I have an Apocalypse City

Chapter 429: Chapter 429: Cemetery

Hundreds of wooden boxes flew overhead, fluttering in all directions;

Song Jian found it strange, however, that these boxes seemed to methodically avoid zones populated by monsters under level thirty, particularly player gathering areas. Not a single box drifted there. This could not help but arouse suspicion. It was as if someone deliberately arranged for this to happen to prevent players from getting those boxes.

More boxes drifted towards the murky, city edges and vanished completely once they entered the dark fog. Surrounded by frenzied, aggressive monsters, Song Jian set his sights on the nearest box. By nightfall, even lower-level monsters, undeterred by the aura of power emanating from Song Jian, recklessly charged at him whenever they detected his presence.

In such an environment, Song Jian dared not emit even the slightest bit of noise, let alone summon his motorcycle. He could only rely on his two legs to run.

However, considering his current physical condition, his running speed was not much slower than if he had been on a motorcycle. Using his Sword Shadow Step and morphing into a dark cloud, he managed to evade wave after wave of monster attacks.

After more than an hour, Song Jian finally reached the area populated by level thirty monsters. On his way there, he did not encounter a single box, suggesting that they would not fall into zones easily accessible to players, just as he had suspected.

Standing on top of a tall building, Song Jian looked ahead. The box was descending very slowly and was still floating in the sky, but on the ground below, Song Jian could already see several figures racing towards the box.

“Are those…NPCs? NPC professionals!” Song Jian frowned slightly and watched the figures below, musing to himself.

“No wonder so many NPC professionals venture into this dangerous city ruins full of monsters. It seems that these mysterious boxes are also one of their targets!” Song Jian thought to himself.

Once again, he glanced at the box floating in the sky. It appeared suspended in the air, motionless, descending at an extremely slow speed.

After a moment’s hesitation, Song Jian leaped from the building, following the NPC professionals.

Soon, Song Jian followed the NPC professionals to a graveyard built within the city.

“Shouldn’t burial sites like this be on the outskirts or in the mountains? Using such a large piece of land as a graveyard, what were the people at the time thinking?” Song Jian, looking at the densely packed tombstones in front of him, couldn’t help but comment.

“The lamb that believes in God will return to God’s embrace!”

Inscribed on the arch of the gateway guarded by two stone angel statues were two sentences. A tarnished metal cross stood on top of the semi-arched entrance.

Song Jian looked up into the sky. The floating box was slowly descending into the depths of the graveyard. Several NPC professionals were standing in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary in the cemetery, eyeing the box in the sky intently.

The graveyard gates were wide open, and much of the surrounding fence had collapsed. Even most of the marble tombstones inside were broken, and some areas even bore signs of having been dug up.

Song Jian didn’t move forward. Instead, he stood around three to four hundred meters away from those NPC professionals and quietly watched them.

“It’s a little bit too quiet here…” Song Jian frowned slightly and scanned his surroundings.

At that moment, a semi-transparent figure radiating a white light emerged from a tombstone. From a distance, it looked like a ball of white ghostly fire.

“Mutated Soul, Level 30, Vitality Points: 2800/2800, Characteristics: Soul Body, Null, Skills: Soul Spikes.”

“A level thirty ordinary monster with these attributes is almost on par with a level twenty BOSS.” Song Jian couldn’t help but exclaim, holding his breath, fearing that the monster would detect him and start a fight, alerting the NPC professionals in the distance.

This Mutated Soul resembled a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl. For a moment after emerging from the graveyard, it seemed somewhat confused, its eyes lifeless as it looked around. Then, it seemed attracted by the NPC professionals’ aura and slowly drifted toward them.

In a short while, dozens of Mutated Souls emerged from the graveyard. Most of them drifted toward the NPC professionals, but a few were attracted by Song Jian’s living aura, due to their proximity to him and came his way.

Song Jian, staring at the two Mutated Souls drifting towards him, began to feel nervous. In the game, the ghosts’ names and attributes were highlighted in yellow, indicating they were not monsters that attack proactively.

However, as they got closer and closer to Song Jian, their names turned light red. The originally white soul light also started to acquire a blood color, and their calm, blank faces began to twist grotesquely.

Initially, they were instinctively attracted by Song Jian’s living aura, but once they got closer, the souls became violent and evolved into monsters that launched the first attack.

Song Jian gasped and looked toward the NPC professionals in the distance. They seemed to understand the traits of these Mutated Souls. They readied their weapons in prepared positions in anticipation of the monsters closing in on them.

At the moment, Song Jian didn’t want them to notice his presence. With a thought, his whole body transformed into a shadow, and he ran into the distance. In no time, he left the range where the two Mutated Souls could track him.

The Mutated Souls, which had taken on a blood-red glow, slowly faded back in color and regained their initial ignorant state once they lost their target.

After staying still for a while, they instinctively set off towards the NPC professionals once more.

Lute looked up anxiously at the box that hovered motionlessly in mid-air, growling under his breath, “Damn it, why isn’t it falling down!”

Sophie looked at Lute, the half-beastman covered in fur, a disdainful look in her eyes, and replied coldly, “It’s a gift from the gods. You should be grateful, not whining like you are now!”

“I only care about the proof of job advancement inside. All other items can be yours!” A humanoid creature covered in wooden texture glanced coldly at the others.

“Hmph, you’d better hope you’re blessed by the gods then. Out of hundreds of boxes, only a few contain proofs of job advancement. How can you be so sure this box contains what you want?” A nearby NPC professional laughed with an evil grin.

“If there’s none, then all the items will belong to you!” The creature, who looked like a treant, declared.

The remaining NPC professionals exchanged a look, appearing relieved. From all of them, only this treant-like creature was of level thirty. The rest were only level twenty-seven or eight, hence their demand for “proof of job advancement” was less urgent.