After that day till they entered that story, Fatty spent most of his time sitting in meditation, and he even stopped eating any meat or fish. That was his effort at the very last moment in order to get in the best condition before the story started.
Fatty himself said that he sometimes really regretted of having exchanged for this Taoist physique. There were not many prohibitions, but according to his experience, when he was feeling unwell after having too much meat or fish or drink, the effect of his spells would be reduced by a few percentage, and such reduction would cost his life in a story world.
Therefore, these days Fatty could only watch Su Bai and Ego dine on various take-out dishes while he could only drink rice gruel with pickles. And he had to stop before he was full, which tortured him a lot. However, he could temporarily hold back his desire for food in order to survive.
Ego would spend hours standing by the window looking into the distance. From time to time, something in the room would suddenly fall down, because Ego got tired. He would take a short break and then continue practicing. Therefore, most things were floating one centimeter high in the air as long as they were not very heavy, such as cups and bottles.
Compared to them, Su Bai was much more relaxed. He had nothing to practice, so he just packed up all the stuff, mostly necessities for camping. However, nobody knew if they were allowed in the story.
Finally, the time had come.
Fatty set up a long altar in the room, burnt incense with respect and prayed for good luck. Su Bai and Ego sat on the bed behind him; they didn't jokingly judge Fatty as ignorant or deceiving himself. In fact, even themselves could use some self-deception. After all, it was a group task for twenty players, which, generally speaking, meant no more than five survivors.
At last, the hands of the clock reached that point. Three bright light covered Su Bai, Fatty and Ego one by one.
After the light was gone, Su Bai found himself standing in a road with Ego and Fatty by his side.
"Ha, so the three of us are indeed stuck together," Su Bai said.
Fatty twisted left and then right. Then he felt his pockets and put on a sorrowful face. "F*ck, the Dreadful Radio left me only three pieces of spell paper! I had prepared thirty!" He looked as if he was going to cry but had no tears.
"And I have only three darts now." Ego felt the pocket around his waist. There had been a handful of darts; they were exchanged from the e-shop and would be enhanced when controlled with willpower.
Su Bai took out a red box from his pocket and opened it. To his surprise, the red beads in the box were safe and sound.
"Mine's still here."
Fatty wasn't very surprised, "Dreadful Radio was a bit easier on those stuff that wasn't from the e-shop. And that's why Ego and I have been so eager to get things from the real world. Our speculation is that Dreadful Radio encourages upgrading our capability from outside world instead of exchanging from the e-shop. Anyway, is this everything left for us?"
"I don't think so. Look, there's a car over there." Su Bai pointed to the car parked by the road behind him.
It was an old worn car, but it should still be working.
Su Bai walked over, opened the door, sat down and tried it. The car started.
"It's still working. Get in."
Ego and Fatty also got in. Then Ego asked with helplessness:
"Where to? Have you gotten the main task?"
"No." Fatty shook his head.
"Neither did I." Su Bai replied, "But there's a map here."
The map was put on the passenger seat, just beside Su Bai's right hand. And there was a red circle drawn on it, making out a position. It was obvious where they should go.
This was the guidance for plots. If they didn't follow, they would have ended up in misery. This was a conventional agreement between the Dreadful Radio and the audiences.
"Hey, there's a wallet."
Ego found it beside his seat.
"What's in it?" Fatty asked. "Some IDs maybe? Perhaps that's our lead."
"No, just some US dollars." Ego replied, "Never mind. Bai, let's drive to the destination and play to the score. Among the three of us, we should look out for each other as much as we can. We have slept together for so many days, fought together and gone whoring together. At least we should have had some trust by now."
Su Bai nodded, and drove along the guidance on the map.
After a dozen of miles, a gas station appeared in their sights.
"Guys, according to the map, our destination is in a large forest. There's a gas station ahead, with a convenience store. Since there's cash in the car, let's get some supplement there."
"Good idea, pull over."
Fatty nodded.
The car stopped at the gas station. Su Bai got off, looked the desolation and felt a strong sense weighing on his mind.
It was a shabby gas station with a shabby shop. Apparently, the owner didn't clean up this place very often.
But there were people here; the gas station was still in business, and there were people walking in the shop.
"What do we need?" Ego asked, "We've got nearly one thousand dollars. It should afford us a lot of things."
They were new in this story world, so they'd better not break any rules before they were fully prepared. Besides, improper actions might cause terrible chain reactions.
"Gas, medicine, food and beer," Fatty said. Then he looked around, "Damn it, why does this place look like a starting scene in some American horror movie? Some young girls and boys are driving in a car, heading into the woods and ready for some fun in a cabin; they stop by the gas station outside the woods and then all the horrible things happen…"
Ego patted on Fatty's shoulder. "Fatty, you're absolutely right except on one thing—you're the furthest thing in the world from innocent young people."
The three of them walked into the shop while talking.
There was a black fat guy standing behind the counter watching TV. He didn't even bother to say hi to them.
"Hey, we need gas, and..."
The black shop owner waved his hand. "Gas is in the rear, shelves are over there. Pick what you want by yourself and pay here."
Su Bai nodded, called for Fatty and Ego and went to pick what they needed.
While they were walking among the shelves, Su Bai found more people in the shop.
The structure was a little odd in this shop. Shelves were in the middle; on one side of them, it was the counter, and on the other, it was a cafe with tables and chairs. Now, over ten young men and women were sitting there. They were really young, probably college students, and they were all foreign people with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Ego poked Fatty with a finger and whispered, "Look, here are the young girls and boys you said! And they look pretty. Western girls are actually quite different from Chinese…"
Before he could finish, Fatty covered his mouth with one hand.
"Behave! Sh*t, are you picturing lewd things with these NPCs[1] in the story world? Are you insane? What's the difference between f*cking them and f*cking inflatable dolls? Besides, they're not other people's wives, not your cup of tea."
"I've got what we need. Come on, let's go pay for them."
Su Bai said to them.
He also looked at those foreign people. They were just sitting there quietly, in a daze or playing on their cellphones as if they were waiting for someone. Su Bai didn't pay much attention considering it would be better to save trouble.
The shop owner did the account impatiently. Ego paid the bill and the three of them carried all the stuff into the car.
Fatty put the gas in the trunk. Then he suddenly realized that there was a poster hanging behind the car. It was a big poster that looked a little scary.
"Is this the poster of 'Final Destination[2]'? Damn it! Why haven't we found it before we got in?"
Ego was already in the car; hearing this, he directly suggested, "Tear it off, Fatty. It looks like bad luck."
"Okay." Fatty tore off the poster.
Then the three got into the car. Su Bai was still driving, and the car drove into the woods.
"Ding…
"Safe time is over, story world begins now.
"Story Name: Death's Taunt."
"..."
The western men and women all stood up at the same time. Everyone's eyes were now serious and solemn. In front of them was a man in red jacket.
The shop owner was shocked. "F*ck! When did you get inside?"
But they were only a few meters away from this shop owner.
"The mission has started. We should all be careful. I hope everyone can go back alive, so let's fight for that together."
The man in red jacket started to cheer others up.
Just then, a broken poster went into the shop with the wind. It was a corner of the poster. On it, there was an image of a skull and a line for a movie:
"Come and feel the charm of death, we are waiting for you!"
A western young girl looked at the poster and said with her shaking lips:
"This is a warning from those eastern people! They're the evil!"
"Yes, they must be the demons in this story world! That fat guy was looking at us as if we're his prey, or dinner! He scared me!"
The young man in red jacket grasped the poster and called to everyone:
"As long as we fight together, these three yellow monkeys will never be our rivals! They must be the death in this story world. Together we can kill them, and then the mission will be accomplished! Let's go!"
FOOTNOTES:
[1] NPC: A non-player character, sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, is a character that is not controlled by a player in a game. In video games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence. In traditional tabletop role-playing games, the term applies to characters controlled by the game-master or referee, rather than another player. — Wikipedia
[2] Final Destination: An American supernatural horror film series. The movies are telling stories about how death always finds those who are supposed to die, even if they have managed to escape and survive the first time. Then death will kill them one by one in the weirdest way with planned accidents.