Chapter 1656 The Wall, the Bottle, and the Song

Feng Bujue followed Li Ruoyu's instructions, walked to the wall, and raised the [Composite Anti-Gravity Launcher] towards the blackened shadow on the wall.

Immediately after, he activated the launcher's "suction" function.

A second later, a few soft "buzzing" sounds announced that the launcher had indeed sucked onto something (activating the suction function against the air would produce no response).

"Eh? There really is something." Feng Bujue said, taking half a step back and retracting his arm.

Immediately after, a wine bottle with a cork was "pulled" out from the blackened shadow on the wall...

The item seemed to have traveled from a flat plane to a three-dimensional world. The shadow on the wall also disappeared.

"Wow! Amazing!" Buu exclaimed, eyes wide.

Oubu also said, "Hmm... the people from Hell's Frontline are indeed not ordinary..."

Their amazement was natural. Any player with some skill could see that... the puzzles in these two rooms were all very difficult; besides observation, calculation, association, and reasoning abilities, these puzzles also had high requirements for the player's knowledge reserves. For example, the "Bottle, Glass, and Violin" on the wall could not be revealed without some knowledge of art and painting skills. Even a monster-level puzzle solver like Feng Bujue would not be able to see the clues without specific knowledge.

"You flatter us." Ruoyu wouldn't be as smug as Jue-ge. Facing Buu and Oubu's praise, she calmly replied, "Because the system refers to the information in all players' minds when generating scripts, and this puzzle happens to be based on a set of information that only I know, so I solved it."

Her way of expressing herself was very clever. Her tone was neither humble nor arrogant, and the content of her words was objective and convincing; even if she was denying someone else's point of view, the other party would not feel "offended."

In comparison, Jue-ge, who was used to "logically raping" people into silence, was clearly on the other extreme...

"Ah... anyway, finding clues is a good thing." Feng Bujue added, picking up the bottle and showing the item description to his teammates:

[Name: Bottle]

[Type: Plot Related]

[Quality: Dilapidated]

[Function: Holds Liquid]

[Can be taken out of this script: No]

[Remarks: Nothing special about this glass wine bottle. The label on the bottle has long been worn away. The cork can be removed at will.]

"The type is a plot item, it can't be taken out of the script, and the function is clearly written..." Xiao Tan said, stroking his chin after seeing the description, "That is to say... we'll have to use this thing to hold some kind of liquid later?"

"Hmm... they shouldn't make us hold urine." Feng Bujue immediately showed a thoughtful expression and muttered, "After all, you can't relieve yourself in this game..."

"Is that the first thing you think of when liquids are mentioned..." Ruoyu glanced at Jue-ge, looking helpless.

"Yeah." Feng Bujue admitted very simply, "It's strange... if 'bodily fluids' are mentioned, I'd think of blood and..."

"Before I beat your bodily fluids out of you, I suggest you stop this topic and take out the other two things from the wall." Ruoyu interrupted.

"Hehe... roger that." Feng Bujue smiled, casually handed the bottle to Oubu, who was standing not far away, and stepped forward to the wall again.

A minute later, Jue-ge took out...

[Name: Glass]

[Type: Plot Related]

[Quality: Ordinary]

[Function: Holds Liquid]

[Can be taken out of this script: No]

[Remarks: A very ordinary cylindrical glass. The inside of the glass is quite clean.]

And...

[Name: Violin]

[Type: Plot Related]

[Quality: Dilapidated]

[Function: Play Music]

[Can be taken out of this script: No]

[Remarks: Although it looks very old, it can still be played normally. Unfortunately, the bow is missing.]

"It seems that this puzzle isn't over yet..." After the teammates had all seen the item descriptions, Jue-ge said again, "Just taking these three items out of the wall hasn't changed our situation."

While speaking, Feng Bujue turned his head and looked at the room next door through the open door. "Let's call the room with the table and oil lamp Room A, and the room we're in now Room B..." He paused for a second, as if waiting for his teammates to accept this setting. "It is currently known that there are two keys in Room A, one of which has been used to open the door connecting Rooms A and B; and the remaining [Faded Copper Key] cannot open the other door in Room A."

"And there are no exits to other areas in Room B, nor have we found any other keys..." Buu continued Jue-ge's words, "The only clues have given us three items—a bottle, a glass, and a violin. But... none of these three things seem to be able to open a door."

"That's right." While speaking, Feng Bujue had put away the launcher (at this time, the door connecting the two rooms was open, the light from next door could shine in, and the other players were also holding lighting equipment, so he didn't need a flashlight), holding the glass and violin, he walked towards Room A. "According to normal thinking... we should now return to Room A and use these three items found in Room B to find a way to open the other door..."

Bang—

Jue-ge's words were interrupted by the sound of a door closing.

He looked at the door panel that had closed on its own (for the second time) with an unhappy expression, shaking his head and saying, "Are you kidding me... again?"

This time, all six players were trapped in Room B. But compared to when Jue-ge was trapped alone, the situation was much better... this time, there was no distortion in the surrounding space, and the players' lighting equipment was all functioning normally.

"Ah—" The first to scream was Xiao Tan.

Okay... he was also the last one, the others didn't scream.

"What are you shouting for..." Even Xiao Ling, who was next to him, felt embarrassed. She immediately pointed her flashlight at Xiao Tan's face and said, "Isn't it just being locked in a room by a ghost? You're already in your forties, what are you afraid of?"

"Yeah! It's being locked in a room by a ghost that's scary!" Xiao Tan replied loudly and honestly, "Besides... fear has nothing to do with level, right!"

"That's right, a person's courage has no necessary connection with their level in the game." Feng Bujue turned around with a serious expression, raised his finger and pointed to Buu and Oubu beside him, "Look, they're also very scared, but their expressions aren't just shouting."

He was right. At this time, Buu and Oubu, one had his mouth wide open, like a wooden chicken, the other was pale and horrified.

"This is what you call being so scared that you can't speak..." Ruoyu commented calmly.

"Hey~ actually, you don't need to be too nervous." Feng Bujue looked at the two of them and said, "This should just be a very normal event, according to my speculation, the triggering conditions are probably 'all six people are in Room B; and have already obtained the bottle, glass, and violin.' After we meet these two conditions, as long as we try to return to Room A, we will encounter..."

"Shh—" Suddenly, Ruoyu shushed Jue-ge, interrupting him, and patted him on the shoulder.

Jue-ge also understood and immediately stopped speaking, listening attentively.

Before long, all six players heard... from the room next door, a low, hoarse singing voice came...

[The king and his hounds,
Stole the queen from her bed,
Bound her to her bones.
The ocean is ours,
By its power...
Where the heart goes, so shall ye.
yo~ho~ heave together~
Raise the flag.
heAve~ho~
Thieves and beggars,
We never die...]

After singing this lyrics repeatedly for three times (in English, but the players could all understand), the voice stopped abruptly.

Then, there was a "click" sound.

The closed door opened again on its own...

[Main quest triggered] The system prompt sounded accordingly.

The players opened the game menu and saw a new main quest in the quest bar: [Obtain the golden key from the pirate's ghost.]

"Damn it! Where's my rum!" At the same second, a roar came from behind the door.

Along with the gradually opening door, the players saw... next to the table in Room A, there was an extra wooden stool, and a semi-transparent ghost was sitting on the stool.

The ghost was dressed in brocade clothes and adorned with gold and silver, and wore a captain's hat on his head. However, his appearance was extremely sloppy... he had shoulder-length, messy hair and a broom-like beard; his eyes were sunken, his skin was rough; nose hairs had grown out of his nose and merged with the mustache on his lips...

"Ah~ finally here." The ghost pirate glanced at the door and said loudly, "Quick, bring me the rum."

"Rum?" Feng Bujue's expression changed slightly. He looked down and saw that he only had an empty glass and a violin without a bow in his hand. Where was the rum?

"Uh... are you referring to this?" At this time, Oubu, who was looking out the door, spoke, raising the [Bottle] that Jue-ge had just given him and waving it at the ghost.

For some reason, the originally empty [Bottle] was now full, filled with a light yellow liquid.

"Uh... Teacher Jue, should I go over?" Oubu looked at Jue-ge and asked tremblingly.

"Go ahead, what's there to be afraid of?" Feng Bujue said, handing the glass in his hand to Oubu and stepping aside.

To be honest, there was really nothing to be afraid of in this scene... the light in Room A was as bright as before; and the ghost pirate didn't look very scary, just a gray, semi-transparent ghost, which looked very much like a ghost image from an old movie.

"Oh... okay." Oubu responded almost without hesitation, took the bottle and the glass... and went towards the table.

Perhaps Jue-ge's tone and expression gave him confidence. Oubu's fear value dropped all of a sudden. He said to himself, "Teacher Jue is right, what's there to be afraid of? If I'm afraid of this, I might as well go play *Casper the Friendly Ghost oL* (this game is fictional and does not exist)."

While encouraging himself, he came to the ghost pirate and said, "Um... this is your rum..." After saying that, Oubu put the bottle and glass on the table and quickly took a step back, watching the other party warily.

The ghost pirate glanced at him, curled his lips, and said nothing more. Then, the sloppy ghost pulled out the cork from the bottle and began to pour himself a drink.

Seeing that there was no danger, the other five players also passed through the door one after another and returned to Room A.

After entering, the first thing Jue-ge did was to get close to Oubu's ear and whisper, "Speaking of... the liquid that suddenly appeared in the bottle... couldn't be your..."

"How could it be..." Oubu replied with a twitch at the corner of his mouth, "I don't know when the liquid appeared in the bottle. Anyway, the bottle was empty before the door closed... I found the liquid in the bottle after the quest prompt sounded."

"Oh~" Feng Bujue responded and thought to himself, "This is Zun-ge helping us..."

He guessed right. The rum in the bottle was indeed conjured by Zhuanjie Zun. The original plot here was supposed to make the players fill the bottle with blood... for the ghost pirate to drink. Fortunately, Zun-ge helped them in secret, saving them a lot of trouble.

Of course, even without Zun-ge's help, it wouldn't be a big problem. With Oubu, this "human-shaped supply station," getting some blood wasn't a matter of minutes... he had a consumable called [Universal Plasma] in his knapsack; if the ghost pirate wanted to drink "fresh" blood, just have Buu, that fatty, let out two taels of blood. Anyway, after it was let out, it could be replenished by infusion.

"Burp~" About two minutes later, the ghost pirate had finished off half a bottle of rum. He burped, raised his eyes and scanned the players, and finally stopped his gaze on Jue-ge. "Drinking alone is too boring... you! Play me some music."

"Huh?" Feng Bujue was stunned for half a second after hearing this. Then, he realized... this situation was obviously caused by him holding the violin.

So, Jue-ge struggled with his thoughts and turned to look at his teammates.

The teammates' eyes were full of doubt, anticipation, and schadenfreude... but unfortunately, no one volunteered to stand up and replace him.

"Sigh... so be it." After thinking for a while, Feng Bujue sighed, put on a "I'm going all out" look, and walked to the pirate. "What do you want to hear?"

"Nonsense, play something that we pirates usually listen to." The ghost pirate replied in a rough tone, "Did you want to play an opera?"

"Understood." Feng Bujue calmly set up the violin, put on a proper posture, rested the chin rest on his neck, pressed the strings with his left hand, and raised his right hand. "I can't play without a bow, can I pluck it?"

"Okay, okay~ whatever." The ghost pirate poured himself another glass of rum and replied impatiently.

Feng Bujue shrugged his shoulders, tilted his head, plucked the strings with his right hand, and really started playing.

Dong dong lang lang... a burst of strings sounded, with rhythm and law, with ups and downs, it really looked like something.

"As expected of Teacher Jue... even the tunes he plays are so profound..." Buu's eyes lit up with admiration again.

"As expected of Teacher Jue... he knows a little more than the average person..." Oubu also praised.

"Tch... it's just a very common tune..." Xiao Ling added.

Xiao Tan said with a puzzled look on his face, "That's strange... the violin is playing like a pipa."

"It's the first time I know he has this skill..." Ruoyu was also a little surprised.

Just when everyone was discussing Feng Bujue's musical attainments, something terrible happened...

After Jue-ge plucked the strings for a while, he opened his mouth and sang, "I touch ya~ touch ya~ the eldest sister's head ya~ a head of black hair like ink, like dark clouds covering the sky! Ai ai yo~ like dark clouds covering the sky~"

"Pfft—" The ghost pirate sprayed out a mouthful of rum at that time.

Jue-ge's five teammates were all stunned in place by the shock and could not react at all. If you want to use a word to describe this state, it is—petrification.

"What the hell is this!" The ghost pirate roared in shock and anger.

Feng Bujue replied nonchalantly, "Eighteen Touches."

"I asked you to play some 'pirates often listen' tunes, and you give me this?" The ghost pirate said.

"Then what do you want to hear?" Jue-ge said.

"Sea shanties! Don't you even know that? How did you get on my ship!" The ghost pirate shouted, it seems that he thought he was still alive and stayed on his ship. "Our pirate tunes should symbolize freedom, unrestrainedness, firmness, fearlessness..."

"Okay, okay... understood." Feng Bujue leisurely tuned the strings, started a new tune, and shouted, "The big river flows eastward~ the stars in the sky participate in the Big Dipper~ hey... hey... participate in the Big Dipper~ a bowl of wine for life and death~ let's go~ let's go~ you have it, I have it, everyone has it~ hey... hey... everyone has it~ don't look back in water and fire~"

"Wha~ de— f*ck?" The ghost pirate was stunned. He stared at Jue-ge with wide eyes and asked very seriously, "A few years ago... do you believe I would have stabbed you to death with a knife?"

"What do you want to do?" Feng Bujue replied with an expression of a dead pig not afraid of boiling water, "You say... what do you want to hear, just order it! Although I don't know much, I can still play some popular ones, what *Where is the Road*? *A Laughter in the Sea*? *Sailor*?"

Bang—

At this time, the door connecting Room A and Room B closed again.

But this time... it wasn't closed by itself, but thrown by Ruoyu. Before slamming the door, she also left a sentence in a cold tone, "Call me when he's done with his nerves..."