Chapter 11 Unexpectedly Smooth

The departure from the Usher mansion went surprisingly smoothly. Once the magical array lost its effect, the Usher estate became an ordinary residence. A noticeable change during the return was that all the portraits on the walls had turned into chaotic scribbles, resembling a mess of mixed paints. Naturally, the illusions and spatial distortions had also disappeared. The five quickly returned to the living room near the front door on the first floor.

This time, Long Aomin kicked the door open without any effort. A gust of cold wind rushed in, but even if it were a blizzard outside, none of them wanted to stay in that house any longer.

As the group stepped out of the mansion through the front door, the system prompt chimed: [Current task completed. All main quests completed.]

Feng Bujue, who was still carrying Madeline Usher's corpse, heard another message: [Hidden quest completed.]

"So, just bringing her out of the house was enough..." Feng Bujue said, placing Madeline's body on the ground.

Soon after the corpse was laid down, it rapidly decayed at a visible rate, quickly turning into a skeleton. The skeleton then gradually turned to sand within seconds, dissolving into dust.

A wisp of faint Qi floated into the distance, dissolving into the red sky.

[You have completed this scenario. Automatic teleportation in 180 seconds.]

"It was a pleasure working with you all," Bei Ling said with a sweet smile.

"Yeah, likewise," Feng Bujue replied.

Long Aomin stretched and sighed, "Hah... this scenario was really stifling, just a scary mess. My fear rating will definitely be terrible this time."

"Brother Long, you're still thinking about your fear rating? I'm scared witless almost every time, and I've only gotten 'panic-stricken' once!" Xiao Tan said.

"Goodbye," Si Yu said simply, then patted Bei Ling on the shoulder, signaling that she could leave the scenario, before disappearing from sight.

Bei Ling waved to the three of them, "Bye-bye." Then, looking at Xiao Tan, she added, "Oh, thanks for the flashlight."

Before Xiao Tan could respond, she was teleported away in a flash of white light.

Feng Bujue then said, "Let's teleport too, settle the rewards, and queue for the next scenario."

Long Aomin said, "Brother Feng, I'm going to stop here for tonight. I set my connection time to 11:40 PM. I already played over ten hours of game content before you logged on, and this scenario took more than three hours. If I keep going, I'll probably have a headache tomorrow."

"Okay, sure," Feng Bujue replied. "Then you log off first, Brother Long, and we'll continue."

Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi said goodbye to Brother Long, and the three of them left the scenario one after another.

The autumn wind blew past the mansion by the mountain pool. This world remained somber, obscure, and silent.

Beneath the blood-red moon descending in the sky, in the darkest hour before dawn, the gates of the Usher mansion were once again abruptly closed by an invisible force...

...

Long Aomin glanced at the settlement details and logged off. Anyway, the rewards in the settlement could be claimed at any time before the next scenario started, so it was fine to leave them in the login space for now. The screen showed that after he left the team, his name in the friend list turned gray.

Before Feng Bujue could even look at the settlement details, he noticed two friend requests. He opened them and, as expected, they were from Si Yu Ruo Li and Bei Ling Xiao Gu.

At the same time, Wang Tanzhi's excited voice echoed in the team channel once again: "Brother Jue!"

"I know, they added you as a friend," Feng Bujue said directly.

"How did you know again?" Xiao Tan asked. "Oh, right... they probably added you too."

"I could guess from your loud and excited reaction," Feng Bujue said. "What's so exciting about it?"

"Aren't you excited when beautiful women take the initiative to add you as a friend?" Wang Tanzhi asked, sounding quite righteous.

"And you call yourself a 'tall, rich, and handsome'... how can you be so shallow?" Feng Bujue retorted. "Besides, even if they're ugly in real life, they can become beautiful in the game."

"Brother Jue, if you always think of others that way, you'll be lonely forever..."

"I'm not even sure how long I have to live, why would I worry about being lonely?" Feng Bujue said. "Besides, I decided when I was ten that considering the worst in everything is the only way to face any problem calmly." He was indeed very calm when he said this. "Look how calm I was when my parents passed away, and when I found out I had an unknown terminal illness."

"Heh... heh heh... okay..." Xiao Tan's lips twitched, speechless.

"But speaking of which, that Si Yu Ruo Li is really amazing. Just based on the skills she showed, I can say... she's stronger than Brother Long." Feng Bujue said, accepting the two friend requests. "We've only met a limited number of players so far. She's probably the strongest player I've met so far."

"Should we invite them to queue up with us next time?" Wang Tanzhi asked.

"Of course not," Feng Bujue replied. "I just said we've met a limited number of players, and you're already suggesting something that will make it even harder for us to meet new players."

"Oh, right..." Wang Tanzhi said. "If we queue with four people, we'll only meet two strangers at most, or maybe none at all."

"Anyway... let me check the settlement and I'll call you when I'm done. Take a rest for now," Feng Bujue said.

"Got it," Wang Tanzhi replied. "I need to check the settlement too."

...

At the same time, in Si Yu Ruo Li's login space.

She was also talking to Bei Ling Xiao Gu.

Bei Ling said, "Sister, it shows that they've accepted the friend requests. Um... Brother Long logged off soon after accepting."

"Same here," Si Yu said.

"Hey hey, Sister, you already know, right?" Bei Ling asked.

"You mean that Feng Bujue?"

"Yeah, he's a novelist, his name has 'Bujue' in it, and he said he's not very famous. It all matches that San Tian Liang Jue."

"Maybe, but the name used in the game can't be used as a basis," Si Yu replied. "Although claiming to be a 'great writer' is indeed in line with San Tian Liang Jue's style, and his simple-minded friend answered first when I asked if he was a novelist... but we can't be completely sure he is."

"Hehe... what if he is?" Bei Ling asked with a mischievous smile.

"If he is, then he is. What are you laughing at?" Si Yu retorted.

"Sister, aren't you a fan of his? Isn't meeting your idol every fan's dream?"

"I just like reading his novels," Si Yu replied, her tone sounding calm and not defensive. "I know nothing about him, how can he be an 'idol'?" She paused, then added, "Besides, if it's really as you say... I shouldn't get to know him even more."

Bei Ling shook her head thoughtfully in her own space, "Hmm... so... is admiration the emotion farthest from understanding?"

"You think I wouldn't know you're quoting Aizen just because you said it so seriously?" Si Yu mercilessly exposed Bei Ling in an icy tone.

"Hmph... anyway, he's your idol, not mine. Maybe he'll ignore you in the future because you made your face ugly, eh..." Bei Ling stuck out her tongue and made a face at the screen, even though the other person couldn't see her...

"I just don't want to be too conspicuous, but it seems like I failed," Si Yu said. "Showing too much strength will also lead to a lot of friend requests... It's a pity that appearances can't be changed after going through a scenario once, otherwise I should change it to be extremely ugly, so I can completely prevent harassment."

...

Order Studio, in the break room.

Yongzhe Wudi sat there drinking coffee, looking gloomy. He had finished his sleep mode shift and would have to log on in non-sleep mode after an hour of rest.

"What's wrong? Brother Wudi, did you die in the scenario?" A young man who looked only sixteen or seventeen, and was very thin, came and sat on the sofa next to him. He was also one of the studio's players, with the game ID: Tun Tian Gui Xiao (Devouring Sky Ghost Warrior).

Within the studio, employees generally addressed each other by their in-game names, because their IDs were fixed in all games, like employee numbers in a company. Top studios like "Order" generally didn't have to worry about members' nicknames being taken in a game. They logged into the game as soon as the server opened, and sometimes they even directly funded the game company to reserve these IDs for them.

"Ah... dying isn't a big deal, that was my own mistake. I immediately queued for another scenario, but after I finished that scenario, I came out and saw that the scenario I died in had actually been cleared, and it was cleared by three noobs and two female players. I barely got any experience points, which means my contribution was negligible..."

"How did that happen?" Gui Xiao asked.

"I was just thinking about it," Yongzhe Wudi replied. "Could it be that I was tricked by someone playing dumb to deceive me... that level 11 noob called 'Feng Bujue' might have been pretending to be stupid, making me think he was a burden, and then acting alone..."

"Oh... I see, at first you thought others were a hindrance, but in the end you found out you were the superfluous one," Gui Xiao said.

"Whose side are you on, kid?" Yongzhe Wudi shouted.

"Hehe... I won't say anymore, okay?" Gui Xiao said with a smile, standing up. "I'm going home to sleep."

"What? Your shift is over?" Yongzhe Wudi asked.

"No, the team leader told me not to train and gave me a day off," Gui Xiao replied.

"What? During the beta test? Giving you a day off?" Yongzhe Wudi widened his eyes. "Are you also level twenty?"

"Level fifteen," Gui Xiao shrugged. "Here's what happened... I killed Wuju Ge (Fearless Bro) and his two lackeys in the [Slaughter Game] mode. They complained to the team leader, saying that I wasn't cooperating with them to improve their specialization levels." He said with a smile, "Sigh... these adults nowadays... can't afford to lose."