The people outside only waited for a minute before they saw the whole police station light up. They looked at each other, and several seconds later, Feng Bujue walked out from the hole. “I found the power switch for the emergency power source. The station appears to have an isolated power supply.”
This was definitely good news, and the five immediately jumped through the hole into the station. After the place was lit up, the scene inside was still quite scary. Other than the ceiling, which had survived most of the damage, almost all the desks, tables, chairs, computers, and water coolers were tipped over. There were what looked like wooden chips from broken doors and empty door frames. There was a huge blockage stuck behind the entrance, so even with a key, they would not have gained entry.
On the first floor, there were three dead bodies. The body that Feng Bujue had found earlier was closest to the entrance. They ventured deeper and found two more dead bodies in police outfits; they were both Caucasian males. The second body was slightly large. His large belly had a gash on the side, and the intestines had been pulled out a distance away. How long the intestines were… well, put it this way, you could use it to hang yourself. The third body was average size, and there was a crack on his left shoulder. The shoulder blade was shattered, and the wound extended to the left side of his chest. The heart that was supposed to be inside was missing.
The game was surprisingly authentic in recreating these scenes, but at least it would limit the players’ gag reflex. This was mainly done through the nervous connection system to tweak the players’ sense of smell and taste so that the players would not hurl during the gaming process.
Wang Tanzhi was unfazed by this; he had already conducted plenty of autopsies in real life. Of course, this had nothing to do with courage; he had merely gotten used to it. As long as it was not a mobile dead body, even if the thing was disemboweled, he would not be afraid. However, if it was anything else like a ghost, ghoul, or even darkness, the man would be spooked. In fact, he acted no different from a young girl when he watched horror movies.
On a side note, when a young girl had a big reaction when she watched a horror movie, that did not necessarily mean that she was afraid. It could be a scam; perhaps they would be afraid of stuff in real life, but it definitely did not extend to horror movies. Like when a young couple was watching a scary movie, the guy would usually have an unfazed expression while the girl would look scared. One would make jokes to loosen the mood while the other might scream once in a while. These kinds of things happened daily, and most of the time, it was the guy putting on a brave front and the girl acting. In reality, they both might have the same terror tolerance.
That being said, a man who did not pretend to be brave would not look cute, and a girl who did not act cute was too brave. For the world to continue working, please keep up the good work.
Back to the story and the three dead bodies. The body that Feng Bujue had searched earlier had nothing useable left. The one with the open stomach had a police baton and handcuffs. Taking a closer look, the handcuffs were cracked, and he did not have the key on his body.
The baton was given to Mr. Loneliest. Even though it was a normal quality weapon, it did not have any equip requirements, and it was better than the man fighting using his fists.
The third body was found inside a tiny cubicle, one that felt like a janitor’s closet. They found nothing on him. Just as Feng Bujue was considering stripping the man down to check for tattoos and so on, Wang Tanzhi finally found a piece of water in his pocket. This was a clue to solve the puzzle, so naturally, it was given a great importance.
———
Item Name: Paper Note with Numbers Written on It
Item Type: Plot Item
Quality: Normal
Function: Unknown
Can be taken out of the scenario: No
Remark: 69185
———
Other than those five Arabic numbers, there was nothing else. Feng Bujue looked at the item attribute for a few seconds and then threw it away.
“Hey! Brother Jue, is it really okay to just dump this?” Wang Tanzhi asked.
Feng Bujue took out the ring of keys that he had found earlier and looked through them individually. “69185… 69185… Found it!”
He picked out the key that was engraved with these five numbers and pulled it out from the ring. Then he tossed the rest, only keeping this one, adding, “Hmm… This should be the only one we need.”
When he held the singular key in his hand, a new item attribute popped up on the menu.
———
Item Name: The Key of Fire
Item Type: Plot Item
Quality: Excellent
Function: Used in Fire Seals
Can be taken out of the scenario: No
Remark: A key with magical energy, one of the five keys for the Demonic Door.
———
“This should be one of the plot items required for the main quest,” Feng Bujue explained. “If we skipped this police station, after reaching the Demonic Door, there would be some side quests to lead us here.”
“That’s great news. This means we’ve saved some time, doesn’t it?” Wang Tanzhi said.
“Time…” Feng Bujue answered. “I guess so… Then again, the remark on the item mentions that there are five keys in total. Based on the system… after we reach the Demonic Door, the subsequent quest will likely require us to collect all five keys to close or open the door.”
Long Aomin walked over from the other side of the corridor, saying, “The stairs going upstairs have been completely ruined. We won’t be able to go up.”
“That’s to be expected…” Feng Bujue handed him the key and allowed him to look at its attributes. “The thing we’re looking for is on the first floor.”
The young couple seemed to have found something. They discovered a medic kit in a certain room, and they carried it with them. Opening it, there was a roll of bandages and two vials of clear liquid. These were consumables. The function of the bandage was to stop bleeding, and the two vials were standard Health Potions given by Thriller Paradise.
———
Item Name: Life Points Recovery Potion (Large) x2
Item Type: Consumable
Quality: Normal
Function: Recover one hundred percent of a player’s Life Points.
Can be taken out of the scenario: Yes
Remark: Stack up to five. Consecutive use of this item will lower its effectiveness.
———
Feng Bujue understood the purpose immediately once he saw the remark. Limiting the stack number was to prevent players from bringing too many potions into a scenario. Since a backpack only had ten slots, even if there might be a bigger one in the future, one had to leave space for equipment and other items. The limit on consecutive uses was to prevent players from having an overreliance on these potions.
“Very good. If one full vial recovers one hundred percent…” Feng Bujue took out his single-use syringe and handed it to Wang Tanzhi. “Doctor, we’ll leave this to you.”
Wang Tanzhi was a smart guy, he understood Feng Bujue’s meaning instantly. He picked up one of the vials and sucked out about eighty percent of its volume and then signaled for Long Aomin to roll up his sleeves.
When Doctor Wang was administering the shot, Long Aomin handed the key back to Feng Bujue. “What is the meaning of the number 69185?”
“It’s a simple puzzle,” Feng Bujue answered. “Using the English alphabet, 6F, 9I, 18R, 5E, Fire.”
Even though the explanation was simple, Long Aomin did not think that he would have figured it out on his own.
Wang Tanzhi completed the shot. The shot recovered eighty-three percent of Long Aomin’s Life Points, meaning that his Life Points had risen up to ninety-five percent.
As for the remaining seventeen percent inside the vial, Wang Tanzhi first turned to ask whether Mr. Loneliest and Ms. Saddest had suffered any wounds. Both of them explained that their Life Points were full, so Wang Tanzhi tipped the vial back and recovered his Life Points back to 100%.
Why did they not share the vial and take turns to drink from it? The reason was… the moment the players did the ’drinking’ motion, the item would instantly disappear.
As the most common Health Potion, it was one of the main products on sale at the game’s Trading Post. It looked different from the realistic items in the scenario; this was an item made specifically for the game. As long as the player made a ’drinking’ motion, even if it was just a sip, the system would categorize that as a full consumption. There would not be a sense of water sliding down the throat, and the vial would disappear instantly. This was to be ’used’ by players, not for them to quench thirst or counter hunger, so it had this setting.
Feng Bujue had gotten lucky with the syringe, and only Feng Bujue, someone who was familiar with the game system, would realize that. Wang Tanzhi and Long Aomin actually did not understand the purpose of their actions; they were simply following Feng Bujue’s orders. It was not until they finished the scenario and read the game manual that they understood the reason.
From the system’s perspective, this was not viewed as a bug and even awarded Wang Tanzhi some Skill Points. Since the syringe disappeared after one use, the player had technically gained something from using something. One gain and one loss, it did not come from nowhere.
“One police baton, one pistol, one plot item, two health potions, and an item to stop the bleeding status,” Feng Bujue murmured. “After taking the quest to come kill the zombie, one might suffer from bleeding, so the bandage and the health potions are very necessary. The plot item has to be here… but there are only two weapons to kill something like that? It feels so little…”
Feng Bujue lowered his head, with his right hand on his chest and his left hand supporting his right elbow. “I thought we would be able to find a room with weapons like we see in military movies or some confiscated steroids…”
“Hey, what are you talking about? Even virtual drugs and sex services are banned by the system!” Wang Tanzhi said.
“That’s right!” Feng Bujue’s eyes shone. “The fatty has been disemboweled, so why is his stomach still so engorged? There has to be something inside!”