Late at night, a cemetery, and a brand-new entrenching shovel.
Digging up a grave?
This thought flashed through Bai Ci's mind almost instantly.
Standing in a graveyard, holding an entrenching shovel, and surrounded by a ring of gravestones—she couldn't think of any other possibility besides digging up a grave.
To be safe, Bai Ci first opened her Rain's Message panel to see what kind of eccentric her Rain's Message NPC would be this time, starting her off in a place like this.
【Rain's Message NPC: Unbound; Binding Guide (Click to open)】
Something new. She clicked it.
The next second, several pale blue light arrows resembling game cursors materialized out of thin air. After hovering for a moment, they slowly drifted down and settled on five of the twelve graves.
So she really did have to dig.
Bai Ci's suspicion was confirmed. She wasn't particularly surprised, but the sheer absurdity of the situation didn't lessen.
Closing the Rain's Message panel, she slowly scanned the twelve gravestones, deciding to examine the inscriptions on each one first. Perhaps she could find some useful clues.
Gripping the entrenching shovel, she walked over to the closest gravestone, which she decided to call Grave Number One for now.
Gravestone Number One was relatively intact, and the engraving was quite clear, recording some information about the deceased: Li Juan, female, aged twenty-eight, died in a fire.
Bai Ci noted down the information and kept walking.
The second gravestone: Zheng Ba, male, aged thirty-two, died in a fire. A very new pink gift box sat in front of the gravestone.
The third gravestone: Liu Ziwei, female, aged twenty-one, died in a fire.
The fourth gravestone: Wang Hao, male, aged twenty-two, died in a fire. The gift box in front of it was blue.
...
Bai Ci went from grave to grave, carefully reading the inscriptions on each one.
After examining all twelve gravestones, she gathered a crucial piece of information: every single one of the deceased had died in a fire. There were no exceptions.
At the same time, she also figured out why she had to choose five out of the twelve.
The five graves highlighted by the pale blue cursors all belonged to male owners, while the remaining seven unmarked graves belonged entirely to females.
Of course. Rain's Message only bound with the opposite sex.
Even if Rain's Message bound with an incredibly gorgeous and delicate beauty one day, make no mistake—it would still be a man. That was just how the skill's code was written.
Furthermore, as she completed her lap, she had gathered five gift boxes of different colors but identical sizes from the front of the five highlighted graves.
The boxes were brand new, looking as if they had just been placed there. They bore no trace of weather damage, making them look completely out of place against the weathered, ancient gravestones and the desolate graveyard.
Should she open these gift boxes?
In theory, she should be careful. What if opening them meant making a choice? Or what if opening them summoned something?
But in reality, Bai Ci scanned the graveyard once more and found no other clues.
The progression of the instance had clearly reached the point where she needed to open the gift boxes to move forward.
Of course, another option was to walk into the woods. However, the pitch-black shadows of the forest gave off a direct sense of danger and the unknown. Her intuition told her it was best not to venture in.
She was holding a shovel, not a map or a compass. Wandering blindly into the woods like a headless chicken would be a far more dangerous choice.
Bai Ci untied the black ribbons on the gift boxes and opened them one by one.
Nothing happened. Inside were only five items, arranged neatly and quietly, visible at a glance.
The first item, from the blue box, was a stack of neatly folded hell bank notes. The paper was coarse, printed with a blurry pattern that resembled real-world joss paper, though the portrait printed on it was different.
The second item, from the pink box, was a paper flower folded from white paper. The paper was thin, and the petals were layered to look like a night-blooming cereus. It was quite delicate, though it looked rather ominous.
The third item, from the black box, was a half-empty bottle of nail polish. The bottle was black, and the cap wasn't screwed on tightly, leaving a layer of thick, sticky red smeared around the neck.
The fourth item, from the red box, was a pair of red shoes—specifically, ten-centimeter stiletto high heels. The size was very small, and the upper was made of smooth satin. They didn't look like something anyone could walk in, in more ways than one.
The final item, from the green box, was a leaf bookmark. The leaf was oval-shaped and deep green, with neatly trimmed edges. It had no text or patterns on it.
It seemed like a one-out-of-five choice, but in reality, she could only take one.
The leaf bookmark was the most normal-looking item of the five. It felt cool in her hand and had a very pleasant texture.
Bai Ci hesitated for a moment, then picked up the leaf bookmark and gently slipped it into her pocket.
Since she didn't know what these items were used for, choosing the most normal one was the safest bet.
After making her choice, still nothing happened.
But when Bai Ci stood up and looked at the five highlighted graves again, the cursors on four of them had disappeared. Only the one corresponding to the green box remained marked as diggable.
She took a deep breath, picked up her entrenching shovel, and walked over to that grave.
The grave mound wasn't very high, and the soil was relatively loose. It didn't look like an ancient grave, but judging by the neat grass and wild flowers growing on it, it wasn't brand new either.
Grasping the handle of the entrenching shovel with both hands, Bai Ci drove the blade into the soil and pried upward, scooping out a large chunk of dirt.
She didn't move fast, but her movements were steady. She took brief rests every few scoops to conserve her stamina as much as possible.
Shovel by shovel, she slowly dug a small pit into the mound. As she kept tossing dirt aside, the pit grew deeper and wider.
After digging for about ten minutes, the blade hit something hard with a loud clack, a feeling entirely different from striking dirt.
Found it.
Bai Ci slowed down, carefully clearing away the surrounding dirt.
Soon, a black urn appeared at the bottom of the pit.
The urn wasn't large and appeared to be made of wood, without any carvings or patterns. As for anything else, Bai Ci wasn't an expert and couldn't tell much more.
She set down the entrenching shovel and lifted the urn out of the pit.
The urn was very light. Holding it in her arms, she felt a slight chill.
The moment she picked up the urn, the Rain's Message panel, which had been displaying "Unbound," popped up automatically. The information on it had finally changed.
【Rain's Message NPC: Fu Liu I; Appearance: Short black hair, tear mole; Identity: "Performer" trapped in the theater; Relationship with Player: ... (Click to expand); Stats: Stamina 3, Spirit 12, Agility 8; Special Skill: Let the Show Begin (The curtain rises, the clamor begins. The actors are in place, the chess game has started. Cry or laugh, go mad or wild, enjoy yourselves as you please. As for the ending—an offering to the highest one.); Status: Soul form, bound, self-extinguishing】
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