Chapter 525: Island of Devil’s Maw (31)
“Whether one is willing or not, life is always urging us to move forward. People wake up in the morning, prepare for their journey, traverse through distance, and rest for the day… whether they stop, there will be cooking fire.” Feng Bujue used a soft tone to mimic that of a discovery channel to say, “From the migration of a singular organism, to the cold chain transportation of food ingredients, from the evolution of cooking method to the ever-changing wheel of human destiny… the hurried steps of humanity and food have never stopped.”
“What are you mumbling about this time… Master Chef: God of Travel edition?” Ambitionist groused. “No matter how flowery you try to phrase this situation, it will not alter the current situation.” He said as he stared closely at the fully-cooked meat that was laying before him. His mind was having a battle of its own.
“The new quest has already popped out, there is no time for you people to hesitate anymore. Quickly finish up your meal and start packing, don’t be such a sissy…” Feng Bujue’s lips were covered in oil and when he spoke, the smell of meat drifted out of his mouth. Obviously the man had no compunction feasting on the former deity. However, Brother Jue who was half full did not move away from the bonfire, he still needed to roast some more meat strips and then wrap them up nicely as food storage. That way they could bring them out to eat again when they were hungry later.
“Ah! I don’t care anymore! If the hunger continues, my stomach is going to start digesting my own body already!” Suddenly Pegasus screamed. He closed his eyes as he shoved the meat into his mouth and then he munched on it quickly. “Eh?” Several seconds later, he opened his eyes. “It is not as disgusting as I thought… it tastes like beef and it even has a unique crunch to it…”
“That’s right, but the flavour is a bit lacking.” Feng Bujue complained. “This is such a waste, if only we have some flour, we can wrap up every part of the flesh and then use the steaming method… to make a multi-layered…”
“You are going to say Big Bang Sui Mai, isn’t it! Don’t think I have not watched that anime before!” Atobe roared to interrupt the main.
“He he…” Feng Bujue chuckled. “I was just joking. Without salt and seasoning alcohol, it is impossible to flavour so many pieces of meat. Furthermore… even if we do manage to make such a large sui mai, normal steam from a bonfire probably would not be able to steam it until it is cooked, but we can consider using the ash to…”
“No one wants to discuss these technical problems with you! Are you too free after you have had your fill!” Atobe roared again.
“Indeed, I too free because i have finished my meal and I have nothing better to do.” Feng Bujue said provokingly. “Why don’t you come and hit me? Then I’ll have something to do.”
“I’m not going to fall for your tricks…” Atobe’s final defence was finally broken down. He stared harshly at Brother Jue and then he too started to eat.
…
Uncle Worthless then rambled as if to himself. “Hmm… for the sake of the mission, I’ve already morphed into a woman, I think eating human meat is a lesser offense compared to that…”
When he said that, the other four shouted in unison, “If you do not bring that up again, we can still be friends!”
…
Several minutes past, the players (other than Feng Bujue) finished their meal in a conflicted feeling and they moved to the stone wall at the front of the hall. This was the wall that was closest to the altar and the only one that they had not studied before.
“Hmm… according to the quest description, there is supposed to be a tunnel behind the altar, so the entrance has to be either on the back of this wall or on the floor right behind the altar.” Uncle Worthless stood there and speculated. “Considering we are already underground, the tunnel that leads to the crystalline maze probably extends upwards…” His gaze moved to the wall. “brother Jue… how about… you go and lick the wall again?”
“I did not lick the secrets out of the altar…” Feng Bujue said as he walked to the stone wall. “The light pattern recorded on the stone slab would be revealed once a living creature touch it and the part that touches it is not restricted to any specific body part, it will work even if it is through the layer of clothes…”
“Enough, I do not need you to go into such details…” Uncle Worthless quickly stopped Feng Bujue before he went further.
“Fine…” Brother Jue chuckled harmlessly as he reached out to touch the wall. The next second with a creaking sound, a layer of thick dust flew out from the pattern on the wall and showered the player with a well dusting of dirt. Seeing this, Atobe quickly took out his weapon (big fan) from his inventory. He waved it twice and easily dispersed the cloud of dust. After the dust settled, the slightly glowing pattern on the wall became more conspicuous.
Feng Bujue covered his mouth and lips with one hand (At this point, one had to note that after his battle with Lotus Soul, Brother Jue had already removed his gloves, placed them inside his inventory and thus they were now clean again; to put it simply… he did not cover his mouth with shit so don’t worry) while his other hand continued to press on the wall. He looked at the patterns of light and said, “As expected, the hint is still in the murals.”
His teammates all turned to look at the murals that were formed by the light patterns. The mural before them was slightly bigger than the ones found behind the altar but the content was not that complicated, in fact it was quite easily understood. The mural was picturing… a humanoid creature standing behind the altar playing a banjo facing the wall. Beneath it was a series of strange symbols, the system did not provide any translation so it was impossible to tell which country’s language it was.
“Hah… it is fun puzzle time again.” Feng Bujue commented as he looked at the symbols with interest. On the other hand, after Ambitionist saw the mural, he instantly turned around and walked towards the banjo that was left beside Walker’s body and said, “I believe… those are music notes.”
“Ah, that is quite obvious.” Feng Bujue answered. “But there is a problem… music is a kind of unique language, even if we can predict which of the symbol represent the respective element in a music sheet, it is impossible to pinpoint correctly the scales for each of the notes.” He paused as he scratched his chin. “There should be a further hint somewhere…” Atobe who stood at the side used an appreciative look to study the duo who was calmly going through their analysis and he sighed. “Whenever something like this comes up, I will be glad that characters like you two exist in the group…”
Pegasus though shrugged. “Actually… If you ask me, we should just use brute force to break down the wall.”
“About that…” Feng Bujue turned to warn Pegasus, “I have already confirmed that with the Spirit of Mimicry, it told me that… the ‘five Gods’ had used the power of curse to protect this shrine. If someone use brute force to attack the wall, it will trigger a counter trap. Earlier when the Spirit of Mimicry was taking your disguise, it wanted to use this method to kill the rest of us but thankfully it was stopped by Uncle Worthless.”
“Qie…” Pegasus added with disappointment, “This bunch of despicable people… Ah hmm…” He grabbed the meat on the hand to take bite and continued to mumble while chewing, “All they know is to rely on these small tricks like curses… tsk tsk… that’s so annoying.”
“I say… are you sure you are the picture of justice when you say those things when you are munching on someone’s knees so deliciously?” Atobe covered his face and shook his head.
“Found it!” While the two were talking, Ambitionist was studying the banjo that he picked. “There are similar symbols carved on the banjo, it’s marked under each of the string.” He said as he walked over holding the banjo.
“That makes things much easier.” Feng Bujue turned back to say, “We only need to follow the music sheet and play it then.”
“Hmm… looks like this puzzle is not that difficult but…” As Ambitionist walked over, he asked, “…Does any of us know how to play this thing?”
“I do.” Suddenly someone used a very common and even tone to answer. As he finished, all the rest turned to look at him.
“What’s wrong? Is that so strange?” Uncle Worthless asked with a face filled with question.
“Hmm… well, it is a little bit…” Even though Ambitionist still handed the banjo over to Uncle Worthless. “For one, this is a rather unpopular instrument to learn.”
Feng Bujue followed it up with, “For another… Brother Worthless, you really do not look like someone who would be into the arts.”
“Hmph… even though I might look like I am only in my late twenties, I have gone through a lot in my life.” Uncle Worthless moved the cigarette to his lips and accepted the banjo with both hands. “Actually I used to be in a male idol group.”
“Ah?” Atobe used a modal particular noun to perfectly express the feeling that he was experiencing.
“Ha ha… Bet you didn’t expect that, huh? I had my debut when I was only 17, the other four in my group were the same age as I was.” At this point, Uncle Worthless tilted his head to let the strap through and slung the banjo sideways on his arms. “The recording company helped us produce several horrible albums that we ourselves could stand but it gained popularity that we even had a concert.” He let go of one hand to take a puff of cigarette. “But unfortunately, we became obsolete… when we reached 19 years old.”
“That was so quick!” Pegasus gasped in shock.
“But that was understandable.” Uncle Worthless chuckled. “After all, we were 19, for an idol group, if the member’s collective age is more than 100, it’s time to retire already.”
“Hey! What kind of ageist standard is that? Are you a group formed at North Korea?” Atobe could not help his tongue.
“Now that you mention it… At the time, there was indeed a Korean fella in my group and we shared quite a good relationship…” Uncle Worthless continued, “The second year after our disbandment, he returned to his country to join the military.” He puffed out another smoke ring. “Two years already, I got a card from him that announced that he was getting married. His husband was his bunkmate that he found in the military…”
“Jesus Christ, the amount of information is too large…” This small talk that lasted less than 2 minutes was enough to make Ambitionist was who normally so calm to be covered in sweat.
“Erm… that…” Atobe interrupted with twitching lips. “We’re running on a timer here, we better turn our focus back to the mission…” Then he turned to yell at Brother Jue, “Hey! Feng Bujue! Come and solve this puzzle! What you doing over there?”
Bang, bang.
Brother Jue was knocking his head against the wall…
“I just wish to knock some strange information out of my mind…” Feng Bujue uttered without turning around. “Today I have seen many things that I should not and do not want to see… and now I have heard things that should not and do not want to hear… As someone with a wealthy imagination, I need to remove these materials that will seriously pollute the hall of my mind out of it at the first notice…”