“So…” Igor looked doubtful. “What about that devil from before…”

“An adult human body is about 65% water by weight.” Feng Bujue knew what the other was going to ask, and he answered directly, “That guy looked like a dried corpse. His weight must have been very light, so it wouldn't trigger the mechanism.”

As Jue-Ge spoke, he put down the toolbox he was carrying and began to take things out of his pockets.

“What are you…” Igor looked at Jue-Ge’s actions and asked, “Trying to reduce your weight to get through?”

“Yes.” Feng Bujue replied, “I’m Asian, my build is smaller than yours, and I’m thinner. If I unload all the weight, I might succeed.”

“Wait…wait a minute…” Igor panicked slightly. “Are you going to leave me here alone?”

“Of course not.” Feng Bujue replied, “According to my speculation…there should be a switch to turn off the pressure sensor on the other side of the gate.” He paused. “I’ll go over first, find the switch and turn it off, then this section will be open for anyone to pass.”

“Oh…” Igor nodded.

“Okay, that’s about it, I won’t take off my clothes (because he can’t even if he wants to).” Feng Bujue said, taking out everything he could from his body. “If I fail, you’ll have to try.”

“Eh? If you fail, then I…” Igor was about to ask how he could try, but the answer already surfaced in his mind. “Uh… you want me to saw off part of my body…”

Feng Bujue didn’t answer, just smiled at him, and then walked forward.

One step, two steps… he quickly entered the pressure-sensitive area, and then…

Clang—

“As expected, it wasn’t that easy…” Jue-Ge muttered, retreating back.

“Indeed… if I could pass without any weight, then when that barefoot guy searched Laboratory Number One, I could have sneaked out quietly from here, which isn’t reasonable.” He pondered as he retreated, “But… there must be a way for ‘a single player to pass’ here; the system can't set up a puzzle that ‘must be solved with Igor's help’, because ‘reviving Igor’ is a variable event. Making the result of this event form some kind of ‘inevitable connection’ with the main quest progression would lead to a certain probability of being hard-locked…”

He was right, as mentioned earlier, "reviving Igor" definitely couldn’t be considered a necessary part of the main quest. What if the player chose to "end the suffering of that head", or caused Igor's distrust during communication, or even triggered a fight… then it would be impossible to use this NPC's power to pass through the gate.

Of course, in the current situation, Feng Bujue had already met the trigger conditions for "getting Igor to help open the gate".

It was just that… everyone knew Jue-Ge’s temperament. Even if it was "non-essential", he had to crack the "solo puzzle solution" to feel comfortable.

“Heh…” Hearing the clang and seeing Jue-Ge walking back, Igor couldn’t help but chuckle. “Looks like… I can prepare myself…” He turned his head, looking at his shoulder. “Sawing off an arm should be enough…”

“No, don’t rush.” Feng Bujue waved his hand, muttering thoughtfully, “Let me think again…”

Hearing this, Igor didn’t reply, just waiting silently for Jue-Ge to make a decision.

Although the time they had spent together wasn’t long, Igor had developed a strong sense of trust in the man named Feng Bujue… because this guy seemed to know everything, and was always calm and composed, as if Mount Tai collapsing in front of him wouldn't change his expression.

“Oh… there’s also this trick.” Feng Bujue didn’t think for too long before he had an idea.

He walked to the toolbox, squatted down, and quickly took out several empty blood bags and matching needles.

“What are you…” Igor looked at Jue-Ge with a questioning gaze.

“Since the specific gravity of bodily fluids is high…” Feng Bujue said as he tied a rubber band around his arm, “Then I’ll try again after drawing about 2000 milliliters of blood.”

“Hey!” Igor was shocked when he heard that. “That’ll kill you!”

“Hmm… that’s right, two thousand is a bit dangerous.” As Jue-Ge said this, he nonchalantly inserted the needle into his blood vessel and released the rubber band on his biceps. The next second, his blood slowly flowed through the tube into the blood bag. “Let’s start with fifteen hundred.”

Igor was speechless: "Brother Feng… I appreciate your intention, but I think… I should just chop off my arm."

"Chopping off an arm isn't enough." Feng Bujue didn't stop drawing blood, he just said calmly, "Your build is already bigger than mine by a whole size, the weight of one arm would probably only make your weight equal to mine." He glanced up at the corridor, "To pass through there, you have to chop off a leg in addition to an arm…"

Hearing this, Igor instinctively looked down at his legs, as if considering which one would hurt less to saw off.

“Also, when you hop across the corridor on one foot, I have to find something to cover your sawn-off limbs, so that your severed limbs don’t move around in the light.” Feng Bujue’s narration continued, “Compared to that, drawing my blood is more convenient… anyway, I can immediately transfuse the blood back later, so it’s not a big problem.”

During their conversation, Feng Bujue’s blood-drawing operation didn’t stop. Within minutes, he had drawn over 1500 milliliters of blood, filling nearly four blood bags; at this point, he stopped, removing the needle and holding the wound with a tourniquet.

“Hoo…” After drawing the blood, Jue-Ge had obviously developed dizziness and blurred vision, so he took a few deep breaths in place first.

“Brother Feng… are you okay?” Igor asked with a worried expression.

“It’s fine.” Feng Bujue said, then he lay down on the ground.

“Hey! You’re lying down and you say you’re okay!” Igor was shocked again.

“No, I just think that increasing the contact area with the ground can reduce the pressure.” Feng Bujue said, already starting to crawl forward, “Although I don’t know if it’ll work, I’ll give it a try…”

Seconds later, Jue-Ge crawled into the sensor area. As a result… the sound of the gate closing didn’t sound.

“Good.” Feng Bujue said, “It’s good as long as I can pass…” His face was very pale, and his voice sounded weak and powerless, “I’ll go over first…” The way he crawled also seemed very difficult. “The worst-case scenario is just that I get to the other side of the gate, but faint before I can press the switch…” But he still managed to smile. “Heh… if that really happens, you can just saw off your body, come over to close the gate, and give me a blood transfusion.”

Here, Feng Bujue actually made a mistake. In fact, crawling forward wasn’t very useful, because what was in front of him… was a large-area weight sensor, so reducing the local pressure wasn’t very meaningful. Instead of crawling forward, it would have been better to “walk along the wall”; doing an experiment with an electronic scale would show that… while remaining still, leaning against the wall or applying downward force on the wall with both hands can reduce the number on the scale.

But in any case, Feng Bujue still managed to avoid triggering the pressure device… because his blood loss had greatly exceeded the system’s estimate.

The density of blood is only slightly higher than water, and the difference between the two is negligible.

Drawing more than fifteen hundred milliliters of blood caused Feng Bujue to lose about three or four pounds of weight.

And those three or four pounds… were precisely the limit set by the system.

There was no doubt that the “weight requirement” for passing through this place was arranged by the system based on the player’s weight. Factoring in the premise that the player "cannot take off their clothes" and "excluding all other weight", the most theoretically extreme way to pass was—draw 500 milliliters of blood (the amount that wouldn't cause obvious discomfort in a normal adult), wrap some tape around your hands, then use both hands to grip the wall to reduce weight, and then walk sideways like this all the way.

Although Feng Bujue didn’t use the friction against the wall to reduce weight, his complete disregard for his own safety in drawing blood allowed him to pass through the corridor smoothly.

“Hoo…” Feng Bujue took deep breaths while using his almost-perverted willpower to support his consciousness and body… struggling to crawl forward.

He crawled twenty-odd meters in three minutes.

That time wasn’t short, but considering that he had just drawn nearly a third of the blood from his body, it was already very difficult.

“Is that it…” After passing through the gate, Feng Bujue found a hand-operated switch on the nearby wall.

He struggled to get up, pulled the switch, and then raised his voice and shouted to Igor, who was on the other side of the corner: “Igor, try stepping into the sensor area.”

“Okay!” Igor responded and did as he was told.

This time… the gate didn’t close due to Igor’s weight, which meant that the switch Jue-Ge pulled was the right one.

So, Igor quickly packed up all the things on the ground, passed through the corridor, and ran to Jue-Ge’s side.

“Brother Feng, don’t panic, I’ll give you a blood transfusion right away.” Igor quickly took out the bags of blood that Jue-Ge had drawn and prepared to transfuse them back to him. “Uh…” But when he was about to operate, he realized that he didn’t know how.

“Heh… let me do it.” Jue-Ge smiled. “Please help me sit down by the wall.”

…………

Ten minutes later, Feng Bujue had connected the drainage tube and blood bag and fixed the needle in his vein. The first bag of blood he had drawn had already been transfused back about halfway.

“Brother Feng, are you feeling better?” Igor was standing against the wall, holding the blood bag above Jue-Ge’s head.

“No.” Feng Bujue’s answer was straightforward, “Even if all of this is transfused back, the discomfort in my body won’t disappear immediately.”

“Oh…” Igor’s mouth twitched slightly, “By the way, will transfusing it in and out like this have any harm to your body?”

“It’s okay.” Feng Bujue replied, “This is just a simple non-washed autologous transfusion. As long as the blood drawn within six hours hasn’t been contaminated, transfusing it directly back has almost no side effects.” As he said this, he glanced up at the blood bag, “Besides, I’m using special blood bags, which come with anticoagulants; if there are any side effects… at most, it’ll cause mild thrombosis or hemolysis.”

Igor didn’t understand most of this, he just looked at Jue-Ge with admiration. “Brother Feng, you novelists really know a lot, you’re amazing.”

“Heh… you’ve misunderstood.” Feng Bujue smiled, “Among us writers… there are ignorant swindlers, entertainers who provide amusement, self-admiring dullards, and treacherous and wicked rebels… but there are very few real intellectuals.” He continued in a self-deprecating tone, “Those who really have knowledge study more substantial things… their research results will promote technological progress and bring tangible benefits to mankind.” He tilted his head, “As for people like us… apart from a very small number of sages and pillars of society in the past few thousand years, most of the others are doing well if they don’t add to the chaos of this world, worshipping us… is better than worshipping religious leaders.”

Saying this, Jue-Ge paused for a few seconds, then added, “By the way, the reason I know about blood transfusions is because I have a friend who is a doctor, and I specifically asked him about this.”

“Okay… okay…” Igor was stunned by Feng Bujue’s words. He didn’t know that Jue-Ge was in a bad mood recently and liked to argue, so he couldn’t respond.

The two chatted like this for more than twenty minutes, and Feng Bujue quickly transfused two bags of blood.

After changing to the third bag, Jue-Ge stood up. “Okay… I feel much better, let’s transfuse the remaining two bags as we walk.”

His face was indeed much better, at least some color had returned compared to when he had just drawn blood.

“Ah… then I…” Igor continued, “Continue to lead the way?”

“Yes, thank you.” Feng Bujue said, taking the blood bag from the other’s hand. “I’ll hold this myself, please carry the toolbox for me.”

“Okay, no problem.” Igor said, “I feel like I have endless energy now, carrying a toolbox is easy.”

“That’s good.” Feng Bujue nodded, not saying much.

In fact, Jue-Ge had already seen that… this VNO-9 test subject was extremely strong. Just take what happened just now, perhaps even Igor himself didn’t notice that he had been holding the blood bag for Jue-Ge without switching hands… his arm was steadily raised there, like a support, without even shaking for several tens of minutes. If it were an ordinary person, their arm would have been sore long ago, and they would have had to switch arms or change their posture, but Igor didn’t even feel anything…