“Welcome to Thriller Paradise.”
“Download complete. You are currently playing Team Survival Mode (Normal). A scenario introduction is provided in this mode, and there is a chance to trigger a side or hidden mission and special world-building.
“Reward for clearing the scenario: A random draw of a learnable Skill Card.
“Playing the scenario introduction soon. The game will start right after.”
Feng Bujue entered the first-person view to observe the cinematic again. A picture floated before his eyes. It was that of a normal countryside village, near a mountain and next to a river. There were farmlands and forests surrounding the village. The village had modern amenities as well like a school, a whole street of shops, residential areas, and office buildings. This small town reminded Feng Bujue of Hirata’s hometown, and a bad feeling started to crawl up his heart.
“Sakura Town, a slice of peace away from the bustle of the city. In the small, quiet town, a strange story circulated.
“Around thirty years ago, as the town was about to welcome a new November, the police station of the town received many missing person reports. Quite a handful of young men and women had disappeared from the town, and the last day all those people were seen was the same, October 31st.
“No bodies were found. Initially, people assumed that the young people had eloped or run away from home to make a living outside the small town. But one year passed, and there was no news about them.
“Ever since then, on the same date every year, the same missing incidents would reoccur…
“Various signs pointed to the fact that the disappeared individuals had not left the small town. Therefore, the police launched a full investigation.
“Even though the police questioned and visited many citizens, and the written records were piling up like a mountain, there were no actual clues to push the investigation forward. The only thing that could even be called a clue was the superstitious talk among the elders…
“Either way, it was because of this investigation that the Curse of the Well started to spread.
“According to legend… at the abandoned shrine in the mountains, there was a cursed well. On the last day of each October, music of the underworld could be heard trailing out from inside the well. On that night, the people who heard that music would go to the shrine and throw themselves down into the well.
“’They will not return anymore because they have travelled to another world,’ the elders claimed with superstitious confidence.
“The investigation came to a halt. Without any leads, the police went into the mountains and started to inspect the shrine. To their surprise, they did come across the personal effects of some of the missing people.
“On the night of October 31st of the same year, a unit of officers guarded the well to get to the bottom of the ’mystery’, but the next day, the whole unit did not return to the town, and they were not seen again.
“The investigation was postponed endlessly until the local government ordered the villagers to enter the mountain at night and use cement to seal up the well at the shrine. However, at the end of each October, the disappearances continued…”
Following the monologue, the screen zoomed in. It faced the mountain, and a small path could be seen cutting through the forest, heading upward.
“Time flew by. Many years later, the size of Sakura Town grew, and the population number tripled. The disappearances were soon forgotten along with the legend of the well.
“On an autumnal night, six young people from the town arrived there, wishing to conduct a bravery contest at the shrine inside the mountain. That night just so happened to be October 31st.”
How is that a test of courage? As Feng Bujue listened to the cinematic, he mocked the youths. That is an active search for death!
He had thought that the cinematic would end there, but to his surprise, like the set up for the Seven Mysteries of the Academy, the system explanation picked up where the cinematic left off.
“At the start of the scenario, the system will randomly select a player among the group to obtain the ’plot armor of the main character’.
“The player with the plot armor will not be deemed as dead even if their Terror Points go too high and they have their connection forcibly cut off, voluntarily disconnect, or exit the scenario. Other ways of death like being attacked by monsters, falling from a high spot, and their Life Points dropping to zero will be terminated by the ’stroke of luck’ prior to the final moment. The method of termination might be as close to impossible as possible and might have nothing to do with logic.
“The plot armor might be transferred due to various unique events. Players are free to explore and make use of the system to transfer the plot armor.
“When the number of players falls below two, the plot armor will disappear.
“Currently, the player with the plot armor is Invincible Champion.”
With the end of that explanation, the scenario officially started.
Five people stood around Feng Bujue, and he was fortunate enough to have encountered one of them before. It was the old pal, Invincible Champion, who had been scammed by him once. Invincible Champion was the player who had to focus on training and gathering information about ’punches’ from Regulations during the closed beta. Currently, his job scope had not changed while his level had increased to twenty-three, and his title had changed from Reckless Boxer to Interpretive Pugilist.
Of the remaining four, two also came from Regulation. One was Zen Dream, also level twenty-three, and his title was Cold-faced Killer. Once this person showed up, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, dangled one on his lips, lit it, scratched his somewhat puffy curly hair, and puffed out some smoke rings.
The third member from Regulation was a female player. Naturally, she was a beauty with red lips, white teeth, exquisite facial features, and long, raven-black hair. She wore the white cape uniform to all Regulation members over a green outfit. Her IGN was Ye Zhi. It was rather confusing, but Feng Bujue’s belief was that it was probably a homonym of her actual name in real life. Ye Zhi’s level was twenty, and from her title, Emergency Doctor, she should be a player who specialized in the Medic mastery.
The other two players were both male and level eighteen. One was called Copernicus, and the other was Galilei. The former had the title ’The Discoverer’ and the latter ’The Investigator’. It was quite obvious that they were a team, but neither of them had a guild badge on their apparel, and they did not look that impressive in terms of appearance. They were wearing normal T-shirts and jeans that would not have cost much seeing as they were only slightly different from the newbie outfit.
In other people’s eyes, it was clear that these two were casual players, and their titles probably had much to do with sleuthing. They would not be that good since they did not belong to a guild. They were too weak to be accepted by others, and they were too poor to open a guild of their own. In any case, from their outfits, it was certain that they were poor, but it was still undecided whether they weak.
However, for Feng Bujue, he had two predictions about these two, and the predictions held opposite extremes.
The one extreme was that the two were actually GMs…
The scenario where he encountered the Anomaly made Feng Bujue understand one thing—Anomalies had a chance of appearing in any Team Survival Mode with six players. Even though Pan Feng and Hwa Xiong had said that the chance of that happening was very low and that the chance of it happening to the same player was lower than low, Feng Bujue was confident in his bad luck.
If this was really an Anomaly-infested scenario, then… there was nothing about these two that did not point toward them being the GMs. Middle of the road levels, common IGNs, passable apparel, a team of two, no attachment to any guild, and a hard to understand title. Perhaps they meant for it to be that way…
They looked weak and would have a hard time leaving an impression on others. That way, the players would easily forget about them after the scenario was cleared. Even if someone did send a friend request out of politeness, they would not think twice if the request was rejected.
The other extreme was, and this had a higher chance, these two were not GMs, and he was overthinking things. Then… these two could only be plebs.
The team from Regulation was definitely strong. Feng Bujue was not sure if any of them were celebrity players, but from their levels and titles, they had clear roles, and they should be individually powerful. Furthermore, their guild had a standing on both rankings, and thus, the buff for the guild should be powerful, which had to be counted when assessing a player’s ability.
When a scenario was generated, the difficulty and reward was proportional. If six extremely powerful players were grouped together, an extremely powerful scenario would naturally be generated. But normally, it would be far more common for a group to contain players of varying strengths. After all, a game could not be filled with experts; casual players would always hold the majority.
The first survival mode when Feng Bujue met Brother Long for the first time was the perfect example. A high-level player carrying two low-level players with moderate capability and two mid-level players who were dead weight.
Therefore, Feng Bujue’s second prediction was… two very weak players were mixed into the group to balance it out. They were so weak that no guild wanted them, and they were poor enough to only afford such lousy equipment, much less open a guild of their own.
Of course, no matter which extreme it was, the scenario would have nothing to do with the term ’easy’. Feng Bujue hoped that these two were not GMs, and it would be fine if they were casual players as long as they followed the group and listened to orders. If they were really the GMs, then this scenario would be unimaginably hard.
“Oh! It’s you!” Invincible Champion recognized Feng Bujue as well.
“Brother Invincible, long time no see,” Feng Bujue responded.
“Shoo, shoo… don’t act like we’re so close.” Invincible Champion was not an idiot. Earlier, he might have suspected that it was due to the effort of Passing Rain, Laughing Soul, and Long Aomin that the scenario of the House of Usher was cleared, but now, seeing the title of Plot Explorer that Feng Bujue possessed, he finally understood everything. “Knocking down the door, detaching the doorknob, is it? You sure are one hell of an actor. After I died, you managed to survive and clear the scenario?”
“Your death was honestly beyond my expectations,” Feng Bujue replied with a smile. “But to expand the scope of exploration at the start of the scenario is definitely the correct way to go, and reality has proven that…”
“Enough… There’s no need to explain. I have no idea what happened after I disconnected anyway,” Invincible Champion said. “Last time, it was my fault for underestimating you. This time, please, brother, stop acting dumb and help chip in to clear this scenario.”
“I’m so embarrassed that you’ve flattered me so,” Feng Bujue said politely, but the pride on his face could not be mistaken.
“Invincible, is that your friend?” Zen Dream came over. He pulled out a small bottle of beer from his inventory and was already drinking.
“Er… More like an acquaintance. We met each other once in a previous scenario.” Invincible Champion turned back to answer before turning back to address Feng Bujue. “Hmm, based on your title, you’re a player focused on puzzle-solving?”
This was the obvious assumption for Invincible Champion to make. After all, even in Regulation, there was no member like Feng Bujue who had acquainted himself with all the masteries, a player who could rely on both his brawn and brain.
“I am leaning more toward puzzle-solving, yes,” Feng Bujue said. “But I wouldn’t say I’m a weak fighter either.”
“Oh? From the sound of that, you are adept with both the pen and the sword?” Zen Dream said. Before Feng Bujue answered, he sighed. “Ah… How wonderful it is to be young. You might not know it from my current appearance… but once, I was young and conceited…”
“Er… Brother Zen, if I have to say, you look like you’re only in your twenties with all the vices of a youth,” Feng Bujue uttered with his lips twitching.
Even Invincible Champion felt quite embarrassed. “Just ignore him. That’s his motto apparently.”
The six stood there and chatted for a few minutes to share their expertise. During a lull, Feng Bujue activated A Strategic Victory and saw the Boss data.
———
Name: Well of Resentment
Race: ???
Level: 30
Width of the Mouth: 122 cm
Fighting Style: Illusion
Weakness: After the supply of energy is cut off, it will turn back into a normal well.
Skill: Soul Consumption
Danger Level: High
———
The messages provided by that info matched the description of this well during the cinematic quite well, but the detail of weakness was quite interesting. After the supply of energy was cut off, the well would lose its effect, but where did the power supply come from?
Assuming the source of power came from ’another world’, did this mean that they would have to be swallowed by the well first and then cut off the source in the other dimension? The issue of whether one would survive the consumption aside, even if one survived on the other end and successfully cut off the power source, the player would have no way of returning. The well would have turned back into a normal well, and the link between the two worlds would be lost.
The other speculation appeared to be more possible. The source supplying the well with its power likely came from this world and was hidden among the small town or in the mountains. The players were tasked with finding the truth, and the case would be solved.
Five minutes after the cinematic ended, the group prepared to depart, and the system announced, “Main quest triggered. Enter the mountains to find the abandoned shrine.”