“Are you… Feng Bujue?” the Repenter asked with her "ventriloquism."

"Looks like I'm quite famous..." Feng Bujue muttered casually. Then, in a relaxed tone, he said to the horrifying undead creature before him, "My beautiful lady, I haven't had the pleasure of knowing... who might you be?"

"Repenter," the Repenter replied in her hoarse, weak voice. "I am one of the Nine Undead Commanders under Youwang of the Underworld."

"Oh?" Upon hearing the words "Youwang of the Underworld," Feng Bujue instantly perked up and exclaimed, "So it's you! I've heard so much about you." Even in front of a creature with its eyes sewn shut, he spared no effort to clasp his fist in his palm, putting on a flattering face. "You are all my idols. I am truly fortunate to meet you today."

At that moment, Xiao Tan and Matcha Su in the fire truck squinted, watching Brother Jue in front of the car with disdainful eyes.

"Does he call all members of the opposite gender 'beautiful lady'..." Matcha Su muttered softly, her lips twitching.

Brother Jue had indeed called Matcha Su "beautiful lady" several times before, but now it seemed those words held no credibility.

"Not necessarily," Xiao Tan replied. "He's always claimed to have an avant-garde aesthetic that transcends race and worldly concepts..."

"So, he has a very heavy taste?" Matcha Su interjected.

"Not that kind of heavy, uh... how should I put it... For example, when we look at foreigners, we always think they look similar, and foreigners often get Asians mixed up easily," Xiao Tan explained. "But Brother Jue is the opposite extreme. He's the kind of person who can distinguish each Minion (from *Despicable Me*, directed by Chris Renaud, capsule-shaped creatures composed of mutant DNA, fatty acids, and banana puree created by the two protagonists, Gru and Dr. Nefario) by appearance and name... Even if you put two hedgehogs of the same species in front of him, he can judge which one is more handsome..."

"Oh..." Matcha Su stared blankly for a few seconds with an expression of bewildered admiration, then shrugged. "I'd rather accept the conclusion that 'praise from Feng Bujue is very cheap'."

Xiao Tan said, "Actually, his kneeling is the cheapest... but it's okay to think that way."

While the two of them were commenting on Brother Jue's aesthetic sense, Feng Bujue had already finished his conversation with the NPC and opened the car door on the passenger side.

As soon as he opened the door, he said, "There are two things I need to tell you."

Xiao Tan and Matcha Su looked at each other, their faces filled with confusion, and a faint sense of foreboding rose in their hearts...

"First, your body seems to have a problem," Feng Bujue said to Xiao Tan first. "So much so that the Repenter mistook you for a Time Official under the Time Master... That's why she suddenly appeared in the middle of the road. Fortunately, she realized you were just a traveler from another world an instant before she launched her attack, and the three of us escaped death."

"Hey, hey..." Xiao Tan's face grew paler and paler, and cold sweat poured out more and more. He turned his head and looked at the Repenter standing in front of the car. "What kind of problem is it? Why don't I feel anything?"

"Oh, it's nothing major, just that the time dust that seeped into your left hand more than a month ago has now spread throughout your body through your blood..." Feng Bujue curled his lips. "Speaking of which... at the scene of the Death Quiz, that Hephaestus guy did say to you, 'The [time] belonging to your left hand has been overdrawn. If you don't deal with it, that hand will turn to dust soon'."

"But I'm fine!" Xiao Tan became more and more nervous as he listened, and his fear value steadily increased.

"You're a doctor, you should know better than I do... many diseases have no symptoms until they reach the late stage," Feng Bujue spread his hands.

"But that Hephaestus said 'soon', didn't he? More than a month has passed in real-world time! And my hand hasn't turned to dust!" Xiao Tan said quickly.

"Well... we have to consider it this way. First of all, Hephaestus is a god in Greek mythology. These guys, whose lifespans far exceed ordinary people, may have a different understanding of the word 'soon' than we do..." Feng Bujue replied. "Secondly, the influence of the 'system' on you is something that no one can predict. After you return to the login space, maybe the wound was sealed, and the effect of the time dust was temporarily suppressed, but its existence has never been eradicated."

"What should we do now?" Xiao Tan asked.

Before he could finish, Feng Bujue handed him a ***-500 and said, "A loss may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. At present, we can't determine what kind of follow-up effects the time dust will have on your body, so let's wait and see... Anyway, I'll give you the medicine first, and you can use it as needed." He was very cautious and deliberately didn't say the name of the item, but used the word "medicine" to refer to it, in case Matcha Su next to him had malicious intentions.

Of course... Brother Jue was overthinking it at the moment. Matcha Su was very unfamiliar with the setting of ***, even if he said the word ***-500 in front of her, she would not know what it was.

"Okay, let's talk about the second thing," Feng Bujue then said. "I'm leaving."

"What?" Matcha Su frowned slightly, her expression changed, "Where are you going?"

"I've convinced this Repenter to take me to see the leader of the Nine Undead Commanders. If all goes well, in this script, I can officially become a member of the Undead Kingdom..." Feng Bujue looked forward to it, as if he had passed the civil service exam.

"Heh..." Matcha Su sneered, "You went to great lengths to persuade me to form an alliance with you, but we haven't even encountered an enemy yet, and you're leaving on your own accord?"

"Not to mention... if I didn't offer you the chance to form an alliance, you would have turned into points long ago... You haven't lost anything right now, have you?" Feng Bujue replied. "On the contrary, you've gained a very strong vehicle and a reliable fighter." He paused. "In short... if you believe me, continue moving towards the source of the explosions with Xiao Tan. I'll be back to join you soon. Don't worry, I'll definitely find a way to find your location." As he spoke, he observed the other party's expression changes without a trace. "If you want to break up with us, that's fine too. The Golden Maggot No. 1 can be given to you, but 'our agreement' will be void, and we'll all go our separate ways."

After Brother Jue finished speaking, Matcha Su fell into silence...

Feng Bujue was very good at persuading others because he had a talent, a talent that all first-class strategists have had since ancient times - calculating. Calculating his own accounts, calculating the boss's accounts, calculating friends' accounts, calculating enemies' accounts, calculating the accounts of the world... The same thing has different meanings for different people. Only by calculating other people's accounts clearly can one speculate on the other party's bottom line and find the possibility of cooperation.

The more thoroughly one understands the other party's inner thoughts, the greater the room for maneuver. From a negotiation perspective, one can be invincible.

"Hmph... fine... I'm already on the pirate ship, I'm not planning to get off." Sure enough, more than ten seconds later, Matcha Su replied with feigned helplessness.

Brother Jue had already known that she was unwilling to break up. Matcha Su's bottom line was undoubtedly the ownership of the Golden Maggot No. 1. She was absolutely unwilling to hand over this powerful combat machine. And it was meaningless for her to drive the car away alone because the full power of this thing could only be brought out if there were people in both the driver's seat and the gunner's position.

"Very good, I'll go ahead first, be careful, both of you." After Brother Jue finished explaining, he took a step back. Before closing the door, he still kept a straight face and recited in a cold voice that he thought was very cool, "i_will_be_back."

…………

At the same moment, inside the restricted area, on the top floor of a certain building.

Tun Tian Gui Xiao, Shiva, Fei Chai Shu, and Shi Dao Wei Wang, these four seed players were gathered in one place, sneakily looking at a distant intersection.

The scene there was not much different from other places in the city. The streets were dotted with piles of corpses and skeletons, and the buildings were covered with strange vines and blood. The only difference was... a black spherical spatial rift was suspended in the sky above this place.

"What is that? Some kind of operable black hole?" Fei Chai Shu asked.

Shi Dao Wei Wang added, "You two didn't focus on your own match, and you forcibly dragged us over here... just to let us see this?"

"No..." Shiva pointed into the distance. "Look over there..."

Fei Chai Shu and Shi Dao Wei Wang followed the direction he was pointing and moved their gazes over together.

They saw that on the street below the rift, there was a tall, half-human, half-beast creature walking forward. On its shoulder, it was also carrying a player (the back of the clothes had a guild badge, so it could be seen that it was a player). The player was not struggling and was almost motionless, perhaps his stamina value had been exhausted... Soon, he was taken to directly below the explosion tunnel.

In the middle of the intersection stood a woman, she was wearing a set of gray clothes, and her appearance looked very ordinary, like a passerby in those sandbox games, it could be said that she had no characteristics.

"What is that monster doing grabbing players?" Shi Dao Wei Wang muttered, "Wait... this monster actually has the ability to defeat the players in this script?" His expression changed slightly. "With this kind of strength, it must be a direct subordinate of the Four Pillar Gods."

"No," Gui Xiao replied, "It's a Derivative."

"What?" Shi Dao Wei Wang turned his head, "Isn't that just a rumor on the forum?"

"Hey... that Derivative is killing people." Fei Chai Shu still didn't take off his sunglasses while using his binoculars, God knows how he could see the distant scene clearly.

Hearing this, Shi Dao Wei Wang cast his gaze back to the street.

At this time, Lute had already ended the player's life. The method she used was very simple, first using her right index finger to point at the other party's head from the air, then her finger suddenly turned into a mercury-like substance and grew rapidly, piercing into the other party's skull like an awl.

Lightly and casually, one hit to kill.

"What's going on?" Shi Dao Wei Wang asked, "If she was going to kill him, why did she grab him in the first place?" He looked at Gui Xiao and Shiva in confusion, "Could it be that the beast-like Derivative wanted the other humanoid to gain experience?"

"According to our observations..." Shiva replied, "That woman seems to be doing some kind of screening work..." His expression was very solemn, and there was a hint of fear between his brows. "Her subordinates help her capture players and then bring them to her, for her to make the final decision."

"Screening for what?" Fei Chai Shu turned his head and said.

"Don't know," Gui Xiao replied, "We only know... so far, not a single person has met her requirements."

Fei Chai Shu pondered: "That is to say... all the players who are caught are killed..."

"I say... does this matter have anything to do with us?" Shi Dao Wei Wang said, "What if there is an NPC force in this script that specializes in hunting players?"

"Not NPC, it's Derivative," Gui Xiao corrected.

"Okay, okay... Derivative." Shi Dao Wei Wang replied noncommittally. In his opinion, no matter what those things are called, they are just virtual characters in the game, and there is no essential difference. "I just want to say that your actions make me very puzzled. Even if you know these things, as long as you make sure you don't get caught, why bother telling others? Don't you want to win this compe..."

"Haven't you figured out the situation yet?" Gui Xiao's face was very ugly, and his tone was very suppressed. He interrupted the other party directly, lowered his voice, and said, "Look at that dead person..."

Shi Dao Wei Wang and Fei Chai Shu looked at the street again, but they saw that... the player's corpse did not turn into white light and dissipate, but lay straight on the ground, and brains and blood gradually flowed from the wound, covering the ground.

The derivative who had been transformed into a beast seemed to have exchanged a few words with Lute, and then he picked up the corpse and threw it aside like trash.

At this time, Shi Dao Wei Wang and Fei Chai Shu realized that... the pile of bloody corpses at the corner of the street was not a setting on the script map. Those... were all the contestants in this Peak Hegemony...