Chapter 1 A Dilapidated Home

"This is really bare..." Feng Bujue said as he walked into the house.

The longhouse was indeed very dilapidated. It was a brick and wood structure. The beams and pillars inside were made of wood, and the four walls were covered with cracks. Some places had been filled with cement, looking like they had been recently repaired. There was only one window in the room, about a meter wide, and it was the barred type, not a glass window. A simple horizontal wood was above the window bars, and the curtain hung on it. If the wind was blowing from the window towards the house, the rain would definitely splash directly in through the wooden bars.

The inside of the house was divided into two rooms, separated by a door frame without a door. The room after entering the house could be considered the living room, which was about ten square meters. The floor was wooden, with a chest-high cabinet against the wall. In the center of the room was a round low table, with three tatami mats next to it.

The ceiling was relatively low, with a light bulb hanging from a wire in the middle, which was currently emitting light.

Feng Bujue walked to the room next to it and leaned in to check. That room was even narrower than the "living room." A mattress was placed horizontally on the floor, taking up half the space. A wardrobe was also placed by the door frame. There wasn't even a light in this inner room, which meant that the person living here would have to come to the living room outside to turn off the light before going to bed, and then fumble in the dark to the mattress in the inner room to lie down.

Of course...there wasn't much furniture in this house, so theoretically, there was no need to worry about bumping into anything when walking in the dark.

"This is too much..." Feng Bujue closed the door and muttered to himself, "There's only electricity but no water...and the toilets are public." He had noticed when he was outside the house that there was a silhouette similar to a phone booth in the courtyard outside this row of longhouses. He guessed that was a simple toilet.

[Current task completed, main task has been updated]

Before his butt could even warm up, the system prompt sounded. Feng Bujue opened the menu and saw that the task [Go Home] had already been checked, and the newly appeared task was: [Stay in the house until dawn]

"Huh?" Feng Bujue had an unhappy expression on his face. "I have to stay up all night?"

At this time, there were violent winds and heavy rain outside, with thunder and lightning. Although the curtains were drawn, gusts of cold wind still seeped in through the window bars. Behind the curtains, shadows flickered, and it was unknown whether they were the shadows of branches moving in the wind, or if there was something wandering outside...

Although there was electricity in this house, the only thing that used electricity was a light bulb. Not to mention a TV, there wasn't even a radio. Even if Feng Bujue wasn't tormented by fear, he would be tormented by boredom...

"I thought the nightmare difficulty was just that the combat difficulty became extremely high..." Feng Bujue came to the cabinet in the living room. "So this is the setting..." He pulled open the door of the cabinet and looked inside. There was a thermos, two teacups, and a teapot, all placed on a round wooden tray.

Because everything was black and white, Feng Bujue couldn't distinguish the colors of these things. He tried to lift them up. The thermos was almost full, so he took them all out and put them on the low table.

Then he returned to the cabinet and found a small can of tea on the top layer. The word "tea" was written on the can, but there were no other names, varieties, or production dates.

"Hmm...even though it's a temporary place to live after a disaster, can people really live like this..." Feng Bujue said, "There's no running water, so you have to go outside to use the toilet; you definitely have to go to a public bathhouse to take a shower; there aren't even any bowls or chopsticks for eating...but even if there were, there's no way to wash the dishes after eating in this house." He used the water in the thermos to wash the teapot and cups first, and then casually splashed the water away. Then he opened the can of tea, grabbed a small pinch and put it into the teapot, brewed a pot of unknown beverage, and poured himself a cup.

Since he couldn't change the equipment in the clothing column in the script, meaning he couldn't take off this suit of clothes, Feng Bujue had no choice but to wring out as much water as possible from his clothes, and then wear the wet clothes and wait for them to dry naturally.

At this moment, he brewed a pot of hot tea and held it in his hands, which at least alleviated the cold in his body.

"Greatly reducing the given information and clues, and setting up many instant-death flags, while also focusing on the level of terror...this is the basic tone of the nightmare difficulty," Feng Bujue thought to himself. "Some seemingly unintentional choices may lead to complete destruction." He now thought back to the experience just now, and only then did he have some belated awareness, "If I had said the wrong thing, or showed fear, I'm afraid the Slit-Mouthed Woman would have killed me instantly. And that monster on the telephone pole too..."

He looked up at the window. It was still raining heavily outside, "It seems like there are no time and space restrictions, but if I really ignore the main quest and go out to explore, maybe I'll just trigger some flag on the street and die. From the worldview of this script, you must have strong spiritual combat abilities to gain a certain degree of freedom...otherwise, it's hard to say."

Taking another sip of hot tea, he muttered, "Follow the main quest honestly...the most I'll probably get is a series of scares. I shouldn't be in a desperate situation in terms of combat." He put down his teacup, "But...it's really boring. Do I have to sleep in the script? By the way, doesn't this house even have a newspaper..."

"Oh--"

Suddenly, a strange moan sounded.

"Woo--er--"

Then there were two more, dragging out the sound, sounding like an old witch's voice.

The sound came from the wall, from the "neighbor's" house.

"What's going on..." Feng Bujue turned his face towards that side and said, "With such a strong wind and heavy rain...are they doing some kind of shamanistic ritual in the house?"

Feng Bujue thought for a while. This situation should be part of the main quest, and he should react to it.

"Hey--are you okay over there?" he shouted towards the wall.

Then, the sound stopped abruptly.

"What's going on...did they hang up?" Feng Bujue was originally sitting cross-legged on the floor, but when he heard that there was suddenly no movement on the other side, he supported himself with his hands and knees, and moved as quietly as possible to the wall, pricked up his ears, and listened against the wall.

Squeak--

It was the sound of a door. Then there were footsteps. It sounded like the guy next door had opened the door and walked out of the house.

"They're not planning to knock on my door, are they." Feng Bujue moved to the back of his house's door, but on this side he could only hear the sound of wind and rain outside. He waited for a while, but the other party didn't come to knock on the door. It seemed that they didn't come to his door at all.

Anyway, Feng Bujue wasn't afraid, so he decided to open the door and see what was going on with this neighbor. He stood up, holding a pipe wrench in one hand, and slowly turned the doorknob with the other, slowly opening a crack in the door and peering out from the house...