Thriller Paradise

At 19th June, in the real world, City S. One week ago, Feng Bujue and Li Ruoyu paid a visit to the Inner World and successfully returned to the log in lobby before dawn. No one knew what they had went or what they had done when they were there…

The four teammates who were in the same scenario as they were that night only saw two people mysteriously disappear at the rooftop of Spectre Inc. After that, the scenario ended abruptly. Since V1- War God had disappeared from the scenario world, the system instantly decided the players had completed the mission and accomplished the requirement to clear the scenario. For Xiao Tan, Laughing Soul, Tired Dream and Greedy Wolf, this should be a good news… because they had cleared a nightmare team scenario just after a simple battle. But the four did not feel that much happiness after clearing the scenario.

Tired Dream was the one least affected, he was only at most a bit confused; Greedy Wolf was more troubled by it. As a member of Blade Edge, after seeing so many inexplicable things in this scenario, he would have to write a detailed report and hand it up to his superior; while for Xiao Tan and Soulie, they were more worried about the safety of their friends… Thankfully, there was one thing that was certain… After they returned to the log in lobby, they could see from their friend list that Feng Bujue and Passing Rain's current status was still 'in game'. It was because of that Xiao Tan and Soulie did not call or rush to the two's houses to check up on them.

And on the next day, Brother Jue and Ruoyu who returned claimed that they had merely activated a hidden quest and entered a new map, there was nothing extraordinary about the whole thing. After hearing they say that, Xiao Tan and Soulie did not press for more details… And thus, things were left at that…

In the blink of an eye, a week passed. During that period, Feng Bujue and Li Ruoyu basically stuck to each other like glue. Their online time had a drastic increase so did their level and overall power. Obviously… they had reached an agreement, trade or a conspiracy with Root… But on the surface, they still acted like nothing had changed and claimed that they were not purposely training their level. And these actions… took on a different meaning in the perspective of the outsiders…

Considering the strange conversation that these two had on the rooftops, the other three members of Underworld Frontline naturally saw things 'that way'. Of course as Feng Bujue and Li Ruoyu's friend, family and colleague in real life… Xiao Tan, Soulie and An Yueqin very astutely chose to act dumb. Their understanding was simple—if those two weirdos wanted to have their secret dates in a horror game, then so be it…

…

19th, at 1 pm, at the entrance of a café.

"Hmm… someone is playing tardy is it…" Feng Bujue lowered his head to look at the time on his phone, he mumbled under his breath. "She works at the art gallery owned by her family so basically she can report to work whether she likes it or not; and her family owns car… and more than one of them…" Even though that was what he said, there was no annoyance or impatience in his tone at all. "…If she can still be late under these circumstance, then she must be doing this on purpose."

"eh? Feng Bujue?" Suddenly a female voice came from behind Brother Jue. The voice sounded familiar but the speaker was not the person Brother Jue was waiting for. Hearing that voice, Feng Bujue's expression changed slightly because he was walking through the halls of his memory and he soon found the correlation… the owner of this voice was of his ex-girlfriend from high school.

"Oh…it's you." Feng Bujue slowly turned around and said something perfunctory. "Long time no see." The girl before him wore a clean and long dress. She looked innocent and young, like a high schooler about 17 or 18 even though her actual age was similar to Brother Jue, she was 24 already.

"yes… it has been a long time already." The girl added, "I believe… it has been almost five years?"

"I believe so." Feng Bujue answered. When he replied, he purposely acted like his attention was elsewhere.

"You seem to have… grown taller?" The girl said.

"A bit maybe." Feng Bujue did not want to spend more time on this conversation. He tried to use short and succinct answers to all the questions.

"Ha ha… but you are a lot more handsome than when you were in high school." The girl added.

"Is that so…" Feng Bujue narrowed his eyes and answered. Actually today Brother Jue only combed his hair, put on a random long-sleeved t, picked a jeans, a pair of sneakers and then came out… But he was still given a compliment with such a casual get up, in any case, he did not get that compliment get to his head, this proved how desperately he wanted this conversation to be over with.

"oH! I saw you on the television not too long ago…" But the girl's desire to chat did not seem to swindle. "it was on that show called I am a writer, please roast me. You were so good!"

"it's okay…" Brother Jue answered evenly but his mind was thinking. [Hey, hey… I was eliminated that night okay, how good could it be… this does not feel good… Could this be an illusion of 'this is destiny' on her part due to this chance encounter and combined with the fact that she is still single, so she wants to reconvene the relationship with me and keep me as a back up or something?] (note: The fact that the girl was still single was derived from Brother Jue's observation and analysis. For him, this kind of logical deduction was basically second nature. When he walked down the street, he would take time to study the passing people, use some irresponsibility analysis to study them to buy time…)

"By the way… you have been absent from all the reunions for the past few years. It is such a rare occasion for us to meet today, why don't we exchange numbers? Many old friends would like to meet you but they cannot reach you." As he expected, the girl said something that he did not want to hear.

"Okay… So many of my old friends (victims) want to see me, is it…" Feng Bujue mumbled. What kind of person was Brother Jue. He knew instantly from the statement that, this was just an excuse the girl was using to get his phone number. [Hmph… young girl, there has to be a line to be drawn at lying.] Feng Bujue scoffed internally. [With how I have acted at school back then… those who 'wanted' to reach me… or those who 'dared' to want to meet me will be members of 'Feng Bujue Elimination Committee' and 'The Avengers' (This group of people indeed have much score to settle with Brother Jue)… But everyone is in their twenties now, they should be grown out of their grudges already by now…]

"What wrong? Is there any inconvenience?" Seeing Feng Bujue was so reluctant to take out his phone, the girl asked with a clear confusion on her face.

[Damn it… I cannot find an excuse.] Brother Jue thought to himself. He was already covered in cold sweat… he really did not want to have any old business with his ex-girlfriend and wanted to reconnect with his old classmates who were not his friends even less. Feng Bujue did not have a social media presence, he rarely revealed his personal info, all to maintain the smallness of his social circle. But for now, the girl just wanted to communicate with him normally… if he refused the girl his phone number, it would appear so strange and so ungentlemanly…

"Phew--- I say, you are really a piece of work…" Just as Brother Jue was stumped and was about to surrender, another voice rang out. Feng Bujue turned around and saw Li Ruoyu. She was dressed like usual, with black t shirt, jeans, and her medium length hair was dangling casually off her shoulder. But at that moment… Ruoyu had a smoke on her lips.

"Erm…" Seeing this, Brother Jue was so stumped that he was rendered speechless.

"I went off to buy a pack of smoke and you already found another, is it?" Ruoyu sounded perfectly like a female gang member. She hugged her left arm across his chest and held the cigarette between her right fingers. She glared at Feng Bujue with disgust. "So tell me… how long have you been hiding this one?"

"Erm…" Brother Jue was still as speechless as ever.

"Not going to say anything is it? Never mind, it does not matter, only lies come out of your mouth anyway." Ruoyu quickly added and then she turned her head around to glance at Brother Jue's ex girlfriend. "Girl… Listen to an advice from an older sister. It's one thing to have your beauty cheated away but you better keep a close watch on your money. Don't be fooled by that pretty face of his. Also… if this bastard suggests an abortion, you have to insist to go to an official hospital. Well, after the last incident with the previous girl…"

Before she even finished, the girl already turned to run away… like she was running away from a ghost. And before she left, she glared at Brother Jue with absolute disgust, looks like she regretted coming over to talk to him. After the girl walked away and disappeared out the corner, Ruoyu put down the cigarette. "Cough, cough… cough…" she held her mouth and coughed several times. She took 10 seconds before her breathing became even again. "Jesus… how does people even get addicted to this…"

"Erm…" Brother Jue was shocked. He widened his eyes and asked Ruoyu, "What the hell just happened?"

"Oh, it's like that…" Ruoyu explained as she pinched the cigarette off and then tossed the whole pack of smoke and the lighter into the roadside trash can. Then she raised her hand to point behind Brother Jue. "Earlier when I came through that corner, I saw you were talking with her. Seeing how troubled you were, I quickly hurried back to get a pack of smoke and a lighter from the corner store and then came to rescue you."

"Hue…" Brother Jue wiped away the cold sweat from the corner of his brows. "Nice acting, I was even fooled by you."

"Well, the same goes to you…" Ruoyu turned around to say."

"Sorry for giving you the trouble this time…" Brother Jue added, "Consider it a favour that I have owed you."

"It's fine." Ruoyu said, "if not for me being late, we would be sitting in the shop already and this whole thing would not have happened." Actually she was quite sorry about that. Because it was hard to find a place to park in the city so she came by taxi. Then she ran into a traffic jam so she was 10 minutes later.

"well… let's go in for now…" Feng Bujue cleverly changed the subject.

"Hmm." Ruoyu answered and then the two of them entered the café behind them together.