When he opened his eyes again, Li Ang found himself sitting cross-legged on the floor of a large farming hall. He was holding a deck of playing cards, and three modestly dressed villagers sat in front of him.
At the same time, information about the mission flowed through his mind.
According to the System's explanation, the script mission would place the player in an independent spacetime continuum. There, they had to assume a certain role and complete the tasks issued by the System.
During this process, players could wear equipment, use items, and unleash supernatural powers. Most extraordinary behaviors wouldn't "confuse" the indigenous villagers. Of course, going overboard would still cause trouble.
In this mission, Li Ang was playing the role of a young villager from Hidden Mountain Village named Feng Tiechui.
Hidden Mountain Village was located deep in the mountains. Remote, poor, backward, isolated, and ignorant—these had always been the labels for this small mountain village.
While the outside world developed rapidly and technology progressed daily, the secluded Hidden Mountain Village maintained a profound silence. This lasted until the road leading out of the mountains was built. Then, the flood of information from the outside world finally broke through the barriers, bringing a glimmer of life to Hidden Mountain Village.
With that, the mission briefing concluded. Li Ang calmly examined the farming hall before him.
The building's interior was quite spacious. The triangular roof, two stories high, was entirely made of round logs, and the ground was covered with pitted concrete tiles. Considering the gray, crack-filled walls and the handcrafted wooden chairs with peeling, mottled paint stacked on both sides of the hall, it could be deduced that this hall had a history of at least forty to fifty years. In the middle of the hall stood a man-high platform, upon which lay a dark gray wooden coffin.
It was nighttime. The hall doors were open, revealing the stars in the night sky.
The chilly night wind blew in from outside, stirring the incandescent lamp hanging from the hall's ceiling. The flickering light accentuated the gray coffin on the platform.
The four villagers, including Li Ang, sat on the floor near the hall door in a cross shape. Their backsides were cushioned by a few old newspapers, and a heap of playing cards lay on the newspapers in their center.
"Two tens."
"Two jacks."
"Two kings."
The card game proceeded in a solemn atmosphere. The four individuals weren't playing for amusement but to endure the arduous night alongside the lone coffin.
Feng Tiejia, sitting directly across from Li Ang, said casually, "That bastard Feng Tiegen! His old mother is lying here, making us keep vigil all night while he himself goes off with his wife to the county town."
Feng Tieyi, sitting diagonally to Li Ang's left, said, "Don't say that. He also went to the county town to handle that 'Resident Death and Funeral Certificate' thing."
"Handle my ass!" Feng Tiejia retorted with a sneer. "He caused his own mother's death, and he still has the audacity to show his face?"
Villagers Feng Tieyi and Feng Tiebing both paled. They rigidly swept their gaze towards the coffin deep in the hall and whispered, "Don't talk nonsense!"
"Nonsense? Am I wrong?" Feng Tiejia said indifferently. "When he was a child, his mother painstakingly raised him, never letting him starve even when almost everyone in the village was reduced to eating tree bark."
"But look at him now. Ever since he married that wife of his, their new house was built, but he wouldn't spend money to treat his mother's illness."
As he spoke, Feng Tiejia trembled with fury. Feng Tieyi and Feng Tiebing's faces darkened, and they remained silent.
Feng Tiegen's behavior would inevitably be nailed to the pillar of shame, forever subjected to the scorn of the Hidden Mountain Village villagers. But for a scumbag like him, reputation had always been meaningless.
With his back to the coffin, Li Ang mused. According to the mission description, the zombie he needed to eliminate is probably the old lady in the coffin, starved to death by her own son. However, the mission specifically states that what needs to be eliminated is a "zombie," not a "corpse." This means I must wait until the dead body revives to meet the mission criteria—acting prematurely might trigger a feigned death or other grave consequences.
In the eyes of the three villagers, Li Ang—playing an ordinary villager—was dressed in simple clothing. In reality, however, he was fully armed, ready to engage in combat at any moment.
The earlier argument had made the already oppressive hall even more silent. The four men, appointed by the village for the night watch, continued their rounds of cards.
Suddenly, a nearly imperceptible CLICK sounded in the hall, blending with the sound of the night wind rustling the leaves outside.
Feng Tiejia, who was sitting opposite Li Ang and about to play two cards, suddenly froze. His expression changed, the cards in his hand trembled slightly, and panic filled his eyes.
In his line of sight, the lid of the coffin at the far end of the hall was slowly opening. A skinny arm, covered with long, pale hairs, reached out from beneath the wooden board, gripping the coffin lid.
The wooden coffin lid was quite thick, but in the grasp of the pale, hairy arm, it seemed as light as a feather.
The white-haired arm, moving slowly and rigidly yet deftly, lifted the coffin lid. It placed the lid quietly on the floor beside the coffin without making a single sound—an eerie silence.
An icy shiver ran down Feng Tiejia's spine. A strangled gasp escaped his throat as he stared ahead, his eyes wide enough to split.
The old lady's corpse, already blackened with decay, slowly stood up in the coffin, its movements as stiff and unnatural as broken chopsticks.
Her body, covered in white hairs an inch long, featured emaciated, hollow eye sockets that stared blankly at the four people playing cards before her.
Feng Tiejia, as if electrocuted, scrambled to his feet, dropping his cards. He blurted out, "I... I'm going outside to the bathroom! Anyone coming with me?"
"Why go outside? It's so cold. Just find a bucket and get it over with," Feng Tieyi said, puzzled. From his position in the cross formation, he couldn't see the changes to the corpse.
"I'm afraid of the dark! You guys come with me!" Feng Tiejia hissed, his voice low.
Feng Tiebing snorted. "No thanks. If you have to go, go by yourself."
Feng Tiejia clenched his teeth, turned, and fled the hall, running towards the flickering lights of the village.