"The tree's falling~" Atobe shouted at the top of his lungs, simultaneously leaping several zhang high and kicking hard against the tall tree trunk. This would ensure the tree fell toward the other side of the canyon entrance, rather than crushing the players on this side.

The vines on the tree crown had rapidly withered and contracted minutes ago, so they didn't impede the tree's fall. Seconds later, the sound of rocks and tree trunk scraping together, the whooshing wind caused by the falling giant, echoed, ending with a dull thud.

"Ah~ I've always wanted to yell that." Atobe landed, wiped his brow, hoisted his axe, and struck what he thought was a cool pose as he spoke.

Feng Bujue strode forward, completely ignoring Atobe, heading straight for the severed tree roots.

"Aha! Equipment!" Feng Bujue found the "reward" mentioned by the man in the tree right away.

However, Brother Jue didn't rush to pick it up, because there were many items in the game that would bind to the player upon pickup. If it was a piece of equipment that was useless to him but greatly improved someone else, picking it up would only cause trouble.

Fortunately, Thriller Paradise Version 1.10 added a new feature. For items with undetermined ownership, players could simply observe them up close to see the item description, without having to hold them.

【Name: Pessimist's Skull】

【Type: Armor】

【Quality: Excellent】

【Defense: Medium】

【Attribute: None】

【Effect: Reveals the safe path through the Ghostly Marsh】

【Equipment Condition: Must choose Walker as your faith】

【Can be brought out of the script: No】

【Note: All realities begin with dreams, but not all dreams become reality.】

The 【Pessimist's Skull】looked very much like a standard helmet worn by ancient Roman soldiers. At this moment, the piece of equipment was embedded horizontally in the severed tree roots.

The earlier sentence from the man in the tree, "Cut along my waist," was a rather obvious hint. If players cut the tree too high or too low, they might miss this item entirely.

"This item is for Walker's followers." After reading the description, Feng Bujue extracted the helmet from the tree trunk and turned to Utterly Wasted Uncle. "Hmm… I reckon we'll be using it soon enough."

Utterly Wasted Uncle took a few steps forward, accepted the helmet, and observed it for a few seconds before saying, "Sure enough, no matter which faith you choose, it will play a role at some point."

"Yes, that shows our strategy for choosing faiths was correct," Honghu responded. "Looking back… if none of us had chosen Weston, we wouldn't have known about this 'shortcut'; and if no one had chosen Idient, we wouldn't have been able to cut down the tree and find this equipment."

"Actually… those choices only lowered the difficulty of clearing the level," Feng Bujue poured cold water on the situation. "From what I can see, setting aside the benefits of each faith, there's still a way to force your way through…" He paused, then continued, "If you don't know the shortcut, find one yourself, or just take the long way; if no one can use an axe to chop the tree, then risk taking the upper route and consume a few extra bottles of detoxifying potions." He pointed ahead. "It'll probably be the same in the Ghostly Marsh ahead. If we didn't have this 【Pessimist's Skull】, we'd probably face great difficulties, but… it wouldn't be insurmountable."

Brother Jue's words filled in some gaps in his teammates' thinking. A little thought made it clear… these faiths played a big role, but they weren't "essential" for clearing the level.

In other words, the faith selection scene was a fine-tuning of the difficulty of the upcoming script.

Teams with stronger curiosity or more thorough consideration were likely to make more choices and benefit from them. But those who were conservative or had a single, hasty strategy might concentrate on one or two faiths, increasing the difficulty of later gameplay.

In short, everything was based on "choice."

The scene with Lisend earlier clearly had many variables, with the key branch being the "Wisdom God Weston" option. There were three different story developments here: first, no player chose Weston as their faith. In that case… Lisend would subtly point out the approximate location of the Temple of Faith before leaving, but he wouldn't reveal anything about the shortcut.

The second, which Brother Jue and the others were experiencing… someone chose Weston and asked a question related to the main quest. With this choice, Lisend would tell them about the shortcut and then leave.

And the third was someone who chose Weston but asked a question unrelated to the main quest. This was basically a death option. If a player did this, Lisend would leave directly, without mentioning anything about the Temple of Faith.

Of course, these three were just one set of many variables. There were many other story developments, such as "failing to complete a side quest," "actively triggering a battle," "talking nonsense when choosing a faith," and so on… most of which were instant-death flags, so I won't go into detail.

…………

After cutting down the tree, the five quickly passed through the canyon entrance and continued forward.

Beyond the canyon entrance was still within the range of the Taunting Forest. Therefore, after walking a hundred meters or so, they were once again surrounded by a chorus of insults.

But the players were already used to it, treating it as just the sound of the wind…

Atobe continued to act as the vanguard, hacking through thorns and brambles to open the way. After walking for a while, he suddenly said, "This forest is getting sparser and sparser…"

"That means we're getting closer and closer to the edge of the forest," Feng Bujue replied.

As the two spoke, Atobe happened to cut through a wall of vines blocking their path.

Instantly, a strong stench assaulted their nostrils…

"Holy crap!" Atobe cursed, raised an arm to cover his mouth and nose, and staggered backward.

In the first second, the four behind him thought Atobe had seen some danger and was running. But in less than two seconds, they all smelled the foul odor carried by the wind…

"Ugh… what's going on?" Pegasus's imagination put his palms together, covered his mouth and nose, and said in a muffled voice.

"You can't fart in this game… so we can rule out the possibility of the smell coming from a teammate," Honghu said, covering his nose with his sleeve.

"Your analysis is no better than saying nothing…" Utterly Wasted Uncle reacted the same way as the former, also covering his face with his sleeve.

"Hmm… it should be the smell of poop," Feng Bujue stood at the front, covering his nose with his gloves, and muttered thoughtfully.

"Damn! I inhaled a big gulp of it without any preparation…" Atobe had already retreated to the very back, sat down sideways on the ground, with dark clouds gathering on his face. "I feel like I've lost something important…"

"It's just a little bit of the smell of poop," Feng Bujue replied in a relaxed tone. "Is it worth putting on this ruined look?"

"I say… Brother Feng, why are you so sure it's poop?" Utterly Wasted Uncle asked the question in a strange tone, because he already had some bad guesses in his mind.

"Oh, it's like this… when I was in middle school, my natural science research project was—'Smell'," Feng Bujue replied.

"Your teacher is crazy, right?" Honghu blurted out his complaint, and immediately thought of something else after saying that, and went on to say, "Did you drive him crazy?"

"The assignment given by the teacher was 'free research', which means you can choose your own research project," Feng Bujue said. "I hesitated for a long time between the subjects of 'perfect crime' and 'smell', and considering that the former might cause misunderstandings, I finally chose the latter."

"If you're afraid of causing misunderstandings, then do something that normal people would do! Just plant a pot of flowers, and then write an observation diary, and that's it!" Honghu shouted, "Speaking of which… is perfect crime considered a natural science?"

"Anyway… according to the degree of human tolerance to odors, I classified them," Feng Bujue ignored the other party's complaints and began to explain with great interest, "The lightest is 'acceptable', such as stinky tofu and garlic; then there is 'general disgust', such as fart, body odor, smelly socks, moldy food, etc.; more serious is 'extreme disgust', such as corpses, poop…" He paused for two seconds, took a breath, "Finally, there is 'unbearable stench', the substances in this level are the nemesis of human sense of smell, and can even directly cause physiological harm to us, such as hydrogen selenide, ethanethiol, skunk, etc."

"And the smell in front of us…" Feng Bujue gestured in that direction with his eyes, "... it must be poop, there is no doubt that it is the smell of indole and skatole. This is different from the smell of corpses, although it is also a derivative of intestinal bacteria, but..."

"Okay! Stop talking! It's getting more and more disgusting!" Atobe propped himself up with his axe, stood up again, and shouted, interrupting Brother Jue, "This is not the point at all! Just say it is! What's there to discuss about this!"

"Hehe… there is a meaning to what I said, of course," Feng Bujue smiled, "I'm building a 'disgust defense line' in your minds, so that you can better face the next physiological pressure."

"What do you mean?" Pegasus's imagination widened his eyes, "Don't tell me we have to continue moving forward in this smell?"

"Of course." Feng Bujue said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Do we have a way out?"

"He's right…" Honghu continued, "There is no fork in the road here, and we can't go back… so, no matter how bad the smell is in front of us, we have to go on."

"Don't worry." Feng Bujue shrugged, "After a while, the sense of smell will be numb. If you really can't stand it, you'll just vomit a few times at most." He waved to Atobe, "Let's go, don't waste time, either you stick your head out or hide it, it's all the same."

"Can I force a retreat? Seriously, I wanted to retreat from the beginning!" Atobe resisted with all his might.

"Ah… it's okay, Atobe." Utterly Wasted Uncle said weakly at this time, "When we get to the Excrement Marsh… er… Ghostly Marsh, it will be my turn to lead the way."

"Hey! You were going to say Excrement Marsh, right! You already said it!"