Chapter 515: Island of Devil’s Maw (21)

“He!” As the system notification ended, Feng Bujue put down the gun and unleashed a Yakyuken at a deserted spot.

“Again?” Atobe noticed and asked.

“Ah… well, the cd for the skill is one hour.” Feng Bujue replied. “I was thinking about using it earlier… but I didn’t think I should mind the few minutes so I decided to wait until I finish the explanation before I use it again.”

“By the way, what is the use of this skill of ours?” Atobe commented, “The cd is a whole hour but the skill does not look that powerful to me.”

“Hmm… how did you know that this skill is an attack skill?” Feng Bujue said to confuse and befuddle.

“Then what is the use of your skill?” Atobe attempted a guess, “A skill to permanently raise your stat?” He said half-jokingly, “Everyone you make that move, you will increase one of your hidden character stats?”

“Oh? You manage to see through that, not bad.” Feng Bujue continued with his lie without a bat of his lash. “Fine, I will tell you the truth. Actually… whenever I use this skill, something on my body will grow a little bit bigger…”

“If that ‘thing’ that you refer to is your sense of shame, then it would be great…” Atobe replied while firing a derisive gaze at Brother Jue.

“Enough, if you want to chat, you can wait until the quest is over…” Ambitionist interrupted the two and reminded. “From the situation of the previous quest, the difficulty of this next quest will not be easy either… we do not have much time to sit around.”

“Well, naturally, after all, this is Team scenario Nightmare Mode,” Feng Bujue turned around to say, “Each step is like walking on a tightrope… and one mistake and down you go…”

…

“If you know that, then help to find the road to move forward, time’s a wastin.” Uncle Worthless took out a flashlight and started to find the route that would lead them downwards.

“That won’t be necessary.” Feng Bujue picked up gun from the ground and aimed the light at the corner of the space they were in. “When we were talking, I have already found it.” The group heard that and followed the direction of his light and they really did see the entrance to the next floor—another openable door.

At this point, a quick description of the surrounding was necessary…

The current space that the players were in had the surrounding walls and ground tiled with grey bricks, it was about 80 cubic metres in size; even though the top of the room tapered into a cone shape, there was no column or beams of the sort inside the room to support its structural integrity. The area that Feng Bujue lit up with his light had a door that was embedded into the ground (it was 1 metre wide and long, it was a small metallic door that could be opened with a good push. It would close on its own after several seconds without any force on it). The appearance was no different from the entrance that they took earlier but this one was placed on the ground.

“Hue… Brother Feng, you sure are effective with your time.” Uncle Worthless said.

“You flatter me.” Feng Bujue accepted the praise with ease.

“By the day, you have noticed something?” Pegasus who had a long reflex time suddenly piped up to say, “Normally speaking, the two hints ‘current quest completed’ and ‘main quest updated’ would succeed each other but this time… there was a 10 minute brief between them.”

“Oh, of course I noticed that.” Feng Bujue replied, “Probably… the system needed to give the players some buffer time between two ‘quests with time limits’.”

“But is that necessary?” Uncle Worthless asked, “Since this is nightmare mode, it wouldn’t be that surprising for the system to throw out time-limited quests one after another right?”

“It is necessary.” Ambitionist jumped to answer, “Because even the system requires time to complete the ‘elimination’.” He paused before continuing. “Furthermore, like you said, this is nightmare mission… the system would have the players die so easily, would it? I believe the ‘elimination’ described in the quest tab is not just having the players teleported out in a pool of white light that simple.” His eyes changed, “I’m afraid… the system will arrange a more despairing and painful death.”

“Right for example… suddenly a pile of shit fall from the sky to smother your face and seal off all your power. You will only leave the scenario after you suffocate from the shit.” Feng Bujue added darkly.

“He he…” Ambitionist laughed mirthlessly as he ignored Brother Jue. He turned to the door, knelt down and said, “Since the scenario started, I’m the one who hasn’t led the way, isn’t it? Then I shall go first this time.” He then took out a flashlight from his inventory and pushed open the door.

“Hmm… Looks like it’s a room that is quite similar to this one we’re currently in.” Ambitionist shone his flashlight downwards and turned back to say, “I’ll be going ahead.” Then he leaped over the threshold and dropped down. The landing was soft and steady. Several seconds later, Ambitionist’s voice floated up, “It’s safe. Come on down.” Therefore, the four followed his instruction and entered the stone room on the lower floor. This room was about the same size as the one they just vacated, the only difference was the ceiling did not have the conical shape anymore but it was a flat stone ceiling.

“Look over there.” When all of his teammates had arrived, Ambitionist raised his flashlight at one side of the room. He said, “That… looks suspicious no matter how you look at it.”

The group turned to see the thing that Ambitionist was talking about.

…

Project Number: SCP-645

Object Class: Safe

Description: SCP-645 is a large disk of Pavonazzetto marble with a humanoid face carved into it, similar to the famous Bocca della Verità carving in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome, Italy. As with the Bocca carving, the mouth and eyes are empty holes; unlike with the Bocca carving, however, subjects who place their hands inside SCP-645’s mouth describe it as ‘warm’ and ‘moist’. SCP-645 is to be cleaned after each activation. Any subject who tells a lie while their hand is within the carving’s mouth will activate the carving, which will then bite off the subject’s hand at the wrist and swallow it.

…

“This looks like the Bocca carving.” Atobe studied the marble. He had travelled to Europe and visited the real Bocca della Verita carving at Rome before so he could recognize it.

“Oh, I think I saw this in an old movie before.” Pegasus added.

“Actually…” Uncle Worthless said, “I think it’s best for us to avoid it.” He said as he pointed at the other side of the room. He was pointing at the door that would lead them further down. “Our goal is to reach the bottom floor, therefore… we only need to go through these doors. It’s best to avoid touching these strange objects that we encounter along the way.”

“The man is right.” Feng Bujue said but his man… was already walking towards the carving.

“Hey! Then what are you doing?” Ambitionist asked.

“Looking for equipment of course.” Feng Bujue replied matter of factly. “This kind of area where you have the choice to avoid will have a very high chance of hiding a reward.” He said as he reached his hand into the mouth of the carving. “As they say ‘the more the traps there are, the higher the chance you’ll find a good treasure chest at the end of the path’, isn’t that common gaming rule? And you people call yourselves professional gamers, how could you not… Ah!” Before he finished, Brother Jue’s expression shifted and screamed out loud.

“What’s wrong?” Pegasus was the first to dart forward and assumed his ‘heroic mannerism’. “Are you bitten? Do you want me to destroy it with a shot of Pegasasu Ryūsei Ken?”

“Ken your head! Do you use that to solve every problem?” Feng Bujue’s reply was so powerful and loud that it appeared like the man was not injured.

“Ah… Well as they say, if you can’t solve a problem there’s always time for Shoryu…” Pegasus answered in a serious tone.

“That is just a joke, okay! And that is talking about shouryuuken and not Pegasasu Ryūsei Ken!” Feng Bujue shouted back.

“Enough… is there a need to argue about these nonsensical things?” Uncle Worthless rubbed his temple with both of his hands. He was feeling the start of a headache. “So what happened?”

“I think I touched something…” Feng Bujue replied rapidly. “It’s a spherical object, it has a smooth surface and the size is about the size of a tennis ball… In any case, the moment I touched the thing, my hand was bitten.”

“Then why don’t you try to let the thing go?” Atobe suggested.

“I can’t, the front of my wrist is snapped shut.” Feng Bujue replied, “And I can’t pull out my hand…” He paused. “it feels like… if I try to force it out, I’ll break my hand first.”

“Aiz… that’s why you were warned from touching anything.” Ambitionist shook his head with a sigh. “and someone was saying ‘the more the traps there are, the higher the chance you’ll find a good treasure chest at the end of the path’ earlier… from how I see it, it’s like the good book says, pride goes before a fall. Well, who can you blame but yourself?”

“Answer—me—one—question–.” Suddenly a brassy voice came out from the carving’s mouth. Every word was dragged out (The – will be omitted in the later part of the carving’s responses), “and I will let you go.”

The group heard that, looked at each other but none answered.

“Hmm… Okay, you ask.” Feng Bujue hesitated for 2 seconds before he agreed.

“You have to answer truthfully or I will bite off your hand.” The carving warned.

“Sure.” Feng Bujue replied. Brother Jue was not afraid of having his hand chomped off because he still had a few SCP 500 in his inventory and his Life Points was full so he wouldn’t die from this one injury. In conclusion, the worst case scenario was losing a pill and an unknown item that he still had not obtained.

“Then listen closely…” The carving began to ask…

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