Half of a wizened, pale face appeared outside the small gap. The old lady’s bloodshot eyes looked like they were completely black in this black and white world, and they stared with a supernatural focus at Feng Bujue.
At the time, the door was only half-open. Feng Bujue was given the choice of two options. He could open the door fully and greet the old lady with a wrench to the head, or he could wait and see what happened next.
“Have I been too much of a disturbance?” The old lady surprised Feng Bujue by speaking.
He did not answer the question directly but asked in a probing way, “I’m sorry… are you feeling uncomfortable? I heard some moaning coming from next door.”
“It is an old wound. If I have caused you any disturbance, I apologize for the inconvenience.”
“Oh, I should be the one apologizing… I should not have yelled without finding out the truth. I am so sorry,” Feng Bujue replied. The old lady nodded. She glanced at Feng Bujue for a while and turned her head around before shuffling slowly back to her room.
Feng Bujue closed the door and mumbled softly to himself, “Was that a normal human or a ghost?”
He walked toward the tatami mat. “If she is a normal human… she suffers from serious arthritis, but if she is a ghost…”
Sitting down with his legs crossed, he picked up the teapot on the table and refilled his cup. “Since entering this scenario, I have not met a single normal person. All that I’ve seen are monsters and ghosts.”
Creak, creak…
This time, a strange sound came from above his head.
“What is it this time?” Feng Bujue raised his head to look at the ceiling beam where the sound came from. Suddenly, the lightbulb above his head flashed twice. The next second, the electrical wire that the lightbulb dangled from suddenly snapped, and the light went out. It crashed to the ground with a crisp shatter.
The room plunged into darkness. At that moment, a lightning flashed outside the window. The light that hit the windowsill and curtain cast a strange shadow on the ground. Two seconds later, another source of light came on.
Feng Bujue took out his flashlight calmly and activated it. He directed the light upward and mumbled weakly to himself, “Please let it be a mouse.”
Unfortunately, it was not a mouse. From the moment the light in the room went off until Feng Bujue took out his flashlight, at most there were only mere seconds, but when he shone the flashlight upward, it was no longer a lightbulb hanging from the beam but a dead body.
It was the dead body of a female, and she had the appearance of a traditional homemaker. She looked young, probably just shy of thirty. Her expression was twisted as her eyes were rolled back. Her mouth was left hanging open, and there was a trail of saliva coming down the edge of her lips.
The dead body was turned to Feng Bujue like she was looking down on him. Under such circumstances, even if the dead body suddenly came alive to assault Feng Bujue, it would not have been so surprising. However, what happened next surprised Feng Bujue again.
He suddenly lost control of his body, and he began watching a cinematic again. Suddenly, the scene before his eyes shifted on its own. Then, Feng Bujue’s world moved away from the cramped and decrepit room to a street filled with fog, and he was once again standing on the street.
To make things stranger, the system audio spoke.
“This is an afternoon in November, and you are going alone to visit a good friend from your town.”
What’s going on? Is this another introductory cinematic?
This was the first time that Feng Bujue had run into something like that, but he still paid close attention to every word that was rattled off by the system audio.
“One hour ago, the sun was still bright. It was glowing gloriously in the sky, and there was no shred of dark cloud in the blue sky. However, a heavy mist unexpectedly descended on the town. The surroundings were shrouded by unknown darkness, and the sense of terror curled itself around your heart. Your consciousness and grip of reality begin to fail, and you started to run around aimlessly like a headless chicken because you feel threatened by an unknown evil. The result was you got lost in the thick fog.
“Your mind is a mess, and your memory is failing you. You have no idea whether what you see around you is part of the real world or merely figments of your imagination. You have no idea… if you will be able to reach your destination.”
After that ended, Feng Bujue gained the ability to move, and he was given a new quest.
“Main quest activated. Find your good friend’s address and arrive at your destination.”
“Wait a minute… a dual main quest?” Feng Bujue did notice a new main quest in his game menu. The other main quest—stay in the room until dawn—was still there, and there was no tick to signal that it had been completed. However, there was a new main quest positioned under it.
“Hmm… also what was up with the dead body earlier? How did I end up here? How many characters am I playing in this scenario?” Feng Bujue mumbled to himself. “Or… am I actually still inside that room, seeing something like the victim’s last moments? Living vicariously through their deaths?”
The nightmare scenario confused him more and more as the time went on. The main quest only told him what to do next but did not give him any information about anything, not even the information related to the final goal. Feng Bujue had no understanding of this scenario at all, so for now, he could only follow the instructions that he was given.
The thick fog rolled and slowly covered his surroundings. There was not a breath of wind, and the fog seemed to be moving due with a mind of its own. Out of habit, Feng Bujue examined his body and pockets to see if he had been given any other plot items. He discovered that the keys that he had been given earlier had disappeared, and instead, a paper note was left inside his suit pocket. He took out the paper to look and read “Rokubancho, No. 4-5”.
“F*ck… Again‽” Feng Bujue griped. This time, there were still people around him. In the fog, the shadows appeared and disappeared, disappeared and appeared… It showed that he was not alone. Feng Bujue could hear the sound of footsteps, and these ’people’ sounded like they were circling around him. They maintained a close distance, none willing to venture too close.
Creak, creak, creak…
That annoying sound was still there. It was very soft and very distant. If he wanted, Feng Bujue could easily convince himself that he was hearing things.
Feng Bujue started to move with as cautious a step as he could. He walked through the suffocating darkness. Occasionally, vehicles would cross by his side. With this visibility, the vehicles naturally drove very slowly on the street, and that made them look like a large creature slogging through the fog. Their large shadows pushed through the fog with a suddenness that was disproportionate to their size before being swallowed by the fog again.
Even though the dark and eerie atmosphere constricted him like a boa, Feng Bujue did not surrender to its influence. He made his way forward cautiously, paying close attention and constantly analyzing his environment. The cold, damp air permeated this sea of darkness, disturbed only by the occasional headlights of the vehicles that passed. Feng Bujue used his flashlight to shine his way, but the light was too weak to penetrate the fog. His visibility extended no further than three meters.
He could barely see the road that he was walking on, which showed how difficult it would be for him to find a strange address in this strange town.
After walking for some time, he caught the light of a lamp post not far away, standing straight and upright. The post gave off a weak, flickering light. Feng Bujue used the railing by the road as guide and made his way to the lamp post. The lamp post was adjacent to a bus stop. Feng Bujue ran closer to take a better look, hoping for something like a local map.
The result was quite relieving because there was indeed a map there. Feng Bujue soon found the bus stop on the map and the location of Rokubancho. Based on the scale of the map, he believed that the distance left was about two kilometers. With his speed, he would need another twenty minutes at most to reach his destination. With the route decided, things became a lot simpler. With his impressive memory, Feng Bujue only needed a glance of the map to memorize it. However, as a final precaution against getting lost in this strange town, he memorized the names of the nearby streets around his destination. Then he continued his journey.
After a few minutes of walking, he was struck by another question. What would he see if he used Strategic Victory then?
So far, the scenario did not look like it came with a final boss but was made up from multiple mini bosses. The plot could only be described as confusing and hard to predict. But if everything so far had a certain connection that bound them together, like everything being an illusion created by some monster, then perhaps the usage of the skill might lead Feng Bujue to the discovery of some kind of breakthrough.
After all, since there was no exhaustion to the skill, with nothing to waste, Feng Bujue activated Strategic Victory.
But the next second, his own face flashed across his eyes, a face that was filled with confusion and terror, with his eyes bulging and his life completely devoid of life. The menu did not provide any extra information, and the only thing he got was a headache that felt like it was about to crack his head open. It felt like someone was hammering the inside of his skull with some kind torture device…
“What’s happening?” Feng Bujue held his head in his hands. “What was that? What is going on with this scenario? Is there a limitation to my skill that prevents it from being used inside a Nightmare scenario?”
Nothing else seemed to change about his surroundings. There was nothing that resembled an answer. Everything was as mysterious and unknown as it once was.
…
Feng Bujue walked down the route for almost thirty minutes. The actual distance must have been larger than he anticipated on paper, but he was walking through the fog, so his speed must have been affected somehow. However, he still managed to reach his destination in the end. It was a western-looking manor. It had a small garden, and gorgeous flowers bloomed in the flower patch, but the fog seemed to strip them of their fragrance.
The iron gate outside the garden was not locked, and it swung open lazily with a light push. Feng Bujue walked through the garden to the manor’s front door. He knocked on it, but there was no answer. He waited for a while, and the reply was equally quiet. Feng Bujue tried to turn the doorknob, and the door swung open. He pushed the door aside and walked into the dark hall. Even though the place was lavishly furnished, it felt weirdly spacious, like there was too much empty space.
“Current quest completed. Main quest updated. Explore the manor.”
Glittering lights came from the corridor of the second floor. Given such clear guidance, Feng Bujue accepted it naturally. He followed the steps up to the second floor. His footsteps were stable and his breathing calm. However, with each step, the wooden boards creaked noisily, and they sounded particularly loud to his ears.
When he reached the second floor, the lights disappeared altogether. Thankfully, Feng Bujue came armed with the flashlight. In front of him was a corner. He walked swiftly to the first door that he came upon. Without any hesitation, he pushed the door open.
Once the door opened, a strange scent drifted into Feng Bujue’s nostrils. It was a heavy mixture of perfume and blood. Inside the room was a large double bed, and a woman was lying in the bed… or rather, a dead woman was lying there.
She did not have a trace of clothing on her, and Feng Bujue could see that the decay had started to set in. The blood dyed the whole bed red. Her eyes were left open, and her face was turned to the door. At that moment, her empty, lifeless eyes were staring right at where Feng Bujue was standing.
Above the bed stood a monster. Its body was contorted in a humanly impossible manner. The area above the head looked like a bald eagle, the upper torso was human, and the lower body had eight legs and an appendage that looked like it was spinning web like a spider.
The monster’s mouth was filled with fresh blood, which dripped down its lips. Feng Bujue, the uninvited guest, had interrupted its feast. Seeing the open door, a strange sound echoed from deep inside the monster’s throat while it walked around the bed to get closer to Feng Bujue.
Facing this kind of weird monster, Feng Bujue did not think that he wanted to get into close combat. He quickly pulled out the handgun and fired several shots at the monster. Later, he realized that he had fired five shots. At the distance that was less than five meters, and since they were in the room, Feng Bujue had practically a hundred percent accuracy rate with his marksmanship of D.
To his surprise… the monster was curiously fragile. When the first two bullet landed on its chest, they seemed to have crippled its mobility. When the other three bullets were shot, it was already lying supine on the ground.
“What is this?” Feng Bujue looked at the disgusting looking monster, and the plot was moving further and further away from his understanding. He put the gun away and walked to the bed. He wanted to check the female body for clues. The body was stretched and laid out as if gingerly on the bed. Once closer, Feng Bujue realized that the dead body looked very familiar.
“Wait a minute… isn’t this the woman who hung herself in the room earlier?” The realization dawned on Feng Bujue.
At that moment, the dead body suddenly pulsed into motion. Its decayed body sat up and turned toward Feng Bujue. Widening its mouth as much as it could, it released an increasingly shattering scream. Feng Bujue felt like his eardrums were about to shatter. He was about to use the wrench to make the woman shut up when the strange scenario happened again.
He lost control of his body, and the scene turned back to a cinematic. The zombie woman in bed, the strange monster, the garden, and the manor all fell away, and the scene started to change again.
In the blink of an eye, Feng Bujue found himself situated inside a busy office. He was seated at a table filled with documents and stationery. The computer on the table was using a CRT monitor, and the CPU was placed next to it.
“The company that you work at is facing bankruptcy, and the boss has decided to lay off some of the employees.”
What is this sudden leap in plot? There has to be some connecting theme that I’m missing somehow! Feng Bujue was truly beyond confused this time.
“As the youngest vice manager at the company, you have been given the responsibility of handing out the relief papers. You have been given the responsibility of firing employees who are much more senior than you, and you have to explain the situation to them. For that, you are under a great amount of pressure.”
Hey! What kind of plot is this? Wouldn’t it make more sense for you to ask me to stay a night inside a Haunted House or go kill some monsters in the woods‽ Feng Bujue gasped internally. Why has the plot suddenly changed to this kind of modern theme? That so far is the scariest! Plus, how is the laying off related to the two scenarios earlier? The main character cannot be the same person, right? It cannot be! The place where he lived was just ruined by a tornado. In the morning, he was tasked to lay off his seniors, he went home to a haunted sleep, and his friend is a strange uncle who is raising some kind of monster in a foggy manor. Is this character still a normal person?
“After the afternoon break, the office started to become busy again…”
The cinematic ended. Similarly, it had given Feng Bujue information that barely amounted to anything. And then Feng Bujue was given another main quest.
“Main quest activated. Work until the end of working hours.”
Only one thing had remained constant throughout, and that was that everything remained black and white. Feng Bujue could finally move again, but the thing he wanted to do was slam his head against the monitor.
Stay here until the end of working hours… At least tell me what kind of work ’I’ have. Also, what time does this unit get off work?
Everyone in the office was busy working. Some bustled about with their arms filled with documents, and others sat before the computer, their fingers working on the keyboard. No one was really taking a break.
A few younger female workers looked so invested even if they were merely photocopying some documents. There was no one chatting with one another, looking in the mirror, or munching on snacks. The male workers looked like they were in for a war. They looked like they were constipated. Some even had white cloths wound around their foreheads, with the term “根性” (Willpower) written on them. It was an office, but it looked like everyone was getting ready for some kind of important exam.
“Hmm… so this is the effect of an impending lay-off,” Feng Bujue said. “By the way… they’re doing all this for me to see, right?”
“Hirata-san!” A voice interrupted Feng Bujue’s thoughts. Feng Bujue turned around and saw a middle-aged man around forty with a balding head and black-rimmed glasses.
Is he talking to me? Feng Bujue thought. So, my name is Hirata… With a name like that, no wonder the man’s life is so unlucky…
“Er… yes, sir.” Feng Bujue looked at the man and answered.
The middle-aged man passed him a stack of documents, explaining, “This is the financial report for the last season. The manager wants it on his table by the end of the day.”
Since the manager wants it before the end of the day, why are you giving them to me, the vice manager? Feng Bujue grumbled internally. Even if the manager is sh*tting, you could have placed this on his table, right? You merely want to show me that you’ve done work, don’t you? Or are you afraid that after you leave these on the manager’s table, some other people might throw them in the trash to lay a trap for you?
Feng Bujue sighed and mumbled under his breath, “Why am I doing this? What does this got to do with me?”
“Hirata-san? What did you say?” The middle-aged man did not hear him clearly, so he asked for clarification.
“Huh? Oh… Ah, I understand. I will hand these over to the manager. Leave them to me,” Feng Bujue rambled off a reply to send the man leaving.
The middle-aged man gave his junior a sincere bow and said, “You are a godsend, Hirata-san.”
Then he turned to leave.
“What? Huh… Is the scenario trying to tell me that losing one’s job is scarier than being haunted?” Feng Bujue pulled on the corner of his lips. He loosened his tie and tossed the reports aside before starting to look for clues related to the game.
There were so many things on the table and so many people in the office. He refused to believe he could not find anything related to this ’Hirata’!