Chapter 329: Since We're Here, Let's Make the Best of It
A hippopotamus, about the size of a jeep, swallowed Sheldon's entire upper body whole, leaving only a discarded shoe behind.
Fortunately, after swallowing Sheldon, the hippopotamus didn't even glance at the others, let out a burp, and dived back into the water.
"Ron, Sheldon's been eaten!"
"Oh my god! Help him!"
"Don't panic," Ron heard some strange noises in the sky, stopped the few panicking guys, and pointed to the sky. Immediately, Sheldon's game avatar, accompanied by a whistling sound and a scream, fell to the ground.
"Are you alright, Sheldon?" Ron reached out and helped him up.
"No! Absolutely not! That was disgusting! What kind of place is this? A monster that's never brushed its teeth in its life can just swallow a perfectly clean person whole?"
"A place where you could easily die. And let me correct you, given your current size, I strongly suspect you haven't showered in at least three days."
"Hey! This isn't the time to dwell on these trivial matters. What just happened, Sheldon?" Leonard quickly checked Sheldon over, finding him unharmed, and asked hastily.
"I was standing by the river when I was suddenly swallowed whole. When I opened my eyes again, I was falling 300 meters. At that height, a person would definitely die, but I'm perfectly fine. Doesn't this damn place follow Newtonian physics?"
Ron couldn't help but chuckle. He never expected that the first question Sheldon thought of after his respawn wouldn't be why he died and came back to life, but rather that this place didn't follow Newtonian physics.
Well, that's very Sheldon.
"That's a hippopotamus. They're omnivores, sprint as fast as a racehorse, and their bite force can reach 8100 Newtons," Sheldon complained. Before he could finish, Leonard's mouth started rattling off facts like a machine gun: "My God, how could I say that?"
Leonard was surprised by his own reaction.
"You're a zoologist." Howard's eyes lit up, remembering Leonard's character setting: "Hey guys, we seem to have entered a game. Quick, recall the character settings we just looked at. Maybe there's any useful information that can help us. Also, what do these three lines on my wrist mean? Do you guys have them?"
"It seems everyone has them," Rajesh looked around. "Sheldon, why do you have two?"
"Because he just used a life, if I'm not mistaken. That's probably the number of times we can respawn, like lives in Contra," Ron chimed in.
"What happens if we use up all three lives? Do we quit the game?"
"Maybe we'll just die. I suggest you don't try it." Ron rolled his eyes at him, but his annoyance quickly turned into alarm.
He saw countless hippos emerging from the bushes. So the hippos that had dived back into the water weren't full after all; they had gone to call their buddies for lunch.
"Really team players!"
"Run! The hippos are here to eat! Anyone who doesn't want to be lunch, run!"
Before Ron could finish speaking, the other four guys had already sprung to their feet and taken off. By the time Ron turned around, they were long gone.
"Disloyal bastards!" Ron cursed under his breath and quickly followed.
The five of them were chased by the hippos for a full five minutes before finally emerging from the woods onto a small path. Just as they were about to catch their breath, a jeep drove up from the path and stopped in front of them.
"Dr. Smolder Bravestone! Welcome to Jumanji!" The overly familiar driver stunned the five men. The jeep doors opened automatically, as if they had sensors. "Don't just stand there, get in!"
However, Sheldon, though possessing Dr. Smolder Bravestone's appearance, lacked his heart. "No, I don't like strangers' cars! Besides, your car looks filthy, I wonder how many bacteria it's covered in..."
"What time is it? Get in!" Ron could vaguely hear the hippo's footsteps behind him. Annoyed, he tried to shove Sheldon, but embarrassingly, he couldn't budge him. Ron blushed.
"Get in! Otherwise, I guarantee you'll be swallowed by that sticky, filthy mouth again!"
This time, Sheldon finally obediently got in.
Sheldon, having just fastened his seatbelt, immediately asked warily, "Where are you taking us?"
The driver, however, seemed not to hear him at all, continuing with his own dialogue: "Dr. Bravestone, the renowned archaeologist and international explorer, as everyone knows, your courageous adventures have taken you to all seven continents. It's an honor to meet you. I can say without hesitation that you're a very handsome man."
"Hey! You've got good taste. If recognizing a person's worth is a form of wisdom, then you're much smarter than the last four. Leonard, I'm starting to like this guy."
Sheldon, flattered, grinned from ear to ear: "Archaeologist and adventurer, in that case, wouldn't I be Indiana Jones? I like that setup."
"Hey! Why are you Indiana Jones? Just from the name, you know that role should be mine. I'm the real Indian!" Rajesh retorted.
"Man Killer, Ruby Roundhouse, welcome to Jumanji. I eagerly await your arrival. As you know, this place is extremely dangerous, and we hope you can break the curse."
"Curse? What curse?"
"Professor Oberon, the genius..."
Howard had barely begun speaking when the driver impatiently launched into introducing the rest of the person's background. Howard sensed something amiss, nudged Ron with his elbow, and whispered, "What's up with this guy?"
"If we're really in a game, I bet he's an NPC. No matter what we say to him, he'll give fixed, pre-programmed responses. I can demonstrate for you."
Ron switched languages and sent the most colorful greeting from Brooklyn: "Hey, jackass!"
Sure enough, the driver showed no displeasure or confusion; instead, he greeted him excitedly: "Mouse Finbar, welcome to Jumanji! We've heard you're the most skilled weapons specialist around, and you've been specially invited to help break the curse. We're really looking forward to your arrival."
Ron shrugged: "See? Told you."
"Okay, I hope he can tell us how to get back?" Leonard said wistfully, gazing at the receding woods on either side.
"Franklin 'Mouse' Finbar, 'mouse' is a nickname people gave you because of your small stature and quick reflexes. I knew you'd come, because Dr. Bravestone always takes his most reliable weapons valet with him wherever he goes."
"Hey, that's true, they even live together."
Rajesh was referring to reality. After the jungle sprint, almost everyone's mood had returned to normal, and some were even a little eager to try it out because of the unique experience of entering the game world.
However, Ron wasn't in such a good mood. He had just checked his system and found that almost all of his skills were disabled in this world, and he couldn't even access the system page.
Well, although he was reborn with a cheat code—or rather, two, including knowing the course of many stories—Ron rarely relied entirely on the unknown for survival. Instead, knowing that he might face more strange and powerful enemies in the future made him work even harder in training.
So even without the aid of his cheat codes, he was still very confident.
But that didn't mean he didn't want to leave this weird place sooner: "Back to the point, what's this curse you mentioned?"
The NPC driver switched to answer mode: "The letter I sent you explains everything..."
"A letter? Are you sure your letter can reach Pasadena?" Sheldon looked doubtful, but his doubt quickly turned to surprise: "Look, I really do have a letter!"
As soon as Sheldon opened it, everyone's vision went dark, and another scene appeared in the dense forest, showing a group of people they didn't recognize.
"What the hell is this now?"
"I guess it's the opening cutscene of a game; all games have this."
The opening scene was very cinematic. Simply put, a wicked warlord stole the gem from the Sacred Mountain of Jumanji, and then it was corrupted by darkness. The animals in the forest also went mad, attacking humans frantically unless the gem was returned. The good news was that the gem wasn't in the wicked warlord's hands, but had been stolen back by an NPC.
"Now, you need to take the gem back to the Sacred Mountain and put it back on the jaguar's eye." The NPC driver took out a gem and stuffed it into Sheldon's hand: "Have a safe journey."
After saying that, Ron didn't even realize how he got out of the car. He stood on the ground with Sheldon and the others and watched the jeep drive away.
"I feel like this is a clichéd, garbage game. If any company made a game like this, they'd go bankrupt," Howard cursed in frustration. "If it were made into a movie, it would definitely bomb.
What do we do now? Ron, we have to go back! I just proposed to Bernadette!"
"Calm down, Howard, calm down," Ron reassured Howard. "I don't want to stay here a second longer either, but it seems like we'll be stuck here forever if we don't complete the mission. So let's get going, finish these damn quests quickly, and then we can go home, drink beer, and watch TV."
"But how do we do that? The map that NPC gave us was just a blank sheet of paper. We don't even know where to go!"
"Maybe we should do this." Ron took the blank paper from Rajesh and shoved it into Howard's hand. "Notice the NPC's wording. He said 'together,' so I guess completing the mission will most likely depend on us helping each other. Howard, take a look and see if you've found anything."
"Hey! I actually see it! It really is a map. We should go that way!" Howard pointed to the side.
"How did you know Howard could see the map?"
"It's simple. We have two doctors here. One is Sheldon," Ron glanced at Sheldon's muscular frame, "but obviously, this muscle-bound guy is a combat character. The other is Howard, and he's a cartographer. If he can't see the map, I really don't know who to give it to."
Sheldon looked at Howard with disdain: "A PhD? Pfft."
"Alright, let's put academic credentials aside for now. Let's set off. Everyone be careful," Ron led the way, following Howard's directions. "Don't forget, we're in a virtual game now. Those hippos we just encountered weren't even the first level; they were just the tutorial. From now on, our first level has just begun."
Ron vaguely remembered that the road to the Sacred Mountain wasn't so smooth, but fortunately, the character he was using wasn't useless.
A master of weapons, and a specialist at that?
Ron awkwardly touched his bald head, then suddenly seemed to remember something, found a puddle, and looked at his reflection.
"This really is Mouse Finbar!" Ron exclaimed, looking at his reflection in the water. "Too bad I don't have superhuman strength or invulnerability, otherwise I could just power through, no need to bother with any challenges."
"Wait, did you guys hear anything?" Leonard suddenly called out to the group after they hadn't gone far.
Ron perked up his ears: "A sound? No... wait, I think I heard something, it's motorcycles!"
Turning back in the direction of the motorcycles, they saw a large group of bikers on dirt bikes had gathered on the path they had just come from, clearly not looking friendly.
"Alright, looks like our first challenge has arrived. Leonard, give me a weapon."
"Weapon?" Leonard was confused.
"Aren't you my weapons valet? My weapon must be in your backpack," Sheldon said, seeing Leonard standing still, he simply reached in himself, but after a while, he only pulled out a boomerang.
"Do you even know how to use this?" Ron asked skeptically.
It wasn't that he was targeting anyone in particular; everyone present, except himself, was useless.
Expecting these nerdy guys who only knew how to play D&D in the park to use melee weapons was harder than expecting them to bench press their body weight.
(End of Chapter)
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