“Huh, so it works like that too?” Invincible Champion said.
“Nice, we’ve found another way to change the ownership of the plot armor,” Feng Bujue said. “But this method doesn’t appear that useful.”
“That is for you.” Ye Zhi looked at Feng Bujue condescendingly. “I think this way is much better than quoting those strange lines.”
Feng Bujue shrugged and kept his opinion to himself.
Galileo and Copernicus walked to the front of the group to lead the way. Earlier, they were made confused by the sudden appearance and then disappearance of the Anomaly on their radar. With the question from Feng Bujue, they could naturally move to the front to take up the reigns of the guide.
GMs knew about the way to clear the scenario and the location to trigger events. In comparison, Feng Bujue’s skill, A Strategic Victory, was much weaker than theirs. The boss that he had observed from the skill was the Well of Resentment. That was because when he activated the skill, Wailu had been situated in the other world, so Feng Bujue could not detect it. If the scenario did not come with the presence of an Anomaly, the players needed to complete certain conditions to reach the true ending. However, to earn a basic ending, the players were not required to face off against Wailu.
The GMs could see from their menu that there were four Soul Catching Circles placed around the mountains. Three normal circles were spread all over the mountains, and the main circle was placed at the bottom of the well. Following the normal strategy, the players would enter the mountain after the scenario started, encounter a normal magic circle, survive the illusion, and take down the circle. Then they would be given the hint for the main quest, which was to destroy all four magic circles, and that would seal the Well of Resentment.
Following that, the players needed to deal with three normal circles and one main circle to clear the scenario. Of course, the circle at the bottom of the well would be more difficult than normal. But no matter what, if the players attempted this route, they would not encounter Wailu.
And the route taken by Feng Bujue’s group was the opposite. In other words, they had discovered a hidden reward. For their path, one was supposed to find a magic circle on a ruined wall beyond the mountain. Even though destroying the circle would not trigger any events, in actuality, the magic circle had added to the requirement for the main quest. In other words, by dealing with this magic circle, after the players destroyed any of the normal circles on the mountain, their mission progress would start at fifty percent complete. This meant that the players who managed to survive the test at the manor did not even need to fight the well of resentment. They could clear the scenario by clearing all the normal magic circles.
The two routes were respectively the normal route and the simpler route with some puzzle elements. The latter was easier, and the former entailed a more complicated battle.
Of course, there was a third route, a method that would not be selected by even the GMs, even though it was also the method route. It was to ignore everything—the illusions and the many events—cut their way to the shrine, and jump into the well to kill Wailu in the ’other world’.
That route was possibly attemptable by a six-man group from a gaming studio or by the two GMs if there was no Anomaly to disturb them. They could avoid all the monsters on the way and jump into the well to deal with the real boss directly. But for normal players, this kind of route that depended fully on brute force was impossible.
Starting the easiest route along with the strange behavior of the Anomaly meant that Galileo and Copernicus had to change their original plan. Initially, they greatly underestimated the players, so they did not want to make things too complicated. The plan was to lead them up the mountain as soon as possible, deal with all the four magic circles, and send the players away. But now, they had a chance to send the players away without even going to the top of the mountain. Naturally, they had to make use of the opportunity.
After the six walked for a while, Galileo led the group away from the mountain path and entered the forest. Feng Bujue studied these two from a distance, and he did not voice any direct suspicion. However, Ye Zhi did approach them with some questions. The two gentlemen with ’sleuthing mastery’ very easily dealt with her questioning.
Without even realizing it, they had been in the mountains for about twenty minutes already. The surrounding trees and the slope under their feet that had remained constant added an invisible pressure and tiredness to the players’ mind.
“There is not really an end to this forest,” Galileo said in an explanatory tone. “I believe the mountains have entered a state of spatial anomaly on the night of October 31st.”
From his explanation, Feng Bujue derived two single words—be patient.
“Then there’s no reason for us to walk in circles like this, right? Shouldn’t we just head up the slope. Eventually we’ll reach the top, right?” Invincible Champion asked.
“That’s too naïve,” Feng Bujue said. “Since they already said there ’is no end’ to this place… we should have abandoned the conventional understanding of direction. You think that we are walking in circles, but you are only basing that on the slope underneath us.
“Think of it this way… we are walking on an even field, but the trees on this field are grown in a slanted manner, and the gravitational pull is tilted, so in that way, you will be given the impression that you are walking on a slope.”
“Hmm…” Invincible Champion had a hard time imagining something like that.
“Other than that,” Feng Bujue continued, “a spatial anomaly means that this range of mountains might be endless. If you possess the thought that ’you can eventually reach the exit by going in the same direction’, in a place like this, there’s an eighty percent chance you’ll end up stuck where you are.”
He used his finger to draw the infinity symbol in the air. “If this is a cyclical space where the exit is connected to the entrance, since we stepped into this place, we shouldn’t expect the eventual exit. Only by undoing the spatial anomaly can the exit be found, but from everything that we’ve seen so far… we’re in a different kind of scenario.”
When the two GMs heard that, they both turned to look at him. Their expression showed that Feng Bujue had once again landed on the correct analysis.
“A different scenario?” Ye Zhi asked. “What do you mean by that?”
“There hasn’t been any trace of recursion.” Zen Dream suddenly spoke to offer a sharp and succinct observation.
“Ha! Impressive, looks like we have a brilliant mind among us.” Feng Bujue laughed.
“You flatter me, but the same could be said for yourself,” Zen Dream said before he took another sip from the bottle. This man was much more reliable than he appeared.
“So far,” Feng Bujue said, “have any of you encountered similar scenery, or have you come across any of our repeated footprints?”
“Er… I don’t think so,” Invincible Champion said. “But even if this mountain looks huge from the outside, that shouldn’t mean anything, right?”
Galileo turned around to explain on Feng Bujue’s behalf. “The scenery that you saw from the outside is a completely different space from the one that we’re currently in… It’s just like…”
Before he finished, Copernicus at the front raised his arm to make a signal. Then he added a sharp shushing sound and whispered, “There’s something in front of us…”