Thriller Paradise

The braying of the hound signified the imminence of danger, and it was a danger that was targeted at Feng Bujue. He opened the game menu and took a glance at the quest tab. "Time until sunrise: 203 minutes."

It had been thirty-seven minutes since General Zaroff departed from the castle. Even though Feng Bujue had an hour head start on the man, the chance of him being caught up by the boss was incredibly high.

When the sound of the hound neared, the anaconda that was not far away from Feng Bujue abandoned its feast. It gave up the food that was literally in its lips and hurriedly slithered back into the protective darkness of the forest. All the animals on the island knew what the braying of the hound represented. Even if they were not afraid of the dogs, they were afraid of the dogs' owner.

Feng Bujue realized that he had no time to waste; he had to come up with an effective solution as fast as possible. Even if he was fated to die, he had to buy some time for his teammates to increase the chance of them clearing the scenario as much as possible.

Hiding was probably a wasted effort. Feng Bujue would have left some footprints on his journey. With the general's hunting skill, he could have sought out his prey through broken branches and disturbances in the brush, much less something as obvious as footprints. None of these details would escape the eyes of the expert Cassock.

Furthermore, Zaroff had his hunting hounds. The scents that the players would have left behind on the muddy ground would be as clear as road signs for these creatures whose sense of smell was at least one hundred times better than that of human beings.

Under such circumstances, the party who was the prey should be as nervous as they could be. With the approach of an incredibly powerful boss while being surrounded by a dark and complicated terrain, one knew that danger was approaching but had no idea where the danger would actually come from and what kind of attack method the 'hunter' would employ. This was a pressure that was hard to describe. In most horror or action games, when the players were on the heels by some kind of dangerous monster, it was usually the parts that tested the players' mental stability and skill the most.

If this was any other player, they might have hurried and gone on the run. They would not have cared about the direction as long as it was far away from the sound of the hound. However, Feng Bujue was as calm as ever. The man who could not feel fear merely quietly put his dagger away and used the flashlight to confirm which escape trail would pose the least amount of resistance to him terrain-wise and started running. He was not worried that the flashlight might expose his location because even if he switched off the flashlight, it would not have slowed down the enemy's approach. If anything, the only thing the darkness would do was slow down his progress.

After a brief observation of his surroundings, Feng Bujue felt the small path that headed in the direction of northern side was relatively level. Therefore, he used the flashlight as guidance as he continued to move forward at a speed that was as fast as he could manage. The sound of the hound closed behind him. However, he ignored this auditory pressure. He did not turn back or allow his attention to be distracted for even one second. He trained all his focus on the path before him to ensure that his travelling speed was not affected.

When travelling on such uneven terrain, the biggest mistake that a player could make was to turn back every so often to check up on the pursuer. That action would only bring negative consequences.

In the many horror films that Feng Bujue had seen, one of the most common tropes was a character—most often, it would be a beautiful woman—being chased by some kind of monster, and the character would somehow be chased into a jungle. The beauty ran and screamed at top of her lungs. She would keep turning around and reveal a scared expression toward the camera. Then, the camera would span to show that the monster was trailing not far behind her. After this chase scene carried on for a while, the character would always trip on something and fall. Then, the camera would again shift to show a scene that was splattered with fake blood and a scream that would be heard at a slaughterhouse. The monster would have acquired its first blood.

Feng Bujue would not commit such a juvenile mistake. It was impossible to see the man trip; it was more likely for him to trip the monster. The chase persisted for a while. The sound of the dogs was finally about less than fifteen meters behind Feng Bujue. He knew that he had definitely fallen into his hunter's sight. Based on common sense, Zaroff was presented with two choices—unhook the chain around his hunting hound to allow his dog the freedom to charge and topple its target, or use his SS level marksmanship to take down the target.

No matter which option was chosen, Feng Bujue would be killed in a matter of seconds. The difference was whether it was his throat that would be torn open or his head that would explode.

As they say, being killed from the back was the biggest humiliation a warrior could suffer. Although, that does not seem to have much to do with the current situation.

In any case, Feng Bujue made the decision that even if he was facing certain death, he would need to struggle. Since it was going to be game over soon, it would be waste of his Life Points that were still quite full. With that in mind, he activated the skill Body Enhancement Spell. His speed suddenly picked up, and with a bounce, he leaped sideways and hid behind one of the trees.

This was the first time that Feng Bujue had used this skill. The sensation that he felt after activating it was interesting. It was as if the blood in his body was boiling, and his skin was radiating heat. This 'heat' was different from the heat that surrounded him in the tropical jungle. It did not suffocate him but instead brought him a sense of psychological excitement. In other words, it ignited his desire to fight. As a skill that required no exhaustion other than an incremental burning of Life Points, this was the type of effect that he was looking for.

"Something's not right…" Feng Bujue felt confused.

After activating the skill, Feng Bujue's bodily senses and abilities had become heightened. His hearing had become more sensitive and his reaction practically superhuman-like. From his perspective, it felt like the world around him had slowed down. He could clearly discern the various audio stimuli that entered his ears. Therefore, he managed to discover that under the overly-loud barking of hounds, there were only four legs landing on the ground. There was no indication of human footsteps.

He poked his head out from behind the tree. He did not see any light in the dark. He did not think that General Zaroff was powerful enough to be able to see in the dark, so… basically, he could confirm that from the very beginning, his pursuer had only been a hound.

It soon dawned on Feng Bujue that this was a breather that the scenario afforded the player. He had overestimated the difficulty of the scenario. He had thought that the general would start the hunt with the company of the hounds after half an hour, but from the looks of things, Zaroff would only release the hounds that he had shown in the castle first before starting his own hunt.

Perhaps it was due to One Blade's early death or Passing Rain's disconnection that the difficulty had been edited, or perhaps this was the original difficulty of the scenario. In any case, this kind of setting more reflected the perfectionist quality that the system seemed to adopt.

Since the players could split up, the monsters could split up as well. This way, there would not be a situation where a group would clear the scenario without much trouble while the other team would suffer hell. Every player would face a test of equal difficulty, and the boss would show up fashionably late.