Chapter 14 An Item Within the Mouth

"Ha!" As the task notification sounded, Feng Bujue put down the catapult in his hand and fired another [Wild Pitch Fist] towards an empty area.

"Again?" Jibu blurted out.

"Ah... that's right, the skill has a one-hour cooldown," Feng Bujue replied. "Actually, I wanted to use it earlier... but since it was only a few minutes, there's no need to be so meticulous. So, I decided to explain everything to you before using it."

"Speaking of which, what's the use of this move?" Jibu muttered. "The cooldown time is a full hour, but I don't see much power in it."

"Hmph... how do you know this move is an attack skill?" Feng Bujue said, deliberately mystifying.

"Then what is this move...?" Jibu guessed. "A skill that permanently increases attributes?" He said jokingly, "Could it be... that every time you do that movement, you slightly increase some hidden stat?"

"Oh? You saw through that, not bad," Feng Bujue said, unfazed. "Alright, I'll tell you then, actually... every time I use this skill, something on my body gets a little bit longer..."

"If that 'something' you're talking about is your integrity, that would be great..." Jibu retorted, looking at Brother Jue with disdain.

"Alright, let's save the chatting for after we finish the task..." Honghu interrupted the bickering duo, reminding them, "Judging from the completion of the last task, this one will definitely be difficult... we won't have much spare time."

"Of course, this is a Nightmare-level team instance," Feng Bujue replied, turning his head. "Every step we take is like walking on a tightrope... our lives hang by a thread..."

"If you know that, hurry up and help find the way, time waits for no one." Uncle Trash had already taken out a flashlight and started looking for the path to the next level.

"No need," Feng Bujue picked up the catapult again and aimed the lamp at a corner of the space. "I already found it while I was talking to you."

Hearing this, the others looked in the direction he was pointing and indeed saw the entrance to the next level—another moving door.

A brief explanation of the surrounding environment...

The space the players were currently in had walls and a floor made of gray stone bricks, covering an area of about eighty square meters. Although the top of the stone chamber was conical, there were no pillars or beams inside to support it.

The area Feng Bujue was currently illuminating with the light had a moving door inlaid in the ground (one meter long and wide, a small metal door that could be opened by pushing hard, and would automatically return to its original position after a few seconds). Its appearance was the same as the one at the entrance above, only its location was on the ground.

"Wow... you're really efficient, Brother Feng," Uncle Trash said.

"You flatter me," Feng Bujue replied casually.

"By the way, did you guys notice something?" Tianma Xingkong, with his super-long reaction arc, said at this moment, "Generally speaking, the 'current task completed' and 'main quest updated' prompts should come out together. But this time... there was a gap of about ten minutes in between."

"Ah, of course I noticed," Feng Bujue replied. "I guess it's because... the system needs to leave a certain buffer time between two 'time-limited tasks'."

"Is there a need for that?" Uncle Trash asked. "Since it's Nightmare difficulty, it's normal to give time-limited tasks one after another without any mercy."

"It's necessary," Honghu answered first. "Because the system needs time to complete the 'erasure'." He paused slightly, then continued, "You also said this is a Nightmare instance... how could it let players die so easily? I think the 'erasure' in the task description is definitely not as simple as turning players into white light and instantly sending them out of the script." His eyes changed slightly. "I'm afraid... the system will arrange a more desperate, more painful way to die."

"Right, for example... a pile of sh*t suddenly falls from the sky and smears your face, sealing all your abilities. You can't leave the script until you suffocate," Feng Bujue said with a gloomy face.

"Hehe..." Honghu chuckled dryly, no longer paying attention to Brother Jue's吐槽; he turned and walked towards the moving door, squatting down and saying, "Since the script started, I don't think I've explored the way yet, right? Then I'll go down first this time." Saying this, he took out a flashlight from his knapsack and pushed open the moving door on the ground.

"Hmm... it seems to be a room similar to this one," Honghu shined the flashlight downwards, then turned his head and said, "I'm going down first." Before he finished speaking, he stepped sideways and fell into the moving door.

The sound of him landing was very light and steady.

After a few seconds, Honghu's shout came from below: "Safe, come down."

So, the other four people entered the stone chamber on the lower level one after another through the moving door.

The area of this stone chamber was exactly the same as the one above, the only difference being that the top of this level was not a raised spire, but a flat stone ceiling.

"Look over there." After all his teammates were standing still, Honghu raised his flashlight and pointed it towards one side of the stone chamber, saying, "That... looks very suspicious, right?"

Everyone turned their heads and saw the object Honghu was pointing at at a glance.

...

(Some content including "Special Containment Procedures" has been omitted here because it is not closely related to the main text)

Item #: ***-645

Object Class: Safe

Description: ***-645 is a large pavonazzetto marble disc with a human face embedded within (also made of marble, of course), appearing to be sculpted like the so-called Mouth of Truth in the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church in Rome, Italy (see the film *Roman Holiday* for details); both its mouth and eye sockets are empty holes.

At any time, placing a hand inside the mouth of ***-645 will feel warm and moist.

***-645 must be cleaned after each activation.

Whenever anyone puts their hand into the Mouth of Truth, as long as they tell a lie, it will awaken the sculpture and cause their hand to be bitten off by ***-645 and then swallowed... The whereabouts of those swallowed limbs are unknown, and probing its interior with probes shows that it has no esophagus.

...

"This looks a lot like the Mouth of Truth," Jibu said, looking at the statue. He had traveled to Europe and visited the real Mouth of Truth, so he recognized it.

"Oh, I think I saw it in an old movie too," Tianma Xingkong chimed in.

"Actually..." Uncle Trash said, "We don't necessarily have to touch it, do we?" As he spoke, he pointed to the other side of the stone chamber. The moving door leading to the next level was in the direction he was pointing. "Our goal is to reach the bottom, so... we just need to keep passing through these downward entrances. It's best not to touch strange things like that if we can avoid it."

"That's right," Feng Bujue agreed verbally, but his body... had already walked to the statue.

"Hey! What are you doing walking over there?" Honghu asked.

"Looking for equipment," Feng Bujue replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "There's a high chance that there will be rewards hidden in these dead corners that can be ignored." As he spoke, he put his hand into the statue's mouth. "As the saying goes, 'There are many traps on the main road, and the best treasure chests are hidden in the alleys'. This is the law of the game. I can't believe you're professionals, you don't even have this common sense... ah!"

Before he could finish speaking, Brother Jue's expression suddenly changed, and he screamed.

"What's wrong?" Tianma Xingkong was the first to rush forward, putting on his "heroic face" and pulling up his posture. "Did it bite you? Should I unleash a Meteor Fist?"

"Meteor Fist your second uncle! You use Meteor Fist to solve everything, huh?" Feng Bujue's voice was still quite loud, so he seemed to be fine.

"Ah... as the saying goes, when in doubt, just Shoryuken it..." Little Ma actually replied seriously.

"That saying is a吐槽, okay! And it's referring to Rising Dragon Fist! Not Meteor Fist!" Feng Bujue shouted.

"Alright... stop arguing about these silly things..." Uncle Trash rubbed his temples with both hands, his head was starting to hurt. "What exactly happened?"

"I seem to have touched something..." Feng Bujue replied quickly. "It's a spherical object, its surface is smooth, and its size is similar to a tennis ball... anyway, the moment I touched that object, my hand was bitten."

"Then try letting go of that thing," Jibu said.

"I can't let go, the part in front of my elbow is completely bitten to death," Feng Bujue replied. "And I can't pull my hand out either..." He paused. "It feels like... if I use force, my hand will shatter."

"Sigh... this is a true case of itchy hands," Honghu shook his head and sighed. "And you were saying 'There are many traps on the main road, and the best treasure chests are hidden in the alleys'... I think it's 'Heroes often die unexpectedly, and good swimmers drown in rivers', who told you to show off?"

"An-swer... one... ques-tion..." Suddenly, a muffled voice came from the statue's mouth, each word drawn out (the dashes in the statue's words will be omitted below). "I'll let you go."

Hearing this, everyone looked at each other, and no one answered.

"Um... ask away," Feng Bujue hesitated for two seconds, but still agreed.

"You must tell the truth, or I will bite off your hand," the statue said again.

"Okay," Feng Bujue replied.

Brother Jue wasn't afraid of having his hand bitten off at all, because he still had a few ***-500s in his knapsack, and his survival value was almost full, so he wouldn't die from the injury. In short, the worst-case scenario would be losing a pill and losing an unknown item that he hadn't even obtained yet.

"Then listen carefully..." the statue immediately asked...