Countless ships are drifting in this ink-like sea.
A wooden boat for one person only.
Or a ferry carrying many people,
Occasionally, you can see large ships with hundreds of people on board.
However, no matter which ship the people were on, they were all in a state of confusion.
Their memories are slowly being swept away by the sea. No one knows where they will end up, and no one knows that they are already dead.
However,
A lighthouse appeared in the sea that was supposed to lead to the kingdom of death, half hidden in the fog.
The light from the top happened to fall on a wooden boat.
Brilliant traction,
The wooden boats carrying the young men on board moved towards the lighthouse.
As the light becomes stronger, the dark eyeballs embedded in the young man's face are slowly fading and becoming brighter.
Gradually I felt the burning sensation from the light.
When the boat got close enough, a burning streak ran through the head, carrying a voice that seemed to be a call from the world of the living.
Buzz!
The dark sea is no longer before my eyes.
Instead, there is an old, wrinkled wooden table.
The young man gradually opened his eyes, and his eyes were facing an old-fashioned kerosene lamp on the upper right corner of the wooden table.
The fire burning within it happens to overlap with the lighthouse in consciousness.
also,
Under the arms that were resting my head, I felt the rough touch of paper, corresponding to a yellowed paper with scribbled handwriting.
There is also a water cup on the left side of the desk, with a transparent liquid with a strange smell remaining inside.
Seeing such an unfamiliar scene,
The young man's first thought was neither fear nor curiosity... but a thought that was extremely important to him emerged in his subconscious:
“My paper!”
The last memory in his mind was staying up all night in the laboratory to revise his graduation thesis.
at the same time,
The end of this memory was accompanied by severe heart pain and confusion.
Thinking of this, the young man realized the problem.
"Did I die suddenly?"
Look at your hands.
There were a lot of wear and tear marks on the yellowed palms, calluses on the fingers, and the nails were full of dirt like mud.
The young man recognized at a glance that this was definitely not the old friend who had accompanied him during his decades of single life.
"I... I traveled through time?"
The young man’s name is Yi Chen, and he is a hard-working graduate student majoring in chemical engineering.
He likes to read all kinds of novels and play games on weekdays, and the first keyword that came to his mind was time travel.
In reaching this conclusion,
No anxiety, no panic,
Instead, I showed an expression of great relief, and even my whole body relaxed... It was really great not to have to write a paper and worry about review and subsequent defense.
Coming out of an orphanage, he lived as a single man for twenty-four years and didn't have much attachment to his original world.
but,
This relaxation did not last long.
The foul smell floating in the air made people's nerves tense again.
"We need to figure out the situation as soon as possible..."
Yi Chen shook his head, stood up and looked around the wooden house which was no more than 40 square meters.
On the left side of the desk,
There is a single wooden bed placed against the side wall.
Obvious mold marks can be seen at the foot of the bed, which has a lot to do with the humidity in the cabin.
also,
There are no windows in the entire wooden house.
The only connection to the outside world is a thick gray iron door, which is tightly embedded in the door frame.
The old grey paint has an extremely rough and lumpy feel, and it must have been applied forty or fifty years ago.
The key to the iron gate was hanging on Yi Chen's belt.
On the wall next to the door, there is a landline telephone that looks quite old.
In Yi Chen's memory, this kind of telephone was only seen in an orphanage when he was a child... In the subsequent era when smart phones became popular, it was completely eliminated.
The rubber-wrapped telephone wires extend upward, through the roof and connect to the outside world.
It is also worth mentioning that
There was no light source in the entire wooden house. The only lighting device was the portable kerosene lamp on the wooden table.
Such a simple and sealed wooden house design, coupled with the rotten smell in the air, made Yi Chen think of an unlucky thing - a coffin.
It was as if I was sealed in a wooden coffin.
Back to the wooden table,
Since I don’t have a cell phone or a mirror, I can’t check my appearance.
He reached out and touched his face. Apart from the dirty stubble on his beard, his facial features looked pretty good overall. He seemed even more handsome than before.
Judging from the roughness of his skin, his age should be no more than thirty years old.
The next step is to explore the detailed information.
His eyes returned to the original wooden table and looked at the letter left on it.
"English? Is this a foreign country?"
Yi Chen took out the level of studying papers he usually did and quickly browsed through them.
The first line and the first sentence contain the disturbing word -die
As he read deeper, the words in the letter crawled into his body like maggots, making him feel uncomfortable all over.
≮I am going to die. I will definitely die.
But at least I still have the right to choose how I die.
If I think about it carefully, there doesn't seem to be anything worth reminiscing about in this world. The only person I feel sorry for is Dean Fran. I messed up my first job after leaving the orphanage.
I am always careless like this and made the same mistakes in the orphanage.
The third item in the manual... I review it every day, but I still made a mistake.
There is nothing much to say. I just hope that those who see this letter can forgive my cowardice and incompetence. I really don’t dare to face the consequences of my mistakes.
If you can, please burn my body.
Please don't bury me here!
"Suicide note?"
Yi Chen grabbed the water cup from the corner of the wooden table and smelled the liquid remaining in it.
The basic situation of the original owner of this body can now be completely determined.
"This guy also spent his childhood in an orphanage? Because of similar experiences, similar looks and body shapes, and overlapping deaths, did I just happen to travel through time and space to his body
Knowing that you will die, you choose to commit suicide by taking poison
Just because you don't follow a rule, you have to die? What the hell is this place?"
In-depth analysis allowed Yi Chen to sense the uneasiness and crisis in the air.
At the same time, I also thought about my own "dilemma".
“Since I have traveled through time, I naturally need to deal with the mess... This guy didn’t even bother to write some useful information in the suicide note.
What are the dangers of making a mistake
Is some assassin from an organization going to kill me? Or is something weird going to come to my door?"
Thinking of this, Yi Chen looked around again.
Even though the entire wooden house was sealed tightly like a coffin, there was still no sense of security.
“Calm down~ I’ve died once, there’s nothing to be afraid of.
First, look for the manual mentioned in the suicide note to see what this guy did and what job he did. "
Open the drawer of the wooden table.
A parchment map and a special manual wrapped in black fur were placed inside.
According to the map,
This is a cemetery.
The wooden house is located in the middle.
Surrounding it in a clockwise direction are cemeteries 1 to 6.
In addition, in the corner of the map, there is a strange cemetery No. 7, which is completely separated and requires crossing a path of hundreds of meters to reach.
"Is this a cemetery? Is this guy a gravekeeper? No wonder there's a faint smell of decay even in the cabin."
Yi Chen turned and picked up the manual containing important information.
Employee Handbook (Yinston Town-Cemetery)
The first page records the working hours in detail.
The gravekeepers need to inspect the graves with corresponding serial numbers at fixed time periods, for example:
The inspection time of Cemetery No. 1 is 7:00-9:30.
The inspection time of Cemetery No. 2 is from 1:00 to 3:00.
etc.
in addition,
There is no patrol time for Cemetery No. 7, nor is there a need for patrols. It is a special area.
The schedule is barely normal.
When Yi Chen turned to the second page of the manual, his expression immediately became solemn.
Right at the beginning, there is a bright red font marked with an asterisk.
*Please read each of the following cemetery rules carefully and memorize them. Failure to follow or making a mistake in any of them will lead to disaster, and you will pay a price beyond death. *
Ⅰ. Strictly follow the schedule to inspect each cemetery, and the time difference between the start and end time must be less than one minute
Ⅱ. When inspecting Cemetery No. 2, make sure that the cross tombstone is not inverted or has objects similar to goat skulls hanging on it.
If the above situation occurs, the tombstone must be restored and debris removed during the inspection time.
III. When inspecting Cemetery No. 4, ensure that the number and order of tombstones remain consistent with the original ones.
If there are any anomalies in the number or order, the extra graves must be cleared out during the inspection, or the tombstones with reversed or misplaced order must be reordered.
*For easier memorization, the appendix of the manual contains the original thumbnail image of Cemetery No. 4.
IV. Before conducting an inspection of Cemetery No. 5, make sure that there is no sound inside.
If any strange noise is heard, the patrol time must be postponed for one hour. If the sound is still heard after one hour, the information must be reported to the manager.
Ⅴ. If a newly delivered body is found at the cemetery gate, the body transport vehicle must be carefully checked to ensure that the correct "organization logo" is printed on the bottom.
If the mark is correct, the body will be transported to the entrance of the corresponding cemetery according to the numerical marks on the surface of the body, and then buried.
If no sign is found or the sign is incorrect, please move the hearse and the body to Cemetery No. 7 during daylight hours.
*For details of the organization's logo, please see the appendix.
VI. The remaining cemeteries only need basic inspections to ensure that the graves have not been damaged and there are no foreign objects.
Ⅶ. During non-patrol hours, stay in the safe house as much as possible to reduce the possibility of accidents.
Ⅷ. If something goes wrong at work and leads to disaster, the organization is willing to give a chance to survive.
Pry open the floorboards under the bed, get the self-defense items, handle and solve the problem.