Black Coffin Curse, Long Yuan Talent

Following the guidance of the trapped guest, they walked into the deepest part of the secret chamber.

There were no pottery jars here, and the air was filled with a strange stench.

At the end, a towering ancient tree grew. It wasn't really a tree, but rather a shrub formed from countless piles of scarlet flesh and blood. The ceiling and floor of the basement were covered in vein-like blood vessels, and countless distorted human faces, like branches and leaves, covered its surface.

Those faces were wailing in unison!

Even more horrifying, on one side of the "face tree," they could clearly see viscous black liquid, like a leech clinging to bone, gnawing away at most of the faces, leaving them riddled with holes!

The scene before them was filled with a Cthulhu-esque eerie style.

Disgusting and bizarre.

Ji Yan and Long Yuan's eyes were severely impacted.

An aged old woman, her face twisted and gaunt, pointed a trembling finger at the flesh and blood tree: "This is the foundation of the apartment dungeon!"

"The faces covering the foundation are the true forms of the apartment's natives. The Landlord comes down periodically to check on them and feed them. Only when they grow and their flesh seeps into the walls can the apartment be reinforced."

"But now, as you can see, the foundation is full of holes, and the apartment is on the verge of collapse!"

"Those black parasites feed on the foundation. They have spread to an uncontrollable extent!"

Upon closer inspection, the black substances were densely packed black maggots, wriggling beneath the surface.

Long Yuan's scalp tingled.

Any player with a germaphobia would likely die on the spot.

"You're just standing there, doing nothing?"

Ji Yan glanced at them.

A bald old man spoke hoarsely, "We can't do anything either."

"Those parasites have grown completely intertwined with the foundation. Any rash attempt to remove them will only accelerate the foundation's death!"

A short old man added, "Only by eliminating the source of these parasites can this apartment be saved!"

He pointed behind the apartment's foundation.

There sat a decaying coffin.

The parasites were continuously emerging from the coffin's opening...

"That coffin is the culprit!"

"We don't know where it came from, nor how its lid was opened."

"But if we can re-seal that coffin, we can definitely stop these parasites from spreading!"

A strange old woman raised her blood-stained hands: "But we can't touch those coffin nails; they burn like hot iron."

"So, you two must seal the coffin for us!"

As they explained the source of the problem, Ji Yan and Long Yuan both received prompts on their game panels.

The game panel popped up.

This meant they were on the right track.

As long as they could seal the black coffin properly, this troublesome main quest would be over!

Long Yuan's eyes gleamed with fervor.

Ji Yan, however, remained cautious. At such a crucial moment, he didn't dare to celebrate prematurely.

Guided by the trapped guest, Ji Yan and Long Yuan bypassed the wriggling veins and approached the coffin.

They clearly saw that several coffin nails had been pried loose and lay on the ground.

There were four in total.

In Long Yuan's eyes, these four coffin nails were like four perfectly cut slices of cake!

He looked at Ji Yan: "Two each, split the reward fifty-fifty?"

Ji Yan shook his head: "It won't be that simple."

"That coffin is so bizarre, it's unlikely to let us seal it without a fuss."

Long Yuan: "How will we know if we don't try?"

"If you're too scared, I'll step into the danger zone first."

With that, he strode forward, picked up two coffin nails from the ground, and approached the coffin.

As the black lid began to close little by little, Long Yuan, holding one coffin nail, didn't even have time to hammer it in before blood gushed from all seven of his orifices.

The next second, he collapsed to the ground, dying a gruesome death!

Ji Yan's eyelids twitched.

This guy just died so easily?!

Why did he suddenly die with blood pouring from his orifices? Did this black coffin have some kind of deadly radiation?

The next second, an even more shocking scene unfolded before Ji Yan's eyes.

Long Yuan, who had originally died a sudden death.

Suddenly opened his eyes, "resurrected," and got up.

He wiped the blood from his nose and mouth and quickly retreated.

He cursed, "The coffin and the nails are both cursed. Touching them means death!"

Ji Yan's eyes flickered, guessing something, "Is this your talent?"

"My talent is an A-rank talent called [Nirvana Rebirth]. It triggers once for each quest I accept."

"Meaning, I have two lives in every quest."

"And after rebirth, I can even be told the reason for my previous death," Long Yuan answered Ji Yan's confusion with unexpected seriousness.

Wiping the blood from his palm, Long Yuan said to Ji Yan.

Ji Yan asked with some doubt, "Talents are a player's most important trump card. You're just telling me like this?"

Long Yuan replied, "We're in this together now, no need to hide anything."

"I've already stepped on one mine, now it's your turn to perform."

Long Yuan stared at Ji Yan.

The problem before them was simple.

They had to seal the coffin.

But both the coffin and the nails were imbued with a deadly curse.

It was like having a life-saving medicine in a box, but the box was covered in tripwires that would kill anyone who touched them!

How could they complete this task?

Ji Yan pondered for a moment, then looked back at the captive eerie residents behind them who were just staring blankly. "When you encounter problems in the game, interact with NPCs."

"You'll find clues, more or less."

Ji Yan retreated, throwing this difficult problem to the captive eerie residents.

Upon hearing this, the bald old eerie man trembled and tore off a piece of necrotic native skin, smearing the viscous black blood on Ji Yan's hand.

"Use this blood... it can isolate the curse!"

As these eerie residents touched him, Ji Yan's eyes moved, flickering a few times, and he showed a surprised expression, "It's that simple?"

Long Yuan leaned closer, also somewhat disbelieving, "The difficult problem was solved just by interacting with them like this?"

"We won't harm you, and we want to save this apartment. One of you can try first."

The old eerie woman said, and then tore off the flesh and blood of a dead native, smearing the black blood on Long Yuan's hand.

Looking at his blood-covered hands, Long Yuan volunteered and picked up the cursed coffin nails again.

After waiting for a moment, he showed a look of pleasant surprise.

"I'm fine, the curse is really isolated!"

He walked over, grabbed Ji Yan's hand, and placed the coffin nail in his palm, "You try?"

The moment he shook hands with Long Yuan, Ji Yan's expression changed. After a moment, he nodded calmly, "It did indeed resist the curse."

"Then let's hurry up and seal the coffin!"

Picking up the remaining three coffin nails from the ground, Ji Yan and Long Yuan began to nail the black coffin shut...

Behind them, the gathered eerie residents watched this scene nervously, but beneath that tension, something seemed to be hidden...

Ji Yan took out the nail hammer and struck the rusty coffin nail.

But after only two hits, he felt a wave of discomfort.

When Ji Yan regained his senses, he found blood gushing from his nose and mouth...

His pupils contracted.

What was going on? Wasn't the curse isolated?!