Chapter 1 Rules

In this ink-like sea, there are countless ships drifting.

 A canoe for one person only,

 Or a ferry carrying many people,

 Occasionally, you can see large ships with hundreds of people on board.

 However, no matter which ship the people are on, they are all in a state of confusion.

　　Their memories are being slowly swept away by the sea. No one knows where they will end up, and no one knows that they have died.

However,

　　A lighthouse emerged from the sea that was supposed to lead to the kingdom of death, half-hidden in the mist.

The light from the top happened to fall on a wooden boat.

　　Brilliant pulling,

 The wooden boat carried the young people on it and leaned towards the lighthouse together.

 As the light shines brighter and stronger, the dark eyes embedded in the young man's face are slowly fading and becoming brighter.

 Gradually feel the burning sensation from the light,

 When the canoe got close to a certain distance, hot streaks penetrated his head. It carries a voice, like a call from the world of the living.

Buzz!

There is no longer a dark sea in front of us,

 Instead of it was an old wooden table covered with wrinkles.

 The young man gradually opened his eyes, his pupils facing an old-fashioned kerosene lamp in the upper right corner of the wooden table.

 The fire burning in it happens to overlap with the beacon of consciousness.

also,

  Under the arms resting on his head, there was a rough touch of paper, corresponding to a piece of yellowed paper with scrawled writing.

There is also a water glass placed on the left side of the desk, with a strange-smelling transparent liquid remaining inside.

Seeing such a strange scene,

The young man's first thought was neither fear nor curiosity...but an extremely important thought that emerged from his subconscious mind:

"my paper!"

 The last memory in his brain was of staying in the laboratory all night revising his graduation thesis.

at the same time,

 This memory was accompanied by severe angina pectoris and confusion at the end.

Thinking of this, the young man realized the problem.

 “Did I die suddenly?”

 Looking at his hands,

There are a lot of wear marks all over the yellowed palms, there are a lot of calluses on the fingers, and the fingernails are filled with dirt similar to dirt.

The young man recognized at a glance that this was by no means the old friend who had been single with him for decades.

 “I...I traveled through time?”

The young man’s name is Yi Chen, a struggling graduate student majoring in chemical engineering.

As someone who likes to read various novels and play games, he immediately thought of a keyword - [travel].

 When coming to this conclusion,

 No anxiety, no panic,

 On the contrary, he showed an expression of great relief, and even his whole body relaxed... because it felt so good to not have to write a paper, and not have to worry about review and subsequent defense.

 After coming out of the orphanage, he has lived a single life for twenty-four years, and he doesn’t have much nostalgia for the original world.

but,

 This kind of relaxation did not last long,

 The rancid smell floating in the air made the nerves tense again.

 “We have to figure out the situation at hand as soon as possible...”

Yi Chen shook his head, stood up and looked around the wooden house, which was no more than 40 square meters.

 Left side of the desk,

 There is a single wooden bed placed close to the side wall.

 Obvious mold marks can be seen at the foot of the bed, which is closely related to the humidity in the wooden house.

also,

 The whole wooden house does not have any window design.

The only connection with the outside world is a thick gray iron door, which is tightly embedded in the door frame.

 The old gray paint, which is extremely rough and has a bumpy feel, may have been applied for forty or fifty years.

 The key to the iron door is hanging on Yi Chen's waistband.

On the wall beside the door, there is also a landline phone with a rather period look.

In Yi Chen’s memory, this kind of telephone was only seen in an orphanage when he was a child...and was completely eliminated in the subsequent era when smart phones became popular.

Phone cords wrapped in rubber extend upwards and out of the roof to connect to the outside world.

 It is also worth mentioning that,

There is no light source in the entire wooden house, and the only light-emitting device is a portable kerosene lamp on the wooden table.

Such a simple, sealed wooden house design, coupled with the rotten smell in the air, reminded Yi Chen of an unlucky thing - a "coffin".

 It was as if I was sealed in a wooden house-style coffin,

 Back to the wooden table,

 Since I don’t have a mobile phone or a mirror, I can’t check my appearance.

I probably reached out and touched my face. Except for the dirty stubble, my overall facial features felt pretty good and seemed to be more handsome than my original self.

  Judging from the roughness of the skin, the age should not be more than thirty years old.

 The next step is to explore the details.

Looking back to the original wooden table, he stared at the [letter] left on it.

 “English? Is this a foreign country?”

Yi Chen took out the standard of studying papers on weekdays and browsed them quickly.

 The first sentence of the first line is written with a disturbing word - [die]

As he continued to read, the words on the letter crawled into his body like maggots, making him feel uncomfortable all over.

I'm going to die, I'm going to die for sure.

 But at least, I still have the right to choose the way of death.

Thinking about it carefully, it seems that there is nothing worth cherishing in this world. The only person I am sorry for is Dean Fran. I messed up my first job after coming out of the orphanage.

 I am always careless like this, and I also made mistakes like this in the orphanage.

 Item 3 in the manual...I read it every day, but I still made an error.

I have nothing to say. I just hope that people who read this letter can forgive me for my cowardice and incompetence. I really dare not face the [results] of my mistakes.

 If you can, please burn my body.

 Don’t bury me here! ≯

 “Suicide note?”

Yi Chen grabbed the water glass from the corner of the wooden table and smelled the liquid smell remaining in it.

The basic situation of the original owner of this body can be completely determined.

“This guy also spent his childhood in an orphanage? Because of similar experiences, similar appearance and body shape, and the overlap of death, did it happen that I could time-travel into him?

　You knew you were going to die, so you chose to commit suicide by taking poison?

 Just because you don’t follow a certain rule, you need to pay the price of death? What the **** is this place? "

 In-depth analysis allowed Yi Chen to smell the uneasiness and crisis filling the air.

 At the same time, he also thought about his own ‘dilemma’.

“Since I have traveled through time, [the mess] naturally needs to be dealt with by me... This guy doesn’t know how to write more useful information in the suicide note.

 What are the dangers after making a mistake?

 A killer from a certain organization will come to eliminate me? Or is something weird coming to your door? "

Thinking of this, Yi Chen looked around again.

Even if the entire wooden house is sealed like a coffin, there is still no sense of security.

 “Calm down~ I’ve already died once, there’s nothing to be afraid of.

 First look for the [Manual] mentioned in the suicide note to see what this guy has committed and what his job is. "

 Open the drawer of the wooden table,

 A map made of parchment and a special manual sealed in black fur were placed inside.

 According to the map,

 This is a 【cemetery】

 The wooden house is located in the center,

 Surrounded by cemeteries No. 1-6 in a clockwise direction,

In addition, there is a strange Cemetery No. 7 in the corner of the map, which is completely separated and requires walking through a path of more than 100 meters to reach it.

“Is this a cemetery? Is this guy a gravekeeper? No wonder there is a faint smell of decay even inside the wooden house.”

Yi Chen turned to pick up the manual containing important information.

  【Employee Handbook (Easton Township-Cemetery)】

 The first page records the working hours arrangement in detail.

Gravekeepers need to inspect the cemetery with the corresponding serial number at a fixed period, for example:

 The inspection time of Cemetery No. 1 is 7:00-9:30.

The inspection time of Cemetery No. 2 is 1:00-3:00.

etc

in addition,

 Cemetery No. 7 has no inspection time and does not need to be inspected. It is a special area.

 The schedule is barely normal.

When Yi Chen turned to the second page of the manual, his expression immediately became solemn.

　　The bright red font marked with an asterisk appears as soon as it comes up.

  *Please read each of the following cemetery rules carefully and memorize them by heart. Failure to do so or making mistakes in any of them will lead to disaster, and you will pay a price beyond death. *

【Inspect each cemetery strictly according to the schedule, and the difference between the start and end time must be less than one minute】

  Ⅱ.【When inspecting Cemetery No. 2, make sure that the cross tombstones are not in an inverted shape or have items similar to goat skulls hanging on them.

 If the above situation occurs, the tombstone must be restored and debris must be removed during the inspection period. 】

  Ⅲ.【When inspecting Cemetery No. 4, it is necessary to ensure that the number and order of tombstones are consistent with the original ones.

 If there are abnormalities in the number or order, the excess graves must be removed during the inspection, or the reversed or misplaced tombstones must be rearranged. 】

To facilitate memory, the original thumbnail of Cemetery No. 4 is recorded in the appendix of the manual.

  IV.【Before carrying out the inspection mission of Cemetery No. 5, be sure to make sure there is no sound inside.

 Once any form of strange noise is heard, the inspection time needs to be postponed by one hour. If there is still sound after one hour, the information needs to be reported to the manager. 】

【If you find a newly delivered corpse at the cemetery gate, you need to carefully check the corpse truck to ensure that the correct 'organization logo' is printed on the bottom.

If the mark is correct, you need to follow the numerical marks on the surface of the body and transport it to the entrance of the corresponding cemetery. The body will be buried automatically.

If no signs are found, or if the signs are incorrect, please send the corpse truck and the corpse on it to Cemetery No. 7 during daytime hours. 】

  *Organizational identification is detailed in the appendix.

  Ⅵ.【The rest of the cemeteries only need basic inspections to ensure that the tombs are not damaged and there are no foreign objects moving around. 】

  Ⅶ.【During non-inspection periods, stay in the safe house as much as possible to reduce the possibility of accidents. 】

【If something goes wrong at work and disaster strikes, the organization is willing to give the employee a chance to survive.

 Pry open the floor under the bed, obtain self-defense items, and deal with and solve the problem. 】

 (End of this chapter)