Killing Zone

[Successfully escorted the player to the Crematorium. Role-Playing Mission complete]

[Successfully depleted all five uses of the player's Talent. The player can no longer use skills. Task to cripple the player complete]

[Maximum Weird Qi increased by 10%. Current maximum: 110]

Hearing the rewards, Xu Kai breathed a sigh of relief. He had already resigned himself to rolling back. If the task had been judged a failure, he would have had to go through that trip many more times and find a way to cripple Wang Hua.

Luckily, Wang Hua had already been crippled. She had used her Talent too many times at the death bend, leaving her mentally exhausted, which allowed his task to be completed.

The moment the task was completed, Xu Kai's black-and-white vision brightened. For a brief moment, he could see a world of vivid colors and breathe real air. The sensation of truly being alive again made him reluctant to let it go.

Unfortunately, once the rewards had been issued, the sensation was taken away. Xu Kai came to his senses. He was no longer human, but an "evil" clinging to life, and the human world was already far out of reach.

Click.

Xu Kai opened the car door and got out with Wang Bangzheng, then lifted the body out. It was a long way, so the other relatives came over to help carry the coffin.

This was probably the power of the instance. Xu Kai found it strange. There had been no sign of the other relatives during the drive, but when it was time to carry the coffin into the Crematorium, they arrived extremely quickly.

A memorial portrait was thrust into Wang Hua's hands, and the relatives all insisted that she walk in front. Wang Hua looked displeased.

The game task only said I had to leave with the ashes. If I could use my Talent, I'd make you all feel the wrath of a god!

Wang Hua only thought it to herself. Reluctantly, she held up the portrait and walked in front, trudging through the Crematorium's main entrance with her head down.

Xu Kai and Wang Bangzheng carried the coffin with the other relatives, following behind Wang Hua. Just as they passed through the Crematorium's main entrance—

Click.

All the lights in the Crematorium went out.

Thump, thump, thump.

Familiar footsteps sounded, accompanied by mocking laughter.

"Hehehe, who brings a body through the main entrance? You can't do that even at night! Corpse transport failed. This is a temporary Killing Zone!"

"Ah! A Weird!"

At the sight of the Stone Statue Weird's true form, Wang Hua's hands went slack and the memorial portrait fell to the ground. She immediately clapped both hands over her eyes and screamed,

"The logout button, the logout button is here! Log out, quickly! Why won't it let me out?!"

"Hahaha! You want to leave this game? There's only one way, and that's to die!"

The Stone Statue Weird laughed wildly, seized Wang Hua, and crushed her in an instant. The sound of her bones shattering rang in every relative's ears.

"A Weird! It's a Weird! Help! I don't want to die yet!"

The surrounding relatives wailed and prepared to flee, but the Stone Statue Weird was faster. It bound them all with its icy Weird Energy. Its cyan eyes swept over the crowd, then suddenly stopped in Xu Kai's direction. Staring coldly at Xu Kai, it said:

"Materials must submit to fate. I arranged for you to drive off at the bend, so that's what you should have done! Damn instance, it actually judged your task complete! I say you failed that task long ago. You deserve to be punished!"

With that, terrifying Weird Energy bore down on Xu Kai and shattered him in an instant. His consciousness sank into darkness.

The forty-eighth rollback. This time, he had faced the Stone Statue Weird's true form directly. There were far fewer painful memories, and his death had been quicker and cleaner.

Xu Kai regained his senses and felt a heavy weight on his shoulder. He realized he had returned to the moment they had just picked up the coffin, and Wang Hua had only just accepted the memorial portrait.

Xu Kai looked around and finally spotted a door in an extremely concealed spot on the side of the Crematorium. The words "Corpse Transport Passage" were written on it.

Seeing it, Xu Kai understood. He had deserved that death.

"Miss Wang, go left. We'll use the designated passage to transport the body."

"Oh, what a hassle."

Wang Hua muttered another complaint, but considering that it was an SSR character who had spoken, she listlessly agreed and led the transport party toward the designated passage.

Sure enough, once they changed course, everything around them remained quiet, and the coffin was carried inside without trouble. The Crematorium lights suddenly flickered, as though unwilling to accept it.

Huff, huff, huff.

Before getting into the car, Xu Kai had only had to carry it a few steps, which had taken no effort at all. This time, they carried it a long way before finally reaching the body storage room.

A man in a black formal suit stood nearby, holding a pen and paper and writing and drawing something:

"Thank you all for your efforts. Please leave the body here and proceed to the front desk to complete the cremation paperwork."

The man looked solemn and businesslike. Only Xu Kai glanced at him with his gray-white eyes, which narrowed.

He was an "evil" too, an "evil" just like Xu Kai.

"Hey, when will the cremation be? Can we do it now?"

Wang Hua was tired of waiting. From her perspective, she had made it here smoothly on her first life. Completely unaware of the setting and dangers here, she only wanted to clear the instance quickly and collect her rewards.

"Well, I'm afraid tomorrow is the earliest. No matter how much we simplify the process, the farewell ceremony still has to be held. Don't worry, everyone. There are guest rooms next to the Crematorium. Although there are many of you, there will be enough room to rest if you take turns keeping vigil."

"Huh? We have to keep vigil too? This game is so boring, just as boring as Earth Online. Only the cutscenes are any good. Everything else drags on forever, and it's not even scary or exciting!"

The man froze when he heard her, seemingly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information in her words. He took a moment to digest it, then gave Wang Hua a meaningful look and said:

"You don't have to keep vigil... No, you do have to keep vigil."

"Fine. Trash game."

Wang Hua was in a foul mood. Without paying attention to what the man had said, she turned her back and left. She failed to notice his change of words entirely. If she had turned around then, she would have seen the discomfort on his face.

Xu Kai saw it, and a flicker of understanding crossed his mind. This "evil" had violated his assigned role and had nearly been erased. He had only escaped by correcting himself in time.

With the coffin taken care of, Xu Kai was finally freed from his enforced role and felt a sudden lightness. He thought back over the journey and found himself puzzled by the Stone Statue Weird.

The hardest part of the journey had been the bend, but after that, the Stone Statue Weird had vanished without a trace. According to what he had said, the instance contained both fixed and temporary Killing Zones. Fixed Killing Zones were places like the valley at the bend, where the instance boss could kill at will. Temporary Killing Zones were like the Crematorium's main entrance, converted temporarily because certain rules had been violated.

From what the Stone Statue Weird had said at the bottom of the valley, Xu Kai could deduce that the rewards he received would pose a threat to the Stone Statue Weird. So the Stone Statue Weird definitely wouldn't let him go.

Xu Kai could guess that in the stages ahead, the Stone Statue Weird would surely try every means to make him break a rule or lure him into a Killing Zone. His greatest advantage was the difference in their perspectives. In the Stone Statue Weird's eyes, he was just a lucky fellow who had made it past the bend by chance and knew nothing, utterly unaware that he was going to be killed.

Hah...

Xu Kai was a little tired and let out a soft breath. He had been driving with his nerves taut the entire way and was utterly exhausted.

This body of his was far too weak. "Evils" were such miserable beings. They had neither the powerful regenerative abilities of Weirds nor their ability to go without sleep. Apart from Weird Energy, they had inherited almost every human weakness and still needed to eat, drink, relieve themselves, and sleep.

"Hey, Master Xu, will you keep vigil with me?"

Wang Hua, dressed in mourning clothes, looked around. When she saw Xu Kai, her eyes lit up.

Her large eyes blinked, and her pretty face was full of confidence. She believed no man had ever been able to resist her charms.

"No. I'm tired and need to rest."

"Boo-hoo, there's no one to keep vigil for me. I'm going to die of exhaustion. Brother Xu, help me..."

Wang Hua grabbed Xu Kai's hand and began rubbing against it. Xu Kai shook her off, displaying the manner of a Sigma Male.

"Get lost."

A flicker of resentment crossed Wang Hua's face. If her Talent had recovered, she could have played at being a god and controlled Xu Kai. For now, she could only pretend to be pitiful. She couldn't understand it. She was so beautiful that, outside, simps lined up for her, yet this man actually ignored her! Once her Talent recovered, she would teach him a harsh lesson.

Xu Kai saw all of it but made no move. He didn't even have to guess that something would go wrong during the vigil. All he needed to do was leave the Killing Zone that the Funeral Hall would become, so the Stone Statue Weird couldn't kill him along with the others.

So Xu Kai gave no response and simply walked away.

"You'll regret this!"

Wang Hua gritted her teeth, her eyes fixed on Xu Kai's departing figure, full of resentment.

Creak. Xu Kai opened the guest room door. He had chosen this first-floor room facing the road because it was easier to see what was happening at the Crematorium from here.

The moment he got into bed, Xu Kai fell into a deep sleep. But he had only slept a short while when he suddenly woke up, opened his sharp eyes, and fell into thought.

He had rolled back. He had been killed while sleeping soundly that night. Upon rolling back, memories of his death returned from a third-person perspective. Xu Kai clearly saw a dark figure enter his room and stab him to death with a short metal blade, slitting his throat in one stroke. But there was little difference in strength between this person and him, so his death had been agonizing.

Xu Kai clearly remembered that the dark figure wasn't Wang Hua, but the man with the notebook in the coffin storage room, that "evil."