“You love your job, a job that gives you a strong sense of duty. You’ve used your camera to record many bloody truths, waking the conscience in people’s heart, but do you really care? Are you a pretender hiding behind the mask of justice or a real fighter for fairness?
“At this moment, there is a toxin running through your body, eating away at your life. After you gain consciousness, your metabolism will double the toxin’s speed. You have around forty minutes to find the only exit to leave this place. Let’s see if the conscience of the man who has been hiding behind the camera can help him get back to his loving family.
“Life or death, make your choice.”
Feng Bujue was already standing when the recording was halfway through and inspected his surroundings. He was still wearing the default black t-shirt and jeans. Based on the plot of the movie that this scenario was inspired by, he even checked his pockets, but they were empty. His inventory had not changed; the plastic syringe was the only thing inside.
“F*ck your choice!” Feng Bujue cursed after the recording ended. The system did not warn him for using the curse word because he was in solo mode. Then he inspected the Walkman’s attributes through the menu.
———
Item Name: Walkman with a tape inside
Item Type: Plot Item
Quality: Poor
Function: Play tapes.
Can be taken out of the scenario: No
Remark: You’d better believe the content of the tape.
———
This was probably another one-time use plot item. Even though Feng Bujue had memorized every word of the recording, for the sake of insurance, he listened to it again, not minding the one or two additional minutes that he wasted. After hearing it for the second time, he placed the Walkman inside his backpack. He considered that the scenario might have more than one tape, so he thought that it was better to carry the Walkman with him.
The area that he was in was quite spacious. The roof was about twelve meters or higher from the ground, and near the roof, there were several large exhaust fans. Sunlight could be seen filtering through them, but there was nothing on the walls that he could climb. The roof was in an arch shape, and there were many support beams that were parallel to the ground. The place was lit up by the lamps that hung from the beams. The walls looked sturdy, and the surface was covered with a metallic sheet. Behind it might be a brick wall, but regardless, Feng Bujue was not going to break through the wall with brute force.
The system was not going to generate a scenario that he could escape from in less than two minutes. Assuming that Feng Bujue still carried two instances of Explosive Punch, and his Fighting Mastery had reached F level, then the system would have changed the scenario or made the walls twice as thick. Because only under those circumstances would Feng Bujue not escape immediately with his skill. Even though the success rate for each punch was twenty percent and he did not know the thickness of the wall, the possibility of him succeeding was still there.
When the system was generating the scenario, it naturally canceled that possibility. This meant that Wang Tanzhi would never get that kind of scenario. In any case, as long as the character had a chance to clear the scenario with their original status, no matter how small that possibility was, the system was not going to allow that to happen.
Feng Bujue walked forward. There were many boxes inside the warehouse, and the highest of them stacked up to three levels. Even so, they were still quite a distance away from the roof. The boxes were also placed in such a way that they created a path for Feng Bujue to go through.
“Hmm… I have a bad feeling about this.” Feng Bujue was not afraid, but he just did not have high hopes for the reward that he might get from this scenario. He thought, even for a normal person, this kind of story taken from Saw would not be too frightening. In the movie, the greatest element that caused fear was time. But in the game, the threat was visible, and fear increased with the approach of death. There were little sudden incidents that might cause people’s Terror Points to soar.
In the movie, the way the survivors had to escape was self-mutilation. The physical pain combined with the pressure from time caused people to fail. However, the players of Thriller Paradise had a pain threshold. Even if that pain occurred at the same time on each part of the player’s body, it was something that could be resisted with a grit of the teeth.
Furthermore… those who had seen the movies knew that the killer’s ultimate goal was not to kill but to ’save’ people. He used pain to save those who did not appreciate life, to get them to reassess their life, to appreciate the importance of life. As long as they followed the ’rules of the game’ and were daring enough to hurt themselves, there was a way to survive.
Considering those elements, Feng Bujue had basically confirmed that eighty percent of this scenario was going to come from puzzle-solving.
The system would not create a scenario that was unsolvable. At least, that was not the case for normal difficulty. The difficulty of the scenario was designed based on the player’s character ability, and things would only be different for Team Mode.
For someone like Feng Bujue who was no different from a level one character other than Life Points, the system could only create this kind of scenario. Based on his current status, combat was out of the question. If the system generated a boss that was for a level four character, then he was not going to defeat it alone. Therefore, the way to clear the scenario was obvious—either he solved the puzzle or, like the characters in the movie, used his Life Points to push forward and die once he lost all his Life Points.
Feng Bujue followed the trail formed by the boxes and came to the other side of the room. There was an arrow painted on the wall, which pointed at a door that was hidden behind a clump of boxes. There was an opening among the boxes that was big enough for someone to squeeze through.
Feng Bujue looked at his Stamina and Life Points. They were practically full. The Life Points would start to drop due to the ’toxin’, but at least he did not need to worry about Stamina Points. He calmed down by adjusting his breathing. He knew that beyond the door would be another game. It was time to focus.
He nudged through the space and pushed the door open. As the door swung open, he heard a click. Something behind the door had been triggered. Several seconds later, the new room lit up. Feng Bujue walked into the room, and the door closed on its own. It was unclear whether this was part of the trap or it was the system.
There was a very small wooden chair sitting in the middle of the room. On top of the chair was a doll wearing a black suit. It held a piece of paper in its hand. The doll was the size of a child and had a long face. It had a strange hairstyle, a white face, a black sclera, and blood red pupils. Its cheeks were painted with red swirls, and the lips were red like dripping blood. It was quite scary to run into a face like that at midnight, but at that moment, unless the doll started moving, it was still quite acceptable.
“Hello, Ash. Since you’re here, it means that you did not choose to wait for death. Then listen to the rules.” The tape hidden inside the doll’s stomach started to play. “You should have already seen a working machine…”
Feng Bujue’s eyes moved to a machine that was the size of a washing machine. On top of the machine was a circular mouth about the size of a plate. It was large enough for someone to put their head in. From the hole, the sound of machinery operating could be heard. Feng Bujue walked closer to inspect it. About half a meter away from the mouth, there were two rows of gears, they were placed close to each other, leaving only a small gap between them. The rows of gears turned in the same direction like two waterfalls. Even though the speed was not fast, the twisting force was strong. With the machine’s efficiency, crunching through wood or iron was entirely possible.
Just above the mouth was a timer. The time was set for five minutes, and it was already ticking. Next to the timer was a weight; the unit of measurement was kilograms, and the needle was pointing at zero.
“This machine can grind objects and open the door to the next room. All you need to do is toss in enough material to get enough weight. When you have put in more than 15,000 grams, the door will open. If you cut off the power or wait until the timer runs out, the machine will stop operating…”
Feng Bujue started looking around for things that he could throw into the machine. Other than the wooden chair and the doll, there had to be something else.
“There is an iron cage in the room that’s welded to the ground, and inside it is a macaque that has been shot with a strong anesthetic. It weighs about 10,000 grams. Of course, the thing you might do is throw in this doll and chair, but unfortunately, their combined weight is only 7,500 grams…”
Feng Bujue grabbed the newspaper that the doll was holding. The headline of the article was “They are not your dinner!” The picture that was attached to the article showed a small monkey kept inside an iron cage, pleading at the camera with an innocence that was unique to helpless animals. The article’s byline was none other than Ash.
“You castigated the illegal hunters and rebuked those who purchased products made from wild animals as heartless executioners, but during your many travels for the sake of interviews, you have personally enjoyed many meals that were made from these protected animals. In fact, inside your wife’s closet, there is more than one minx coat. You have seen how these animals are treated with your own eyes, yet, what have you done?
“Now, I shall give you the experience to feel what is it like to be a real executioner. Will you use this creature’s life in exchange for your own? Make your choice, Ash.”
The recording stopped there. Feng Bujue was still reading the newspaper; his old habit was surfacing. He wanted to finish this fake article that had been created by the system…