"Um... based on our experience so far, when we 'discover' something, a monster, or an event, it triggers..." Feng Bujue only spoke halfway...

The "corpse" in front of them suddenly stood up, and at the same time, a strange laughter entered the five people's ears.

Its head slowly raised, gradually revealing a face still covered with a layer of gloomy, stagnant shadow under the flashlight's beam. Its features were barely discernible, and its skin was the color of lead.

"Could it be that he's not dead?" Long Aomin whispered.

"Not dead?" Feng Bujue stepped sideways, moving in front of Long Aomin and towards the seemingly reanimated corpse. "That's easily explained then. That lewd laughter just now must be this survivor's overjoyed reaction to being discovered." He was still wearing his goggles, and he knew very well that the other party's target of hatred was himself.

Seeing Feng Bujue approaching quickly, the monster immediately made its second move.

"Ah—" Jimo suddenly screamed from behind.

It wasn't just her; even Gudu was startled and cried out. Wang Tanzhi's scream choked in his throat, unable to come out. He was so frightened that his face turned pale, and his heart stopped for a few seconds. Only Long Aomin's reaction was relatively normal, but even his hair stood on end, and he sucked in a cold breath.

Countless festering arms stretched out from the pipe walls surrounding them, dark and ghastly. A tide of sobs and moans instantly filled the sewer.

Jimo retreated in panic, blindly waving the golf club in her hand, while Gudu stepped forward to stop her but nearly got hit several times.

Wang Tanzhi was almost paralyzed with fear, his eyes wide, unable to move. The hand gripping the knife was trembling, his palm already full of sweat.

A few seconds later, Long Aomin shouted, "It's all an illusion! Don't move!" He hadn't lost his ability to think and immediately realized that those arms were just phantoms because he saw some of the arms protruding from the ground pass through his calves, but he didn't feel anything unusual.

"Even if they're real, they can't touch us!" Long Aomin shouted again.

Jimo finally calmed down a little, and Gudu grabbed her, comforting her softly. Although he was also terrified, seeing his girlfriend so panicked, he calmed down a bit himself. He repeatedly told himself that this was just a game, and even the most terrifying scenes were only temporary and fake.

Ten meters away, Feng Bujue had already walked leisurely to the monster's face. The terrifying images and sounds didn't affect him in the slightest, not even making him blink. He held a baseball bat in his hand and even moved his neck a couple of times, striking a pose as if preparing to swing and hit the ball.

Seeing that the other party wasn't falling for it at all, the monster used its third move.

It instantly transformed from a male corpse wearing dirty clothes into a living beauty... She looked to be in her twenties, wearing a black spaghetti-strap mini-dress, with dark hair cascading over her shoulders, skin as white as snow, two soft, rounded mounds of flesh half-exposed at her chest, slender jade legs faintly visible at the hem of her dress, and a captivating charm in her eyebrows.

Feng Bujue was stunned for a second. Then, he actually put the baseball bat back into his bag.

The male compatriots behind him cast disdainful glances at him in that instant, although they all understood him in their hearts...

"Almost forgot..." As soon as Feng Bujue put away the bat, he directly pulled out a pipe wrench from his bag. "Since it's a humanoid creature, choosing this weapon with a bonus effect to attack will also earn me skill points." He said in a relaxed tone, swinging the pipe wrench and smashing it towards the monster's head.

Bang, bang, bang...

The pipe wrench struck the monster's skull again and again, black blood spurting out, a shocking sight. The moment Feng Bujue hit its physical form, the monster's appearance changed back to its original blue-faced corpse form, and the surrounding illusions disappeared as the monster suffered heavy damage.

The four behind him watched Feng Bujue's efficient, decisive, and inhumane attack without saying a word. The fear levels of three of them were unstable because they were lost in thought, mainly pondering whether the three words "Feng Bu Jue" (疯不觉) hid some deeper meaning...

After the monster's head was completely smashed, Feng Bujue reached into the corpse's upper pocket and rummaged around, obtaining the Wood Key. Its item description was almost identical to that of the Fire Key.

[Current task completed, main task updated]

After picking up the key, a checkmark appeared on the right side of the task, and a new line of tasks appeared: [Return to the Demon Gate and restore the seal]

"Alright, let's go," Feng Bujue said, turning around.

"Um... Brother Feng..." Long Aomin said, "How did you know this monster was so... vulnerable?"

"I knew it as soon as it stood up," Feng Bujue replied. "I was even more certain when those arms appeared. This kind of monster is obviously used to test players' fear levels. If the people in the team are too afraid to approach rashly, the various illusions will gradually escalate. Even if they don't scare people into disconnecting, at least the evaluation at the end will be very poor." He paused. "When it turned into a beauty, it meant it had exhausted its tricks and could only delay time by turning into something sexually attractive to me." He suddenly touched his chin and said, "Wait... how does this system know my sexual orientation? If I were gay or bisexual, what would it turn into..."

At this time, Brother Gudu said, "When you log in to the forum with your ID, isn't there a user profile you need to fill out that should have this question?"

"Because the game company has my data, the system 'knows'..." Feng Bujue mused, "Alright, let's hurry back."

...

On the way back, the five people sped up as much as possible. They could all faintly feel that this script wouldn't end like this. Even if the final boss named Samodir didn't show up or couldn't show up, there should be a powerful demon appearing as the final boss.

It was impossible to reach the gate before the next darkness descended, but they had to at least ensure that the final boss wouldn't be strengthened by the next darkness.

Sure enough, as the five were still halfway back to the square, the darkness descended. This was their fourth time entering the script. Counting the ten minutes before the first darkness, they had been in this script for nearly two hours.

When the fourth darkness descended, they didn't hear any sounds at all, no breathing, no whispers, no laughter. Feng Bujue felt that this was not a good sign. In this kind of horror game, every abnormal change that broke the pattern foreshadowed that the situation was developing in a bad direction.

Three minutes after this darkness passed, they returned to the square. Even Long Aomin was a little out of breath at this point. After nearly two hours of running around, fighting, walking for long periods, moving things, and so on... everyone's stamina had been greatly depleted.

Gudu and Jimo had each consumed more than 400 stamina points. They were level seven and level six respectively. Counting the stamina recovered from intermittent rest, they still had more than 200 left to use. Long Aomin had consumed the most. The Lightning Crash alone had burned 300 stamina points, and he had been mainly tanking during the battle with the blood corpse, so his total consumption had exceeded 700. Actually, this was considered a small amount because of his non-explicit attributes. He consumed less stamina running than the others, and the same was true in combat. The difference gradually accumulated, and with the recovered stamina, he still had 289/1000 left to use.

Compared to the above three, Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi, two level-five players, had actually managed to have dozens of stamina points left despite participating in the battle, which was simply a miracle.

"The task has been updated; we should be able to use the keys, right?" Wang Tanzhi said, panting heavily.

Feng Bujue walked to the front of the five, facing the door, and took out the two keys, holding them in his hands close to the door. After dozens of seconds passed, nothing triggered.

"Something's not right..." Long Aomin said, seeing this scene, "Why isn't there still any reaction?"

"No... I think something has already happened." Feng Bujue directed his gaze into the distance. "Look."

The square was very open, and one could see hundreds of meters in all directions. At this moment, hundreds and thousands of monsters were pouring out of the city's streets. Their appearances were bizarre and grotesque, but they could basically be divided into two categories: ferocious and violent type, and eerie and macabre type.

These monsters were walking very slowly. Their appearance undoubtedly created an atmosphere of despair. When the feeling of this despair was slowed down, it would make people even more afraid.

"How is this possible? Did we do something wrong?" Brother Gudu panicked, his voice involuntarily rising. "Isn't this situation a guaranteed death?"

Feng Bujue also felt that the development in front of him was a bit unexpected. He said, "Samodir cannot approach the keys or the seal on this door; he can't personally come out to kill us. The demons are also unwilling to approach here. They aren't afraid of the keys, but they must be afraid of this door, or rather... afraid of returning to the realm on the other side of the door, so there isn't a single demon wandering around this huge square." He wanted to stabilize the situation first with these words. "Now they are approaching here because they have no choice. Let's stand as close as possible to the door and see what happens."

"What if they don't care about the Demon Gate and just rush us?" Long Aomin said.

"Then we'll retreat inside the door," Feng Bujue said.

"Brother Jue... that's the 'Demon Realm'! What if there are more monsters on the other side?" Wang Tanzhi said.

"That's not necessarily true. I suspect that the other side of the door is like a prison. Now that the prisoners have all escaped, maybe it's already empty inside. Besides... does it matter where we die?" Feng Bujue replied. "Anyway, we'll just return to the login space."

The five quickly retreated to the door, standing with their backs to the Demon Gate. Feng Bujue was still thinking about the ins and outs of this script... What he was more concerned about was the treant's statement about the "cycle." What kind of cycle was this city, which had been drawn out of reality, experiencing? Maybe cracking this puzzle would reveal some of Samodir's rules or weaknesses, or a way to restore the seal...

Many clues were intertwined and deduced in his mind. Feng Bujue didn't have much time left, and he was reorganizing his thoughts in his heart: "A puddle isolated from the river of time... darkness every half hour... the disappearance of whispers in the darkness..."