“Hmm…best to get out of here!” Feng Bujue only hesitated for two seconds before deciding to retreat.

The King Kong Bell had never rung like this before. Whatever monster was about to appear, Brother Jue wasn't entirely confident he could win. Besides, monsters in Thriller Paradise didn't "drop equipment." There was no reason to provoke those monsters unrelated to the main quest.

Therefore, Feng Bujue chose to run after a little deliberation (which was actually waiting for the quest prompt).

But... the system wouldn't let him have his way...

Buzzing—

A dull sound suddenly came from behind Feng Bujue. Along with this strange rumble, a huge, transparent barrier abruptly formed. The barrier was like an inverted bowl, "covering" the nearby area.

At that moment, Brother Jue happened to be turning around to run, just as he was taking a Moonwalk step. Under the influence of [Treading the Void], this full-force Moonwalk step was incredibly effective. Feng Bujue shot forward like a cannonball.

And so... his bear face slammed solidly into the barrier, and his survival value dropped by 9%...

Although Feng Bujue had "Zero Hour Calculation," this heaven-defying ability, in this situation, even if he had calculated the result, it was too late to stop.

"Hmm... so it won't let me leave..." Brother Jue muttered, rubbing his face.

Since the loss of survival value was still within his acceptable range (the damage from the poisonous mist two hours ago had mostly recovered), his attitude was still relatively calm.

"At worst, it's just a fight..." Feng Bujue simply turned around, facing the Boss gradually emerging from the dung swamp, and said, "This Nightmare Instance barely restricts the player's combat ability. Do you think I'm afraid of you?"

Rumbling...

In just a few seconds, the hidden Boss's upper body had emerged from the vortex. Its shape was exactly the same as a human's, but its size was more than five times that of a normal person. Since its entire body was covered in dark brown filth, it was impossible to see its face, and one could only judge from the outline... that this Boss's gender was female.

At this moment, the "Death Warning" time was up, and the King Kong Bell's ringing stopped abruptly...

Feng Bujue took the opportunity to activate the second special effect: [Observe a Monster's (excluding Boss-level) Detailed Information].

As a result, nothing was fed back...

"As expected... not an ordinary monster." Feng Bujue thought to himself, "The King Kong Bell's first special effect has already been used on Lesende. I can't verify whether this one is an NPC, but... judging from the way it appeared, it's a Boss nine times out of ten..."

"Oh—" Suddenly, a long, incomparably desolate wail rang out, interrupting Feng Bujue's thoughts.

The Boss's roar echoed throughout the swamp. Unfortunately... the invisible barrier around it altered the sound quality somewhat, and when this wail reached the ears of the few players in the distance, it sounded like the wind. So... no one would be attracted by the sound to come and support him.

"Is this declaring its appearance is complete..." Feng Bujue took a few steps in the air, raising his altitude again. After a few seconds, he carefully examined the Boss and commented, "Hmm... not bad figure."

If there were other players present, they would have been amazed by Brother Jue's heavy tastes after hearing these words. Fortunately, he was the only one here, so he could be as crazy as he wanted...

"I...hate...so much..." At this moment, the Boss spoke her first line with her broken gong-like voice.

Without even mentioning how desolate the tone was... at the moment she opened her mouth, an extremely strong, almost tangible stench gushed out of her mouth, like a gaseous poison dragon, rushing towards Brother Jue in the heights. The latter did not hesitate to kick off the air and rise again. Obviously, Feng Bujue had already gone all out. Rather than dying from this stench, he'd rather die in the poisonous mist above...

"Eh? Nothing's happening?" After reaching an altitude of nearly twenty meters, Brother Jue had an unexpected discovery, "So that's how it is, this barrier is keeping the poisonous mist out!"

This little surprise didn't last long, about three seconds or so...

Three seconds later, all he heard was a whoosh! A turd the size of a water tank flew over...

At this time, Feng Bujue's body had just stabilized, but his mind was unsettled. Facing this sudden and terrifying pursuit, his reaction seemed a little slow. It wasn't that he had no way to deal with this attack, but that there were some methods he didn't want to use.

For example, Zero Hour Calculation told him: the safest and least consuming strategy to deal with this move was—to curl up his body and tough it out.

Could he do that?

The answer was self-evident...

Therefore, Brother Jue had to respond as much as possible without being "contaminated." This approach... would increase the difficulty, increase the risk, and naturally increase the consumption. But he... had no choice.

He saw Brother Jue instantly activate [Spiritual Consciousness Gathering Technique - Modified] for one second, taking a series of rapid, dense Moonwalk steps at ultra-high speed, and forcibly twisting his body in the air.

In the end, he successfully used an unbelievable posture... to skirt half a circle along the outer edge of the dung ball cannonball, barely avoiding the attack.

"Beauty, what's your honorable name? How should I address you? Can we put down the poop and have a good talk?" After dodging the Boss's first move, Feng Bujue quickly started communicating with her. Although the possibility was very slim, there was still a chance that negotiating with the Boss might stop the fight, so he had to try.

"I... I am..." The Boss's voice became a little softer, she seemed to be reminiscing, thinking, "I am... Fuling... I am the most beautiful... the purest soul... of the Death Spirit Kingdom..."

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Feng Bujue complained in his heart, "It'd be more believable if you said you were Ragnaros (the final Boss of the Molten Core Instance in World of Warcraft, a giant fire demon with a vortex-shaped lower body, who always stands in the magma during battle) who accidentally fell into a cesspool after a sex change..."

"Heh... heh heh..." Fuling suddenly chuckled a few times like she had schizophrenia, and a strange stench steamed from her face, drifting upwards, "Traveler from another world... do you know what the most beautiful moment in this world... is like?"

"I'm all ears..." Feng Bujue replied, while constantly adjusting his position, trying to avoid the foul-smelling gases.

"The most beautiful moment in the world is the moment when a beautiful thing is born." Fuling replied, and before Feng Bujue could interject, she asked again, "Then do you know... what the ugliest moment in the world is like?"

At this moment, Feng Bujue had a very bad feeling. He knew that this was also a rhetorical question; without him answering, the other party would announce the answer. It was just that the answer... would be very tragic, despairing, and most likely accompanied by some kind of instant-kill attack...