【Feng Bujue, Level 18】

【Please select the game mode you wish to join.】

【You have selected Single Player Survival Mode (Nightmare), please confirm.】

【Confirmed. Scenario is generating…】

【Loading… Please wait.】

"Welcome to Thriller Paradise." The voice surprised Feng Bujue slightly, as it was his own.

【Loading complete. You are currently in Single Player Survival Mode (Nightmare).】

【This mode provides a scenario introduction and has a chance of triggering side quests and special world settings.】

【Scenario completion reward: Randomly draw a usable Fine quality equipment.】

【The scenario introduction will now play. The game will begin immediately after.】

The rewards for clearing Nightmare difficulty were indeed generous. Last time, Ping Tian's scenario reward was a chance to draw two jigsaw puzzle cards, and this time, it was directly an equipment piece. However, Feng Bujue queued for this scenario mainly to kill the awkward non-sleep game time between 10:30 PM and midnight. He wasn't too optimistic about clearing it himself...

【Overlapping time and space, a game of death, endless terror, a nightmare of reincarnation.】

There was no opening CG. The system voice only provided this inexplicable phrase. As the voice faded, Feng Bujue found himself standing in a corridor and able to move freely.

The floor and walls of the corridor were made of wood, thick planks that didn't seem easy to break through. The overall tone of the corridor was brown. It wasn't spotless, but it was relatively clean, at least without any mold or large puddles of filth. Lighting fixtures were overhead, with ceiling lights embedded every so often. Looking ahead, there were no dizzying, bizarre wallpapers, no carpets, no decorations, or doorways. It was just a very monotonous corridor.

"Ah... this perfunctory scenario introduction..." After hearing that sentence, Feng Bujue reached into his pockets. If a walkman suddenly appeared in his pocket, and there was a message left on a cassette tape, things would be easier to understand.

"Hello, Feng Bujue, I want to play a game with you."

Suddenly, a voice sounded, indeed the signature hoarse and low voice from Saw. Feng Bujue looked up, following the sound, and saw a camera probe and a square loudspeaker in the corner where the ceiling and wall met, nearly three meters high.

"Has that Saw guy come again..." Feng Bujue looked at the camera, his face filled with pressure.

The voice paused for a second, then continued, "You have always regarded solving mysteries as a pleasure, and you firmly believe that every game has rules and answers.

Collecting information and deducing has become your habit and hobby. You believe that, apart from unavoidable pure force conflicts, as long as you use your brain, you can solve everything.

But you will soon realize that your ideas may not be correct.

At this moment, a toxin has already lurked in your body..."

Hearing this, Feng Bujue opened the game menu and saw that he indeed had a [Poisoned] status, the same situation as when he encountered the Saw scenario last time.

"Once the poison takes effect, you will be directly judged as a failure, and even SCP-500 cannot remove this toxin," the voice immediately said, negating Feng Bujue's first thought at that moment, dispelling his idea of ​​eating a panacea.

"You have ninety-two minutes to find four unique chemical agents. Mixing these four agents will create the antidote." The voice began to announce the rules. "During this time, you will meet some people, witness some things. What you see and hear may change your actions and interfere with your judgment."

Feng Bujue used [Decisive Victory from a Thousand Miles Away] to check the Boss's information, but nothing was displayed...

"As your old friend, I will give you special treatment to spare you from combat factors, so you can focus on solving puzzles," the voice finally said. "Now, the game begins."

【You have obtained special item *2】

【Main quest triggered】

【Find Chemical Agents (0/4)】

Feng Bujue was still pondering the meaning of "old friend" when system prompts appeared one after another.

"Old friend?" Feng Bujue muttered, "Is it really that guy from the previous Saw scenario? The Boss who can transfer quest items between two scenarios?" He thought again, "Hiss... that's not right, in that scenario, I played a reporter named Arthur. Seeger, but this time he directly calls me Feng (Crazy) Bujue... The name has changed, and he still says we're old friends?"

While Feng Bujue was thinking, he opened the menu, checked his inventory, and wanted to see what the so-called "special treatment" would be.

As a result... he saw something incredible.

【Name: One-Hit Kill Pistol】

【Type: Weapon】

【Quality: Legendary】

【Attack Power: ???】

【Attribute: None】

【Effect: Guaranteed Kill】

【Equipment Requirement: Shooting Specialization F】

【Can be brought out of this scenario: No】

【Note: This gun has unlimited bullets, and none of its parts can be disassembled or loaded. When shooting, only one bullet can and needs to be fired at the current target. As long as you aim roughly at the target and pull the trigger, the bullet will definitely hit and kill with one shot.】

Feng Bujue's first thought when he saw this thing was: After the scenario ends, I must go to the Surprise Box to check the attribute changes of this thing and the sale price...

The second item added was equally shocking:

【Name: Contra Medal*4】

【Type: Story Related】

【Quality: Legendary】

【Function: Can take the player's death (cannot be traded, discarded, or taken out of the inventory)】

【Can be brought out of this scenario: No】

【Note: Strange, why not thirty? Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, B, A...】

"Hey... what's the situation..." Feng Bujue said with a twitching mouth after reading these two items, "This isn't just an old friend thing, a favorite son wouldn't even get this!" He paused, "Looking at this... this level is purely puzzle-solving, and it's difficult like a piece of shit, right..."

Feng Bujue sorted out what he had just heard in his mind: There was not much information at hand, and there were some inexplicable situations, such as: Since this Boss gave me four lives, plus a one-hit kill weapon, why didn't he remember to give me a watch or something to keep track of time? This is a full ninety-two minutes, does this guy even know that I can mentally calculate time? Wait... he seems to know what's in my inventory and the effects of those things, otherwise, how would he have declared in advance that SCP-500 is invalid?

Feng Bujue didn't think too much and hurried forward. From entering the scenario, to listening to the rules, to observing the items, to thinking, etc., it only took him less than five minutes.

Originally... when Feng Bujue entered this Nightmare difficulty single-player instance, he didn't think he had to clear it, but now, the situation was different. The voice in the broadcast successfully seduced... oh no, aroused his interest. You can say that he is a scum with a combat power of only five, and he won't be angry at all, but you can't say that he is not good at solving puzzles, and also give him such powerful items, putting on an attitude of "I don't think you can clear the level".

A person like Feng Bujue who is addicted to reading and reasoning must play desperately when he encounters this kind of provocation. He must solve all the mysteries, rush to the Boss, and say with contempt, "Hand over your knees," before he can be satisfied and give up.

…………

Behind Feng Bujue's initial position was a wall, so he only had one way to go.

After walking for another five or six minutes, the scenery in the corridor remained unchanged, repeating endlessly. At this time, whether looking forward or backward, it was symmetrical like a mirror. If the player closed his eyes and turned around a few times, he probably wouldn't be able to tell where he came from.

After walking for a while, a slightly more open space finally appeared in front of the corridor. This was a fan-shaped area, directly connected to the corridor, without a door panel separating them. Passing through that opening, the walls on both sides extended obliquely forward.

Directly opposite was a curved wall with an entrance every half meter or so, a total of four. These entrances all had door frames and door panels, and they were all open at the moment. Behind the four doors were corridors that were exactly the same as the one Feng Bujue had just walked through.

"Tch... what's this? I thought there would be a complex maze and difficult puzzles. Isn't it just four roads leading to four bottles of potion? Then set up a room at the end of each road and do some secret room self-mutilation games or something, hum... what's so strange about it?" Feng Bujue said disdainfully, venting his rather unhappy mood.

But at this moment, he suddenly heard someone running. Listening carefully, it was the sound of rapid footsteps and heavy breathing...

The sound came from the first door on the far left, from far to near. When it got close enough, the runner probably saw someone standing outside the exit, so he started shouting, but what he shouted was: "All wrong! You're all wrong!"

Feng Bujue felt that the shouting was familiar. But to be on the safe side, he took out a pipe wrench in one hand and a one-hit kill pistol in the other. He could hurt or kill, so no matter who came and what they were going to do, at least he wouldn't let himself die.

But a few seconds later, when the fleeing man rushed into the fan-shaped area from the corridor behind the first door, Feng Bujue was stunned.

It was a man wearing a purple long suit, covered in blood in many places, and already bruised all over... and the man's appearance was the same as Feng Bujue's.

【You will meet some people, witness some things. What you see and hear may change your actions and interfere with your judgment.】

The sentence he heard earlier flashed through his mind...

"You..." Feng Bujue was still relatively calm at the moment. There must be a reasonable explanation for the scene in front of him. This guy who looked the same as him was likely a phantom, or a robot, a clone, or some kind of monster with the ability to imitate, etc... This was the Nightmare difficulty scenario of Thriller Paradise. Any setting could happen, and even everything around him could be the psychological world of some mental patient. There was no reason to panic.

The injured Feng Bujue didn't show any surprise when he saw this Feng Bujue. He seemed to know that the other party was here, so he shouted out loud as he approached the door. At this moment, he immediately shouted, "Don't you..."

Bang—

A gunshot. The Feng Bujue who escaped from the first door was hit by a bullet shot from behind, and the bullet hit the neck, passing through the neck, making him unable to say the rest of "Don't you..." before he died.

Feng Bujue watched another version of himself being shot down and rushed forward. His first reaction was to use SCP-500 and Survival Value Replenisher at the same time to see if he could save the other party and let him finish what he wanted to say.

But unexpectedly, as soon as he took his first step and before he had time to take the items out of his inventory, the Feng Bujue who was shot turned into white light and disappeared. The scene of another self dying was the same as when a real player was over...

"Is he just an illusion? Or..." Feng Bujue's thoughts turned rapidly like a storm. [Overlapping time and space, a game of death, endless terror, a nightmare of reincarnation] This sentence flashed through his mind in an instant. "...Or am I coming back from another timeline?"

His gaze moved away from the empty floor and looked at the first door. At this moment, Feng Bujue's gaze and the corridor behind the door formed an obtuse angle of about one hundred and twenty degrees. He was still thinking about what was going on with the pursuit in front of him: "If the one who died was me, the [Contra Medal] should have worked... Maybe the medal's resurrection is to turn the player into white light and teleport them to another place? Or maybe, this 'me' has already used all four medals?"

Feng Bujue held his breath and listened to the sound in the corridor. He didn't dare to show his head rashly because the other party was using a gun, and his marksmanship was obviously god-level. At this angle, he was still safe, but if he poked his head out, he might...

"That's not right... If that was 'me', why would he die? Can a bullet that hits the neck kill me? Has that 'me' run out of replenisher, and his Survival Value is already bottoming out?" He thought of this and exclaimed in his heart, "[One-Hit Kill Pistol]!"

Feng Bujue instinctively gripped the gun in his hand tighter: "Could it be that the one who shot was also me?" He moved a few steps forward, leaned his back against the wall next to the first door, and hid by the door, "Hey! The one who shot! Are you me!" He simply shouted there and asked a very nonsensical question.

The sound transmission effect of these corridors was a bit strange. Even very subtle sounds could be transmitted quite far, but speaking voices could only be transmitted to medium and short distances, and they would not cause echoes.

Feng Bujue shouted again: "Even if you're not me, how about answering?"

No one responded to him...

Listening carefully, from the time the gunshot sounded until now, there has been no movement in that corridor, including the sound of the shooter leaving. So, there was a high probability that there was a person standing, squatting, or lying in that corridor, holding a gun in his hand, aiming steadily at the entrance of the first door, waiting for the person outside to lose his cool and poke his head out, and then take him down with one shot.

Feng Bujue himself also understood that the person he just saw might not be himself from a different timeline. It was very likely that he was just overthinking. Perhaps it was really just an illusion used to confuse the audience, and the shooter was just a remote elite-level monster. It was even possible... that there was no shooter in that corridor at all. The gunshot and the death of another self were just an illusion, a scene. Anyway, the corpse was gone now, and there were no bullet holes to be seen around, so how could it be proved that these things really happened?

"Um... should I take a look and confirm..." Feng Bujue thought, but he also thought... what if my guess is correct? If the one in that corridor right now is the future me, then... what will happen?

"If that is also me, and it's not long after the future me, he knows the decisions and the process of thinking that I will make. Whether I think positively, negatively, or even don't think at all, he knows what I will eventually do." Feng Bujue's mind was getting more and more confused. "Um... but why doesn't he communicate with me? Why did he kill another me? What did he experience, or what will I experience later, that led me to chase and kill myself?"

"What does 'You're all wrong' really mean... What's 'Don't you' do?" Feng Bujue was sweating coldly. "Which of these handsome guys who was killed, and the handsome guy who killed him, is in a later timeline, and which one is doing the right thing?" This was the first time since he started playing games that he had encountered such a predicament. It felt like no matter how he thought, it was wrong.

"Heh... hehe..." After more than ten seconds, Feng Bujue sneered, "The only one who can stump me is myself." He made a very narcissistic statement, and at the same time made a decision, put away his weapon, and shouted, "No matter if there is anyone there, or if it's me, I surrender to you now. I will slowly walk out. If you want to communicate with me, we'll talk. If you think you have to kill me, then do it!"

While Feng Bujue was talking, he moved towards the first entrance. At this moment, he chose to believe in himself. He believed in the deductions that he was making now, and he also believed in the decisions that the future self would make.

Of course, the most important thing was that he had the [Contra Medal] to back him up.

At this moment, Feng Bujue seemed to understand a little why he got four medals and a pistol. Perhaps these were just the basic conditions for clearing this scenario...