Sense

The Iron Gate stood nearly four meters tall, with rows of upright spikes lining its top.

Climbing over it would inevitably take quite some time.

If a Living Corpse found him while he was climbing, he would be driven into a dead end with no chance of survival.

Move quickly.

Graveyard Plot 4 covered more ground than the other graveyards,

and with its disorderly mounds and uneven terrain, there was some room to maneuver.

He adjusted the Kerosene Lamp's flame to the lowest possible level.

After running for a short distance,

Yi Chen relied on the memory in his mind and arrived at an easily concealed section of the High Slope Area.

Various types of large tombstones stood here. His slender frame happened to fit perfectly behind an arched stone stele.

He pressed his ear to the ground.

For the moment, he heard no unusual sounds. The Living Corpse had not followed him here yet.

He sat curled up with his back against the tombstone.

Leaning against the cold tombstone actually put Yi Chen somewhat at ease.

Huff~ Huff~

As he caught his breath, he recalled the several strange things that had just happened.

Who closed the gate?

And it was even locked from the outside with an iron chain... If I had to guess, it was most likely the work of the "organization" mentioned in the manual.

Because William, the original owner of this body, committed some kind of mistake, the organization should have sent people to monitor the Cemetery and prevent any further problems.

When they discovered that I was in Graveyard Plot 4 and tried to correct the mistake, they locked the gate by some means.

That would more directly and efficiently lead to one of two possible outcomes.

One, I survive the crisis and resolve the corpse transformation incident perfectly.

Two, I get killed, and they deal with the problem themselves.

Yi Chen did not dwell on this question for long. He quickly moved on to another matter—the "warning sound" that had just saved him.

That voice was almost identical to the voice thanking me in Graveyard Plot 6. Could it be...

Just as Yi Chen was pondering this,

Rustle~

A faint sound of loosened soil drifted over.

The mound before him began to stir, as if something were about to crawl out.

"This... I was only borrowing your tombstone to hide for a while. I meant nothing else!"

Yi Chen instinctively assumed that his rude behavior had disturbed the master of this grave.

As he explained,

he slowly rose and raised the hand axe in front of him.

Who would have thought—

That familiar yet bizarre voice came again from within the soil:

"Don't stand up. If That Guy spots you now, things will become very troublesome..."

As grains of soil slid away,

a strange mouth emerged from the grave mound.

Two rows of clean, orderly white teeth stood out unnaturally, and there were far too many of them.

The number of teeth seemed to be more than twice that of a normal human.

The other party seemed to have no intention of revealing its entire form, showing only this mouth.

At that moment,

the white teeth opened to an angle of roughly ninety degrees.

The entire inner wall of the mouth was black. No tongue could be seen... It was like a dark abyss, and staring into it for too long gave one the sensation of being pulled inside.

Deep within the mouth,

something was steadily rising.

By the faint light of the Kerosene Lamp, Yi Chen could vaguely make out a spherical outline.

Finally,

an eyeball with a black pupil and white body emerged between the teeth, staring fixedly at Yi Chen.

Perhaps because he had just witnessed the terrifying Living Corpse that defied common sense,

the strange sight of the Tooth Eye before him did not frighten Yi Chen.

His instincts also told him that the thing before him might not be dangerous. It might even be "relatively friendly."

"Are you the one from Graveyard Plot 6?"

After Yi Chen asked the probing question,

deep within the mouth,

the strange voice that sounded like several people blended together emerged once more through an unknown means:

"That's right. I'm a resident of the Pet Zone... I happened to develop Self-Awareness recently. While piecing my body together, I accidentally knocked over the tombstone.

"I never expected that a low-level laborer like you, someone who only does odd jobs, would take the initiative to repair it.

"And besides,

"Even the 'time period' when you appeared was problematic.

"I was very curious about that, so I followed you to take a look.

"Now I understand... So you got involved with a Mutant from the Burial Zone because you made a mistake."

Those words contained a great many terms whose meanings were unclear. Yi Chen could barely understand them.

"Are the Pet Zone and the Burial Zone referring to Graveyard Plot 6 and Graveyard Plot 4 respectively?"

"That's right... The Cemetery is like a factory, while the different graveyards are workshops with different functions. They regularly produce things of value.

"The areas most prone to problems are the Desecration Zone (2) and the Burial Zone (4).

"As for more information, telling you now would be meaningless.

"The only thing you need to do now is clear out this corpse Mutant."

"Will you help me?"

Yi Chen asked the most crucial question. If he could obtain the assistance of another "graveyard resident," his chances of survival would increase dramatically.

"I can't provide any practical assistance.

"After all, my position within the Cemetery is merely that of a 'pet.' I have no way to deal with a Mutant like this."

As it spoke, the eyeball held in its mouth rolled once.

"However~ Since you helped repair my tombstone, I'm willing to provide some assistance on the level of the 'senses.'"

"The senses?"

Rustle~ The mound of soil shifted even further.

An arm covered in black fur suddenly thrust out.

Using the arm for support, the black sphere broke free of the soil and revealed its true form.

Its legs were spread in a wide stance as it stood "majestically" atop the grave mound.

The pose seemed intended to flaunt its physique.

Oh, come on...

The terrifying image Yi Chen had imagined in his mind shattered in an instant. He also understood why this creature came from the Pet Zone.

This furry Black Flesh Ball was only about the size of two palms.

Its limbs were about as thick as a cat's, though slightly longer.

Each palm was divided into three lobes, resembling three fingers, and seemed to serve a function similar to paw pads.

After the little fellow finished displaying its body,

it leaped with both legs

and landed firmly on Yi Chen's shoulder.

Then something strange happened.

Creak, creak~

Its slender legs and feet actually broke apart into strands of even finer black blood vessels.

Their ends were as sharp as needles.

They pierced through his clothes,

stabbed into his flesh,

and "installed" its furry body onto his shoulder, turning it into an external mass of tissue.

In addition to the vascular connection,

a neural graft was also performed, linking directly to Yi Chen's Brain Tissue.

Buzz!

Once the installation was complete,

Yi Chen felt his vision change.

His entire visual field stretched wider and larger, while a small window appeared on the right, displaying the visual feed provided by the Flesh Ball Eye.

As the Flesh Ball rotated on his shoulder,

the surrounding cemetery scene in all 360 degrees came fully into view.

Vision split like this might have been difficult for an ordinary person to adapt to... But Yi Chen felt no discomfort at all. Instead, he wore an expression of ecstatic delight.

Most importantly,

when the Flesh Ball and Yi Chen's own eyes focused on the same direction,

the small window merged with his main field of vision.

The image became far clearer. He could even see the fungal spores floating in the air with perfect clarity.

This was the so-called sensory assistance, transformed into Yi Chen's "Second Eye."

Likewise,

because of the neural connection,

Little Meatball could communicate directly with Yi Chen's consciousness and provide timely warnings of danger.