That was the last scene that Feng Bujue saw. After that, he was transported back to the log-in lobby, where the rating review appeared.
“The scenario has been completed. Calculating the reward.
“Obtained EXP: 5,000. Game Coins: 50,000.
“Obtained Equipment: None
“Completed/Accepted Quests: 3/6
“Completed Special/Hidden Quests: 0. Unlocked Worldbuilding: None
“Time of Terror Points Increase: 0. High Terror Points: 0%. Average Terror Points: 0%.
“Your Terror Rating is: Embodiment of Valor. Extra reward obtained, can be selected later.
“Obtained Skill Points: 500
“Additional Rewards from Obtained Skill Point. EXP: 5,000. Game Coins: 50,000.
“Scenario Cleared Reward: Puzzle Card x2
“Calculation complete. Please continue.”
“Hey! What the hell is this‽” After Feng Bujue was transported, he could not resist the urge to yell, but it was not because he was dissatisfied with the rating review on the screen. “With this kind of ending, I’d rather you simply give me a line saying, ’Hirata Shuichi passed away in the prison with a peaceful smile on his face.’ This kind of typical horror ending is too depressing! Based on how things normally go… Hirata, who just graduated from university, returned to his hometown after marrying Miko, and they were both killed by a ghost. What the f*ck‽”
He huffed angrily while mocking the screen. He had cleared the scenario, but he did not feel any sense of relief at all. He also did not feel accomplished for having beaten a scenario on Nightmare difficulty. If anything, he felt greatly suffocated.
However, there was a reason that Feng Bujue was Feng Bujue. He soon recovered his emotions. As a young man who could survive many different ordeals, experiencing a scenario with a bad ending once or twice was still acceptable. He imagined himself as a speck of dust floating through the common world and sucked in a deep breath before puffing it out.
A man must be optimistic. Looks like the reward for completing Solo Survival Mode on Nightmare, be it the Skill Points, EXP, or Game Coins, they are not dissimilar from the amount obtained from completing Group Survival Mode. Plus, I can draw another piece of equipment. I should forget about that evil ending.
If one viewed at the scenario objectively, Feng Bujue was incredibly lucky for having cleared it. The whole scenario was interspersed with instant-death choices, choices that would have killed him instantly if he had made them. The black-and-white world at the start of the scenario was a harsh test of the player’s Terror Points. Even though Feng Bujue had lost his sense of fear, as someone who had lived with fear for the past twenty-three years, he could imagine how scary those things were. It was simply that he did not elicit the response that he should have. If it was any other player, they would have made the incorrect choice due to fear.
Since the system generated the scenario based on the player’s attributes, other than the tutorial, whenever Feng Bujue joined a Solo Survival scenario, he would encounter a puzzle-based scenario, mixed with a sense of urgency and horror elements. There would almost never be a chance for a fair match, and instant deaths littered the scenario.
Feng Bujue realized this a bit too late. He intended to use the fact that he would experience fear to queue up for more Solo Survival scenarios to rush for more EXP. But that was easier said than done. To earn EXP, clearing the scenario was a prerequisite. If one died in Solo Survival Mode, one would earn zero EXP. But if one spent the same amount of time queuing up for Team Survival Mode, even if one were killed halfway, as long as one’s teammates had finished the scenario, at least one would be able to earn some EXP that was proportional to one’s contribution. With such a comparison, naturally, Team Survival Mode had a bigger guarantee because there was more leeway for personal failure in Team Survival Mode. For example, in the scenario on the hunting island, there five players. One disconnected, one did something stupid and died, but in the end, they cleared the scenario.
…
The familiar white light gathered, and two cards appeared inside one of the glass tubes. The puzzle cards only came with their names and did not include item descriptions. Feng Bujue held the two cards in his hands and studied them. They were ’Puzzle Card: Sunglasses’ and ’Puzzle Card: Spin’. Basically, they had nothing to do with each other, and if he combined them with the Puzzle Card: Monkey that he already had…
An image of a monkey standing on one leg wearing a pair of sunglasses and spinning around appeared in his mind.
Hmm… It’s probably for naught, he thought to himself. However, since the card system had already been activated, with the intention of trying it out since he had nothing to lose, he took out ’Puzzle Card: Monkey’ from his storage and held it alongside the two new cards in his hands. He opened the menu and selected the ’combine’ option.
The system notice that he got was “Unable to find any logical combination.” In other words, there were no acceptable sets among the three cards that he was holding. In that case, Feng Bujue tossed all three cards into the storage. After all, he had plenty of empty spaces in his storage.
“Since a set of cards can be exchanged for a piece of equipment above excellent quality, I should have known it wouldn’t be so easy to gather a complete set,” Feng Bujue told himself. He had once searched for puzzle cards on the market, but he had found none. It was probably because the open beta had just started, and puzzle cards were extremely rare. It was perhaps the case that all the players had kept their cards for themselves, knowing that completing a set would be the most effective way of earning good equipment, and it would not be worth selling them on the market. The last possibility was… as long as a puzzle card was put on auction, it would be purchased immediately, and that was why when Feng Bujue visited the auction house, none of them were listed anymore.
In any case, Feng Bujue personally would not have sold his puzzle cards so easily, but that was mainly because he thought that this card system was quite interesting, and he had an urge to complete a full set.
“Alright, it’s that time again. I refuse to believe I will draw something like a children’s baseball bat two times in a row!” He walked over to the other glass tubes while gathering a murderous aura. Before the system finished its explanation, he expertly operated the menu and chose the equipment reward.
This time, the item created in the pool of white light was definitely not a bat, and of course, it was not a rock either. However, based on its shape, it still gave Feng Bujue a very bad feeling…
———
Item Name: The Stool of the Eighteen Bronze Statues (No. 5)
Item Type: Weapon
Quality: Poor
Offense Points: Slightly Weak
Element: None
Special Effect: It will never break when attacking a humanoid lifeform and has a chance of inflicting the bleeding effect.
Remark: A stool, something that can be hidden among common household items. One could sit atop it, hiding its ability to kill. Since it is not counted as a typical murder weapon, even if you are captured by the police, they are unable to arrest you. It is deemed the best among the seven weapons of street fighting.
———
The seated surface of the stool was circular while the lower part had the structure of a ladder. It was made from iron and had black paint. It looked perfectly like the game’s description for ’poor’ quality items—old, flawed, but better than nothing.