This bug is amazing!

Chapter 245 Second Profession (Part 2) Requesting monthly votes!
Ji Yi sensed something was amiss; this shouldn't be happening.

He tried to look inward, but found that he couldn't enter the sea of ​​consciousness. He even forgot the little skill he had accidentally acquired.

It was as if he had never locked away his heart, nor had he ever worn a mask of illusion. The Ji Yi of today was just an ordinary person who could cry, laugh, feel sad, and feel afraid.

This strange feeling sent chills down Ji Yi's spine.

"Grandma, please say something! Can't you hear me?"

As Ji Yi spoke, she began to use sign language to communicate with the other person, but the old woman remained as still as a statue, maintaining her smile.

In the past, Ji Yi might have tried to do something outrageous, such as taking the old woman's goods in front of her, or slapping her to see if she would still laugh.

However, it is clear that acting so recklessly in a hellish dungeon without any information could result in instant death.

After lingering for a while, Ji Yi couldn't get any useful information, so she turned around and continued along the road.

After walking for less than five minutes, a familiar shed appeared in front of us again.

The familiar convenience store, the familiar old lady.

"A ghost wall? No way!"

Ji Yi frowned, recalling the distance she had traveled in those five minutes.

After thinking for a moment, Ji Yi did not stop in front of the convenience store again, but continued walking forward.

After advancing for about two minutes, Ji Yi finally found a missing piece at the guardrail beside the road.

Because it was nighttime, it was hard to see clearly, but if you looked closely, you could see that there was a small dirt road.

"It should be here."

After thinking for a moment, Ji Yi squeezed through the gap in the guardrail and walked down the dirt road.

The further down she went, the more eerie and terrifying Ji Yi felt. All she could hear were the chirping of insects, and because she was off-center from the streetlights, she could barely see the road.

But we've clearly already escaped the so-called "ghost wall" situation.

“Very good. Since we are looking for a village, and the road is clearly marked as ‘No Entry,’ the only conclusion is to go backwards or look for clues along the road.”

Ji Yi's intuition led him to the right decision on his first try.

As for the old woman, she was indeed a suspicious clue, but Ji Yi couldn't find a breakthrough point for the time being.

Following the dirt road downhill, even though we had only gone for ten minutes, it seemed like the road would never end, perhaps because of the darkness.

"Ouch, fuck me!"

As Ji Yi slipped, he tumbled and rolled down the slope.

"Oh shit."

When he got up, looking disheveled, he calmly checked his physical condition.

"I sprained my ankle badly, but thankfully there was no fracture. I don't feel too much pain right now, but I'll probably feel better in a couple of days."

Even though he has now returned to being a mentally normal ordinary person, he still possesses extraordinary psychological qualities and judgment.

Since there are no medical supplies available, we can only tear off strips of cloth from our clothes and use them to make do with the bandages.

Ten minutes later, Ji Yi continued walking with a limp.

After walking for about twenty more minutes, Ji Yi faintly heard children singing in the distance.

Because it was a child's voice, and because they were far apart, Ji Yi couldn't quite tell if it was a male or female voice, but vaguely, she seemed to have heard the lyrics:

[Grandma Moon, her blood-red eyes open, and a skeleton crawls out of the mountain crevice. Whose child is counting straws? — "One, two, three, one head is missing."]

Grandpa Well, puffing out cold smoke, the windlass turns the empty barrel. He fishes out half an embroidered shoe; who is crying inside? Waaaaaah—don't listen to that mournful murmur.

[Uncle Crow, wailing in a mournful tune, laughs all over the village while chewing on a finger bone: "Hahaha, hahaha—the next offering will be a corpse!"]

The entire song has an eerie atmosphere.

As Ji Yi drew closer, he could hear it more and more clearly. However, the song stopped abruptly after the third verse, and Ji Yi felt that there was a second half to it.

"Ah!" the child exclaimed in surprise, "Who are you?"

It turns out they scared the other person; no wonder the song stopped.

"Excuse me, brother, I got lost while out for a walk and even slipped and fell. Is there anywhere nearby where I can rest?"

As Ji Yi spoke, she slowly walked towards the other person.

Late at night, the child was carrying a paper-cut lantern. Just when Ji Yi thought that there might be some traditional old village nearby, he was shocked to find it.

The light coming from inside the lantern wasn't from a fire, but from an electric light bulb.
"Uh," Ji Yi looked at the wary child, "Don't be afraid, I'm not a bad person. Also, are you a boy or a girl?"

The child in front of them had an androgynous appearance; he was too heroic to be a girl, and too delicate to be a boy. Even his hair was a fashionable medium-length style that could be worn by both men and women.

"An'an doesn't know, brother. It doesn't matter if you treat An'an as a boy or a girl."

The child in front of him spoke earnestly, and quickly lowered his guard.

This is like a strange, shady man saying, "Don't be afraid, kid, I'm not a human trafficker," and you immediately believe him.

Is he stupid, or is he naive?

"How old are you? Don't you even know if you're a boy or a girl? Do you stand or squat when you pee?"

An'an: "It seems to be half and half."

Okay, let's not dwell on this issue for now.

"Never mind, my foot is injured now. Could you take me somewhere to stay and recover? It's so dark now, I'm afraid wild animals might eat me in the mountains."

An'an nodded: "Then come to my house, my sister is a very nice person."

As he spoke, he picked up the lantern from the ground and turned to signal Ji Yi to follow.

This kid really isn't wary of strangers.

An'an walks slowly, but Ji Yi, due to an ankle injury, can only barely keep up.

As Ji Yi continued along the dirt road, she soon saw faint lights in the distance; the so-called "Hidden Village" must be there.

"Hey An'an, what are you doing carrying a lantern and singing so far away in the middle of the night? And the folk songs you sing are quite nice, where did you learn them?"

Considering that An'an is still young, Ji Yi did not directly use words like "terrifying" or "scary" to avoid misleading the child and making her afraid to tell the truth.

"You mean this song? Isn't it scary? It's from a horror movie."

Your mother
Ji Yi was speechless. He had spent so much time analyzing the song and pondering its deeper meaning, wondering if it foreshadowed events that might happen in the village.

Well, it's normal for a pure puzzle-solving hell dungeon to be very difficult in terms of reasoning.

Ji Yi endured the pain in her feet and followed An An all the way until they finally arrived at the village.

This is a mountain village, where houses are not close together, but rather spaced a short distance apart.

An'an led Ji Yi past several houses. The lights were on inside the houses, but the doors were all closed.

Strangely, none of the dogs that were chained up barked or growled at strangers when they saw them. Instead, they lay down on the steps and stared intently at Ji Yi.

This bizarre scene was indeed strange, but Ji Yi didn't ask any more questions. Now that they had arrived at the village, they should be more cautious in their actions.

He followed silently, and after seven or eight minutes, An'an finally lifted a small courtyard fence and stopped in front of a house:
"Sister, I'm back!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the old double wooden door opened from the inside, and a woman in her mid-twenties came into view with a smile.

But soon, her expression froze, and she frowned as she looked at Ji Yi behind An An.

“I picked him up on the street. He said he got lost while taking a walk and that he twisted his ankle and wanted to find a place to rest. Sister, let him stay at our house.”

The woman frowned even more deeply: "Get out!"

Ji Yi, all smiles, was about to speak when she was startled by the rebuke. An An, too, remained silent, trembling with fear.

"Can't you hear me telling you?"

Faced with being kicked out right at the start, Ji Yi didn't want to make a fool of herself, so she could only say sullenly:

“It’s really inconvenient for a girl like you to stay at home alone. I’ll go find another villager to stay with.”

After saying that, Ji Yi turned and left. Since they had already arrived in the village, there was no need to worry about not finding a place to rest.
Thinking it over, Ji Yi was already preparing to climb over the fence gate of the courtyard.

"Wait, come back."

Just then, the woman called out to him again. "It's probably too late now, you should stay here with me."

Upon hearing this, Ji Yi paused, slowly turning her head and asking, "What do you mean by 'too late'?"

"It's nothing, come in, it's cold in the mountains," the woman said.

"Yay, my sister is the best!"

An'an was also all smiles, carrying a lantern in one hand and pulling Ji Yi into the house with the other.

Soon, Ji Yi entered the room and began to look around at the furnishings.

Directly opposite the entrance is an eight-immortal table, with long wooden benches on all four sides. The wall in front is covered with tattered red paper, on which words resembling a family genealogy can be vaguely seen, indicating which dynasty the ancestors could be traced back to and what their deeds were.

Besides this, there are various graffiti from modern times on the wall, including portraits of Chairman Mao and words such as "Long live the Chinese people".

Looking around, there are pull-cord lights on the walls and old, yellowed, dusty twisted-pair wires on the ceiling.

An old, locked wooden box; yellowed, faded door god paintings; a large-screen TV with a satellite dish on top.
"Hmm, so many words about water environment."

Ji Yi stroked his chin and said.

"It's a bit impolite to look around someone's home as soon as you walk in," the woman said coldly.

Ji Yi then looked at the woman somewhat embarrassed.

He hadn't seen her clearly because of the backlighting, but now, under the indoor lights, he realized that this woman was actually...
She looks remarkably like Xie Jiayi.

However, she wasn't as pretty as Xie Jiayi, and her temperament was cold and aloof, unlike Xie Jiayi's gentleness. In fact, upon closer inspection, she resembled Miss Cat more.

"I'm so sorry, I was being impolite. My surname is Ji, and my given name is Yi. May I ask your name, beautiful lady?"

"Xie Ping".

The woman's answer was brief.

She also has the surname Xie? Is it a coincidence or something else?

Ji Yi didn't think much of it. This was a solo job change quest instance, so there was no reason for there to be players. The woman in front of her should be an NPC.

"Miss Xie Ping, I have no choice but to ask for your company today. I'm really sorry to bother you."

"You're called 'Miss,' that doesn't sound nice. Let's use a different term."

"Then, Sister Xie?"

"Call me 'sister'? How old are you?"

Upon hearing this, Ji Yi first touched his face to confirm that he still had that handsome face like Daniel Wu, and then said frankly, "26 years old."

"Yes, you should call me 'older sister' then. I'm 27 this year."

Hmm. What do you mean? Do I look old?

Ji Yi felt an inexplicable shock to her heart!

"Is your right foot injured?" Xie Ping asked.

"Yes, I was going down a small path from the highway that day, and I accidentally tripped and fell."

"Okay, come to this room, I'll apply the medicine for you."

As she spoke, Xie Ping walked to the side, pushed open the wooden door, and stepped over the high threshold.

Ji Yi then left and followed, and just as An An was about to come in to see what was going on, a scolding voice came from the inner room: "An An, go back to sleep, don't you know what time it is?"

"Oh"

An'an immediately wilted and walked towards the other side of the main hall.

Ji Yi, dragging her injured foot, struggled to cross the threshold and enter another bedroom.

"Sister Xie, if I may ask a question, what year is it now?"

Xie Ping looked at Ji Yi speechlessly upon hearing this: "Are you trying to say you're a time traveler?"

“No.” Ji Yi glanced at the old 2008 calendar on the wall.

Xie Ping gave an "I see" look and smiled helplessly: "2025."

After saying that, she added:
"Are you stupid?"

Ji Yi: "."

Who could guess that?

"Sit down, let me take a look at the wound." Xie Ping said, and quickly took out some bottles and jars from a wooden cabinet, including iodine, cotton swabs, and spray for sprains and bruises.

Upon hearing this, Ji Yi sat down on the edge of the bed.

Ouch, this lousy bed is even uncomfortable on my butt.

"Tsk, it's swollen so badly."

When Ji Yi untied the strips of cloth from her clothes, Xie Ping frowned deeply at the sight.

"Applying the medicine might hurt a little, please bear with it."

"Holy crap!"

That really hurts!

Ji Yi gritted her teeth, forcing herself not to shout any further.

A few minutes later, the medicine was finally applied. Xie Ping put away the bottles and jars, saying:
"Don't blame me for being ruthless. Although the injury is serious, you'd better leave the village first thing tomorrow morning."

Upon hearing this, Ji Yi seemed to have grasped the key information and immediately asked, "Why?"

"Don't ask too many questions. The less outsiders know, the better. I'm doing this for your own good. Remember, don't ask anything and don't listen to anything. If you encounter villagers talking to you when you leave tomorrow, ignore them and run away as fast as you can."

"hiss"

The secrets of this hidden village don't seem so easy to ask.

But Ji Yi guessed that he probably wouldn't leave so easily and would eventually have to solve the problem in this village.

While she was thinking, Xie Ping had already packed her things quickly, walked out of the bedroom, and pulled the light cord, plunging the room into darkness.

It seems we won't get any information tonight.

Then we can only wait and see tomorrow.

As the pain in his feet subsided, a wave of drowsiness washed over him. According to the opening CG, this body, which had run away from home, had walked dozens of kilometers and should indeed be very tired.

Slowly, Ji Yi drifted off to sleep.

Player "Ji Yi" (LV.20) has died.

[Job Change Quest Failed]

[Preparing to delete character data]

[Your Second Life timeline has ended; you are returning.]

When Ji Yi opened her eyes, her consciousness suddenly broadened.

The high level of mental strength he hadn't experienced in a long time allowed him to instantly see the things around him clearly and understand his current situation.

He returned to the hotel, back to the point in time after Pian summoned the demon.

"Hey, Brother Ji, did you succeed? By the way, what happened to you?"

Pian's voice came through, and Ji Yi knew what he was talking about. This was a side effect of overusing [mutated flesh and blood], but he still casually replied without taking it seriously:

"It's already a success. As for what I look like now, I'll change my appearance once my [Disguise] cooldown is over. It's a minor issue."

After saying that, he looked at his occupation column.

[Class 1: Card Master]

[Career Two: Successor to the Evil God]

Recalling the job change quest instance she had just completed, Ji Yi began to ponder:
'By the way, did I almost die just now?'

(End of this chapter)