Chapter 508: Island of Devil’s Maw (14)
After leaping away for a distance, Feng Bujue turned back to look. Even though they were not that far from each other, he could not see his teammates clearly anymore. Obviously, other than the smell, the swamp gas obstructed visibility as well.
“Hmm… The visibility is very low…” Brother Jue commented to himself as he proceeded to look around. “I better triangulate my location for now…” After all, he had played 2 months of Thriller Paradise already, even a pure newbie would have come in with some gaming experience, much less Feng Bujue.
The current Brother Jue had come up with his own version of ‘game map memorization technique.’ The details of it involved analysis of memory. Using a large area as a guide, then find a relatively spacious stop as centre, and then look around and lock in on a few of the neighbouring geographical details. That way, he basically had stored the image in his mind of the whole area as pieces of a puzzle. Repeat that several times, and many pieces of puzzle that would overlap at several points would form in his mind, and from that, he could find his way through his memory. A swampy area like this would be a place to easily get lost for others but for Brother Jue, it was an easy map to memorize.
Of course… there were only two kinds of maps that Feng Bujue could not memorize. The first was areas that kept repeating itself through a partition like doors; the second was a chaotic space that was randomized and irregular (like opening the same door would lead to two different places depending on the occasion). To put a long story short, Feng Bujue used his unique technique to scan the map and slowly leaped away into the dangerous ground of the shit swamp.
About 10 minutes later, something strange happened…
“Ergh…”
“Ah…”
Rising moaning came out of nowhere, it sounded like a pair of couple. Among them was a wailing that sounded the tortured sound of some strange animals. (To make things clear, the moaning here is not the kind that would cause people to think dirty but the kind that was meant to elicit the sense of fear).
“Hmmm… So they have appeared…” Feng Bujue said. Using the special effect of Void Steps, he floated in the air and lowered his eyes to look. He saw many a dirtied arm reach out from the shit swamp. The arms were hooked like claws with twisted fingers and twitching movement. They kept moving upwards, grabbing as if looking for a life buoy. Screams of despair accompanied the air that bubbled up to the surface like a curse from hell. They crawled into the players’ ears, causing their heart to shiver. But… Feng Bujue’s heart shiver did not. He continued to assess the situation before him calmly.
“Since an event has been triggered, it means that something is ahead.” He carefully maintained his feet just out of the arms’ reach as his eyes moved slowly around. “There is no split at this place, there is only one small path that leads forward…” he looked at the mud path and said, “And this is not one of the path that leads to the main objective…” That was point he could be sure because the direction taken by his teammates was the opposite side. “hah… this means I am close… but to what…”
…
Actually the things that it could be were mainly 3 kinds; one, a reward; two, an opening to a new area; three, death trap.
Feng Bujue naturally knew about that, he was hoping for the first kind. Without any way to confirm the result and a risk of 1 out of 3 being a good result, he decided it was worth it. Furthermore, he had a safety blanket to lie back on…
Brother Jue cleverly took out the Bell of Jin Gang and activated the item’s third special effect; and gained the function of ‘death warning’ that could last for 5 minutes. Theoretically speaking, with his current ability, he would be able to escape safely even if he ran into very powerful enemy. But Brother Jue was that careful of a person. No matter the plan, as long as the condition was conducive, he would leave an emergency escape route for himself and made it as safe as possible.
It was this determination and caution at crucial moments that separated an expert from a normal player. An insignificant choice that appeared to a normal person would be instrument for experienced and astute players. If they got a game over just because they wanted to save the cooldown of one or two skills or items, then that would be the real loss.
Ding ting… ting ting… The bell rang but it was not that intense.
“Hmm… Sounds like it is fine.” Feng Bujue said darkly, “This kind of rhythm.” He moved his gaze downwards. “…should be referring these guys at the bottom.” He stepped on the air and continued to move but he had slowed down comparatively. “Ah~ These souls that died from drowning in shit, they would be harbouring such deep resentment. If I am grabbed by any of them, it will most likely be an insta death…”
The man was not wrong. At this place, if a player was captured by the arms, they would be dragged down 100 percent, no matter how strong they were. The strongest could struggle for a while and the struggle… would only make them experience the despair even further…
After walking for a while, the mud path became extremely narrow even though it was still leading into unknown. The air ahead also turned more muggy and hot. Even the moon was becoming blurrier. This was not a natural phenomenon but a special effect of this environment. In terms of game setting, the lighting of this place was relatively dark.
“Oh… is that it?” Feng Bujue commented evenly and his expression was still like the surface of an old well. When he said that, he had reached the end of the path. There was a round muddy area that was 5 metres in diameter. The arms from the swamp did not appear to be able to reach this area. But Feng Bujue did not drop from the air. He chose to linger in the air and observed the only thing that was left in the middle of the muddy pool—an electric shaver.
Yes, an electric shaver. With Feng Bujue’s in game sight, he could see its appearance clearance. The thing was placed in the middle of the circular muddy area, there was no track around it. No matter how you looked at it… this whole set up was strange. This everyday object, the background of this scenario, they did not match up at all. This feeling of contrast… was like finding a penguin’s body in the middle of a desert or a boxer inside the fridge. But this was Thriller Paradise, anything was possible. Even a Nokie Phone could be a godlike weapon to take down God, much less an electric shaver.
“Is this the reward?” Feng Bujue mumbled. “I should study its property before touching it.” He trained his focused and maintained a high alert as he slowly landed on the ground. After he steadied himself, he did not bend over but slowly squatted down, maintaining a posture that would allow him to roll away or leap into the air if need be. Finally when he was within 20 cm of the object, the item description appeared.
Name: Chuck Norris’ Shaver
Item Type: Other
Quality: Legendary
Special Effect: Give you a trendy appearance
Whether it can be taken out of the scenario: Yes
Remark: One of the item from the CN series, it records 100 of the most well known facts about Chuck Norris. Bound when taken. There is actually no chin behind Chuck Norris’s beard, but there is another first.
“Huh?” Feng Bujue was confounded. “What is this? What does it mean by ‘giving you a trendy appearance?’” He could only say that regarding the item description that was barely helpful. “CN series probably meant the Chuck Norris series… Wait, does that mean there are a hundred of such ridiculous object inside this game?”
Even though Brother Jue was confused, but the fact that it was a legendary item made it hard to resist. Furthermore this was something he could take out of the scenario, there was no reason for him to give this up. Therefore, Feng Bujue made a decision that would make him soon regret it… he picked up the thing.
He did not know that by picking up this thing, it would trigger a very scary event—a hidden boss fight at Island of Devil’s Maw. Indeed, the location where Feng Bujue was standing was the spawn point for the hidden boss. Brother Jue knew that latter… this place was indeed somewhere that was well hidden and hard to reach.
At a place like this Haunted Swamp, it was hard to impossible anyone would want to stay a second longer… much less choose this less travelled path. Even if someone did accidentally get on this path, they would be blocked off by the arms that reached out from the swamp because normally the players would have to trod down the path. To avoid the wagging hands and reach this place required extreme navigation. But with a legendary boots, Feng Bujue came to this place with ease. The advantage from his equipment gave him the luxury to reach this place safely so the Bell of Jin Gang did not ring with such alarm.
In any case, be it coincidence or luck… things happened that way.
Ho long long—a very industrial voice resounded, it sounded like the cement mixer.
“Hmm?” Just as Feng Bujue placed the shaver in his inventory, he heard that voice. After half a second of hesitation, he leaped backwards to several metres away and floated 3 metres in the air. His eyes scanned like lightning and swept his surrounding swiftly…
Soon Brother Jue locked onto the source of the sound. Just in front of the muddy pool, a whirlpool started to appear on the wide swamp that led to nowhere.
Ho long long… hu long long long…
The sound became more intense as the whirlpool swirled faster. Suddenly a large arm reached out from the centre of the whirlpool, raising a giant wave of shit. Just at that moment, with a Geppo, Feng Bujue kicked backwards and barely avoided the shit that rained down from the sky. At the same time, another sound rang out.
Ding ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting…
The Bell of Jin Gang was ringing like it was an electric buzzer…