The two holes were circular and had irregular edges. Feng Bujue raised the lamp to study it. He noticed that there was a pillow-size space inside the wall, it was empty, but something seemed to be written on the layer of wood behind the wall. He used the wrench to knock away the wooden planks between the two holes to create one large hole. He pushed the lamp and then his own head in, but he still could see the words clearly. Only the topmost words were translated. It was a curse. The few sentences between it were as small as ants, and they looked like squiggly lines.
Feng Bujue understood that this was the place to use the magnifying glass. He pulled his head back from the hole. He used the magnifying glass to scan at the content. As he expected, he could see the translation of the words in his menu even if his eyes were so far away from the words themselves.
“Hakuna Matata!
“Ain’t no passing craze
“It means no worries
“For the rest of your days
“Yeah, sing it, kid!
“It’s our problem-free philosophy
“Hakuna Matata!”
There was a remark at the end of these lines. “A miraculous ancient African saying, will work every time.”
Feng Bujue finished reading the content and then slammed the magnifying glass onto the ground. “Are you kidding me! Miraculous your head! Have you lost your mind to put something like this in such a dark and fantastical setting? And what does it have to do with Africa? Are you seriously telling me that it was a blockage created by a curse and you actually need me to solve it using an African saying?
“And what does it have to do with the scenario earlier? If I kept the door closed, how would I have received this hint? Would I open the door to a boar and a mongoose singing? What kind of setting is this? The scenario is so blindingly dull, the sound effects are bizarrely loud, and there is a sh*t like smell everywhere… The world’s setting is unknown, there are strange setups everywhere, and the puzzles are maddening. The rules change to the creator’s whim, and the hints are getting crazier and crazier!”
He roared and then took a long time to catch his breath. He cursed a lot. It seemed like Hakuna Matata had left a deep impression on him…
Ten minutes later, he calmed down again. He picked up his stuff and returned to the staircase and repeated the saying that he was shown. The magic circle flickered, and then came the sound of glass shattered. Several seconds later, this wall made up from meat collapsed like an avalanche…
Feng Bujue thought that after the spell was lifted, the meat wall would disappear into thin air. He did not expect this to happen. This surprised him as he was buried under the mountain of flesh. “Motherf*cker!”
He crawled out. He was lucky that his face was guarded, or else just the disgusting smell alone would have push him into another rampage.
Regardless, the path to the second floor had opened, and that was progress. Feng Bujue adjusted his emotions. Humming the ’spell’ on his lips, he walked up the stairs. The layout of the second floor was slightly different from the ground floor. The area right above the foyer was a row of rooms while the rest looked the same. All the doors were closed. Feng Bujue was not in a hurry to explore. He followed the trail of blood on the ground to see where the synthetic creature from earlier had gone. He ended up before the room that was right above the ground floor foyer.
The appearance of this door was different from the other doors. The two door panels were metallic. Even an outsider could tell that this was an expensive metal; it was completely different to the cheap-looking and rusted steel doors in the basement. The door was more than 2.5 meters tall, and the upper edge of the door was close to the ceiling. The width was about as wide as the corridor itself.
“Hmm… This kind of size… is in consideration of the movement of the monster,” Feng Bujue said as he reached out to pull at the door handle. “Should have known it wouldn’t open.”
He had guessed that. One would enter this kind of room in the later part of the game. So, he returned to the staircase and started his search with the room closest to the staircase.
Feng Bujue was not under the effect of Death Warning, so there was a chance he might be killed once he opened the door. Thus, he opened the door carefully. He took out the iron rod from his inventory and used it check for traps. After doing all that, he raised the lamp and walked into it.
It was a bedroom, and it looked surprisingly clean. The bed was well made, and the sheets were folded. There was a photo frame on the bedside table, and two closets sat by the wall. Similar to ground floor, the windows were closed, and there was only darkness outside. There was a small flowerpot on the windowsill, which had nothing but soil. There were two rational explanations for this. First, the plant had decomposed; second, the plant had mutated into some kind of creature and walked out.
Feng Bujue walked to the bed and picked up the frame. In the photo frame was another faded picture. This time, there were three of them, two young boys about fifteen and a mother about forty. Like in the study, Feng Bujue looked at the picture for several seconds and a cinematic appeared.
There was lightning outside the window. It was a thundering night. Just inside this room, a young man with brown hair sat on the chair beside the bed. A woman was lying in bed. Her face was pale, and her eyes were sunken. The two held each other’s hands, and there were tears in the woman’s eyes.
“Arthur… there is something I have to tell you…”
“I know,” Arthur replied. “I am from the Xin clan. I am… adopted…”
After hearing that, the woman was silent for a few seconds. “No, you are my son. Even if I didn’t give birth to you…”
“Mom, of course, there is no need for you to say that. Of course, I am your son. I will always be your son.” Arthur gripped his mother’s hand.
“You are very clever and strong. I don’t need to worry about you. You will always take care of yourself.” The mother sighed. “But your little brother, he’s too kind and weak. He…”
“Don’t worry, mom, he is my only brother,” Arthur interrupted. “I will take good care of him.”
He lowered his head as he sank into sadness.
Lightning flashed once more. At that moment, the video gave Arthur’s side profile a close-up.
The young man was smiling…