When Yi Chen read through each "Rule,"
he could roughly determine that the place he transcended to mixed elements that the Original World did not possess, those 'strange' factors,
at the same time,
an unknown crisis was relentlessly approaching.
But he still had a glimmer of hope,
according to the hint from the last rule, Yi Chen bent over to look under the wooden bed.
He moved the hidden compartment of the movable floor, grabbed a moderately weighted Hand Axe from the groove.
"Is this the self-defense tool?"
The axe handle made of hickory wood had a surface etched with patterns to increase friction,
lightweight, resilient, and not easy to let slip,
and the axe head forged from carbon steel was flawless,
sharpened through a special procedure, incredibly sharp, and the axe blade was plated with silver,
gleaming, hard, and quite destructive,
hum~ When attempting to slice through the air, it actually made a subtle sound of breaking through the wind.
This well-crafted Hand Axe brought an inexplicable sense of safety, slightly calming the tense heart realm.
"An excellent self-defense weapon…"
After a simple warm-up, he returned to the desk again.
"According to the notes in the will, the root of this guy's mistake was Rule [Third],
which was during the patrol of Cemetery 4, he failed to notice the change in the number and order of headstones."
Yi Chen bit his nail.
He was facing a crucial decision now,
whether to stay in the cabin and wait for the danger to come to him,
or to go alone to the cemetery, face the danger, and break the predicament.
"Take the initiative… According to the description in the rules, maybe only by restoring Cemetery 4 can the crisis be completely eradicated. Just staying in the cabin without action would most likely just wait for death."
Yi Chen tried to treat his current situation as a test after transcendence.
However,
before departure, a series of preparations were needed.
First of all,
using his fairly smart brain, he deeply memorized the cemetery map, the appendix plan of Cemetery 4, and the organization's mark, etc.
Moreover,
he put on the work clothes piled at the end of the bed,
a dark gray coat between a raincoat and a windbreaker, with a loose hood that could cover half of the face, hiding the appearance in the dark.
"This coat fits too well… I have never worn such a comfortable jacket, is it tailor-made?"
The coat not only didn't restrict any movement, it actually made his body movements more fluid.
He also found a metal badge on the left chest, engraved with the name of this body's original master—[William Behrens].
Everything was ready,
as he was about to walk out the iron door, he tried using the telephone on the wall beside the door.
However,
inside the handset was only harsh noise, the phone line seemed to be damaged, unable to contact the outside world.
"It's likely due to a violation, the 'Manager' above has severed contact with this place… let's set off."
creak~creak
As the hinges turned, it was like an elderly coughing from the depths of a hoarse voice.
Yi Chen stood at the door, vigilant against any potential danger,
seconds passed by,
coming only a nauseating smell mixing rotted flesh and soil,
tonight's moon was completely obscured, only light came from the kerosene lamp in hand.
"Seems like [Danger] hasn't actively approached, that's fortunate… let's start exploring."
With the silvery axe held in his right hand, hanging by the thigh,
the kerosene lamp held horizontally in his left hand before his chest,
wearing the dark gray coat, Yi Chen fully assumed the identity of the "Tomb Guardian," commencing his first exploration of the cemetery.
First,
consistent with what the map depicted,
the wooden cabin referred to as the [Safe House] was situated at the cemetery's center,
Cemeteries 1~6 surrounded it,
iron fences approximately three meters high separated the cemeteries, not disturbing each other.
The narrow paths between the graves barely allowed a corpse vehicle to pass through,
randomly growing crooked branches converged overhead, obstructing the night sky, enveloping the entire cemetery… If the cabin before felt like a small coffin, then the cemetery would be the large one.
Yi Chen was overwhelmed by the oppressive environment,
even imagined a pale foot following him closely, branches transforming into countless arms trying to touch his shoulder.
sigh…
Deep breath taken.
He remembered hearing from the Orphanage people that when passing through eerie places at night, never turn back, or you may attract unclean things onto yourself.
Thus he kept looking straight ahead, his head tilted at most 45°.
Following the map route in his memory, he soon arrived at Cemetery 4's iron door.
However,
a thought sprang up in his mind.
"I have moved through the cemetery for several minutes… though creepy and suffocating, yet I met no danger nor saw any unclean things.
The danger existing in Cemetery 4 that could drive one to suicide was no easy feat to resolve.
Might need to flee and wage a guerilla war.
Better walk the entire cemetery first, familiarizing myself with regions, scoping out escape and hide routes and positions~ Yeah! That's the plan."
Temporarily leaving Cemetery 4,
Yi Chen started strolling through the entire cemetery in a clockwise direction,
the passage of time gradually adjusted him to the cemetery's ambiance,
besides, he discovered some intriguing, detailed planning and setup in the cemetery.
Graves with different serial numbers varied in nature.
For instance, Cemetery 1 uniformly had stone arch headstones, equipped with clean steps and stone paved passageways, giving an impression of tidiness and comfort.
The adjacent Cemetery 2 employed oak cross-shaped headstones, leaning over unkempt, weeds growing… overall extremely eerie, even felt 10℃ colder.
Smoothly encountered no danger,
sequentially arrived at the last Cemetery 6.
The soil here was unusually damp,
each footstep felt like stepping in a mud pit, the soles sank at least two centimeters.
The headstones here all heaped with stones, recording no information about the deceased's life.
"Hmm… What's that?"
With his keen observation, Yi Chen noticed a detail,
near the corner of Cemetery 6,
stone erected headstones scattered all over, seemed to be destroyed by something.
He approached, holding the axe to examine, circling the heap twice found nothing unusual,
maybe fully adopting his current profession,
maybe out of respect for the deceased,
ensured the absence of danger, Yi Chen squatted to re-stack the scattered stones, restoring the headstone.
Before leaving subconscious hands clasped, gently bowed.
However,
he took no more than a couple of steps.
A weird sound arose from behind.
§Thank you§
The sound was bizarre, like a blend of numerous voices, fluctuating directly into the viscera.
Yi Chen immediately turned behind, simultaneously holding the axe before.
However,
the tomb behind remained peaceful, unchanged.
"Am I overly nervous, hallucinating? No… I indeed heard it.
There really are supernatural elements here~ just, the thanking sounded seemingly non-hostile.
Trying not to stir up trouble, best solve the most pressing issue first."
Yi Chen quickly retreated from Cemetery 6's swampy ground.
Hereto,
besides Cemetery 7 individually set up at the edge for storing, processing unknown corpses,
he had grasped the cemetery's general condition,
even visualized the best escape and detour route mentally.
Next task, confronting the problematic [Cemetery 4].
Right after Yi Chen left,
within Cemetery 6,
the grave mound he had just repaired suddenly showed signs of soil loosening,
a mouth chewing on coffin fragments, covered in moist soil appeared,
seemed to still hold an eye inside,
as if could view across barriers and vegetation, gazing at the 'helpful' young man.