Chapter 164: The Hospitable Grave

A long, long time ago, when Yang Yang Andi still lived on the edge of the distant Twilight Province, he had heard the elders in the village tell stories about the Thunder Sound County Labyrinth.

Legend has it that it was the territory of the Demon King.

Whenever night fell, demons with wings would fly out of the labyrinth and snatch away children who didn't listen to their parents.

Regarding the elders' sayings in the village, Yang Yang Andi once believed them to be true. It was just that he didn't expect that he had been so obedient, yet he was still found by demons.

And it was during the day.

Hiding behind Yang Yang Andi, his younger sister tugged at his sleeve and whispered with a voice that was about to cry.

"Brother..."

"Don't be afraid, I will protect you." Although he was panicked inside, Yang Yang Andi still held his sister's hand and gathered his courage to look at the three demons flying in the sky and said, "Come at me... let Old Old Ma Ji go, she's too thin and doesn't have much meat."

The translation crystal translated his words into a language the players could understand.

The three players looked at each other.

In the end, it was Whale-Fall-South-North who couldn't help but laugh and said in a teasing tone.

"We don't eat children."

Yang Yang Andi was stunned; at first, he didn't understand, until a human voice without waves repeated the female demon's words.

"Then... what do you want?"

Looking at the trembling child, Shark-Drop couldn't help but laugh mischievously, raising her hands to make a clawing gesture.

"What do we want? Isn't that obvious? As the minions of the Demon King, what we want is naturally your souls... Jie-Jie-Jie!"

"Yee!"

"Brother..."

The two children were scared out of their wits.

The little girl named Old Old Ma Ji even fainted on the spot.

As for the boy who was still awake, although he didn't faint, he was also pale and stiff on the spot, holding his fainted sister and unable to speak.

"Damn... am I that scary? Ouch—" Shark-Drop was complaining in a low voice when a snowball suddenly hit her head.

"Alright! Stop scaring people, it's a hidden quest that was hard to trigger..." Looking at Shark-Drop, who was patting the broken snow on her head, Little-Late, who was executing justice, couldn't help but complain.

The translation crystal translated her words.

However, the little boy was stunned after hearing it.

"... Quest?"

"That's right, that's right," Whale-Fall-South-North nodded with a smile and flew to a place only two steps away from him, "Do you see any buttons that can be selected around? Like setting rewards, issuing quests, etc... ah, if the reward can be adjusted, please help me press eight zeros by the way."

Yang Yang Andi looked at her blankly, not understanding what she was saying at all.

What button...

He looked around uneasily, then looked at her uneasily and continued.

"I... I don't know."

Seeing the little boy's blank look, as if he really didn't have the function of issuing quests, the disappointment on the three people's faces gradually appeared.

"Damn! This guy seems to be just a lost child."

"What to do?"

"Eat him?"

"How could we eat him!"

"Hmm..." Whale-Fall-South-North, who was hugging her arms, pondered for a while and said, "Anyway, let's take them back first; I feel like letting them continue to wander in the forest might freeze them to death."

"Agreed."

Shark-Drop-Things raised her arm, then looked at the timid child and said condescendingly.

"Hey, kid, what's your name?"

Yang Yang Andi gathered his courage and said.

"Yang Yang Andi... and you?"

"Me?" Shark-Drop was stunned, not expecting the NPC to ask her name, but still said casually, "I'm Shark-Drop-Things... this is Whale-Fall-South-North, and Little-Late-Not-Full."

Trying hard to remember these difficult names, Yang Yang Andi took a deep breath and continued.

"Shark-Drop-Things, is it... my soul, you can have it, but please let my sister go, she's still young..."

Shark-Drop couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Hahaha."

Yang Yang Andi blushed with his face frozen purple and looked up at her.

"What are you laughing at!"

Whale-Fall-South-North said with a smile.

"We don't need your soul; it was just a joke just now, please don't take it to heart."

Yang Yang Andi said nervously.

"Then what do you want..."

"Let me think..." Whale-Fall-South-North pondered for a while, suddenly moved in her heart, and said.

"We need your piety."

Yang Yang Andi was stunned and looked at her incomprehensibly.

"... Piety?"

"That's right," Whale-Fall-South-North said with a smile, "We need you to offer prayers to the Demon King from the bottom of your heart... after all, it was us who saved you, this isn't too much, right?"

Yang Yang Andi thought for a while and nodded.

"Not too much... I will do as you say."

"Good boy," Whale-Fall-South-North nodded with a smile and continued in a gentle tone, "In a while, you take your sister and follow behind us; we will take you to our camp. When the snow stops, we will take you to find your family."

Yang Yang Andi nodded his little head seriously and carried his fainted sister on his back.

Looking at his difficult appearance, Little-Late couldn't bear it and flew down to help behind him, supporting the little girl to share some weight for him.

Yang Yang Andi looked at her gratefully.

But just at this time, he remembered the stories told by the elders 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-Fall-South-North smiled and said.

"There is no doubt about it."

Yang Yang Andi: "But..."

Whale-Fall-South-North: "Don't look like it?"

Yang Yang Andi nodded and whispered.

"Hmm..."

Whale-Fall-South-North smiled and continued in a chatty tone.

"Then what do you think demons should look like?"

Yang Yang Andi hesitated for a while and finally whispered the story circulating in the village to her... including how demons snatched away disobedient children, including how those demons made human cubs into skewers, etc.

And after listening to his story, Whale-Fall-South-North just smiled and then continued.

"Is this what others told you, or did you see it with your own eyes?"

Yang Yang Andi whispered.

"It was Uncle Brook who told me... he used to be an adventurer."

Shark-Drop-Things interrupted and said in a teasing tone.

"Then would you rather believe what he told you, or would you rather believe your own eyes?"

Yang Yang Andi hesitated for a while and answered honestly.

"I don't know... the adults always say you are not good people, telling me to stay away from guys with horns on their heads, but I feel like you are actually not bad; at least you didn't drive me away. On the contrary, those guys riding on horseback clearly didn't have horns on their heads, yet they drove us out of the village..."

Little-Late and Shark-Drop looked at each other.

Whale-Fall pondered for a long time and said in a gentle tone.

"When you start thinking like this, it means you've grown up and realized that black and white are not the norm of this world; on the contrary, the colors between the two are."

Yang Yang Andi looked at her understandingly and let the cold wind blow on his face.

After a long time, he gathered his courage and said.

"Can you tell me... your story?"

Whale-Fall-South-North smiled and said.

"Of course... after we return to the warm fire, I will tell you slowly."

Just when the "Whale-Shark-Late" trio was walking back with two lost human cubs, the construction site at the foot of Beifeng Mountain was in chaos.

Due to a chain reaction caused by someone slipping, only a loud rumbling sound was heard, and the snow covering the wood tilted down along with the collapsed roof beam.

Looking at the collapsed wooden house, 【Emotionally Stable】, who had been busy all day, could no longer control his emotions and let out a curse before being submerged by the avalanche.

"Fu—"

Before that "ck" could be uttered, the heavy snow poured into his mouth, piercing through his hollow ribs.

Seeing a huge wooden beam falling from the sky in his peripheral vision, he felt his head as if it had been hit by a club, and then his eyes went black and he went offline...

Dozens of minutes later.

Four skeletons that looked familiar walked out of the entrance of the Beifeng mine cave, cursing and using shovels to turn over the snow pile, digging their corpses out from under the ruins.

Recovering corpses can return a certain percentage of resurrection costs, and they had repeated this process so many times that they had formed a tacit understanding that didn't need to be spoken.

Just to build such a house, they had paid too high a price.

Every time, they were either smashed in the head by a falling roof beam or slipped and fell from the half-built roof, breaking their spines.

【Emotionally Stable】 was also playing such a hardcore game for the first time.

If it weren't for the fact that the death penalty for skeleton soldiers was negligible and there were no similar alternatives on the market, he wouldn't even be sure if he could persist.

"MMP! Doesn't this game have a one-click construction function?!" Looking at the house that still looked like a cripple after building for a long time, 【Urban Slave】, leaning on a shovel, couldn't help but complain.

Wiping the broken snow on his face, 【Sooner or later the potato is in the office】 also looked dejected and said.

"+1, if this goes on, I won't die in the office, I'm afraid I'll die of liver failure in the game first."

【Want to be a corpse】 sighed and said.

"If only there was a function to automatically work while hanging up."

Looking at the ruins, the four skeleton soldiers were speechless and couldn't speak.

It is worth mentioning that there are some great people in this game.

For example, the civil engineering brothers who have worked on construction sites in reality, for example, the foreman who opened a decoration company, for example, the master who can chisel out mortise and tenon parts with bare hands without a ruler, etc... However, it is a pity that these people are not them.

The construction site in the distance was in full swing, brick kilns were rising from the ground, and several Chinese-Western brick-wood buildings had already shown their prototype in the heavy snow, and all of this made the ruins in front of them look even more desolate.

Embarrassing.

The plan to revitalize the Grave was clearly initiated by them first, but in the end, as the "initial initiators," they had no progress at all.

Just when 【Emotionally Stable】 was hesitating whether to persist, a slow voice suddenly drifted from the side.

"What are you doing? Dumping corpses?"

The translation crystal hanging on 【Emotionally Stable】's waist translated that NPC's complaint into a language the players could understand.

The four players looked at the direction the voice drifted from in unison, only to see a transparent ghost floating under the tree covered in white snow.

Its head was like a drooping chain hammer, with only half a bone and a layer of skin connected, and the eye sockets without eyeballs were like two black holes.

Seeing the ghost that suddenly appeared, all four were startled. Especially 【Emotionally Stable】's reaction was the most exaggerated, and he couldn't help but blurt out an exclamation.

"Damn! A ghost!!"

【Urban Slave】 threw the shovel in his hand, which passed through the ghost's chest without suspense and hit the tree behind it.

Looking at the four skeletons making a fuss, the ghost floating under the tree had a speechless expression and couldn't help but complain.

"What are you talking about, aren't you ghosts yourselves?"

Emotionally Stable: "..."

Want to be a corpse: "Damn, that makes so much sense!?"

They themselves are undead, so what are they afraid of!

Realizing this, the four players instantly calmed down and picked up the shovel they had thrown on the ground again. Looking at the four skeletons carrying shovels, the ghost floating on the snow asked curiously.

"Speaking of which, what exactly are you doing?"

The clanging sound had been going on here for several days, and he thought the people of the Andes Family had remembered this mine cave, so he floated over to take a look.

As a result, what he didn't expect was that the ones working here were a group of skeleton soldiers.

Saint Xisi above...

The undead are actually building houses!

He had never seen such a strange thing!

Although he didn't mean to offend, the four skeleton soldiers who heard this sentence couldn't control their emotions and shouted loudly.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"That's right!"

=9+Book_Bar

"It's very obvious we are building a house!"

The ghost looked at them suspiciously, and then looked at the ruins in front of him.

"Are you sure?"

【Emotionally Stable】 gripped the shovel in his hand tightly.

"Are you here to find fault!"

"No... I didn't mean to find fault, just that I don't understand why you want to do this." Looking at the aggressive skeleton soldiers, the ghost was a bit scared and subconsciously took a step back, "Aren't you undead? Do the undead also need houses?"

【Urban Slave】 said seriously.

"No! But you can understand it as our work."

"That's right!" 【Want to be a corpse】 nodded forcefully and said aggressively, "This is a task arranged for us by the Demon King!"

The ghost's expression suddenly became pitiful.

"Work? How pitiful... It was one thing to make a living when alive, but to have to work after death is too pitiful."

Sooner or later the potato is in the office: "..."

Looking at the four skeletons who couldn't speak, the ghost floated around the ruins and then commented.

"I roughly understand, you intend to build a house, right? Then why don't you learn from those... uh, your companions next to you."

【Emotionally Stable】 took a deep breath and said.

"They don't have time to teach us, and we are considered competitors."

"So that's how it is..." The ghost nodded understandingly and continued, "But even so, you should at least know to clear the snow on the surface, and then use wooden stakes and beams to build a raised foundation, right? That way the snow water won't seep into the house, and it can also prevent the house from being pressed into the ground by its own weight."

Everyone was stunned and exclaimed in unison.

"Damn!"

"That makes sense!"

"Wait, you know how to build a house?!"

Looking at the four skeletons who suddenly became enthusiastic, the ghost was a bit scared and floated a distance back, then nervously nodded his head.

"I was a carpenter for the lord when I was alive, so of course I know a little bit about building houses... but what I said has nothing to do with whether I know or not? It should be considered common sense..."

【Emotionally Stable】 looked at him eagerly and selectively ignored his second half of the sentence.

"Can you help us?"

The ghost nodded.

"I can, but what's in it for me?"

The four players were stunned and looked at each other.

Indeed—

Why would the other party help them?

At this time, 【Urban Slave】 suddenly moved in his heart and said.

"What's your name?"

The ghost replied without thinking.

"Luo Luo Bote, what's wrong?"

Urban Slave: "Okay Mr. Luo Luo Bote, do you have any relatives still alive?"

"Relatives? Relatives..." Luo Luo Bote's expression suddenly became sad, as if he had fallen into a distant memory.

After a moment, he sighed gloomily and said.

"Okay, I know... I will help you; in exchange, you just need to do one thing for me."

Seeing that this NPC was willing to help, the four players were overjoyed.

【Emotionally Stable】 looked at him and said excitedly.

"What is it?"

Urban Slave also said excitedly.

"Just order us! We love doing quests the most!"

Never having seen undead so passionate about work, Luo Luo Bote couldn't help but worry about their mental state. However, seeing them enjoying it, he felt he'd better not meddle in other people's business.

"It's not a very troublesome thing, just send some coal to my child in Silver Pine Town; it's so cold, I'm afraid he'll freeze... anyway, you've dug a lot, I guess you don't need it."

Building a house is one thing, these undead don't need to keep warm.

Anyway, he hadn't seen it.

【Emotionally Stable】's eyes lit up and he immediately said.

"No problem! Deal!"

Looking at the enthusiastic appearance of this skeleton soldier, Luo Luo Bote added a small instruction.

"Remember not to scare them! Just leave it at his door quietly when it's dark."

With the technical guidance of the ghost brother, the progress of the four people's construction went much smoother.

They first cleared the snow on the ground, then hammered the wooden stakes into the ground, then connected them with beams to build a raised wooden platform, which was considered a simple foundation.

This time there were no casualties.

Looking at the wooden platform standing in the wind and snow, the soul fire burning in the four players' skulls swayed with excitement.

This was the labor result they completed with their own hands!

This sense of achievement was simply indescribable!

After completing the foundation, Luo Luo Bote floated to the center of the foundation, like a foreman, and then gave them new instructions.

"Next 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 Slave】 excitedly took out a roll of hemp rope.

"Do we need rope?"

Luo Luo Bote was stunned, and the half-head drooping on his shoulder shook like a pendulum.

"Rope? Don't use that stuff; wood tied with rope will fall apart with a blow... you do as I say, use a saw to saw a protruding connection structure at the connection point, let the wood press the connection part with its own weight, and then stack it into a row, which is the wall of the wooden house."

【Emotionally Stable】 hesitated and said.

"Will this work?"

Luo Luo Bote said confidently.

"Believe me, I've been a carpenter for decades; this is the most secure way, and the house was still fine when I died."

Looking at Luo Luo Bote's half-head, the four players felt his words were still very convincing, so they did as he suggested.

With everyone's concerted efforts, they finally completed the construction of the house frame and the filling of the wooden walls, and finally nailed the wooden boards to the human-shaped roof beams, sealed the roof of the entire wooden house, and cleared the snow piled in the house.

Everything is done!

Although they didn't build any flashy houses, the entire wooden house was considered standard, and it was no problem at all for two or three people to live in!

Looking at the labor results standing in the wind and snow, 【Emotionally Stable】 felt as if he had been constipated for several days and suddenly became smooth, and he felt so refreshed.

The other three players were the same.

Looking at the ghost who guided them to complete the construction, Urban Slave said gratefully.

"Thank you so much!"

"Don't thank me, I just gave you some suggestions, the real effort was your own..." Looking at the high-spirited four skeleton soldiers, Luo Luo Bote smiled embarrassedly and suddenly understood why these guys were so excited.

Honestly, looking at this house rising from the ground, he also felt quite accomplished in his heart.

Ever since his soul left his body and became what he is now, he had been wandering around in a muddle and hadn't had the feeling he had today for a long time.

Thanks to these little guys, he regained the feeling of being needed, so much so that he even had the idea of staying.

Why not?

Anyway, he had nowhere else to go.

If the undead here didn't dislike him...

At this time, several figures suddenly appeared in the wind and snow not far away.

I saw a child of about fourteen or fifteen years old carrying a young girl, stumbling behind the three little devils.

Seeing the wooden house that came into view, a look of excitement appeared on that frozen face.

Although not long after, that face full of excitement turned into fear because he met the eyes of several undead.

Seeing the fear in Yang Yang Andi's eyes, Whale-Fall-South-North, who was flying in front, landed on 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, Yang Yang Andi calmed down immediately, although his face still carried some fear, it was not as intense as before.

Looking at the boy who was obedient to the three little devils, 【Emotionally Stable】's face showed a surprised expression.

"Good guy, did you go out to rob a human village?"

Shark-Drop-Things rolled her eyes and said.

"Damn! What robbing a human village, which eye did you see it with?"

【Want to be a corpse】 looked at her strangely, then looked at the child, and said confusedly.

"Then where did this child come from?"

The translation crystal translated the creaking sound into human language.

Looking at the skeleton that could speak, Yang Yang Andi gathered his courage and said.

"We are wanderers who wandered here from the east of the Twilight Forest; I got separated from my parents and people in the village on the edge of the Silver Pine Forest... it was them who found me and brought me out of the forest."

"So that's how it is..."

At this time, 【Urban Slave】 suddenly thought of the content updated on the official website forum before, saying that as long as you can attract NPCs to move into "Beifeng City," regardless of whether they are human or not, you can get the Demon King's reward.

So, his eyes instantly turned into the shape of Nether coins, and the soul fire burning in his skull swayed with eager light.

"You don't have a place to live yet, right?"

"Hmm..." Yang Yang Andi nodded nervously.

"That's great! Phew—I mean, that's terrible!"

Before the child could continue, 【Urban Slave】 had already enthusiastically grabbed his arm, took him to the wooden house that had just been built, and pulled him in without saying a word.

"You must be frozen after staying in the heavy snow for so long, right? Come into the house with me, don't be polite! I'll find you a kerosene lamp to keep warm in a while... what else do you need? By the way, there are no beds and bedding here, and furniture... don't worry! We can build a set soon!"

"Hey! Wait a minute! They were picked up by me!" Shark-Drop-Things protested loudly, but was ignored by the four skeleton soldiers.

At this moment, they only had Nether coins and contribution points in their eyes, and nothing else.

Yang Yang Andi looked at the enthusiastic skeletons blankly and whispered.

"I... just give me a place to shelter from the wind and snow, no need to be so troublesome."

"Troublesome? How could it be!" 【Urban Slave】 hooked the shoulder of this teenager with a grin and patted it, saying, "Just treat this as your own home! You can live as long as you want!"

Just now, they, who were absorbing population for the Grave, had already received the reward from the Demon King!

Not just a one-time reward!

According to the instructions in the quest bar, within the territory of Beifeng City, as long as the built house is occupied, they can receive rental income monthly. And the rent for the first three years is issued by the Grave in the form of subsidies, and the rent for the next three years is paid by the NPCs who rent the property according to the market conditions.

Although this 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 they can arrange work for NPCs, they can also get precious contribution points!

It is precisely because of this that he wished these two children wouldn't just live here themselves, but would bring their parents over to live here too!

Yang Yang Andi thanked them several times embarrassedly, then looked at Whale-Fall-South-North, who followed to the door, and seeing the latter nod with a smile, he put down his guard and placed his sister, who was on his back, at the corner of the wall, then held her hand and sat beside her.

Although he didn't know why these skeleton gentlemen were so enthusiastic about him, looking at their appearance, they shouldn't be trying to eat him...