Chapter 260: Brothers (16)
Chapter 260: Brothers (16)
Feng Bu Jue couldn’t tell where the music echoing in his ears came from, nor did he understand the black shadow’s intentions. He kept a wary distance of at least three meters, ready to defend himself should the shadow make any aggressive move.
The shadow performed a moonwalk backward, gliding effortlessly to the rhythm of the music as it exited the dark room. When it reached Feng Bu Jue’s front, it suddenly screamed and made a crotch-grabbing gesture. At that moment, the background music shifted—now playing Beat It.
Feng Bu Jue, having experienced countless surprises in this game, felt this was the most surreal moment yet.
The shadow changed its dance style, stepping, sidestepping, and spinning with fluid precision. Ten out of ten for style, it strutted toward the lower floor.
As the shadow moved farther away, the music faded until it vanished around the staircase corner. The Bgm stopped right on cue.
“Heh… Haha…” Feng Bu Jue twitched his lips, chuckling dryly. He didn’t follow—the ground floor was pitch-black, and leaving the storage room would make him lose sight of the target. He wasn’t even sure if the shadow was an Npc or a monster, or whether it would attack him.
This bizarre event left him clueless. The sudden shift clashed with the scenario’s atmosphere but fit the system’s signature trolling style.
Feng Bu Jue didn’t dwell on the absurdity. Since the corridor’s light now reached the room, he decided to search it.
Earlier, the room had seemed empty except for the darkness. But as Feng Bu Jue entered, he noticed an anomaly where the shadow had stood—a dark stain on the floor. Up close, it revealed intricate patterns formed by black lines, depicting six items.
“Soap, false tooth, perfume, Leather Hat, Blanket, glass eye.” Feng Bu Jue quickly identified the six symbols. “All story items that can be taken out of this scenario…”
Unbeknownst to him, he’d already collected all six items since the scenario began, though their purpose remained a mystery.
“I smell a hidden task…” Feng Bu Jue grinned.
He meticulously checked the room, confirming this was the only clue before leaving.
“Behind the white door, there’s probably a white shadow doing a horse-riding dance…” Feng Bu Jue joked as he pushed the door open.
The room inside was bathed in soft white light—not blinding, but bright enough to reveal the space as an operating room. A massive metal operating table dominated the center, bolted to the floor. It looked sturdy enough to hold even a synthetic human.
The room reeked of a nauseating odor masked by disinfectant. Feng Bu Jue quickly activated his gas mask (he’d removed it earlier while returning from the ground floor, though Npcs and monsters still saw him in his disguised form) before stepping inside.
Beside the operating table were three tool carts. They held standard surgical instruments, along with power drills and circular saws—tools more suited for carpentry than medicine. All were damaged beyond use. Still, Feng Bu Jue eagerly picked them up, checking their attributes.
With his [Less Hasty Repair] skill, even trash could function for fifteen minutes.
Unfortunately, after inspecting the tools, he realized a problem: all required AC/DC power supplies. In short—they needed sockets.
A movie once said, “Everyone’s blind.” It’s true. Ask yourself how many sockets are in your current room. You probably don’t know. Ask how many plug holes they have? No one knows.
The human brain filters “useless” information to protect us. We forget how many windowpanes are in our homes, how many subway stops we take daily, or even the pattern on our slippers unless we look.
As we grow, this mechanism strengthens. The brain decides what’s irrelevant. Without it, the brain could store 86 million pieces of information daily—more than any computer. But 95% of that data goes subconscious, filtered away unless needed.
But here’s the catch: people differ. Those with sharper minds retain more details. These are the observant ones. Feng Bu Jue was one such person, trained since childhood to notice everything. Even without consciously checking sockets, he now sifted his subconscious and confirmed—there were none in the entire scenario map.
“Should I take these and repair them? The skill could fix them…” Feng Bu Jue pondered. “But why bother? These tools are sold in the system store, including cordless versions—just pricier.”
After deliberation, he left them. Trash-quality items fetched little.
Five minutes later, with nothing found, he impulsively lay on the foul-smelling operating table—and triggered a CG cutscene.
………
The CG showed a first-person view of someone on the operating table.
“Please… please let me go… I have money! I’m a noble! How much do you want—Ahhhh!” The noble’s plea turned to a scream.
The bloodshot camera lingered on the ceiling before the test subject lifted his head, revealing two figures.
A short brunet and a golden-haired youth stood there, wearing surgical masks, aprons, and bloodstained clothes—like butchers.
The noble’s leg had just been amputated at the hip. To keep him conscious, Ā Sè had injected him with a special alchemical anesthetic, preventing even fainting.
“You bastards…!” The noble spat, then froze as his eyes widened. “You! It’s you! You’re Ā Sè! The farm kid!”
Ā Sè paused mid-motion, circular saw raised. “You know me?”
“I do! I remember—back when old Jim died, you took over deliveries for the market that month!” The noble snarled. “You wore a cloak hiding your face, but it’s you! You dare do this to me? Do you know who I am? I’m close to the Grand Duke in the capital!”
“Is that all?” Ā Sè cut him off, his icy stare dismissing the threat. “You parasites hoard power and luxury while contributing nothing. You drain resources, produce waste, and oppress others—forcing them to worship you. Even cattle and termites are nobler than you.” His voice dripped with contempt. “Let me help you find some value in death. Your hair becomes Blanket, your eyes glass eye, your teeth false tooth, your fat soap, your skin a Leather Hat, and your corpse oil—perfume.”
Āndélǔ simply stood aside, silent. He had nothing to add.
The noble’s expression was one of paralyzing terror, sweat pouring down his face in large beads. “No… no… stop! That’s not what I meant! You… you can have anything—money, even a noble title…!”
“Heh heh heh…” Ā Sè couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m not as greedy as you, so money doesn’t interest me. As for noble titles…” His eyes flashed with open menace. “I’m from the Xingzu Clan. What do you think the local Grand Duke could possibly offer me? A knighthood? A barony? Ha ha ha…”
Seconds later, the circular saw roared back to life, drowning the room in unrelenting screams.
………
“Did I seriously mess up?” Feng Bu Jue muttered after viewing the CG, instinctively glancing at his bulging coat pocket.
While he’d stored the Leather Hat, Perfume, and Blanket in his satchel, the Soap, False Tooth, and Glass Eye remained in his pockets. Learning these items all came from human bodies sent shivers down anyone’s spine.
“Ugh… I should’ve guessed this was how it’d go,” Feng Bu Jue sighed. “Alright… only one room left to explore. The black room’s imagery and this white room’s visions both hint at what these six items mean… they probably determine whether I can see the true ending.” He mused, “This is telling me that if I hadn’t collected all six items during the earlier game progression before reaching this gray iron door, I should turn back and search now…”
With that thought, Feng Bu Jue exited the white room. Instead of opening the gray iron door, he headed toward the ground floor. Climbing the stairs, he entered the storage room through the wooden door. Sure enough, the corridor was no longer pitch-black.
Each room’s window let in faint light, allowing the player to barely make out their surroundings. Yet peering outside revealed only chaotic, empty voids.
“Hmm… this is clearly the freedom explore time before the final confrontation. All four floors are accessible—players can search for missing artifacts or just open the gray iron door to see the ending,” Feng Bu Jue realized. “But it’s not really necessary for me. I’d already searched thoroughly, so all six items are in my hands.”
Even so, Feng Bu Jue still visited one place—the room directly above the foyer on the second floor.
Approaching the iron door, he tried pulling both handles, but it remained locked.
Feng Bu Jue left reluctantly, then wandered every room from the second floor down to the basement levels. He wasn’t searching for items—just his obsessive need to explore made him worry about missing something, so he had to complete this loop.
Finally, he returned to the gray iron door. Though the walk yielded nothing, he felt psychologically satisfied.
“Well then… time to witness the miracle.” Feng Bu Jue quipped as he pushed open the iron door.
The room was gray, its atmosphere as bleak and oppressive as the scenario itself.
Against the wall directly ahead sat a chair and small table, where Ā Sè sat silently, watching Feng Bu Jue at the doorway.
“You’re awake…” Ā Sè said. “That Cell couldn’t hold you, after all…”
“Got a mirror?” Feng Bu Jue asked first.
“A mirror?” Ā Sè raised his gaze, locking eyes with Feng Bu Jue for two seconds before slowly lifting his right arm and pressing his palm against the wall.
A second later, the wall beside Feng Bu Jue erupted in light, instantly transmuted into a mirror.
“Can he do this without drawing a transmutation circle?” Feng Bu Jue wondered, turning to face his reflection.
The image wasn’t surprising—essentially a zombified Āndélǔ.
“My poor little brother,” Ā Sè sighed. “You thought yourself clever… and this… is the price.”
“Can you explain?” Feng Bu Jue asked.
“Still don’t understand?” Ā Sè replied. “I know about your tampering with the experimental data. I know about your swapping the formula. And those modifications you made to the transmutation circle… they were flawed.” He sighed deeply. “You played the innocent, kind-hearted younger brother while plotting to steal my body. But you never expected that the ‘soul exchange’ alchemy you found was forged by me from the start.” He paused, studying Feng Bu Jue’s shifting expression. “You thought you tricked me into performing the exchange without my knowledge. Unfortunately, the truth is the opposite—you misunderstood the array’s purpose entirely.”
“Ha ha ha…” Feng Bu Jue couldn’t help but laugh. “My bad?”
Ā Sè’s reaction was unexpected, but he maintained his composure. “Have you gone mad?”
“Not at all,” Feng Bu Jue grinned, shaking his head. He found the brothers’ dynamic amusing—originally assuming Ā Sè was the villain, but now realizing Āndélǔ wasn’t innocent either. “Even as an accomplice, after all this time helping commit so many atrocities, can you really call Āndélǔ ‘good’?”
“Then, dear brother, can you tell me the true purpose of this transmutation circle?” Feng Bu Jue asked.
“Of course—to transform me into a human,” Ā Sè replied. “The cost? Turning a common human into a demon.”
“This TM is a demon?” Feng Bu Jue pointed at his mirror image. “Demons look this pathetic?”
“Unfortunately, the transmutation failed,” Ā Sè explained. “I didn’t become human… and you became this.”
“Was it a calculation error?” Feng Bu Jue asked.
“Certainly not. I never make mistakes,” Ā Sè replied.
“I see… then there’s only one answer left,” Feng Bu Jue said. “I’m not purely human either.”
Ā Sè sighed bitterly. “One miscalculation in a thousand… I should’ve known. ‘That woman’s’ son could never be a commoner.”
“You mean Mama?” Feng Bu Jue probed.
“Yes… Mama,” Ā Sè’s expression darkened. “Do you know why she took me in?”
“To steal your power?” Feng Bu Jue guessed. A staunch pessimist, he never believed in innate human goodness, always expecting the worst.
“Oh? Did she tell you this before her death?” Ā Sè countered.
“No, just a guess,” Feng Bu Jue said. “I know that woman wasn’t simple…” The earlier CG flashes raced through his mind. “She publicly opposed your alchemy, but when you—a child under ten—studied those advanced tomes, she did nothing. Hmm… those books were probably arranged for you by her in the first place.” He paused. “Before her death, knowing her plans had failed, she feigned being a loving mother, trying to bind you with family ties to care for her biological son.” Feng Bu Jue pulled out Advanced Alchemy, retrieved a photo from its pages, and read the inscription: “Ā Sè and Āndélǔ, my children, my love.” He scoffed. “At first, I wondered why this photo was hidden in such a book. Now I understand—it was her way of reminding you that you were family.” Feng Bu Jue sneered. “Too bad… she underestimated you. I bet you saw through her true nature at a very young age. If I’m right… even her death…”
“Yes,” Ā Sè interrupted. “It took me a year to kill her. She never knew her ‘incurable illness’ was my doing.”
(End of Chapter)
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