“Am I wasting my breath here, buddy?” Pan Feng widened his eyes. “I already told you that the Awakened are strong. What are you trying to prove? Are you looking for a death wish? How about you come with us, take care of the main quest first, and then just leave the scenario, alright?”

“Like you said, a Tier 4 Awakened in a scenario of this level is only slightly stronger than a Boss like Ashford in terms of intelligence and combat power,” Feng Bujue said. “Why couldn’t it be killed?”

“The problem is, you guys don’t need to help us kill it, right?” Hua Xiong asked.

Xiao Tan, standing to the side, put on a shocked expression. He also said to Feng Bujue, “Yeah! We don’t need to kill it, right?”

“You guys are saying there’s no need because… if players go and kill an Awakened, it doesn’t count as a side quest or hidden quest, it doesn’t help with the main quest at all, and it’s a huge risk, right?” Feng Bujue said.

The three nodded, saying in unison, “That’s right.”

“Aside from the possible gains in specialization levels, skill values, and so on, have you all overlooked something that a ‘game’ should give players, the most important thing?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Uh… what?”

“Fun,” Feng Bujue laughed. “You also said that the chances of players encountering an Awakened are very slim, and there probably won’t be a second time. But team scenarios, I can queue up for them as many times as I want. What does it matter if I die once?” He paused, then continued, “It’s rare to encounter an Awakened, but I’m just supposed to stand by and watch two GMs clear the main quest, and then get sent out of the scenario. That’s way too boring, right? Even if I just queue up for a normal scenario and get killed by a monster halfway through, it’s more interesting than this.”

Xiao Tan looked up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle. “Now that you mention it… I suddenly feel like not chasing after that Awakened is a loss.”

“That’s right. How many people don’t even get the chance to encounter one? So what if we die at its hands?” Feng Bujue said. “It’s like you’ve beaten Contra ten thousand times, and suddenly in a certain level’s final stage, you encounter a Boss from Castlevania. Even if you die, you wouldn’t consider going around and not fighting it, right?”

“Oh, oh! That sounds like it makes sense!” Xiao Tan said excitedly.

“This kid’s thinking is a bit abnormal…” Pan Feng said in a low voice to Hua Xiong.

“More than abnormal, he’s practically a pervert…” Hua Xiong also replied in a low voice.

“You two are standing so close to me and whispering again! What’s the point of that?” Feng Bujue shouted.

…………

5:00 PM, in front of the gun shop.

Feng Bujue and Wang Tan Zhi were examining the scene of the deaths.

Young Master Atobe and NameTooHard already vanished into white light. After a player is killed, their body will not remain in the scenario. Similarly, if a player is mutated by a virus, when the mutation timer reaches its end, the player will vanish into white light, and a corresponding normal zombie monster will spawn at their last location at the same time.

In short, the game company will not allow a player’s corpse to remain in the scenario in any form. Players will either turn into white light and leave, or remain alive.

Without a corpse, it was difficult to directly reconstruct the Awakened's attack process, but Feng Bujue made some inferences based on the sofa that had been torn open and stained red with blood: "They were sitting here, holding guns, each responsible for guarding one direction." As he spoke, he also sat on the sofa. "Therefore, there are more shell casings near the sofa, and the direction of the monster's blood spatter also indicates this." He looked at the direction Xiao Ming was responsible for guarding while alive. "The Awakened came from that direction..." As he spoke, he stood up and walked forward, all the way to the intersection ahead, and then turned back, all the while observing the ground. "The Awakened's appearance should be that of a woman, at least from a distance, it doesn't look like a monster. Perhaps it's even a beauty..."

“You can tell all that?” Xiao Tan asked.

“These bloodstains are very useful. Just walking on this street, it’s hard not to leave footprints,” Feng Bujue said, squatting down and looking at the ground. “There’s a row of footprints left by high heels here, very obvious.” He looked up and said, “And none of the zombie corpses on this street, male or female, are wearing high heels.” He explained, “Which means the owner of these footprints is not here at the moment. It killed two players, and then left.”

Feng Bujue stood up and took a few more steps. “The footprints stop about ten steps away from the sofa, which should be the distance from which it launched its attack.” He came all the way to the sofa. “Here, there’s a clear shoe print, right in front of the sofa, the place where she stood when she attacked.” He looked back at the spot ten steps away. “Nearly seven meters, jumped here in an instant. That also proves that it’s not a slow-moving monster like a Blood Wolf Zombie.”

He went around to the other side of the sofa. “After killing people, she left from the other direction. After walking a certain distance and stepping on new bloodstains, she left some more traces.”

“Jue-ge,” Xiao Tan asked. “You still haven’t answered my question. Does wearing high heels necessarily mean she's a beauty?”

Feng Bujue replied, “Look at the footprints she left when she came.” He went to the side he had been at earlier. “These footprints were made by ‘walking,’ not ‘running,’ and certainly not the zombie-like ‘shuffling.’” He pointed to the ground. “Judging from the stride and the depth of the bloodstains, her height is around one meter sixty-five, she’s not heavy, and her gait when walking can be described as graceful and charming.”

“Maybe it’s just a monster with a very alluring walking posture,” Xiao Tan added.

“A monster wearing high heels, or a man wearing high heels… slowly walking towards you, would you still sit calmly on the sofa and wait for it to get within ten steps?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Hmm…” Xiao Tan thought for a moment. That seemed to make sense.

“If the Awakened’s appearance looked like a monster from afar, then NameTooHard would have already opened fire,” Feng Bujue continued. “Then there would be two possibilities. First, the Awakened starts running and rushes over to attack.”

“Judging from the footprints, we can already rule that out, right?” Xiao Tan said.

Feng Bujue said, “The second possibility… the Awakened continues to maintain its pace, slowly walks over, and then launches an attack.” He paused. “In that case… NameTooHard and Young Master Atobe wouldn’t have continued to stay on the sofa. They would have had plenty of time to stand up, retreat, and change to fighting while retreating.”

“Maybe they were pinned to the sofa by some superpower of the monster and couldn’t move?” Xiao Tan said.

“Rather than explaining it that way, it’s better to directly overturn the assumption that ‘its appearance looks like a monster at first glance,’” Feng Bujue said.

“That’s true…” Xiao Tan said. “So, assuming the Awakened’s appearance is a human female, how can you be sure she’s a beauty?”

“Saying ‘beauty’ is just my intuition,” Feng Bujue said. “She might be plain-looking.”

“Tch…”

Feng Bujue smiled and continued, “So, the sequence of events is… they were sitting here, watching a female whose appearance didn’t resemble a monster, slowly moving her lotus steps, gracefully coming closer.” As he spoke, he sat back down on the sofa. “When the Awakened got within about ten steps, the two finally noticed something was wrong, and must have immediately launched a resistance. However, realizing the danger at that distance was already too late. The Awakened instantly pounced, ending the battle.” He touched the leather that had been torn open on the sofa. “These marks are practically like Wolverine committing a crime here, and the last few footprints beyond those ten steps show no signs of acceleration or deepening.”

“What does that mean?” Xiao Tan asked.

“If you leap forward without a running start, how far can you jump?” Feng Bujue said.

“Two meters at most, I guess.”

“This Awakened can jump at least six meters.”

“Hmm…”

“After jumping that distance, it used some kind of claw-like weapon or its own hands to quickly tear apart the two people’s bodies, along with the sofa they were sitting on.” Feng Bujue propped up his chin with his hand. “That’s probably what it explains.”

Xiao Tan raised his head and shouted to Pan Feng and Hua Xiong, who were ambushing on the rooftop of a building not far away, “Hey, guys! You have to keep a close eye on things!”

The two ignored him and continued chatting…

Feng Bujue said, “Don’t worry, didn’t they say that as long as the Awakened appears within a kilometer around us, they’ll get a system prompt and be able to see the target’s coordinates on their own scenario map?”

“I say, this system is really conflicted. Wouldn’t it be over if they just sent the Awakened’s coordinates to them directly?” Xiao Tan said.

“That’s why they say the Awakened is ‘uncontrollable data.’ They must have some kind of characteristic that resists system searches and interference. If they could really do what you said, wouldn’t the system just strike the Awakened dead with lightning? Why would they need a GM to do it?” Feng Bujue said. “Speaking of which… we can’t completely believe everything these two guys say, either.”

Xiao Tan’s expression changed. “What? Are they lying to us about something?”

“It doesn’t seem like it. What they said should be the truth,” Feng Bujue said. “But… they’re just two employees. How do you know that everything the Dream Company executives told them about the Awakened is true…”