Cremation at the Crematorium

On his seventy-third Save-Load, Xu Kai returned to the moment the farewell ceremony had just begun.

He had never expected that while the game's wording did have loopholes he could exploit, exploiting some of them would get him killed.

The game had said earlier that the Role-Playing Mission was complete. Xu Kai had assumed there would be no more Role-Playing Missions.

He hadn't expected that, after the new mission began, the game would assume the Role-Playing Mission was still active.

It also assumed he would continue the new mission in that role. Once he dropped the act, the Role-Playing Mission would immediately fail. It was downright despicable.

Only the boss and someone who had died once would know about a hidden condition like that.

The Stone Statue Weird had made masterful use of the rule, controlling ordinary people to restrain the players and Xu Kai, leaving Xu Kai so hamstrung that he couldn't release his Weird Energy at all.

What was more, the farewell ceremony was underway. When Xu Kai looked outside, he could feel the Stone Statue Weird's deep malice.

More and more people were gathering to watch the farewell ceremony. They had brought tables, chairs, and benches, and surrounded the Funeral Hall, seemingly intent on blocking it off completely.

The cafeteria had also made Tofu Rice and was handing it out for free outside, drawing even more people over. The Tofu Rice was also the medium through which the Stone Statue Weird controlled the crowd.

It was already too late to leave. The farewell ceremony moved quickly, and after saying only a few words, the Master of Ceremonies was about to step forward and announce the start of the Collective Funeral Procession.

That same voice had sounded last time, and like some kind of trigger, it had sent everyone into a frenzy. So when Xu Kai saw the Master of Ceremonies move, he rushed straight to his side and covered his mouth, ignoring the players' questions and confusion.

"Collec... mmph, mmph..."

"Master Xu, what are you doing? Why are you stopping the Master of Ceremonies?"

The Short-Haired Woman was puzzled and had even pulled a knife from behind her back. If Xu Kai disrupted the farewell ceremony, wouldn't that prevent the coffin from being cremated? That would put him against the players.

But she didn't act immediately. She still wanted to hear what Xu Kai had to say; after all, their cooperation with him had gone fairly smoothly before.

"I..."

Xu Kai was about to speak when he suddenly noticed the Master of Ceremonies' phone vibrating. It automatically played a loud recording:

"The Collective Funeral Procession begins!"

As soon as the voice rang out, even the Short-Haired Woman realized something was wrong. Who would record a message for a farewell ceremony in advance?

Sure enough, after the voice sounded, more and more people approached the Funeral Hall. Their eyes were slightly red, but otherwise they were no different from ordinary people. They stared fixedly at Xu Kai and the three players, slowly picking up objects as they did.

"Hey, this isn't right, is it? Who's seeing who off here? Why does it feel like they're coming for us?"

Yellow Hair looked at the increasingly strange crowd, feeling more and more that something was off. He had developed a fear of the people in this instance. The last time he had seen so many of them, a horde of cars had come charging around a bend. If Master Xu hadn't crushed the Timer in advance, he would have been sent to heaven.

The crowd lived up to Yellow Hair's expectations. Once they got close, they began tugging at him, trying to lift him up as if he were a corpse.

In a panic, the Short-Haired Woman hurriedly slashed the person holding Yellow Hair with her knife. But the person showed no sign of pain and kept a death grip on Yellow Hair, trying to drag him toward the Cremation Workshop.

Xu Kai rushed over and slammed into the person holding Yellow Hair, knocking them back to the ground and toppling a large group of people.

But it did no good. Xu Kai couldn't release his Weird Energy without exposing his identity, and that one collision was a drop in the bucket. The crowd immediately filled the gap.

Fortunately, he knew about the Short-Haired Woman's Talent. He had rushed over to ask her what they should do now.

When Xu Kai asked, the Short-Haired Woman used her Talent for the last time and said:

"Go behind the coffin. Then we'll form a circle and hold on to a pillar. Keep holding on, and don't let the crowd drag us in!"

No one argued. They all trusted the Short-Haired Woman's Talent and did as she said.

As soon as they entered the Funeral Hall, a chill so cold it seemed to seep through their bodies met them. They ignored it and looked for cover.

The Short-Haired Woman held JK with one hand and Yellow Hair with the other, then rushed to a tall pillar and pressed herself against it.

The three worked together seamlessly, wrapping their arms around the pillar and gripping its patterns tightly so the crowd couldn't pull them away.

The crowd was moving faster and faster. They rushed into the Funeral Hall and were about to lift the players up when they saw the coffin and suddenly froze.

They stopped where they were, as if their code had run into a conflict. Xu Kai and the players didn't dare move, watching the crowd warily.

"What's wrong with them?"

"The people under the spell are set on carrying people off to be burned. Looks like the coffin takes priority over us."

The Short-Haired Woman spoke as she watched the crowd warily.

The crowd raised their eyes as one, then, like madmen, carried the coffin out first, taking it to the Cremation Workshop.

The trouble was that the coffin wasn't large. Only about ten people were needed to carry it to the Cremation Workshop. Plenty remained, and their eyes finally turned to the players and Xu Kai as they rushed forward.

The crowd pressed shoulder to shoulder, reaching out with their hands or wielding wooden poles and iron implements. They pried, struck, pulled, and clawed, forcibly lifting Xu Kai and the players away from the pillars and carrying them toward the Cremation Workshop as well.

"Hold on! The coffin's already been taken to the Cremation Workshop! As soon as it's burned, the crowd will come to their senses!"

The Short-Haired Woman gritted her teeth and shared this crucial information, giving everyone hope.

"Huff, hah~"

People of all kinds had eaten Tofu Rice and joined in. They were packed so tightly that the crowd blocked the view outside the Funeral Hall.

Xu Kai wasn't with the players. He had found another pillar and was clinging tightly to it with both hands and feet. He was using his Weird Energy, and though he only used it inside his body, he was still far stronger than an ordinary person, clinging to the pillar like a gecko.

Countless people reached for his shoulders, fingers, and ankles, trying to pry him loose, but all failed.

But fingernails were sharp, especially other people's fingernails. The spellbound crowd acted like lunatics, digging their nails into Xu Kai's flesh and scraping them back and forth across his body. The pain was easy to imagine.

But Xu Kai didn't let go because of the pain. Instead, he held on even tighter.

To him, after dying more than seventy times, this little bit of pain felt like someone was acting cute.

But someone couldn't hold out. Yellow Hair was the first to cry out in pain, cursing the crowd and their entire family trees:

"Fuck your old mother, fuck, fuck, fuck..."

The crowd clearly couldn't understand that kind of cursing. The moment Yellow Hair cried out and lost his grip, he was lifted away, leaving a gap at the pillar. JK and the Short-Haired Woman were in a precarious position.

Yellow Hair kept twisting, trying to get down from the hands carrying him, but his arms and legs were held fast. He couldn't move at all.

He still imagined he might be able to block the Cremation Workshop's doorway, but he was carried along so quickly that only when he reached it did he realize the fucking door was too wide. A tank could have driven through it. There was no way he could get stuck.

Not only was the entrance wide, but so was the inside. It was also full of people, who were guarding something closely. Yellow Hair was held high enough to see it at once: the group was protecting the coffin from earlier. Contrary to what the Short-Haired Woman had said, the coffin hadn't been cremated at all!

At the sight, Yellow Hair fell into despair. From beginning to end, the only people the crowd wanted to carry off were the players and Xu Kai.

Clack, clack, clack...

The machine was shaped like a cylinder lying on its side. A worker twisted open the heavy gate at its front, revealing layer upon layer of gears fitted with sharp, heavy-duty blades.

After all, corpses were sealed, and cremating one without preparation would cause it to burst. Cutting it open with the gears would prevent that.

The creaking of the gears set Yellow Hair's scalp crawling. Right now, he felt like he was about to burst too. Time seemed to pass slowly, and his mind was in a daze. It was the helplessness of approaching death, of standing at the end of the road.

What would a person do in utter despair, knowing death was certain?

Yellow Hair, A Gou, had always considered himself a badass. He didn't want to be a coward, even though he had been frightened by the weirdness before. So, in this desperate situation, knowing he was going to die, he was determined to do something big.

The doors to the Cremation Workshop hadn't been closed, and the crowd had spread out a little to seize Yellow Hair. The players and Xu Kai could just make out what was happening inside.

They watched as Yellow Hair was about to be fed into the machine. It was like a crouching lion, its bloody maw wide open as it waited for him.

They saw Yellow Hair's expression. At first he was despairing, but then he seemed to notice everyone watching. He gave them a carefree smile and mouthed something, apparently cursing the weird thing's grandmother.

Then: "Talent, activate!"

After saying that, Yellow Hair fixed his eyes on the coffin. In that instant, his hair turned white and his spirit withered. He even passed out after activating it. But he succeeded: Yellow Hair borrowed a huge black shadow, which flashed into the machine in an instant, nearly jamming it.

That huge black shadow was the coffin, the very coffin the Stone Statue Weird had maliciously left in the Cremation Workshop. Yellow Hair had actually brought it into the machine!

The crowd even froze, abandoning their attempts to capture the players and trying to pull the coffin out. But it was already too late. The gears turned quickly, and even the heavy coffin couldn't withstand more than a few turns before it was crushed and fed into the incinerator section. The crowd watched it all unwillingly, then stopped.

Everything had ended in such dramatic fashion.

Gradually, everyone began to come to their senses, exclaiming and asking what had just happened and how they had gotten there.

Xu Kai and the two remaining players released the pillars and checked their injuries. The two players had no strength left once they let go and fell straight to the floor.

Their clothes were torn, and their bodies were covered in bloody scratches. The Short-Haired Woman had long been on the verge of breaking down, and her eyes were bloodshot.

It had been brutal. Strength in numbers was no joke. When the crowd massed together, it was terrifying. At least twenty people had been clawing at her back, grabbing hold of it and pulling outward!

The Short-Haired Woman and JK were covered in wounds on their backs. Some went all the way to the bone and were still bleeding.

They barely managed to bandage each other with scraps of cloth. JK sat straight down, no longer putting on a feminine act, and said in a hoarse voice:

"This is my fucking beginner instance? Short-Haired Woman, is it over now?"

The Short-Haired Woman took a moment to recover. She wanted to give JK the answer he was hoping for, but in the end she shook her head slightly and said:

"It's not over. We still have to get the ashes! This really shouldn't be a beginner instance. It's practically as difficult as all the instances I've encountered before put together! None of the instances I've been in were ever this crazy! Even when things got crazy, it was only the weird things that went crazy, not countless people!"

After speaking, the Short-Haired Woman coughed. The wounds on her back were so severe that she could barely stand.

Xu Kai said nothing. The players aside, he was "Evil," and he wasn't much better off. He was only in slightly better shape because, unlike the players, he had Weird Energy. While the Short-Haired Woman and JK bandaged their wounds, he took the opportunity to count his own.

His left arm was broken, pried with a steel reinforcing bar by a cement worker. His right hand was almost numb, smashed with a hammer by a blacksmith. His feet were a bloody mess, and there wasn't a single uninjured patch of flesh anywhere on his back side. The Weird Energy inside him was working to stitch every wound closed and keep it from tearing open. Otherwise, it was hard to say whether he could even survive.

The Short-Haired Woman tried to stand again, the pain nearly splitting the corners of her mouth. She looked toward the Urn Storage Room, at the several hundred meters separating them from it, and felt a little despair.

In this condition, how were they supposed to get the ashes and complete the remaining Digging the Grave, Burial, and Tombstone Erection missions?