Chapter 328: Mouse Finbar, Hippo, and Jumanji
Thump, thump, thump.
A rapid drumbeat seemed to resonate from everyone's chest, its origin impossible to discern. The crowd exchanged bewildered glances, as if sensing something.
Rajesh asked anxiously, "What's going on?"
"I think it's short-circuited, Leonard, unplug it...no, kill the power!"
"OK!" Leonard quickly reached for the plug, but the game console seemed unaffected, emitting a buzzing sound, while the game screen on the TV continued to run. "It's not working!"
"Leonard, look at your hand!"
Ron shouted, and everyone noticed that Leonard's hand was gradually disintegrating into tiny particles like sand, then being sucked into the TV. Before he could even react, he was completely absorbed.
"Oh my God! Oh my God!"
After Leonard was "eaten" by the TV, the drumbeats didn't stop; instead, they became even more rapid. Howard and Rajesh huddled together, but they still couldn't escape their fate of being sucked in.
Next was Sheldon, and finally Ron.
"System! System! What's going on?!" At this critical moment, Ron finally remembered he had a system, but unfortunately, the system only gave a cold, impersonal notification: "Special energy detected. Special mission activated: Save the world of Jumanji. Reward: Random character skill x1. Failure penalty: ???"
What did the question marks mean?
Ron was shocked. He had never encountered anything like this since his rebirth, but the suction of the television was getting stronger, while his grip was getting weaker. Finally, his grip loosened, and he was sucked into the television.
Creak~
The apartment door opened again.
"Hey, we're back! Want to grab something to eat?" Penny called out excitedly, but the house was empty except for a game console connected to the TV and five controllers scattered haphazardly on the floor. "Strange, I could've sworn I heard someone in the house."
"Never mind them, Amy, let's go out and eat. What do you want?"
The door slammed shut again, as if no one had ever been there.
WHOOSH!
A flash of bright light, and when Ron regained consciousness, he only heard a violent whooshing sound beside his ears. He quickly opened his eyes and realized he was falling through the air, about to land.
Ron quickly adjusted his landing position.
THUMP!
Ron landed smoothly, and only then did he have time to look around. He was surprised to find himself in a tropical jungle.
"Sheldon?" "Leonard?" "Howard?" "Rajesh?"
Ron tentatively called out all his friends' names, but received no response. Then Ron noticed something unusual: his voice was different.
Even his clothes and body had changed!
"What the hell! Where's my hair?" Ron touched his head, but found nothing but smooth skin.
"If I'm not mistaken, my current appearance is probably that of the character I just selected in the game," Ron recalled the character's appearance on the character select screen, compared it with his own clothes, and made a bold guess.
"Ahhh~"
Just then, four unfamiliar screams echoed from the sky, followed by four thuds as four people fell to the ground at Ron's feet.
"Who are you?!" The first to stand up, a muscular man who looked almost exactly like Ron's best friend Hobbs, asked warily.
The way he moved had a strangely familiar quality to it. Ron tried calling out, "Sheldon?"
"I'm Sheldon, who are you?"
"I'm your brother, Ron Lee Cooper!"
Ron smacked "Hobbs" hard on the head. "Hobbs" yelped and jumped back a step. Ron nodded with satisfaction. This reaction was exactly the same as Sheldon's when he got hit. This was definitely Sheldon!
"Are you Howard and Rajesh?" Ron pointed to the short, chubby man and the sexy woman hugging each other. The two looked at each other and then quickly separated with a scream.
"Hey! How did I become like this?" Rajesh patted herself down, then cupped her hands in front of her chest and nodded in satisfaction. "This feels pretty good~"
A lecherous smile, completely out of character, appeared on the sexy woman's face. Ron was speechless. "Hey! Is this the first thing you noticed? Haven't you guys noticed that we're all different? Where's Leonard?"
"I'm here!" A dark hand rose from the bushes, and then a black man with a large backpack jumped out. "My God! What happened?!"
"We seem to have become the characters we selected in the game." Ron carefully examined the four unfamiliar faces before him, finding it hard to connect them with their previous appearances. "Listen, I don't know what happened either, but simply put, we seem to have been sucked into the game. Yes, that's right, we should be in the game world now."
"A game world?!" Sheldon repeated incredulously. "Are you kidding me? This is impossible! We were clearly in the house about to play a game! I know, it must be some kind of elaborate prank you're pulling again. I almost forgot, tomorrow is April Fool's Day!
Ron! This April Fool's joke is not funny at all! Where's the water? I'm going to go wash all these fake muscles off me right now!"
Sheldon said, running towards the sound of water.
After repeatedly trying to call the system to no avail, Ron stared blankly at the three-stripe tattoo on his wrist. He suddenly remembered a movie he had seen in his previous life.
Could this be Jumanji?
Ron vaguely remembered that there was such a classic adventure movie in his previous life. The first one starred Robin Williams and involved a board game similar to Monopoly. After two mediocre sequels, it was finally rebooted in the new millennium, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
If he wasn't mistaken, the game console Howard bought at the estate sale should be the Jumanji game, now transformed into a video game.
No wonder the name sounded familiar; Ron finally realized, but then immediately sensed something was wrong.
Wait, if it's a game, going to the river now would be...
"Sheldon! Wait! The river is dangerous!" Ron shouted urgently.
"What?" Sheldon turned around, completely unaware that a huge creature was rising from the water behind him.
"Watch out behind you!"
Sheldon turned his head, only to be greeted by a gaping, foul-smelling maw.
"Ahhhhhh!"
(End of Chapter)
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