【Welcome to use our company's products, scanning has begun, please wait.】

【Scanning is complete, citizen ID confirmed: sh13***313, Name: Feng Bujue; Access device: nL2055 standard single-player game pod, no abnormal external hardware detected; Cardiopulmonary function within normal range; Neural connection program ready, please select the access type.】

【Access type is non-sleep mode, adjusting... adjustment complete, please confirm loading the game or returning to the previous option.】

【Program starting, loading the game in ten seconds...】

After hearing the countdown, Feng Bujue quickly entered the world of the game. He found himself in an environment very similar to an elevator, but there were no floor buttons next to the door. On the wall to his right was a thirty-two-inch touchscreen. The entire wall facing the door was a complete mirror, allowing players to see themselves from head to toe.

Feng Bujue looked at his image in the mirror. He was now a high-pixelated 3D CG character. His clothes had changed to a black long-sleeved t-shirt and trousers, nothing special. The game character's face was almost identical to his own in reality, less than 1.8 meters tall, with messy hair and slightly feminine facial features.

With the support of fourth-generation optical brain technology, players in neural connection games can obtain true-to-life sensory experiences, but the game screen is still limited to CG images, and cannot allow players to load into environments similar to real-life scene shooting effects.

【Welcome to the game login space, the following are all the game projects provided by Meng Company, please select a login.】

The system prompt sounded again in his ear, and selectable icons appeared on the touchscreen next to him.

"There's only one option, and they still created this login space... Is this company hinting that they will launch many games in the future..." Feng Bujue thought to himself, tapping the only game project on the screen—Thriller Paradise.

【Players logging into this game must be sixteen years of age or older. This company does not recommend users with heart disease, mental illness, or related medical history to access this project.】

This sentence was displayed on the screen, and the system voice repeated it again. Then three icons appeared on the screen, one was "Confirm Login", another was "Cancel", and next to it was a very eye-catching link option "Related Disclaimer".

"Mental illness, huh..." Feng Bujue muttered to himself, "It's better to take a look." He selected the third option, and dense text clauses immediately popped up on the screen. A glance at the scroll bar on the right showed that this disclaimer was extremely long.

When playing games, most people would probably close similar agreements or instructions directly, or just scan them, scroll to the bottom, and click agree.

But Feng Bujue was not an ordinary person...

He was twenty-four years old this year, a mystery novelist who shamelessly called himself an "artist" or "great writer" whenever someone asked him about his profession, but these were not the main points. Let's talk about his abnormalities first.

First of all, his original intention to play this game was to "cure a disease." Of course, this disease was definitely not internet addiction, but a real disease.

About two months ago, Feng Bujue suddenly discovered that he had developed some kind of abnormality. He spent about three days confirming that he had lost the emotion of "fear."

No matter how terrifying the sounds and images were, they could not stimulate him. He watched horror movies and read horror novels day and night, and tried to use his imagination to scare himself, but it was useless. It was as if a certain door in his brain had closed. He clearly knew what the horror elements were and completely understood where the scary points in horror movies were, but he just couldn't feel afraid.

So he went to a nearby hospital. If he hadn't gone, it would have been fine, but once he went, a big problem was found. An MRI showed a blurry shadow in his brain, near the amygdala. The possibility of a tumor could not be ruled out.

Later, Feng Bujue went to three or four of the best hospitals in the country, but none of them could make a diagnosis. The proposed treatments were varied. After countless tests and n consultations with n famous doctors, Feng Bujue basically understood... This disease was probably going to be recorded in history. As a patient, there were two things to consider: first, which doctor should be given the naming rights for the disease, and second, whether to donate his brain to medical experiments after death, which would also be a contribution to the scientific field.

Two months passed, and the shadow in Feng Bujue's brain did not change in any way. It did not worsen, nor did it shrink or disappear. All other aspects of his body were completely normal, even healthy. After thinking about it, he simply refused treatment and was discharged from the hospital.

Since the loss of fear was the only symptom, and no one could explain whether he would die, or how long it would take to die, he decided to let fate decide.

One day, Feng Bujue accidentally saw an internal beta advertisement for Thriller Paradise. The advertising slogan at the time was "Break through the traditional game mode, let you be in despair, shock, and the ever-present horror, and experience an unprecedented gaming experience." Then, he checked the game's setting instructions, watched a well-produced promotional video that claimed to have scared children into wetting their pants, and noticed the link "Buy a new game pod and get an internal beta account".

So, although it seemed unbelievable, Feng Bujue entered this game not only to "play", but mainly to be "scared". He also had the mentality of grasping at straws, hoping that in this immersive horror baptism, he could stimulate himself to regain the feeling of fear.

Of course, just having this bizarre mental abnormality could only prove that Feng Bujue was a patient. He was not an "ordinary person" not only because of his brain tumor. Because before he got this disease, he was already different, or in a certain local dialect--a weirdo.

Feng Bujue had many quirks. Although he didn't have OCD, most of them were puzzling. Here's one: a reading addiction...

His desire for reading was difficult for ordinary people to understand. For example, he would read all the words on the shampoo packaging box; for example, he could read the instruction manual of household appliances from beginning to end without missing a word; and even more amazing... he would not even let go of the tags cut off from new clothes.

As long as something or someone was related to Feng Bujue's interests, he would instinctively collect all the information related to it. Moreover, he didn't just read it casually without thinking. He also had amazing reading and memory skills. Although he was not as good as Zhang Song in ancient times, who could never forget what he had read and recite it fluently, he could remember at least 60% of what he had read, even after a long time.

"Well... the agreement is similar to other games." Feng Bujue spent two minutes reading the thousands of words of terms, "The only special thing is those paragraphs in the sixth section..." He lowered his head slightly, supported his right elbow with his left hand, and put the index and middle fingers of his right hand on his forehead, then gently slid down the bridge of his nose. This was his habit when thinking, "That is to say... the company is not responsible for players dying from heart attacks or mental illnesses being induced." He recited as if summarizing.

Feng Bujue felt that he could not rule out that this clause was a gimmick deliberately made by Meng Company. He had seen the game settings on the official website before. The biggest selling point of this game was the concept of "scare value". Through the functions of the optical brain and the game pod, real-time monitoring of players' heartbeat, pulse, blood pressure, and brain nerve reactions was achieved to measure the degree of fear. If the player's scare value exceeds the critical point in the game instantly, the nerve connection will be forcibly disconnected and the player will immediately log off. And if the player's physical condition is seriously abnormal, such as cardiac arrest or suffocation after logging off, the game pod will notify the ambulance as soon as possible. Anyway, all neural connection networks are connected to the police and emergency departments. According to this design, the possibility of scaring people to death should not be great.

After clicking continue, Feng Bujue heard the system prompt again: 【This is your first time logging into the game, please enter the nickname you will use in the game.】

An input area appeared on the screen, and some restrictions were written next to it, such as nicknames must be at least four bytes long and cannot contain profanity or sensitive words. In the era of optical brains, such restrictions are more thorough. The system's intelligence and calculation ability are so high that it is terrifying. "It" only needs a harmonious word library, or even a general category, to independently exert its reasoning ability and restrict any tangential behavior. For example, names like ****, or adding a symbol after fuC and then adding a k, these anti-harmonization methods are useless for fourth-generation optical brains. More than ten years ago, some people worried that the AI of such computers might turn around and attack and enslave humans, but so far, there is no reliable factual basis to support this view.

In short, the intelligence of the optical brain is very strong. As for how strong it is, it will be supplemented later...

【Detection complete, nickname "Feng Bujue" (疯不觉), can be used, please confirm.】

Feng Bujue's real name was very uncommon, so it should also be usable, but he replaced "Feng" (封) with "Feng" (疯), firstly because he didn't want to use his real name directly, and secondly because it was somewhat self-deprecating.

After clicking confirm, the system voice said: 【Next, the newbie tutorial will be conducted. This tutorial can only be completed once. The script is randomly generated. After completion, you will receive corresponding initial rewards. Please note that the results of the newbie tutorial will not affect your character's initial attributes, only the rewards are different. If you interrupt the tutorial due to excessive scare value, actively disconnecting the connection, leaving the game pod, etc., you will not be able to continue the original script the next time you enter the game, and the system will generate a new tutorial for you.】

After hearing the prompt, Feng Bujue reached out to press the confirm option again. Who knew that as soon as his finger touched the icon on the touchscreen, the entire elevator suddenly became pitch black.

The next second, a voice sounded, completely different from the mechanical system voice just now. The voice sounded like an old witch: "Welcome to Thriller Paradise..."

As soon as the voice fell, the elevator shook violently without warning. Then, this black box, where you couldn't see your fingers, started to move, slowly sinking downwards.