Chapter 1 The Light of Blood

The blood-colored light filled the entire scene. Before long, the intense light faded, and two figures lay in the center of the alchemy circle.

About half a minute later, a blond figure was the first to stand up.

"How could this be... How! Ah—" Andrew watched as his skin gradually became as dry as tree bark and his hair began to fall out. He roared violently.

Seconds later, Arthur also climbed up from the ground. Outwardly, he looked normal. However, Arthur's eyes were dull. He looked at his brother in front of him, without saying a word.

"Why... How could this be?" Andrew roared, "The alchemy circle couldn't have gone wrong. We should have succeeded. Why am I... Ah—" The pain in his body began to erupt. His pain at this moment far exceeded the limit that ordinary people could bear.

Hearing the desperate roar, Arthur seemed to just regain his senses. He quickly stepped forward and knocked Andrew unconscious. In fact, even if he hadn't done this, the other would have soon fainted from the pain.

"Haa... haa..." Arthur's body seemed to have some problems as well. That simple action had exhausted him, and he was panting non-stop. But compared to Andrew, his pain was nothing. At least his body showed no signs of zombification.

Arthur stood there, his eyes filled with suspicion, obviously thinking...

About a minute later, Arthur walked to the unconscious Andrew, lifted his upper body, turned his back to him, and then put his hands through Andrew's armpits, keeping this posture, dragging him out of the room.

…………

"The two brothers wanted to work together to alchemize something... and ultimately failed?" Feng Bujue had this thought the moment he saw this CG, "Could it be something as clichéd as trying to bring their mother back to life?" he wondered, "But this video should explain the few sentences Arthur kept repeating at the beginning... 'Don't worry... everything will be alright... something must have gone wrong... I'll find a way...' He wasn't just muttering these sentences to his unconscious brother, but also to himself."

Jue Ge stroked his chin, pondering, "It seems that 'I' ended up in this pathetic state not because Arthur went dark and turned Andrew into a test subject, but simply because of a failed alchemy. And Arthur temporarily locked me in Cell Zero to find a way to cure me..."

"Hmm... it seems the whole picture of the story is gradually emerging." While he pondered, he walked into the room in front of him, "Anyway, let's find the Gray Key first."

Unexpectedly, the next second, something happened.

Feng Bujue had been using the iron bar to test for physical traps every time he entered a room, but there were none. Only this last one, after watching the CG, he was careless... and walked straight in.

All that was heard was a series of continuous crackling sounds. The floor of the room collapsed completely from the center of the magic circle, and Feng Bujue, unable to react, fell straight down.

Of course, in the moment of falling, besides the body's instinctive reaction to curl up, Feng Bujue was very calm psychologically. His heartbeat was still steady, and his consciousness was very clear.

The structure of the house was in his head. He knew very well that underneath was just that empty room. He also estimated the height between the first and second floors, which, including the floor spacing, was only a little over four meters. With his current physical fitness, he could fall in any position except landing on his face and breaking his neck. Anyway, he was at full health now, and he definitely wouldn't die from the fall.

In less than two seconds, the fall ended. He didn't die, but the kerosene lamp was smashed...

"Okay, just perfect." Feng Bujue sat in the darkness, surrounded by debris and building fragments that fell with him from the room upstairs. Even if the key was right in front of him, he wouldn't be able to see it.

"Speaking of which, where did Arthur go after locking me in Cell Zero? He made such a big commotion, but he didn't show up." Feng Bujue observed his survival value, only 15% was deducted, as expected.

He stood up and reached out to pat the dust off his body. Unexpectedly, as soon as he patted twice, he heard a few light tinkling sounds.

"No way..." Feng Bujue's mouth twitched. He bent down and felt around, following the sound.

[Name: Gray Key]

[Type: Story-Related]

[Quality: Normal]

[Function: Permanently unlocks the Gray Iron Door, disappears immediately after use]

[Can be brought out of this scenario: No]

[Remarks: Fell out of the broken kerosene lamp, landing on a dusty guy]

"Hehe." Feng Bujue uttered two meaningful words.

Only a few seconds after obtaining the key, a system prompt rang out: [A door somewhere seems to have opened.]

"Okay... now that I have no lighting, I can only go back underground." Feng Bujue muttered, taking out the iron bar.

The room itself was empty, so he just needed to stick the iron bar out and, after it touched the wall, follow the wall for a few meters to find the door.

It took him more than ten seconds to find the location of the door using this method, and then he walked over.

Once he determined his location, the next thing was easy, because the floor plan of the house was in his head. He knew the length of the corridor and how many steps it would take to walk.

Human fear of darkness is innate. The shrinking of the visual field means the expansion of the unknown field, and a person's level of alertness will increase as the amount of information he possesses decreases. His "will to self-preservation" will therefore be maintained at a certain level.

Simply put, a person's fear of darkness stems from the psychological need to maintain the intensity level of the "will to self-preservation." Fear can make people highly value even the smallest and most superficial pieces of information leaked in the darkness.

But Feng Bujue had no fear, and he didn't need to rely on the positive or negative effects of the fear instinct.

Relying on his memory of the surrounding environment and his excellent imagination, he could be in complete darkness and still know the way in his heart.

In just one minute, he found the storage room. After pushing the door open, he went straight to the door leading to the underground 1F.

At this moment, the system's restriction had been lifted. Feng Bujue turned the doorknob and easily opened the door. The light from the underground corridor re-illuminated his vision.

As Feng Bujue walked down the stairs, he took out all six keys from his pocket and held them in his hand.

The two doors closest to the stairwell were the Blue and Black doors. Feng Bujue chose the Blue one first. After the lock was opened, the key immediately disappeared. He then tried to push the door, but heard this prompt: [The Red Iron Door has not been opened yet.]

"Oh... it needs to be done in order..." Seeing this, Feng Bujue decided to simply turn all six doors into the unlocked state.

A little over a minute later, as he consumed the last key, the system prompt rang out in a timely manner: [Current quest completed, Main Quest has been updated.]

The quest [Explore Ground 1F, find the Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, White, and Gray Keys, then return to Underground 1F to open the six Iron Doors] was checked off, and a new quest appeared: [Explore the six rooms of Underground 1F in the order of Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, White, and Gray.]

"Okay, let me see what you two brothers are up to." Feng Bujue came to the Red Iron Door, grasped the doorknob, and pushed inward.

He stood at the door and looked around. The interior of the room was also red, and the entire room was shrouded in a red light, but no light source could be seen.

Feng Bujue took out the iron bar again to test it. Who knew that as soon as he put the rusty bar into the room, an arm emerged from beside the door, grabbed the iron bar, and yanked it into the room with force.

Feng Bujue was caught off guard. In order not to be dragged in with it, he quickly let go.

Here, it should be explained that Jue Ge's hands simultaneously possessed equipment and clothing. The equipment was [Spider Silk Gloves], and the clothing was a pair of dark leather gloves. Usually, he would usually let his hands show in their bare state. If there was a need for gloves, he would definitely display the clothing, not the equipment. The reason was that he thought the appearance of the Spider Silk Gloves was rather ugly...

But regardless of the appearance settings, as long as the Spider Silk Gloves were equipped in the equipment bar, they would naturally function. And what was the function of these gloves... aside from the ordinary defense, its special effect, let me help everyone remember, was five words - can stick to objects.

Because of this slight difference, Feng Bujue's action of letting go did not help him escape his doom. He was dragged in by the iron bar from a distance of two steps away from the door frame...

Feng Bujue's ability to adapt to circumstances was very strong. When he staggered and had not yet gained a firm foothold, he had already activated Spirit Sense Gathering Technique and taken out the pipe wrench. The sudden increase in physical skills gave him room to adjust his body.

Feng Bujue leaned forward, supported himself with one hand, and did a somersault forward, creating a distance from the unknown enemy hiding by the door, and turning to face the opponent.

He thought it was another Synthetic Human-style monster, but a glance revealed that the other party was also a person.

That was a man in his early thirties, wearing a uniform that looked like a military uniform. His right arm, the arm that had just grabbed the iron bar, was actually a metal arm.

The man's expression changed drastically when he saw Feng Bujue. He said fiercely, "You monster... you're here to kill me, aren't you? I won't..."

"Wait!" Feng Bujue held out a hand. "I don't want to fight you." He looked at the iron bar on the ground that had been broken into two pieces, and thought: This guy's combat power is off the charts. The hardness of that mechanical arm is clearly above my pipe wrench.

"Hmph... don't want to fight..." The other party sneered, stomped his foot, and rushed up. "What a joke! Do you think I'll believe you!"

That being said, Feng Bujue didn't deactivate Spirit Sense Gathering Technique. Seeing the other party rushing up without saying a word, he had no choice but to engage in combat.