New book, please follow, recommend, vote, and show your support in any other way!
[Welcome, Player 629SHD2S0FXC30, to Newbie World 5QPRPZ222FT. World Difficulty: Tier One. World Background: Unknown.]
[Main Quest: Within ten days, find suitable materials, complete the graveyard's first upgrade, and activate your talent (Graveyard Demon).
Failure Penalty: Possession by the bizarre entity (killed/devoured), talent level weakened, permanently unable to level up.]
"Fraud!"
The pale golden system text slowly faded before his eyes. Before its afterglow had completely vanished, Gu Su gritted his teeth and forced the word out through them, the fury in his chest nearly surging up his throat.
He fought down the urge to kick something and quickly scanned his surroundings, trying to make out where he was.
By all rights, it should have been high noon, but the world before Gu Su was oppressively dim. The air reeked of damp earth and decay, and desolation pressed in from every direction.
He stood on a clearing roughly the size of a basketball court. At its center loomed a dead tree, its black, bare branches reaching toward the sky like twisted ghostly claws.
Beside the tree stood a rundown tent. Its canvas was full of holes, and dried, unfamiliar vines dangled from its edges. Outside the tent, a ring of stones formed a simple fire pit. Only blackened ashes remained inside, without even a spark.
Gu Su's gaze swept outward from the center. Six or seven newly dug empty graves lay scattered around the tree, the soil along their edges still glistening with moisture.
Three of the pits contained wooden coffins with their lids off. The wood was mottled, and insect holes could just be made out in the sides. The others were completely empty—not even a straw mat to lay a corpse on, just cold earth exposed to the air.
Farther out, a circle of rotten fencing enclosed the edge of the clearing. Most of its planks had broken, leaving the rest leaning crookedly in place as if a gust of wind could knock them over.
Beyond the fence churned gray-white mist, so thick it looked like undiluted pus, slowly billowing in the wind.
Vague shadows seemed to flicker through the fog. It was as if some enormous, invisible mouth lurked in the darkness, ready to devour him and the entire graveyard.
"This is downright terrifying!" Gu Su couldn't help growling, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles creaked.
"What happened to the promised acre and a half? This place is tiny! Fraud! You damn frauds!"
This was a game—a bizarre world where reality and another realm intertwined.
Everyone in the world was born a player and could activate a basic game system. But to enter the other realm and fight for greater power, they had to activate at least one of the four core cheats: Land, Magic, Companions, or Wealth.
Those without a cheat were trapped in the basic game for their entire lives, doing mind-numbing work like mining and hauling. They could never get past level one, living as "game laborers" who could barely scrape by.
For this reason, items that activated the four types of cheats had skyrocketed in price. Even slightly rare items were snapped up as soon as they hit the market, leaving ordinary people no chance of getting their hands on them.
Gu Su was a transmigrator who had ended up in this godforsaken world.
At first, he had been thrilled that he could play games with his actual body.
Reality had beaten that excitement out of him within days. With no money or family to rely on, he couldn't compete with people who were born with cheats.
He could only attend an ordinary vocational college part-time while working, then take the cheapest career path available and become a Necromancer.
He couldn't even play normal games. All he could do was direct other people's zombies to mine and work as cheap labor.
To escape the fate of being a "game laborer," he had pinched pennies for three whole years and poured all his savings into a cheat called the Graveyard Demon, advertised as combining four functions: mobility, construction, corpse cultivation, and troop training.
The seller had sworn up and down that the Graveyard Demon started with an acre and a half of land, came with core buildings and mobility, and was the best choice for a Necromancer.
But who could have guessed that, after entering the full game full of hope, he would discover it was nothing like what he'd been promised?
The acre and a half he'd been promised had shrunk by half, leaving him with this tiny patch of land before his eyes.
The advertised construction and mobility functions were nowhere to be seen. All that remained was a dilapidated graveyard and a few useless decorations.
If he hadn't been forced to stay in the game during his first entry, unable to leave midway, Gu Su would have picked up this shabby graveyard and gone straight to find the swindler. He'd smash this lousy talent into the man's face and paint the fake graveyard red with his blood!
His anger churned for a long while before Gu Su finally managed to calm down and remember what mattered most.
He took a deep breath, tamped down his rage, and murmured, "Panel."
As soon as he spoke, a translucent, pale blue screen appeared in front of him. Its gentle glow eased some of the oppressive gloom around him.
Gu Su quickly scanned the information on the screen, and some of the tension in his chest eased.
Although this was a shrunken, knockoff version, at least it wasn't a complete fake. He really had acquired the Graveyard Demon talent.
As long as he completed the activation quest, he would truly be someone with a cheat. That was still better than being a "game laborer" for the rest of his life.
"Whatever. I'll take care of the quest first." Gu Su gritted his teeth and tried to reassure himself. "At least it's a cheat. If I work hard, I can grow stronger little by little."
[Name: Gu Su] [Class: Necromancer] [Level: 1] [Title: None] [Talent: Graveyard Demon (Earth Affinity, Inactive)] [Attributes: Strength 1.1, Agility 1.0, Constitution 1.3, Spirit 2.9] [Active Skill: Raise Skeleton (Level 1)] [Passive Skills: Basic Science (Level 3 + Level 2), Basic Language (Level 2), Basic Survival (Level 2)] [Experience: 0/100]
He closed his status panel and hurried toward the rundown tent at the center of the graveyard. The moment his fingertips touched the rough canvas, a line of system information appeared, and his expression darkened again.
[Name: Desolate Graveyard (Gray Quality)] [Level: 0] [Traits: Graveyard Demon (Gray), land area reduced by 50%, mobility function disabled, Yin-gathering function disabled, death-devouring function disabled] [Attached Buildings: 1. Weird Tree (Level 1): Graveyard defensive core. Current Status: Operating Weakly 2. Rundown Tent (Level 1): Graveyard construction core and residence. Current Status: Intact 3. Netherfire Pile (Level 0): Can gather Yin energy. Current Status: Disabled (Requires special fuel to activate) 4. Empty Grave (One Level 3, two Level 2, three Level 1): Placing a corpse inside will automatically turn it into an undead unit for the owner to control 5. Rotten Fence (Level 1): Basic defensive structure. Can block low-level invaders. Current Status: Damaged 6. Earthbound Vein (Level 0): Enables graveyard mobility. Current Status: Disabled (Requires completing the corresponding quest to repair) 7. Corruption Mycelium (Level 0): Can absorb items, entities, tools, and buildings with death, Yin, or undead attributes to expand the graveyard. Current Status: Disabled (Requires completing the corresponding quest to repair)] [Description: This degraded Graveyard Demon core has changed hands many times. Most of its core functions have been permanently damaged, leaving only basic undead properties. To ordinary people, it is still a special graveyard with extraordinary potential. But to a Necromancer, its value is greatly diminished.]
"Damn swindler!" Gu Su could no longer hold back and cursed aloud, his voice full of gritted-teeth hatred.
"Let me run into you in the game again, and I'll grind your bones to dust. I'll trap your soul in this graveyard to suffer forever!"
He had never imagined the swindlers would be so shameless. They hadn't just shrunk the land; they had also disabled the Graveyard Demon's most essential functions.
Even worse, they had cleared out the initial undead that should have come with it, leaving behind only a few empty graves.
Everyone knew that a level-one Necromancer only knew one skill, Raise Skeleton, and that it required an existing corpse or soul.
Until he killed something and obtained a corpse, he couldn't summon even a single undead servant.
With his level-one combat ability and generally poor attributes, going out to hunt would be like delivering himself on a platter. He'd probably be torn apart by the things in the fog the moment he stepped beyond the fence.
Gu Su stood there in despair, trying to figure out how he could complete the quest within ten days.
Suddenly, a string of "Heh heh heh" cackles came from the mist beyond the rotten fence.
The laughter was shrill and thin, with an indescribably lecherous greed that made his scalp crawl.
But in the next instant, Gu Su's eyes lit up. That was a Goblin's voice!
He didn't stop to think. He immediately sprinted toward the sound.
The graveyard was only as big as a basketball court. In a few strides, he reached the edge of the rotten fence.
As he approached, the mist beyond the fence seemed to be pushed back by some force, clearing just enough for him to make out what lay ten meters away.
In the fog, six or seven green monsters, each less than a meter tall, hunched over and stumbled toward him.
They had gaunt bodies like dead branches and disgusting gray-green skin like rotting moss. Their flat noses jutted forward like pigs' snouts, and yellowed tusks stuck out from the corners of their mouths, which stretched almost to their ears. Unfamiliar slime clung to the tusks.
They gripped a motley assortment of "weapons."
Some were sharpened stones, some gnawed animal bones, and some thick branches.
The Goblins crowded together in groups of two or three, appearing to cover one another. In truth, their faces were full of hunger for flesh and blood. As they ran, they kept cackling, looking utterly grotesque.
Goblins were the weakest monsters in every game: weak, greedy, and cowardly. Even an ordinary house dog could chase a pack of them around.
But at that moment, those ugly little creatures looked more tempting to Gu Su than any treasure.
They were his hope of completing the quest!
Gu Su's expression sharpened. He quickly scanned the ground, picked up a head-sized stone with a sharp edge, and hurled it at the rotten fence.
The stone struck the wood with a dull thud and a harsh clatter.
"Bastards! Over here!" Gu Su shouted, his voice deliberately provocative.
The crash and his roar instantly alerted the Goblins.
They stopped and fixed their beady green eyes on Gu Su. After looking him over and confirming he was alone, excitement flashed in their eyes. They raised their "weapons" and charged at the fence, howling.
"Meat! A big hunk of meat!"
"Grab him! Roast him!"
Hoarse, greedy shouts rose and fell as the Goblins brandished their "weapons," their feet pounding chaotically as they charged toward the desolate graveyard.
Before you continue