Chapter 233 - 232: Encountering Some People in the Manor

Chapter 233: Chapter 232: Encountering Some People in the Manor

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After sending out all his troops, Gu Su wasn’t in a hurry to have the Graveyard Demon devour the nearby manor.

The reason was the same as always: he had to scour the manor first, salvaging anything useful and reading any documents he could find. Only when there was nothing left to salvage would he let the Graveyard Demon devour it.

It was a slow process, but it ensured he wouldn’t miss out on anything valuable.

When he’d devoured the first manor, if he hadn’t first unearthed the Koba District Bedtime Story Collection, he never would have learned about Wisconsin or the Little Butcher.

Once the mycelia rolled over everything, it all turned to pulp, and any information would have been lost forever.

This manor was several times larger than the last one, so it was bound to hold even more secrets. He had to be thorough.

He stood at the manor gate for a moment, watching the white figures of his troops disappear into the tall grass, the woods, and the collapsed buildings. Only then did he yawn.

He’d barely slept a wink since he started the game.

First, there were the scarecrows, then the Shige Rabbits, and then that wild boar. In between all that, he had devoured a manor, a small chapel, and a cemetery. He’d been working around the clock for who knows how long, without a moment’s peace.

Now, during this rare moment of safety, he had to rest. His troops were deployed all around—White Crows watching from the sky, Bone Dogs sniffing the ground, and Corpse Rats skittering through the grass. He would know the instant anything happened, so it was the perfect time to find a place to sleep.

Everything else could wait until he woke up.

Gu Su patted his cheeks and turned toward his living quarters.

The living quarters looked the same as always; not much had changed.

The main house of the last manor he’d devoured had been a complete wreck. Most of the walls had crumbled, the roof was gone, and everything inside had been smashed to pieces. After the mycelia consumed it, it was all converted into basic materials.

The materials—wood, stone, and sheet metal—were sorted into separate, messy piles in a corner of the basement, waiting for future use.

These materials benefited the Graveyard Demon but didn’t affect his living quarters. It was still the same L-shaped cabin cobbled together from an RV body and old wooden planks, surrounded by the same small courtyard enclosed by white candles.

As Gu Su stepped into the courtyard and raised his hand to push the weathered wooden door, his eyes swept casually over the yard, and a smile unwittingly touched his lips.

He noticed that, at some point, numerous fist-sized wooden and stone statuettes had appeared next to the white candles that served as the courtyard fence. The statuettes came in various forms: some were curled-up Skeletons, others were Skeleton Soldiers brandishing Bone Swords, and a few even mimicked the posture of Ghouls in a charmingly clumsy way.

Some of the statuettes were half-buried in hardened wax from the candles, which had dripped down their contours and fused them in place.

Others were set on a stone platform a short distance from the candles, their surfaces polished to a smooth, fine finish where you could faintly make out the carved details.

He knew exactly where they had come from.

They had been carved by the Walking Dead with the artisan Talent.

The fact that they were placed in the courtyard meant they were all White Quality items.

This Walking Dead was showing more and more initiative.

It was a good thing for his Undead to be developing such autonomy.

Gu Su was beginning to understand that every building needed the right kind of caretaker.

In situations like this, having a Talent versus not having one made a world of difference.

An untended building was just an inanimate structure. Only with someone to manage it could it slowly grow and eventually be upgraded.

He smiled, then pushed the door open and stepped into his quarters.

Inside, the L-shaped cabin was just as he’d left it, cobbled together from the RV body and old planks. It wasn’t large, but it had everything he needed.

The RV section served as the bedroom. The feather-strewn bed was still there, as was the small bookshelf at its head, which still held the same few books.

On the top shelf of the bookshelf sat a bedside lamp powered by Yin Qi. Its ghostly green light glowed softly in the dim room, not at all glaring, just enough to illuminate the small area around the head of the bed.

After entering his quarters, Gu Su didn’t go to sleep right away. He first went to the kitchen area and dumped all the ingredients he’d prepared into a pot.

He added some salt, then left the automated cooker to do its work.

He hadn’t eaten much all day, but he was exhausted now and decided to sleep first.

If he started it cooking now, there would be a hot meal waiting for him when he woke up.

With the ingredients sorted, Gu Su paid it no more mind. That was the beauty of the automated cooker, after all—it did everything on its own, no supervision needed.

Then, Gu Su pulled a textbook on Undead Knowledge and a few notebooks from an upperclassman out of a pile of books. He stacked them together, walked to the bed, and placed them in a cardboard box at its head.

He put the books away, closed the lid of the box, collapsed onto the bed, and closed his eyes.

The moment he closed his eyes, he sensed the light beside the bed dim. The bedside lamp had turned itself off.

Just then, a dark figure appeared at the head of the bed. The figure sat down beside the cardboard box, reached out, lifted the lid, and took out the textbook on Undead Knowledge. It opened to the first page and began turning the pages one by one.

The sound of the turning pages was soft, a gentle RUSTLE, like wind blowing through dry leaves.

Gu Su’s consciousness slowly faded, sinking into a deep, dark silence where he could hear nothing at all.

As he fell asleep, the Graveyard Demon seemed to sense it. The Red Balloons on the walls slowly dimmed, their scarlet skin turning to a dark red, then deep brown, until they nearly blended in with the night.

The glow on the Deceitful Tree also faded, leaving only a faint glimmer on its trunk, as if covered by a thin veil of gauze.

Even the flames of the Yin Fire Heap died down. The ghostly blue fire shrank back into the hearth, its tips barely peeking out, no longer jumping or flickering, just burning quietly. The entire Graveyard Demon fell silent with him, like a Giant Beast dozing on the ground, its breathing growing soft.

Gu Su fell into a deep sleep.

He didn’t dream or startle awake; he didn’t even stir. He just lay there, his breathing steady, his chest rising and falling. He would occasionally sniff once, then sink deeper into slumber.

But even the most peaceful environment couldn’t stave off the inevitable.

He had been asleep for less than three hours when the Puppet Communicator by his bed suddenly shrieked, "My Lord! My Lord! We found something at the manor!"

The voice was sharp and piercing, as if someone were pouring shards of glass directly into his ears.

Gu Su’s eyes snapped open. The dark figure that had been reading by his bed vanished, and a flood of memories poured into his mind.

[You have read Bones, the Foundation of the Undead for 3 hours and have gained a great deal of knowledge regarding Undead anatomy!]

But Gu Su ignored the notification. He glanced at the Puppet Communicator, a flicker of confusion in his eyes.

"Crow’s Caw? Come in. What happened?"

The words had barely left Gu Su’s mouth when Crow’s Caw flew in from outside.

"My Lord, we encountered some... people in the manor!"