Hello, Am I Dead?

The ferryman in the bamboo hat looked back.

A pitch-black shadow flickered beneath the Aurora Bridge, like a whale roaming a dark abyss, its enormous body large enough to fill their entire field of vision.

Wails echoed one after another, as though someone had sprinkled chili powder onto their souls, then poured oil over it for good measure. The entire River of Forgetfulness began to shake and boil.

The ferryman's vision blurred, tears streaming down his face from the irritation. He frantically yanked the radio off his collar and shouted:

"Hello, Social Security Bureau? The River of Forgetfulness is shaking! Suspected [Calamity] incursion! What the hell are you doing? You just let anything in here?!"

Ye Buyu's mouth twitched. So the grumpy ferryman was live-streaming a rant now? His mysterious, unfathomable image shattered with a crack.

"Catch!"

"What?" Ye Buyu caught the oar he tossed her, looking utterly bewildered. "You want me to row?"

The ferryman rolled up his sleeves and stared solemnly into the distance. "Yes. You row. I'll handle that thing."

Ye Buyu was about to look back when he barked, "Don't turn around! Row!"

"Okay!"

The gaze prickling against her back frightened Ye Buyu. She didn't dare look behind her and rowed frantically with every ounce of strength she had.

The ferryman stood at the bow, raising a protective barrier against the shock waves. The whale's wails echoed in his ears, piercing him until his face went deathly pale.

"Damn it, why is the [Whale of Wailing] here? Isn't it the most docile Calamity?"

Ye Buyu rowed like mad, a fierce desire to survive blazing in her eyes. Brute strength seemed to pour endlessly through her body. She wished she could turn into a merciless octopus-or a propeller would do-and flee at full speed.

Row faster, you damn hands! Whether I survive is up to you!

"Urgh..." The ferryman steadied himself as he staggered, yelling frantically, "Slow down! Even if I were a crab, your rowing would still make me dizzy!"

Ye Buyu said nothing. She merely gritted her teeth, clutched the oar, and kept rowing with a seemingly endless supply of brute force.

The ferryman held up the barrier with one hand and gripped the side of the boat with the other. "Stop, stop, stop! We're tipping over! Tipping over!"

Thump!

Their little boat of friendship capsized without warning, dumping the ferryman into the River of Forgetfulness with a splash.

"Help... glub glub... I can't swim... glub glub glub..."

The ferryman watched her flail wildly in front of him, his face expressionless and weary beyond his years.

"Have you ever seen a ghost drown?"

"..."

Ye Buyu submerged herself in the River of Forgetfulness until only her eyes showed. Like a puppy that had done something wrong and was peeking through a crack in the door to gauge its owner's mood, she gave a tiny shake of her head.

The ferryman ground his teeth. After a long pause, a derisive laugh escaped between them. She had annoyed him into laughing. Where had this absolute clown come from?

"Did the Monkey King send you here to make a fool of yourself?"

Ye Buyu shook her head again, a little more vigorously this time.

A shadow blocked the aurora above them, like night falling, bringing with it a dark, damp, swampy air.

The ferryman and Ye Buyu looked up together.

Ye Buyu said, "What do we do about that thing?"

The ferryman said, "Nothing. Wait to die. You're already dead anyway. Dying again won't make much difference."

Ye Buyu's eyes widened. "Could you say something remotely human? Isn't there any way to save us?"

The ferryman turned and stared at her, replying mercilessly, "No. We're simply not worth saving."

Ye Buyu felt as though she had seen a blade plunge straight into her heart.

"Ahem. Did you have to be that blunt?"

The ferryman floated faceup, giving up completely. Put nicely, he had accepted life and death. Put less nicely, a dead pig had nothing to fear from boiling water.

Dying in the River of Forgetfulness would only turn him into a soul, anyway.

He gazed at the shadow above. Like dying embers flaring back to life, excitement actually surfaced on his face. "Come on! This is my first time facing a Calamity head-on. Let me see your true face!"

Ye Buyu's face fell. "Isn't it just a whale? Though it is a little... billion times bigger."

The ferryman was speechless. "I mean its true nature. What we see with our eyes is only its outward form. Its outward form, understand? If we could uncover its inner essence and the specific abilities of a Calamity, that would be incredibly valuable information!"

Ye Buyu looked utterly lost. Sorry, this was way outside my area of expertise.

She watched the whale drift toward them, feeling that it wasn't any kind of normal creature. Its long, mournful cries made her seem to glimpse a world collapsing into ruins.

Ye Buyu's eyes stung as she thought of how diligently she had lived. Her life might not have been as exciting as an Awakened's, but a quiet, ordinary life was fine too. She had never expected that bastard company to get her killed and send her to the River of Forgetfulness.

She didn't even know whether she could survive. She had worked so hard and saved money for so long, only to die before spending it. She had no particularly close friends, either. Perhaps nobody would even notice that she had kicked the bucket.

It was misery from start to finish.

A tear slipped down her face without her noticing. Ye Buyu tugged at the ferryman. "Something feels wrong. This sadness came on a little too suddenly."

"Waaah! My miserable life! Nobody even talks to me at this lousy job! I'm lonely as hell, and I barely ever see the sun! Oh, the sun's fake too! Aah, now I feel even worse!"

His wild sobbing made Ye Buyu glance sideways.

What happened to that air of a seasoned expert? How was he crying harder than an ordinary person like me?

The ferryman wailed at the top of his lungs, with more vigor than a newborn baby. Each cry was louder than the last, as though he had suffered the greatest injustice in history.

Just as Ye Buyu was about to cover the ferryman's mouth, a chilling wind swept across the trembling River of Forgetfulness, carrying faint sobs. Then cries and wails erupted everywhere.

Every soul became hysterical, overwhelmed with grief.

Deprived of a stable energy supply, the Aurora Bridge flickered nonstop like a shorted circuit. The energy it transmitted sputtered intermittently, causing the bright sun in the outside world to gradually dim.

The sky went dark.

Alarms rang across the world. The Apocalypse Progress Bars in every major city flashed red, looking glaring and dangerous beneath the dimming sun.

[River of Forgetfulness destabilized. Sun disabled. Present World destruction progress: 73%.]

The progress bar, which had not moved in three years, suddenly advanced by one percent. The entire world's attention turned to the River of Forgetfulness. Every nation's administrative agencies sprang frantically into action, swarming toward the river like a hive of maddened bees.

While the world reeled, Ye Buyu was clutching the ferryman's collar and shaking him like mad.

"Stop crying! Calm down! What are we supposed to do now?!"

With sorrowful tears covering her face, Ye Buyu slapped the ferryman's cheeks back and forth, each blow landing with a sharp smack.

"Please, big shot, snap out of it! What happened to facing a Calamity head-on? Don't leave me all alone!"

Remembering that the ferryman had contacted the Social Security Bureau earlier, Ye Buyu quickly searched him for the radio.

The Great Xia Social Security Bureau was Great Xia's official Awakened organization and its highest governing authority. It investigated the causes of the apocalypse and maintained domestic stability, bringing together the nation's finest.

Surely she could call in someone powerful to save her sorry life.

"Hello, Great Xia Social Security Bureau? Can someone come to the River of Forgetfulness and save us? The ferryman's crying his eyes out, and the whale above us is about to come crashing down! Help!"

Ye Buyu cried out until her voice was hoarse. She couldn't be blamed for crying so pitifully. Amid the earth-shaking wails, being able to speak at all was impressive enough. The ferryman was already crying so hard that he had begun to twitch and convulse.