Chapter 45

The process of leaving the mansion went surprisingly smoothly. After the magic array lost its effect, the Usher House became an ordinary residence. A noticeable change on the way back was that all the portraits on the walls had turned into random graffiti, looking like a mess of paint. The hallucinations and spatial distortions, of course, had all disappeared. The five people quickly returned to the living room at the front door of the first floor.

This time, Long Ao Min kicked the front door open with one foot, and a cold wind blew in. However, even if it was icy outside, the five people would not stay in the house any longer.

As the group walked out of the mansion through the front door, the system prompt sounded: [Current mission completed, all main missions completed.]

And Feng Bu Jue, who was carrying Madeleine Usher's body, heard another prompt: [Hidden mission completed.]

"Is it just a matter of getting out of the house?" Feng Bu Jue said, placing Madeleine's body on the ground.

Shortly after the body was placed, it began to decay rapidly, visible to the naked eye. It quickly turned into a skeleton, and that skeleton gradually turned to sand and became dust within a few seconds.

A wisp of misty vapor drifted away and dissolved into the red sky.

[You have completed this script, automatic teleportation in 180 seconds.]

"Great cooperation, everyone," Bei Ling said with a smile.

"Yep, great cooperation," Feng Bu Jue replied.

Long Ao Min stretched and sighed, "Phew... This script was really frustrating, it was all about scaring people. My fear rating this time must be pretty bad."

"Bro Long, you're still thinking about the fear rating? I was almost always trembling and terrified, and I only got 'panicked' once!" Xiao Tan said.

"Goodbye," Si Yu said calmly, then patted Bei Ling's shoulder, signaling that she could leave the script, and disappeared from everyone's sight.

Bei Ling waved at them, "Bye." Then she looked at Xiao Tan and said with a hint of annoyance, "Hey, thanks for the flashlight."

Before Xiao Tan could respond, she turned into a white light and teleported away.

Feng Bu Jue said, "Let's teleport too, settle the rewards, and queue for the next script."

Long Ao Min said, "Bro Feng, I'll stop here for tonight. I set my connection time to 11:40. I've already played for over ten hours before you logged in, and this script took more than three hours. If I continue, I'll probably have a headache tomorrow."

"Alright," Feng Bu Jue said, "Bro Long, you go ahead and log off. We'll continue."

Feng Bu Jue and Wang Tan Zhi said goodbye to Long Ao Min, and the three of them left the script one after another.

The autumn wind blew over the mansion by the pond, and the world remained gloomy, dark, and silent.

The blood moon in the sky was setting, and in the darkest moment before dawn, the front door of the Usher House was abruptly closed again by an invisible force...

...

Long Ao Min glanced at the settlement content and logged off. The rewards in the settlement could be claimed at any time before the next script started, so it was fine to leave them in the login space for now. The screen showed that his name in the friend list had turned gray after he left the team.

Feng Bu Jue hadn't had time to look at the settlement content when he noticed two friend requests. He opened them and saw that they were from the nicknames Si Yu Ruo Li and Bei Ling Xiao Gu.

At the same time, Wang Tan Zhi's excited voice rang out in the team channel again, "Bro Jue!"

"I know, they added you as a friend," Feng Bu Jue said directly.

"How did you know that?" Xiao Tan asked, "Oh, right... they probably added you too."

"Your excited reaction gave it away," Feng Bu Jue said, "What's so exciting about it?"

"Wouldn't you be excited if a beautiful girl added you as a friend?" Wang Tan Zhi asked with a matter-of-fact tone.

"Considering you're a rich and handsome guy... how can you be so shallow?" Feng Bu Jue said, "Besides, even if they look like monsters in real life, they can still be beautiful in the game."

"Bro Jue, if you keep thinking like that, you'll be alone for life..."

"My life's length is already questionable, so why worry about loneliness?" Feng Bu Jue said, "And when I was ten, I decided that always expecting the worst would help me face any problem calmly." He said this with a calm tone, "Look at how calm I was when my parents passed away and when I found out I had a terminal illness."

"Ha... Ha... Alright..." Xiao Tan's lips twitched, and he was speechless.

"Anyway, that Si Yu is indeed very strong. Just from the few moves she showed, I can tell... she's even stronger than Bro Long." Feng Bu Jue said as he accepted the two friend requests, "We've met very few players so far, and she should be the strongest player I've seen."

"Should we invite them to join us for the next script?" Wang Tan Zhi asked.

"Of course not," Feng Bu Jue said, "You just suggested something that would make it harder for us to meet new players."

"Oh, right..." Wang Tan Zhi said, "If we queue with four people, we might only meet two new players, or even none at all."

"Anyway... I'll look at the settlement and call you when I'm done. Rest for a bit," Feng Bu Jue said.

"Got it," Wang Tan Zhi said, "I'll check the settlement too."

...

At the same time, in Si Yu Ruo Li's login space.

She was also talking to Bei Ling Xiao Gu.

Bei Ling said, "Cousin, it shows that they all accepted the friend requests. Yeah... Bro Long accepted and then logged off quickly."

"Same here," Si Yu said.

"Hey, Cousin, you already knew, right?" Bei Ling asked.

"You mean Feng Bu Jue?"

"Right, he's a novelist, his name has 'Bu Jue' in it, and he said he's not very famous, which all fits the description of Bu Jue."

"Maybe, but the name used in the game can't be taken as evidence," Si Yu replied, "Although calling himself a 'great writer'... does fit Bu Jue's style, and when I asked if he was a novelist, his simple-minded friend answered first... but we can't be completely sure it's him."

"Hehe... What if it is?" Bei Ling said with a mischievous smile.

"If it is, it is. What are you smiling about?" Si Yu replied.

"Cousin, aren't you a fan of his? Meeting your idol isn't every fan's dream?"

"I just like reading his novels," Si Yu replied calmly, not sounding like she was defending herself, "I know nothing about him, so how can he be an 'idol'?" She paused and added, "Besides, if it really is him... I shouldn't get to know him or understand him."

Bei Ling shook her head and said thoughtfully, "Hmm... So... admiration is the farthest emotion from understanding?"

"Do you think I wouldn't recognize that as a quote from Aizen?" Si Yu said coldly, mercilessly exposing Bei Ling.

"Hmph... He's your idol, not mine. Maybe he'll ignore you because you made yourself ugly, eh..." Bei Ling stuck out her tongue at the screen, though the other person couldn't see her...

"I just don't want to stand out, but it seems I failed. Showing too much strength also attracts a lot of friend requests... Unfortunately, once you've gone through a script, you can't change your appearance anymore. Otherwise, I would have made myself as ugly as possible to avoid harassment."

...

In the Order Studio, in the break room.

Yongzhe Wudi sat there drinking coffee, looking gloomy. He had just finished his sleep mode shift and would have to go online in non-sleep mode after a one-hour break.

"What's wrong? Did you die in the script, Big Brother Wudi?" A young man who looked about sixteen or seventeen and was very thin sat down on the sofa next to him. He was also a player in the studio, with the game ID: [Tian Gui Xiao].

In the studio, employees generally addressed each other by their in-game names, as their IDs were fixed across all games, like employee numbers in a company. For top-tier studios like "Order," there was usually no need to worry about ID conflicts when entering a new game, as they logged in at the start of the game, sometimes even paying the game company to reserve their IDs.

"Ah... Dying doesn't matter, it was my own mistake. I immediately queued for another script, but when I finished it and came out, I found that the script I died in had already been cleared by three newbies and two female players. I barely got any experience points, which means my contribution was negligible..."

"What happened?" Tian Gui Xiao asked.

"I was just thinking about it," Yongzhe Wudi replied, "Maybe I was outsmarted by someone pretending to be a newbie... That 11th-level newbie called 'Feng Bu Jue' might have been faking it, making me think he was a burden, and then acting alone..."

"Oh... I get it, at first you thought others were in the way, but in the end, you were the one who was unnecessary," Tian Gui Xiao said.

"Which side are you on, kid?" Yongzhe Wudi asked.

"Ha... Ha... I won't say anything more, okay." Tian Gui Xiao laughed and stood up, "I'm going home to sleep."

"What? Is your shift over?" Yongzhe Wudi asked.

"No, the team leader told me to stop training and gave me a day off," Tian Gui Xiao replied.

"What? During the beta test? Giving you a day off?" Yongzhe Wudi's eyes widened, "You're already level 20?"

"Level 15," Tian Gui Xiao shrugged, "Here's what happened... I killed Brother Wu Ju and his two sidekicks in the [Killing Game] mode. They complained to the team leader that I wasn't cooperating to help them level up their skills." He laughed, "Ah... grown-ups these days... can't handle losing."