"Skreeee—!"
The wyvern circled down and landed, and Singo walked over, dragging the half-giant's corpse with one hand.
At a glance, he spotted two figures at the back of the queue. Dressed in red-and-black tailcoats, their complexions were ghastly pale, and one carried a wooden coffin on his back.
Their identities were obvious—members of Nocturne, vampire players.
Singo called out tentatively, "Lang-beast?"
"Yo? If it isn't Sing-dog!"
The man turned around, revealing that irritatingly smug, familiar face that made anyone want to punch it square in the jaw.
Sure enough, this was one of the officers of Nocturne, famous for all kinds of unhinged death-seeking antics: Langlibaitiao.
Beside him stood the miserable player carrying the coffin—Anyezhilang, a newbie who had been duped into joining Nocturne.
"Tsk, you guys sure moved fast."
"Back at you."
Langlibaitiao craned his neck to look at the massive body bag Singo was dragging, practically drooling with envy.
Human corpses could only be turned into ordinary zombies, but this thing would definitely produce a monstrosity like a giant zombie. If nothing else, summoning it onto the field would be utterly imposing.
With naked jealousy, Langlibaitiao said, "Damn, where'd you get a big guy like that? And it's still fresh!"
Singo replied flatly, "Just got lucky. Cleared a bandit den, and it happened to have a half-giant boss inside."
"You lucky bastard! How the hell did you stumble into luck like that?!" Langlibaitiao lamented bitterly.
Singo raised an eyebrow and looked at the wooden coffin on Anyezhilang's back. "Don't just talk about me. Looks like you brought plenty of loot yourself."
The coffin was well over two meters long and packed with who-knew-how-many skeletons. It had to weigh several hundred kilograms, leaving Anyezhilang drenched in sweat under its crushing bulk.
"Well, of course!"
Langlibaitiao puffed out his chest, proudly slapping the wooden coffin and nearly knocking Anyezhilang off his feet.
"We are noble kindred, aristocracy of the night, born undead monarchs! Getting our hands on a few corpses and skeletons is child's play, isn't it?"
"See this?"
"Inside this very coffin lie three generations of Leo Bosque's ancestors! I refuse to believe there isn't a powerful fighter among them!"
Hearing this, even Singo broke into a cold sweat.
This guy really was an absolute menace!
Not only had he wiped out their entire clan, but he was also digging up their ancestors to turn into servants.
Immediately afterward, however, Singo felt a twinge of annoyance—how had he not thought of such a brilliant idea himself?
Though the grave goods in the ancestral tombs of the northern nobility had been looted bare, the bones were still there. Who knew how many transcendents were among them?
Just then, a barbarian player carrying a stone sarcophagus further up the line turned around and snarled, "Fuck! No wonder there was jack shit left in House Bosque's crypt! You bastard stole it all!"
Langlibaitiao crossed his arms and flashed a sleazy grin. "Stole? Can what Nocturne does really be called stealing? Everyone relies on their own ability! If I hadn't taken those bones, wouldn't they have just fallen into the hands of an opportunist like you?"
"Hmph!"
"Don't think desecrating Bosque's ancestral graves makes you special. I brought eight generations of House Norton's ancestors! Frost giant blood isn't necessarily worse than your Lion of the North!"
The burly man snorted, turned back around with the stone sarcophagus on his shoulder, and refused to speak another word to Langlibaitiao.
"Heh heh..."
"I just want to say—everyone here is trash. None of you understand the profound wonders of the caster master race."
The speaker was a tall, slender man in an elegant suit, who tipped his top hat politely.
He had handsome features, with a pair of delicate silver-framed spectacles perched on his tall nose, but his face wore a deeply unsettling, perverse smile that clashed horribly with his refined appearance.
The nickname hovering above his head was unmistakable: Yuzhongchengchi.
Murmurs immediately broke out among the players present.
"Isn't that Yuzhongchengchi?"
"That psycho actually showed up..."
"What a sick bastard..."
"Classic him!"
This Yuzhongchengchi was infamous on the forums. He had accepted a quest to help a little tiefling girl find her parents, only to discover along the way that they had already died in an accident.
Shamelessly, he brought their corpses back to turn in the quest and claim the reward. Then, right in front of the child, he resurrected her parents as zombies. The result was naturally horrifying.
Afterward, he even posted on the forum:
*I reunited the kid with her parents. Why wasn't she happy?*
*Sigh, it's so hard trying to be a good person.*
Following that post, players universally recognized him as a tier-zero degenerate.
"This time, I have assembled the ancestral remains of the Northlands' Three Great Houses—Bosque, Lakeman, and Norvell! By turning them all into undead retainers, I will surely restore necromancers to glory!"
Yuzhongchengchi raised his staff. Three skeletons materialized in midair, orbiting him in a slow circle, striking the surrounding players dumb.
"Aren't you just a grave robber too?" Langlibaitiao shouted. "Dude, are you playing Pokémon here or what?"
After a long pause, Singo gently clapped his hands and muttered, "Truly, the world's 'talents' are as plentiful as river carp!"
He had thought poisoning people and stealing their bodies was already pretty ruthless, but compared to this bunch, he was an amateur.
Just then, a masked player at the very front of the line, carrying a large bag of corpses, drawled, "Heh heh. I just want to find a wife."
The nickname above his head read: Wanglingqishi.
"..."
Silence fell over the crowd once more.
"Bro, try being human for once..."
Even the shameless Langlibaitiao couldn't help but sigh, waving his hand at him in defeat.
Suddenly, the heavy iron gates of the Undead Research Institute slowly swung open, sending a ripple of excitement through the queue.
"Look! It's open!"
"Nice, nice! I can't wait to see what my future undead will look like!"
"Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this—"
"Shit, keep that freak away from me."
"Once we convert these Bosque ancestors, our Nocturne guild will be unstoppable!"
A human dressed in a white lab coat stepped out—Researcher Magxi, flanked by two towering wights.
Beaming, he bowed to the players and said warmly, "Thank you all, Starfallen, for visiting the Undead Research Institute. Please enter in an orderly fashion. Director Orestes will perform the undead transformations for you."
Standing at the front of the line, Wanglingqishi was visibly thrilled. He hefted his body bag and moved to enter, only to be stopped by Magxi.
The two hulking wights guarding behind him stepped forward aggressively, letting out low, guttural growls as they raised their greataxes.
"Admission fee: five gold coins."
The researcher extended an open palm, his smile unchanged—though in the eyes of the players, it seemed increasingly terrifying.
This guy was a smiling tiger!
A collective gasp rippled through the crowd.
Chapter 409