The final gentleman

【4】

Standard Arabic numerals, carved on the stone arches.

The hollow, printed iron gate with spikes on the top was slowly pushed open.

There is a wooden cart, shovel, hemp rope and sacks on the side of the door for repairing, changing or leveling the cemetery.

Yi Chen also put the ax and kerosene lamp on the cart.

Huh~ take a deep breath,

Pushing the wooden cart,

As the cart's rollers pressed into the cemetery soil, there was no expected danger.

Yi Chen also looked around when he stepped into Cemetery No. 4.

At a rough glance,

I haven’t found any ‘monsters’ wandering here,

There's nothing weird about it,

Compared with other cemeteries, this place feels "fair".

Suitable temperature and humidity,

Hard soil with few weeds,

The proportions of open space, graves and vegetation are also just right.

but,

There are two special points worth noting.

1. The vegetation here, especially the trees distributed on the edges, give people a feeling of withering and about to break at any time...The leaves are also falling off in pieces, unlike other cemeteries that are as leafy as other cemeteries.

2. There are more than 60 graves here, which is more than other cemeteries.

Moreover, there is no ‘uniformity’ in the styles of tombstones, and there are all kinds of tombstones.

Stone, wood and even metal,

Rectangle, arch, cross,

It's as messy as a mass grave.

Yi Chen pushed the wooden cart between the cemeteries.

After carefully observing every area he passed, and further confirming that there was no 'foreign object', his tense heartstrings relaxed slightly.

Immediately afterwards,

Call up the 'original distribution map' in your brain, compare it with the cemetery in front of you, and try to find the difference in quantity and order.

After all, I have an engineering background.

He was quite good at this kind of 'finding differences', and he soon got the answer, an answer that made Yi Chen shudder.

【One more grave】

This extra tomb is located deeper,

A cross-shaped metal tombstone is inserted into the ground.

The raised height of the tomb is consistent with the surrounding area.

Looking at the extra grave, Yi Chen thought:

"According to the rules, the extra graves need to be completely leveled.

If there is a body buried inside,

According to Rule V, it should be possible to transfer to Cemetery No. 7, which is dedicated to unknown corpses.

However... things are certainly not that simple, otherwise the original owner of this body would not have chosen to commit suicide and must proceed with caution. 』

After confirming that there is nothing unusual around, start work.

Didn't attack the metal cross,

In his view, this symbol of the sacred cross may be able to suppress evil spirits.

He picked up the shovel on the cart and pointed it at the raised mound of soil...Crack!

When he was in the orphanage, he often helped with a lot of farm work in the backyard, and he was pretty good at using a shovel.

Dang!

Until a loud metal collision sound came,

Under the flame of a kerosene lamp, part of the coffin lid was revealed.

"Metal coffin?"

Shovel away the surface soil,

The dark six-sided coffin lid tightly sealed the coffin body, and there was no sign of the coffin being opened.

Now that I have made up my mind to solve the problem and clean up the mess,

Facing the metal coffin in front of him, Yi Chen immediately found an effective fulcrum.

Try knocking,

Ga!

The sound of the coffin lid being pried open was like a sharp thorn, instantly piercing the curtain of silence in the cemetery.

The fire from the kerosene lamp couldn't wait to squeeze into it, showing the specific situation inside the coffin.

"This is……"

A naked adult male corpse,

His skin was completely green, with marble-like lines formed by rotten blood vessels and covered with corpse spots... and was also covered with a large amount of bryophytes.

The beads between the eyes are long gone, replaced by colonies of fungi.

These slightly squirming fungi resemble the compound eyes of insects.

“Moss, fungi?

How could these things grow in this completely sealed metal coffin? "

While doubtful,

Yi Chen noticed another additional detail.

The corpse was laid flat between the palms of both sides,

Nails fall off,

On the surface of the nail flesh, slender roots actually grew, extending to the bottom of the coffin.

It gives people the feeling of being 'glued' to the bottom of the coffin.

An indescribable strange feeling grew in Yi Chen's heart, even stimulating the emergence of fear. He gave up the idea of ​​'transporting the corpse',

He grabbed the kerosene lamp and tried to throw it into it,

Give this weird corpse an 'on-site cremation',

The idea has been formed, and the right hand also makes a downward throwing motion...

However,

Just when the kerosene lamp was about to be released,

The image of the lighthouse leading the way flashed through my mind,

The intuition in his brain told Yi Chen that the kerosene lamp, which was the only light source in the cemetery, must not be destroyed.

Yi Chen, who was born in an engineering field, attaches great importance to and understands the meaning of intuition.

【intuition】

It is the result of the brain, under certain opportunities, super-quickly collecting environmental factors, integrating all memory data, including subconscious data, and comprehensively analyzing them.

Because self-awareness cannot keep up with the process, it feels like it comes out of nowhere.

Some people don't take it seriously,

However, it is often a correct and valid analysis result.

This intuition kept the kerosene lamp in his hand instead of throwing it away.

“The only source of light…I can’t yet determine what the real ‘danger’ is.

If there is a problem in the entire cemetery, once I lose the light source, I may be swallowed up by the darkness here instantly.

Let's just follow the original idea and transfer the body. "

Yi Chen slapped his cheek with his hand to improve his concentration.

Pick up the shovel again,

Stick to the coffin wall and reach into it,

Try to pry the body up and change it to a [sitting position]... This way, it will be easier to move the entire body out.

However,

Something even weirder happened,

The prying process was extremely difficult, and it was with great difficulty that the body was lifted within two fingers.

Through the pried gap,

Yi Chen saw a strange scene that he would never forget...

There were densely packed roots of different thicknesses growing on the back of the corpse.

These roots have already penetrated the bottom of the coffin and penetrated deep.

pulsating,

sucking,

Extracting,

Nutrients from the ground.

This horrifying scene immediately reminded Yi Chen of the withered and dilapidated trees in Cemetery No. 4.

"This guy is sucking the 'life' out of the cemetery!"

At the same moment,

A familiar warning sound came from outside the cemetery.

§careful§

This voice is exactly the same as the voice of thanks heard before in Cemetery No. 6, and it is highly recognizable.

Due to the high concentration of spirit,

The sudden warning sound prompted Yi Chen to roll backwards instinctively, opening a distance of about one meter.

Where he just stood, rotten vines appeared on the ground... If he hadn't rolled away, he might have been entangled in his feet and dragged into the coffin.

Immediately afterwards,

Gajigaji~

With the support of roots,

The corpse among the coffins stood up,

Roots rooted in the ground were pulled out one after another, ranging in length from 30cm to 100cm, swaying on the back.

The mushrooms in the corpse's eye sockets gathered together to form a shape similar to eyes.

Looking directly into Yi Chen's eyes.

between looking at each other,

Yi Chen immediately understood why the owner of this body - [William Behrens] did not want to fight to the death, but committed suicide.

The pain of dying from drinking poison is indeed much more comfortable than being killed by a monster, or even being sucked out of the body's nutrients and eaten alive.

≮It’s impossible to beat≯

If it were just a zombie in a science fiction movie, Yi Chen thought he could still fight it head on.

But the living corpse in front of me,

Far beyond his understanding,

Facing such an unknown individual, if you step forward recklessly... you may be instantly killed in the next second.

run!

Without any hesitation,

The kerosene lamp was hung on the leather buckle at the waist, and he ran away.

I also imagined the best roundabout route in my mind.

"We must take time to make detours and observations to figure out some of its characteristics...can't rush!" Calm down and maintain a normal breathing rate! 』

Just when he was about to slip out of Cemetery No. 4,

Bang!

Without warning,

The iron gate, about three meters high, slammed shut.

Yi Chen, who was sprinting, kicked the iron door violently... Dang!

The closed door didn't move at all, completely sealing it inside.

Staring at the iron chain wrapped around the door at some point,

Yi Chen couldn't help but burst out a mouthful of Chinese quintessence.

The work has been signed, we need sacrifices, we need sacrifices, we need sacrifices~

Thanks to the book friend [my favorite novel (CS)] for offering the alliance leader sacrifice