Chapter 15 Six Minutes

After walking along the street for about fifteen or sixteen minutes, the five arrived at the police station's entrance. The building occupied roughly five hundred square meters, with the main entrance facing the street and a parking lot accessible via a side entrance.

Feng Bujue first checked the side entrance. It was a driveway that ended at a high wall. The movable iron gate was already closed, blocking the entrance. Peering inside, it was pitch black, suggesting that this route was impassable.

When he returned to the main entrance, Long Aotian had already finished his inspection. The main entrance was made of wood, a double-door design, very thick and sturdy. It was currently tightly shut. Something inside the police station seemed to be blocking the door, preventing it from being pushed open even a fraction.

Feng Bujue shook his head slightly, indicating that the side door was no good. Long Aotian spread his hands and said, "This side won't open either."

Wang Tanzhi took a few steps sideways, looking at the building's exterior wall. "The windows are all barred with iron frames. It looks like getting in will take some effort..." Before he could finish speaking, his expression changed. "Uh... did you guys hear that...?"

Feng Bujue, of course, heard it. He shouted, "Get back!" while quickly stepping forward, grabbing Wang Tanzhi's shoulder and pulling him back.

Long Aotian, Gu Du, and Ji Mo had already retreated upon hearing the command. Just as Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi had backed away a few steps, they heard a dull thud behind them. Turning around, they saw... the wall next to the police station's main entrance had been violently smashed open from the inside. A tall monster had half its body protruding from the opening. If Wang Tanzhi had remained standing there for a few more seconds, he probably would have been crushed under the rubble.

"Okay... I guess what I heard just now was the sound of it charging towards the wall." Wang Tanzhi's face was pale, but his voice wasn't very loud. He had already passed the stage of being easily startled and was gradually becoming numb to situations that would normally raise his fear value by about 50%... because his fear value had been hovering around 35% for a long time.

Just like every little boss that bursts through walls, the monster roared upon its appearance. Feng Bujue actually recognized the thing—a Blood Corpse...

This Blood Corpse was obviously stronger than the one Feng Bujue had encountered in the tutorial. It was noticeably bigger. Moreover, the previous one had only created a hole in the wall with its punches, while this one had directly collapsed a section of the concrete wall.

"Great... it not only opened an entrance for us but also used a powerful monster to hint that there are good rewards inside, ha..." Feng Bujue raised the left corner of his mouth, watching the tall, ferocious monster with a predatory gaze, speaking as if he had encountered something good.

"Brother Feng... if you're going to say 'good,' it's only good if we successfully kill this monster." Long Aotian was already sweating. He couldn't think too much; he just knew that this fight wouldn't be easy.

"Here." Feng Bujue surprisingly handed the pipe wrench in his hand to Long Aotian. "This doesn't have equipment requirements. Brother Long, you can use it for now. It has bonus damage when striking the head."

"This..." Long Aotian hesitated. Feng Bujue's actions were equivalent to making a trade request, and a free one at that.

In this world, trust between people is quite low. High-quality equipment is undoubtedly a good thing during the closed beta, and you have to think carefully before handing it over to someone else. What if the other person has a change of heart after receiving it and forces a disconnection, even abandoning the script, just to steal your equipment? There's nothing you can do about it. After all, you were the one who offered the trade, and the system can't help you.

"Hurry up and take it." Feng Bujue said.

Long Aotian took the [Mario's Pipe Wrench]. When he saw its attributes, his expression changed slightly. Feng Bujue had so far given the impression of being a very shrewd and cautious person. It was hard to imagine him easily handing over powerful equipment to someone else.

"Brother Feng... aren't you afraid that I'll steal your equipment and just go offline?" Long Aotian said. People who say this often aren't the ones who would actually steal equipment. The ones who would actually steal equipment usually just disconnect.

"Afraid?" Feng Bujue gave a wry smile, thinking to himself: I wish I could be afraid.

He replied, "Concerned' is a more accurate word... but to be honest, I'm more worried that we'll be wiped out here."

At this time, the Blood Corpse had also torn open the lower half of the wall, stepping onto the street. After completely emerging from the police station, the Blood Corpse looked even more ferocious. It was over two meters tall, with bulging muscles, covered in a layer of semi-solidified blood. Its skinless, bloody face was even more terrifying than a pure skeleton. This monster was clearly a mini-boss, and the condition for triggering its appearance was for the players to stay at the police station entrance for a certain period of time and try to find a way to enter.

"Brother Long, you hold it back for a while and buy us some time. I'll go around behind it, slip through that hole, and see if there are any guns or anything like that. If I find anything, I'll come out and help." Feng Bujue said. "Pay attention to conserving your survival points. Don't fight it head-on."

When he saw the Blood Corpse, he weighed the outcome of the battle and the potential losses. They currently didn't have any restraining equipment like [Blood Corpses Must Die]. The only things they could use to harm this monster were the shield, the pipe wrench, and the fruit knife. Using these kinds of short-range weapons against the previous, smaller Infant Fiend was still manageable, but against this Blood Corpse, which was even taller than Long Aotian, this setup was difficult.

So, the best way now was to strengthen Long Aotian's strength, letting him hold off the Blood Corpse. And Feng Bujue himself decided to risk entering the police station to search for weapons. The appearance of this Blood Corpse made Feng Bujue even more certain that the police station held some items of tactical value. Skills, equipment, and plot items were all possible. He planned to find one in the shortest amount of time and then quickly return to take care of this monster.

"Go ahead, don't worry. Even if I get killed before you come back, I'll find a way to return this equipment to you." Long Aotian replied. After saying that, he went forward to meet the Blood Corpse, immediately attracting its attention, and then began a mobile fight.

"Mm... there's no need to be so serious. It's just a piece of equipment." Feng Bujue seemed indifferent. He faced the hideous Blood Corpse without fear, bent forward, moved at high speed, went around its side, and leaped into the hole in the wall with a hurdle-like movement, disappearing into the dark police station...

The two in the distance were now somewhat at a loss. Gu Du and Ji Mo were still playing the role of being unarmed and unable to help. They were also helpless and had to retreat a little further to avoid getting in the way.

Wang Tanzhi carefully approached the Blood Corpse. The monster's attention was mainly focused on Long Aotian now. As soon as there was a suitable opportunity, he would go up and slash the Blood Corpse once, striking and then retreating, only attacking when sure that he wouldn't be seriously injured by the boss.

Unlike Long Aotian's fighting style of using strength against strength, being able to withstand and deliver blows, Wang Tanzhi's fighting style was more inclined towards agility. Dodging, running, attacking unexpectedly, advancing and retreating, focusing on attrition. This routine wasn't suitable for using blunt weapons or shields. Bladed weapons were the best choice. He didn't need strong power support; as long as he was fast enough, a slight graze of the blade could also cause damage.

Later, these two would become players specializing mainly in combat, but under the same specialization, two characters with vastly different fighting styles were born. Their styles could be seen in this script. One was good at "power," and the other was good at "speed."

In the later stages of the game, as players' abilities continued to increase, players with the same specialization would create unimaginable differences due to their individual views on fighting styles. And there were other specializations as well, such as "combat" paired with "shooting" or "combat" paired with "medical." Coupled with countless skill combinations, it could be said that the characters in Thriller Paradise had infinite possibilities.

This was why this game didn't set up "classes." Given the powerful performance of this system, classes would instead become a restriction for players.

The later game experience and personalized character attributes of an online game were very important. If every character had exactly the same attributes at the highest level and was also restricted by "classes" in terms of available skills, it would be quite boring. Any ordinary player could basically know the final basic attributes of their class, which skill combinations to use, which equipment to buy to cooperate with the skills, and so on, just by looking at the guides written by those top players...

But now the game settings gave players a huge space for free play. First of all, other than physical fitness points, there were no "character attributes" at all. Survival points and fear points were always displayed as percentage energy bars, without specific values. The amount of damage caused by an attack and the amount of damage that armor could withstand were never given in numbers or anything like that.

Secondly, skills and equipment were all randomly generated, and there was no class distinction. Specialization was everything. Players would unlock and explore the specializations they were good at during the script process. If they had the ability, they could train all six specializations to S-rank.

Under this highly free setting, Thriller Paradise's biggest selling point besides the fear value system—the "title system"—allowed every player not to get lost in the complex combat orientations of the later stages. While ensuring the personalization of game characters, it gave a "focus." This system could be said to be the finishing touch that Dream Company had put all its effort into thinking up.

"Titles" would grant players a special ability outside the twelve skill slots. For example, Long Aotian's [Lightning Charge] was a special ability that didn't occupy a skill slot. Titles would change with the player's growth. From level ten onwards, the system would update the player's title in real time after the script was completed based on the player's performance and ability. And titles were unique. Even if the same words appeared in a title, the special ability given might not be the same. Special abilities weren't necessarily active skills; they could be passive or even some invisible, non-explicit bonus.

By the time of the public beta, titles were like trademarks in scripts above level twenty. When queuing up for team survival mode, it didn't matter what your teammates' nicknames were; players usually looked at their teammates' titles first. After looking at them, they basically knew what these people were good at. Something like [Brave Charger], [Reckless Boxer], [Precise Gunman] was simple and clear, and you could tell at a glance. Of course, titles could also show strength. Above level forty, in addition to the titles just mentioned, you might also see titles like [Eastern Heretic], [Western Poison], [Southern Emperor], [Northern Beggar]. You could tell at a glance that these were high-level players, and there was hope for hugging their thighs...

Getting back to the main topic, just as Long Aotian and Wang Tanzhi were entangled with the Blood Corpse, Feng Bujue was groping forward in the dark police station...