Chapter 1 A Profound Realization

As the saying goes, the world is full of surprises.

At this moment, Feng Bujue deeply understood the meaning of this sentence.

The physical discomfort was nothing to him. His lower body had been soaking in the muddy swamp for a long time, and his upper body was being battered by the heavy rain… He could tolerate all of that.

What he couldn't tolerate was the mental "geying" (discomfort), that is, the development of an event greatly exceeded his expectations, and the ending left him feeling inexplicable…

For example, *The Mist*, *1408*, *Bag of Bones*, and so on…

Okay, apart from Edgar Allan Poe, Jue-ge also had a lot of opinions about Stephen King. The two sentences he wanted to say to the latter the most were, "What the f*ck (wtf)?" and "What's your beef with Maine?"

Getting back to the point, the thing that was making Jue-ge feel "geying" right now was… Kevin was dead.

And then… the Garra alligator was also dead.

Moreover, he didn't know why…

…

A few minutes ago, when Kevin rushed in front of the Garra alligator, Feng Bujue thought he was about to witness a "hero fighting the dragon" kind of showdown.

But no…

After that imposing roar, the Garra alligator actually chose to turn around and run.

This scene was simply unbelievable to Jue-ge. In the human world, it was like: a third-grade elementary school student went to fight a third-grade junior high school student. When the junior high student saw the elementary school student coming, he picked up a kitchen knife and showed off a set of *kuang feng dao fa* (wild wind saber technique) in front of him, and then… the elementary school student didn't back down, but the junior high student ran away instead…

Could something like this happen in the animal kingdom?

At the time, Feng Bujue was thinking, "Could it be… that I underestimated Kevin's strength? In fact, his combat power is far beyond my imagination. And that Garra alligator, with its animal instincts… keenly sensed this, so it chose to run away?"

As Jue-ge thought this, Kevin had already sprinted after it, pounced on the Garra alligator's back, and used a move called "Camera Beatdown."

But the next second, the Garra alligator twisted its body and flipped over, using its tons of weight to press Kevin into the swamp.

"Eh?" So, Feng Bujue changed his mind again and thought, "Could it be… that I underestimated the Garra alligator's intelligence? In fact, its wisdom is far beyond my imagination. It felt that a head-on fight would inevitably cause damage, so it pretended to run away, sold a flaw, and then used this move 'lazy donkey roll' in order to deliver a fatal blow with one strike?"

But as he thought this, the Garra alligator rolled once and flipped to the other side, continuing to run away; and Kevin quickly stood up from the swamp, seemingly unscathed, hoisted the camera, which had been crushed into a lump of iron, and chased after it.

"Na~ni!" Jue-ge was stunned again when he saw this. "So Kevin is this powerful! It seems that the Garra alligator's move was just a delaying tactic. It's still afraid of Kevin, so it came up with this method to buy itself time to keep running…"

*Shua—shua—*

Kevin waded through the muddy water of the swamp, chasing after it, making this kind of shit-stirring noise. More than ten seconds later, he chased closer to the Garra alligator again, and directly went around to the front of it.

*Dang dang dang—*

In the rain, three striking sounds were heard. It was the sound of iron (the camera) hitting the Garra alligator's outer teeth (the Garra alligator has two fangs growing outside its mouth on both cheeks).

At this point, the Garra alligator finally couldn't bear it any longer. Its silly and cute eyes flashed with a glint of light. The next second, it opened its bloody mouth and bit down on Kevin.

The scene was like a car opening its hood and clamping Kevin… And after clamping down, Kevin's upper body completely disappeared, and his lower body lost consciousness and sank into the swamp.

"I… fu~ck me!" Feng Bujue's mood at this moment was like accompanying Chun Thirty Niang in the mountain bandit stronghold to play no-rope bungee jumping, rising and falling, wanting to live and wanting to die. "You're this strong, why did you run away? You could have solved it in one bite! A one-hit kill! Kevin was no match at all!"

However, five seconds later, the Garra alligator screamed miserably—and died.

…

Time returns to the present…

[Main Quest Progress Updated]

[Complete at least six challenges given by the production team, current progress 1/6]

[Side Quest Completed]

The system prompt proved that the target was completely dead.

"You two are messing with me, aren't you…" Feng Bujue squinted, standing on the Garra alligator's corpse. "Even a mutual death should be somewhat logical… Can someone explain this to me… I'd even believe it if you told me it was a human-beast love suicide!"

*Rumble—*

In this heavy rain, in the wilderness, the only thing that could respond to him… was the thunder.

"Tch… This is really unpleasant…" For Jue-ge, the result of what just happened wasn't important. What was important was "why did this result occur?" Unfortunately, with the information he currently possessed, it was impossible to deduce the truth…

So he had to continue to endure this feeling of "knowing what, but not knowing why."

"Ah… Oh well…" Feng Bujue sighed and took out the knife from his waist. "This monster didn't die under my [Bell's Everyday Knife], so the knife's special effect is useless to it… That's good news." As he spoke, he began to collect the Garra alligator's skin and meat.

This behemoth was different from ordinary crocodiles. The skin on its back had the strength of steel, while also possessing reliable toughness. Cutting it into strips and tying them into a bundle would make an extremely excellent rope.

And its meat was even more of a delicacy. According to the manga settings, even without any seasoning, simply roasting it over a fire would result in an unparalleled taste, hence the title "world's highest-grade crocodile meat."

Feng Bujue's so-called "good news" referred to this. If the Garra alligator had died from his knife, then the deliciousness would no longer exist, and all that would be left was a chicken flavor…

…

On the other side, the Dolphin, in the monitoring cabin.

"God! Is that person dead?"

"Does that even need asking? He was bitten in half!"

"That guy is a maniac! He repeatedly attacked the Garra alligator. He was clearly asking for death!"

"What do we do… This is the third death since the show started… I don't want to deal with the police again."

"So unlucky… The first time, we barely managed to classify it as an accident, and we still had to pay money and change the rules. The second time, we barely managed to get it ruled as manslaughter, and the show was forced to stop airing for a season. This time…"

"This time it's simple. As long as we submit the footage we took to the judicial authorities, it should be possible to determine that… an unidentified mentally ill patient broke into the filming location and committed suicide in front of the camera."

The staff members in the cabin were discussing it noisily. They did feel sorry for Kevin, but for such a strange stranger, their sympathy was limited. More than anything… they were thinking about themselves and how the show should end.

"Since… he was already of unknown origin…" Suddenly, Hei Meilong's powerful voice rang out once again, "Then we… can just pretend he never came… can't we?"

His words were like a cold wind passing through, causing everyone present to tremble.

Basically, everyone who heard these words instantly understood what Hei Meilong meant, but no one dared to respond…

"No one's talking, huh?" Hei Meilong waited for a while and continued, "Then that means there are no objections." As he spoke, he sat up from his chair and walked towards the operating console. "Alright, I'll personally… delete that footage."

…

At the same time, three nautical miles east of Cannabis Island.

Beneath the sea, a submarine was slowly advancing, approaching the desolate island in the rain and wind.

In the submarine's command room, a one-eyed man in a blue windbreaker was staring at the radar, a ferocious expression on his face.

This man looked to be around forty-five years old, with messy gray hair and two horizontally spread gray mustaches under his nose. His right eye was covered with a black eye patch, with a pirate symbol printed on it (a white skull and two crossed white bones). His right wrist had no hand; instead, there was an iron hook. And on his left foot, he wasn't wearing a boot, because the part below his calf… was a conical wooden peg.

"Why is there a ship there?" the gray-bearded man shouted, staring at the radar. "Who are those people? The Maritime Anti-Smuggling Agency?" The louder he spoke, the higher his voice became. That authentic broken gong voice was at the opposite extreme from Kevin's. "Damn it! They must have discovered the 'treasure' I hid on the island! We have to get rid of them! Torpedoes! Prepare the torpedoes now!"

Although he was shouting loudly, the crew members looked at each other, and no one moved.

Obviously, these guys were already used to similar scenes. They all knew that the captain's orders were often unreliable…

"Dad, I don't think we need to rush to use torpedoes." Before the gray-bearded man could finish speaking, a somewhat childish voice rang out not far behind him. "Let alone… we haven't confirmed the other party's identity and purpose. Even if it really is a ship from the Maritime Anti-Smuggling Agency, we shouldn't attack rashly… because their people may not all be on the ship. If we startle them, then we'll be in a passive situation of being in the dark while they're in the light."

The person who spoke was actually a little boy. He looked to be only eleven or twelve years old, with a rather fair face.

"Son… call me Captain," the gray-bearded man said as he bent down, whispering to his son.

"Sigh…" The little boy rolled his eyes and sighed. "Alright… Captain, I have an idea. Why don't we first find a place to land on the other side of the island, and then send a team to scout out the situation on that ship? If it really is the Anti-Smuggling Agency, then we can consider it again." He shrugged his shoulders. "But… according to my speculation, it's very likely just an ordinary cruise ship that's docked on this island to avoid the bad weather. Once the wind and waves subside, they'll leave on their own."

"Hmm…" The gray-bearded captain stroked his mustache and looked at his genius son with a smile, then raised his head and said loudly, "Did you all hear what the first mate said?"

"Yes, Captain," the crew members in the command room replied in unison.

A minute ago, they had turned into deaf people when facing the captain's "fire the torpedoes" order; but now… the moment the first mate spoke, the crew members seemed to have instantly regained their hearing.

"Heh…" The gray-bearded man swayed his upper body as if nothing had happened, raised the iron hook on his right hand, and said, "Then what are we waiting for! Let's go!"