Looking up at the twin moons in the sky, Heine felt as though he was suddenly worlds away.
In the cellar, in just a few short minutes, his mentality and cognition had changed drastically.
The specific worries that once occupied him—what to do in the future, what to eat tonight, what to do next—all vanished into nothingness in the face of this more magical reality.
He took a deep breath and thought about the impact these two skeletons had on him.
On the downside, he was afraid that he might never sleep well again.
On the upside, the two transmigrator skeletons could be considered as having potential, right? At least, they were definitely superior in learning ability compared to other dumb and stupid things.
Of course, the greatest gain was that he could finally return to the Bone Burial Ground.
And this time, he wasn't there to sell steamed buns.
He had learned all the basic knowledge, and the follow-up was all about advanced summoning based on the premise of summoning Wandering Souls; now, he had finally overcome this hurdle.
It was time to go back to the Bone Burial Ground and—
"Golden red twin moons??? Shocked, could it be that we've transmigrated into a game??"
"Really, these twin moons, these stars, and the large elm trees around us..."
Boom!
It was as if a thunderbolt exploded right above Heine's head!
Numb!
He was completely numb!
The reason he had finally pieced together had once again been burned to ash, and he almost stumbled!
Can these magical developments slow down a bit!?
He had spent three years in this world, firmly believing it to be a real otherworld. So it turns out that before others transmigrated here, they all played the game, right?
The two skeletons had already started discussing the differences between the scene and the game modeling, and Heine's teeth were nearly soft with sourness.
Worried about showing his fear, he simply ordered the two skeletons to fetch water from the well.
Soon, he found that their movements were smoother than any undead creatures he had seen.
Maybe it was related to the silver, not greenish, ghostly flames pulsing in their skulls; their movements were no different from living people's. They wouldn't trip over nothing, stumble over each other, pull up the bucket before it was full, or keep turning the winch until the wooden handle broke.
They were like bionic people loaded with advanced AI, intelligent enough to set one's mind at ease, but also frightening.
The two chatted while drawing water.
Zhuo Yang: "Respected King of the Sewers, don't you think this well looks familiar?"
"You're right, I've seen this before; all the wells in the Makala mountain region have this style. The entrances to the Shadow Step are all dried wells; I'm extremely familiar with it."
"So, have we also transmigrated to a classic server? The name Makala sounds so strange. By the time I started playing the game, it was already Scorching Valley."
"That's right, this place was razed by an orbital strike not long after the server opened. Bad news, we haven't just transmigrated here to get bombarded, right? What time is it now?"
"Good question, I have no clue."
Heine felt a sudden sinking feeling in his heart.
He looked up at the sky, fearing that the next second Holy Light might fall from above.
"Once you finish drawing water, come inside the house and start cleaning the rooms on the first floor, starting with the one farthest in. I've placed the tools near the door."
While carefully delegating tasks, he made his way back to the house.
His gaze swept over the "clean" interior of the house, and he pondered how he might casually reveal the time to them.
And they were illiterate, too.
Suddenly, he had a brainwave and took out a copy of the Ebony Town Daily he had bought on the way back, which had a full-page illustration on it.
"Obituary: The old Viscount George Walker Sewen passed away today at the age of 65."
If that transmigrator truly knew the plot, he should remember this... right?
He was clutching at straws now!
He turned the newspaper to that page and threw it on top of the cabinet next to the tools but blocked Viscount George's face with a rag.
After all this was done, he sat on the sofa, pretending to read, quietly observing.
He also wanted to verify whether their actions could exceed the given instructions.
Several seconds later, the two skeletons, one after the other, came in with buckets of water, and, indeed, they noticed the newspaper when they took the tools.
"Brother Yang, Brother Yang, can you move the rag off the newspaper? I think I saw someone familiar!"
"What are you thinking? We are in assist mode right now; we can't do anything beyond instructions."
"No, but do skeletons even have an assist mode? I thought that was only for advanced summons. Oh wait, speaking of which, we're advanced summons now, aren't we?"
"I can't say… I advise you to behave yourself, don't reveal that we have our own thoughts, or you'll be ground to bone dust and used to fertilize trees."
"Sigh, I've got an idea!"
Teacher Xia, who was walking behind, suddenly sped up a little and bumped into the skeleton in front, who stumbled and fell against the cabinet, conveniently pushing the rag away.
Zhuo Yang laughed and scolded: "You're really something, coming up with this kind of idea. Did you see clearly?"
"It's Seventh Master for sure, I've stolen from his grave before, I know it exceedingly well."
"Seventh Master what the hell?"
"You even watch Ultraman and don't know? Seven! Seven!"
"You're something... What now?"
"Bone Burial Ground was where they bombed it to hell the night he died; the rest came half a month later. The problem is, I don't know which day this newspaper's from."
Something stirred within Heine, and he pretended to be startled by a noise, approaching the door to check out the situation.
"What's the situation?"
He muttered to himself as he walked toward the cupboard, then picked up the newspaper in surprise.
"So it was here all along, had me searching high and low... My God, old Sewen's actually passed away. I was just half a day late and missed seeing him for the last time."
Heine murmured to himself, feigning regret.
Teacher Xia: "It sounds like it happened today. What a shame."
"Why's it such a shame?"
"The Viscount's tomb has been sealed. You can't enter without a lockpicking level above 50. He doesn't seem like someone who'd go to Bone Burial Ground either. That means we've missed the two most crucial tomb-robbing missions early on, damn it's such a loss."
"What are we gonna do then? It's not our fault we're skeletons."
"Sigh..."
Hearing this, Heine had an idea.
He had to return to Bone Burial Ground; if he couldn't warn them in time, he could at least go to the mayor as the "first eyewitness."
The opportunity was right in front of his eyes!
He clenched his fist.
But before that, he needed to be thoroughly prepared.
The two skeletons had not been cleaning for long when they heard the sound of a horse-drawn carriage outside.
Teacher Xia was taken aback: "What's going on? He's not going to hunt at this hour, is he? The wild animals get buffed at night."
"Maybe he's going to town to buy something. This place has obviously been cleared out, nothing left."
"Could be."
Soon, their speculation was confirmed.
"Stop what you're doing and come out here!"
The two skeletons stepped out of the house and saw on the ground two daggers, a sword, half a set of leather armor, half of a chestplate, and two black cloaks.
The leather armor was Heine's own; he had to hunt wild boars at the academy, and Hunter was the only meat-seller in Bone Burial Ground. Who knows if his meat wasn't graveyard-sourced.
The sword and rusty-looking armor came from the original owner's father, and the cloak was what he had taken from Bone Burial Ground.
"You take this."
Heine pointed to the dagger and the leather armor on the ground to Teacher Xia, remembering that the latter had mentioned he was a level 44 Wanderer when introducing himself.
He wasn't familiar with levels, as the strongest transcendent he had seen was Principal Gale.
Although Gale never summoned the undead, he had once nailed a sprinting wild boar to a tree with a row of bone spikes—a stunning sight.
The students all called him "Master."
The two of them muttered to each other as they dressed.
"How does he know my main is a thief?"
"Must be a coincidence, after all it's just these scraps, and he couldn't possibly know my main is a knight."
"Brother Yang, do you think he can hear our conversation? If we understand him, can he also understand Chinese?"
"Unless he's a transmigrator too, we'd be driving him nuts otherwise. I'd still advise playing dumb, less chance of being ground into bone meal."
"Makes sense."
And so, Teacher Xia stretched an arm out through the neck of the leather armor, then stood there looking bewildered.
A fine leather armor turned into off-shoulder gear—quite risqué indeed.
Heine sighed and went over to help adjust it.
"Wouldn't it be great if you two could be a bit smarter," he grumbled.
Teacher Xia: "Brother Yang, look..."
"Don't listen to him. If you're too smart, it'll just scare him."
"I get it, the Uncanny Valley effect, right?"
"It's the bloody Uncanny Valley!"
"Haha..."
Heine nearly laughed out loud, but since he always had a smile on his face, it wasn't hard to suppress it.
Once armed, the two skeletons looked formidable. Their hoods cast into shadow the silver ghost fire that flickered beneath, and the black cloaks occasionally lifted by the breeze revealed the stark white bones underneath—a grim aura presided.
"Good!"
Heine couldn't help but exclaim.
He clenched his fist and swung it around, sighing to the heavens:
"I've summoned skeletons of my own now. I'm no longer the disgrace of Bone Burial Ground!
"So what if I've been expelled? I'm coming back!!"
After venting, he gestured to the two, as if summoning his own assistants.
"Get on the carriage, we're heading back to Bone Burial Ground!"