The skeleton is too invincible; I leveled up with the school beauty!

"Come on up! I'll show you!"

The driver pounded on the car door with a boastful air, "Other people's legs would turn to jelly at the sight of these things, but I'm not afraid!"

"My wife is a Level D psychic! We own that 'Paradise of Rebirth' funeral parlor in the west of the city!"

"I even keep three ghouls as pets!"

"I just got them pet licenses last week, and every weekend I take them for a walk in Central Park. The number of people turning their heads to look at them is incredible!"

He shoved his phone in front of Su Wanqing's face, almost touching the screen to her nose, as if showing off. "Look, these are their ID photos. What do you think? Aren't they adorable?"

Su Wanqing resisted the urge to back away and took the phone. Three pairs of scarlet eyes were staring straight at her on the screen, their sharp fangs gleaming coldly under the flash.

Her fingers trembled involuntarily, but she still managed to force a smile that looked worse than a grimace: "Yes...it is quite cute."

Good heavens, this world is so crazy that she wants to buy a one-way ticket and escape from Earth right now.

"Hey, Skeleton Guy!"

The driver suddenly turned his head. "Your bones are in really good shape. What brand of bone wax do you use? My ghoul has been shedding bone meal lately, like it's snowing. It's driving me crazy..."

The question was asked so naturally, as if we were discussing car waxing.

The most complete sign of the world's collapse is that absurdity becomes the norm.

Bone wax?

maintainance?

Xu Nuo looked down at his bare skeleton, his soul fire momentarily stunned!

The soul of the transmigrator probably echoed within his skull at that moment:

Why the hell do I, a transmigrator with a built-in system, need to know about skeleton cosmetology?!

This question is as absurd as asking what brand of gills a fish uses to breathe!

I'm a time traveler, you're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?

Xu Nuo spread his hands, looking bewildered, indicating that he didn't know either.

This movement caused his wrist bones to make a slight clicking sound.

Well, in the language system of undead creatures, this is probably equivalent to a dry cough that comes out when a human is extremely embarrassed and wants to say something but can't.

If skeletons could sweat, he'd be covered in black lines right now.

Seeing this, the driver grinned again: "Hey, don't be so formal, let's just have a chat. My wife always says that undead creatures are a form of life, why should they be discriminated against?"

Xu Nuo curiously peered out the car window at the scenery on both sides of the street.

The world outside the window was even crazier than he had imagined.

The towering skyscrapers were covered with vine-like, mutated plants, and several workers in protective suits were cleaning them with flamethrowers.

A roadside vendor was hawking his wares: "Fresh minotaur ears, soak in alcohol for virility! Longevity! A cure for erectile dysfunction!"

On the stall, several huge, furry ears, still bloodshot, were piled together.

Occasionally, a few two-headed eagles would fly across the sky.

"The world has actually changed a long time ago."

Su Wanqing explained to Xu Nuo in a low voice, "Ever since the game merged with reality, the monsters in various dungeons have been like Pandora's box, pouring into our world in an endless stream..."

Her slender finger pointed to a sewer opening outside the car window, which had been fitted with a thick metal grille. "Look at those places... they've all been fitted with special protective netting, just to prevent those elusive goblins from crawling out at night and hurting people..."

Xu Nuo nodded, his soul fire flickering slightly.

He noticed something wriggling in the shadows at the street corner. "Oh, that's a shadow worm,"

The driver glanced in the direction of his gaze and explained, "F-grade trash likes to hide in gutters and garbage dumps. But don't worry, the city hall has hired special 'cleaners' who spray these corners every day with a spray mixed with holy water, like spraying cockroach bait."

The car drove across a large bridge, and the river water below had an eerie green hue.

Several people dressed in tattered black robes, their faces obscured, stood on the stinking bank, forming an eerie circle, chanting obscure and incomprehensible incantations in a low voice.

Around them, several wisps of eerie blue, chilling will-o'-the-wisps floated silently, like loyal guardians.

"Those charlatans from the Undead Association,"

The driver scoffed, seemingly unfazed. "They're summoning water ghosts to clean up the pollutants in the river again. Last month, I don't know which sewer wasn't properly closed, but a mutated fish-man crawled out. It was ferocious! It bit three people who were jogging in the morning, almost tearing their intestines out!"

The driver suddenly swerved to avoid a huge, slowly moving object in the middle of the road.

It was a giant made of rough rock, more than three meters tall!

It had a conspicuous yellow name tag on its chest: [Employee No. 013 of Luolong City Sanitation Bureau].

He was also carrying an extra-large metal trash picker, slowly and clumsily trying to pick up a stinking lump of what looked like the excrement of some kind of large monster from the roadside.

"Fuck you, Stone Man!"

The driver kept honking the horn, sticking his head out of the car window and cursing, "The city hall employs more than twenty of these things as cleaners, and they just wander the streets with taxpayers' money. I'm going to complain to the city hall sooner or later!" Su Wanqing smiled helplessly and sighed, "This is the world now... Ordinary people either adapt or go crazy."

Her smile held a weary sense of resignation.

In a crazy world, lucidity is the most luxurious form of mental illness.

The driver glanced at them in the rearview mirror, then suddenly grinned: "But don't worry, buddy, in the eyes of us worldly people, you're just an ordinary little skeleton!"

He patted the steering wheel. "My wife always says that skeletons are much easier to deal with than ghouls..."

Xu Nuo: "..."

If skeletons could roll their eyes, their eye sockets would have rolled all the way to the back of their heads by now.

Who wants to compare themselves to ghouls!

The soul from another world roared inwardly. But he soon realized that in this crumbling world, for his skeletal frame to be compared to a ghoul was actually a form of...acceptance?

.....

The corridor of Luolong Hospital.

The smell of disinfectant was so strong it made my nose sting.

In this world where games and reality merge, hospitals are no longer sacred places for saving lives, but rather the most realistic microcosm of this broken world.

In the hospital wards for the poor... even the air is charged by the milliliter!

Su Wanqing's steps slowed down, her fingers unconsciously clenching the hem of her clothes until her knuckles turned white.

Suddenly, a cold, hard bone hand gently tugged at her sleeve.

"What's wrong?"

She snapped back to reality, her voice filled with undisguised exhaustion and a barely perceptible tremor.

Xu Nuo's massive skeleton lowered slightly, carefully spreading out his enormous bone claws.

In the center of my palm lay a small, pitiful flower...

The petals were withered and curled up, their edges scorched and curled, as if they had been overexposed to the scorching sun and lost all their moisture, or as if they had been roughly picked. On the slender flower stem, there were still a few dark brown specks of mud, smelling of earth.

"For...me?"

Su Wanqing was completely stunned. Her eyes widened slightly, and deep in her pupils was the flower that looked particularly small and fragile against the backdrop of the huge bone palm.

An indescribable sour and astringent feeling suddenly rushed into my nasal cavity!

Xu Nuo nodded and awkwardly handed the flowers forward.

Sunlight streamed in from the window at the end of the corridor, casting dappled shadows on his stark white frame.

Su Wanqing stared blankly at the pitiful little flower, which seemed to be about to wither away completely at any moment.

She remembered the past, the days when her mother's condition wasn't so bad.

Every weekend, she would take her mother's arm and go together to the small flower shop near the hospital, which was always filled with a faint fragrance of flowers.

They would carefully select the cheapest carnations or daisies and put them in a clean glass bottle on the windowsill of the hospital room.

Those tiny flowers are the only bright spots in the pale hospital ward; they are the little bit of life that these women secretly preserved for themselves as they fight against their illness.

But... ever since Mom's condition took a sharp turn for the worse, the exorbitant medical expenses have been like a bottomless pit, swallowing up everything they already had.

How long has it been since she... had the inclination, and the spare money, to buy even the cheapest flower?

In the ward, all that remained were cold instruments, the pungent smell of medicine, and boundless despair.

"Where did you find this?"

She asked softly, reaching out to take the flowers, her fingertips touching Xu Nuo's knuckles, which felt cool.

The enormous skull tilted slightly, the soul fire flickering in its eye sockets pointing towards the window at the end of the corridor, emitting a dim yellow light.

Then, clumsily, he bent down, reached out, and gently picked it up.

The skeleton made a soft but clear "click" sound in the quiet corridor.

Su Wanqing followed his gaze to the window, and instantly understood. Her dry lips managed a barely perceptible upward curve: "It's...that...small flowerbed at the hospital entrance?"

She knew that little flower bed all too well; it was filled with tenacious wildflowers and weeds, but it had been neglected for years and was now a dull gray.

Xu nodded vigorously.

He sighed inwardly, feeling a little helpless: If only I could talk... gesturing is too much of a hassle... But he knows how to deliver flowers!

When visiting a sick person, it's customary to bring something to express your feelings; it's a rule of human society. Even though he's just a skeleton now, he understands social etiquette...

He's a meticulous...emmm, skeleton!

"Thank you, Xu Nuo."

Su Wanqing's voice was soft, but sincere.

With utmost care, she pinned the little flower to the breast pocket of her school uniform. The withered, earthy, pale purple petals, set against her deathly pale face, unexpectedly... revealed a heartbreaking, stubborn tenderness.

As Xu Nuo watched her put on the flower, his soul fire suddenly brightened a bit.

He gestured somewhat awkwardly, his huge bone hand waving in the air as if trying to express the simple truth that "you should bring a gift when visiting a sick person."

As Su Wanqing watched him trying so hard to express himself, the heavy, bitter feeling in her heart seemed to be gently stirred by something.

A faint yet real warmth quietly swept by.

She couldn't help but let the slight curve of her lips deepen a little, a tired yet genuine smile: "Xu Nuo... you really are... strangely special... a skeleton."

.....

The nurses' station at the end of the corridor.

Upon seeing Su Wanqing's arrival, several nurses peeked over.

His eyes were filled with undisguised, naked curiosity, scrutiny, and... a condescending disdain.

They deliberately amplified their whispers, as if afraid Su Wanqing wouldn't hear them.

"Look, look! That poor girl from 307 is here! And behind her... oh my god! It's a skeleton! A bare, white skeleton! It even makes a cracking sound when it walks! It's terrifying!"

"Tsk, it's her! Su Wanqing! I heard her father died young, and her mother is always on medication, they're dirt poor! And now she has this scary thing around her... What bad luck!"

"Keep your voice down! What are you afraid of! She's not going to eat us! But... hehe, just wait and see, that bed in 307... there's going to be a 'good show' today..."

"Exactly! Let's see how long she can be so smug! Parading around with a skeleton, does she really think she's someone important? She'll be crying her eyes out soon enough!"

Su Wanqing pushed open the door to ward 307.

Eight metal bunk beds were crammed into the small room, and the smell of disinfectant was even stronger.