Ji Xun had gotten the job.
It was incredibly smooth.
He had become a corpse collector in the city of Innocence.
With a job, it felt like he had seamlessly integrated into this city of sin.
...
Three days passed in a flash.
At 117 East Street, where the branch of Golden Oak Security Company was located, there stood a solitary large red-brick building with glass windows.
Behind the building, a stone tower emitted thick black smoke, indicating the presence of a crematorium chimney.
This was the workplace and dormitory for corpse collectors.
Three floors underground, this was the morgue.
Bodies collected from various parts of the East District of Sinless City were kept in the morgue for several days until all the residual curse power had dissipated before they were cremated.
Normally, except for transporting bodies, no one would come to this gloomy place.
The entire floor had no living beings, only dozens of "clients."
They lay quietly in the cold drawers, like silent sleepers in the morgue's frigid air, which formed wisps of white mist on the ground, creating an eerie silence.
At this moment, in the morgue, Ji Xun opened his eyes from meditation.
He exhaled a breath of turbid air, sighing, "This Great Dark Breathing Technique isn't very efficient."
His expression was utterly calm, the surrounding iron corpse boxes causing him no fear.
On the contrary, the quiet, private, and undisturbed environment suited him perfectly.
Ji Xun could use his [Devil's Feast] to devour the residual extraordinary traits in the bodies without any restraint.
The only downside was that most of these bodies had been treated with alchemical potions by other corpse collectors, losing much of their extraordinary traits.
But even so, it was sufficient for his current needs.
This was his third day on the job, and his physical attributes had already undergone significant changes.
**[Ji Xun]**
**Strength:**
**Constitution:**
**Agility:**
**Spirit:**
**Curse Power:** 65/65
**Aura:** Cursed Gambler
**Elemental Affinity:** Darkness 12 / Light 3 / Earth 4 / Wind 2 / Water / Fire 3 / Thunder 1 / Wood 3
**Skills:** [Devil's Feast Lv0 (36/500)], [Shadow Stealth Lv0 (12/100)], [Advanced Firearms Proficiency (1566/3000)], [Great Dark Breathing Technique Lv1 (2/300)]
...
Thanks to the convenience of being a corpse collector, Ji Xun's physical state had improved significantly from his initial sickly condition of around 0.7 in this world. Now, he felt much stronger than before he transmigrated.
Moreover, his elemental affinities and curse power were steadily increasing.
This was just the result of three days. Ji Xun could only imagine how his attributes would soar after a few months or half a year.
The future looked promising.
He stood up and put away the booklet detailing the meridian routes.
Three days ago, he had bought the [Great Dark Breathing Technique] from the black market in Sinlesss City.
Despite its intimidating name, it was actually one of the most common dark-element breathing techniques, priced at nearly 50,000 yuan.
This purchase almost depleted his cash reserves.
He bought this breathing technique to quickly enhance his dark affinity, enabling unrestricted use of [Shadow Stealth].
After three days of rigorous practice, this booklet, in theory, could help one cultivate up to the sixth stage of curse power.
He began his practice the very night he acquired the booklet.
Thanks to the +10 attribute bonus to his comprehension from the [JOKER], he could easily understand the obscure and complex terms described in the tome.
With a few attempts, he mastered the technique's sensation, which typically took a "1-4 week" search according to the manual.
That was Ji Xun's first personal experience of how his comprehension attribute absurdly enhanced his skill learning.
He began formal meditation training that night.
Following the breathing technique's specific rhythm to circulate his curse power, he discovered he could control it.
With each cycle, as he absorbed dark elements from the air, his curse power grew stronger.
The data panel directly reflected these changes: each full cycle of the breathing technique increased his curse power by approximately 0.1.
With a cycle taking about half an hour, theoretically, he could increase his curse power by about 1 point overnight.
As his proficiency grew, the efficiency of the breathing technique also improved, leading to greater increases in curse power.
By the third day, the technique had reached Lv1, significantly boosting the efficiency of absorbing elements.
This made Ji Xun increasingly aware of the power of the demon mark he had fused with.
However, because it was powerful, he found himself a bit disdainful of the [Great Dark Breathing Technique].
The [JOKER] mark, an epic demon mark, granted him growth in all elemental affinities. He could clearly sense various elemental spirits in the air: earth, wind, water, fire, light, dark, thunder, wood, metal...
In other words, he could absorb any kind of curse power without causing conflicts.
The [Great Dark Breathing Technique], however, only absorbed single-element dark curse power with low efficiency.
It was like having a hundred parts of various elemental spirits in the air, with dark elements making up just a fraction. His breathing technique then absorbed only a fraction of that fraction, resulting in very low overall efficiency.
This led Ji Xun to an intriguing, though uncertain, idea.
He wondered if he could simultaneously absorb multiple elemental particles, wouldn't his curse power increase rapidly?
However, this idea was only theoretical for now.
Breathing techniques were essential skills for curse casters and were very expensive.
His current technique had cost him 50,000 yuan, and he knew from inquiries that "black iron quality" techniques could cost hundreds of thousands.
White silver techniques were even pricier.
Ji Xun simply didn't have the money to consider buying a better technique.
The only valuable items he possessed were some skill cards from the Blackwater Mercenaries.
However, when he first obtained these spoils in the dimensional space, Chu Jiu had kindly advised him not to use them without mastering the corresponding curse power.
Moreover, these cards had hidden Blackwater gang marks, making them difficult to sell.
But there was no need to rush.
His physical fitness wasn't strong enough yet, and excessive devouring with [Devil's Feast] could lead to a feeling of indigestion.
Ji Xun planned to continue working as a corpse collector for a while longer.
...
Not long after waking from meditation, the sound of metal friction echoed down the eerie corridor.
It was the old elevator's steel cable rubbing against its pulley.
In the quiet of the underground third floor, the sound was particularly jarring.
Ji Xun heard it from a distance.
The iron gate of the elevator opened, and a slightly chubby boy emerged.
He pushed a few new corpses into the morgue, greeting, "The second team sent over some 'new clients' for us to handle."
Ji Xun nodded, helping to place the bodies into the cabinets.
The chubby boy, named jibu, was sixteen and also a corpse collector, having started a few days before Ji Xun.
Since they were both newcomers, the dirty and heavy tasks of moving corpses fell to them.
Ji Xun didn't mind; more work meant more time with corpses, allowing him to absorb more attributes.
However, the job wasn't easy for everyone.
Jibu looked tired, with faint dark circles under his eyes.
This wasn't just because he had gone out twice last night and hadn't slept well; he was also contaminated by the corpses.
The high salary for corpse collectors wasn't just due to the job's grim nature; it was primarily because it was short-lived!
The uncontrolled extraordinary traits continuously polluted those who came close. While there were special treatment methods, frequent contact with corpses greatly increased the risk of contamination and mutation.
It was said that no corpse collector at Golden Oak Security had lasted more than a year.
After placing the bodies in the boxes, the fat man apologized, "Brother, I'll have to trouble you to incinerate those expired clients. I really can't stand being here any longer."
The morgue had dozens of bodies with various contaminants leaking out. He really couldn't handle it physically.
Ji Xun didn't mind: "Hmm. Just leave it here."
The chubby guy still felt a bit guilty and said, "When we get paid, I'll take you to Downing Street for a drink."
Ji Xun smiled: "Sure."
At this time, Jibu looked at his dark blue arm, which looked like it had corpse spots, and sighed: "Ah, it's a pity I can't do anything. Otherwise, I'd become a treasure hunter. Although it's dangerous, you might get rich. Being a body collector is just..."
Ji Xun didn't say anything.
If possible, he still planned to work as a body collector for a few more months.
The chubby guy added, "By the way, there's a free course on card basics at the Hunter's Guild tomorrow. Are you going?"
Ji Xun: "Yes."
There are no extraordinary academies in this Sinless City, and he was worried about where to get systematic extraordinary knowledge. He couldn't miss the Hunter's Guild's course on basic card knowledge.
The chubby guy was also very excited. Learning some knowledge is always good: "Shall we go together?"
"Sure."
Ji Xun nodded.
Just as the chubby guy finished speaking and was about to leave, a sound came from the brass pipe on the wall: "A body was found in a cellar at 17 Tailor Street. Team Five, send a few people to handle it. Remember to bring plenty of alchemy potions."
This was the ancient communication tool of the security company. The specially made brass pipes could transmit orders from the office to various parts of the building.
The chubby guy listened and spread his hands, complaining, "Another mission."
Ji Xun also nodded.
The job of a body collector was ideal, but the frequency of missions was a bit too high, and they had to go out day and night.
In such a simple town like Sinless City, it was normal for their team to handle several sudden death bodies a day in their DC district.
They had already gone on over ten missions in the past three days.
They didn't dare to delay, quickly ran up, grabbed the toolbox, and jumped into the steam truck parked by the roadside.
...
The steam truck, with an oak tree logo printed on the black compartment, sped down the street.
There were five people in the compartment.
Besides Ji Xun and the chubby guy, there were also the team leader Dong Jiu, with a centipede scar on his face, and two other veteran employees, "Bald Liu" and "Bucktooth."
The names of people in this world were strange. Many people in Sinless City didn't like to reveal their real names, and some only had nicknames.
Ji Xun had gotten used to it.
All five wore white gloves and gloomy black clothes, the uniform of body collectors.
Ji Xun and the chubby guy were sorting through the alchemy potions in their toolbox.
Dong Jiu and the other two veterans had no intention of helping and were chatting idly.
"The company sent a message saying there were over a dozen bodies found in the cellar on Tailor Street. It's going to be a busy day. From the tone of the boss, it seems like the client this time is quite troublesome..."
"Tailor Street? Isn't that a civilian area? Why are so many people dead?"
"Who knows. Let's hope there aren't any difficult clients today. I heard that yesterday, a guy from Team Seven in District Four encountered a curse outburst while handling a client in the sewers of Weasel Street. The corpse mutated and grew a serrated tentacle, which bit off the guy's... you know..."
"Hahaha, that's really unlucky."
"..."
The conversation in the compartment was casual, but the amount of information was substantial.
Ji Xun had learned a lot from them in the past three days.
But now he was puzzled.
During the missions over the past few days, he had memorized most of the street names in the eastern fifth district of their jurisdiction.
He clearly remembered that Tailor Street was a residential area for ordinary people, where violent incidents rarely occurred.
Now, not only were there deaths, but over a dozen bodies at once?
However, in any case, more bodies were a good thing for him.
The more contaminated, the better.