Chapter 1 January

January was still cold.

However, the Thriller Paradise servers and forums were as lively as ever.

Less than a week after the end of the "Christmas Treasure Hunt" event, Dream Inc. launched a brand-new mode to coincide with New Year's Day—"Combination Melee."

The setting of this mode was not complicated. Simply put, it was a multiplayer slaughter game with two-player teams.

However, in the script for this mode, there would be several pairs of two-player teams, but the exact number... Dream Inc. stated, "There is no upper limit." That is, in the least populated scenario, there might only be two pairs of players…four people…in a 2v2 showdown. But it was also possible that a script would have a full hundred people, divided into fifty groups in combat.

In this type of mode with an undefined number of participants, some of the rules that apply to traditional slaughter games could not be used.

First of all...players certainly could not see the IDs of hostile personnel in the game menu. All players who entered this mode could only see their own and their teammates’ team status. As for how many hostile players there were, where they were…nothing was known.

Secondly, under the above premise, the victory conditions of this mode could no longer follow the rule of "kill all opponents." Therefore, the victory conditions of "Combination Melee" would be similar to those of general scripts, but with a "first come, first served" principle. An example would be—"Obtain something before all other opponents, kill a certain target, or arrive at a certain location."

Of course, if all other hostile players died before someone fulfilled the victory conditions, then the last remaining group or player would naturally be the victor.

After so much talk, everyone has probably guessed that the following story takes place in a "Combination Melee" mode script.

However, before telling this story, we must first sort out what happened after Feng Bujue last participated in the "Christmas Treasure Hunt" mode.

That morning, after Brother Jue woke up from the game pod, the white light in his eyes dissipated not long after, and he... clearly felt that his "Fallacy of Truth" ability had grown to a certain extent.

He couldn't help but think that, tracing back to the source, he and "Destiny" could be considered old friends from the same universe. Perhaps... "Destiny" knew some knowledge that people in this universe did not know, and had helped him in some way.

Feng Bujue just sat there, thinking until dawn.

When he came back to his senses in a burst of urination, he realized it was already nine o'clock in the morning… He quickly went to the bathroom and immediately returned, trying to log in to the game.

But at this time, the voice prompt in the game pod told him that an abnormality was detected in the character, and he could not log in.

So, Brother Jue immediately contacted Dream Inc.'s customer service…

In short, he received a reply after one business day. The content of that email was roughly as follows—

A complete rollback is impossible, because your interactions with NPCs and Derivers, as well as the consequences they caused, are part of the game's progress. It's like some people's equipment being destroyed when fighting monsters in a script. This type of loss certainly cannot be compensated. However, even the character's attributes being completely wiped out is indeed a rather abnormal situation. After discussion by various departments of the company, the final decision is:

One, the cleared character level will be raised to Level 55, with the bonus experience points (192,312,600 points) serving as compensation for other abnormal losses.

Two, the character's specialization levels, skill points, and game currency can all be restored to the state they were in at the time of the last login.

Three, all items and equipment in the inventory and on the character, except for the "Other" category, below the Excellent quality (including Excellent quality) cannot be restored.

Items that cannot be restored include: [Endless Grenade Magazine] (Excellent, Tool), [WQ-308 Military Shovel (Indestructible Type)] (Excellent, originally "Tool", defined as "Composite Weapon" in this version), [Stellar Cooling Cannon (Not Really)] (Excellent, Weapon), [The Alchemist King's Taunt] (Excellent, Armor), [Phantom Madam's Caress] (Excellent, Armor), [Smiling Face] (Excellent, Armor), [Name: i_wAnnA_Be_A_BeLt] (Excellent, Armor), [Survival Value Replenishment (Medium) *5], [Survival Value Replenishment (Large) *5].

Four, except for [Moon Step] and [Rankyaku], other skills cannot be restored.

Five, the character's storage room was not affected.

The above is the result of Feng Bujue's handling…

If the last sentence of this email hadn't included, "Hehe, please bear with us, player," Brother Jue would have probably raided Dream Inc.'s headquarters.

But when Feng Bujue saw that sentence, he instantly understood a lot of things…

Looking at the entire email, the words were full of bureaucratic jargon, and the tone seemed rather impolite. Only that last sentence… clearly came from Woody's hand.

To others, this might not mean anything, but Feng Bujue understood that Woody had conveyed some information to him in a unique way.

That was—Woody was not the only one who had the final say in this matter.

It wasn't difficult to deduce this…

In this "gamble," Feng Bujue was a very crucial and conspicuous figure. There were definitely quite a few big shots who wanted him to be finished. This time, his data was cleared by Twenty-Three, and those people must have been celebrating. And among those guys, there must be one called "Uriel."

In short, one could imagine the amount of pressure Woody was under in this incident… The opponents in the gamble would definitely hold him accountable, arguing that "restoring Feng Bujue's data is unfair." It seemed… that Brother Jue's character could be restored to the current extent was already the result of Woody's best efforts to mediate.

In this situation, if Feng Bujue still didn't give up, he would only push himself and Woody into a worse situation.

Brother Jue was a good calculator, a sensible person, and also a person who was relatively willing to reflect on himself. This incident was originally caused by his own "miscalculation." Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated. He should pay for his own mistakes.

In this way, Feng Bujue, who had "returned to pre-liberation," returned to the game…

The first thing he did was naturally to sort out his existing resources.

Fortunately, he received a "completion reward" as soon as he logged in. Obviously, Honghu and Snow had completed the script's main quest after he "died." Of course… Brother Jue only received part of the experience. He didn't get the rewards for those who survived to the end.

Afterward, he asked Honghu what happened. The other party told him that after Twenty-Three instantly killed him and "Ken," Blackbeard immediately handed over what Twenty-Three wanted in a very knowledgeable manner, and Twenty-Three left after achieving his goal.

Honghu also assessed the situation and quickly expressed his attitude towards Brother Jue's death to Blackbeard—a great relief. Then, he negotiated a deal with Blackbeard.

In the end, after helping Blackbeard investigate the mystery of his son and "Shadow of Dance's" disappearance, Honghu and Snow successfully obtained the "Original Translation of the Ramayana" as a reward and completed the script.

By the way, the truth was actually very simple: Shadow of Dance and Blackbeard's son were discovered by several Nine Gods members who were still active on the island when they met. They were then besieged and killed by the Illusory Demon Church, and both died. Shadow of Dance used his special ability to leave a message before his death and passed it on to Blackbeard, but it was unclear. Because he didn't know much about the opponent's overall plan, let alone that there was a super-strong Deriver controlling things behind the scenes.

After knowing this, Feng Bujue also settled a matter of concern. He still had to play the game…

The depression when [Must Break Defense Blade] broke was still vivid in his mind, but now it seemed that this loss could only be considered an "appetizer."

Let's take a look at Brother Jue's current character attributes—

Feng Bujue: Lv55

Title: [Dark Vanguard], Title Ability: [Devil Descent]

Experience Points: 3,218,056,000,000, Skill Points: 105,681, Game Currency: 10,145,000.

Specializations: General A, Machinery A, Investigation B, Fighting S, Shooting B, Medical D, Spiritual Arts A, Summoning A.

Inventory (14/25): Chuck Norris's Autobiography, Fraudulent Pocket Watch, Chuck Norris's Razor, Oxygen Pipe, Yi Da, Qi Xu Ru Lin, Dong Ru Lei Ting, The Sealed One's Right Foot, The Sealed One's Left Foot, The Sealed One's Right Wrist, The Sealed One's Left Wrist, Rat Hammer, Just_We, Tiangang Disha Box.

Equipment: Mad Poker (Psionic Weapon), 1920's Harsh War Armor, Ta Xu, Bell's Everyday Knife.

Storage Room (3/15): "Poker Hero" Hero ID Card, Puzzle Card - Sparrow, Puzzle Card - White.

Skill Bar (2/13): [Moon Step] [Rankyaku]

Unequipped Skills: [The Perseverance of the Ice Alchemist], [Not-So-Hasty Repair], [Kikoho], [Nanto Flying Dragon Fist]

Soul Power: Zero-Time Difference Calculation, Rewrite (Second Order).

That was a lot more refreshing… The skills that were left in the storage room were lucky enough to escape the disaster; and those Perfect-grade or higher equipment and a few more critical "Other" items were restored, which was a blessing in disguise.

After some sorting, Feng Bujue naturally brought the remaining skills and hero ID cards from the storage room, anyway, his inventory and skill bar were now very empty, so why not.

In a sense, the loss caused by this "miscalculation" added some fun to Feng Bujue's game, because his strength had decreased, and in the days that followed, he was matched with many scripts with combat difficulty that seemed quite low in the past, but that's not what we're going to talk about this time…

This time's story still has to start with a "Combination Melee" game that he and Ruo Yu teamed up for on New Year's Day night.

…………

[Feng Bujue, Level 55]

[Si Yu Ruo Li, Level 52]

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

[You have selected Combination Melee. Please confirm.]

[Confirmed. Script generation in progress...]

[Loading, please wait.]

The familiar system prompts flashed one by one, followed by an opening line with a particularly strong martial arts flavor, spoken by a rough male voice:

"Wind and snow fill Zhongzhou, the martial world has no old friends. Let us drink a cup of wine, and travel the world with our swords."

This opening line was obviously unique to the script in front of him, and its style also revealed the script's worldview.

[Loading complete. You are currently in Combination Melee.]

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

[Script victory reward: 10,000,000 experience points.]

[The script introduction will now play, and the game will begin immediately after the playback is complete.]

When he saw the completion reward, Feng Bujue was a little disappointed, because the last thing he needed right now was experience. After the data crash, if he had received any positive compensation, it was experience… He had received nearly 200 million free experience points.

Therefore, what Brother Jue urgently needed now was equipment and skills.

Of course, he hadn't been completely without gains in the past few days. Many people might have forgotten that Feng Bujue could actually "manufacture skill cards" (Spooky Electric Company), but the activation mechanism of that ability was very complicated, and it had to be done at the right time to succeed.

In addition, the [Tiangang Disha Box] was also an item from which skills could be learned. However, Brother Jue had not yet fully understood all the functions of this thing and was still exploring…

[Ming Dynasty, Qifeng Ninth Year, Twelfth Lunar Month.]

The narration quickly began the plot introduction, and as soon as it opened, it reported a fictional year that did not exist in history. Like the so-called "Shengping Twenty-Second Year" in the script where Brother Jue met Lin Yan and Eunuch Cao, this was undoubtedly a fictional dynasty in a parallel universe.

[The emperor is working hard to govern, the people are healthy, and the world is peaceful.]

"Oh? The Ming Dynasty emperor is working hard to govern?" Brother Jue couldn't help but complain in his heart after hearing the second sentence.

[However, the martial world is full of bloody storms.]

[In the Mid-Autumn Festival of this year, the Jiang Family Fortress Master, "Horizontal River Sword" Third Master Jiang, was found to have died tragically at home with his entire family of sixty-three people. Including Jiang San himself, all the dead were killed by the same sword, with the same swordsmanship, in an instant, with one move.]

[Jiang San was born in the Yunnan border area and was the direct disciple of "Cloud Exploring Wanderer" Duan Keyi, the head of the Diancang Sect. After the incident, Duan Keyi, who received the news, personally led his disciples to investigate. A month later, the matter gradually became clear...]

[According to legend, Jiang San accidentally obtained a sword manual that had been lost overseas from a wandering samurai a few days before his death. The samurai did not know the true value of this sword manual and actually took it to a pawnshop and pawned it at a low price. After many twists and turns, it fell into the hands of Third Master Jiang.]

[Jiang San's martial arts were already among the top in the martial world, otherwise he would not have been able to build the Jiang Family Fortress's foundation. After obtaining the sword manual, Jiang San discovered that this manual was actually an unparalleled martial art written by Pei Min (one of the Three Unrivaled of the Tang Dynasty, the Sword Saint who was as famous as the Poet Immortal Li Bai and the Sage of Cursive Script Zhang Xu).]

[Jiang San was overjoyed and immediately handed over all the business and other matters at home to his younger brother to manage, while he himself went into seclusion to practice swordsmanship.]

[Unexpectedly, the news leaked, and a few days later, the Jiang Family Fortress suffered a devastating attack.]

[A month later, when the details of the case gradually became clear, the tragic death of the Jiang family of sixty-three people itself was no longer important.]

[The focus of the entire martial world has all turned to that sword manual...]

[By the twelfth lunar month, there is reliable news that the sword manual will appear on New Year's Eve in a town a hundred miles away from Shanhai Pass...]

The narration came to an abrupt end here, and then Feng Bujue and Li Ruoyu both gained the ability to act.

In the blink of an eye, the two were in a snowy wilderness forest, and the feeling brought by the sudden drop in temperature could be described in one word—cold.

Even though the sun was directly overhead at this moment, and it was precisely noon, the warmth that the sunlight could bring was really limited.

[Main Quest Triggered]

Similar to slaughter games, this Combination Melee mode also directly presented the ultimate goal at the beginning of the game.

[Obtain the "Sword Dance Manuscript" before other players, and maintain its ownership for one hour.]

When this task appeared in the task bar with the system voice, a note also appeared below it—The "Sword Dance Manuscript" cannot be placed in the inventory. Please click here to view the detailed rules for determining its "ownership."

The words "view" were a hyperlink. By focusing attention there, one could see a more detailed explanation.

"Looks like..." Feng Bujue only spent a few seconds to read all the relevant information mentioned above. He immediately said to Ruoyu beside him, "...the difficulty of this main quest lies in 'holding' it, not 'obtaining' it."

"Is it that difficult to keep the sword manual from being snatched away within an hour?" Ruoyu asked.

"Heh..." Feng Bujue smiled, "Let's talk as we walk, standing here like this... I estimate that we'll be frozen and lose survival value in a while."