Please don't question multi-week players

Chapter 145. The Cemetery
"Um, it means..."

"...If I come to the cemetery, I'll be invincible?"

Jiang Jianxin said with delight.

In the fourth playthrough, she's described as very powerful, saying she can help kill enemies if they're lured to the cemetery—doesn't that mean she has a powerful figure protecting her in the cemetery?

The hooded child choked, then slowly said:

"I won't help you with small monsters unless you encounter a powerful enemy."

She was just a fleeting image, her power limited, and she couldn't waste it on ants.

"I understand your idea."

Jiang Jianxin nodded, still smiling.

Although the Sword Master's abilities were sealed on the first day he arrived in this instance, encountering the afterimage of his fourth playthrough was a pleasant surprise.

"You've been in the cemetery for so long, do you have any information or anything you can tell me?"

Jiang Jianxin floated to the tombstone and asked before diving in.

The hooded child shook his head and said:
“I don’t know much about it, but this contaminated area is related to me…it’s my stuff that fell here and became its energy source.”

"your things?"

Jiang Jianxin asked.

"Hmm, I've forgotten the specifics. There are a lot of things I can't remember."

The hooded child said earnestly.

Jiang Jianxin sighed deeply, said no more, and his white figure flashed as he disappeared into the tombstone.

"Crackling..."

The soil collapsed, and a hand suddenly emerged from the grave mound, its five fingers gripping the ground tightly.

Immediately afterwards, a mud-covered head emerged in a disheveled state.

Jiang Jianxin coughed violently, spitting out a mouthful of wet, fishy dirt.

In the fourth playthrough, this ability to fake death was quite strong, but it was always a mess when it emerged, covered in dirt every time.

She dusted herself off, stepped over the shriveled fishman corpse on the ground, and walked toward the subway station exit.

The exit gate of the subway station in the contaminated area was made of black iron, and at this moment, the rusty gate was tightly closed.

Jiang Jianxin glanced at it with disappointment, then slowly turned around, thinking that maybe he should find a place to sit down and wait in the subway station.

"crunch-"

Just then, the sharp scraping sound of metal hinges abruptly shattered the silence, and the black iron gate slowly opened outwards.

A blinding light suddenly flooded in, followed by a deafening roar of voices, as if another world had suddenly crashed in.

"Hey, it's finally open! I've been waiting for so long."

"You've been waiting a long time? I was resurrected as soon as it got dark and have been waiting here all night."

"Why are so many people dead this time?"

“We all died on the same site, but I can tell you’re not from that site, buddy.”

"So, has it been found? Has no one really found it?"

"Ugh, this is so annoying, when can we get out of here?"

……

Jiang Jianxin turned around abruptly, and the dazzling morning light surged in like a tide from the open door, instantly dispelling the chill of the subway station.

Against the light, she could only see a dark mass of people surging in like a migrating school of fish, the sounds of footsteps, laughter, and shoving mingling into a noisy wave.

She squinted instinctively and raised her hand to block the light.

It was only then that she vaguely realized—it was still early morning in the contaminated area.

The crowd, like water parted by an invisible hand, automatically bypassed her. She stood alone, the only one going against the current.

The dried mud on her body fell off with her movements. A murmur of conversation arose around her:

"That person... why does he look so much like the Sword Master?"

"You must be new here, otherwise why would you be in the subway station in the middle of the night?"

"Tsk, this newcomer... he looks familiar..."

Jiang Jianxin touched her cheek, which was still covered with damp yellow soil that obscured her face, preventing others from recognizing her at a glance.

She brushed the dirt off her face, lowered her head slightly, and walked out of the subway station.

"Huh...huh..."

The moment I stepped out of the subway station, a chilly atmosphere hit me.

Just like the name of this station, a desolate cemetery suddenly unfolds before your eyes, with countless pale tombstones piercing the earth like sharp teeth, stretching densely to the horizon.

The morning mist flowed slowly through the forest of tombstones, shrouding this land of the dead in a hazy veil. Each row of tombstones was arranged in an orderly fashion. In the distance, a few crows perched on the treetops, their blood-red eyes fixed on this uninvited guest.

"pat..."

Jiang Jianxin strolled past the tombstones, looking at the names written in regular script on each one:

"The Tomb of XXX"

"The Tomb of XX"

……

The Tomb of Zuo Siquan

After walking to an unknown number of lines, Jiang Jianxin found the name he cared about most.

Zuo Siquan's tombstone stands here quietly, no different from the others around it.

Jiang Jianxin squatted down and examined the tombstones for a moment, feeling that the tombstones in this cemetery had a hasty, mass-produced feel to them.

The stones didn't look very good, and they were all new; none of them were the old, worn-out monuments that the hooded child had erected for her.

She remembered what the hooded child had told her: the energy source of this contaminated area was something left behind from the fourth playthrough.

—Her abilities in her fourth playthrough were clearly quite sinister. Could it be that the way these corrupted areas manifested was also sinister due to the influence of her abilities?

Jiang Jianxin neither knew nor could she discern the meaning behind these wholesale tombstones.

However, just as the subway doors opened, a number of people crowded out of the cemetery. They looked tired but relaxed, as if they had spent the night in the cemetery.

Jiang Jianxin also caught the word "resurrection." She keenly realized that she might not be the only one who could be resurrected from the tombstone.
She stood up thoughtfully, her gaze sweeping over the imposing forest of tombstones, countless gravestones appearing and disappearing in the thin mist, stretching all the way to the horizon.

Without hesitation, she turned back, her hem sweeping across the steps and kicking up fine dust.

"Da da--"

Walking back to the subway station, Jiang Jianxin saw that the group of people who came from the cemetery were still standing in the subway station, all gathered on one side of the platform, as if they were waiting for the subway.

Because Jiang Jianxin's face was still covered in dirt, several gazes lingered on her briefly before quickly moving away—although they looked somewhat similar, the Sword Master in their minds was still the dignified and upright figure from the battle videos.

It was hard to imagine that such a disheveled newcomer covered in dirt was the Sword Master herself, so most people did not doubt her identity.

Jiang Jianxin stood quietly behind the crowd, listening to the distant hum of the subway entering the station.

"Om——"

"pat-"

"Cemetery Station - We have arrived. Open the left door. Passengers who wish to alight, please disembark promptly."

The familiar announcement sounded again, and before me was another water tank subway. Inside the subway, a mermaid with its mouth wide open could be vaguely seen wagging its tail.

The crowd automatically dispersed, avoiding the carriage with the mermaid and moving to other carriages.

Jiang Jianxin then realized that the carriages of this water tank subway were not connected—some carriages only contained water and no mermaids.

She silently followed behind a group of people and boarded the busiest water tank subway car.