Chapter 40

Time rewound to just over ten minutes ago. At that point, the Invincible Hero had not yet died, and Feng Bujue was still in that cellar.

Feng Bujue knocked on the coffin lid and said teasingly, "Hey, Miss Madeleine, are you still there?"

Naturally, he didn't expect someone inside the coffin to respond with an unhappy, "Get lost!"

Because he already knew it should be empty.

After seeing the first segment of the Ghost Palace, Feng Bujue deduced that the setting of this mansion was likely similar to the House of Usher from a certain novel. Upon entering the cellar and seeing the coffin and the fifth segment of the Ghost Palace on the wall, he became even more certain.

Feng Bujue had a good memory, but he wasn't at the level of photographic recall. Apart from the information he considered trivial and discarded, he could generally recall about 60-70% of the content of novels he had read.

It was impossible for him to stand there and recite the entire six segments of the Ghost Palace after reading the first one. So later, he had Xiao Tan and Long say some phrases to remind him, and the two segments of poetry in his memory gradually became clearer.

Of course, he still remembered the general plot of that novel quite well.

Many people know the name Edgar Allan Poe. He is the founder of detective fiction, and his "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is considered the first true detective novel in modern literature, which he referred to as a "tale of ratiocination" when it was published.

However, that was in 1841, and "The Fall of the House of Usher" was written before that story, a Gothic horror novel with a deeply gloomy and dark atmosphere.

The plot of the story goes like this: The protagonist's old friend, Roderick Usher, comes from a family that has suffered from a mysterious hereditary disease for generations. The house he lives in seems to be bound by some strange curse. For centuries, the Usher family has passed down from father to son, and the original name of the house has been gradually forgotten. The building and the family have become synonymous, so when people mention "the House of Usher," they refer to both the house and the family.

One day, Roderick wrote a letter to the protagonist, stating that he was on the verge of death, his illness had left him emaciated and mentally unstable, and the unknown terrifying force in the House of Usher would destroy his sanity and take his life.

The protagonist came to visit and accompany his old friend, hoping he would get better. But on the night of the protagonist's arrival, Roderick's sister, Miss Madeleine, "died" of her illness.

She was Roderick's only living relative and companion for many years. Miss Madeleine had been suffering from a long-term illness that was incurable, but she had never been bedridden and had always fought against it. Roderick's abnormal depression and near-collapse were mainly due to her.

Roderick requested that before burial, his sister's body be placed in a coffin in a cellar for fourteen days. The protagonist helped his friend place Miss Madeleine in the coffin and put her in the cellar, but no one knew that she was not actually dead...

After seven or eight days, the grief-stricken Roderick had already gone mad. On that terrifying night, the protagonist witnessed the terrifying appearance of Miss Madeleine in the house, who scared her brother to death and then finally died herself. The protagonist escaped from the House of Usher and saw the building collapse into the mountain pond.

There are many "unscientific" aspects in this story, such as why Miss Madeleine was buried alive without anyone noticing? How could a woman who had struggled in a coffin for seven or eight days still have the strength to return to the house? How did the house collapse? Was it a local earthquake or a controlled explosion?

However, readers in the 19th century would not have raised such questions about a horror and suspense story. It was only in the late 20th century that "professionals" who specialized in "over-analyzing" and "nitpicking" began to appear in various fields, especially in the cultural domain. If Poe had lived in the 21st century, any academic fraudster with a "professor" title could have belittled him to the point of worthlessness or used "deep" interpretations of his works to express views that were not originally intended.

Let's not delve into this topic further and return to the story.

According to the plot of the novel, the coffin must be empty. Regardless of whether the ghostly figure Feng Bujue saw in the tunnel was Miss Madeleine's spirit, her body was no longer in the cellar but in the house.

Feng Bujue pushed open the coffin lid, and it was indeed empty, with no body. He waved his hand to disperse the dust and then shone his flashlight inside the coffin. He soon noticed a line of small words carved on a wooden board at the head end, which looked like it had been scratched out with fingernails.

The words were, "He knows," without any punctuation, and the letters were crooked. Considering the situation, in the darkness of the coffin, Miss Madeleine couldn't see if her letters were neat, and she had to maintain a certain posture to carve them, so it was already good that they could be recognized.

【A hidden task has been triggered.】

Feng Bujue heard the system prompt and immediately opened the menu. At that moment, another prompt window appeared on top:

【Hidden tasks in the script can provide you with substantial rewards, but the difficulty of discovering and completing hidden tasks is higher than that of main and side quests.】

【System prompts related to hidden tasks, including voice, text, and task content in the menu, are only visible to the player who discovered the task. If a hidden task is discovered in a multiplayer setting, all players present will receive the task. However, hidden tasks cannot be shared with a delay. After a single or multiple task executors describe the task content to other players, the latter can see the task content and progress in the menu but are not considered to have accepted the task and cannot receive the completion reward.】

【The above prompt will only appear when the player discovers a hidden task for the first time. If you need to review it again, you can search for it in the game instructions.】

In other words, "Whoever discovers it has to handle it themselves and take the reward alone." Feng Bujue muttered, closed the two prompt windows, and looked at the task: 【Rescue Miss Madeleine's soul】

Feng Bujue said, "Oh... So that's the situation..." He had already made a guess about the plot of the script, but the problem now was how to get out of the cellar.

He raised his flashlight again and conducted a more detailed search of the surroundings, but found nothing. He turned his gaze back to the coffin. Apart from the line of words and some scratches on the wood, there were no other valuable clues.

Feng Bujue placed the flashlight diagonally inside the coffin, propping up the glowing end, and then bent down to pick up the heavy coffin lid, leaning it against the wall. He examined both sides, but there was nothing on the large piece of wood.

"Wait a minute..." Feng Bujue's actions suddenly stopped. He thought, "The person lying in the coffin should be on their back, and if they were to carve words, they would do so on the coffin lid. Even if she was worried that someone opening the coffin might overlook the words on the lid, she would still carve them on the top. But why are there no signs of struggle on this board? The scratches and marks are on other parts, and this coffin lid looks brand new."

Feng Bujue picked up his flashlight and shone it on the coffin lid leaning against the wall. He squatted down and stared at the piece of wood. "Hmm..." He reached out and tapped it, and the coffin lid made a normal solid wood sound, not sounding like it had a hidden compartment.

At this moment, Feng Bujue made a very bold (at least for others) decision. He lifted the coffin lid and placed it longitudinally over two-thirds of the coffin, then crawled inside, lay down, and used his hands to hold the lid, pushing it up to close the coffin.

Lying inside, he felt uncomfortable, not because of psychological reasons but because the coffin had no soft padding, just plain wood. It was like lying on a hard board bed with nothing on it.

Feng Bujue put himself in Miss Madeleine's position, shone his flashlight on the coffin lid, and said, "How did you get out of here...?" He tried to push the lid with one hand.

Unexpectedly, it wouldn't budge.

"Oh?" Feng Bujue was surprised. He immediately placed the flashlight next to his neck and used both hands and feet to push and kick several times, but the lid remained immovable.

After a bit of struggling, he was about to take a breath when he noticed a slight bulge on the lid, directly in front of his face, gradually forming into a human face.

The face was genderless, and the voice sounded like an old witch. It said to Feng Bujue, "Dying man, do you want to get out of here?"

"Yes," Feng Bujue replied, curious to see what tricks this coffin monster had.

"What can you give me?" the coffin lid asked.

At this moment, the system prompt sounded: 【You can offer a piece of equipment of ordinary or higher quality to have the monster teleport you back to the space outside the cellar】

"Oh... 'Can' offer, huh..." Feng Bujue thought, "That means I can also choose not to offer." He pondered, "And... if the player doesn't have any equipment that meets the conditions, they can't be trapped here forever, right? There must be another way."

"Coffin, I don't want to give you anything," Feng Bujue said.

The face suddenly changed, its eyes and mouth opening grotesquely, becoming extremely terrifying. It would have scared a normal person, but it was just a face floating on the coffin lid, unable to attack the person inside, only to scare them.

"Then you will be trapped here forever, dying of fear and hunger. Even if your fingertips are worn to the bone and your toes and knees are shattered, you will not be able to break free..."

Snap. Feng Bujue took out the M1911A1 pistol from his bag and removed the safety.

"Let me introduce you to..." Feng Bujue pressed the gun against the forehead of the face, "some interesting little gadgets born after the Second Industrial Revolution."

"The damage your weapon can inflict on me is not enough to let you escape. A few small scratches mean nothing," the coffin lid replied.

"I know you can change and self-repair, but what about the wood around me and the wood under me?" Feng Bujue asked.

"Ha ha ha..." The face on the coffin lid actually laughed, and at the same time, the words carved by Madeleine and the marks on the surrounding wood disappeared, "If I wish."

"Hmm... I see. Since I've already received the task and discovered the secret of the coffin, these details and hints are no longer necessary, right..." Feng Bujue said, putting the gun away.

"Now, do you want to change your mind?" the coffin lid asked again, "Perhaps you can offer me the weapon you just showed, and I will let you out."

Feng Bujue almost immediately took out the [Western Chef's Knife] and [Mario's Plumber's Wrench] from his bag, "You have two choices. First, send me back to the house and end this pleasant conversation." He raised his hand and slashed the coffin lid, leaving a knife mark, "Second, I will disassemble you and use you as firewood."

A few dozen seconds later, Feng Bujue smoothly reappeared in the house, but not in the initial living room. He was in a corridor, and there was a painting on the wall next to him, but it was not of the cellar, but of an ugly and abstract human face.

He didn't linger, just confirmed that his survival value was still full and his stamina was still high, and then continued to explore...