Thriller Paradise

After cutting through some vines and briars, a narrow path appeared before the five players. The cliff beside them suddenly closed together, leaving behind a valley that was about several metres wide. And right at this entrance stood a mocking tree. This mocking tree had a very thick trunk, just thick enough to block off the mouth of the valley; the two sides of the trunk left gaps just large enough for a person to sneak their arm through. The tree was also incredibly tall, the foliage covered the cliff like moss. If the players tried to climb over it, they would definitely be entering the territory of the poisonous mist.

"Hmm… looks like it'll take quite some time to chop this tree down…" Pegasus commented as he looked at the tree.

"I say… if we didn't get this axe…" Atobe said, "Does this mean we'll be stuck here?"

"Not necessarily." Feng Bujue answered, "There are at least two ways we can get through here."

Uncle Worthless added, "Yes, we can force our way through the top and then consume the antidote as fast as we can." He paused as the eyes under the sunglasses shifted. "Or… we hit the cliff beside the tree at a certain angle and force to open up a path." Feng Bujue continued, "But there are risks to these two methods and they require quite a high amount of resources to exhaust."

"So now… I will be the one who has to do the manual labor instead?" Atobe said in a helpless tone.

"Ha ha… know that we appreciate it." Uncle Worthless consoled him with a smile.

"Eh… Well, I have chosen to believe in Idiente anyway." Atobe said as he carried the axe towards the tree. But something unexpected happened then.

"Ergh…" A low groan and then a strange and curious phenomenon followed. The bark of the 'giant mocking tree' started to wiggle, a cross-shaped pattern started to surface on the bark. The players thought it would be a 'giant face' that appeared but as the shape started to become more defined, they realized… this was the shape of a 'human'. About 20 seconds later, the change to the giant tree stopped. A human-shaped bulge protruded out from the trunk. The 'person' was like a creature wrapped inside the bark, its body was moving as if waking up.

"Humans, is it…" The voice came from the 'human's' head. "…You manage to reach this place…" At this point, his head moved several degree. Since this 'person in the tree' only had a basic profile as its appearance and no details so its expression was unknown. The player could only guess that… he was moving his eyes about.

"you…" The treeman asked Atobe, "Wish to chop down this tree with that thing in your hand?"

"Erm…" Atobe hesitated for a few seconds before answering quite cleverly, "That depends…"

"If you can let us pass…" Feng Bujue took few steps forward and cut in, "Naturally we would not resort to violence…"

"No, please…" The treeman interrupted, "You have to chop this tree down."

"Oh?" Something dawned on Feng Bujue then, "You are not a part… of this tree?"

"A long time ago, no." The treeman answered, "But now… I just want to die."

"Hmm…" Feng Bujue scratched his chin in thought.

"In that case…" atobe turned back to say, "Since we already planned to do that, how about… we help him?"

"Wait a minute." Feng Bujue raised his hand. He walked to stand before Atobe and raised his head to look at the treeman, "Do you mind me asking how did this happen to you?"

"Is that important?" The treeman asked back.

"I'm just curious." Feng Bujue appeared very at ease like the 3 hour time limit was not pressing down on them. He did not wait for the man to answer and instantly continued with, "is this the doing of some deity or a crazed murderer? Or… A group of Sadduccees?"

"What is he talking about?" Hearing that, Pegasus quietly whispered to ask Ambitionist and Uncle Worthless close to him.

Ambitionist replied, "He's purposely listing out these illogical suppositions to try to lure the other man to come out with the truth."

"Erm… I mean to ask… what is the Saddu… cees that he mentioned?" Pegasus added.

"Ha?" Ambitionist was startled. "I'm not so sure about that either."

"Sadduccees is a sub religion of the old Jewish faith." Uncle Worthless came with the explanation. "The followers of this religion deny the concept like rebirth, the existence of soul, and 'afterlife' and 'angels'. Other than that, they were involved in the incidents related to the judgement and execution of Jesus."

"So yet another mocking point…" Ambitionist wiped away the cold sweat from his forehead as he turned to Uncle Worthless. "Speaking of which… I am surprised that Brother Worthless knows about these esoteric religious topic."

"Phew…" Uncle Worthless puffed out a smoke ring. "When I was in university, to get a girl… I once joined a club which focused on the study of old religions." He lifted his head to the sky and puffed out the smoke. "Ha ha… the funny thing is the members of this club are all atheists. From our perspective, Sadduccees should be the cleverest group of people in the Old Testament. In contrast to the Pharisees, they are obsessed with power, money, fame and do not care much for spirituality and faith… Phew…" he took another puff. "…I suppose they are the earliest group of atheist in record."

At this point, Uncle Worthless stopped looking 45 degree into the sky, which he assumed was quite handsome and turned to glance at Ambitionist and Pegasus. He thought the two would be looking at him with admiring gaze but the reality was… they had already moved several metres away, turning their attention to Feng Bujue and the treeman. [Hey, none of you were listening at all!] Uncle Worthless groaned internally and threw the cig to the ground.

On the other side, Feng Bujue was still flooding the treeman with questions, "Hannibal Lecter? Charles Manson? John Hinckley? Chuck Norris? Jason?" (I do not think these people need introductions. But these are a cannibal from a fictional novel, a hippie era killer, a 'basket case' that tried to assassinate Reagan, a Macho Man and a fictional humanoid monster)

"Enough!" The man inside the tree reached the limit of his patience. He shouted to stop Brother Jue's slew of nonsense. "It was the Executioner who did this to me…" The man's voice was shaking, "That is the answer, are you satisfied now?"

"Ah~ Actually I was just asking for fun." Feng Bujue shrugged.

"Who would believe that!" Atobe roared instinctually.

"Fine…" Brother Jue ignored Atobe and continued conversing with the treeman. "Now… let us talk conditions." He crossed his arms before his chest and looked as annoying as he could. "What kind of reward do you plan to give us for us to chop you to death?"

[Hey… what is this…] This time Atobe did not voice this out loud, he merely thought internally. [Who would agree to a transaction like that?]

"Don't worry…" The treeman replied, "Aim at the area around my waist, when the tree is completely chopped off, you will naturally get your 'reward'…"

Atobe was shocked. [What? There is really one?!]