“Hey~ over here~ look this way! Directly below, five o'clock!”

Not long after Ruoyu and Xiaoling arrived above the castle, a slightly immature voice floated on the wind, calling out to them several times.

The two looked in the direction of the sound and soon found a boy in a mini purple long suit on a balcony at the edge of a turret.

At that moment, Feng Bujue was standing on tiptoes, waving his hands at them while shouting loudly.

Seeing this, Ruoyu and Xiaoling didn't exchange words, but merely glanced at each other, reaching a consensus... They both manipulated their magic broomsticks and flew toward the balcony.

"You two have really kept me waiting." After they landed, Feng Bujue said with a smile.

"How did you know we were coming?" Xiaoling asked after landing. "Did you install surveillance around this castle?" As she said this, she inadvertently turned her head to look at the castle's outer wall.

"Your movements... were naturally told to me by Dracula." Feng Bujue replied, "As long as a relatively large creature with a soul enters the area surrounding the castle, the Count can sense it." As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed upwards, "By the way, this castle has a barrier on its outer layer... and there are two layers. I had the Count let you in just now... that's why you could fly in, otherwise you would have crashed into the energy wall long ago."

"You already know about Xiao Tan's situation, right?" At this time, Ruoyu added.

"Of course." Feng Bujue responded, "But... it's really a bit of a surprise... Could it be that he died together with Po Jun?"

"He was killed by me." Xiaoling interjected.

"Huh?" Feng Bujue was stunned when he heard this. "What's going on now?"

"You can ask him yourself after the match is over." Even at this moment, Xiaoling was still a little annoyed when she talked about it. "Anyway, let's exchange information first."

"Oh... okay." Feng Bujue was very good at reading people's expressions, so he didn't pursue the matter. He turned around and said, "Let's talk as we walk..."

…………

Now, let's turn to the Blades.

After wandering around the huge chapel for a while, the three found a vertical cylindrical passage.

The passage was about three meters in diameter, and the ring-shaped wall was inlaid with many small platforms of different heights, each platform only about one meter square, just enough for an adult to stand on.

Going up through this cylindrical passage, you could turn to the high part of the chapel, where there was a staircase leading to the upper attic. Long Ge and the others went in and explored and found that in addition to the unmanned armor throwing boomerang axes, there was also a strange monster with six hands and a figure similar to a human woman, as well as some fire-breathing monsters fixed to the floor that resembled dinosaur skulls.

After clearing out these monsters in the attic, they searched the area and actually found a piece of equipment. Unfortunately, it was just a sword of ordinary quality, slightly better than the ordinary-grade store goods in the exchange... but that was it.

So, the three of them, with the mentality that "something is better than nothing," reluctantly turned back. Fortunately, this return trip was not too far, and the route was all downhill, which didn't take much energy.

Returning to the cylindrical passage, they cleared out a small imp and bypassed a ghost fire-like monster shaped like siu mai that was floating very slowly, and then entered the space directly below the chapel.

That was an hourglass-shaped room consisting of multiple rectangular platforms that were symmetrical from left to right. When the three members of Blades entered it... a small boss was already waiting there for a long time.

This time, the small boss was a Manticore that was five meters long and about two and a half meters tall. Whether it was health, speed, or attack methods... it was a little stronger than the giant skeleton with the club. Of course... it was just "a little bit."

The monster's attack pattern was still relatively monotonous, roughly three types: first, using its giant python-like scorpion tail to stab or whip players; second, spitting long-range fireballs at players from its mouth; third, directly pouncing over to grab and bite.

For the members of Blades, this second small boss was even easier than the previous skeleton boss, because... all of its attacks could be withstood by Long Ge, and without breaking his defense...

So, after a quick probe, Long Ge held up his shield and pushed forward. No matter how the Manticore attacked... Long Ge didn't lose any health anyway, just a little stamina.

In this way, Qisha and Tanlang used low-cost methods to output at a steady pace under the cover of Long Ge, slowly but surely taking down the small boss.

"There's still no reward..." After the Manticore breathed its last, Long Ge walked to its corpse and looked down at it.

"It doesn't seem like there are any hints either..." Qisha muttered.

And Tanlang... remained silent and thoughtful...

Five minutes later, the three completed a simple search and rest, and then continued on their way. Due to Jue Ge's casual, willful, and unhappy decision... their journey was destined to be very long.

In the next fifteen minutes, the three passed through several more rooms, and fortunately, they didn't encounter too many forks in the road... Fifteen minutes later, they finally saw a red door again.

This time, after passing through the white corridor between the two red doors, the system prompt that entered their ears was: [Castlevania Library].

"[Beep—]!" The moment the voice sounded, Tanlang slapped his thigh and cursed, "I knew it! It was on the tip of my tongue... but I couldn't remember it! It's Castlevania!"

In fact... along the way, Tanlang had vaguely realized the setting of this castle, but it was like a layer of window paper, and he couldn't break through it.

This feeling... many people must have experienced it, that is—when thinking about a problem, you know the answer is in your head, but it's just a little bit away, and you can't remember it... that feeling is really very uncomfortable.

Feng Bujue had also encountered this kind of discomfort. Because he was extremely unhappy with this feeling, he built a Mind Palace and a Memory Loft for himself... permanently solving the problem of storing and retrieving information in his brain...

"Castlevania... that seems like the name of an old game, right?" Seeing Tanlang's reaction, Qisha also muttered thoughtfully.

"A game series that has existed since the 1980s." Tanlang sorted out his thoughts a little and began to popularize knowledge. "There are many works, and the quality varies; most are above a certain level, but a small part are especially divine, and especially terrible..." He paused for a second, and then said, "Since the 2010s, the number of related works of Castlevania has obviously decreased, and it has gradually faded from people's sight. Later... neural connection technology gradually became popular, and single-player games showed an overall declining trend, so basically none of our generation has played this series." He looked at Qisha and continued, "Most people born after 2000 have a similar reaction to you when they hear the words 'Castlevania'. They know it's an old game, but they have almost no concept of it other than the name."

"You've said so much..." Long Ge interjected at this time, "...It seems you know a lot about this 'Castlevania'?"

Unexpectedly, Tanlang replied, "No, I don't know much."

"Hey hey..." Qisha said with narrowed eyes, "Then was that just made up?"

"How could that be..." Tanlang replied, "Although I don't 'know much,' I still know more than you." He paused and explained, "A few years ago, I found an antique game console online, and the seller gave me all his game discs as well. So I played through a few, and one of them was Castlevania." He looked at the space ahead, "After coming to this castle, I always felt that the monsters and area names here had various senses of deja vu... but because it had been too long, I couldn't remember it for a while." He sighed, "Alas... until now, when I heard 'Castlevania Library,' I finally understood..."

"Oh..." Qisha muttered, "Since you know something about the setting, does that mean our next exploration will be easier?"

"That depends on..." As Tanlang spoke, he reached into his bag and took out the "treasure map" drawn on parchment and unfolded it in front of his teammates, "...this."

…………

At the same time, the highest level of Castlevania—the Throne Room.

"Let me give a brief introduction..." Feng Bujue gestured with his hand towards his two teammates and said to the monsters in the room and Hiller, "These two are my companions—Si Yu Ruo Li, Bei Ling Xiao Gu."

He didn't know what the system would translate these two IDs into, but he just said them as usual.

"And these..." Jue Ge turned his head to look at his teammates, "As I told you on the way... they are Count Dracula, Frankenstein, Mr. Werewolf, the Nameless Mummy, Mr. Gillman, and Mr. Hiller."

Feng Bujue had also fully explained the matter about Hiller to his teammates. In short... he had randomly grabbed a healthy homeless man on the street and used Musashi Koganei's invention to control him. Then he set up a plan to have Hiller retrieve Van Helsing's diary for him without knowing it.

"So... everyone can be considered to know each other now." Feng Bujue continued, "Next, I'll get to the main topic..." He glanced at Dracula and said, "Earlier today, Mr. Count and I have reached a consensus. Currently, both of us are working together towards each other's goals. And we have two goals..." He paused, "First, to kill the three members of Blades... namely Long Aomin, Qisha, and Tanlang." He pointed to the crystal ball in the corner of the room, "Their every move in the city is completely under our surveillance. At this stage, we can let them bounce around for a while, and use 'this city' as much as possible to wear down some of their lives and stamina."

At this point, he changed the subject, "Second, to destroy the Holy Amulet..." As he said this, he took the item out of his pocket and held it up, "That is, this thing in my hand." He casually swung the thing twice, "However, it is still in an indestructible state right now, and this situation will continue until midnight today."

"So what should we do now?" Ruoyu asked.

"We still have to split up." As Feng Bujue replied, he walked to Ruoyu's side without showing any emotion. "First of all, I want you to keep the amulet for me." Before he finished speaking, he grabbed Ruoyu's small hand and stuffed the amulet into her palm.

Seeing this scene, Dracula's eyes clearly changed, but he still held back.

"Due to the attributes of the Holy Amulet, Mr. Count and his friends cannot have prolonged contact with it. That's why he clearly obtained the amulet back then, but could only keep it in a room far away from himself." As Feng Bujue spoke, he pointed to Ruoyu's bag at her waist, "I have already explained to the Count that before midnight comes, our 'space pocket' is the best place to keep the amulet. He also knows... that if we encounter any accidents, the amulet will be displaced elsewhere."

When saying these last two sentences, Feng Bujue winked at Ruoyu and Xiaoling respectively, obviously hinting at something to them.

With team tacit understanding and personal intelligence in place, the two naturally understood immediately, understanding that Jue Ge was telling them to be wary of the Count.

"As for me..." Feng Bujue received the response from his teammates' eyes and continued, "...I have to leave temporarily and go with Mr. Hiller to retrieve something." He looked at Hiller with a mischievous smile, "Actually, I wanted to go and retrieve that thing myself this morning, but I really couldn't spare the time... After all, the layout here is more important. So, I can only ask Mr. Hiller to do it for me... and he... hehe... predictably did what I expected him to do."

Hiller was much more honest at this time. After hearing Jue Ge's sarcasm, he didn't even hum, just stood there silently.

"The thing you want to take is Van Helsing's diary, right?" Xiaoling asked.

In the conversation not long ago, Xiaoling had told Jue Ge that she had the "ritual incantation" in her hand, and Jue Ge had roughly deduced that Xiao Tan and Sean's gang of children had visited the strange German man.

"Yes." Feng Bujue replied, "According to my knowledge reserves..."

The following passage sounds very different to the NPCs, because Jue Ge mentioned a lot of information beyond the "fourth wall," and the system must intervene. Of course, the viewers watching the live broadcast will not be affected.

"...The script we are experiencing is basically based on the plot of the movie *Van Helsing*." Jue Ge said slowly, "As you can see, I have already borrowed the strongest 'momentum' in this script... and stood with the strong villains. I won't list the advantages that this brings, I'll just talk about the corresponding hidden dangers, that is... the positive characters in the movie, that is, the group of children who call themselves 'Van Helsing's monsters'... Relying on the blessing of the 'protagonist halo,' they may come to ruin our good deeds." He paused for half a second, "Superficially... killing them seems like a good choice, and it wouldn't be difficult for us; but I know... that doing so is absolutely, absolutely! Impossible." He explained, "For example, suppose I am in the DC universe and I try to murder a main character in the DC universe... then I will definitely fail; even if I prepare carefully, I may be stopped by some extremely low-probability accidental events. This is because... in that universe, the life and death and fate of each main character are intertwined and even may affect the karma of the entire universe. If we, these 'interdimensional travelers', interfere with these karmas, it will cause the resistance of the 'supreme will' of that universe. In serious cases... it is not impossible to be struck to death by a meteorite, even the system can't save us."

Saying all this in one breath, Jue Ge licked his lips and continued, "In summary, in order to achieve our goal, we have to take a detour... Taking the current script as an example, it is best not to use too radical methods to stop those children. Just control the diary."

He said so much, but Ruoyu and Xiaoling didn't fully understand. They hadn't seen that movie and didn't know much about the group of children. And the audience watching the game didn't understand it even more, but... regardless of whether they understood it or not, the feeling of "unfathomable awesomeness" in everyone's hearts was similar...