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Chapter 25: Eerie Cinephile City (IX)
The people that were waiting outside only had to wait for a minute before they saw a light shining from the police station.
Everyone looked towards each other in apprehension, dozens of seconds later, Feng Bujue came out from his previous location, “I’ve found the backup power switch, this police station seems to have a built-in independent power supply.”
This was undoubtedly good news; the five immediately filed through the hole and into the police station.
After it was completely lit up, the scene inside was actually quite alarming. Apart from the ceiling, which hadn’t suffered too much damage, basically all of the office tables, chairs, benches, computers, files, drinking fountains, and other movable objects had been knocked out of place. This place had plenty of split boards and broken wood chips, which likely came from doors, as well as the dozens of damaged door frames. Most of these things were piled up behind the main entrance so there was no for him to open it; even if there was a key, it would still be useless.
On the first floor, there were a total of 3 dead bodies. Earlier, Feng Bujue found the first dead body the one that was nearest to the entrance. After further search, it revealed two more that wore the same uniforms, both were of them were white males. The second corpse was obese, on the side of his fleshy gut a hole had been opened. A long chunk of intestine hung out from the gut, exactly how long… let’s say it like this: you could hang yourself with it. The third corpse was of medium build, on his left shoulder was a gap that cut from the collarbone along to his left chest, the heart inside had already gone missing…
The game’s reconstruction of this kind of nauseating simulation was to an extremely high degree of intensity, but the system would still suppress the player’s urge to vomit. Essentially, during the time the mind was linked up, the sense of smell and taste would both be fine-tuned to prevent the player’s stomach from feeling discomfort.
Wang Tanzhi, contrary to expectations, was indifferent. He had already, in reality, dissected many corpses. Naturally, this had nothing to do with courage, it was just that he was already accustomed to it. As long as the corpse wasn’t moving, whether it was an open chest or gut, both were fine; he would remain unafraid. But any other ghosts, weird spirits, demons, monsters, or even the dark could make him feel terrified. When watching a horror movie or a horror game, his reaction was about the same as a girl’s.
Let me add a footnote: actually, when girls watch a horror movie, even though they have big reactions it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re timid. This is a complete sham. Maybe in real life there would times when they’d be afraid; however, watching a horror movie is another matter entirely. Suppose a young couple sat together and watched a horror movie. The male’s expression would often be completely indifferent and the woman would appear to be very scared; from time to time one would feign light hearted jokes to the other, and from time to time the other would scream. This kind of thing was staged everyday; 80 percent of the time the man was pretending to be brave and the woman was playing at being cute. In fact, the two’s level of fear in regards to the horror movie was about the same and such a large level of difference was quite unlikely.
But I have to say, a guy who doesn’t pretend to be brave is not really cute, and a girl not playing cute is too brave; the world needs this in order to keep working. Everyone, please continue to trying your best.
Let’s return to the main point; back to those three corpses. The corpse that Feng Bujue had searched before naturally had no more items to uncover. The one with the ripped open stomach had a police baton and a set of handcuffs on it. After picking it up for closer inspection, the handcuffs were unexpectedly broken and cuffed on him; and the keys nowhere in sight.
Feng Bujue gave the police baton to Lonely. Although the item was an Ordinary grade equipment, because it had no equipment restrictions and was actually a specialized weapon, it was much more satisfying to the until now defenseless little bro called Lonely.
The third corpse was in a very small compartment, the area seemed to be where the clean tools had been placed, and it unexpectedly had utterly nothing on its body. Only when Feng Bujue attempted to strip it bare to see if the soles of its feet had some tattoo or maybe three moles on it did Wang Tanzhi finally find a slip of paper inside its pocket.
This was obviously a key to solving the mystery and naturally couldn’t be overlooked.
【Name: Note with Written Numbers】
【Type: Plot Item】
【Grade: Ordinary】
【Function: Unknown】
【Can it leave the Scenario: No 】
【Remark: 69185】
Besides five Arabic numbers, nothing else was written on the slip. Feng Bujue looked at the item description for a few seconds before suddenly throwing away the paper slip.
“Hey! Jue Bro, will it matter if you throw it away like this?” Wang Tanzhi asked.
From his inventory, Feng Bujue took out the ring of keys he had picked up earlier and checked each key, one by one, “69185… 69185… found it.” He found the key which had those five numbers carved at its tip, removed it from the ring of keys, and tossed the rest keys away, keeping only this one key. He spoke, “Yeah… that’s right, it’s this one.”
Right when that key singled out and held alone, the menu showed a new item prompt:
【Name: Key of Fire】
【Type: Plot Item】
【Grade: Ordinary】
【Can it leave the Scenario: No】
【Remark: Has magical properties, one of the five Demon Gate keys.】
“This must be a plot item required for the main plot line.” Feng Bujue spoke, “Even if we didn’t come to this police station now, if we waited till after we figured out the Demon Gate, there would still be a follow-up quest to have us take this trip.”
“Great, so this saved us time, right?” Wang Tanzhi spoke.
“Time…” Feng Bujue spoke, “Hnn… it’s best to mention it. This item clearly has a note written that there is, altogether, as many as five keys. According to this Zelda type of deceptive pattern…I reckon that after we finally reach the Demon Gate we’d receive this exact follow-up quest to find the five keys and then either open or close the Gate.”
At this time Long Aomin came over from the other side of the corridor and said, “The staircase leading to the second floor is completely destroyed, it looks like there’s no way up.”
“As expected…” Feng Bujue passed the key to him so he could look at the attributes, “We found what we needed on the first floor.”
Lonely and Lonesome seemed to have profited this time, they found a first-aid kit in the pile of debris in some room and brought it over.
Opening it revealed a roll of bandage and two clear vials of medicine. These were naturally consumables: the bandage could staunch bleeding and the two medicine vials were Terror Paradise’s standard Recovery Medicine.
【Name: Health Gauge Recovery Medicine (Large) x 2 】
【Type: Consumable】
【Grade: Ordinary】
【Function: Recovers 100% of the Player’s Health Gauge】
【Can it leave the Scenario: Yes】
【Remark: The maximum uses that can be stack is 5; subsequent uses will gradually lower the effect】
Feng Bujue understood the note after taking a glance, the maximum value was clearly to restricted to the amount that a player could carry. Because Inventory only had ten slots, even if it expanded later, the player would still need to leave space for equipment and other items. The decreased effect after subsequent uses was to prevent players from relying too much on this Recovery Medicine during battle.
“Very good… if one vial is 100% then….” Feng Bujue took out his 【Single-use Syringe】 and passed it to Wang Tanzhi then said, “Doctor, this is for you.”
Wang Tanzhi is also an astute man and immediately understood Feng Bujue’s intent. He effortlessly picked up a vial of Recovery Medicine, extracted approximately four-fifths of the contents, then gestured at Long Aomin to roll up his sleeve.
While Doctor Wang was administering the injection, Long Aomin returned the key and asked, “What’s meaning behind the 69185 on the top?”
Feng Bujue replied, “Rudimentary puzzle, the order of the alphabet that’s all: 6-F, 9-I, 18-R, 5-E. F-I-R-E.”
Although it seemed simple while listening to the explanation, Long Aomin thought that he wouldn’t necessarily be able to think of it by himself.
Wang Tanzhi efficiently finished the injection. He was able to extract a fairly accurate amount; this one injection had replenished 83% of his Health Gauge and it had returned to 95% health.
There was 17% left in the vial. Wang Tanzhi first asked if Lonely and Lonesome have lost any health, to which the two indicated that they were still full of blood, so he picked up the vial without any reservations and drank it all in one gulp. His Health Gauge recovered back to its original 100%.
Perhaps someone might ask, why didn’t the two just each take a drink? The reason is… as long as a player makes the “drink” action, the item would be immediately consumed.
The Recovery Medicine is the most common “Blood Bottle”, in the future it would be one of the main items sold in the Game Market. This and the Scenarios items were different from reality’s; it was completely a part of the System’s scene-props. As long as the player performed the “Drinking” action, even if it’s carelessly spilling some on the side of the mouth, it would be completely consumed. There’s not even a sensation of liquid flowing down your throat and the bottle also immediately disappeared. These things were originally only given for “Usage” and not for quenching thirst or filling up hunger, which was why they had to be set up in this way.
That disposable syringe could be said to have exploited a loophole. And only Feng Bujue, this punk who read the all the game’s rules, could’ve come to think of this. At this time, Wang Tanzhi and Long Aomin actually hadn’t completely come around to understanding this; they were just acting in accordance to Feng Bujue’s line of thought and would only understand the reason behind it after they’ve finished the Scenario and read the rules that were related to Recovery Medicine.
From the System’s point of view, this wasn’t deemed as a BUG, and would even reward Wang Tanzhi with skill points. This was due to 【Single-use Syringe】, which also disappeared after one use, so the player had to use up one item to split another. One input, one output; you gain some you lose some, this wasn’t like creating something from nothing.
“A baton, a pistol, items from the Main Plot, also two vials of blood and one “Bleeding” status remover…” Feng Bujue calculated, “Normally, after finishing the Main Quest and coming over to kill the Blood Corpse we’d might have been inflicted with a “Bleeding” wound and the Health Gauge Recovery Medicine would also be necessary. The Plot didn’t mention the items… killing like that is strange, yet there are only two weapons. It seems somewhat lacking…”
Feng Bujue lowered his head, crossed his left arm over his chest, propped his right elbow on his left hand, and used two of his fingers to tap on his forehead, “At first I was looking forward to finding an arms storage room or a stockpile of confiscated marijuana…”
“Hey! Why are you holding your breath for that? Virtual drug experiences and pōrnography services have all been banned!” Wang Tanzhi retorted.
“Oh right!” Feng Bujue eyes brightened, “That fatty’s intestines have all spilled out, why is his stomach still so big? There’s must be something inside!”
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