"Do you want money or food?" The man in charge of distributing "bricks" glanced at the cart behind Feng Xue and immediately asked.
However, it was just a customary inquiry, for before Feng Xue could even speak, he had already picked up three wheat bran bricks—representing the three corpses on the cart behind Feng Xue.
Feng Xue had no intention of wasting words. With the identification function of the Golden Finger, he confirmed that each brick had at least 100 "Identity" units, then quickly stuffed the wheat bran bricks into the backpack he had brought with him through the portal, pulling the cart to follow those Corpse Collectors walking ahead.
However, what troubled him was that after walking about five or six hundred meters, the people ahead suddenly split up.
"Ah, this... Could it be that their destinations are different?" Feng Xue's brow immediately furrowed as he hesitated about whom to follow. After a brief moment of thought, his gaze locked onto a middle-aged man in his thirties with an artistic beard around his chin, wearing clothing that seemed ancient-styled.
It was this guy who, on the very first day of the crossover, had duped him of a brick.
Drawing his hand into his sleeve, he gripped the short blade hidden there. Feng Xue was immensely grateful that he had gone to an exhibition before crossing over. Although the Assassin's Creed attire offered no actual defense, the sleeve that housed the sleeve sword at least provided a place to conceal a weapon.
Apparently hearing the friction of the cart wheels from behind, the man instantly turned around, wary. At the same time, Feng Xue noticed his left hand was already reaching inside his coat—no need to say more, he was undoubtedly concealing a weapon there.
Yet upon seeing Feng Xue, his expression somewhat relaxed as he continued to pull a cart bearing six or seven corpses, and in a tone mixed with a bit of caution, he said:
"Isn't this the newbie? Corpse Collection isn't really suitable for newcomers!"
"Oh? Is it just collecting corpses? Is there some trick to it?" Feng Xue half sincerely, half pretentiously, showed a naïve demeanor. The man's eyes slightly narrowed, he pulled out a wheat bran brick and tossed it, then continued:
"Of course, otherwise, how could it be worth this price? But this is also the capital to save your life. Give me a brick, and I'll tell you!"
Although he had just earned 300 'Identity' units, Feng Xue still hesitated somewhat. After all, this was only worth three days, and adding the little he had left, he would still die without a new job in four days.
However, his hesitation did not last long, for the three days since crossing over had made him realize that getting a job in this bizarre place was far more difficult than he had imagined.
Carefully pulling a brick from his bag, he did not immediately toss it to the man but mimicked him, tossing the half palm-sized brick as he said:
"You tell me first, after all, I'm right here."
As he spoke, his consciousness concentrated, a warm current flowed through the wheat bran brick into his body, and he distinctly felt that his time in this world had extended by another day—it felt as if the countdown timer in the upper right corner of his vision had gained an additional twenty-four hours.
"Alright then," the man surprisingly agreed easily but deliberately tensed his expression, speaking in a somewhat sinister tone:
"These corpses might become a bad omen!"
"A bad omen? What's that?" Feng Xue listened to the man's tone, which seemed like he was telling a ghost story, finding it rather inexplicable. The man appeared taken aback for a moment, then seemed to remember something as he said:
"I forgot you're new here."
With that, he patted his own head and explained:
"A bad omen is essentially a malignant Kaidan. Almost everything in this world is made up of 'Consciousness', but only the 'Consciousness' possessed by a True Object is consumable. The 'Consciousness' in a Pseudo Artifact is almost solidified and can't be absorbed. Meanwhile, the 'Consciousness' in our bodies as living beings carries a mark. If someone consumes the 'Consciousness' with a mark... well, it's basically like eating a person. Then their 'Consciousness' will be polluted, sink, and eventually turn into a senseless monster, which is what we call a bad omen."
Realizing that the dog shit that caused the bloodshed when he first crossed over might very well be a True Object, Feng Xue then asked, "So, this Wheat Bran Brick is a True Object? Then what is a Pseudo Artifact? And what is a mark?"
"All things that are neither living beings nor True Objects, like the soil of this world, the walls, the air, and even the clothes on your body, these are all Pseudo Artifacts. As for the mark..."
At this point, the man gave a somewhat disdainful smile:
"That's not information you can buy with just a few bricks."
"Okay, then back to the corpses. Why do these corpses turn into bad omens?"
Feng Xue was quite adept at restraining his curiosity, almost without hesitation he steered the conversation back, and the man didn't seem to mind much, naturally continuing from Feng Xue's question:
"It's not that they 'will' turn into, but that they 'might' turn into. All living beings that die from reasons other than exhaustion of 'Consciousness' still have residuals of 'Consciousness'. During the settling process, these 'Consciousness' might form 'Elements'. Well...you don't need to know about this. In short, if certain conditions are met, they could turn into bad omens. Although the chance is small, the possibility still exists. And in small landfill areas like ours, one bad omen could completely destroy it."
"Elements..." Feng Xue couldn't help thinking about the Identification function of his Golden Finger that showed the entries, and he noted this word before saying:
"So, Corpse Collection is about transferring the corpses to a dedicated handling facility? But why doesn't everyone take the same path?"
"Handling?" The man let out a scoff and then shook his head:
"There's no such thing as handling. Us Corpse Collectors just dump the bodies in the wild. Once out of the city, even if a corpse turns into a bad omen, it won't cause much trouble. As for why we separate? Obviously, the more corpses there are, the more risks there are of transformation! Okay, we should separate now. Give me the brick."
Feng Xue nodded and took a brick out of his bag to throw to the man. The man caught the brick but paused slightly, then said somewhat unexpectedly:
"I thought you might try something clever."
"You dare to pull so many corpses and know so much, even if you're not some hidden expert, you must have some tricks. There's no need to fall out with you over a brick," Feng Xue responded calmly, but he was also ready to beg for mercy by handing over everything.
In the short time they spoke, he had already used up two bricks, and even if the other party had malicious intentions to rob him, there was nothing left to gain.
The man obviously had no intention of engaging in such an unrewarding task and simply nodded, "You're quite shrewd. Looks like you might live a bit longer. My surname is Li. Just call me Old Li. If you have anything to ask in the future, come find me. Of course, there will be a charge."
"You can call me Little Feng," Feng Xue nodded in agreement, and as he watched Old Li turn around, he hurriedly asked:
"Which way should I go?"
"See the city wall yet? Follow this road all the way to the wall, then just find any door to exit. But remember to avoid doors with guards; there are farmlands out there." Old Li waved his hand without turning back and took a different path. Just before leaving, he seemed to remember something and turned to add, "Outside the city is the bad omens' territory. If you plan to continue in this line of work, it's best not to aim at one location for dumping."
Just as Feng Xue turned to watch something, Old Li's sudden turn startled him, and not until the other man had truly disappeared from his sight did he breathe a sigh of relief and shifted his gaze back toward the corpses on the trailer behind him, frowning. As his focus landed on one particular corpse, two rows of small characters also reappeared—
Name: Corpse (Male)
Elements: [Human], [Male], [Suffocation], [Death], WERTU@%YS#@%%$&%I…