So-called strategists would choose not to battle when they knew that they were at a disadvantage, but in a situation where they were cornered, they would not hesitate and push everything against the enemy. Seeing their teammate being flung away, Ambitionist, Autumn Zither, and Weighty Words naturally stood up. They assumed their positions and prepared to face the enemy.
“Want to fight me?” Red Riding Hood turned back, and her gaze scorched the other three. “Humph… Have you decided on giving up your lives?”
“Don’t fight!” Feng Bujue shouted from the distance. “I’m fine!”
With the halting shout from Brother Jue, the three who prepared to launch forward with everything held back.
“Little Red, you will not kill us.” Feng Bujue stood up shakily. “We are your boss’ guests. You won’t kill us…”
Red Riding Hood was silent for a few seconds and looked at Feng Bujue from afar. She scoffed. “And how did you come to that conclusion?”
“We, or the travelers from another world in your perspective, have to follow certain rules during this kind of short trip.” Feng Bujue tried to explain in words that could be understood by NPCs. “And you… are too powerful. If we fight you, the chance of surviving is zero, absolute zero, zilch”
He repeated that a lot; it was meant for his teammates. As someone with Soul’s Eye, Feng Bujue could clearly see the difference in power level, and against Little Red Riding Hood, they had no chance of winning. Even the bunch of superheroes from Gotham would be no match for this little girl.
“Our journey will not end in this kind of sure death situation,” Feng Bujue concluded, rubbing his aching spine. “So, I believe that you don’t want to or cannot kill us. You reigned in your strength when you flung me away. Even if I didn’t do anything, I wouldn’t have died. I would at most be closely dead.”
Little Red Riding Hood’s face did not change much when she listened to Feng Bujue, but her murderous aura did disappear.
“I know you are angry… and I deserve what I got,” Feng Bujue said, “but… since things have reached this stage, I’d advise you go after the werewolf as soon as possible. The few of us will go to the seventh floor to meet the boss. Everyone has their own goal to accomplish. If you feel that is not enough in the future, you can always come back to kill me.”
“Hmm…” Little Red Riding Hood thought for a moment before morphing into a red flash and materializing before Feng Bujue. She walked on the swamp like it was cement and soon appeared before Brother Jue. “Courageous, but you are not wrong.”
She agreed with Feng Bujue on the surface, but the mace in her hand still swung without mercy.
“But I don’t like having commands barked at me, even if that person is the boss.” Red Riding Hood yanked the bloody mace right out from Feng Bujue’s knee and swung it above her shoulder. She smiled wickedly. “So, this is your extra punishment.”
Seeing the pain on Feng Bujue’s face, she nodded with satisfaction and turned to leave. When she passed the other three, they did not dare even breathe and waited quietly for her to pass. No one spoke, and no one lifted their eyes…
It was not until Little Red Riding Hood walked into the elevator and the doors closed that Autumn Zither dared to raise his voice to say, “Are you alright, Brother Feng?”
“What do you think?” Feng Bujue replied. “Since I didn’t morph into white light, it means that I’m still alive.”
“We know that,” Ambitionist said. “We just worried that you got the bleeding debuff.”
His concern was crucial because their inventory was sealed. If Feng Bujue had the bleeding status and could not stop that, he would eventually die.
“It’s fine. I only got the broken bone status. The Life Points won’t continue to drop,” Feng Bujue explained. “I only have eight percent of my Life Points, so I need to make sure I don’t suffer any more injury.”
“Eight percent is very dangerous,” Weighty Words said. “The recovery rate for this kind of injury is very slow. If there is no item to neutralize this status, the broken bone status might accompany you until the end of the scenario.”
“You have a point, so I might have to ask the three of you to carry me for the rest of the journey.” Feng Bujue was obviously borrowing this situation.
“Oh, when I was picked up by Little Red earlier, I dropped the broom.” He pointed at a spot not far from them, “Don’t forget about it.”
Ten minutes later…
The four walked through the swamp and successfully entered the wall through the stone steps. It was the relatively muscular Weighty Words who was nominated to carry Brother Jue. They walked in the middle of the group. Autumn Zither led the way with the broom, and Ambitionist closed up the group. The stone steps were longer than they expected. It kept growing ahead, and the slope kept getting steeper and the road narrower. After another ten minutes, they reached a place with a high altitude. Looking down, there was only fog. Beneath the fog, the paper moon shone, creating a dreamlike illusion.
“Don’t drop me no matter what.” Feng Bujue put on the witch’s hat and purposely spoke in a senile voice. “For an old bag of bones like me, I’ll shatter like glass.”
“I do wish to throw you down the cliff, but the system won’t allow me to,” Weighty Words said.
“Ah… Years ago, when I challenged the Fire Demon alone, I fell from the cliff.” Feng Bujue pushed the hat on his head. “After that battle, I advanced from my gray cape to a white cape.”
“So, now we’re talking about Gandalf…” Ambitionist said. “You sure can draw inspiration from anything.”
“Hey! We seem to have reached the end already.” At the front, Autumn Zither cut through their chat. They turned up to look, and before them, about two hundred meters away, was the end of the stone steps. It was shrouded in a pool of grayish-green clouds. The clouds formed a circle, and there was some sound coming from the clouds. It sounded like running water…
The players hurried their steps until they reached the end and stepped onto a slate of smooth stone. There, they saw another surprising scene. Inside the cloud ring above them, there was a waterfall, and it was flowing backward. The rushing water ignored the law of gravity and was falling upward. Standing under this ring of clouds, one would have the sensation of being dangled upside down in the air.
Weighty Words put Feng Bujue down. The latter stood on one leg and had his hands on his hips. He lifted his head and said, “What is everyone’s opinion?”
“Hmm…” Ambitionist was silent for a few seconds before saying, “I have a plan. The three of us can work together to toss Brother Feng up there.”
“Oh! Marvelous plan!” Autumn Zither agreed immediately.
Weighty Words also scratched his chin and said, “As long as Brother Feng’s status is not dead in the team tab after a few minutes, it means that this path is safe and can safely send us up to the seventh floor.”
“Hmm… That is a good plan.” Facing the three’s evil calculations, Feng Bujue accepted it with ease. “My leg is injured. It’s too hard to me to leap on my own. If I miss and fall from this height into the swamp, I will definitely die.”
Then he took off the hat and passed it to Weighty Words. “For the sake of insurance, keep the plot item for me. After throwing me up there, wait three minutes. If my death notification doesn’t come, come up one after another.”
Ambitionist was surprised by how cooperative Feng Bujue was. Actually, he was semi-joking when he gave his plan but the target agreed so easily. Since the plan was made, after discussing some details, they put it into action. Weighty Words, Ambitionist, and Autumn Zither stood in position and held Feng Bujue. They aimed him upright and tossed him headfirst into the swirl of clouds.
Once his body touched the inverted waterfall, Feng Bujue felt blood rush from the bottom of his feet to his head. Gravity seemed to have inversed in that moment, and he ’dropped’ into the water. As mentioned before… Brother Jue did not know how to swim. Of course, in such rapids, it did not make a difference.
Feng Bujue was like something that was flushed down the toilet. He was dragged and pulled along by the water. He could not even open his eyes, and the water pressure pressed around him. But that did not lose him his Life Points. If anything, the cold water temporarily numbed the pain from his left leg. About thirty seconds later, Feng Bujue felt the pressure on him lifting. He leaned against something on his back like he was lying on the ground. He tried to sit up, and this action pushed his upper body above the water surface.
“Hmm?” Feng Bujue opened his eyes, and the bright lights blinded him temporarily. When he saw his surroundings, he showed a rare expression of confusion. He was looking at his own bathroom, and he was lying in his own bathtub.
“What… did I fall asleep while taking a bath?”
So, Brother Jue went offline to take a bath after the Battle of the Cowl and fell asleep while bathing, and everything before this was a dream.
…
But… that was impossible.
This kind of ridiculous plot of ’everything was just a dream’… Feng Bujue refused to accept it.
…
“Current quest updated. Main quest completed,” the system announced.
Feng Bujue lowered his head to look and realized that he was still wearing his Joker outfit, and then he understood everything. Taking a deep breath, he crawled out from the tub and inspected the game menu. In the team tab, the names of his teammates were still all there, and they were all alive.
In the mission tab, “All surviving players enter the Detective Club” had not been ticked, but under it, a new quest had appeared.
“Escape the memory space and return to the ’experiment zone’ seventh floor.”
Other than that, there was another important change. The items in his inventory could be used again.