“Indeed.” Suddenly, Aldan materialized behind Feng Bujue.
“At this point, I don’t mind being open with you,” Billy said. “If you refuse to cooperate, you’ll die from the poison, causing the scenario to fail. I know that is not such a big loss for a traveler from another dimension like yourself, but that is an ending that you’d prefer to avoid.”
“Then, what about Ravid?” Feng Bujue asked. “I killed your partner, and you’re just going to let me go just like that?”
“There’s no need to worry about that; you didn’t really kill him,” Billy answered. “That gun is merely an extension of my power over time and space. When you pulled the trigger, I changed its properties. That bullet wouldn’t kill Ravid.”
“But it was incredibly painful,” another voice said. Feng Bujue turned his head to the voice, and it came from the second prison cell. Even though Ravid’s body was still on the ground, its special speaking voice already rang out in the dark.
“Oh, so that’s why…” Feng Bujue swiveled the chair around and placed both of his feet on the table leisurely. “Let me think about it first. You can make use of this time to tell me something that might arouse my interest.”
“But you don’t have much…” Billy warned.
“It is you all who does not have much time left, right?” Feng Bujue shook his head with a smile as he scanned the menu.
“The ninety-two minute toxin isn’t your doing but a setting decided by a ’higher presence’.” He was referring to the ’system’. “Before ’it’, you are nothing more than a mere thought that can be wiped out easily.”
“So what if that’s true? The presence that you mentioned is a stickler for the rules, more so than the Master of Time. It won’t attempt anything like that without reason,” Aldan said.
“I’m not hinting at the possibility of the presence wiping you out, but… I mean, even you aren’t able to stop that presence from wiping me out,” Feng Bujue said. “At least there is one thing that you can’t lie about—the three of you only have three chemical potions.”
“Yes, the fourth one is with Faust,” Billy replied.
“This Faust… is that the real warden here?” Feng Bujue asked.
“Yes.”
“Then you must be lying to me!” Feng Bujue exposed the puppet. “How could you know whether he possess the fourth potion or not? Don’t tell me that he came in here and revealed that information to you?”
Billy responded with silence. Indeed, he did not know whether Faust had the fourth potion or not; he merely wanted to urge Feng Bujue to remove the threat.
“But… I can’t say that your analysis is not logical because the fourth potion obviously wouldn’t exist in this space, or else it would have fallen into your hands already.” Feng Bujue then turned to ask, “By the way, when did you obtain the potions?”
“Before you entered this space, each of us obtained a potion, the information related to you, and the purpose of the potions,” Aldan answered.
So, Feng Bujue thought, it was a method that directly transplanted the related data in them… Other than that, in the ten short seconds when the scenario was generated for me, it seemed to be a long time for them. When the player is not around, the time in these scenarios seems to travel much faster…
“Let me understand this from the very beginning…” Feng Bujue stretched lazily in the chair. This momentary relaxation was the perfect time to parse through his thoughts. “Before I entered this scenario, you’d already weaved this whole space and come up with the set-up and everything. So, when I appeared, Billy used the speaker at the beginning to communicate with me.
“When I reached the fan-shaped room, you showed me a great performance, the illusion…” At this point, he paused to level Aldan and Billy an inquisitive gaze.
“It was me who created it.” The one who answered him was Ravid inside the second cell.
“Haha… not bad.” Feng Bujue gave a compliment. “Then, I entered the third corridor and ran into Aldan before arriving at the end, where I met Ravid and saw Billy in the cell. The three of us came up with this façade to limit my choice and make it feel like it was me who came up with this decision.
“Then, I entered the second corridor and encountered SCP-173. The person who contained it was…”
“Me,” Billy answered. “After you killed it, it was also me who made the potion appear on the ground.”
“Hmm… not only can you control the space, you can also freely move the objects within it,” Feng Bujue observed. “I have a question—why didn’t you kill SCP-173 directly but chose to contain it?”
“Whenever we kill one of those creatures, twenty-four hours later, another is generated here,” Billy answered. “Every time, they are different, and some of them are very scary.”
With that face, and that voice, he used an injured tone when describing some of these monsters. One could imagine that these monsters used for punishment were indeed quite hard to deal with. “That SCP-173 is one of the better controlled ones. It’s not hard to contain it, much easier than killing it.”
“Yes… Once, they sent in an old man that looked like a dried zombie. He had the ability to create pocket dimensions and teleport. He is immune to basic physical damage, and we couldn’t do anything when he escaped into his pocket dimension. In the end, it was Billy who created a large, complicated, and randomly generated maze to trap him, and we circled around him to kill Faust,” Ravid added.
“That sounds like SCP-106…” Feng Bujue mumbled under his breath, but he did not continue this topic, resuming his earlier narrative. “After I dealt with the threat inside the second corridor, my suspicion of what you said was already very high, but in that situation, I still didn’t want to risk the chance of causing a temporal anomaly or wish to have myself exposed from doing illogical actions, so I followed your arrangement and walked into the fourth corridor.”
Feng Bujue looked at Billy. “And you moved from the cell here to the fourth corridor, where you interacted with me. That game looked difficult, but when I attempted it for real, you made it very easy for me to obtain the potion.”
“Shouldn’t I have done that?” Billy asked.
“Perhaps you’re not wrong.” Feng Bujue shrugged. “If you understand me, then you should know that what you did is beneficial to all of us. By the way, can you remove the petrol and blood off me?”
Just as he finished, a glint flashed across Billy’s eyes, and the discomfort that Feng Bujue felt disappeared instantly. The petrol and blood stuck to his skin evaporated.
“Thank you,” Feng Bujue said politely before continuing. “Based on your arrangement, you wanted me to die inside the pool of petrol after discovering the potion and waste one medal before transporting me back to the front of the corridor. This would appear more realistic in terms of the game’s difficulty, but you didn’t anticipate someone like myself who doesn’t know how to swim managing to get out before the floor closed. Therefore, the time when I ’caught’ you was several minutes earlier than you predicted.
“To maintain the talk of a double timeline, you had no choice but to extend the latter half of the fourth corridor so that I would take eighteen minutes to reach the end.”
“And after you arrived, you purposely didn’t bring up the word, ’chemical potion’ and pretended to be anxious to trick me.” At this point, the light in the second cell came on. Ravid appeared inside it with not a visible wound on its body, and the carcass on the floor seconds earlier had already disappeared.
“I have one more thing to confirm,” Feng Bujue said. “The reason you gave me the medals… was it to prevent me from being killed by SCP-173?”
“Actually,” Billy answered, “as long as you don’t die from the poison, we can revive you as many times as we want. But… if that was the case, you would doubt the nature of the game, and you would definitely study it further.”
“So, you adapted the revival into a believable mechanism and limited its uses before handing it to me.” Feng Bujue nodded. He placed his index finger near his bottom lip and continued. “Okay, I’ve basically understood everything.”
He moved his legs away from the table and sat upright. “I’m sorry that the complicated plan that you’ve come up with has failed, but… I am still able to help you.”
When the three inmates heard that, their bodies froze. They did not have a great range of facial expressions, but if they had human faces, their eyes should be shining about then.
Feng Bujue raised two fingers. “I have two conditions, and if you can fulfil them, I’ll help you.”
“Conditions?” Aldan repeated. He sounded quite surprised.
“Of course. Even though I have not allied with anyone, if I decide to help you, I will have made the Master of Time my enemy,” Feng Bujue said seriously. “The reward should be proportional to the risk I’ve taken. If you do not wish to negotiate with me, I don’t mind. But think about it, who stands more to lose in this situation?”
“Name your conditions.” Billy was obviously the brains of this group. He was the smartest and the most powerful. Since this was a negotiation, he would be the negotiator.
“The first condition.” Feng Bujue’s eyes scanned their faces. “Please tell me honestly, the three of you, or… and I mean no offense, why are you three monsters imprisoned here? Also, what is the deal with this Master of Time?”
“Why would you want to know that?” Billy asked. “Our existence and past shouldn’t mean much to travelers from another dimension, right?”
“Then, there is no reason for you not to tell me,” Feng Bujue replied. “You should be thankful that… my first condition is so easy.”
Billy hesitated for ten seconds. During that period, he communicated with Aldan and Ravid through a method that eluded Feng Bujue. Then he said, “The Master of Time is one of the four Pillars of Divinity. Every territory related to time belongs to him.”
“What are the Four Pillars of Divinity?” Feng Bujue asked.
“The Master of Time rules over the River, the Leader of the Demons lords over the chaotic lands, the King of the Nether Abyss guards the kingdom of the dead, and the Court of Truth judges the sin and evil of all the worlds,” Billy answered. “This is common knowledge among all the worlds. Any slightly powerful monsters would have heard of it.”
“Hmm… continue.” At that moment, like those monsters, Feng Bujue memorized those words.
“All this time,” Billy said, “the four divines have restrained each other, forming a precarious balance. They consciously tried to avoid conflict and discord.
“War is something none of them wish to see because none of them are confident in winning. If two of them got into a war, the stance of the third and fourth Pillars of Divinity would be unknown.
“Even though this prison is under the rule of the Master of Time, the party that judged us was the Court of Truth.
“The core of my power is control over space, Aldan has control over fear, and Ravid has control over illusions. Aldan and I were thrown in here on the account of ’spreading chaos’ while Ravid is in here due to… something else.”
Hearing the unnatural pause, Feng Bujue immediately followed up. “What is it?”
“Er… He and his cousin were originally part of the jury, but they were convicted due to contempt toward the court,” Billy answered.
“Then, where is your cousin? Kept in another prison?” Feng Bujue asked.
“The people of the court wouldn’t be able to catch my cousin even if they wanted to,” Ravid uttered.
“You mean… a rabbit managed to escape from the judgement by the Court of Truth?” Feng Bujue said with a smile.
Ravid shrugged. “My cousin can escape from anyone. He only needed to draw a large black circle on the wall and crawl into it…”
“Haha…” Feng Bujue’s lips twitched as he laughed drily. It was Billy who pulled the topic back. “Before Faust arrived, our warden was indeed Sam Montier. After he betrayed the Master of Time, he released the three of us, and during that period, we encountered each other.”
“Hmm… that was actually only five or six days ago,” Feng Bujue clarified.
“That might be so for you,” Billy said. “Sam Montier wasn’t able to hide for long before he was captured by the Master of Time. He sold us out to escape a death sentence. I heard that he was later exiled to the Island of Devil’s Maw…
“The three of us were thrown back in here. The new warden became Faust, and our term was tripled. The time in this place is uneven, and it moves slower than any place in the world. Perhaps you thought we met five or six days ago, but for me, the recurring nightmare of this prison has lasted for at least a year or longer.”
Feng Bujue digested the information and realized that the time really did line up after comparing it to the events in the strange town and Hunter Isle. The fake general that Feng Bujue had met on Hunter Isle had probably wandered to Island of Devil’s Maw due to some reason and was conscripted under Sam Montier when he was there.
“Okay, sounds like you’re not lying.” Feng Bujue licked his lips and gave his second condition. “Now, my second condition is this.”
He patted his chest and pointed at the gun on the table. “After this is done, I wish to carry the remaining two Contra Medals and the One-Shot-Kill Pistol out of this space with me.”