Chapter 1 The Plot

Feng Bujue briefly recounted the plot of the novel, and then talked about his experience of entering the cellar and the hidden quest he received. Afterward, everyone could see his quest in their quest bar, but they could only see it; even if Feng Bujue completed it, he would be the only one to get the reward.

He was halfway through his explanation when the lamp on the table dimmed again as the skill's time limit expired. However, Si Yu and Bei Ling did not interrupt his narration, listening attentively.

After Feng Bujue finished telling everything he knew, he concluded in a summarizing tone, "So... according to my analysis, the plot of this script should be like this. This family has a hereditary Huntington's disease, and the house itself possesses some kind of supernatural power similar to a curse. Roderick, the sister-complex, was already mentally split, so he would bury Madeline alive knowing she wasn't dead, and then he himself would be tormented by this incident, completely collapsing mentally. Until that night at the end of the story, his sister, with the help of the house's mysterious power, returned to the mansion, scaring her brother to death, and then she herself died of exhaustion.

"Madeline's soul should be trapped with her corpse somewhere in the mansion by Roderick, and the mansion itself has a strong hostility towards us 'living' beings.

"From a game perspective...

"The main quest is to find out the mansion's patterns or weaknesses, and then escape. The side quests are obviously optional, just testing our exploration completion rate of the map. If we go to more rooms and search carefully, we can find all six segments of the Ghost Palace and get rewards. As for the souls of the brother and sister, it's just a tacked-on ending to the novel's plot, existing as a hidden quest, and it doesn't matter if we don't do it."

After listening to his explanation, Si Yu was the first to speak, "It doesn't matter, we can cooperate with you."

Feng Bujue had just made the situation clear: clearing the level was not difficult, side quests were optional, and hidden quests were even less demanding. He was about to ask Si Yu and Bei Ling for their opinions, asking if they were willing to help him complete the side and hidden quests, but he didn't expect the other party to answer before he even asked the question.

"Then thank you both," Feng Bujue said.

Si Yu didn't answer him this time; she really didn't like to talk much.

Bei Ling politely replied, "You're welcome, we were going to do the side quests anyway. As for the hidden quest, it's definitely not easy, we'll help you as much as we can."

Feng Bujue then stood up and said, "Then let's get back to the question we were interrupted from earlier... why did we all come here at the same time?"

Xiao Tan immediately said, "Doesn't this house keep changing? It can just change a few corridors and connect the spaces, and it can naturally guide us here."

Long Aomin said, "You're talking about 'how' we came here, not 'why' we came here."

Bei Ling licked her lips and muttered, "The factors that trigger this kind of event are nothing more than a few... a certain time point is reached, an item is acquired, or..."

Feng Bujue interjected, "The map exploration rate is approaching the critical point."

"What do you mean?" Xiao Tan asked.

"Have you heard of Betrayal at House on the Hill?" Feng Bujue asked.

"That board game?"

"Yes, that one. What happens if you run out of map tiles on a certain floor?" Feng Bujue said.

"Then this floor..." Wang Tanzhi seemed to realize the problem, "can no longer reveal new maps."

"Judging from the current situation, it should be because the first floor has been searched all over, and continuing to explore will lead back to places we've already been," Feng Bujue said. "So we all came to the same room at the same time. This dining room is like the only remaining tile that hasn't been turned over yet."

"Then... shall we go to the second floor next?" Long Aomin said, reminding them uneasily, "Warrior Invincible died there for unknown reasons."

"There are three segments of the Ghost Palace on the first floor, and one is hidden in the cellar, so the remaining two are undoubtedly on the second floor. If we want to do the side quests, we have to go up there," Feng Bujue replied. "Also, the first floor has been explored almost completely, but the main quest hasn't changed, so... whether it's the main quest, the side quests, or the hidden quest, it's impossible to complete any of them without going up."

Bei Ling added, "As the final part of the script, the difficulty upstairs... or rather, the curse power upstairs, is obviously stronger than here. The traps on the second floor must be more dangerous, and the illusions and horror elements are more numerous than here, so Warrior Invincible, who went alone, died."

Hearing this, Xiao Tan said to Feng Bujue, "Jue-ge, listen, splitting up kills people."

"Invincible-ge died, just because he wasn't strong enough..." Feng Bujue shifted his gaze, revealing the kind of expression that said, "The wind is so loud today."

…………

More than ten minutes later, the five people passed through several corridors again and found a staircase leading to the second floor.

The wooden ladder emitted a musty smell, creaking as they stepped on it. Xiao Tan even accidentally broke off a rotten section of the handrail because he was too nervous, scaring himself.

Arriving on the second floor, Long Aomin once again took on the responsibility of leading the way. His new title, [Squad Defender], granted a special ability, the passive skill [Squad Guardian], which increased his defense by 10% for each teammate nearby. Although the attack, defense, and HP in Thriller Paradise didn't show specific values, it didn't affect the calculation of this kind of bonus. Simply put, Long-ge's resistance to attacks was now a full 40% stronger than when he was alone. Even if he faced that powerful Blood Corpse again, he wouldn't be sent flying with one palm.

Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi followed behind Long Aomin, followed by Bei Ling Xiaogu, and Si Yu Ruoli was responsible for guarding the rear.

After walking for a while, Bei Ling suddenly patted Wang Tanzhi on the shoulder. Because he was so nervous, he was so frightened by her action that his face turned pale, but thankfully he didn't scream.

"Hey, hey, Xiao Tan-ge."

"What's the matter?"

"Let's discuss something, let's exchange an item."

Wang Tanzhi said, "Which one?"

"Heh... what do you have?" Bei Ling asked with a smile.

Xiao Tan started to list the things in his knapsack as he walked: "Um... I have a Western-style kitchen knife, a baseball bat, a Slowing..."

Feng Bujue, who was walking in front of him, covered his face with his hand and shook his head. A thousand words turned into a sigh in his heart: "This idiot..."

Bei Ling couldn't help but laugh at Xiao Tan, and she quickly interrupted, "Okay, okay, are you really going to tell me everything?"

Wang Tanzhi was stunned, "Eh? That's right, you're the one who wants to exchange items with me, why should I tell you?"

Even Long Aomin at the very front of the team was rolling his eyes, muttering in a low voice, "This kid is really something..."

"Don't bully a child," Si Yu said coldly from behind.

Bei Ling stuck out her tongue, and then said to Xiao Tan, "I'm sorry, I was just kidding you, who knew you would really tell me."

Wang Tanzhi actually defended himself for Si Yu's previous words: "I'm twenty-four years old this year!"

Feng Bujue finally couldn't bear it anymore, he turned around, glared at Xiao Tan and said, "Recently, I've noticed that your EQ is getting more and more refreshing."

"Ah?" Xiao Tan felt very puzzled.

Bei Ling tugged at his sleeve again, "Okay, I'm serious." She handed over the miner's hat in her hand and said, "I want to exchange this for your flashlight."

Xiao Tan looked at the attributes. This thing was a piece of equipment, and it also had the effect of a lighting tool.

[Name: Miner's Hat]

[Type: Armor]

[Quality: Ordinary]

[Defense: Medium]

[Attribute: None]

[Effect: Has lighting function, requires batteries.]

[Equipment Condition: General Specialization F or Mechanical Specialization F]

[Note: A safe and reliable piece of armor, the headlamp on the hat is also very practical.]

"How is it? I see that you don't have any head armor, so you won't be at a disadvantage if you exchange this for your flashlight," Bei Ling said.

Xiao Tan looked at it and said, "But isn't it obvious that you're at a loss?"

"The yellow color doesn't suit me, and girls look silly wearing this," she smiled slyly, "I think it looks quite suitable for you."

"No need, I have a piece of head armor," Xiao Tan replied, he took out another new flashlight from his knapsack (when they were in the shopping mall, Feng Bujue suggested that everyone take two flashlights, and Xiao Tan had always kept everything in his knapsack), handed it to Bei Ling, and said, "I have two flashlights, it's fine if I give you one."

Bei Ling blinked her big eyes, staring at Xiao Tan's face for three or five seconds, "Hey! If you didn't tell me, you could have gotten a piece of equipment for free?"

"It looks silly wearing it, you can keep it yourself," Xiao Tan replied with a smile.

Hearing these words, Bei Ling suddenly understood what the saying "a natural airhead is actually a black belly" meant.

She took the flashlight and put the miner's hat back into her knapsack, saying "Thank you" with a complicated mood, without showing any joy on her face.

"Serves you right," Si Yu added a knife at the right time from behind.

"Something seems wrong..." Long Aomin suddenly stopped, he noticed the abnormality, "Didn't we just pass by here?"

"After we came up, we were in a corridor that was exactly the same as this," Feng Bujue interjected, "Then we turned left once, and turned right twice, the length of the straight line after each turn was different, but obviously we weren't going in circles..."

"Is it an illusion, or..." Long Aomin only said half a sentence, he wanted to hear Feng Bujue's opinion.

"It should be an illusion," Si Yu Ruoli interjected from the back of the team. At this moment, she was standing in front of a full-length mirror, seeing herself in the mirror. Her whole body was normal, and her clothes and equipment were also unchanged, only the position of her abdomen revealed the intestines inside her body.

In an instant, both sides of the entire corridor were filled with mirrors. This change of scenery was very abrupt, without seeing any traces of space distortion.

Feng Bujue also turned around, casually picked a mirror closest to him, and faced the mirror, "Not bad, it's clearer than an MRI." He took a few steps closer and carefully observed, "Oh, you can see the details of these corridors on the cross-section of the intestines, very grotesque..."