Chapter 1 A Greeting at the Beginning of the Tutorial

The changes in those few seconds just now were the game's way of saying hello to the player at the beginning of the tutorial.

A normal person would be startled when the surrounding environment suddenly turned black without warning, and then they would definitely be frightened upon hearing that creepy voice. At this moment, the elevator suddenly and violently plunged downwards. Although it was only a brief moment of freefall, it was enough to make anyone's heart race and give them a fright.

But Feng Bujue remained calm, with no reaction whatsoever…

After the elevator shook, it began to move downwards at a normal speed. At this time, the game menu automatically appeared before Feng Bujue's eyes.

The game menu only appears in the player's vision and cannot illuminate the surrounding environment. Moreover, viewing the menu is a non-public action. Even if another player is standing next to you, they won't know if you're looking at the options or just spacing out.

At this moment, no system voice sounded, but Feng Bujue saw a text prompt in the menu: [You can open this menu at any time. Your character's attributes, status, equipment, items, etc. can be found here.]

Feng Bujue saw that most areas of the menu were covered in shadows. It wasn't until the line of text disappeared that a region in the upper left corner of the menu lit up, revealing three rectangular graphics that resembled health bars.

An arrow appeared, first pointing to the first bar, which was a green energy bar filled to capacity. Then, new subtitles appeared: [This is your Survival Value, displayed as a percentage. The specific value is not visible. When your Survival Value is 0%, your character is considered dead. Current Survival Value: 100%, Abnormal Status: None.]

The arrow moved to the second energy bar, which was also green, but displayed numbers instead of a percentage: [This is your Stamina Value. The specific value is visible. Running, walking for long periods of time, carrying heavy objects, fighting, using skills, etc. will reduce this value. It can be recovered through rest or items. Current Stamina Value: 100/100.]

The third energy bar was empty, and it was the one Feng Bujue needed to pay the most attention to: [This is your Fear Value, displayed as a percentage, with no specific value. If the Fear Value is higher than 100% for more than three seconds, your connection to the game will be forcibly disconnected, and your character will be considered dead. Current Fear Value: 0%]

Because he had read the basic settings online beforehand, Feng Bujue only glanced at this information. He thought that other areas of the menu would be unlocked next, but the menu automatically closed after about ten seconds. He actively summoned the menu again, but the areas that were previously in shadow remained unchanged.

Clearly, this tutorial was not just about looking at text and familiarizing himself with the interface in a dark elevator. Otherwise, the system wouldn't have given the hypothetical "tutorial interrupted due to high Fear Value" before entering.

Sure enough, the elevator soon stopped, and the surroundings remained dark. Feng Bujue could only hear his own breathing.

Suddenly, the lights flashed on for a second, just a second, and then immediately returned to darkness.

In that one second, an image was burned into Feng Bujue's retina, an image that would make anyone jump up and scream.

As you may recall, one wall of the elevator was a mirror. In that brief moment when the lights came back on, Feng Bujue saw two figures reflected in the mirror.

One was clearly himself, and the other…although he only caught a glimpse, Feng Bujue was fairly certain it was a bipedal creature covered in blood.

It would have been better if it had stayed dark all the time. Showing it on purpose like that was worse than not seeing it at all.

Anyone else would have already screamed. Now, they would either be backing into a corner of the elevator or frantically swinging their fists or kicking at the spot where they remembered seeing that bloody figure standing.

Feng Bujue, however, stood there expressionlessly and muttered to himself, "Hmm…since it's a tutorial, it's unlikely that they'd put the player in a situation where death is inevitable right from the start. At most, I'll lose some Survival Value or get scared again. Then there should be some kind of change that allows the game to continue."

As soon as he thought this, a ray of light shone into the elevator and quickly expanded. It turned out that the elevator doors had opened on their own, and a putrid, musty smell wafted in. Outside was a straight corridor. The ceiling was wooden, and the walls on both sides were covered in wallpaper with bizarre patterns that resembled human eyes. The floor was covered in green carpet. There were no windows or doors on either side of the corridor, just dim yellow sconces every so often.

The corridor seemed very long. The sconces in the distance looked like tiny specks of yellow light, with a visible range of less than twenty meters. Anything farther than that was shrouded in shadow, and you could only see it by moving forward.

A normal person would probably have rushed out and started running as soon as the elevator doors were even partially open. Feng Bujue, however, was not in a hurry. For him, this gloomy path ahead might not be any safer than the elevator. Now that it wasn't pitch black, he wanted to turn around and see exactly what that shadow next to him was.

As soon as Feng Bujue turned his head, he saw a bloody claw with fingers like hooks attacking his face. He ducked back, barely dodging it, crouched down, and darted out of the elevator. Turning back to look, he finally saw the full appearance of the shadow.

It was a skinless blood corpse, much like the human muscle model in the nurse's office, except this one was alive and covered in blood.

The elevator doors were slowly closing. The blood corpse tilted its head and grinned, its eyes fixed on Feng Bujue. As the doors were about to close, it reached out a hand and squeezed out from inside.

"According to the usual logic, I should run here…" Feng Bujue thought, "But this guy doesn't seem too strong. Should I try fighting…?"

At this moment, the blood corpse walked out of the elevator and roared with great momentum, smashing its hand against a wall in the corridor. The thick wooden board behind the wallpaper was instantly shattered, and about a bagful of cockroaches "flowed" out.

"Alright, you win." Feng Bujue turned and ran as soon as he saw this.

Since this was a tutorial, the primary goal was to guide the player to continue, not to kill them. The blood corpse's action was actually a waste of time, clearly intended to allow the fleeing player to gain some distance. However, the system had also considered other possibilities, such as the player being paralyzed with fear on the ground, or a player attempting to fight it in the light after seeing the blood corpse's appearance. In that case, the blood corpse's action could make a terrified person scramble up and run away, and discourage those tough guys from fighting.

Of course, if the player was too scared to stand up or insisted on fighting to the death, then they would probably get a game over and have to regenerate a random new tutorial script.

"First, I probably can't break the wall. Second, even if I break it, there's no way out. Third, fighting this monster is a death sentence. Great…" Feng Bujue silently organized the information he had confirmed. It seemed that he didn't have many options in this tutorial.

After covering a considerable distance, Feng Bujue saw the end of the corridor. There was a door there, a very thick-looking wooden door!

He turned the doorknob, and it actually opened! He had no time to consider whether there were dangers on the other side of the door, he could only go in, because the blood corpse was chasing him closely, not allowing him to delay. At this moment, Feng Bujue understood that he should have run as soon as the elevator doors opened. That was the usual choice. Lingering for a moment had made his current actions extremely urgent.

He slipped into the room, closed the door, and found that there was a metal bar on the back of the door to bolt it shut. Without hesitation, Feng Bujue bolted the door. Almost at the same time, the thing outside began to slam into it.

Feng Bujue ignored it and turned around to survey the surroundings. This was a square room of about sixteen square meters. There was no furniture inside, only a sconce and two doors. One of the doors was being slammed by the blood corpse, and the other was in the middle of the wall opposite the door he had entered.

He went to the only escape route, pulled the handle, and found that it was locked. He tried kicking the lock, and it seemed to have some effect, but his strength was obviously not enough. He estimated that he would have to try a few more times with all his might to see results.

The next second, the game menu suddenly popped up in front of him. Another shadowed area in the menu was unlocked, displaying a number, which was currently 0: [This is your Skill Value. The specific value is visible. Skill Value can be used as currency, accumulated based on the character's actions. Any action that improves game efficiency will be rewarded with Skill Value. Current Skill Value: 0]

"Giving a hint about Skill Value at this time, is it implying that there is some kind of optional shortcut…?" Feng Bujue then also looked at his Fear Value in the menu, which was still 0%, completely unmoved.

He sighed and looked back at the door that was being slammed. The iron bar had already been slightly deformed. It seemed that it wouldn't last long. Under the pressure of a monster that could break into the door and kill him at any moment, an observer would not be as calm as him.

Feng Bujue looked at the room again carefully. In this seemingly empty room, there was indeed a hint. In the upper part of a wall, a corner of the wallpaper had peeled off. It didn't look very obvious, but a careful observer wouldn't miss it. Feng Bujue reached up on his tiptoes and was able to grab the corner. He tore off the wallpaper and, sure enough, there was a symbol drawn in blood on the wooden board behind it. The symbol was a circle connected to a "卜" shape, which should be a key pattern.

At this moment, a roar accompanied by the sound of wood being shattered came from behind. Feng Bujue turned around and saw that one of the blood corpse's claws had broken through the door panel. It was flailing around randomly through a hole the size of a bowl. He didn't know if its intelligence setting would allow it to find the door bolt and open it.

The occurrence of this scene undoubtedly foreshadowed that the blood corpse was about to rush in. Whether it was solving the puzzle or kicking the door, time was running out.

Feng Bujue quickly used his elbow to strike the wooden board with the key symbol painted on it. A very realistic feeling of pain came, but the wooden board was obviously brittle and was broken with one elbow strike. He thought that many insects would pour out, but none did. Only some dust was raised. Behind the wooden board was a narrow space, with a key lying in the center.

As Feng Bujue picked up the key, the game menu reappeared, and another shadow was unlocked: [You have obtained an item. Since the bag and equipment slots have not been opened, you can only hold it in your hand or discard it.]

Then he saw the item's attributes in the new menu display area:

[Name: Rusty Iron Key]

[Type: Consumable]

[Quality: Common]

[Function: Open Locks]

[Can it be taken out of this script: No]

[Remarks: I think you know what to do.]

Feng Bujue felt that the item's remarks column was full of malice, but he didn't have time to think about it. After glancing at the item's attributes, he closed the menu and ran to the locked door. After the door was opened, the key disappeared. At the same time, the long-absent system prompt sounded: [You have obtained Skill Value, 30 points. This prompt is only given once. In the future, you can check the changes in Skill Value in the game menu.]

Feng Bujue had no time to care about the things he couldn't use temporarily, so he continued forward. Behind the door were stone steps leading upwards. Both sides were stone walls. There was no ceiling, and he could see the night sky. The moonlight illuminated the steps in front of him brightly. But he couldn't escape from the top, because the stone walls were extremely high, the surface was smooth, and the distance between the two walls was more than two meters, obviously to prevent him from climbing up.

Climbing up the steps, running for a distance, Feng Bujue took the time to glance at his Stamina Value, and found that it had been reduced to 24/100. He silently calculated that after leaving the elevator, running hundreds of meters, then kicking the door, smashing the wall, and now climbing the slope, these actions had already used up three-quarters of his Stamina Value, which was consumed much faster than he had expected. And his Survival Value had also become 98%, so it seemed that the system had determined that he had taken damage from elbowing the wall.

The blood corpse broke through the door about five seconds after Feng Bujue unlocked it and followed closely behind. At this moment, it began to emit bursts of sinister laughter, the sound of which was like ringing in his ears, incomparably eerie, but Feng Bujue was completely unaffected by this level of interference.

At the end of the steps was a hillside. A giant sword was stuck in the slope. Under the moonlight, the blade reflected a cold, ghostly light. When Feng Bujue's vision came into contact with the sword, the blood corpse seemed to sense something, and its speed increased wildly. The distance of several tens of meters was instantly shortened.

This time, Feng Bujue was really rolling and crawling. He didn't want to be killed at this critical juncture. Stumbling to the side of the sword, he gripped the hilt with both hands and lifted it. Unexpectedly, he easily picked up the weapon. It turned out that it wasn't as heavy as it looked.

Turning around, the blood corpse had already arrived in front of him. A shrill wail pierced his eardrums, and a pair of bloody claws lunged at his face.