Chapter 11 Correct!

"Correct!" Mr. You announced after what felt like forever, and the score on the console promptly increased. Feng Bujue's score had reached 120 points.

The audience erupted in cheers and applause. The sound engineer played a fast-paced track, and the lights flashed in time with the music.

"Hehe, it seems player number one is getting into his stride," Mr. You said with a smile. "So...next he will face the fourth question." He burned the third question card, glanced at the new question, a sly grin on his face, and looked at Feng Bujue. "This question is worth 120 points!"

The audience was in an uproar, and Xiao Tan and the others were also surprised.

"Player number one, the four of you..." Mr. You looked around. "Your fundamental goal...is survival, not competition. In the second round, who wins is not important. The real key is who the winner chooses to go to the arena." Mr. You said, "Players number two, three, and four have scores of zero, twenty, and zero respectively. It can be said that you now have a considerable advantage. As long as they all give up on the second question, you can guarantee first place."

"Are you saying that I don't need to risk my score being reset to zero by continuing?" Feng Bujue asked.

Mr. You replied, "Hehe...I'm just analyzing the situation for you. If you're the strategist of the four, I think your teammates would be happy to cooperate."

"You say teammates? Hehe...Since you knew from the beginning that our goal was for everyone to survive, not to compete for first place." Feng Bujue's expression changed, and he gave the other party an evil sneer, as if he was really possessed by the Joker. His tone also changed. "Then I want to ask...what's the point of arranging for the first place to get a prize? We're a team. Does it matter who gets the prize?"

"Uh...that..." Mr. You stammered. He wasn't stumped, but he didn't want to answer.

"Also, as long as you hint at the other players, the player answering the question will be deducted points. This rule is obviously designed for team cooperation. If it were a game of competition, players wouldn't hint at each other. There's no need for this kind of restriction." Feng Bujue sneered. "Hmph...may I propose the following hypothesis..." He raised an arm and pointed to the program title displayed on the screen. "Death Quiz, this program appears to be a game where four players compete for first place, but in fact, it is a team survival game."

Feng Bujue simply sat up straight, adjusted the microphone, and said, "Every round, someone will enter the arena, but that doesn't necessarily lead to death. The arena is just a trial at the end of each round. Those who fail to get the highest score may enter...Simply put, it doesn't matter if you can't answer the question. People with strong combat abilities can still enter the next round." Feng Bujue tilted his head, propped his elbows on the console, and stared at Mr. You's flickering eyes. "So...what we've experienced so far is just the groundwork and accumulation for the final round of this game. That might be the third round, the fifth round...I don't know...Anyway, the final round is the real 'Death Quiz', and at that time..." Feng Bujue leaned back in his chair again, "The 'points' accumulated before will play some kind of very important role that I don't know yet."

The scene was silent, except for certain monsters that always made noises, such as the burping monster-like audience members.

Mr. You held the microphone. The lighting director shone a bright column of light on him. He walked to the camera, and a look of excitement and a smile gradually appeared on his face. "Ladies and gentlemen, player number one..." Mr. You's voice was very low this time, but because it was very quiet, everyone could hear him clearly. "He actually guessed the rule change in the third round...This..." He suddenly raised his voice, "This is unprecedented! Let's give him applause and cheers!"

The audience erupted, with applause, whistles, and a cacophony of wails, mixed with some werewolves howling.

Mr. You wobbled his short, fat body back to Feng Bujue's console. "But unfortunately, I can't tell you the specific rules of the final round right now."

"I think I know enough," Feng Bujue said. "Anyway, the fourth question, 120 points, I choose to answer."

"Please listen to the question!" Mr. You held up the question card and said, "Among the following four people, who is the richest..." He paused. "A, Tony Stark; B, Bruce Wayne; C, Scrooge McDuck; D, Forrest Gump."

Feng Bujue immediately pressed the C button. Mr. You asked unhurriedly, "Your answer is Scrooge McDuck?"

"Of course, that duck is not in the same league as the other three guys."

"The answer is..." After the expected pause, Mr. You said, "Correct!" Feng Bujue's score reached 240 points, and the scene thundered with applause.

Mr. You burned the fourth question card, glanced at the fifth question, and said, "Player number one, if I tell you now that the fifth question is very, very difficult to answer, would you give up?"

"Tell me the score for this question first." Feng Bujue naturally wouldn't be easily fooled by the other party.

"The value of this question is..." Mr. You's expression suddenly became a little strange. "One thousand skill points."

The audience and guests didn't react much, but the four players all looked incredulous when they heard this.

"What...skill points?" Feng Bujue asked tentatively.

"Nonsense, what skill points are you talking about?" Mr. You spread his hands and smiled at the camera. The audience also burst into laughter.

"I'll answer!" Feng Bujue said firmly. "Give me the question." He just assumed that skill points were a normal concept in this script.

"Hmph..." Mr. You sneered, picked up the question card, and said, "So far, you've only received one kind of fear rating in Thriller Paradise..."

"What are you saying?" Feng Bujue widened his eyes and interrupted Mr. You almost instinctively.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" Mr. You asked in a relaxed tone.

"What is going on..." Feng Bujue asked as he tried to stand up, but Mr. You gently waved his finger, and an invisible force pressed him back into his seat.

"Who told you to stand up?" Mr. You said in a tone of an adult scolding a child. "Listen to me finish the question."

At this moment, Xiao Tan, Bei Ling, and Si Yu all felt an indescribable sense of oppression. The atmosphere on the stage changed, becoming oppressive and terrifying...

Mr. You continued to read the question in his hand, "So far, you've only received one kind of fear rating in Thriller Paradise. Which one is it...A, Fearless; B, Commendable Courage; C, Panic-stricken; D, Petrified with Fear."

Feng Bujue looked at Mr. You suspiciously, slowly reached out, and pressed the button representing option A. Before Mr. You announced the answer, he heard the system prompt: 【You have received 1000 skill points】

"Are you a Derivative?" Feng Bujue asked in a low voice. That was his first reaction, but he was wrong.

"You suspect I'm a species from a lower dimension than you?" Mr. You said with a smile. "Hehehe...don't joke around, okay?" He burned the question card and took out the next one. "Question number six...the reward for answering correctly is a pass to the 'Inner World' of Thriller Paradise." As he spoke, he moved his fingers, and a small black card appeared between his index and middle fingers. "If you answer incorrectly, your Spiritual Weapon will disappear."

Feng Bujue's brain was working at full speed...From the moment he entered the script until now, the accumulation of various anomalies seemed to cause a qualitative change at this moment.

"Enough." A strange voice sounded.

It was a man in a suit, with brown hair. He suddenly appeared in the center of the stage, standing one meter behind Mr. You.

In an instant, Mr. You's expression stiffened, and the smile froze on his face. The three guests in the guest seats were like employees who were fooling around in the office and suddenly saw their boss come in. Their posture and expression all changed. The audience at the scene was stunned.

The heavy bomb called fear had been piled up, just waiting for that little spark...to detonate the entire scene.

Simon stood behind Mr. You, looking down at the fat man's neck. "Are you going to talk to me with your back turned?"

"Heh...hehe...I wouldn't dare...I wouldn't dare." Mr. You's sweat flowed from his hat like a waterfall, and nervousness and fear were written all over his face.

Simon then turned his gaze to the cameraman. He didn't say a word, just a look, and the semi-transparent ghost let out an extremely painful wail. His whole body was covered in a layer of strong light, and then he burst apart like fireworks, his soul scattered. The camera in front of him was naturally blown to pieces as well.

"Trash, get out." Simon said in a not too loud, but unquestionable tone in the center of the stage.

The demons and monsters in the audience seats were like people who had seen a ghost, making all kinds of pig-slaughtering screams, scrambling, jumping, and rushing towards the exits. For a time, dust billowed, and blood and flesh flew everywhere. The door frames of the exits were basically broken, and some even broke through the walls and escaped into the ground.

In less than thirty seconds, the entire studio was left with the four players, Simon, Mr. You, and the three guests in the guest seats.

"Long time no see, brother Simon, hahaha..." Hephaestus laughed, trying to get closer.

Simon simply replied indifferently, "It's you...how's my order coming along?"

"Uh...you know, brother Simon, the weapons suitable for you are very troublesome to make. Besides, didn't we agree to deliver before the end of the 21st century..."

"But you seem very free?" He interrupted.

"Understood! Understood! I'll disappear immediately! Hehe! Please help yourself, hehe..." Hephaestus said this and really disappeared.

"I didn't expect you to come to this kind of occasion," Simon said, shifting his gaze to Pride.

"Hmph..." She snorted coldly, "You're meddling too much."

"I'm just doing my job," Simon replied. "If you have anything private to say to me..."

"Hmph!" Pride turned into black smoke and left without listening to him finish.

"Why are you looking at me?" Next, Plague Young Master met Simon's gaze. "I'm just looking and not talking, is that not allowed?"

"You placed a bet," Simon replied.

"Most of the high-level personnel placed bets," Plague said innocently.

"I'm the referee," Simon continued.

"That's because no one can beat you, but..."

"There's a but?" Simon said in a deep voice.

"Okay, okay...I'm wrong, I'm wrong, okay, I'll leave." Plague coughed twice and turned into black light and left.

Simon's gaze returned to Mr. You. "Alright, please explain, what is the meaning of this?"

"Uh...big brother, can I ask, what's going on?" Feng Bujue waved his hand at Simon and asked with a sincere expression.

Simon glanced at Feng Bujue and snapped his fingers. A second later, the TSD-500 bottle appeared in his hand. He threw the bottle to Feng Bujue and said, "You've cleared the level."

Feng Bujue caught the flying bottle and immediately asked, "What's going on? This script..."

"Don't worry, I guarantee this situation won't happen again, at least not in the short term..." After Simon said this, all four players turned into white light and were forcibly teleported away.

…………

In the login space, Feng Bujue established a team communication channel. "Were you all teleported too?"

Xiao Tan replied, "Yeah."

"What was up with that script just now?" Bei Ling's voice also appeared.

Si Yu's voice sounded, "It seems...there was a conflict between the bosses in the script, and then they kicked us out?"

Xiao Tan said, "That's so strange. My task completion shows 00, but the level clear rewards are complete. Is this some kind of bug?"

Feng Bujue said, "That suit guy who suddenly appeared...His tone made him seem like a GM. We might have run into something big."

"What should we do?" Xiao Tan asked.

"What should we do? Didn't we get the level clear rewards? You can ask customer service, but they probably won't know anything. You can't complain that...it was too easy to clear the level halfway through, right?" Feng Bujue said.

"Bujue, have you gotten 'Fearless' as your fear rating every time so far?" Si Yu suddenly asked.

"Guild Leader, are you cheating or something?" Bei Ling added.

"Ah...that..." Feng Bujue really hadn't thought about how to answer this question. He wasn't very familiar with these two girls. They were just friends he had made in the game recently. Could he confess that he had an unknown brain disease?

But then he thought, if he made up a reason now, even if the reason was temporarily convincing, they might find out the truth from Xiao Tan...After considering for a while, Feng Bujue finally spoke. "I'm not cheating, and I didn't inject any tranquilizers to play the game...I just, don't feel afraid."

As soon as he said this, Si Yu and Bei Ling naturally wanted to continue to ask.

Feng Bujue cut them off before they could ask. "But why this is, I can't tell you, and don't ask Xiao Tan. Just consider it a bit of my privacy. I hope you can keep this secret."

After a period of silent silence, Si Yu said, "Okay, we won't mention it."

Hearing her say this, Bei Ling also added, "I have no objections. Don't worry, I'm good at keeping secrets too."

"Um...thanks, then should we just call it a day?" Feng Bujue said.

"Sure, I'm a little tired too. I'm logging off," Xiao Tan replied.

Si Yu and Bei Ling also said they were going to log off, and the four said goodbye to each other and left the game.

…………

Time rewinded slightly, a few minutes earlier, at the Death Quiz recording studio.

Simon looked down at Mr. You and said, "Who allowed you to bring them to Death Quiz? Are you not planning to continue running this program?"

"Um...what came was just a virtual projection. They won't really die..." Mr. You seemed to want to explain.

"What were you trying to do just now?" Simon asked.

"It was Woody who broke the rules first! He let Feng Bujue enter the Thunderbolt World at level ten-something and easily get his Spiritual Weapon!" Mr. You defended directly.

"You mean...you're trying to correct the consequences of some violations for me?" Simon asked.

Mr. You's face turned pale. He knew that this sentence contained an extremely dangerous trap. If he answered "yes," then that meant that he was exercising the power of the referee. With Simon's character, as long as he had a justifiable reason, he would dare to kill even a true god, not to mention a demigod.

"No!" Mr. You said, "I definitely don't mean that."

"You first gave him 1000 skill points, and then you were going to take away his Spiritual Weapon, thinking you could solve the problem that way?" Simon said, "What do you think Woody would do if he knew the tricks you were playing?"

"Uh..." Mr. You was speechless for a moment.

Simon said coldly, "He would not hesitate to throw the guy you bet on into the territory of a level one Derivative, reducing his strength by about ten levels."

"But...but..." Mr. You wanted to say something.

"There's nothing wrong with Feng Bujue getting a Spiritual Weapon. With his strength, he doesn't need to wait until level thirty to get it. This is my judgment as a referee," Simon said. "From this moment on, the little tricks you guys are playing should stop." He snorted coldly, "I've already completed the correction of the system. The backdoor left by Woody no longer exists. Don't even think about interfering again, even for a second."

As Simon spoke, he walked to the main camera with a fixed position on the stage. He stood in front of the camera, his eyes as cold as a knife. "The gambling game has only officially begun now. If anyone dares to reach their hand on the table again, I'll chop it off."