Chapter 1: Graveyard Demon
[Welcome, ID#629SHD2S0FXC30, to Novice World 5QPRPZ222FT. World Difficulty: Tier One. World Background: Unknown.]
[Main Quest: Within ten days, find suitable materials to complete the graveyard’s first upgrade and activate your Talent (Graveyard Demon).
Failure Penalty: Supernatural Possession (death/devouring), weakened Talent Level, and you will never be able to level up again.]
"Damn liars!"
The pale gold system text slowly faded before his eyes. Before its afterglow vanished completely, Gu Su ground his molars and squeezed those two words from between his teeth, the rage in his chest threatening to burst from his throat.
He fought the urge to kick something and quickly scanned his surroundings, trying to get a clear look at his environment.
Normally, the scorching sun should have been high in the sky at noon. But before Gu Su was an oppressive gloom. The air was thick with the stench of damp earth and the musty smell of decay, and a sense of desolation washed over him.
He was standing in a clearing about the size of a basketball court. In the center stood a giant, dead tree, its bare, dark branches stretching toward the sky like twisted, demonic claws.
Next to the giant tree was an Old Tent. Its canvas was riddled with holes, and its edges were draped with some kind of unknown, dried vines. Outside the tent, a circle of stones formed a simple fire pit, but it held nothing more than blackened ash, without a single spark.
Gu Su’s gaze swept outward from the center. He saw six or seven freshly dug Empty Tombs scattered around the giant tree, the soil at the edges of the pits still glistening with moisture.
Three of the pits contained lidless wooden coffins, their surfaces mottled and faintly showing signs of insect-eaten holes. The rest were completely empty, without so much as a straw mat for a corpse, revealing only the cold, bare earth.
Further out, the edge of the clearing was enclosed by a Rotten Fence, long since decayed. Most of its wooden planks were broken, standing crookedly as if a single gust of wind could topple them.
Beyond the fence was a churning, grayish-white fog. It was as thick as undissolvable pus, slowly surging in the wind.
Vague black shadows could be seen flashing through the mist, as if an invisible, giant mouth was lying in wait, ready to devour him and this graveyard at any moment.
"This is insane!" Gu Su couldn’t help but snarl, his fists clenched so tight they cracked.
"Where’s the promised quarter-acre? This place is tiny! Scammers! A bunch of damn scammers!"
This was a bizarre world where games, reality, and the Otherworld intertwined.
In this world, all humans were born as game players. Everyone could activate a basic game system, but to enter the Otherworld to battle for greater power, one had to activate at least one of the four core types of Golden Fingers: Land, Method, Companion, or Wealth.
Those without a Golden Finger were trapped in the basic game for life, doing repetitive, tedious jobs like mining and hauling. They could never get past Level 1, becoming ’Game Workers’ who could barely make ends meet.
Because of this, the prices for items that could activate one of the four Golden Finger types were astronomical. Any remotely rare item would be snatched up the moment it hit the market, leaving no chance for ordinary people to even get a look.
Gu Su was a transmigrator, sent to this godforsaken world.
At first, he was thrilled that he could play a game with his actual body.
But it only took a few days for reality to beat him down. With no money and no family, he stood no chance against those born with their own Golden Fingers.
He could only scrape by in a regular community college, working part-time to support his studies, and eventually chose to become an Undead Mage—the most budget-friendly class.
He couldn’t even participate in normal games; all he could do was direct Zombies to mine for others, working as cheap labor.
To escape his fate as a ’Game Worker,’ he pinched pennies for three whole years, pouring all his savings into a Golden Finger called the Graveyard Demon, which was advertised as an ’all-in-one package with four major functions: mobility, construction, corpse-raising, and troop-training’.
The sellers had thumped their chests and guaranteed that the Graveyard Demon started with a quarter-acre of land, complete with a core building and mobility functions, calling it the optimal choice for an Undead Mage.
But who would have thought that after entering the official game full of anticipation, he would find it was a complete bait-and-switch.
The promised quarter-acre had shrunk by half, turning into this palm-sized patch of land before him.
The advertised construction and mobility functions were nowhere to be seen, leaving only a dilapidated graveyard and a few useless decorations.
First-time entry into the official game came with a mandatory retention period, making it impossible to quit midway. Otherwise, Gu Su would have already hunted down that crooked merchant, taken this pathetic Talent, and smashed it right in his face, letting his blood paint this sham of a graveyard red!
His anger seethed for a long while before Gu Su managed to calm down and remember his immediate priority.
He took a deep breath, suppressed the hostility rising in his chest, and muttered, "Panel."
The moment he spoke, a pale blue, translucent screen materialized before him, its soft glow dispelling some of the surrounding gloom.
Gu Su’s eyes quickly scanned the information on the screen, and the anxiety in his heart eased slightly.
’Although it’s a shrunken, knock-off version, at least the product wasn’t completely wrong. I really did get the Graveyard Demon Talent.’
’As long as I can complete the activation quest, I’ll officially be a person with a Golden Finger. That’s infinitely better than being a ’Game Worker’ for life.’
"Whatever, I’ll focus on the quest first," Gu Su muttered, clenching his teeth and comforting himself. ’No matter how bad it is, it’s still a Golden Finger. If I work hard, it can still grow over time.’
[Name: Gu Su]
[Class: Undead Mage]
[Level: 1]
[Title: None]
[Talent: Graveyard Demon (Earth Attribute, Inactive)]
[Attributes: Power 1.1, Agility 1.0, Constitution 1.3, Spirit 2.9]
[Active Skills: Soul Summoning Technique (Level 1)]
[Passive Skills: Basic Science (Level 3+2), Basic Language (Level 2), Undead Knowledge (Level 2), Basic Survival (Level 2)]
[Experience: 0/100]
Closing his personal panel, Gu Su strode toward the Old Tent in the center of the graveyard. The moment his fingertip touched the rough canvas, a system message popped up, and his face darkened once again.
[Name: Desolate Graveyard (Gray Quality)]
[Level: 0]
[Traits: Graveyard Demon (Gray), Area reduced by 50%, Mobility Function disabled, Yin Qi Gathering Function disabled, Death Devouring Function disabled]
[Annex Buildings:
1. Deceitful Tree (Level 1): The graveyard’s defensive core. Current Status: Operating weakly
2. Old Tent (Level 1): The graveyard’s construction core and residence. Current Status: Intact
3. Yin Fire Heap (Level 0): Can gather Yin Qi. Current Status: Inactive (requires special fuel to activate)
4. Empty Tomb (1x Level 3, 2x Level 2, 3x Level 1): Placing a corpse inside will automatically convert it into an Undead, which can be controlled by the owner
5. Rotten Fence (Level 1): Basic defensive facility, can block low-level invaders. Current Status: Dilapidated
6. Earth-Binding Vein (Level 0): Enables graveyard mobility. Current Status: Inactive (requires quest completion to repair)
7. Corroding Mycelium (Level 0): Can absorb items, aberrations, and buildings with Death, Yin Qi, or Undead attributes to expand the graveyard’s area. Current Status: Inactive (requires quest completion to repair)]
[Explanation: This is a degraded Graveyard Demon core that has changed hands multiple times. Most of its core functions have been permanently damaged, with only basic Undead Attributes remaining.
To an ordinary person, it is still a special graveyard with extraordinary potential, but to an Undead Mage, its value is greatly diminished.]
"Damn crooked merchants!" Gu Su could no longer hold back and burst out cursing, his voice filled with grinding hatred.
"Don’t let me run into you in the game next time, or I’ll grind your bones to dust and trap your Soul in this graveyard to be tortured for eternity!"
He never imagined those merchants could be so ruthless. Not only had they shrunk the area, but they had also disabled all of the Graveyard Demon’s most critical functions.
What was even worse, they had even cleared out the starter Undead that should have come with it, leaving only a few Empty Tombs.
Everyone knew that a Level 1 Undead Mage only had a single skill: the Soul Summoning Technique. And the prerequisite for the Soul Summoning Technique was an existing corpse or Soul.
Until he could kill a target and obtain a corpse, he couldn’t even summon a single Undead Servant.
With his Level 1 combat power and generally low Attributes, going out to fight mobs would be no different from serving himself up on a platter. He’d probably be torn to shreds by whatever was in the fog the moment he stepped past the fence.
Gu Su stood frozen in despair, wondering how he was supposed to complete the quest in ten days.
Suddenly, a strange cackle—KEE KEE KEE—drifted in from the fog outside the Rotten Fence.
The laugh was high-pitched and thin, filled with an indescribable sleaziness and greed that made one’s skin crawl.
But in the next second, Gu Su’s eyes lit up. ’That’s the sound of goblins!’
He didn’t have time to think, immediately sprinting in the direction of the sound.
The graveyard was only the size of a basketball court to begin with. In just a few strides, he reached the edge of the Rotten Fence.
As he approached, the fog beyond the fence seemed to be pushed back by some force, just enough for him to see about ten meters ahead.
In the fog, six or seven green monsters, each less than a meter tall, were hunched over and stumbling toward him.
They had scrawny bodies like withered branches and a nauseating, grayish-green skin that resembled rotting moss. Their flat noses jutted out like a pig’s snout, and two yellowed tusks protruded from mouths split to their ears, dripping with some unknown slime.
They held a motley assortment of ’weapons’ in their hands.
There were sharpened stones, leftover Beast Bones, and a few thick branches.
The goblins were clustered in twos and threes. They appeared to be covering each other, but their faces were filled with a craving for flesh and blood. As they ran, they let out occasional KEE KEE cackles, a truly hideous sight.
Goblins. The lowest-tier monster in any game—weak, greedy, and cowardly. Even an ordinary house dog could chase a whole pack of them.
But at this moment, in Gu Su’s eyes, these ugly little creatures were more alluring than any treasure.
’They are my hope for completing the quest!’
Gu Su’s eyes hardened. He glanced down, picked up a head-sized rock with a sharp edge, and hurled it at the Rotten Fence.
THUD! The rock slammed against the wood with a jarring sound.
"Bastards! Over here!" Gu Su yelled at the top of his lungs, his voice intentionally provocative.
The loud noise and the shout instantly startled the goblins.
They stopped in their tracks, their beady green eyes fixed on Gu Su. After scanning the area and confirming he was alone, an excited red glint flashed in their eyes. Raising their ’weapons,’ they howled and charged toward the fence.
"Meat! Big piece of meat!"
"Catch it! Roast it and eat it!"
Hoarse, greedy shouts rose one after another as the goblins waved their ’weapons’ and charged madly with chaotic steps toward this Desolate Graveyard.