It took Feng Bujue a whole hour to finish bathing the cat. When he was done, there were a few additional claw marks on his arms, and he sweated so much that he was the one who needed another bath, but at least he was done. Initially, he still wished to do some more housework, but after this struggle, he decided to rethink his plan. To bathe a cat… that was a bit too intense as an after-dinner exercise.
He slumped on the sofa and wished to take a breather. Since he was already seated, he switched on the television. Since the television was already on and he did not feel like watching commercials, he turned to another entertainment channel. And since he had already changed the channel, he should at least find something to watch, and thus, he clicked open the list of horror movies…
Weirdly enough, they liked to make sequels for horror movies. After seeing the first movie, no matter how bad it was, out of curiosity, the viewers would come back for the sequel. Their thought process was mainly, Perhaps the sequel is not bad? Why else would they be ready to make the third film already?
After watching the sequel and realized that it was as bad as the first one, the viewer would think, What is it about the third film? Why is there a fourth film? What happens after that? How did they manage to drag out such a preposterous story for so long? Perhaps there might be an unexpected development later on.
In any case, that was how Feng Bujue finished three ninety-minute-long horror movies in one sitting, and he concluded, “I’ve spent yet another four hours of my life on horrible movies.”
He lifted his eyes to glance at the clock. It was around 10:30 pm. If he logged into the game, he could use sleep mode, but it seemed a bit too early. However, in non-sleep mode… if he ran into a slightly long scenario, it would be 2 am when he was done. That would not be a good use of his time.
With that in mind… Feng Bujue’s eyes wandered to the television screen again. “Should I finish the fourth film…”
Five seconds later, he gave himself a slap to remove that scary thought from his mind. Then, he lay in the gaming hub and logged into Thriller Paradise in non-sleeping mode.
The log-in lobby looked about the same. After Feng Bujue appeared in the elevator, the first thing he did was touch the social tab on the screen. Brother Long had gone offline, and so had Flashes of Sword. Xiao Tan was not online, but Passing Rain and Laughing Soul’s names were lit up. They could be seen in the friend list, so it meant that they were also in the non-sleeping mode server, but unfortunately, their status said that they were currently in-game.
Feng Bujue checked his system mailbox. There was a private mail and a system mail. He opened the private mail first. The sender was Zen Dream, and the content was only one sentence. “If you are willing to give me face, Brother Feng, do accept my friend request. When you’re free, join us in our conference room for a chat.”
“What is this?” Feng Bujue mumbled to himself. “Brother Feng is not willing.”
He deleted the mail.
“They just want to get information about the Anomaly from me and perhaps invite me to join Regulation.”
Feng Bujue’s guess was eighty percent correct. He was too lazy to reject the man in person. After all, when Zen Dream did not receive the new friend notification or mail reply, he would get the hint.
Then, Feng Bujue clicked open the system mail. This mail though had good news. The title of the mail was ’Compensation letter to Feng Bujue’.
He clicked open the letter and was surprised by how long it was. It almost went onto a second page.
It started with the expected perfunctory words, and it was clear that this was a standardized beginning.
“Dear valued player, the error in the scenario caused you many problems…”
It went on for about three hundred words before it arrived at more valuable content. Essentially, it said… since the earlier scenario had forced the players to abandon the scenario, there would be necessary compensation.
“Due to the limitation to the EXP and Game Coins reward system, unfortunately, you are still unable to obtain the respective rewards from said scenario. However, we will compensate you by doubling the promised reward for clearing the scenario. You can draw two random learnable skill cards.”
Even though the letter ended by saying that he could contact customer support with any questions, Feng Bujue understood that if he pushed any further, it would not end up a happy ending for him. Furthermore, this was good compensation already. If he was too greedy, he might lose even this.
For the earlier scenario, the plot was stuck because the sequence of events was broken, and the scenario did not get stuck after the players had already completed the condition to clear the scenario. The essential difference between the two was, in the former, it was still an unknown whether the players could clear the scenario or not. Even if everything went smoothly, no one could guarantee that they would clear the scenario successfully.
Skill cards were rare during the early and middle parts of the game. Feng Bujue believed that the people from Regulation would have accepted it easily. After all, they did not lose much, just the time spent playing a scenario. Feng Bujue had broken so much equipment, returning to the state that he was on the first day of the open beta.
After reading the mail, Feng Bujue did not hurry to his storage. He went to the market first to sell the bullets in his pocket. The magazine that was purchased with seven hundred Game Coins was sold for only eighty-five Game Coins; Feng Bujue wondered how the price calculated…
He purchased another three Life Point Recovery Potions (M). Then he hurried to the storage. He found two new glass tubes inside. He walked forward and retrieved the two Skill Cards and studied them.
———
Name: Wicked King Immolation Black Dragon Wave
Skill Card Property: Active, Single-use.
Skill School: Sorcery
Effect: Unleash the black dragon to consume both you and your enemy.
Consumption: One hundred percent of the user’s Life Points.
Learning Requirement: Sorcery Mastery E
Remark: To eat or be eaten… this problem has been solved.
———
“How is it solved‽ You’ve been eaten, right?” Feng Bujue’s grumbled. His Sorcery level did improve by a level after completing the previous scenario. This skill was clearly a kamikaze skill. As a single-use skill, its usage required the player to sacrifice all their Life Points. In other words, whether or not the enemy survived after its use, the player themself would definitely be dead.
And the second skill card was an extremely valuable passive skill card, but the effect was rather curious.
———
Name: The Persistence of the Ice Chemist
Skill Card Type: Passive, Permanent
Skill School: Workmanship
Effect: The success rate of all active skills increases by ten percent.
Learning Requirement: Workmanship D
Remark: Mr. W. W. always tell us, even if you are creating ’ice’, out of respect to chemistry, even a fly is not allowed inside the lab.
———
“Isn’t this a reference to Walter White‽ What is this ice chemist nonsense? And what is the skill hinting at!”
As Feng Bujue complained about the skill remark, he wasted no time equipping the skill.