Chapter 135 The Earth’s Wasteland 8
One hour earlier…
Flashes of Sword was standing around five meters away from the headless body, standing guard for Feng Bujue.
"Are you sure you want to do something like that?" Flashes of Sword glanced at Feng Bujue, who was working on the dead body, and his eyes seemed to be saying, You are one hell of a madman.
"Isn't that question a bit too late since I am already working on it? Also, is this because you don't want to lose another grenade?" Feng Bujue asked.
"Ah… To be honest, compared to the waste of the grenade, I am more worried about your mental state…" Flashes of Sword frowned at him.
"What has this got to do with my mental state?" Feng Bujue replied. "I am merely using a man's carcass to step up a trap inside a virtual game. Any mentally stable person, as long as they can come up with this strategy, would not hesitate to put it into action."
"Haha… Whatever you say…" Flashes of Sword did not want to argue with the man, and at that moment, he had an inkling as to why this man's IGN was Feng Bujue, the 'Feng' here synonymous with crazy.
Feng Bujue curled one end of the metallic wire around the grenade's safety pin. He held the grenade in his hand, rolled up his sleeves, and roughly and directly reached his hand into the dead man's intestines. He shoved the grenade into the body and placed it snugly inside the stomach. On the front of the carcass, he incised a very small wound so that the metallic wire could be seen peeking through from underneath the layer of skin.
Then, he spent time carving down that sentence around the location where the metallic wire was poking out. He used a question mark to decorate it, and then, all they needed to do was wait for the other party to bite the bait.
"If you've left behind this message, why are you covering most of it with his shirt?" Flashes of Sword asked when he saw what Feng Bujue was doing.
"If I just leave it in the open, they will be able to see what I've written from afar," Feng Bujue said. "But if I cover the whole message completely, they might not discover this message."
After he was done, he used the man's shirt to wipe his hands and stood up. "Leaving it half-showing like this means that they will squat down and lift up the tank top to see what it is. Then… as long as they have normal sight, they will notice this end of the metallic wire poking out."
"How can you be so confident that they will tweak with the wire?" Flashes of Sword asked.
"Who said I am confident that they will do something like that?" Feng Bujue asked back.
"Huh?" Flashes of Sword did not seem to understand what he meant.
"Does this look like an obvious trap to you?"
"Hmm… It does not."
"Why doesn't it?"
Flashes of Sword tried to follow his jump in thought. "Traps should be placed in a location where the enemy must pass, and there should be an element of surprise to it, like hiding it behind a door."
Feng Bujue nodded. "You're right."
"I'm right?" Flashes of Sword still did not quite get it.
"I will give you another example," Feng Bujue said. "Do you still remember that treasure chest from earlier where we received the side quest?"
"Of course, I do."
"If we opened the chest and it led to an explosion, does that mean that we have triggered a trap?"
"The system would not do something like that," Flashes of Sword replied. "There is no chance for the players to avoid something like that. If the chest really exploded, there would have been a hint about that before the players opened it."
"Oh," Feng Bujue said. "Then, am I the system?"
"Hmm…"
"Do I look like someone who would be kind enough to provide hints to our enemy?"
"This…"
"Other than that, there is another reason why you have absolute faith that opening the chest will not trigger an instant death," Feng Bujue added.
"That is because…" Flashes of Sword followed Feng Bujue's explanation and came up with this supposition. "The room represents an optional quest. We could have ignored the door and walked away down the other path. Even if we chose to return to kill the monster inside the room later, we would still be given the choice to open the chest or not."
Feng Bujue pointed at the dead body. "This body is left lying on the ground. They could ignore it and skip that message. In fact, even if they see it, they could choose not to touch that metallic wire."
Flashes of Sword scratched his head. He believed that he was beginning to understand it. "So, this… is some kind of mind trick?"
Feng Bujue was already walking away. He signaled for his teammate to follow. As he walked away, he said, "To make someone do something that might appear unnecessary and is actually unbeneficial to them, first, you have to make them believe that the activity itself is a choice. They are not forced into doing it. And then, this activity must look 'normal' on the surface, and normal here means that… it shouldn't be too difficult because that might be a deterrent. However, it also can't be too easy because it would easily raise suspicion.
"For example, if you want to murder someone, the victim will naturally struggle. That is a kind of 'normal'. But an overly violent struggle will give you pause, while the victim being absolutely calm will make you suspect that there is something up their sleeves.
"If, for example, you want to go inside a facility to plant a bomb, an overly strict security protocol might cause you to give up on your plan, but a complete lack of security will cause you to suspect that it is a trap…"
Feng Bujue licked his lips and coughed twice. "So, I've hidden the grenade inside the body, and the metallic wire to trigger it is placed at somewhere where they are free to touch it or not. I did not leave my message on the surface nor did I carve it on the body's arse so that they would have to work to find it. Finally… I merely left them a surprise that they might not expect."
"Then what if they do not discover the metallic wire or leave without even checking the dead body closely?" Flashes of Sword asked.
"They are professional gamers, right?" Feng Bujue said.
"Yes…"
"If it was you, would you leave such a clue behind and just walk away?"
Before Flashes of Sword could answer, Feng Bujue added, "Of course, the worst situation here is the waste of a grenade. That's all."
"And that is no loss for you at all, right?"
"Indeed," Feng Bujue answered shamelessly.
They kept up this conversation for a while. After another ten minutes, when they turned a corner… a piece of metal the size of a basketball suddenly flew at them. It brushed past Feng Bujue's left cheek before hurtling away. Feng Bujue's first reaction was to bend over to grab his pistol and start countering. He looked ahead and discovered a human shadow at the darkened bend of the corridor ahead of them. It was clear that this was their assailant who had launched that earlier attack.
Flashes of Sword noticed the person who ambushed them as well. His response was incredibly swift. Without waiting for a conversation, he lunged forward with his sword in hand. No matter who or what the assailant was, for Flashes of Sword, as long as the distance was close enough for him to activate Shining Moon Slash, he was confident that he would not lose.
The other party saw Flashes of Sword's reaction and was overcome by shock. He stood there, frozen, for about two seconds before turning to run. By then, Feng Bujue had started to run ahead as well. Noticing the other person's reaction, he yelled at Flashes of Sword, who was in front of him, "Capture him alive!"
Flashes of Sword did not have time to answer, but he did hear him.
Feng Bujue could move quite fast when he gave it his all. From the scenario where they had the 1v1 fight, it was observable that when Feng Bujue was running at full speed, he would be around seventy to eighty percent of Flashes of Sword's speed. And after activating Body Enhancement Spell, even at his maximum speed, Flashes of Sword would have trouble catching up to Feng Bujue.
The two were chasing after the escapee at around the same speed. The man was also wearing the orange protective suit. His speed was not on the same level as the two players, and he was further weighed down by the anti-gravity gun that he was holding. Seeing all that, Feng Bujue had basically confirmed that this man who attempted to ambush them would be crucial for them to understand this scenario, so he called out again, "We must make sure we capture him alive."
It did not take long for Flashes of Sword to enter the range where he could use Shining Moon Slash. With a teleport, he appeared in front of the man. The latter acted like he had just seen a ghost; however, inertia propelled him forward. Flashes of Sword raised his arm and aimed his elbow at the man's shoulder. That disrupted his balance and instantly knocked the man to the ground.
Even though he had tripped the man, causing him to groan in pain on the ground, Flashes of Sword did not stop there. He moved swiftly to twist the man's arm, press his face to the ground, and confiscate the anti-gravity gun.
Feng Bujue also arrived then. However, he was not as collected as the martial expert. Seeing as the situation had been handled, he put his hands on his knees and gasped for as much air as he could.
"Speak, who are you?" Flashes of Sword demanded of their captive. The man was still catching his breath from all the running from earlier, and he had also suffered a violent knock. Understandably, he was in no condition to speak.
"You can let him go now," Feng Bujue said. "It'll be fine."
Flashes of Sword released his grasp and took two steps back, but he held the sword while studying the man on the ground guardedly.
The man turned around so that he was facing up. His chest rose and fell greatly, and it took a long time for his breathing to become even. Looking through the transparent helmet, the man was Caucasian, and he appeared to be quite young, probably just around twenty. He was on the slighter side and around 1.6 meters tall with a thin, frail appearance. He had black hair that curled up like instant noodles.
After the man recovered somewhat, he crawled up into a sitting position. Placing his palms on the ground, he shuffled backward until he hit the wall. He looked at the two players with extreme fear in his eyes.
"Let's talk this over." Feng Bujue squatted down so that he could look into the man's eyes. "What is your name?"
"Outsiders! You bunch of demons! Heretics!" The man hugged his helmet with both hands and screamed, "You are not going to hypnotize me with your 'cursed words'! Never!"
Flashes of Sword glanced at Feng Bujue. "What the… This is getting more and more complicated. Isn't this supposed to be a sci-fi scenario? Why is there suddenly a religion-fantasy setting?"
Feng Bujue hesitated for a moment before revealing a chilling smile. "No, I believe this is still a sci-fi based scenario."
He pulled out the steel blade from his inventory. Their captive saw this and started to scream for dear life.
"Shut up…" Feng Bujue first said that in a normal volume, but the man was too busy screaming to hear him. Thus, Feng Bujue placed the blade against the man's neck and roared, "Shut up!"
The man was stunned into submission and immediately stopped screaming. However, the fear on his face only grew.
"What, is, your, name?" Feng Bujue paused between every word to make sure the man could hear him.
"Ha… Hank," the man replied.
"Hank, I don't care what you think I am. I do not ask for you to trust me either, and I am not obliged to explain anything to you, but there is something you should understand. You have to answer our questions honestly, or else… you will have a very long and painful death," Feng Bujue warned.
"No… No…" Hank cried. "Please don't kill me. I still have my mother at home… My brothers are all dead… I cannot…"
"Stop blubbering!" Feng Bujue cut him off. "I'll ask, and you'll answer."
Hank nodded. By then, his emotional state was slightly calmer than before, but even so, he was still acting like a child who was forced to stop crying.
"What do you do for a living, and what are you doing here?" Feng Bujue asked.
"I… I am one of the scavengers. Our team… was given the order to come here to conduct a search," Hank replied.
"How many people are there in your team?" Feng Bujue asked.
"Five…" Hank replied. "But all the others… I lost contact with them about several hours ago."
When he said that, he looked at Flashes of Sword with a strange gaze.
"Don't look at me like that. I haven't touched any of your teammates." Flashes of Sword naturally felt the man's gaze on him. He put his sword away and said, "We did run into a teammate of yours, but when we saw him… he was already dead. He was killed by a monster."
He was talking about the man who was possessed by the octopus creature.
"What… Mon… Monster? Oh, oh… god." Hank's body would not stop shaking. It looked like the man was on the verge of tears. "No wonder they said they'd seen something weird…"
"What kind of vehicle did you use to get here?" Feng Bujue asked another question.
"Vehicle?" Hank did not seem to understand the meaning of that term.
"What did you use to travel here?" Feng Bujue asked in another manner.
"It is the 'Shark Coach'. All the scavengers use that," Hank answered.
"Is that something like a boat or a car?" Flashes of Sword asked.
"Car?" Hank looked at them with confusion.
Feng Bujue shook his head and sighed before continuing the interrogation. "So, you were tasked with staying on this Shark Coach while the other four teammates went to explore the lab. Since you have lost contact with them, you decided to come down from the Shark Coach as well?"
"Yes." Hank nodded carefully.
"Then, why did you attack us?" Flashes of Sword asked.
"You… You are…" Hank looked at them fearfully. "Because you are outsiders…"
"Can you explain what exactly outsiders are?"
"Demons!" Hank replied. "People from outside the village!"
"So, how did you know we are outsiders?" Feng Bujue was curious.
"Your clothes…" Hank said. "I've not seen clothes like yours before, and you are able to survive here without the protective suit."
"Oh?" Feng Bujue raised his brow. "Does this mean that you will die once you take in the air here?"
"Of course! Only the village can provide us with breathable air! The air outside the village is lethal! It is the poison released by outsiders!" Hank claimed loudly.
Feng Bujue stood up and sidled over to Flashes of Sword. He whispered, "Do you still remember how the tenth installment of the Friday the 13th series started?"
"What's your point?" Flashes of Sword sighed. "In any case, I'm sure what you said is right…"
"That means you do not remember anything about it." Feng Bujue pointed out.
"Isn't that a given? Who would remember details from an old movie that they can't even remember since they saw it so long ago?" Flashes of Sword said, but once the words left his lips, he realized something and added, "Fine, you probably would remember it…"
"I indeed remember it. When the movie first started, the team members from the scientific team from space noticed that they could take in the air from inside the lab. So, they removed their helmets. Of course… they studied the quality of the air and the microorganisms around them first."
"Get to the point please," Flashes of Sword urged.
"The point is," Feng Bujue said softly while using the corner of his eyes to glance at Hank, who was curled into a ball by the wall, "the guy before us, just like I predicted earlier, should be the descendent of the survivors on Old Earth. But for some weird reason, his physique did not evolve to become stronger due to the environment. If anything, he's showing signs of regression. Even the people who have migrated to space can breathe the air in this lab without much issue, but the air here is lethal for him."
"Is that weird?" Flashes of Sword asked.
"Do you believe in Darwin's theories?" Feng Bujue asked him back.
"Er…" Flashes of Sword said. "Fine, I admit I am not that good in the field of biology, but… I believe you are trying to say that this situation does not match the understanding of natural selection?"
"The physical condition of human beings who live in an artificial environment on a spaceship is similar to the human beings who left Earth four hundred years ago," Feng Bujue extrapolated. "But this group of survivors who survived amid the horrible condition on Earth look like they're going to die from taking in secondhand smoke. Also, do you still remember the man who was killed by the octopus monster before?"
"You mean the man whom you defiled by chopping off his head, forcing a grenade into his body, and carving a bunch of words on his stomach?" Flashes of Sword narrowed his eyes. "It will be very difficult to forget him…"
"That guy's height and weight is about the same as Hank, extremely frail and lanky," Feng Bujue observed.
"So?"
"But they're Caucasian… Let me remind you, in our world, the average male height in western Eurpoean countries is around 1.8 meters, and the ones from northern Europe go close to 1.9 meters," Feng Bujue explained.
"Don't you think it is normal for them to suffer from malnutrition? After all, the planet has been destroyed," Flashes of Sword argued. "Furthermore, this is just a game. Why are you so hung up over these details?"
Feng Bujue shook his head. "I don't know how much of the population is left on this Old Earth, but one thing's for certain… there has to be some problem at Hank's Village."
"Brother Feng… I hope you haven't forgotten that we're here for a 2v2 Killing Game, not to save some kind of mysterious village."
Feng Bujue raised his hand and extended three fingers, listing off three reasons seriously. "Their village possesses air that will not deplete our Life Points, they have the technology to create these Anti-gravity Guns, and finally, their villagers are as fragile as they come."
"Oh… so you're not going to save the village—you're going to ransack them?" Flashes of Sword finally got the message.
"Whether it is to save or to ransack, that remains to be seen," Feng Bujue replied. "Now we need to get on Hank's Shark Coach and leave this lab. Then we will have the upper hand. Before the patience or the potions of the Zombie Blade members run out, we have many strategic options to choose from, and we have nothing to lose."