Chapter 524: Island of Devil’s Maw (30)
“Ah hah!” Feng Bujue shouted suddenly, “I get it now!”
Hearing that, they all turned their gaze towards him and realized Brother Jue was now squatting at the other side of the altar, G.o.d knows what he had seen. “We have no time to waste, come on over here now.” Feng Bujue continued to shout.
The rest of his teammates did not find anything valuable in the past 5 minutes so they moved to oblige when they heard Brother Jue said that. Soon the four stood behind him.
“I found two rather obvious hints…” Feng Bujue pointed at a stone slab that protruded out before him. “Take a closer look, there are two pieces of murals here.” As if to demonstrate, he reached out his right hand to swipe lightly over the surface of the stone slab. With that, the originally drab slab started to glow, an orange-colored pattern surfaced and formed two miniature murals.
“The mural on the left is quite clear.” Feng Bujue explained as he pointed at the pattern. “Look, it is depicting a group of people peeing on the altar and showing their middle fingers.”
“My G.o.d…” Atobe was covered in cold sweat. “What in the world is this…”
“It probably wants us to desecrate the altar or something like that…” Ambitionist suggested.
“Indeed, and I am a master at that… but don’t hurry to any conclusion because there is this second mural.” Feng Bujue said as he moved his hand to the mural on the right. “This one is rather abstract and it took me some time before I understood it…” he explained, “See… there is something sitting on the altar, on first glance it might look like a sea anemone but it is actually a woman, to be more precise, it is a young woman.”
“Then… this is to tell us to find a young girl to offer as sacrifice?” Pegasus concluded.
“Bingo!” Feng Bujue nodded. At the same time, he retracted his hand and stood up.
…
“This is so sordid! Such a disgusting deity, let me use my hand of justice to destroy him!” Pegasus exclaimed judiciously.
“Well, we do need to kill it eventually, after all that is part of the quest but…” Feng Bujue paused as he used a meaningful gaze to sweep the rest of his group, “We are given choice on how to summon him…”
“The method that we use to summon him is probably going to affect the difficulty of the boss battle, right…” Ambitionist predicted.
“That is the same opinion I held.” Uncle Worthless said, “But… we do not have a female player among us so I am afraid we are only accessible to the worse choice…” His words stopped there because at that moment, he felt a fiery gaze burning into him.
“Brother Feng… what are you thinking…” uncle Worthless asked worriedly.
Brother Jue stared closely at Uncle Worthless like how a s.e.x maniac would view his target and even the tone was equally slimy, “Brother Worthless, you still remember… the magical seal that Leideson has given you, right?” With that reminder, everyone else remembered it as well.
“Oh, that’s a way too!” Ambitionist snapped his finger. Atobe though mumbled, “So the power of disguise…” Pegasus did not give any comments, he merely looked at Uncle Worthless with a face piled up with smiles.
“Don’t get any funny ideas, you guys…” Uncle Worthless replied expressionlessly.
“You said it yourself, in this circ.u.mstance, ‘we are only accessible to the worse choice’.” Feng Bujue returned to normal and persuaded. “That means that even you agree that it is not a good idea to summon the boss through the desecration of the altar…” he paused before continuing, “But now… actually it is not that we are only accessible to one choice, are we?”
“I’d rather face the boss at a higher difficulty then…” Uncle Worthless answered. “I’ll carry you all through the battle.”
“As a professional player… you should understand the need to make sacrifice for the team…” Feng Bujue walked forward to pat Uncle Worthless on his shoulder and uttered with a serious and heavy att.i.tude.
“Your salacious and antic.i.p.atory gaze has once again belied your real thought…” Uncle Worthless very easily shoved Brother Jue’s hand away.
“Then fine…” Feng Bujue shrugged, “Since you are so against something as exciting as to take on a disguise of a young woman…” as he spoke, he already walked forward to step onto the altar. “Then we will have to use the first method.”
“What are you doing… are you going to strip?” Atobe narrowed his eyes. “If that is the case, please inform me earlier, so that I can dig my eyes out first.”
“Aiz… never mind, I’ll take one for the team this time.” Uncle Worthless sighed as he walked up to the altar. “Shoo, shoo…” He pushed Brother Jue, the latter borrowed the force and leaped back onto the ground.
“Oh! Oh! A drag version of Uncle Worthless? For some reason, I am quite excited about this.” Atobe was injected with interested and widened his eyes to say.
“Hmph… bunch of dirty minded fellas…” Ambitionist pushed on his gla.s.ses and scoffed.
“Ishada, your hands that are shaking from ecstasy has betrayed you.” Pegasus who stood behind Pegasus slid in a jab silently.
1
“Seiya, your eyes that are staring as round as copper coins have betrayed you as well…” Feng Bujue though turned around to fire back at Pegasus.
“But that is how he looks normally…” Atobe used his hands to pull his eyes wide open. “His face has always looked that way with big eyes and bushy brows…”
1
Just as the group was rambling, Uncle Worthless already pressed his hand on his shoulder and activated the seal. Instantly, a pool of white light appeared and when it faded away, the thing that greeted the player was… (After much contemplation, to save everyone’s appet.i.te, the author has decided to skip over this part of the story)
“Urgh Ergh…” The four players practically turned in unison, bent over and started to vomit.
“So it has failed after all…” When Uncle Worthless said that, his voice was unchanged at all. “Thankfully, there is no mirror, I do not wish to end up in the same state as the rest of you.”
“Such… such a thing can happen…?” Feng Bujue revealed a countenance that had never been so serious in his life, “This appearance that breaks the barrier of the mind… no, breaks the barrier of even the dimension… is truly… urgh…”
Pegasus gasped hungrily like he had seen a ghost. “d.a.m.n it… as a hero, I know that judging a book by its cover is wrong but urgh…”
“It is you people’s fault for raising the antic.i.p.ation level so high that even i… ah…” Ambitionist’s vomit practically crawled up his food pipe and burst onto the ground.
“This is has nothing to do with antic.i.p.ation level, okay!” Atobe yelled in the middle of successive vomiting, “Even Feng Bujue has vomited, hasn’t he?”
“hey! What do you mean by that…” Feng Bujue roared. “Am I now the representation of humanity’s bottom line?”
1
“Ha… This is what you call you reap what you sow.” Uncle Worthless laughed. “That’s enough jokes out of you, the clock is ticking. Let’s be prepared to fight the boss.” He said as he slowly sat down and then proceeded to lie down on the altar. “So what I need to do now is to lie down here, yes?”
“Ergh…” When the four heard the description, some images could not help appear in their mind. Even though none of them turned to look Uncle Worthless’ way, it still did not stop another new rounds of hurtling vomit.
“Oh ha ha ha…” Suddenly a joyful laughter echoed through the hall. The voice was magnetic, deep and manly. Following the laughter, all the gems in the hall started to glow. The glow became so bright that the players could not open their eyes. Only Uncle Worthless who wore the sungla.s.ses had the chance to witness Walker’s full appearance… a dimensional tear appeared above the altar and a human figure slowly descended down from it.
Walker was an elvish man with long ears, he wore a long faded green robe, leather boots, and cape. He even had a banjo on his back, looking like a cla.s.sic bard from D&D. And his appearance could only be described as ‘beautiful’, his features were like that of a painting, graceful and inspiring. His mannerism contained the grace and softness of a woman but did not lose the strength and tenacity of a man. It had to be said that the deity formed a perfect contrast to Uncle Worthless who was currently lying on the altar…
Several seconds later, the light slowly faded away. The other 4 players also turned back to look. By then the dimensional tear had already disappeared and only Walker remained floating in the air. This boss’ first words after his appearance was like this…”Ha ha… very well, my disciple, you have offered me yet another beautiful lady, I could not wait to serenade her with a song of mine… Ha ha~ Let me see your face, my young precious… Ah!!”
That magnetic, deep and manly voice let out a scream that one would only hear when a chicken was being slaughtered.
“Ah! Ah!” Walker could not believe his own eyes. After his eyes moved away, he could not help himself from turning back like how one could not being attracted to a trainwreck, and that caused him to scream two more times.
“What kind of reaction is this…” Atobe said while looking at the boss with pity. Feng Bujue added, “It feels like… every glance at Uncle Worthless, it is as if someone has kicked you in the nuts…”
“You, you, you…” Walker really did not know what to say. Before he successfully finished a whole sentence, his stomach betrayed his first… The next second, Walker dropped down from the sky, scrambled to the corner of the hall and started to hurl with his hands on the wall…
“Now is our time!” Feng Bujue pulled out the cleaver and screamed his teammates into action.
“Oh!” Atobe, Ambitionist and Pegasus answered in return and rushed forward. While the deity’s physical and mental state were basically crumbling… the four went for the jugular and a series of relentless attacks wiped out the deity’s life…
…
5 minutes later…”Ah… the effect seems to be over.” Uncle Worthless said. The four who were facing away from him turned back one after another.
“Thank G.o.d…” Atobe wiped away the sweat. “The time limit for this ‘disguise’ is not that long.” By then they had naturally completed the previous main quest “Within the next 15 minutes, use the altar inside the shrine to summon and defeat Walker, the G.o.d of Travel”. The system notified them of that but the next quest line had not appeared.
“Phew…” Feng Bujue also gave a long sigh. “This mother beep was truly the easiest boss I have ever faced…”
“Speaking of which… you were a bit too ruthless with your attacks earlier…” Pegasus glanced at the broken pieces of the carca.s.ses at the corner. “Do you think you were making minced meat? If not for the protection of the system, even the few of us would be accidentally injured by your cuts.”
“You were right… I was indeed making minced meat out of him.” Feng Bujue’s answer always managed to surprise. “Now… our problem of food is solved.”
“Do you have to resort to cannibalism every chance you got?” Atobe graoned.
“Ah?” Feng Bujue turned his head up like he could not understand him. Then he raised his arm to point at Walker’s dead body. “How is this cannibalism? Is he human? He was a G.o.d? At the very least, he was an elf.”
“Even so, it feels strange eating an elf…” Atobe hesitated.
“Qie… how come you don’t have the same guilt and attack on conscience when eating pork or chicken?” Feng Bujue countered. “Your sense of sympathy is invoked when you are faced with a humanoid creature? Then how do you answer to all of the animals that have been killed, eaten and digested by your body and p.o.o.ped out all these years? If you are that saintly, spend the rest of your lives surviving on b.u.t.ton mushrooms then.”
“Why does it have to be b.u.t.ton mushrooms anyway… Even if I have to go vegetarian, there are many other choices, aren’t there?” Atobe groused.
“Yes, add in something like carrot, cuc.u.mber to pair with those two mushrooms and you’ll have a feast.” Feng Bujue raised his brow to quip.
“Do you have to do this…” Atobe appeared to have heard the sinister implication behind Brother Jue’s words and he added with dissatisfaction, “Your constant hara.s.sment through innuendoes is enough to warn a report already, I am warning you!”
“In any case, I am going to eat this time. It is your freedom if you wish to go hungry.” Feng Bujue was too lazy to persuade them anymore, he turned to walk towards Walker’s body. “The next quest might come soon. I need to quickly pick out some flesh to roast so that I can eat some and then preserve the rest for later.”
“Such madness…” Watching Brother Jue walk away, Uncle Worthless commented.
“Such craziness…” Pegasus added.
“Such evil…” Ambitionist also chimed in.
But as the three said so, they too moved to follow Feng Bujue…
“Hey! So you all still moved to follow him?!” Atobe was astonished by this group of people’s morality but after he said his piece, he too started to reveal a face of hesitation. In the end… with the claws of hunger grabbing at his stomach, he too joined the rest…
…
Moments later, a delicious smell wafted through the hall. Juicy meat dripped out from the fatty flesh, dropped on the bonfire and sizzled.
“Hmm… These mocking tree’s branches sure are good fuel. Just by stacking 2 or 3 of them together, we can produce such a long lasting bonfire.” Feng Bujue continued to chat like nothing was out of the ordaniry with his teammates. At that moment, Feng Bujue was holding the cleaver sideways and using the surface of the blade as a makes.h.i.+ft iron plate to roast a piece of meat cut off from the ribs.
“I know you are trying to lighten the mood, but I feel like… it’s best for us to keep silent for now…” Ambitionist said. He was holding an arrow (Ambitionist had a few actual spare arrows in his inventory, they were consumables like ammos) which had a piece of the man’s neck pierced through it roasting on the fire.
“Ha ha… You’re still stuck on that at a moment like this?” Feng Bujue sounded just like the mother hen of a brothel. “From the moment you guys surrounded the corpse and started to pick out the slices of meat, you should have known what will happen….” He shrugged. “Ah… then again, I can understand your feeling… Everything are like that, going from 1 to 2 is easy but going from 0 to 1 is always difficult. The first step is always the hardest.”
“Your tone of a drug pusher, and gaze of a brothel owner… are really helping at the moment.” Ambitionist rewarded Brother Jue with another sarcastic jab.
Actually Ambitionist was the one other than Feng Bujue who adjusted to the situation the quickest.
Uncle Worthless, Pegasus and Atobe did not want to even speak a word. As the atmosphere around them became stranger and stranger, the system announcement came. “Main quest updated. Travel through the tunnel behind the shrine and arrive at the Crystalline Maze within an hour.”