Lu Jiancheng nearly broke out in a cold sweat.
As a mischievous child, he had gone into the mountains with the other village children and seen neglected graves dug open by stray dogs and wolves.
Cremation had not yet become common in the village back then. Children were bold and did not shy away from death the way adults did. Lu Jiancheng still remembered competing with his friends to see the bodies in those graves.
Whatever they had looked like in life, they were all just dry bones after death, no different from one another.
But the corpse inside the kang was different. Its flesh did not seem to have rotted away naturally; patches of bloody flesh still clung to the skeleton.
The corpse's fingers dug tightly into the bricks. Once the skeleton was exposed, the grating sound of scratching against the wall stopped.
Ji Xun was all too familiar with the sight of such a skeleton. One of his colleagues was a butcher.
Skeletons like this hung everywhere in his slaughterhouse.
"Skinned, bled dry, flesh gouged out." Ji Xun's voice was calm, but his words landed like a bomb in the little room.
Ding-dong-
[Main quest: Find at least four villagers (2/4)]
"Look beside the skeleton's hand." Ji Xun lifted his chin.
Tang Cha leaned closer. The skeleton's finger joints were bent like the claws of some large predator.
A line of words appeared to have been scratched out beside his fingertips.
"Don't trust them-" Tang Cha read the words aloud, then asked in confusion, "Who does 'them' mean?"
The scratches were deep, as though whoever had written them had been filled with bitter hatred and despair. Bloodstains of varying darkness lingered inside the grooves.
No one could give Tang Cha an answer.
After the system announcement ended, the snakes prowling outside grew restless. They dragged their massive bodies closer to the house, repeatedly testing their approach, only to retreat again.
Ji Xun said, "Fang Rui guessed right. The snakes don't dare come inside."
Fang Rui said, "What's so special about this house? Could it be because of this skeleton?"
On their way here, they had seen muddy traces left by snakes crawling along the walls of most houses in the village. But the situation had been too urgent for them to go inside and check.
"There are more and more snakes," Tang Cha said. "How can a tiny, run-down village like this have so many people?"
The scene outside made their scalps prickle. Snakes over two meters long covered the ground, packing the courtyard tight. Pair after pair of eerie slit pupils stared at the house, as though they might burst through the door at any moment.
Ji Xun glanced at the skeleton and told the others, "The living room looks reasonably clean. Let's sit on the sofa and get some rest."
Tang Cha raised his hand. "Ji Xun, why are you so obsessed with resting?"
The others did not dare rest either. A swarm of snakes outside could kill them at any moment, and there was a skeleton stripped of its flesh in the bedroom.
Oh, right. There was a little child in the kitchen too.
Ji Xun tilted his head and suddenly smiled. "You can choose to rest after sunrise. If nothing unexpected happens, those snakes will turn back into villagers then too. Does that make you think you'll be safe?"
Tang Cha wanted to nod, but something about Ji Xun's tone felt off, so he stammered, "People are at least better than snakes, right?"
Ji Xun scoffed. "Kid, the hardest thing in this world to understand is the human heart. At least the snakes can't enter this house. With the villagers, who knows?"
Who knew whether the rule preventing them from entering the house also applied to the villagers in human form?
"I agree with Ji Xun. There are still two days left in the game, and we need to keep our strength up." Fang Rui's expression was grave. "It'll probably only get harder from here."
Since Lu Jiancheng and Zhao Fu had suddenly fallen asleep while keeping watch, Ji Xun offered to take the next watch himself, just to be safe.
Seven people crammed onto a sofa was hardly comfortable, but no one cared about that anymore.
Tang Cha leaned against Ji Xun, his eyelids drooping uncontrollably. "Ji Xun, what's in your pocket? It's digging into me... it hurts."
They had been thrown into an unfamiliar world, their understanding of reality overturned again and again.
On top of that, being forced to flee had left them utterly exhausted.
Before long, everyone was fast asleep.
Ji Xun did not need rest. There was not a trace of sleepiness in his eyes as he called out in his mind, just as he used to when speaking to his bastard boss. Main System.
The only sound was his teammates' soft breathing. Ji Xun clicked his tongue. If you don't answer, I'm going out there right now to slaughter those snakes.
[...] [Player Ji Xun, the Main System is currently offline. Instance Administrator No. 009 is at your service-]
When can I get out of here?
[This instance lasts three days. Once you complete the main quest, you can leave the instance.]
I mean, when can I get out of this game?
His bastard boss had exiled him with a wave of the hand. Didn't a working man have the right to choose for himself?
[The Escape Main System has transferred your employment contract to our Main System. You're now a player on the permanent payroll!]
The administrator's voice trembled at the end, as though that could conceal the guilty note in it.
Forget it. Let it all burn.
[Wait-]
As though sensing Ji Xun's thoughts, the administrator's voice grew urgent.
[Given your special status, your time playing in this system will count as a business trip. You'll receive an additional allowance worth twice your previous salary.]
What else?
The administrator gritted his teeth and continued.
[After fully clearing the game, you may choose to return to the Escape System or remain employed by this system.]
I want a legal identity in the human world.
[Deal!]
009 agreed readily. It made Ji Xun wonder whether his bastard boss had something on the Infinite-Flow Main System.
Not only could his boss shove him in here through connections, but he could also make the other side agree to conditions like these.
Pass a message to my bastard bo-oh, no, the Escape System. Don't let anyone into my Black Pine Forest while I'm away. And ask Little Mushroom to look after my cabin. A sinister smile suddenly spread across Ji Xun's face. After all, I still have a chance to go back.
[Of course, of course...] [To maintain game balance, we will weaken your abilities to a certain extent. Thank you for your understanding.]
The instant the administrator finished speaking, he vanished and played dead.
Although Ji Xun still did not know what weakening his abilities meant, he had already received the answer he wanted.
Once he cleared the game, he could go to the human world.
He would never again have to watch the Black Pine Forest get turned upside down.
Nor would he have to repeat the same bloodshed and slaughter day after day.
A rooster's crow seemed to serve as a signal. The overlapping croaks of frogs and cries of cicadas outside drew Ji Xun into another world.
The human snakes fell to the ground one after another. When they rose again, they had turned back into villagers.
Ji Xun walked into the courtyard, where Uncle Chen stared at him darkly.
"Hey, good morning, everyone." Ji Xun was in an excellent mood. He feigned surprise. "Uncle Chen, were you out stealing last night? What's with those huge dark circles under your eyes?"
Uncle Chen stared coldly at him and forced a smile. "Ji Xun, what are you doing here?"
Ji Xun shrugged. "My place is drafty. This house happened to be empty, so I borrowed it for the night."
The villagers behind Uncle Chen also stared at him with grim expressions.
An ordinary person might have burst into tears from fright under so many glares, but Ji Xun seemed to be in a fine mood-much happier than these villagers, at least.
"This house is cursed. People died inside. I suggest you leave as soon as possible." Uncle Chen glanced at the little house, unwilling to give up, then left with a cold snort.
The villagers gradually left as well.
Ji Xun noticed that their looks toward the house held frustration, whereas the human snakes' gazes during the night had been filled with venomous hatred.
"Ji Xun!" Only after the villagers left did Tang Cha dare poke his head out. "How did it go?"
Ji Xun said nothing. He went inside and headed straight for the room containing the skeleton.
"How did this happen?" Fang Rui exclaimed in shock.
The earthen kang, which they had broken a huge hole in, had returned to its original state. There was no telling whether the skeleton was still inside.
Ji Xun strode into the kitchen. The baby's leg in the pot had disappeared too.
Not only that, but the blood-soaked bedroom had also changed.
All the blood covering the room had vanished. Aside from the choking dust, there was nothing unusual inside.
But Fang Rui still noticed that the bedroom walls had been replastered, and the wardrobe had been repainted.
Perhaps it had been done to cover the blood spattered onto them.
A large framed photograph hung on the wall, showing a married couple holding a swaddled infant.
A line written in fountain pen sat in the photograph's lower-right corner: June 17. A keepsake with my wife and infant son.
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