Chapter 163 The Hospitable Necropolis
Hong time ago, when Andy was still living on the edge of the distant Twilight Province, he heard the old people in the village tell the story of the Thunder County Labyrinth.
It is said that it is the territory of the devil.
Whenever night falls, demons with wings fly out of the maze and capture those children who disobey their parents.
As for what the old people in the village said, Andy once believed it to be true. But what he didn't expect was that even though he was so obedient, he would still be found by the devil.
And it’s still daytime.
Hiding behind Andy, his young sister tugged on his sleeve and whimpered in a voice that was about to cry.
「Brother...」
"Don't be afraid, I will protect you." Although he was panicking, Andy still shook his sister's hand, mustered up the courage to look at the three demons flying in the sky and said, "Come at me... let Maggie go, she is too thin and doesn't have much meat."
The translation crystal translated his words into a language that the players can understand.
The three players looked at each other.
In the end, it was Whale Luo Nanbei who couldn't help laughing and said in a teasing tone.
"We don't eat children."
Andy was stunned for a moment, and didn't understand at first, until a smooth human voice repeated the words of the female devil.
"Then...what do you want?"
Looking at the shivering child, Shark Tuo couldn't help but laugh mischievously, raised his hands and made a snarling gesture.
"What do you want? Isn't that obvious? As the minions of the Demon King, what we want is of course your souls... Jie Jiejie!"
"Oh!"
"Brother..."
The two children were frightened.
The little girl named Maggie fainted on the spot.
As for the boy who was still awake, although he was not frightened and fainted, he turned pale and froze on the spot, unable to speak while holding his fainted sister.
"Gan...am I that scary? Ouch——" Shark Tuo was complaining in a low voice when a snowball suddenly hit her head.
"Okay! Stop scaring people, it's a hidden mission that was finally triggered..." Looking at Shark Huo patting the broken snow on his head, Xiao Wan, who was carrying out justice, couldn't help but complain.
Translation Crystal translated her words.
However, the little boy was stunned after hearing this.
"...Mission?"
"Yes, that's right," Whale Luo Nanbei nodded with a smile and flew to a place only two steps away from him. "Look around and see if there are any buttons that can be selected? For example, setting rewards, publishing tasks, etc... Ah, if the rewards can be adjusted, please help me press eight zeros."
Andy looked at her confused, not understanding what she was saying at all.
What button...
He glanced around uneasily, then looked at her uneasily and continued.
"I...I don't know."
Seeing the confused look on the little boy's face, it seemed that he really had no function of issuing tasks, and expressions of disappointment gradually appeared on the faces of the three of them.
Shark dropped the things and raised his arms, then looked at the timid child, and spoke condescendingly.
“Hey, kid, what’s your name?”
Andy mustered up the courage to say.
"Andy...what about you?"
"Me?" Shark Drop was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect the NPC to ask him his name, but he still said casually, "I asked Shark Drop to do something... This is Whale Luo Bei Nan, and Xiao Wan is not full."
Trying to remember these difficult names, Andy took a deep breath and continued.
"Shark Drop is something... I can give you my soul, but please let go of my sister, she is still young..."
Shark Drop couldn't help but burst into laughter.
五月 Andy's face turned purple from the cold, and he looked up at her.
"Why are you laughing!"
Whale Luo Bei Nan said with a smile.
"We don't need your soul, it was just a joke, please don't take it to heart."
Andy said nervously.
"Then what do you want..."
"Let me think about it..." Whale Luo Bei Nan thought for a while, and suddenly his heart moved, and he said, "We need your piety."
Andy was stunned and looked at her in confusion.
…Piety?”
"That's right," Whale Luo Nanbei said with a smile, "We need you to pray to the Demon King from the bottom of your heart... After all, we saved you, isn't that too much?"
Andy thought for a while and nodded.
Andy nodded his head seriously and carried his fainted sister on his back.
Looking at his struggling appearance, Xiao Wan couldn't bear to fall down and flew behind him to help hold the hand, holding the little girl to help him share some of the weight.
Andy glanced at her gratefully.
But at this moment, he remembered the stories told by the old people in the village, so he hesitated for a long time, and finally couldn't help but whisper.
"Are you really demons?"
Looking at that innocent face, Whale Luo Nanbei pursed his lips and said with a smile.
"There is no doubt about it."
Andy: "But..."
Whale Luo Nanbei: "It doesn't look like it?"
Andy nodded and whispered.
"Well..."
Whale Luo Nanbei smiled and continued in a chatty tone.
"Then what do you think a devil should look like?"
Andy hesitated for a while, and finally whispered to her the stories that were circulating in the village...including how the demons captured disobedient children, including how the demons made human cubs into kebabs, etc.
After listening to his story, Whale Luo Bei Nan just smiled and then continued.
"Is this something someone else told you, or did you see it with your own eyes?"
Andy whispered.
"Uncle Brooke told me...he used to be an adventurer."
Shark dropped something and interjected, speaking in a teasing tone.
"Then would you like to believe what he tells you, or would you rather believe your own eyes."
Andy hesitated for a while and answered honestly.
"I don't know... The adults always said that you are not good people, and told me to stay away from the guys with horns on their heads, but I feel that you are not bad, at least you did not drive me away. On the contrary, those guys on horseback clearly did not have horns on their heads, but they drove us out of the village..."
Xiao Wan and Shark Tuo looked at each other.
Whale Luo thought for a long time and said in a gentle tone.
"When you start to think this way, it means that you have grown up and have realized that black and white are not the norm in this world, but the colors in between."
Andy looked at her with a vague understanding, letting the cold wind blow on his face.
After a long time, he mustered up the courage to say.
“Can you tell me... your story?” Whale Luo Bei Nan said with a smile.
"Of course...I will tell you slowly when I get back to the warm fire."
...
Just when "Whale Shark Wan" and the three people were walking back with two lone human cubs, there was a commotion at the construction site at the foot of Beifeng Mountain.
· Due to the chain reaction caused by someone's foot slipping, only a rumble was heard, and the snow covering the wood tilted down along with the collapsed beams.
Looking at the collapsed wooden house, [Emotional Stability], who had been busy all day, could no longer control his emotions and let out a loud curse before being drowned by the avalanche.
——
Before the sound of "groove" could be uttered, a heavy downpour of snow poured into his mouth, piercing his hollow ribs.
out of the corner of his eye he saw a huge wooden beam falling from the sky. He felt as if his head had been hit with a sap, and then his eyes went dark and he fell offline...
Tens of minutes later.
Four familiar skeletons walked out of the entrance of the Beifeng Mine. Cursing, they used shovels to dig up the snowdrifts and dig out their bodies from under the ruins.
Recycling the corpse can refund a certain percentage of the resurrection cost, and they have repeated this process countless times, so that they have formed a tacit understanding that needs no words.
Just to build such a house, they have paid too much.
Every time, his skull would be smashed by a falling beam, or he would slip off his feet and fall off the half-covered roof, breaking his spine.
【Emotional Stability】This is also the first time I have played such a hardcore game.
If it weren’t for the fact that the death penalty of the Skeleton Soldier was so low that it could be ignored, and there was currently no replacement of the same type on the market, he wouldn’t even be sure he could persist.
"MMP! Doesn't this game have a one-click construction function?!" Looking at the house that still looked like a wreck after a long time of construction, [Urban Liren] with a shovel couldn't help but complain.
wiping a handful of broken snow on his face, [Chi Wanshu is in the office] standing next to him also said with a dejected look.
"+1, if I keep doing this, I won't die in the office. I'm afraid I will die in the game first."
"It would be great if there was a function of hanging up and working automatically."
Looking at the ruins of chicken feathers, the four skeleton soldiers looked at each other speechlessly, speechless.
It is worth mentioning that there are some great people in this game.
For example, the civil engineering guys who have worked on construction sites in real life, the contractors who run decoration companies, the unique guys who can chisel out mortise and tenon parts with bare hands without a ruler, etc... Unfortunately, these people are not them.
The construction site in the distance was in full swing. Brick-burning kilns were rising from the ground. Several Chinese and Western brick and wood buildings had already taken shape in the heavy snow. All of this made the ruins in front of them even more desolate.
Humbling.
The Daxing Cemetery plan was clearly initiated by them, but in the end, as the "first generation initiators", they made no progress at all.
Just when [Emotional Stability] was hesitating whether to persist, a slow voice suddenly floated from the side.
"What are you doing? Dumping the body?"
The translation crystal hanging on [Emotional Stability]'s waist translated the complaint from the NPC into a language that the players can understand.
The four players all looked in the direction of the sound, only to see a transparent ghost floating under the snowy tree.
its head is like a drooping hammer, with only half of the bones connected to a layer of skin, and the eye sockets without eyeballs are like two black holes.
Looking at the sudden appearance of the ghost, the four of them were startled. Especially [Emotionally Stable]'s reaction was the most exaggerated, and he couldn't help but blurt out an exclamation.
的 的 的 的 的 的 的 �����
Looking at the four fussing skeletons, the ghost floating under the tree had a speechless expression on his face, and couldn't help but complain.
"What the hell are you talking about? Aren't you ghosts yourself?"
Emotional stability: "..."
Want to be a corpse: "Fuck, that makes sense!?"
They are undead themselves, so what ghosts are they afraid of!
The four players who realized this instantly calmed down and picked up the shovels thrown on the ground again.
Looking at the four skeletons holding shovels, the ghost floating on the snow asked curiously.
What he didn't expect was that the people busy here were actually a group of skeleton soldiers.
Hence Saint Sis...
The undead are actually building a house!
He has never seen such a strange thing!
Although he did not mean to offend, the four skeleton soldiers who heard his words could not control their emotions and shouted loudly.
"Isn't it obvious?"
"It is!"
"Obviously we are building a house!"
The ghost glanced at them suspiciously, and then looked at the ruins in front of him.
"Are you sure?"
【Emotional stability】Clenched the shovel in his hand.
"You guys are here to cause trouble, right?"
"No... I don't mean to find trouble, but I don't understand why you are doing this." Looking at the menacing skeleton soldiers, the ghost was a little scared and subconsciously took a step back, "Aren't you undead? Undead also need a house?"
[Urban Slave Man] said with a serious face.
"No need! But you can understand it as our job."
"That's right!" [Want to be a corpse] nodded vigorously and said aggressively, "This is the task assigned to us by the Demon King!"
The expression of the ghost suddenly turned pitiful.
"Work? It's really pitiful... When you're alive, you just have to make ends meet. If you have to work after you're dead, that's too pitiful."
Zhan Zaishu was in the office: "..."
Looking at the four speechless skeletons, the ghost floated around the ruins, and then commented.
"I probably understand, you are planning to build a house, right? Then why don't you learn from those... um, your companions next to you."
【Emotionally stable】 took a deep breath and said.
Everyone was stunned when they heard this, and they all exclaimed.
"That makes sense!"
"Wait, you can build a house?!"
Looking at the four skeletons that suddenly became enthusiastic, the ghost floated back for a distance with some fear, and then nodded nervously.
"I was doing carpentry work for the lord, so of course I am a little bit good at building houses... But what I said has nothing to do with it, right? It should be considered common sense..."
【Emotional stability】Looked at him eagerly, selectively ignoring the second half of his sentence.
"Can you help us?"
The ghost nodded.
"It's okay, but what's the benefit to me?"
The four players were stunned and looked at each other.
Indeed——
Why did the other party help me?
At this time, [Urban Liren] suddenly felt something in his heart and spoke.
"What's your name?"
The ghost replied without thinking.
"Robert, what's wrong?"
Urban staff: "Okay, Mr. Robert, do you have any relatives who are still alive?"
"Relatives? Relatives..." Robert's expression suddenly became sad, as if he was trapped in a distant memory.
After a moment, he sighed quietly and spoke.
"Okay, I get it... I will help you. In exchange, you can do one thing for me."
Seeing that the NPC was willing to help, the four players were delighted.
【Emotionally stable】 looked at him and said excitedly.
“What’s going on?”
The city official also said excitedly.
"Just tell us! We love doing tasks the most!"
Have never seen undead who love work so much, Robert can't help but worry about their mental state. But seeing how they were enjoying themselves, he thought it would be better for him not to meddle in their own business.
"It's not a big deal. Just send some coal to my child in Silver Pine Town. It's so cold, I'm afraid he'll freeze... Anyway, you dug a lot, I guess you won't need it."
He has never seen it anyway.
【Emotional stability】Hearing this, his eyes lit up and he said immediately.
"No problem! Deal!"
Looking at the enthusiastic look of the skeleton soldier, Robert continued to whisper.
They first cleared the snow on the ground, then drove the wooden piles into the ground by hammering, and then connected them with beams to build a raised wooden platform, which was regarded as a simple foundation.
This time there were finally no casualties.
Looking at the wooden platform standing in the wind and snow, and the soul fire burning in the skulls of the four players, they all invariably swayed with excitement.
This is the fruit of their labor!
This sense of accomplishment simply cannot be described in words!
After completing the foundation, Robert floated to the center of the foundation, like an overseer, and then gave them new instructions.
"The next step is the load-bearing frame... If I were you, I would first use four thicker logs as load-bearing columns to fix the four corners of the wooden house." [Urban Liren] excitedly took out a roll of hemp rope.
Robert was stunned for a moment, half of his head drooping on his shoulders swinging like a pendulum.
focuseddie ″With a rope?
"Can this be done?"
Robert said confidently.
"Believe me, I have been doing carpentry for decades. This is the most reliable way. The house will be in good condition when I die."
Looking at half of Robert's head, the four players felt that his words were still very convincing, so they followed his suggestions.
With the concerted efforts of everyone, the construction of the house frame and the filling of the wooden walls were finally completed. Finally, the wooden boards were nailed to the herringbone beams, the roof of the entire wooden house was sealed, and the snow accumulated in the house was cleared.
All done!
Although there is no fancy house built, the entire cabin is quite satisfactory and can accommodate two or three people without any problem!
Looking at the fruits of labor standing in the wind and snow, [Emotional Stability] felt as if the stool that had been held for several days suddenly became unblocked, not to mention how happy I felt.
The same goes for the other three players.
Looking at the ghost who guided them to complete the construction, the urban servants said gratefully.
To be honest, looking at this house rising from the ground, he felt quite accomplished.
Ever since his soul left the body and became what it is now, he has been wandering around in a state of confusion. It has been a long time since he felt like he did today.
Thanks to these little guys, he felt the feeling of being needed again, so much so that he even had the idea of staying.
Why not?
He had nowhere else to go anyway.
If the undead here do not dislike him...
At this time, a few lines of figures suddenly appeared in the wind and snow not far away.
I saw a child about fourteen or fifteen years old carrying a young girl on his back, walking hobblingly behind three little devils.
When he saw the wooden house that came into view, a hint of excitement appeared on his frozen face.
Although it didn't take long, the face full of excitement turned into a look of fear because it met the eyes of several undead.
Seeing the fear in Andy's eyes, the whale flying in front fell to the ground and said in a gentle tone.
"Don't be afraid, they won't hurt you, as long as you don't attack them actively."
After hearing her words, Andy immediately calmed down. Although there was still a bit of fear on his face, it was not as strong as before.
Looking at the boy who obeyed the three little devils, [Emotionally Stable] had a surprised expression on his face.
"Good guys, are you out to rob human villages?"
Shark dropped something and rolled his eyes and said.
"To the north! What kind of village is robbing humans? Which eye did you see?"
[Want to be a corpse] looked at her strangely, then glanced at the child, and said in confusion.
cedum gene legendum that can be translated into human speech by the translator crystal.
Looking at the talking skeleton, Andy mustered up the courage to speak.
"We are wanderers who came here from the east of Dusk Forest. My parents and I got separated on the edge of Silverpine Forest... They found me and took me out of the forest."
"So that's it..."
At this time, [Urban Liren] suddenly thought of what he had previously updated on the official website forum, saying that as long as he could attract NPCs to live in "Beifeng City", regardless of whether they were human beings, they would be rewarded by the Demon King.
As a result, his eyes immediately turned into the shape of Hades coins, and the soul fire burning in his skull swayed with eager light.
"You don't have a place to live yet, right?"
"Hmm..." Andy nodded nervously.
"That's great! Bah - I mean, it's really terrible!"
Before the child could continue to speak, [Urban Slave Man] had already enthusiastically grabbed his arm, took him with a confused look to the front of the newly built wooden house, and pulled him in without any explanation.
"After staying in the heavy snow for so long, you must be freezing, right? Come into the house with me, you're welcome! I'll find you a kerosene lamp to keep warm in a moment... What else do you need? By the way, there is still a shortage of beds, quilts, and furniture here... Don't worry! We will be able to make a set soon!"
"Hey! Wait a minute! I picked them up!" Shark protested loudly, but was ignored by the four skeleton soldiers.
At this moment, they only have dark coins and contribution points in their eyes, and nothing else.
Andy looked at the enthusiastic skeletons with a confused look on his face and whispered.
"I...just give me a place to shelter from the wind and snow, no need to bother."
"Trouble? How could it be!" [Urban Slave Man] hooked the young man's shoulder with a playful smile, patted him and said, "Just treat this place as your own home! You can live here as long as you want!"
Just now, they who absorbed the population of the necropolis have received the reward from the Demon King!
Not just a one-time reward!
According to the instructions in the taskbar, within the boundaries of Beifeng City, as long as the built houses are occupied, they can receive monthly rental income. In addition, the rent for the first three years will be paid by the cemetery in the form of subsidies, and for the next three years, the rent will be paid by the NPC who rents the property based on market conditions.
Although the rent is not much, as long as they build enough houses and the occupancy rate is high enough, their income can grow like a snowball!
And if you can arrange work for NPC, you can also get valuable contribution points!
It is precisely because of this that he wishes that the two children would not only live there by themselves, but also take their parents over to live there!
Andy sheepishly said several words of thanks, and then looked at Whale Luo Nanbei, who had followed him to the door. Seeing the latter smiling and nodding, he lowered his guard and placed his sister on his back at the base of the wall. He then held her hand and sat next to her.
Although I don’t know why these skeleton gentlemen are so enthusiastic about him, judging from their appearance, they probably don’t want to eat him...