[Main Quest updated.]
[Search Yousuke High School and Solve the seven supernatural phenomenons, current progress: 1/7.]
Having heard the system’s notification, Like Rain exhaled in relief. Her courage perhaps was much better than normal people’s standard as she was even braver than Long-Ge. Thus, when she read the article that could send shivers down someone’s spines, she didn’t react too much.
But still, she couldn’t help but to worry. At their first call, Feng Bujue told her that he had already found the well and he was about to deal with it. According to the information from the article she got and the folksong, naturally, she would come to the conclusion of ‘not to look into the well’. However, she had no way to inform Feng Bujue this information before the time of the next call came. She really wanted to help, but this helpless feeling appeared to torture people.
It was indeed the effect that the system wanted to give them in this scenario. Perhaps they were just too worried about each other, but this kind of worrying would become their mental burdens. With an upset mind and fear, people would easily make mistakes.
Having listened to the reminder, she felt a little bit better. When she checked the phone, it was two more minutes to 25:00. She had checked the whole first ground of the main building, thus, she stopped there to wait. After the call was over, she would enter the second floor.
At this moment, she heard the system’s notification again, [In the scenario, if you stop for a long time in a particular area, which you have already searched, without doing any action to develop the game, it will be considered ‘Passive Playing’, and your Fear Value will increase over time.]
Like Rain begrudgingly sighed, took the phone and the portable lamp, and then walked along the corridor.
The ‘Passive Playing’ concept that the system had just referred didn’t exist in Close Beta Version as they just added this feature in Open Beta. Let’s take the current scenario as an example. Assuming that the players who participated in this scenario weren’t Feng Bujue and Like Rain, but two complete strangers who didn’t know each other. One of them was a chicken with bad personality. When the scenario began, he would find some safe place and hide there. When the time came, he would call or pick up the phone as he would never become the ‘responsible player’, while his teammate was fighting in the schoolyard to death to solve the mysterious things. Moreover, if he didn’t do well, he could become the target of a bunch of ghosts. Also, it’s possible that both of the players were this sort of people and they would find a place to hide away and make the calls many times.
This is just an example because there were other players in other scenarios using ‘Doing Nothing’ to survive. To prevent similar situations, the system had added the ‘Passive Playing’ concept in Open Beta. If a player were judged to be ‘Passive Playing’, no matter if they had been scared or not, their Fear Value would gradually increase as long as they stayed idle. Once it reached to 100%, they would be forced to log out. Only trying to gain courage and actively playing the game would eliminate this effect.
Of course, this setting didn’t exist in every scenario. There were some scenarios where completing the game was closely related with time such as Saw or the City that Satsuma Diehl controlled. If players took more time, there was a bigger chance that they would be in danger or dead.
Two minutes quickly ticked. When the time for her to call arrived, Like Rain met a staircase. She was climbing up while pressing the speed dial on her phone.
"One, two, three, four…" Like Rain counted in her mind while putting the phone to her ear.
Beep —— Beep ——
After the phone rang twice, Feng Bujue picked up. "I’m alright. Are you okay?" This was his first sentence. First, he would quickly answer what his teammate would ask and say what he wanted to ask.
"Everything’s okay. I’m walking on the staircase leading to the second floor," when Like Rain finished, she walked through the first section of the staircase. Taking a 180 degrees left turn, it was the second section of the stair which led to a corridor on the second floor. "I’ve just finished the first staircase, it has 12 steps," she continued walking forward, "you don’t need to remind me about the contents of the folksong, basically, I understand them all."
Feng Bujue was surprised, and a smile bloomed on his face. "Ah, so, what should we discuss next?"
"Inform each other about the current progress of the quest," Like Rain answered him then added, "don’t ask if we are okay or injured since asking would only increase our anxiety."
Feng Bujue totally agreed with this suggestion of Like Rain. However, Like Rain could speak it out while Feng Bujue couldn’t. Since he was a man, saying those things indicated that he was cold-blooded and heartless. Although Like Rain said it indifferently, somehow, he didn’t feel anything wrong with it.
"Wow, you are so thoughtful. In fact, I’ve thought about that too!" Feng Bujue immediately told her his progress, "Yeah, I’m at the northwest corner of the building. It looks like a music class. I’m going to check it."
"13..."
Suddenly, Like Rain spoke up, "The staircase leads to the second floor… has 13 steps."
Feng Bujue hadn’t said anything, yet the time for their call was over. The busy tone was playing now.
"Hello? Hey!" Feng Bujue shouted and reluctantly hung up. He thought, "Yeah, it still causes us to worry…"
At this time, he had arrived in front of the music class.
Feng Bujue slid the door open and entered the room. His flashlight raked through the class, but he saw nothing abnormal at the rows of seats in the class. No bloody handprints or bad handwriting on the walls either. The only thing that caught people’s eyes in the room was a piano.
Feng Bujue whispered, "So, Fa, Re, La, So, Re..." He took a deep breath. "If I play the piano with those notes, a trap would be triggered, and something would fall from the cabinet?" He immediately turned around and swept his flashlight to a glass cabinet used to store music sheets and teaching materials. Nothing was put atop the cabinet anyway.
"Oh, if there were something here, it… could step on the bench to reach," Feng Bujue spoke up like he was thinking about something.
Feng Bujue shifted his gaze to a statue of Beethoven in the corner of the room. It was a very normal plaster sculpture, which displayed the head and the front chest of Beethoven with the ratio of 1:1.
Feng Bujue crossed the room to get there, shone his flashlight to the corner and said, "Fen-Ge (1), how are you doing?"
Of course, he didn’t expect the statue to answer him. While talking to the statue, he put the flashlight and the phone on the right cabinet and tried to move the statue. It turned out its weight was normal and there was no hidden trap or button under the statue. It seemed to be just a normal decoration.
"Fen-Ge, we are all artist, why don’t you give me some faces?" Feng Bujue amused himself, picking up the flashlight and the phone again.
Eventually, he walked towards the piano. Although he knew it would cause a bad FLAG, he was still adamant. Feng Bujue stretched his fingers then played the piano with the notes mentioned in the folksong…
(1) The pinyin of Beethoven is Bèiduō Fēn, that’s why Feng Bujue called him Fen-Ge.