Thriller Paradise

Uncle Worthless took out his cigarette, lit one, puffed out a smoke ring and said, "Phew—this is all I got."

Atobe shook his head. "Don't look at me."

Ambitionist claimed. "I never waste my money on these unnecessary exhaustible."

"Hmm… Very good…" Feng Bujue opened his arms to confess. "I have nothing either."

"That is very normal." Ambitionist explained. "Food and water are not necessity in this game so most players will not carry them into scenarios." He thought about it for few seconds and added, "But since the system had designed such a condition, there has to be a solution to this problem."

"You have a point there." Uncle Worthless nodded. "It can be viewed directly from our data at the start of the game that none of us carry food and water, the system must have added that into calculation when generating the scenario, and under that premise, the system still set up the system of hunger and thirst, that can only mean that…"

"We are playing a survival-mode scenario?" Atobe finished the supposition.

"I have noticed that quite early in the scenario…" Feng Bujue said as he pulled out a tree branch from his pocket. "Why do you think I pick up this branch of the mocking tree earlier? It's so that we can roast some food if we come across any wild game…" He shook his head as he put the branch away, "But unfortunately… along the way, there was not even the shadow of a bird." He sighed. "Aiz… If I knew this would happen, I would have collected some locusts as spare food ingredient, and we would not be stuck in this awkward situation. Even though it's unclear whether they're edible or not, at least we could have something to try…"

"Can you please not bring up something that disgusting?" Atobe argued. "Even if the thing is edible, I will not consider consuming those locusts as food."

"Tsk… such a picky eater." Feng Bujue mocked. "Someone's privileged background is showing."

"Yes! Indeed, I come from a privileged background, do you have any problem with that?" Atobe grumbled with annoyance. "I am born with the silver spoon in my mouth, I never have to worry about food on the table and grew up like strawberry in greenhouses!"

"Hmph… Such shamelessness…" Feng Bujue scoffed with derision.

"What the? You are the only person in this world who is not qualified to call me shameless. If we're comparing the level of shamelessness, I'm still far behind you!" Atobe gasped in shock.

Feng Bujue continued with a wicked grin on his face. "You are so innocent and naïve as someone who has led such a sheltered life." His eyes scanned the young man's body up and down. "Do you know that… the protein on your body is about the four times of that of beef…"

"Don't think I haven't attended science class, the protein on insects are 4 times amount on beef! Wait, are you calling me an insect? Why you!" Atobe was about to get angered when something struck him and his expression was colored by fear. "Hey! Wait a minute… what are you planning?" He glared at Brother Jue with alert. "Are you planning to eat me?!"

"Well… that is one of the solutions I have in mind…" Feng Bujue replied honestly. When he said that, the other four of his teammates took a step back away from him and they all looked at Brother Jue nervously. If someone else had said this, it would definitely be treated as a joke but since the person who gave the suggestion was Feng Bujue, things were much harder to predict… after all, no one knew what was going on in this man's twisted mind.

"Listen, I have a kind of medicine." Feng Bujue continued from before. "Its effect is similar to ambrosia, it can not only neutralize all negative effect, it can reserve any physical harm to the body. As long as no fatal body organs are injured and the medicine is applied on time, then…"

"Hold up!" This time Atobe was able to react quickly. He cut Feng Bujue off. "Don't tell me… your plan is to cut a few pieces of flesh out from my arms and legs to use them as food… and then feed me the medicine to recover the missing flesh?"

"Do you mind?" Feng Bujue asked evenly like this was no big deal.

"Of course! How could someone not mind?!" Atobe roared back at him.

"Erm… Brother Feng…" Uncle Worthless told Brother Jue, "Actually… we are not that hungry yet." Pegasus also quickly added, "Yes, I can resist the hunger a little bit more."

"There is no need to be shy." Feng Bujue ignored their words and continued. "I am in the same state as the rest of you, I have an idea how deep the level of hunger all of us are experiencing at this moment…" he said as he calmly took out a cleaver from his inventory. "Going hungry for too long is not good for one's stomach."

"I'm warning you, don't push it…" Atobe already bounced up from the ground. "We are teammates, we cannot attack each other!"

"I know…" Feng Bujue said. "I never did say that… we must eat you…"

The group was startled but the next second, they all took on an expression filled with awe and veneration…

"Then… do you plan you plan to slice off your own flesh?" Ambitionist asked probingly.

"Correct." Feng Bujue replied. The serenity with which Brother Jue answered this question caused this teammates' Terror Points to jump slightly again.

"I still don't think this is such a good idea…" Atobe said hesitatingly. "After all, it is human flesh we are talking about here…"

"Don't tell me… none of you have entertained this fantasy before?" Feng Bujue used an extremely evocative gaze to scan through his teammates with a trace of a devilish smirk hanging on his lips. "This is a chance that does not come by that easily… Are you really not tempted to give it a try?"

"The look of anticipation on your face has belied your real thought…" Ambitionist chided. "And please don't rank us as the same kind of people as you…"

"I am not tempted either," Pegasus added. He was followed by Uncle Worthless who said, "But we appreciate your generous offer."

"Ah… You guys plan to give up on such a convenient solution?" Feng Bujue grumbled with some disappointment, "A scrumptious meal can be had with a pill and a bottle of Life Points Recovery Potion, it is such a perfect solution…." That might be that case but other than Brother Jue, obviously no one else in the team felt that they had missed out on anything…

At that moment, the system announcement rang out, "Main quest updated."

"Qie… So it has arrived after all." Ambitionist was quick to point out, "In the end, the system only gave us around 10 minutes to rest."

"That is one of our predictions so it's not surprising." Feng Bujue replied. At the same time, he opened the game menu and moved his eyes to the quest tab. By then, the new quest line had appeared. "Within the next 15 minutes, use the altar inside the Shrine of Faith to summon and defeat Walker, the God of Travel."

"Ha ha… Looks like we're going to face a boss fight on an empty stomach." After reading the details, Feng Bujue put away the cleaver and walked towards the direction of the altar. The other four hurried to follow and retrained their focus. They understood that the time for chit chat was already over…

"Hmm… even though the quest told us to 'use the altar' but it did not give us any instruction on how to do that…" Uncle Worthless was the first to see this quandary, and asked, "Could this be part of the puzzle?"

"Maybe the way to utilize it is related to the carved murals on the walls around us?" Atobe lifted his head to look around and offered.

"if that is a case, we're screwed." Pegasus lamented. "There are thousands of them, and I can't even understand a single one of them."

"Don't worry… we can't understand them either." Ambitionist consoled the poor hero.

"These are the simulacrums of the other multiverses." Feng Bujue said without turning his head around.

"You know these things as well?" Atobe breathed out in shock.

"Not really." When Feng Bujue said this, he was squatting on the altar like a toad, closely studying every inch of the pattern that decorated it. "It's just that… when I was conversing with the Spirit of Mimicry earlier, I sneaked them into the topic and it gave me a brief explanation on them." He then pointed at the hall behind him. "You see those craved columns? The carvings on them are representations of the low level divinity in this main universe, including but not limited to, the five that we have chosen to worship."

"Oh?" When Uncle Worthless heard that, he thought for a few seconds and said, "Then… is it possible that the column with the carving of Walker has the clue to summon him?"

"Based on what the Spirit of Mimicry said the murals and columns are just symbolic." When Feng Bujue said that, he had almost nestled his face up onto the surface of the altar, he even went so far as using his nose to sniff at the slab of stone. "But you guys can go and investigate them, perhaps there might be an accidental discovery." He waved his hands. "Leave this altar to me, don't worry, I won't leave any inch unchecked."

"Hmm… That I can believe." Ambitionist said. "Based on how you're going, you're just about to use your tongue to… erm… never mind, forget I said anything."

"How can this man make something as simple as exploration of an object inside a scenario so filthy and unpleasant…" Atobe sighed, "The man is truly beyond comprehension…"

Faced with Brother Jue's investigative technique of using all of his five senses naturally his teammates could not and would not emulate, therefore, they sensibly moved away from the stone altar.

After a brief discussion, the four separated to move towards the various corners of the altar and initiated a relatively 'normal' search.

5 minutes passed just like that and suddenly…