Chapter 18

After the system's voice prompt, Feng Jue checked the game menu again and found that the quest bar had finally been unlocked. This was the first time he had officially received a main quest. The previous training mode and single-player survival mode were mostly completed in enclosed buildings, with a very small script scale and not much room for choice in the plot direction, so the system did not bother to generate quests. However, the current team survival mode had a large, highly free-form map, and the system had to provide a main storyline to guide the game's ultimate direction; otherwise, players might not understand what they should do on a larger scale.

After unfolding the quest bar, Feng Jue saw a new window covering the front of the menu, displaying the quest content. The description of the main quest was simple: [Search the city, find the Demon Gate.]

"Feels like a fantasy setting," Feng Jue glanced at the quest and closed the game menu.

"This city is so big, finding a door is like looking for a needle in a haystack," Wang Tan said.

"The key word in the quest is not 'door' but 'demon,'" Feng Jue said, walking to an automatic ticket machine and looking at the subway line map on it. "This city has twelve subway lines, each represented by a different color, but..." His finger traced the intersecting lines on the map, eventually stopping at one place. "Among these dozen or so intersecting lines, there is this area..." He spread his hands, covering the surrounding lines, leaving only the center visible: "Five intersecting straight lines form a very standard geometric shape, a pentagram."

"Bro, that's a bit of a stretch," Lonely Guy said. "If you look closely, you might find many other geometric shapes in that tangled mess of lines."

"The moment I stopped my finger, it means I had already looked carefully," Feng Jue replied, turning around to explain. "Before we came to this level, whether inside the subway or on the platform, we could only see the station names and diagrams of the current line. A complete city subway map like this one is not available on the lower level.

Before the system prompt, we neither encountered any monsters nor wasted much time, and we had not taken any substantial actions. But the quest was triggered for a reason. If there were no trigger conditions, we would have received the quest while sitting in the subway. Why would the system wait for us to come up a level to give the prompt?

Therefore... the possibility I can think of is that there is something on this level that is not on the lower level, and the information it provides can guide us to the Demon Gate mentioned in the quest."

He paused, then turned and patted the subway line map on the ticket machine with his left hand. "There are only twelve subway lines, but there are thousands of roads on the ground. If this subway map is meaningless, then the city map is even more so, unless we can find a tourist map marked with landmarks like the Demon Gate."

He took a deep breath. "In short, if no one can provide a constructive opinion that contradicts this reasoning or if the opinion itself lacks solid evidence to support it... please follow me to this area on the map. If I am wrong, we will regroup and discuss further. If I am right, I will earn the skill points, and everyone will clear the quest, and we will all be happy."

Feng Jue finished speaking in one breath, and the others were stunned. Wang Tan, however, remained calm, as he had seen many such scenes throughout his life.

Feng Jue's reasoning ability was a byproduct of his reading habit. He was a very smart person, scoring 138 on the Binet test at the age of sixteen, with a balanced 69 points for both the left and right hemispheres of his brain. Compared to those with scores over 140, he was still in the normal range, but his observation, memory, understanding, and reasoning skills were well-trained, far surpassing those of ordinary people.

As Mr. Conan Doyle put it through Holmes, a good detective needs not only extensive knowledge and experience but also the correct reasoning technique. Holmes always emphasized his "deductive method" tirelessly, and Feng Jue was clearly a devoted follower.

His reading habit stemmed from another theory of Sherlock's: treating knowledge as a reserve, managing the brain like a library, discarding unimportant things, storing secondary things in the attic, and keeping the necessary things within easy reach.

This seemed like an idealized memory habit and thinking pattern, but with certain training, it was indeed possible. Feng Jue was a self-taught example.

There are many things that sound simple but are hard to do, such as doing dozens of push-ups every day to become a muscle man, learning a few words every day to pass the CET-4 and CET-6, or writing a few thousand words every day to become a god-like writer... If there were a ranking of self-deception, these would definitely be among the top.

Most people have a high probability of giving up halfway through such self-disciplined training, but as the saying goes, there are many odd geniuses, and Feng Jue was one of the few who persisted, eventually turning reading and reasoning into habits and hobbies...

"Uh... Brother Feng's words make sense. Following this line of thought is better than wandering around the city aimlessly after we go out," Long Ao Ming said, addressing the last part to Lonely Guy.

"Ah... Ah? Oh, okay..." Lonely Guy had just come to his senses. In fact, he had not fully followed Feng Jue's words and reasoning, but he had a feeling that "although I don't quite understand, this guy seems pretty capable."

The five of them set off immediately, with Long Ao Ming leading the way, followed closely by Feng Jue, who told him which exit to take to return to the surface and would point out the general direction once they got there.

As they passed through a wide safety passage, Feng Jue noticed what seemed to be an Easter egg. Among the advertisements on the walls, there was a game ad for the "Terrifying Park."

After walking through the passage and turning right, they saw the exit above them. This section had an upward-moving escalator, but it had stopped, and there were two rows of regular stairs on either side.

They climbed the stairs and emerged onto the city's surface. The moonlight was hazy, and the city's lights were sparse. Many cars were parked on the streets, but all were turned off. The lights on the billboards, in business premises, and in residential buildings were all dark, except for the street lamps, which were still working.

Although there were no moving vehicles, the air they breathed felt very murky, as if a layer of mist was swirling around, making it hard to see distant objects clearly.

In the subway station, with a roof overhead and walls on all sides, and being underground, the group did not feel anything unusual. But on the open ground, the indescribable eerie atmosphere... the abnormal silence was almost suffocating.

Four out of the five people's fear levels had already fluctuated, with stable values ranging from 5% to 15%, and various physical signs of fear were gradually appearing.

"Follow this road, pass four streets, turn left, and keep going straight," Feng Jue said in a very normal tone, as if unaffected, quickly recognizing a few landmarks and planning the route.

Long Ao Ming, holding his shield, nodded and continued to lead the way, with the other four following behind. No one spoke, remaining vigilant, listening, and trying to stay close to the street lamps.

From the darkness, there would occasionally come sounds that seemed to be animal breathing, rustling whispers, and faint laughter. Whatever it was, it could be heard but not clearly understood.

Long Ao Ming would turn back every few dozen meters, and the more he looked, the more he felt something was wrong. "Brother Feng... in real life, you must have a high-risk job, right?" Long Ao Ming asked. He had never seen a player like Feng Jue, who had trained to level ten. Fear is hard to hide, but Feng Jue did not show even a hint of fear in his eyes, indicating that he was not just pretending to be brave but genuinely unafraid... combined with his sharp reasoning, Long Ao Ming even suspected that Feng Jue might be a professional SWAT officer in real life.

"Artist," Feng Jue replied calmly, as if he were telling the truth.

Wang Tan did not bother to interject. From what he knew, Feng Jue usually claimed to be either an artist or a great writer. No matter how you looked at his behavior, both answers were quite annoying...

Long Ao Ming had not expected such an answer and was momentarily at a loss for words. Lonely Guy spoke up from behind: "Who calls themselves an artist?"

"Then I can say it differently," Feng Jue replied. "I am an art worker with a high aesthetic ability, skilled in creative techniques, and who has achieved some success in artistic creation."

"That's just explaining those three words, isn't it!"

"Isn't it more modest than saying those three words directly?"

"It's more arrogant, okay!"

Lonely laughed, and Lonely Guy pouted, saying to her, "Can I criticize if he doesn't pretend to be stupid?"

At this moment, Feng Jue suddenly stopped and quickly took out the [Mario's Pipe Wrench] from his backpack. "Hmm... just as the oppressive atmosphere was easing up, trouble is coming."

Long Ao Ming almost saw the two shadows flash in the darkness at the same time as Feng Jue, but he only saw their rough outlines and did not know what they were, probably some kind of monster.

"Judging by their size, they look like deformed infants, with small scythes at the ends of their arms, and they are quite fast. In terms of numbers... there should be more than one," Feng Jue calmly narrated, holding the pipe wrench and advancing into the darkness. At this moment, he did not know that his reconnaissance specialization had just been activated.