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Chapter 2: Novice Tutorial (I)

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The unforeseeable event that just happened for a few seconds could be considered this game’s way of starting the tutorial as well as a greeting to new players.

For normal people, they would be alarmed if they were in an environment that suddenly turned dark without any prior warning. They would also definitely feel fear in their hearts as they listen to the absolutely horrifying voice. At this moment, the elevator abruptly started to sink. Although this feeling of dropping only lasted for a split second, it was enough for their heartbeats to speed up, scaring them.

However, Feng Bujue wasn’t affected. Calm and composed, he didn’t react even the slightest……

After the elevator shook, it started to move down at a normal speed and right before Feng’s eyes, the game menu automatically opened.

The game menu would only appear in of the player’s vision and couldn’t be seen by the surroundings. When reading the menu, it also was not viewable to the public. Even if there was another player standing next to you, they wouldn’t be able to tell if you were looking through your menu options, or if you were just standing around daydreaming.

At the moment, there wasn’t any notification sound from the system, but Feng Bujue could see a message in the menu: 【You can open this menu at any time. Your character’s Property, status, equipment, and items can be checked here.】

Feng Bujue saw that most of the regions within the menu were still covered by shadows. The section in the upper left hand corner of the menu did not light up until those words disappeared. Three rectangles appeared there, having an appearance similar to to a health bar.

An arrow symbol appeared, pointing at the first bar that was full of green energy. Immediately after that, subtitles began to appear: 【This is your Health, shown as a percentage. Specific values are not visible. When your Health hits 0%, you will be considered dead. Current Health: 100%. Abnormal Statuses: None. 】

The arrow symbol then moved to point at the second bar that was full of the same green energy, but this time what appeared wasn’t percentages, but actual values. 【This is your Stamina, specific values are visible. Running, walking for long distances, carrying heavy items, fighting, and using skills will all decrease the value. Can recover values through rest. Current Stamina: 100/100. 】

The third energy bar was empty though, and it was the one Feng Bujue’s was most interested in. 【This is your Terror Value, shown as percentages. Specific values are not visible. When the Terror Value surpasses 100% for over three seconds, your connection to the game will be forcefully disconnected, and you will be considered dead. Current Terror Value: 0%】

Because he had read through the basic settings beforehand online, he only took a quick glance at this information. He had originally thought that certain areas of the menu would be unlocked by now as well, but only around 10 seconds later, his menu automatically closed. He once again called up his menu, but the sections covered with shadows before had not changed.

Obviously, this novice tutorial was definitely not simply standing in the dark elevator to look at some words and familiarize oneself with the interface. Otherwise, before entering it, the system wouldn’t be presenting the assumption that it could cause “the Terror Value to be too high”.

As expected, the elevator soon stopped. Surrounded by only darkness, Feng Bujue could only hear his own breathing.

Suddenly, a light flickered for a second. However, it was really only for a second, and immediately, the state of utter darkness was restored.

Within just that second, Feng Bujue’s eyes were left with a scene that was enough to make a person jump up and cry out in fear.

Everyone should still remember that this elevator had a mirror on one of its sides. Just now, when the light had flickered on for just a second, Feng Bujue had actually seen two human figures in that mirror.

One of the figures was very obviously him. As for the other….although he had only glanced at it, Feng Bujue could pretty much ascertain that it had been an upright life form completely covered in bloodstains.

Simply staying in the darkness forever would have been fine, but purposely giving people such a glimpse was worse than not seeing anything at all.

If it were anyone else, they would have shouted out ages ago; if they hadn’t retreated to cower in the elevator’s corner, then they would’ve frantically tried to brandish a fist or try to strike the location that they had seen the blood figure stand in.

Yet Feng Bujue simply stood in his original position expressionlessly, thinking aloud to himself. “En…since this is a tutorial, then it is unlikely that they would try to throw the player into a situation that forced them to death right at the beginning. At most, they would try to decrease my Health a bit or try to scare me off. There will probably be some kind of change next to continue the game.”

At this point, a stream of light actually shone into the elevator, and it rapidly expanded. The elevator’s doors automatically opened, and a ** rotting odor assaulted his sense of smell. A straight corridor was outside, with a wooden ceiling and wallpaper stuck on each wall. The wallpaper had strange decorative designs that resembled human eyes; the floor was covered with a green carpet, and the corridor was completely devoid of windows. There were also no doors along the corridor, and there were lamps evenly spaced along the walls that emitted faint yellow glow.

The corridor appeared to be very long, and the wall lamps located in the distance appeared very small, as if they were grains of yellow lights, but they weren’t even 20 meters away. The further areas were shrouded in shadows and could only be seen clearly if he advanced.

Normal people probably would’ve turned around and rushed out of the elevator before its doors had even completely opened. However, Feng Bujue was in no rush. In his opinion, this secluded path was not necessarily any safer than the elevator. Since it was no longer completely dark, he wanted to turn around to clearly inspect what the figure beside him had been.

In the end, when Feng Bujue turned around, he only saw ten bloody fingers tipped with hooked claws shooting out to attack his face. He pulled his head back to dodge, and slightly ducked down as he rushed out of the elevator. When he looked back again, he finally saw the figure’s complete appearance.

That was a skinless Blood Corpse that looked pretty much like the muscles models from health rooms, except that this one was alive, and its whole body was still bleeding.

As elevator door was slowly closing, the Blood Corpse gave a crooked smile, his eyes staring at Feng Bujue. Just as the door was about to close, he reached out a hand, and squeezed himself out.

“As a general idea, I should run away……” Feng Bujue thought: “But it’s not as if this guy looks like he’s super strong. Should I try fighting……”

At this time, the Blood Corpse just happened to walk out of the elevator and immediately let out an imposing roar. With a wave of its hand toward the corridor wall, it hammered the wall once, and the thick wallpaper shattered. After it was shattered, large amounts of cockroaches appeared in a “flooding” manner from the shattered wall.

“You win.” Feng Bujue took one look, turned tail and ran.

Since it was a novice tutorial, it naturally was supposed to entice the players to continue playing; killing the players off was not its objective. The Blood Corpse’s movements were actually just wasting time; it was obvious that it was for the sake of allowing the player to run a bit further away. However, the system had also considered other possibilities, such as the player being scared witless and thus was unable to move, or the player trying to attack it from behind after seeing the Blood Corpse in a lit up area. Under such circûmstances, the Blood Corpse’s movements allowed the people scared witless to frantically try to escape for their lives, and also get rid of any desires to battle from the unyielding players.

Of course, if the player was so scared that they couldn’t stand back up, or if the player really wanted to take a reckless risk, then it would most likely be GAMEOVER. The player would have to restart with a new, random novice tutorial scenario.

“First of all, I probably can’t break past the walls; secondly, even if I broke them there is no way out and thirdly, I will definitely die if I fought with that monster, very good……” Feng Bujue silently organized and affirmed the situation in his heart. It seems like he didn’t have too many choices in this novice tutorial.

After a fairly long distance, Feng Bujue saw that at the end of the corridor, there was an extremely sturdy wooden door.

He turned the doorknob, actually opening the door! Despite not spending any time contemplating about whether or not the other side of the door was without dangers, he had to enter anyways; since the Blood Corpse was not far behind him, he couldn’t delay any longer. At that moment, Feng Bujue realized that running as soon as the elevator doors had opened was the normal choice of action. Because he had loitered around for a bit, his actions were currently extremely rushed on time.

In a flash, he entered the room and closed the door. He discovered that behind the door was actually a rod used to bar the door shut. Feng Bujue did so without any hesitation, and at the same time, something outside began to pound against the door.

Feng Bujue ignored it and turned around to survey his surroundings. This square room was about 16 square meters in size and had absolutely no furnishings within. The only thing there was a wall light, two doors, with one of them being pounded on by the Blood Corpse. The other door was on the opposite wall of the room.

He walked up to the only door that had a chance of letting him flee and tried to pull the door knob. However, he discovered that it was actually locked. He tried kicking the lock, which helped slightly, but the strength of his kick was not enough. Most likely, he had to exert all of his strength a few more times until there would be any results.

The next second, the game menu suddenly appeared in front of his eyes. That section previous covered by shadows had been unlocked, and it showed a single number. However, that number was currently 0: 【These are your Skill Points, the exact number can be seen. The Skill Points can be used as currency and can accûmulate based on your character’s actions. Any action that can raise game efficiency will be awarded Skill Points. Current Skill Points: 0 】

“Giving a notification about Skill Points now means that there must be some shortcut I can choose….” At this time, Feng Bujie noticed the Terror Value on his menu was still 0%; it hadn’t changed at all.

He sighed and looked back at the door that was currently being pounded on. The metal bar had already begun to deform; it looked like it wouldn’t hold on for much longer. Under the pressure from the fact that the monster could rush in and kill one at any moment, most people wouldn’t be as calm as Feng Bujue currently was.

Feng Bujue re-examined the room. This empty room really did have a hint. On the high section of one of the walls, a corner of wallpaper was flipped over slightly. It wasn’t very obvious, but if one inspected in detail, it couldn’t be overlooked. Feng Bujie stood on his tiptoes and reached his hand out to grab that corner. He ripped the wallpaper down, and discovered that behind it was a wooden plank that had symbol drawn in blood on it. The symbol appeared to be a circle with a “卜” shape connected to it. Most likely, it was a picture of a key.

At this moment, he heard a roar behind him, accompanied with the sound of splintering wood. Feng Bujue turned around and noticed that one of the Blood Corpse’s claws had already pierced through the door, and it was currently violently swinging it around in the air randomly through the bowl-sized hole it had made. He wondered if its intelligence was enough for it to be able to touch the door bar and tear the door open.

In this type of situation, one could tell that the Blood Corpse would definitely charge in soon. No matter if it was solving a riddle, or kicking the other door open, either action was fine; he was running out of time.

Feng Bujue quickly used his elbow to smack the symbol drawn on the plank. Although he felt some actual pain, that plank was actually pretty fragile, and broke with a single elbow. He had thought that a ton of insects would crawl out, but nothing happened; all that arose was some dust. Behind that plank was a narrow space, and lying within it was a key.

When Feng Bujue picked up the key, the game menu appears and a part of the shadows was unlocked: 【You obtained an Item, but because the Storage and Equipment Column has not been unlocked, you may only keep it in your hand or discard it.】

Then, he looked in the menu and found the new item in the display for Items:

【Name: Rusty Iron Key】

【Type: Consumable】

【Quality: Common】

【Function: Opens door locks】

【Can it be taken out of the scenario?: No】

【Remark: I think you know what to do.】

Feng Bujue felt that this item’s Note was full of malice, but he didn’t have the time to think about it. After glancing at the item’s details, he closed the menu window and ran over to the locked door. The key disappeared once the door was opened and at the same time, the system prompt sound was played: 【You obtained Skill Points, 30 points. This prompt will only appear once. In the future, the changes in your Skill Points can be viewed in your Game Menu.】

Feng Bujue didn’t care about the things that couldn’t be used at the moment and instead continued forward. Behind the door was a set of stone stairs that went upwards, flanked by stone walls. The night sky could also be seen since there wasn’t a ceiling, and moonlight shone on the steps, making them as bright as snow. But he was also unable to escape from the top due to the high stone walls that were sleek and smooth and were also over two meters apart, clearly there to prevent him from climbing over.

Going leisurely up the stairs and then running for a distance, Feng Bujue took a glance at his Stamina to find out that it has been reduced to 24/100. He calculated in his mind. After he had left the elevator, he had run for several hundred meters, kicked a door, hit a wall and now these steps, all these actions have unexpectedly used up three-fourths of his Stamina. This rate of consumption was far more than he had expected. His Health was also at 98%. It seems like that elbow attack he had used on the wall has been determined by the system as damage.

Behind him, the Blood Corpse had also broken through the door about five seconds after Feng Bujue had unlocked the door, chasing after him relentlessly with intentions to kill. At this moment, it had also started to laugh maliciously, the sound was like an echo in the ears, incomparably horrifying. But Feng Bujue felt nothing against this level of disturbance.

At the end of the steps was a hillside and an enormous sword was stuck in it. Under the moonlight, the sword gave off a cold aura and when it appeared in Feng Bujue’s line of sight, the Blood Corpse seemed to have gained some kind of awareness and sped up like crazy. The original distance of a dozen meters between them was instantly closed.

Feng Bujue at this point was really trying frantically to escape. He didn’t want to be killed after making it all the way here near the completion of the scenario. Stumbling along, he arrived at the sword. With both hands, he gripped the handle and to his surprise, was able to pull it out easily. So apparently, it was not as heavy as it looks.

Turning around, the Blood Corpse came nearer, its mournful wailing piercing his eardrums as a pair of claws was aimed at his head.

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