Chapter 17: The Card Game

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

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

According to the System's explanation, the script mission would place the player in an independent space-time, where they had to assume a certain role and complete the tasks issued by the System.

In this process, players could wear equipment, use items, and unleash supernatural powers; most extraordinary behaviors would not "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, which had always been the labels for this little mountain village.

While the outside world developed rapidly and technology progressed daily, the secluded Hidden Mountain Village maintained a profound silence until the road leading out of the mountains was built, and 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, and Li Ang calmly examined the farming hall before him.

The building's interior was quite spacious; the triangular roof was entirely made of round logs, with two floors of height, and the ground was covered with pitted concrete tiles,

Coupled with the grey walls full of cracks and the handcrafted wooden chairs sprayed with mottled paint that were 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 grey wooden coffin.

It was nighttime, and the doors of the hall were open, revealing the stars in the night sky.

The chilly night wind blew in from outside the door, stirring the incandescent lamp hanging from the roof of the hall. The flickering light accentuated the grey coffin on the platform.

Including Li Ang, the four villagers sat on the floor near the door of the hall in a cross shape, with their backsides cushioned by a few old newspapers, and a heap of playing cards placed on the newspapers in the center.

"Two tens,"

"Two jacks,"

"Two kings,"

The card game proceeded in a solemn atmosphere, the four individuals playing not for amusement but to endure the arduous night alongside the lone coffin.

Feng Tiejia, sitting directly across from Li Ang, casually said, "That bastard Feng Tiegen, his old mom 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 the left of Li Ang, said, "Don't say that, he also went to the county town to handle that 'Resident Death and Funeral Certificate' thing."

"Handle my ass!" retorted Feng Tiejia with a sneer, "His own mother's death is his fault, and he still has the audacity to show his face?"

The villagers Feng Tieyi and Feng Tiebing both paled and swept their gaze rigidly towards the coffin deep in the hall, whispering, "Don't talk nonsense!"

"Nonsense? Am I wrong?" Feng Tiejia said indifferently, "When he was a child, his mother literally brought him up, never letting him starve even when almost everyone in the village was close to eating tree bark."

"But look at him now, ever since he married that wife of his, the new house was built, but he wouldn't spend the money to treat his mother's illness."

As he spoke, Feng Tiejia trembled with fury, while Feng Tieyi and Feng Tiebing's faces darkened, remaining silent.

Feng Tiegen's behavior would inevitably be nailed to the pillar of shame, forever subjected to the finger-pointing of the Hidden Mountain Village villagers, but for a scumbag like him, face had always been superfluous.

With his back towards the direction of the coffin, Li Ang mused. According to the mission description, the zombie he needed to eliminate was probably the old lady lying in the coffin who starved to death at the hands of her own son.

However, the mission specifically stated that what needed to be eliminated was a "zombie," not a "corpse," meaning one must wait until the dead body revived 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, who played an average villager, was dressed in simple clothing, but in reality, he was fully armed, ready to engage in combat at any moment.

The earlier debate made the already oppressive hall even more silent, with the four appointed by the village for the night watch continuing their rounds of cards.

Suddenly, a nearly imperceptible "click" sounded in the hall, blending with the noise of the night wind rustling the leaves outside the building.

Feng Tiejia, sitting opposite Li Ang and about to play two poker cards, suddenly changed expression, the cards trembling slightly, panic apparent in his eyes.

In his line of sight, the lid of the coffin inside the hall was slowly opening, a skinny arm covered with pale long hairs reaching out from underneath the wooden board, gripping the coffin lid.

The wooden coffin lid was rather thick, but seemed light as a feather in the pale, hairy hands.

The white-haired arm slowly and rigidly yet deftly lifted the coffin lid and placed it quietly on the floor beside it, without making a single sound, eerily silent.

A shiver ran down Feng Tiejia's spine, and he made an indistinct "heh heh heh" noise from his throat, staring ahead, his eyes nearly splitting open.

The old lady's corpse, already discolored from decay, slowly stood up in the coffin like broken chopsticks.

Her emaciated body was covered in white hairs an inch long, and her hollow, desiccated eyes stared blankly at the four people playing cards in front of her.

Feng Tiejia, as if electrocuted, lost his composure and dropped his poker cards, blurting 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 advised, puzzled. Sitting in a cross formation, he couldn't see the changes happening on the corpse from his position.

"I'm afraid of the dark! You guys come with me!" Feng Tiejia shouted in a low voice.

Feng Tiebing snorted, "No thanks, if you have to go, go by yourself."

Feng Tiejia clenched his teeth and turned to run out of the hall, heading towards the flickering lights within the village.