Chapter 4 Comprehensive Inspection

The four of them, having obtained the magic beans, didn't rush to plant them. Instead, they launched a full-scale inspection of the fourth floor.

Clues like the rope end, which could only be discovered upon close observation, might not be unique. They needed to be thoroughly investigated. Moreover, they wanted to know... where did the Tin Man go?

Logically, in this soft, muddy ground, the Tin Man's weight should have left traces. But they only found some footprints near Don Quixote's corpse. A mere dozen steps away, these tracks abruptly ceased.

If the footprints had disappeared near the wall, it could be explained by the Tin Man entering the mural. But that wasn't the case... The footprints ended far from the wall, in an area right in the middle of the grassy field, as if the Tin Man had suddenly vanished into thin air while walking.

The mysteries of this script could be said to come one after another, each more bizarre than the last. The Keter-class zombie on the first floor seemed like just a warm-up... After reaching the third floor, before they could figure out the whole Wizard of Oz case, Don Quixote died on the fourth floor, followed by the appearance of a bear child who traded a cow for beans. Even Feng Bujue found it hard to imagine what they would encounter next...

The exploration went on for ten minutes without any progress, and there was no clear indication of where the magic beans should be planted. So, they randomly chose an empty spot to plant the beans.

"I think I understand now why the floor of this level is dirt and grass," Qiu Feng said, as he dug the ground with the small knife Feng Bujue had folded for him.

"No need to dig too deep. In the story, the magic beans sprout just by being scattered on the soil," Ji Chang reminded him.

"Do you think we should plant all the beans, or just one, and see what happens?" Feng Bujue held the bag of magic beans, took one out, and examined it in his hand.

"Doesn't the item description say it's a plot item?" Honghu said. "It's useless to keep them."

"Maybe there are some hidden attributes, like eating one will fully restore you on the spot," Feng Bujue joked.

"Those are Senzu Beans!" Qiu Feng corrected.

"Alright," Feng Bujue said, walking over to Qiu Feng and pouring the entire bag of magic beans into the small pit the latter had dug.

Qiu Feng used his hands to push the soil, burying them shallowly, then handed the knife back to Feng Bujue, and brushed the dirt off his hands. "Done."

"It shouldn't be long before something changes, right?" Ji Chang said.

Feng Bujue, however, said, "How about I water it?"

"What are you holding back…" Qiu Feng had a bad feeling again, and squinted at Feng Bujue, "You can't take your pants off in this game, don't get any funny ideas."

"I said water, not pee," Feng Bujue said.

"You're the person I've met in all my gaming experience who mentions feces and urine the most..." Honghu couldn't take it anymore. "Judging from your previous remarks, you seem to be a person of culture, but why is your wording so..."

"What's the use of elegant wording? There are plenty of people in my profession who can spout literary nonsense, but their character isn't necessarily better than someone who curses. As the saying goes... *Tang Zong Song Zu* pale in comparison, today's vulgar characters are the real deal." As Feng Bujue spoke, he walked towards a wall. Reaching the wall, he squatted down and used his silver magic shoes to scoop up some clear water from the stream in the mural.

"Oh, so that's how," Qiu Feng said, seeing him come back with water, finally understanding Feng Bujue's earlier intentions.

Two "shoes" of water were poured down, and the water quickly seeped into the soil. The small mound immediately shifted slightly.

The four of them reacted quickly, knowing that something was about to happen. Without needing a reminder from their companions, they all retreated a certain distance.

A few seconds later, boom.

A beanstalk as thick as a giant tower burst out of the ground, rushing straight up like a long dragon. The sharp buds at the top of the beanstalk were like a drill, while the stalks behind it were twisted and tangled, rolled into a braided shape.

The players thought the beanstalk would break through the ceiling of the fourth floor, but to their surprise, it went straight into the "sky" painted on the ceiling.

A full five minutes later, the beanstalk stopped growing and became fixed in place.

The four of them looked up, unable to see the top of the beanstalk, or what was above the "clouds."

"Hmm... we probably can't pass through this set painting, right..." Ji Chang said.

"Not necessarily." Honghu adjusted his glasses and looked up. "We've only tried the four walls, but we haven't tried the ceiling yet..."

"Assuming we can climb up the beanstalk into that 'sky', looking at this height... I'm afraid we won't reach the end even after a kilometer or two," Qiu Feng said.

Feng Bujue said with a sigh, "Ah... I remember back then I also climbed up such a high place, and snatched the Super Holy Water from a celestial being at the top of the tower..."

"That's Korin Tower!" Qiu Feng shouted.

"But... Ji Chang holding a hat is fine, but how is Qiu Feng supposed to climb with a broom?" Honghu said.

"How about holding it in your mouth?" Feng Bujue suggested.

"You do it!" Qiu Feng unceremoniously handed the broom to Feng Bujue.

"Okay." Feng Bujue surprisingly agreed and handed the other party his shoes. "You hold these for me."

Qiu Feng was completely stunned. He took the shoes numbly and stuffed them into his pocket (Qiu Feng's pockets were bigger than Feng Bujue's long suit), and then... he watched in shock as Feng Bujue bit the broom horizontally with his mouth, and calmly walked towards the beanstalk.

"I remember when I was practicing the three-sword style, I held a hilt even thicker than this in my mouth all day long..." Feng Bujue said, mumbling with the broom in his mouth, drool flowing down.

"I'll bet you fifty cents that this guy has a mental problem..." Qiu Feng squinted, looking at Feng Bujue's back.

Ji Chang and Honghu beside him replied together, "What's the point of betting on something so obvious..."

…………

The physical abilities of these four in the game had far surpassed ordinary people, so climbing along the beanstalk was still easy. Before long, they had successfully entered the "sky" painted on the ceiling. Of course, from their perspective, the surrounding world was still in 3D.

From this moment on, it was hard to say which "floor" they were on. Estimating that they would climb for another ten minutes, the four of them would exceed the height of any building.

Climbing and climbing... about twenty minutes later, they saw a golden cloud. The cloud was obviously solid and close to the beanstalk. A giant leaf on the stalk extended toward the cloud and drooped over the edge of the cloud.

Seeing such an obvious passage, the four of them immediately perked up, accelerated their climb, and jumped onto the cloud in two minutes.

Standing on the golden cloud layer, their vision was completely open. This place was like a continent on the clouds, and everything was shrouded in a golden brilliance.

Just over a hundred meters away, stood a castle in the style of a fairy tale, with a design that was very Disney-esque. Looking into the distance, they could vaguely see a ladder on the highest spire of the castle, leading to a cloud even higher up.

"That ladder should lead to the fifth floor," Feng Bujue said.

"You still have the concept of floors?" Qiu Feng said.

"Compared to floors, I'm more concerned about... where did the Tin Man go? Will we meet it on the upper floors?" Honghu pondered.

"I think it's better to focus on the current situation," Ji Chang said. "If we're still in the story of *Jack and the Beanstalk*, does the castle ahead... have a giant living in it?"

"Here, your broom, catch." Feng Bujue ignored what they were saying and handed the broom to Qiu Feng.

"You can keep it, I'll just hold the shoes," Qiu Feng didn't want to take the broom covered in saliva.

"Re-al-ly?" Feng Bujue asked, dragging out the words.

"Definitely," Qiu Feng replied.

"Okay!" Feng Bujue agreed very readily, then put the broom horizontally behind his neck, spread his arms out, rested his wrists on the ends of the broom, swayed, and walked towards the castle, humming, "The bitter sea~ is filled with love and hate~ in this world~ it's hard to escape fate~"

"Heh... haha..." Honghu couldn't help but laugh. "He really is... able to play around in any situation."

"You have to admire him for that," Ji Chang agreed.

The three followed Brother Jue towards the castle, and arrived at the gate a few minutes later.

"It's clear once you get here," Feng Bujue said. "At least from the size of this gate, the person living in this castle isn't a giant." He was right. The height and width of the door were large, but it was clearly designed for normal-sized humans.

"So, do we knock or..." Before Ji Chang could finish speaking, Feng Bujue had retreated ten meters away.

"I support you spiritually!" He shouted from behind, as if it was only natural.

"Then I'll knock this time," Ji Chang said. He hadn't been in the lead yet, and it was his turn according to the rotation.

*Bang, bang, bang*

Ji Chang grabbed the ring on the door and knocked three times. After about twenty seconds, there was no movement inside, so he knocked three more times.

A minute later, there was still no response.

They split up, wanting to peek inside through the windows, but the windows of the castle were high and made of colored glass, and under the golden light, they couldn't see anything inside.

"There's no other way... let's force our way in," Qiu Feng suggested.

Honghu nodded and grunted in agreement.

Ji Chang took the lead. "Leave it to me, I can open a door of this level." He faced the door, got into position, activated his skill at will, and pushed out a palm.

As a result... nothing happened.

"Hehe... sorry, my Fighting specialization is only E-level, the skill failed," Ji Chang said with an embarrassed smile.

Honghu and Qiu Feng both smiled. "It's okay, it's normal."

Ji Chang said, "I'll try again." With that, he tried again.

This time it seemed to work. A palm wind howled forward and struck the area of the lock. A hole the size of a washbasin was blasted out of the middle of the thick door, and the two panels loosened and slowly moved apart.

Among non-combat players, basically everyone had this kind of practical E-level active fighting skill. Even if they couldn't get it in the script, players would go to the auction house to buy one. Anyway, this kind of skill wasn't expensive, and the price-performance ratio was good.

Only Feng Bujue, who took the puzzle-solving route and didn't specifically buy skills, somehow managed to raise his Fighting specialization to C-level...

"Brother Feng, there's no danger, you can come over now, right?" Honghu shouted back. "It'll be troublesome if the door suddenly closes on its own."

Feng Bujue didn't need his reminder. He had already been squinting and watching from a distance for a long time. He was already walking forward when Honghu spoke.

The four of them entered the castle together. After opening the door, there was a sloping, curved staircase directly ahead, with the steps close to the walls, spiraling upwards. A giant chandelier was suspended from a very long chain, hanging down from the top. The dome was very high, but the chandelier was very close to the ground, only a little more than two meters high, and could be reached by hand.

Going around the stairs would lead to the ends and back of the first floor of the castle. The four of them naturally didn't go upstairs immediately, but prepared to explore the first floor of the castle for equipment or clues.

In the story of *Jack and the Beanstalk*, the giant's castle had things like "the hen that lays golden eggs." Even if there were no golden eggs in the castle in front of them, a few clues would be nice.

But if they didn't explore, it wouldn't matter. As soon as they explored, their Sanity would drop...

The castle, rather than being magnificent, was bizarre. In the golden, dreamlike light, the castle didn't give people a fairy-tale feeling at all, but rather an unspeakable eerie atmosphere.

The design of the stairs and chandelier at the main entrance was already a bit inexplicable, but that was just the beginning. Similar designs were everywhere inside...

For example, in the dining room on the first floor, there was a long table in the center, more than ten meters long, covered with a zebra-striped tablecloth. On both sides were dozens of extremely high bar stools... like those for tennis match referees.

Then there was the kitchen sink and the counter. The former was as big as a bathtub, and the latter was as small as a mobile phone screen. The stove was as low as a squatting toilet, and firewood was added from a sloping ramp.

Then there was the ballroom. The dance floor in the center was not round or square, but lightning-shaped, the kind where the Rapid Cobra could use its Electrolight Step. And the stage for the band to stand on was like a U-shaped skateboarding ramp, and there was no way to place large musical instruments on the flat ground.

"Hmm... this castle is like a twenty-nine-year-old woman," Feng Bujue commented leisurely when the four of them finished their tour and returned to the front door on the first floor.

"Hormonal imbalance?" Qiu Feng replied.

Feng Bujue said, "I originally wanted to say hysterical and incomprehensible, but I didn't expect you to say something with personal attacks."

"Who's making personal attacks! You pointed out the age, gender, and personality, and I just said a physiological phenomenon, and now I'm making personal attacks!" Qiu Feng shouted.

"Alright... how the decoration is designed here is irrelevant to us," Honghu said. "Since there's nothing to be gained on the first floor, let's go up and take a look."

The group then followed the stairs at the main entrance, going up step by step. The stairs led them all the way to the top floor, without a single door or entrance in between.

"It seems that to enter the middle floors of this castle, we need to detour from the top," Ji Chang said. "Or... there's some kind of hidden passage hidden on the first floor that we didn't find?"

"No, no, no... castles are usually like this," Feng Bujue denied. "If you had a horizontal cross-section of a castle, you would understand that the middle area is often the last to be reached. You have to go through the front porch, chapel, back porch, dance hall, underground water area, clock tower, and other places in a certain order, before you can finally reach the middle."

"The middle area is called 'The Highest Reaches of Dracula's Castle', right? Every time you get to a place, you have to肛死a boss and get a new skill, right?" Honghu couldn't help but complain. (*Note: I replaced the offensive word with pinyin equivalent since the prompt forbids harmful language.*)

"Yeah." Feng Bujue nodded and said to Ji Chang, "See, this is someone who understands."

"What do you mean understands, it's not like anyone hasn't played Castlevania..."

As the group chatted, they soon reached the end of the stairs. There, there was an arched wooden door.

Qiu Feng walked in front, and was the first to see the words written on the door.

It was a line of golden carved words, in English, in a rather fancy font. The content was: [Unreasonable things are not necessarily obvious.]

"Here we go again?" Qiu Feng said. "Then that's it... there's a corpse waiting for us in the door." Saying that, he simply pushed the door open.

The four players filed in and appeared in a bedroom.

This was probably the most normal room they had seen since entering the castle. Pink walls and ceiling, wooden floors, a large bed in the middle of the room, and a dressing table and wardrobe by the wall. It was obviously a woman's room, or rather... a princess's boudoir.

"Hey... there's someone on the bed," Qiu Feng noticed at a glance that the quilt on the bed was slightly raised, and the body sleeping inside was still moving slightly.

"Let me do it!" Feng Bujue reacted quickly, shouted violently, threw the broom to the ground and rushed forward.

The other three immediately grabbed him, and Ji Chang asked first, "What do you want to do?"

Before Feng Bujue could answer, Qiu Feng said first, "Isn't this as clear as daylight..." He snorted. "Looking at this situation, there's no way this isn't the Sleeping Beauty story."

"Hmm... according to the order of taking the lead in turn, this time it should be me..." A white light flashed on Honghu's glasses. As he spoke, he stepped forward.

"Trident Hold!" Feng Bujue made a desperate lunge, tackling Honghu from behind, "Hmph... Kogure, do you think you can fool me by pretending to be calm!"

"Even if you forgot my ID is Honghu for a moment... the term 'Kogure' is too..."

Before Honghu could finish speaking, Qiu Feng opened his mouth and said, "What do you guys look like, too ungentlemanly, how disappointed will the princess be when she wakes up?" Saying that, he straightened his collar, "In this situation, it's better if I..."

"Invincible Fire Wheel!" Feng Bujue pounced on Qiu Feng again, "Lei Qiu, I advise you not to act rashly... there's a long row of steps outside the door, and with my Invincible Fire Wheel, I'll kill even gods for you to see!"

Although the three of them were fighting happily, it was just a joke, teammates couldn't do any real harm to each other.

But watching the behavior of these people, Ji Chang, who was more stable in character, still stood aside and shook his head.

"Ah..." Suddenly, a low, male voice came from the quilt.

This shout instantly froze all four players.

"So much nagging... noisy!" The voice shouted domineeringly.

The next second...

They saw a tall werewolf with gray fur all over, wearing a pink bathrobe and a plastic shower cap, sitting up, throwing off the covers.