Chapter Seventy-Three: Claiming the Small Graveyard

While battling the spectral beings resembling locust-men, Liu Zong discovered something peculiar—among them lurked another breed of half-human creatures, bearing ram's horns and backward-cloven hooves. These hybrids were the antithesis of the locust-men: their limbs were robust, their bodies unarmored, instead sheathed in thick, silvery scales. Even in death, they retained their primal combat instincts, preferring to tear and claw at their foes.

Players attuned to physical prowess found themselves momentarily bewildered when confronted by such enemies. Fortunately, they had formed teams before arriving, each group composed of twenty members with designated roles: some acted as tanks, others specialized in ambush, while a few focused on all-out assault. If one team faltered, another would immediately take its place, the two groups rotating seamlessly, quickly bringing the rhythm of battle under control.

Moreover, among these undead foes, there were no formidable bosses—no matter how powerful, they were merely Level 0 elites. Usually, five evenly matched players were sufficient to handle an elite of corresponding rank; if they possessed more complete information about their opponents, even three could stand a fighting chance. Thus, clearing out the spectral enemies was swift work—in no time, the players had created a vast open space.

At this moment, the magic-attuned players had finished erecting the battle standard of Sun City Third High School at the heart of the cemetery. A black-robed Reaper appeared, signifying the graveyard now belonged entirely to the forces of Sun City Third High. Any player who fell within this area would revive here, up to three times; only after the third death would they be expelled from the game to face the penalties for death. Until then, so long as they remained within the game map, the punishment would not take effect.

This system was not particularly favorable for players, as the penalties accumulated—one death meant three months' rest; three deaths in quick succession would require nine months away. Yet for the school, it was the ideal arrangement, allowing them to gather students together for coordinated tasks, ensuring no one missed opportunities due to untimely demise.

However, the cemetery was far from secure. As all players had observed, beyond its usual guardians, hordes of wraiths roamed the periphery, actively assaulting the graveyard. Should they topple the flag planted therein, the cemetery would lose its power of resurrection.

On the map, there were five cemeteries in total—a large one and four smaller ones—situated in the territories of both factions, with three regions at the center. For players of the shadow affinity, their mission in this game was both fixed and vital: to seize as many cemeteries as possible and defend them steadfastly.

Once a cemetery was claimed, the flag emitted a golden radiance, enveloping the graveyard within a fifty-meter diameter. Shadow-affinity players began to set up camp within this illuminated area. They did not build lodgings directly, but instead erected two furnaces and started tossing the bodies of slain wraiths into the flames.

After the corpses were ignited, the magic-attuned players would retrieve them for processing. This task fell to seven specialized Level 0 players; Liu Zong knew two of them and was familiar with their research—both were adept at crafting building materials from the remains of spectral creatures. Liu Zong himself had purchased some of his initial materials from them, only beginning to perform his own transformations after mastering necromantic conversion.

This time, the seven were tasked with turning the slain undead into various construction materials, to fortify the passages leading to other cemeteries. The graveyards enjoyed the protection of the flag’s glow and stationed guards, but the pathways did not. In the brief interval since clearing the space, gray mist once again shrouded the ground, with new undead emerging from within.

Word spread that in the central and enemy territories, even the cemeteries required new materials for defensive structures, and as future battles would demand ever stronger fortifications, preparations had to be made in abundance. Other players, aware of this, refrained from hoarding corpses as they might elsewhere on the map, instead transporting all to the cemetery.

Converting corpses to building materials did not preclude other gains. The bodies of wraiths and undead were one thing; their weapons were quite another. Though players themselves might not use these armaments, their own undead minions could certainly benefit.

This was a minor advantage for shadow-affinity players. On the battlefield, their weapons had to be provided by the school or earned through missions in the sunlit realm, but their undead minions could not be upgraded so easily. They had to seek out weapons suitable for their spectral servants, either to equip directly or to reforge.

Just as a hunter’s beast must feed to grow, these resources had to be sought out personally.

Once the camp was established, the players did not disperse. Twenty remained to guard the cemetery, while the rest plunged into the gray mist with full force.

Their destination was the central grand cemetery. The small cemetery just seized by the shadow-affinity players was guarded by a common Reaper, but in the grand cemetery resided the Master of Graves and three Reapers. Only by conquering the central cemetery could the shadow players begin the Underworld patrol missions; otherwise, they were limited to battling wraiths, gaining little for their efforts.

Charging into the mist, Liu Zong sensed the world had changed. Where once he saw his surroundings in black and white, now visibility had shrunk to five meters, with only humanoid halos nearby—his own undead companions were invisible.

For this reason, the entire team clustered close, placing their undead attendants around the perimeter to engage enemies lurking in the mist, only joining the fight themselves once combat began.

The magic-attuned players, lacking powerful spells for now and pressed to prepare for the grand cemetery, remained largely inactive.

Liu Zong, attuned to both physical and magical power, seized every opportunity for battle. Whenever he sensed his ghostly Lolita minion fighting, he would appear behind her with his spear, always reaping rich rewards.