Chapter 85 The Hunter’s Island 1
This scenario is based on ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ by Richard Connell, and the adaptation has some similar details. It’s not coincident.
"Welcome to Thriller Paradise." A low tone male voice greeted them.
[Loading completed. You are playing Multiplayer Survival Mode (Normal).]
[This mode offers an explanation of the plot. There are chances of Side/[Hidden Quests], together with special Worldview.]
[Rewards for completing the scenario: 50% EXP required to level up when calculating for rewards.]
[Plot’s introduction is about to play. After the introduction, the game will start immediately.]
The GC introduction started. The light in the picture was really dark this time. Moreover, the screen looked a little bit bobbed as Feng Bu Jue could hear the sound of water flowing and the noise of the engine, which indicated that this happened on a s.h.i.+p.
The narrator of the system arose right on schedule.
"It is a hot, humid night in a tropical region and you are submerged in the warmth of the dark."
"You are a top hunter. With your sensitive senses, through the velvet darkness, you soon find an island on the right of your s.h.i.+p."
"The captain tells you that, according to his map, this place is called ‘the s.h.i.+p Pitfall’. The sailors have given this place that name shows that they are afraid of the place too much it has become a superst.i.tion."
[Once there’s a superst.i.tious sailor, it could expand to the entire s.h.i.+p. And a s.h.i.+p filled with tense-nervous members will soon encounter trouble.]
[Your s.h.i.+p is wrecked. You are trying your best to swim to that island in the dark. Although you are as lonely as a small, helpless s.h.i.+p in the vast sea, you have put forth your effort to climb up the rocky coast. When you come out from the water, a rough cliff emerges from the dark. You are trying to climb up even though your skin is worn out. With your last beam of strength, you’ve reached a flat area on the cliff. A dense jungle has spread to the edge of the cliff. You have no more strength to explore it as you can only drop yourself on the ground and sleep."
"When you open your eyes again, from the direction of the sun, you know it’s already afternoon. At the boundary of the jungle, you can see many footprints. You follow those footprints through the forest to the center of the island to see a castle built on the cliff."
"At this moment, the night falls on the jungle again."
After this narration was over, players had entered the scenario officially.
There were five players standing on the stone pavement outside a castle. Under the bright moonlight and the sparkling stars, they didn’t need lighting devices to light up the area.
Like Rain was standing next to Feng Bu Jue. She had changed her clothes into a black tight cotton vest and a hiking pants with some side pockets. Her garments looked pretty practical, tight, light and sleeveless, which facilitated her moves. She also had a black leather glove on her right hand while wearing nothing on her left hand. She used her right hand to control the sword, so this was reasonable.
Although the loose pants couldn’t outline her curves, with a close look, Feng Bu Jue found that Like Rain’s body had beautiful curves. Her slender waist was quite contrasted with her ample bosom that could drown people in their reveries. Anyway, half of female players in this game had the same appearance even though Like Rain had modified her appearance so as people wouldn’t notice her too much.
Among the other three players, there was a female player; her ID was [Not Afraid], level 16 with the t.i.tle [Peekaboo]. She was wearing a light blue medieval witch style robe that reached her knees with a pair of white stockings and boots. Since the game didn’t allow players to wear skirts, she was wearing a woolen shorts under the robe, which exposed her slender thighs.
Not Afraid appeared as an eighteen or nineteen years old girl with big eyes, small mouth and snow-white skin. No need to mention her body; anyway, as long as she was relatively thin in reality and not too beautiful, in this virtual world, every girl could become a G.o.ddess.
However, her pretend-to-be-cute ID, t.i.tle, and appearance gave Feng Bu Jue a feeling that he could possibly be fooled…
And, eighty percent that the other two male players had come from the same team. They were at the same level, one was named [One Sword to Conquer the City], his t.i.tle was [Newbie Swordsman]; the other was called [One Saber to Conquer the City] and his t.i.tle was [Basic Saber Technique]. They both looked more than twenty years old. Not only did they have the same uniform, which was full-body black grown, but also the same hairstyle of messy long hair draping over the neck, just like an ancient knight errant character.
This reminded Feng Bu Jue about Pan Feng and Hua Xiong as those two had the same style with these two players. Perhaps they were the model that the children in this game would take as their final goals.
The regular tragedy of a player was that his development direction would be deviated from the original plan. For example, after a short time experiencing the game, he found out that the other fields would suit him better and eventually, he would become a dedicated sniper or a dedicated healer. At that time, his nickname wouldn’t look fine.
Among the five players, Feng Bu Jue’s and Like Rain’s levels were the lowest but their t.i.tles, [The Mad Cold-blooded Headshot] and [The Heartless Beheader], were dazzling.
It was easy to explain Like Rain’s case. With the eyes of an a.s.sa.s.sin, which denied people from a thousand miles away, strangers would jump to a conclusion: this is absolutely an extremely ugly woman in reality, and that’s why she has the cruel, intimidating fighting ability in the game.
However, no matter what angles they used to look at Feng Bu Jue, he didn’t seem to be a strong player. When they other three saw him, they all thought: it’s okay if this guy didn’t change his real appearance in the game since he thought he is handsome enough, but he didn’t even change the messy hairstyle; he is over level 10 now, but he didn’t buy even one garment item to boost his attribute. In short, he had normal appearance, unexplainable ID, however, this guy had an impressive t.i.tle…Is he a hidden talent? Or is he actually an abnormal person in reality?
The five of them then started to greet each other and seized the time to observe and a.s.sume each other’s capacity.
After exchanging a few words, Not Afraid goggled her eyes, pointing at the logo on One Saber and One Sword, "Wow! You guys are from that famous ‘Martial World’ Union!" "Ha ha, yes. But it’s nothing great." One Sword answered while his face was filled with ‘great’.
Feng Bu Jue looked at their logo. It was a white cloud with the words ‘Martial World’ embroidered on it. This was certainly a union with a studio background. Feng Bu Jue remembered that the Marital World Union had occupied a small place on both Overall Competence and Combative Competence Lists, ranked #17 and #11 respectively.
However, Feng Bu Jue a.s.sumed that these two players weren’t professional gamers from the studio, but the ordinary players recruited to expand the number of the Union’s members.
If they were the staff of the studio, they wouldn’t be at level 15 like that. And, if they were the staff of the studio entering the game at Open Beta, with the items and lessons learned from the previous stage, their t.i.tles wouldn’t be a mess like that.
Quite the contrary, Not Afraid"s t.i.tle [Peekaboo] had given Feng Bu Jue suspicions. The Martial World Union’s rank was out of the top ten in the lists. A normal player, when reading the lists, it wasn’t bad that they could remember five or six names there. The majority of players, generally, had been impressed only by the top three unions.
So, there were three explanations for her deed…
First, she was a professional player. Second, she had a good memory. Third, she actually didn’t know the Martial World Union was on both of the lists. One minute ago, she didn’t even know what the heck was the Martial World. Then she saw their badges and pretended that she had admired them, telling them they were ‘famous’ and stuff.
Those thoughts quickly flickered across Feng Bu Jue’s mind. With the t.i.tle [Peekaboo], Feng Bu Jue had spent three seconds to come up to a conclusion. He immediately came near Like Rain and used a low tone only them could hear to speak to her, "When we have a chance, we will split up from the three of them. In fact, I want to stay away from that [Not Afraid]."
Like Rain glared at Feng Bu Jue but she didn’t ask anything. She chose to trust him unconditionally.
"Alright," she answered with a low tone. The two of them was carrying their convo in silence as they kept their face still and their lips didn’t even move. Anyway, the other three didn’t pay attention to them.
In the next minutes, Not Afraid had been using her admiral countenance to look at those two members of the union and said a lot of nice words. One Sword and One Saber started to feel elated. In fact, they had just joined the union this morning as the small characters of the bottom echelon of the union. They weren’t the Martial World Studio’s staff. Under the effects of the flattering words by a beauty, those two felt their confidence boosted. They thought, although I can’t be compared with the professional players in the union, I’m much better than that fellow called ‘Unidentified Mental Disorder’ (Feng Bu Jue). That guy can’t even afford a costume, so miserable. No wonder no union wants him.
This is the subtle feature of human mind. In a small group, especially when there are opposite s.e.xes to be attracted, the instinct drives humans to compare the weak points or the overall competence of other people to their individual selves just to feel that they are superior. In fact, it is just the safe feeling of one to comfort himself, just like talking to oneself that at least I’m not the worst.
Minutes later, an NPC appeared, indicating that their time had come and the plot was about to play.
Squeaky noises slightly echoed when the gate of the castle opened. A lit way emerged from the dark.
In the dazzling light, a tall man holding a revolver slowly approached.
This burly man had a waist-length black beard and a great image which was very impressive.
The weapon in his hands, no doubt that it was to make people more cautious.