Chapter 1 How It Came to This

"How exactly did things turn out like this…" Feng Bujue muttered to himself in the darkness, "At this moment, I should be nonchalantly spectating like an outsider…" He sighed, "Alas… it seems a man as outstanding as I am, no matter where I hide, will be as conspicuous and brilliant as a firefly in the night… The melancholy gaze, the stubbly beard, the miraculous skills, all have deeply betrayed me."

He recited this passage to himself, amusing and indulging himself. Because it was so dark around him (his vision was limited, making his hearing more acute), and it was an enclosed, open space (the sound would travel further), Jue-ge's voice entered the ears of his three teammates in the distance without missing a single word.

"Such a shameless person… I've truly never seen one in my life," Qiu Feng commented in a low voice.

"He can still casually spout such nonsense in this situation…" Ji Chang said, "That's quite a display of mental fortitude."

Honghu chimed in, "He's unfathomable…" As he spoke, he couldn't help but shiver slightly, then adjusted his glasses. "He might be the kind of opponent I least want to encounter…"

"Same here," Qiu Feng responded, "It's hard to imagine what would happen if there was a guy like that on the opposite side in a slaughter game."

On this point, the three strategists were in perfect agreement. Ji Chang also said, "If he weren't a teammate but an opponent, it would indeed be a very bad thing… Have you guys noticed? Whether it's his actions or his strategies, Brother Feng's style seems to lack any pattern, but in reality, it hides profound mysteries… Looking back, everything he did, more or less, played a role. Of course… except for his unique sense of humor."

"A schemer plots tricks and cunning schemes; a strategist borrows momentum to unleash," Honghu pondered, "The former is a devious path, usually employed to make up for the gap when strength is insufficient, even if successful, it's only temporary, and there are many loopholes. Once seen through, it's easy to resolve. The latter is the kingly way, moving with the flow, leaving no trace, the king of strategies, unstoppable." He paused for a moment and continued, "Logically speaking, we strategists pursue the latter, but Brother Feng, he…"

"Seems to be drifting further and further down the devious path…" Qiu Feng added.

Honghu said, "A person who can plot schemes is clever, a person who can plot strategies is impressive. But if someone can guarantee that every scheme they plot will succeed, then they can be called divinely insightful."

"Heh… If Brother Feng were in the world of the *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* novels, he'd probably be the kind of… military advisor who puts his plans in brocade pouches, telling the general on the expedition to open one at each location and act accordingly, to show how he predicted everything like a god." Qiu Feng said.

The three of them secretly discussed Jue-ge like this, because they were all squatting on the edge of the circular hole. As long as they kept their voices down and faced downwards, their voices wouldn't travel too far. So Feng Bujue didn't hear a word of these conversations. If Jue-ge had really heard them, he probably wouldn't have been ashamed but would have taken it as an honor and become even more smug…

About ten minutes later, Feng Bujue returned to his teammates' side unhurriedly. Judging from his expression, he seemed a bit worried.

"Looks like you didn't gain anything," Qiu Feng said.

"Hehe…" Ji Chang smiled, "Actually, Brother Feng being able to return unharmed is already a gain. At least he proved that this floor is temporarily safe."

"Next, let's split into two groups and explore again carefully, we should be able to find some clues…" Honghu hadn't finished speaking.

Feng Bujue interrupted directly, "I found a corpse in that direction." As he spoke, he also pointed into the darkness.

These words were like a bucket of cold water poured on his teammates' heads in winter.

The atmosphere instantly dropped to freezing point, and everyone was silent.

Feng Bujue continued, "To be precise, I found a rather complete crime scene."

The three remained silent, wanting to hear him finish before expressing their opinions.

"And then…" As expected, Feng Bujue had more to say. "I also found the corpses of the murderers in that direction…" He pointed to the other side.

"Them?" Qiu Feng repeated, "The murderers… as in 'them'?"

"That's right, based on my preliminary inspection of the scene, I estimate that there were a total of four murderers working together," Feng Bujue said.

"And those four murderers died near the scene of the crime?" Honghu interjected.

"No, only two died," Feng Bujue said, "The other two escaped to the fourth floor."

"What? You found a passage to the fourth floor?" Ji Chang asked.

"Yes, over there, there's a spiral staircase," Feng Bujue pointed to a third direction again, "The two surviving murderers left traces when they went up the stairs, easy to judge." He turned his head, "It wouldn't be appropriate to chase after them rashly, so I decided to come back and share the information with you first."

After he said this, his teammates fell into contemplation again.

About a minute later, Feng Bujue spoke, "Alright, now you should have a preliminary idea of the situation. Come with me, I'll take you to see the scenes in order."

The words "in order" in his statement were very important. The other three understood as soon as they heard that the order in which Feng Bujue discovered the three locations was not necessarily the order in which he described them, but he had already sorted out the order of events through observation, so he spoke in the order of "first murder scene, second murder scene, passage to the fourth floor."

The three followed Feng Bujue, heading towards a corner of the third floor. Halfway there, everyone smelled an unpleasant odor, presumably the smell emanating from the corpse.

Before long, they used the light of their flashlights to see a corpse lying flat on the floor tiles.

The deceased… let's just say, was a witch.

She was wearing black coarse cloth clothes, and the cape on her body was tattered, dirty, and smelly. Her face was extremely ugly, a large hooked nose grew in the center, with a protruding, pus-filled lump on the tip of her nose and on her chin, dense wrinkles were as distinct as scars, and a pair of bulging eyes were wide open in death.

Of course, if everyone thinks that with this iconic clothing and appearance, it still can't prove that she is a witch, then… next to the corpse's hand, there was also a hat, a broom, and an apple.

The hat was a black pointed wide-brimmed hat; the broom was wooden, the kind Mr. Potter often rides; and the apple was bright red, full, as if it had just been picked from a tree.

"Let me explain, there are two fatal wounds," Feng Bujue said, squatting next to the corpse, facing the stinking corpse, explaining without any pressure, "And both are obvious."

He stretched out his flashlight, focusing the light on the top of the witch's head. Under the light, it could be seen that the corpse's skull had been lifted, brain matter and blood were flowing on the ground, and the brain in the head was also missing.

"The first is on the head. Someone used a sharp weapon to chop her skull off with one blow along the hairline," Feng Bujue said, "As for the whereabouts of the brain… you'll understand in a moment."

Looking at Feng Bujue's casual explanation and battle-hardened demeanor, the three teammates were all in awe.

"The second is the chest cavity," Feng Bujue moved the flashlight down, shining it on the witch's torso.

The witch had been disemboweled, her ribs pried open to both sides, and her internal organs were all exposed to the air.

"The heart and gallbladder have been removed," Feng Bujue said, "Other organs have varying degrees of damage, but at least they remain in the body."

"Then… how did you see that… there were four murderers?" Qiu Feng asked.

"Oh, the hints are still obvious," Feng Bujue stood up, "First of all, without a doubt, this is a witch." As he spoke, he picked up the flashlight and shined it on a wall only two meters away from the corpse.

The three teammates all showed surprised expressions at this moment, because there was a line of blood on the wall.

The line was in English, and there was also a translation in the system menu, the content was: [There's no place like home.]

"Secondly, there's this hint," Feng Bujue continued.

"Wait… could this be…" Ji Chang already understood, but the other two seemed a little confused.

"That's right, this is Dorothy's line at the end of *The Wizard of Oz*," Feng Bujue shone the flashlight on the old witch's feet again, "Look, she's not wearing shoes, that's also corroborating evidence, right?"

"Are you kidding me…" This time, Qiu Feng and Honghu also realized who the "four murderers" Feng Bujue was talking about were.

"Yeah, this puzzle is as simple as a joke," Feng Bujue shone the light on the corpse, explaining, "It's nothing more than the quartet subduing the witch together, then the Lion tearing open her torso and taking the 'gall' from inside, the Tin Man digging out the 'heart', and then using an ax to split open the witch's skull, allowing the Scarecrow to take the 'brain'. As for Dorothy, she stole the witch's magic shoes." His tone was very relaxed, and he also said to the words on the wall, "Nine out of ten people who write on the wall at a crime scene are superfluous idiots, and one is a genius." He pursed his lips and shook his head, "But this line makes me feel very puzzled." He looked at his teammates with a questioning look, "What do you guys think?"

"My opinion is… aren't you a little too calm?" Qiu Feng said, "What I mean by 'are you kidding me' is that the situation in front of us is destroying my childhood!"

"Oh… that's what you meant," Feng Bujue said, "Unfortunately, I sneered at this kind of children's literature in my childhood, although I watched quite a bit…"

"Artists are indeed a little abnormal…" Honghu coldly retorted, then pulled the topic back on track, "Regarding this line of blood… I think there are two possibilities." He paused for a moment, then continued, "First, the murderer has nothing to do with the *Wizard of Oz* quartet, this line was left by the real murderer to mislead us; second, assuming that Dorothy and her group really killed the witch… then this line may be a hint given by the system, not written by anyone."

"Hmm… similar to my initial hypothesis," Feng Bujue nodded, "Alright, let's go to the second location." He shined the flashlight on the corpse again, "Oh, right, now there's no need to guarantee the integrity of the scene, take away anything you can, it might be useful."

So, apart from Feng Bujue, the other three each picked up an item.

Honghu needed one hand to hold the flashlight, so he picked up the smallest apple; Qiu Feng took the broom on Jue-ge's suggestion (when Qiu Feng asked him why, Feng Bujue replied - Qiu Feng sweeps away fallen leaves); Ji Chang took the witch's pointed wide-brimmed hat.

[Name: Apple]

[Type: Story Related]

[Quality: Ordinary]

[Function: Unknown]

[Whether it can be brought out of this script: No]

[Remarks: A bright red apple, looks tempting.]

…………

[Name: Broom]

[Type: Story Related]

[Quality: Ordinary]

[Function: Unknown]

[Whether it can be brought out of this script: No]

[Remarks: Seems to have other functions besides sweeping.]

…………

[Name: Pointed Hat]

[Type: Story Related]

[Quality: Ordinary]

[Function: Unknown]

[Whether it can be brought out of this script: No]

[Remarks: It's okay to wear it if you don't mind the odor inside.]

The descriptions of these three items adhere to the overall style of this script… which is not to give you clear hints. How to use the items specifically is up to you to figure out. Anyway, the second to last item says that they can't be brought out of the script, which proves that they are useful.

"Look at these bloody footprints…" Feng Bujue led his teammates towards the second crime scene, while shining the flashlight on the traces on the marble floor, "The most obvious are the lion's footprints, followed by the Tin Man." He pointed his finger, "The shallower cloth shoe prints are the Scarecrow's, and the remaining two rows of small footprints are naturally left by Dorothy."

They walked along the wall, and as they spoke, they had arrived at the second body-dumping location, no more than a hundred meters away from where the witch died.

"What's this situation…" Qiu Feng said.

This time, two corpses appeared in front of them, one was a little girl in a blue dress and shirt, and the other was a giant lion.

Feng Bujue, like a commentator, stepped forward and said with great interest: "Dorothy should have been killed by the lion." He shined the flashlight towards the corpse's head, "A large chunk of her neck was bitten off, tearing away both bone and flesh, and her face was clawed like the protagonist of a horror movie."

He turned his head and pointed to a pair of silver high heels scattered next to Dorothy's corpse: "These should be the witch's shoes. It seems that she didn't put on these shoes immediately after killing the witch, but just carried them away in her hand."

"Wait…" Ji Chang said, "How do I remember… in *The Wizard of Oz*, the Eastern Witch's magic shoes are red?"

"That's a common misconception," Feng Bujue replied, "Actually, in L. Frank Baum's original work, the shoes were silver. But because the 1939 film version of *The Wizard of Oz* is so classic, most of the film and television adaptations have been influenced by it, setting the witch's shoes as red."

"You even know this kind of thing…" Even Honghu expressed amazement at the breadth of Feng Bujue's knowledge.

"This is common sense," Feng Bujue replied.

"What common sense… If you hadn't said it, I wouldn't even know who the author of *The Wizard of Oz* is…" Qiu Feng bluntly said.

"Then there's nothing I can do, anyway, this is common sense to me," Feng Bujue came to the lion's corpse again, "Let's take a look at this guy."

"Obviously, he was killed by an ax," Honghu said, looking at the lion's corpse, "And judging from the angle and depth of these wounds, as well as the bloodstains on the ground, he fought with the one holding the ax before he died."

Ji Chang continued, "Judging from the scars alone… undoubtedly the lion killed Dorothy, and the Tin Man killed the lion."

"It should be said that the Tin Man and the Scarecrow killed the lion together," Feng Bujue added, "You see…" He squatted down, put the flashlight on the ground, wrapped his arms around the lion's head, and pried open the beast's big mouth, "There's a tuft of straw in his mouth, see?"

"Okay, okay… don't be so serious…" Qiu Feng advised.

Feng Bujue closed the lion's mouth and patted the mane on his clothes, but got a handful of blood. He didn't care too much, just stood up and said: "However, I think the Scarecrow's power can't have any impact on the lion at all, even if he participated in the attack, it can only cause superficial damage, in essence, the one who killed the lion was still the Tin Man."

"There's a message here too…" As Honghu spoke, the flashlight in his hand was already shining towards the wall.

On the wall here, there was also a line of blood.

"Ah, that's right," Feng Bujue responded, "Also a very directional hint."

[When you think you've gotten what you wanted, you've actually lost more.]

The three, excluding Jue-ge, stared at this line for a long time, Ji Chang was the first to speak: "Putting aside the philosophical meaning that this sentence may contain… the metaphorical situation should be…" He paused slightly for a second, and continued, "The lion gained 'gall', so he wanted to eat Dorothy, and the Tin Man with a good 'heart' and the Scarecrow with a 'brain', after seeing this scene, killed the lion."

"On the surface… it's true," Honghu replied.

"Oh? On the surface?" Ji Chang asked suspiciously.

Qiu Feng also read aloud from the side: "If you think about it carefully… there are indeed many doubts."

"For example?" Ji Chang asked.

Honghu replied again: "If the lion didn't have the courage to attack people before gaining courage, how do you explain the death of the old witch?" He pushed his glasses, "Also, since Dorothy got the witch's shoes, why didn't she put them on and leave? These shoes have teleportation magic, don't they?"

Feng Bujue said again: "Well… let's put these questions aside for now." As he spoke, he bent down and picked up the pair of silver magic shoes, "Let's go to the stairs leading to the fourth floor first."