The so-called ‘Reality’ is perhaps just a kind of illusion someone had cast on us that we can’t control.
[Feng Bujue, level 15]
[Please select the playing mode you want to join.]
[You’ve selected Single-player Survival Mode (Nightmare). Please confirm.]
[Confirmed. Generating scenario…]
[Loading… Please wait…]
"Welcome to Thriller Paradise," a young female voice greeted him this time.
Since playing the previous one-on-one Killing Game mode didn’t take much time, the Multiplayer scenario that Little Tan and others were playing hadn’t finished yet. Feng Bujue then queued to play Single-player Survival Mode again. This time, he had selected the new mode available for players at level 15 and above, which was the Single-player Survival Mode level ‘Nightmare’.
[Loading completed. You are now entering Single-player Survival Mode (Nightmare).]
[This mode offers an explanation of the plot. There are chances of Side/[Hidden Quests], together with special Worldview.]
[Rewards for completing the scenario: Two random Jigsaw Puzzle pieces.]
[Plot’s introduction is about to play. After the introduction, the game will start immediately.]
A very typical road had appeared in front of Feng Bujue’s eyes, bordered by external walls of houses. The sky was quite hazy. There were no skyscrapers as the tallest buildings only had around six or seven stories. From the first glance, this seemed to be a small town.
It was worth mentioning that the CG opening scene this time was totally in black-and-white.
The system’s voice sounded.
[This is a regular evening, and you are walking home.]
[The small town where you were living had recently encountered a big storm. Your own place was seriously damaged, and almost all the other surrounding houses have collapsed.]
[Although you were safe and sound, you needed to find another place for shelter.]
[Temporarily, you are arranged to stay in a vacant room in a small town, which is situated in an abandoned row house in 3-chōme (1).]
[In legends, there are ghosts around that town, so no one dares to come closer. However, after the big storm, you and two other families, who had lost their houses in the severe storm, had to stay there and become neighbors.]
The short introduction of the scenario ended there. Feng Bujue could now move again. It almost happened at the same time as Feng Bujue heard the system prompting: "Main Quest has been triggered."
He opened the menu to see the contents of the main quest. This was actually an extremely simple quest with only two words [Go home].
"Oh, it’s a haunted scenario eh..." Feng Bujue muttered, "No time restriction. This ‘Nightmare’ level scenario doesn’t seem to be as rushing as the Saw scenario."
He started to check his pockets to see if he could find any map or ID. Feng Bujue was searching his pockets while observing the surroundings. It was weird that after the introduction was over, this world still remained in black-and-white, just like he got color blindness. Moreover, he faintly heard some low noises. The sound was too light and low; he didn’t know where it came from. Whenever he concentrated on listening to it, the cracking noise disappeared. When he loosened his mind, it echoed again.
Dozens of seconds later, Feng Bujue had finished searching all of his pockets and only found a bunch of keys in the right pocket of his trousers, which had three pieces.
[Name: The Three Keys]
[Type: Related to the plot]
[Quality: Normal]
[Functions: Unlock doors]
[Being able to be brought out of the scenario: No]
[Remarks: Find the corresponding door locks to use the keys.]
Feng Bujue picked the keys and brought them close to his eyes to observe. From the appearance of the keys, they all looked pretty normal, and according to the shapes of the cuts and shoulders, the matching locks wouldn’t be too complicated.
"Assuming that one of them is the house’s key, what about the other two…" Feng Bujue contemplated, "From the appearance of the electricity pole and trash bin, this should be in the 20th century… perhaps car keys shouldn’t be the folded or electric style at this time. I guess they should be the same type with these keys."
He came to the crossing and looked at both sides. "There’s no parking lot near here. So, even if one of these three keys is the car key, that car isn’t parked near here."
He scratched his head. "Seems the information isn’t enough… Am I a player in this scenario or I’m playing the ‘I’ here… If I’m the latter, will ‘my’ identity affect the plot? What will happen when I got ‘home’?"
With his current situation, these matters were inseparable. Feng Bujue decided to follow the Main Quest first; since it was the ‘Nightmare’ scenario, although everything looked calm, it could trigger the instant death if he made a wrong move. Even though there was no time restriction, it wasn’t safe to wander around this small town.
"Anyhow... although it said something about ‘an abandoned row house in 3-chōme, which seems to be an address, where is 3-chōme?" Of course, Feng Bujue didn’t know the routes in this small town. Even if he knew the address, it would be useless.
"If ‘I’m on my way going home’… my initial direction will be…" Feng Bujue turned around and looked at the other direction. Perhaps it would be a Y-shaped cross. "Yeah, I’m going to find a map or someone to ask." He didn’t want to use up his luck in choosing between the two turns. Needless to tell the reason why.
When he had just come to this idea, someone slowly approached him. It was a woman who had long black hair, wearing a coat accompanied by a pair of trousers, scarf and even a face mask to hide the lower part of her face. Since Feng Bujue had been standing on this road, this was the first pedestrian he had ever seen here. By the way, this was just a ‘small town’, so it was understandable why there weren’t many people.
"Excuse me, may I ask--" Feng Bujue came to her in an attempt to ask for the way.
It turned out the woman had interrupted him just when he had gone half of his way. "Am I pretty?"
"Eh? What?" Feng Bujue immediately felt something was wrong. He instinctively thrust his hand into his bag.
"Am I pretty?" The woman turned to him and asked again. However, her face was hidden behind the face mask, and there was a thick scarf wrapped around her neck. Basically, it wasn’t exposed for people to see.
"Beautiful!" Feng Bujue could react now. The one standing in front of him now was possibly the legendary... Having heard him said that, Kuchisake-Onna (1) immediately took off her face mask, revealing her whole face. Both corners of her mouth were cut terribly, just like they were torn apart, and the cuts almost reached her ears.
"Am I prettier this way?" asked the woman again.
Feng Bujue suddenly felt lucky that he didn’t cosplay himself to the perfect appearance of the Joker. If not, now he would have been a perfect match with this sister. Looking at the monster who could scare children until they cry, Feng Bujue opened his eyes wider and earnestly said, "Yeah! Stunning!" At the same time, he was gripping the wrench tightly, ready to strike at any moment as he muttered in his head, "This bigmouth (2), I’ve already given you two compliments. If you dare to take out the sickles, don’t blame me for giving you the second plastic surgery!"
Seconds later, Kuchisake–Onna spoke up again, "What did you want to ask me?"
Feng Bujue was hesitating whether he should continue asking her or not. Who would be willing to give their address to a monster! However, he came to his sense again that he didn’t actually live here, so he asked, "Would you please show me the way to 3-chōme?"
"That way. Turn left. When you reach a cross, make a left turn and then go straight ahead." Kuchisake-Onna pointed at the Y-shaped cross. After she was done, she put the mask on again, fixed her scarf and left.
Feng Bujue didn’t have the intention to follow her and say thanks. Seeing that the woman had disappeared in his sight, he sighed and loosened his grip on the wrench. "Damn it! I’ve met a monster even when I haven’t been home yet… When I come home, it will be lovely to enjoy a bunch of ghosts there."
Although he had such thoughts, playing such a thriller game, he obviously knew there should be some monsters or ghosts in the house. Feng Bujue immediately took the way Kuchisake-Onna had shown him.
The sky became darker. Adding to the scene in black and white down there, it produced a very bizarre atmosphere. If there were another player standing alone on this empty street, he would instantly have goosebumps.
A burst of cold wind swept over. Feng Bujue adjusted his coat to cover himself better. At this moment, a silver lightning suddenly struck across the dark sky, lighting it up for a short moment. Seconds later, the thunder came along. Besides the wind, it seemed it was about to rain.
When Feng Bujue lifted his head to look up, he accidentally saw a strange thing at a high place.
On an electrical wire, right at the corner of the street that the light couldn’t reach, stood a human-shaped creature, crouching and sitting there. When the lightning lit up this black-and-white world, Feng Bujue finally saw its appearance. That monster looked like an old woman wearing a white kimono. Her hair was tied up into a round bun, and her face was filled with wrinkles. The monster’s eyes were bulging from their sockets. She had a dark skin covered in pimples and wrinkled hands with fingers stretching out like ghastly claws.
The lightning was over, and that figure hid itself again into the darkness. Feng Bujue couldn’t see it clearly, however, he wasn’t interested in coming closer to check what kind of monster it was. Anyway, unless it jumped over here, Feng Bujue would act like he didn’t catch a glimpse of it at all.
Feng Bujue cocked his head and continued walking forward, speeding up his pace as fast as if he was running away. He hadn’t met anyone else along the whole way. When he reached the 3-chōme’s nameplate, he stopped.
Rain started to shower right at this moment.
This rain was as heavy as if someone was pouring buckets of water onto Feng Bujue’s body. He then quickly found his destination, checked the name of the road and looked at the house to see the three plain rooms connected to each other. This should be it.
Feng Bujue seized the time and ran to the porch. He wiped the lock of wet hair in front of his forehead and took out the key.
According to the plot, this house hosted three families, so he got two neighbors. As Feng Bujue didn’t know which was his room, he had to check each of them out.
He didn’t know if he was lucky or not, but his first attempt with the first key at the first door had succeeded. Feng Bujue slid open the wooden door. The room was a space filled with darkness with a special smell of deadwood.
Feng Bujue groped for the switch at the area near the door. After he clicking it, the light in the room was turned on.
(1) Chōme = [Japanese addressing system] Municipality is divided first into town (chō or machi) and then into city districts (chōme). A row house (Nagaya, means "tenement house") is an architecture term in ancient Japan, referring to a house with a long ridge. Also, indicates a house with a number of residences connected under a single ridge-pole. They are houses with residences packed side-by-side, and often sharing the same walls.
(2) Kuchisake-Onna: Kuchisake-onna ("slit-mouthed woman") is a figure appearing in Japanese ghost stories, possibly dating back to the Edo period. She is a woman who was mutilated by her husband, and returns as a malicious spirit. When rumors of alleged sightings began spreading in 1979 around the Nagasaki Prefecture, it spread throughout Japan and caused panic in many towns. There are even reports of schools allowing children to go home only in groups, escorted by teachers for safety, and of police increasing their patrols. Recent sightings include many reports in South Korea in 2004 about a woman wearing a red mask, who was frequently seen chasing children, and in October 2007, a coroner found some old records from the late 1970s about a woman who was chasing little children. She was then hit by a car, and died shortly after. Her mouth was ripped from ear to ear.
Although some stories describe her as a former patient of a mental asylum, a more common story describes that in the Heian period, her husband found out that she was cheating on him with another samurai. He used a sword to cut her mouth from ear to ear and asked, "Who will think you are beautiful now?"
(3) 3-8: Chinese way to refer International Women’s Day. This is extended to refer to women in a derogatory sense, most commonly used against women who appear crazy or maliciously gossiping.