Steam Old Days: The Extraordinary Begins with a Corpse Collector

"Who are you?!"

The cloaked man was startled. He quickly dropped the shovel in his hand and then pulled a short-barreled shotgun from under his cloak.

The dark muzzle of the gun was pointed at Lyndon. Upon seeing this, Lyndon paused, grinned, took his hands off the spear, and then raised his hands.

"Hey, look at you! Why didn't you take out the gun sooner?"

Lyndon said with considerable annoyance, "If I had known that, I would have thrown the spear first."

"Stop talking nonsense!"

The cloaked man's eyes were bloodshot; he had no mood to joke around with Lyndon.

He held his gun and gestured for Lyndon to stay away from the strange spear.

Linden did as he was told, moving a few steps to the side.

"Stop!" the cloaked figure shouted. "Right there, don't move."

As he spoke, the cloaked man climbed out of the pit. He walked up to Lyndon with his gun in hand, touched Lyndon's body, and only after confirming that he had no other weapons did the cloaked man put the gun down with peace of mind.

The cloaked man pulled aside Lyndon's left sleeve and couldn't help but sneer when he saw the silver runes on his wrist.

"So you were just a lackey of the church. Didn't expect to fall for my tricks! Hahaha!"

The cloaked man's mocking laughter echoed across the desolate wasteland.

Lyndon, however, remained expressionless. He simply stared at the cloaked figure as if he were looking at a tree or a blade of grass, not a living person with a gun.

"You bastard, your eyes are so annoying!"

Enraged by Lyndon's empty gaze, the cloaked man punched Lyndon in the face.

The force of the punch swept past, and Lyndon took a heavy blow to the side of his face.

His face was tilted to one side, and a drop of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

Lyndon pressed his tongue against his cheek.

Suddenly, he smiled.

Lyndon turned back to look at the cloaked man: "He's got a really bad temper. Be careful, it might hurt his liver."

"Enough nonsense." The cloaked man pressed the gun barrel against Lyndon's forehead. "You said you moved the body. Where did you move it? Tell me now! Or I'll shoot you dead!"

The cloaked man gripped his gun even tighter.

"Don't think that just because you're a superhuman, I can't handle you. Let me tell you, I am too! And my gun is loaded with silver bullets!"

Faced with the cloaked man's threat, Lyndon pouted mischievously.

"That's really terrible."

Then, Lyndon's Adam's apple bobbed, and his voice became somewhat muffled.

"So where did you get that snickering ghost? How did you control it? And what was your purpose in controlling it?"

"Shut up, you bastard!" the cloaked man cursed.

"Get your facts straight! I'm holding a gun to your head! Answer my questions, and stop asking irrelevant questions!"

But Lyndon remained unfazed and even said something strange to the cloaked man.

"If I were you, I would have shot the moment I came out."

After saying that, Lyndon spat the blood in his mouth onto the cloaked man's face.

"Ugh! That's disgusting. You bastard!"

The cloaked man's eyes were stung by blood, and he wiped his face.

He was completely enraged by Lyndon's actions.

He picked up his gun and pulled the trigger at Lyndon.

But the next moment, the cloaked man suddenly rubbed his eyes and howled in pain.

Instantly, tears of blood streamed from the cloaked figure's eyes.

It seemed as if something had gotten into his eye.

It felt like being devoured by a swarm of starving ants; the pain was unbearable.

The cloaked man screamed and dropped his short-barreled shotgun, rubbing his eyelids incessantly.

Lyndon calmly looked at the cloaked man lying on the ground, then bent down and picked up the hunting rifle from the ground.

"Alright, Little Dirty, don't kill him. I still have a use for him."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a pool of filthy blood crawled out of the cloaked man's eyeballs.

The Blood Elf leaped onto Lyndon's body, climbed back onto his wrist, and transformed back into the bracelet.

It turned out that, just in case, Lyndon had the Blood Elf hide in his throat beforehand.

The cloaked man removed his hands from his eyes, which had been completely devoured by the Blood Elves, leaving empty sockets.

He lay on the ground, his hands groping haphazardly for the hunting rifle.

Suddenly, the cloaked figure touched a shoe.

He looked up, though he couldn't see anything at all.

Lyndon raised his foot and stepped on the cloaked man's hand.

The rough soles of the shoes and the rough ground gripped the cloaked man's hands tightly.

Lyndon ground the cloaked man's hand with the sole of his shoe, mocking, "Is this all you've got? You dare call yourself a superhuman?"

As he spoke, he increased the pressure on his feet.

Lyndon asked coldly, "Now answer my question: where did you get that snicker from?"

"I will never tell you!" The cloaked man remained defiant, refusing to reveal a single piece of information to Lyndon.

Without hesitation, Lyndon raised his gun and pulled the trigger toward the cloaked man's left leg.

boom!

The silver bullet pierced the cloaked man's knee.

Blood splattered.

"ah!!!"

The cloaked man immediately curled up in pain.

He was breathing heavily, and the back of his neck was covered in sweat.

"Where do you think I'll fire my next shot?" Lyndon said. "If you don't want to die, you'll have to tell me something. Hurry up, I don't have much patience."

As Lyndon threatened, the fear of death spread through the cloaked man's heart.

He knew that the madman in front of him really would kill him.

In order to survive, the cloaked man had no choice but to tell Lyndon what he knew.

"The snickerer, no, it's not mine."

"Whose is it?"

"It's the guild leader's." The cloaked man took a deep breath, his fingers digging tightly into the mud. "I'm just a nobody; I usually just bring them out to find food."

"Them?" Lyndon paused, "So there's more than one Snickerer?"

"Hmm! The guild leader ordered eight Laughing Ghosts from a merchant. They can be controlled with two rings, one large and one small. The large ring is with the guild leader, and I'll keep the small one."

"Today, I came looking for a snickering ghost because it hadn't returned yet, and then I heard that it had been killed."

"And who is the president?" Lyndon asked.

"He is our leader."

"What leader?"

"The leader of the Dream Weavers," the cloaked figure said truthfully.

"The Dream Weavers?" Lyndon muttered the name to himself. "What kind of organization is that?"

The cloaked man told Lyndon that the Dreamweavers were a church organized by a group of people who believed in the god of sleep.

The so-called "God of Sleep" involves the history before the founding of the United Kingdom of the Three Islands.

Six hundred years ago, Mishima was under the rule of the Triumph Rus' Empire, and the gods that people worshipped at that time were all sorts of strange and wonderful.

Later, the Triumph Ross Empire collapsed, and the entire continent of Veroria was engulfed in war.

Various forces rose up and fought frantically for control of the city.

Mishima was no exception.

Starting in the northern island, Augustus I rose up in rebellion.

With the slogan "Under the blazing sun, all people are united," he swept away all rivals and unified the three islands in just ten years.

He then personally led the navy to capture four major port cities of the Kelus Empire on the continent of Veroria, laying a solid foundation for communication between the three islands and the mainland.

After doing all this, Augustus I was crowned emperor in the place where he started his rebellion, which is now the northern island of Fog City.

That year was the first year of the Holy Sun era of the Mishima United Kingdom.

After ascending the throne, Augustus I ordered the entire country to unify its belief in the six major gods and denounce all other gods as heretics.

The cloaked man is now referring to the god of sleep, which is an ancient god.

"So it seems these guys are a bunch of heretics," Lyndon thought.

He released his foot, grabbed the cloaked man's collar, and demanded sharply, "Then tell me, where is the ring that controls the Laughing Ghost?"

"It's not here with me. I can only encounter it when I'm commanding the Laughing Ghost. At other times, I can't get close at all!" the cloaked man said.

Lyndon had no choice but to give up after hearing this. Suddenly, he noticed the scar on the cloaked man's chest.

"You actually had the transplant surgery? What kind of ability does it have?" Lyndon asked curiously.

"They're just tougher and more resilient than the average person, and they go berserk when they fight. I don't have much of a status in the guild; I'm just someone who raises mutants."

After the cloaked man finished speaking, he prostrated himself on the ground, holding Lyndon's feet and begging him to spare his life.

"Good sir, that's all I know. We had an agreement, please let me go!"

Lyndon let out a breath. He hadn't expected that his attempt to catch the mastermind behind the Laughing Ghost incident would, by some twist of fate, also implicate a group of heretics.

However, these things have nothing to do with Lyndon.

Hearing the cloaked man's pleas, Lyndon laughed and said, "What did we agree on? What did we agree on?"

The cloaked man froze, unable to believe that Lyndon would go back on his word.

His hand trembled as he pointed at Lyndon: "You! You broke your promise!"

Linden chuckled upon hearing this: "I wonder if you understand philosophy and biology."

"Humans are actually made up of a bunch of cells, which are constantly dying and being generated, so the me a few minutes ago and the me now are not the same person."

As he spoke, a short knife appeared in Lyndon's hand.

"See, if I keep saying that, I'll become a completely different person again."

At that moment, a fierce glint flashed in Lyndon's eyes. He kicked the cloaked man into the pit and then jumped in after him.

He plunged the dagger into the cloaked man's chest and slashed downwards with force!

Stab it!

The cloaked man was disemboweled by Lyndon, who saw the glowing alien organ inside him.

Lyndon reached out and pulled it off.

He held the lump of meat high, chanting, "Daughter of the Azure Moon, Watcher of the Night! Seren Errazal..."

Lyndon imagined purifying the alien organs inside the cloaked man's body in the same way he purified the Laughing Ghost.

But just as Lyndon transferred his spiritual energy into the lump of flesh, a sudden change occurred, and Lyndon felt a burning pain in his palm.

Only after he threw the lump of meat on the ground did he realize that a large part of his palm had been corroded.

This is a sign of the ritual's failure.

This indicates that Lyndon mispronounced the purification spell.

But according to the cloaked man's description, his power should come from the Seren secret technique!

Lyndon angrily stomped the meat on the ground into crumbs.

[O Burial Master of the Past! It seems you've encountered difficulties. It's right to strive to quell the resentment of death, but you should be humble; perhaps you should learn more. Successfully removed the alien organ from the superhuman's body. Proficiency +10]

[Level Up, LV.4 → LV.5]

[A second class is currently available for unlocking]

As Lyndon listened to the whispers in his mind, the emotions he had felt due to the failed ritual vanished instantly.

"I feel great now."

Lyndon smiled as he placed the Bloodstained Elf back on the cloaked man's corpse.

"Eat up, eat more, and grow up quickly."

The Blood Elf lay on the cloaked man's corpse, greedily sucking his blood.

Before long, the cloaked man was drained of his flesh by the Blood Elves and turned into dried meat.

Lyndon recalled the Blood Elf and murmured, "Well done, you dug your own grave before you died."

Lyndon picked up a shovel and buried the body with soil.

After filling the hole back in, Lyndon patted it a few times to make the soil more compact.

The wilderness at night was eerily empty.

Even the moonlight tonight is not very bright.

After doing all this, Lyndon sat on the ground, waved his hand, and summoned the Book of Fate.

Name: Lyndon Copperfield

[Current Occupation: The Burialer of the Past LV.5 (0/500)]

[Existing Secret Techniques: Mad Body (Passive), Corpse Collection Technique (Active), Chaotic Perception (Passive), Dream Weaving (Active), Frenzy Spear (Active)]

[Status: Tier 1 Earth Formation]

[Vassal: Blood Elf LV.2]

[Subordinate Skill: Parasite]

[Second job available? Yes/No]

Lyndon reached out and drew a big checkmark on the "yes" mark.

As Lyndon made his choice, the Book of Fate was turned once more.

Several lines of distorted and strange text appeared on the yellowed parchment.

[The craftsman: The sound of the hammer falling is a dialogue with the hidden world; we give form to the intangible.]

Herbalists: The blood of the earth flows in our roots and leaves; we are the spokespeople for plants.

Alchemists: We peer into the essence of matter in the crucible, and steal the secrets of the world in the vaporization.

Linden looked at the three paths, his mind filled with a myriad of thoughts.

"If I make good use of these three paths, they can all generate considerable income for me, but I should choose the path that best suits me right now, such as..."

Lyndon's fingertip landed on the entry for "Alchemist".

These days, Lyndon has witnessed too many wonders about the alchemy school.

He had to admit that the knowledge hidden behind transplant surgery, magic potions, or mechanical devices was priceless.

Not to mention the artificial alien in the steam pump station.

Lyndon had every reason to suspect that alchemists were behind it.

"So... let's do it this way!"

Lyndon made up his mind and then checked the box under the term "Alchemist".

[The second class unlocked is: Alchemist]

The other two professions vanished instantly, leaving only the words "Alchemist" on the book.

[Gain basic alchemy knowledge infusion]

[Gaining Basic Perception: Material Spirituality]

"Buzz!"

A surge of knowledge violently rushed into Lyndon's mind.

Instantly, countless logical symbols, material formulas, etheric knowledge, and runic patterns flooded Lyndon's mind.

The sheer volume of information exploded in Lyndon's mind, giving him a splitting headache.

Name: Lyndon Copperfield

Current Occupation: The Burialer of the Past LV.5 (0/500)

Alchemist LV.1 (0/100)

[Existing Secret Techniques: Mad Body (Passive), Corpse Collection Technique (Active), Chaotic Perception (Passive), Dream Weaving (Active), Spear of Fanaticism (Active), Material Spirituality (Active)]

[Status: Tier 1 Earth Formation]

[Vassal: Blood Elf LV.2]

[Subordinate Skill: Parasite]

[Learnable Secret Technique: Bone and Flesh Armor]

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

Lyndon braced himself with his hands on the ground, his back soaked with cold sweat.

The pale moonlight shone on Lyndon.

Several roosting birds flew overhead.

A night breeze blew, and Lyndon couldn't help but shiver.

When he had fully absorbed the knowledge in his mind, a slight smile appeared on Lyndon's lips.

"I feel great right now..."