Chapter 1

When Li Ang opened his eyes again, he found himself sitting cross-legged on the floor of a rural assembly hall, holding a deck of cards in his hand, with three simply dressed villagers sitting in front of him.

At the same time, information about the mission flowed through his mind.

According to the system's explanation, script missions transported players to independent timelines, where they had to play a certain role and complete the tasks issued by the system.

During this process, players could wear equipment, use items, and unleash extraordinary powers. Most bizarre behaviors wouldn't cause "confusion" among the native residents, though going too far would still cause trouble.

In this mission, Li Ang was playing a young villager named Feng Tiechui from Hidden Mountain Village.

Hidden Mountain Village was located deep in the mountains. Remote, poor, backward, isolated, ignorant—these had always been the labels of this small mountain village.

While the outside world developed rapidly and technology advanced with each passing day, the isolated Hidden Mountain Village remained in a state of undisturbed silence until the road leading out of the mountains was paved. The information torrent of the outside world finally broke through the barrier, bringing a glimmer of life to Hidden Mountain Village.

But in the memories of some middle-aged and elderly villagers, the fear of famine, the dread of hunger, remained vivid and palpable.

The mission briefing ended there. Li Ang unhurriedly surveyed the rural assembly hall before him.

The interior of the building was quite large. The triangular roof was pieced together entirely of logs, and it was two stories high. The floor was covered with pitted and uneven concrete tiles.

Combined with the cracked gray walls and the handmade wooden chairs stacked on both sides of the assembly hall, with peeling paint,

it could be inferred that the assembly hall was at least forty or fifty years old.

During the era of the rural people's commune, this assembly hall was used for meetings of the production brigade and for the construction of the commune.

But when the rural commune no longer adapted to the times, the utilization rate of the assembly hall also plummeted. Now it was either used to hold village committee elections, or for opera troupes to perform, or... like now, to hold a wake...

On the innermost left side of the assembly hall was written "崇学向善" (Cherish Learning and Virtue), and on the right was written "务实守信" (Be Pragmatic and Trustworthy). In the middle was a one-person-high platform, on which was placed a blackish-gray wooden coffin.

It was night, and the doors of the assembly hall were open, allowing a view of the stars in the night sky.

A cool night breeze blew in from outside the door, stirring the incandescent lamp hanging from the dome of the assembly hall. The shifting light illuminated the gray coffin on the platform.

The four villagers, including Li Ang, were sitting in a cross shape on the floor near the door of the assembly hall, with a few old newspapers under their butts. A pile of playing cards was stacked on the newspapers in the center of the four.

"Two tens."

"Two jacks."

"Two kings."

The card game proceeded in a dull atmosphere. The four weren't playing cards for entertainment, but to endure this unbearable night spent with a solitary coffin.

The villager A sitting directly opposite Li Ang casually said, "That bastard Feng Tiegen, leaving his old lady lying here and making us keep watch, while he takes his wife to the county town."

Villager B said, "Don't say that. Isn't he going to the county town to get that 'Certificate of Death and Funeral'?"

"Certificate my ass!" Villager A sneered, "He killed his own mother, and he still has the nerve?"

The faces of Villager B and Villager C both changed, and they glanced stiffly at the coffin in the depths of the assembly hall, whispering, "Don't talk nonsense!"

"Nonsense? Did I say something wrong?" Villager A said indifferently, "When he was a child, his mother practically raised him with her own spit and drool. When the whole village was about to gnaw on tree bark, she didn't let him go hungry."

"But what did he do? Ever since he married that wife, they built a small Western-style house, but he wouldn't spend money to treat his mother's illness."

"So what if it was cancer? If you can't afford treatment, you can't afford it, but it would be fine to take her home and take good care of her, but Feng Tiegen and his wife嫌 (xian - disliked/grudged) taking care of their seriously ill mother, and locked her in the cowshed in the backyard! They even locked the cowshed!"

"How could anyone be so poisonous? His mother was trapped in the

cowshed, with no one to care for her, and nothing to eat or drink. How did she die in the end? She starved to death!"

"When they dragged her out of the cowshed, her mouth was still full of cotton and a bag of indigestible instant noodle seasoning! She didn't have any teeth, and she was so hungry that she wanted to eat the seasoning packet, but she couldn't even tear open the plastic bag!"

Speaking of this, Villager A trembled with anger, while Villager B and C lowered their faces, silent.

Feng Tiegen's actions would certainly be nailed to the pillar of shame, forever subjected to the accusations of the villagers of Hidden Mountain Village, but for scum, face had always been dispensable.

Li Ang, who was facing away from the coffin, was thoughtful. According to the mission description, the zombie to be eliminated was probably the old lady in the coffin who had been starved to death by her own son.

But the mission also stated that it was necessary to eliminate the "僵尸" (jiangshi - zombie) and not the "死尸" (sishi - corpse), which meant that it was necessary to wait for the corpse to revive in order to meet the mission requirements—if he acted too early, it might trigger premature corpse fraud or other terrible consequences.

In the eyes of Villagers A, B, and C, Li Ang, playing an ordinary villager, was wearing simple clothes, but in reality, he was fully armed and ready to carry out solo operations at any time.

The argument just now made the already oppressive assembly hall even more silent. The four people assigned by the village to keep watch continued their card game round after round.

Suddenly, an almost imperceptible "crack" sounded in the assembly hall, merging with the sound of the night wind blowing through the leaves outside the building.

The villager A sitting directly opposite Li Ang was holding two cards, about to play them, but his face suddenly changed. The cards he held in the air trembled slightly, and his eyes were filled with panic.

In his line of sight, the coffin lid of the coffin on the inner side of the assembly hall was slowly opening. A thin arm covered with pale fur slowly stretched out from under the wooden planks and gripped the coffin lid.

The coffin lid made of wood was quite heavy, but in the white-haired arm, it seemed as light as a feather.

The white-haired arm slowly, stiffly, and steadily, and lightly placed the coffin lid on the ground beside it. The whole process did not make a sound, terrifyingly silent.

A cold current instantly ran down Villager A's spine. He made an unclear "嗬嗬嗬" (he he he) sound from his throat, staring ahead, his eyes wide with fear.

The already blackened corpse of the old lady slowly stood up in the coffin, like a broken chopstick.

Her body was covered with inch-long white hair, and her shriveled, empty eye sockets stared blankly at the four people playing cards in front of her.

Villager A, as if electrocuted, threw down the cards in panic and said, "I... I'm going outside to use the restroom. Are you coming?"

"What are you going outside for? It's cold. Just find a bucket to take care of it," Villager B said, puzzled. The four sat in a cross shape, and from his position, he couldn't see the changes on the corpse.

"I'm afraid of the dark! Come with me!" Villager A roared in a low voice.

Villager C curled his lips, "No, go yourself."

Villager A bit his teeth, turned around, ran out of the assembly hall, and ran towards the flickering lights of the village.