Chapter 1 Afternoon

In the afternoon, the gloomy sky turned sunny.

Just after mealtime, Feng Bujue, carrying a bunch of bags and packages, knocked on the door of his landlady, Aunt Liu.

Although Brother Jue had a unique side to him, he naturally understood social etiquette. When he needed to do something, he knew how to adjust his words and actions.

So, on this day, he brought a pile of gifts to Aunt Liu's house for a visit and chatted with the old couple.

The things he bought weren't too expensive, but they weren't cheap either.

That's how gift-giving works... If it's too expensive, people won't feel comfortable accepting it; if it's too cheap, you'll be embarrassed to give it. The specific scale is not easy to grasp, but... Feng Bujue handled it well.

He didn't stay in the house for long, just the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. He said what needed to be said in a few words, thanked the two neighbors and elders for taking care of him over the years, and then excused himself to leave.

So... what was he there to do?

Some people may have already guessed—Feng Bujue was moving.

The money he won on the Yage (雅歌) cruise ship, combined with his own savings, was enough for him to buy a decent property in S City, so he was preparing to end his days of renting.

Of course, moving wasn't something he could do right away; not to mention that he hadn't even chosen which house to buy yet, even if he bought one, he would have to wait for renovations, and after the renovations, he would have to let it air out for at least half a year... Optimistically, he wouldn't be able to officially move out until the second half of next year at the earliest.

However, since he had a plan, he still wanted to tell Aunt Liu and her husband about it first, to give them advance notice and make it easier for them to find a new tenant.

To make a long story short, he left the house in the morning, made a round, and returned home at three or four in the afternoon.

Only when he collapsed on the sofa did he let out a long sigh.

"Hoo... although I had already suspected it, it still feels a bit strange when someone else says it..." Feng Bujue muttered to himself, staring at the ceiling.

The thing he was talking about wasn't anything else... it was about his "parents," or rather—his parents in this universe.

Obviously, he had already realized something before today.

With Feng Bujue's abilities, it would be too easy to find out if he and his parents were related by blood; he could have done it when he was in elementary school.

However, he had never investigated or confirmed this matter.

Because... emotionally, he was unwilling to break through this layer of window paper.

Feng Bujue was a person who rarely showed emotion, so he also cherished the hard-earned close relationships in his life.

Compared to blood ties, Brother Jue was more willing to believe in humanity.

Rather than a man in a parallel universe who was completely unfamiliar to him, he preferred to regard the couple who raised him as his own relatives.

However, when these two relatives passed away, he didn't show much sadness in front of others.

During that time, many people pointed fingers at him, thinking that he didn't have a good relationship with his parents, so he left home to live alone before even graduating from high school, and even refused his parents' financial support.

Only Wang Tanzhi and Bao Qing knew Feng Bujue's true thoughts...

Perhaps... Feng Bujue had already realized at that time that keeping those two ordinary people away from him was the only way for them to live in peace.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.

Now, after learning about some things regarding "karma," Feng Bujue belatedly understood the reason for his parents' passing.

But even now, he still wouldn't be sad.

Because long before our story began, he had already buried his sadness with a smile.

…………

"Yo, everyone's here."

Late, at eleven fifty p.m., in the game world, in Xiao Tan's conference room.

When Feng Bujue walked in, his eyes were still those lazy dead fish eyes, and a faint smile still hung on the corner of his mouth; if he didn't say it himself, no one would know what he had experienced, learned, thought about, or carried on his shoulders during the day...

Of course, he wouldn't say anything, because he was Feng Bujue.

"Isn't it always us waiting for you..." When Ruoyu saw Brother Jue, there was a look of joy in her eyes, but she still replied coldly.

"Brother Jue, um... I actually have something to ask you." And when Xiao Tan saw Brother Jue this time, his expression was slightly strange.

"You want to ask about the prizes, right?" Feng Bujue interjected.

A while ago, because Ruoyu and Brother Jue were having a quarrel, everyone didn't even mention the S2 prizes, so the items were left at Brother Jue's house.

After the two of them reconciled, Ruoyu took some time to distribute the prizes that Woody had sent to Xiao Tan and the others; and today... was the first time they had gathered together after receiving the prizes.

"Yeah..." Xiao Tan continued, "No matter what... the things that were sent were too..."

"Too outrageous, right!" Before he could finish speaking, Xiao Ling interrupted loudly, "Guild Leader, is that friend of yours named 'Woody' meddling too much?"

Feng Bujue naturally knew what prizes the young couple had received. When he was doing that deal on the Yage (雅歌) cruise ship, he had specifically asked Woody about the prizes.

According to that devil's original words—"Hehehe... don't worry, the Yin-Yang Rings are good stuff, infinitely useful. I'm giving these to them because of my friendship with their grandparents' generation. I wouldn't give them to just anyone."

"He's not my friend," Feng Bujue shrugged, "But I don't think... there's any malice in these prizes."

"Mm..." Xiao Tan then added, "Actually, I've been planning to buy wedding rings recently, but to receive a strange pair of rings from a stranger at this time, it feels..."

"...feels like he's meddling a bit," Xiao Ling finished his sentence for him.

"Is that so..." Brother Jue murmured, "I think it's pretty good this way... Anyway, with the two of your ridiculously wealthy families, you definitely wouldn't buy ready-made rings... you'd probably order two unique, ridiculously expensive things. Now that someone has directly sent you a pair of magical artifacts, they perfectly fit the characteristics of being unique and priceless, saving you a lot of trouble."

"Have you started researching Xianxia (修真) materials recently? Even magical artifacts?" Hearing these words, An Yueqin, who didn't know the truth, took the opportunity to tease Brother Jue, "Speaking of... your manuscript deadline for this round is coming up soon, keep it in mind, if you can't submit it by then..."

This editor hadn't urged Brother Jue's manuscript for a long time, mainly because of the matter between Brother Jue and Ruoyu a while ago, but now that's no longer a problem...

"Relax... I... know." Feng Bujue didn't commit himself, because he was really busy these days, he didn't have the mood when he had the time, and he didn't have the time when he had the mood... Unknowingly, he was already close to the deadline, and honestly... he didn't know if he could submit it by then, but he still had a mysterious sense of composure...

"Oh, right!" A second later, facing An Yueqin's suspicious gaze, Brother Jue quickly changed the subject, "Didn't the company say they wanted to promote me a bit using the competition before S2? How's that going now?"

"Oh... that," An Yueqin replied unhurriedly, "The effect is quite significant. In the past month, your new book sales have increased, old books have been reprinted, and next quarter's royalties are worth looking forward to."

"Hehe... it's all thanks to you, Bureau Chief... oh no... Editor's cultivation." Feng Bujue laughed and smoothly diverted the topic from things like "magical artifacts" and "manuscript urging."

And so, everyone ate, drank, and chatted lively for nearly half an hour.

They also complained about each other's prizes...

Apart from Xiao Tan and Xiao Ling's rings, the others actually received magical artifacts as well.

An Yueqin received a "limited edition laptop exclusively issued by Dream Company," or so it was said... but in reality, it was a hardware device specifically for "recorders."

An Yueqin didn't know yet that she was actually a descendant of the "Recorder" clan, with the mission of writing the "Apocalypse."

Of course, this wasn't a particularly dangerous mission. On the contrary, "Recorders" could be said to be the safest group of people in the world, because they were directly protected by "God." From ancient times to the present, all they had to do was record the things they saw, heard, and experienced on stone tablets, bamboo slips, and paper...

The mission had remained unchanged, only the medium used for recording had been constantly upgraded; so in this day and age, "Recorders" had also started using hard drives...

Seeing this, everyone must understand that the reason why An Da Xiaojie (大小姐 – young miss) and Feng Bujue, Wang Tanzhi, Li Ruoyu, and Gu Xiaoling's lives intersected was fate itself... In the many years to come, she would play the role of a "witness," recording many things.

Next, let's talk about the prize Ruoyu received...

She received a Rubik's Cube, the meaning of which was unclear, but Ruoyu could feel that it was definitely not an ordinary object; to be on the safe side, she sent it to her great-grandfather (Gu Chen), and the Ninth Division was currently studying this thing.

Finally, there was Feng Bujue...

One thing was one thing, putting aside his various deals and bets with Woody, he also had a prize to receive.

What Brother Jue received... was a book.

A black, very thick book.

The cover of this book was hard, and from the outside, there were no words on the top, bottom, left, right, or spine... When opened, the inside was also full of blank paper.

This was a blank book that couldn't even be distinguished between front and back.

When he received this "wordless heavenly book," Feng Bujue didn't study it for the time being, nor could he study it... He just placed it on the bookshelf at home.

Originally, he didn't have a clue, but after hearing Woody talk about the "effect" of the Ability of the Truth's Fallacy this morning, Brother Jue seemed to have a slight inkling of how to use this book.

In the evening, he also tried using it at home, but... he didn't find any reaction.

Presumably, his Ability level wasn't high enough, and he probably had to train it to the "Bing" level.

…………

Long with books, short without.

More than half an hour passed quickly...

Tonight, the five members of [Hell Frontline] were teaming up for the first time since the new version was launched, so they would undoubtedly have to go for a run in Team Survival Mode.

So, after some discussion, everyone returned to their respective login spaces, prepared themselves, and waited for Brother Jue to join the queue.

[Mad Detective, Level 50]

[Like Rain, Like Leaving, Level 50]

[Wasted Sigh, Level 50]

[Sad Spirit, Smiling Bones, Level 50]

[Flower Between Rocks, Level 50]

[Please select the game mode you want the team to join.]

[You have selected Team Survival Mode (Nightmare), please confirm.]

Although this was the first scenario scheduled for tonight, Brother Jue unceremoniously selected Nightmare difficulty, after all, the team's strength was there, there was no need to be timid.

[Your team is joining Team Survival Mode (Nightmare), the random value for the number of team members has been generated: Six.]

[Your team has entered the queue and is searching for other ready individuals or teams.]

[Match complete, neural connections are being coordinated, the scenario is being generated...]

[Loading begins, please wait.]

At this moment, everyone's eyes turned pitch black, the game menu could not be opened, and their bodies also experienced a sense of weightlessness.

All of these indicated that the transmission had begun.

"Welcome to... Thriller Paradise." The hoarse voice, the gloomy tone, the perfectly executed opening line, gave people a creepy feeling.

[Loading complete, you are currently in Team Survival Mode (Nightmare).]

[This mode provides a scenario introduction and has a chance to trigger side hidden quests and a special worldview.]

[Scenario Completion Reward: An 80% bonus to base experience earned upon completion.]

After the new version was launched, the level cap was raised again, so the probability of experience rewards appearing when generating scenario completion rewards also increased significantly.

[It was a summer evening.]

The narration began, and the opening CG began to play as well.

As the screen appeared, a rather small classroom appeared before everyone's eyes.

Under the illumination of an old fluorescent light tube... mottled walls, old desks and chairs, window glass covered in dust, and huge storage cabinets that had been corroded and rusted flashed through the lens one by one.

It seemed that this space, which was filled with an atmosphere of depression and strangeness everywhere, was the starting point of this journey.

[I took the class monitor's letter and returned to my hometown, back to the classroom of that elementary school in my childhood memories.]

The narration continued...

[I arrived at the classroom half an hour earlier than the agreed time. Soon after, the classmates appeared one after another.]

[Although we haven't seen each other for many years, everyone hasn't changed much.]

The narration paused for a few seconds at this point; at the same time, the camera continued to rotate in the classroom, seemingly helping the players to observe the surrounding environment in advance.

[The agreed time has passed, but the class monitor has not appeared.]

[The sky is getting dark. Today's sunset seems to be earlier than usual. It's not even six o'clock, but the situation outside the window is already so dark that you can't see your fingers.]

[Just as everyone was discussing whether to go back, suddenly, someone shouted loudly!]