them, there are other human teams that have arrived here?"

"Currently, that seems to be the only logical explanation," Feng Bujue said as he started to undress the dead body.

"Hey… what are you doing now? This is a dude." Flashes of Sword raised his voice. "Have you got some kind of obsession with playing with dead bodies?"

Feng Bujue removed the protective suit from the headless body. Inside the suit, the dead man was wearing a white tank top and a pair of shorts. Feng Bujue lifted one of his arms and pointed at the tattoo on the outside the left arm. "Look at this."

Flashes of Sword leaned in closer and saw that the tattoo was of a ship. There was a term, scavenger, as well. He thought about it and tilted his head up to say, "Hey. Do you think this man is a member of some kind of grave robber group from the future?"

"It's a logical assumption that the tattoo is the symbol for some kind of organization." Feng Bujue had already moved onto inspecting the dead man's palm. "Of course… that does not preclude the possibility that the tattoo has no meaning. This guy might have thought having such a picture and the name of a homeless organization tattooed on his arm is something cool."

"Would such an individual really exist in real life?" Flashes of Sword countered.

"Well, that's really hard to say." Feng Bujue moved the dead man's palm close to his face, and the tip of his nose was almost touching it. "When I was in primary school, I heard that in this online game, there was a group of players who named their guild after the Nazis. I cannot remember their actual name anymore, but in any case, they thought that it was cool, and every member wandered about the game with a bandana with the symbol of the Nazis emblazoned on their forehead."

After inspecting the body's palm, he studied the back of his hand and his nails. "Therefore… after planting the seed of idiocy into the soil of ignorance, providing it with the nutrients of [beep], and pouring some venom of education onto it, you'll eventually harvest a crop of idiots who only bring shame to themselves."

"What the… Brother Feng, you've studied the censor system of this game before, haven't you? How did you manage to produce a sentence like that? And the meaning was not even affected with the bleeping of one word…"

"This man has removed his own fingerprints." Feng Bujue did not answer Flashes of Sword but got back to the main topic. "It could be the effect of some kind of glue or a more barbaric method. In any case, he doesn't possess fingerprints.

"These hands do not look like those of a worker either, and his body is not really muscular or hewn from hard labor…"

"With a device like an anti-gravity gun, naturally, he would not need to rely on physical strength to complete many tasks," Flashes of Sword commented.

"From the wrist of both his hands, he does not look like one who uses the computer often either," Feng Bujue said. "But there is the possibility of human beings outliving the use of the mouse in the future."

"I say, great detective, don't tell me you plan to undress this body completely and study and analyze each inch of his body from head to toe, right?" Flashes of Sword asked.

Feng Bujue smiled. "We don't have the time. Plus, if I really planned to do that, I would not have tossed his head away so casually. I merely want to see if there's any mutation to his limits…"

Feng Bujue lifted the man's tank top to look at his bare body. "… and if there's any strange organ growth on his body or perhaps a layer of skin that's different from ours."

"What do you mean?" Flashes of Sword said. "This scenario is based on the fifteenth series of Friday the 13th, right? We're not in an X-Men themed scenario, are we?"

"It is merely my speculation," Feng Bujue replied. "Assuming these people are different from the group from the spacecraft, what if they did not come from space? Perhaps on this Old Earth, there exists a human city, one that was not discovered or even known by the population who 'migrated' into space. A small number of people have survived and hidden away on Earth while history moved forward, meaning that human civilization has actually survived on Earth…"