He hesitated for a moment, his eyes following the movement of the swelling blanket as if it was moving on its own.
He approached cautiously and noticed a solid shape hiding under the patched cloth…
Suddenly, the features of the corpse appeared before him.
He froze in place,not daring to get any closer, as he observed the details of the corpse: the hands stretched out motionless, and the deformed blanket wrapped around it as if trying to hide something even more terrifying.
The foul smell grew stronger with every step he took closer.
He took a step back, his heart beating fast, and his hand stained with blood from the bleeding that hadn't stopped yet.
He held his head with his hands for a moment,thinking:
"What is this place?And who is this? And what happened to him…?"
Then he looked more closely at the injuries on the corpse and whispered to himself:
"It seems something hit him…something resembling a supernatural force… But does a supernatural force truly exist in this world? I don't know anything about it yet. So I can't judge yet!"
He took a deep breath, his eyes cautiously scanning the corpse:
"But…I have to examine the corpse… I will plunder everything from it… hehehe." Xiao Ping laughed a devilish laugh.
"But don't worry, after I examine you, I'll make sure you get a proper burial." He pulled back his devilish laughs and replaced them with a resolute attitude.
And he began the examination.
He saw that the corpse was wearing a decorated combat suit with intricate designs,indicating he was a middle-aged man, his hair a mix of white and black.
The first thing he did was cover his nose with a towel, as he could no longer bear it, and his pale green eyes were tearing up and had turned red from the intensity of the smell.
A cold wind blew again from the broken window, but this time it brought the fog into the hut, to the point that everything seemed to disappear before Xiao Ping's eyes.
"Damn… this isn't fog, just smoke from the factories." He said that as he scurried outside to inhale the fresh air.
"Cough… cough…"
He was coughing profusely;the foul smells from the corpse and the smoke made things worse.
"Damn it… tomorrow I'll go to this factory and settle accounts!" He clenched his wounded hand, causing himself pain, but he didn't care.
He couldn't see anything, and the entrance was about ten steps away, so he quickly went back before he got lost or fell off the cliff.
"Hehehe… nothing will stop me now." He bared a devilish smile mixed with strength and determination.
Slowly and very carefully, he slipped his hand into one of the pockets on the side of the corpse's combat suit. He found nothing, but he continued moving his hand to other pockets.
"Man, how many things did you have to choose such a suit full of pockets?" He muttered sarcastically to himself.
After the sarcasm, he continued moving his hand very cautiously, because even if it was a corpse, what if it turned into a zombie? These were his thoughts, because he hadn't yet gone out into the world to face it!.
Suddenly he stopped and pulled out some strange scrolls. He set them aside because he felt something metallic. He moved his hand more and pulled it out… it was an antique watch resembling expensive vintage watches.
Its hands were extremely beautiful and attractive, and it had a thick chain about 20 centimeters long.
Xiao Ping examined the watch more and discovered words written in a strange language, so he didn't understand any of it.
"I think it's a language specific to this world only… but that doesn't mean I'll throw away this antique watch, I might sell it or keep it." He said that while thinking.
Then he put his hand into the corpse's inner pocket under the suit again, and pulled out something strange.
"Oh… what do we have here?" He muttered in surprise.
The thing resembled a cube, with strange incantations or mysterious symbols on it. Xiao Ping refrained from trying to read them, as he might risk bringing something dangerous upon himself.
After a few minutes, he finished the examination, and nothing remained in the corpse's suit except for a few things:
A strangely designed pistol.
The antique watch, which he decided to keep with him.
A strange pack of cigarettes, unlike any he knew, with a lighter.
And the most important thing he found, the cube with the strange incantations.
He stood for a moment contemplating everything he had gathered, feeling that these things were not ordinary and that they might hold a mysterious secret in this new world.
"So, time to fulfill my promise… I will bury you." He muttered to himself.
He first went out of the hut and took fifteen steps forward, counting them carefully so as not to get lost in this thick smoke.
He then returned to the hut to look for a shovel, but found nothing.
"Damn…this world only wants to see me suffering." He shouted loudly. He was angry, and at the same time he realized how much the previous owner of this body had suffered.
"I have no other choice…" He said to himself, and went out again, and returned after counting fifteen steps before stopping.
He began digging, using his hands. He didn't want to break his promise, even to a dead person. And even if he was dead, Xiao Ping had gotten many things from him, half of them valuable; he even took a pistol from him to defend himself. So he decided to sacrifice everything to fulfill his promise.
He kept digging, and his hands were bleeding from reopening the wounds he got from breaking the mirror, and his heart started hurting because of the bullet he hadn't removed yet.
He gritted his teeth and endured the pain gripping him:
"Damn…huff… huff… huff…" He was panting as before, even more.
The body was very weak, couldn't bear anything… even walking four steps exhausted him. His previous owner had suffered from malnutrition, so his face was very pale.
After two hours, and the time now being eight in the evening, it became difficult to see due to the darkness of the night and the smoke emitted from the nearby factories.
Xiao Ping stood up, his entire body covered in mud, and some of it was smeared with blood where it mixed with the mud, but he didn't care about that. He advanced towards the hut, counting his steps.
He entered the hut and searched for some wood to light a fire, to be able to see the path. And since the hut was dark, he used the lighter to illuminate at specific intervals, so as not to exhaust it, and strangely, it showed no signs of running out.
He went into the kitchen, but found only charred wood inside the stove and a pot filled with water, which Xiao Ping ignored.
Then he returned to the room and covered his nose with his sleeve, as the smell was terrible, and even though the windows were open for ventilation, the smell of the corpse was unbearable.
He headed to the small desk and looked at the floor. He saw the broken chair, so he took some wood from it, then went outside.
Darkness and fog covered the path and obstructed vision.
He placed the first piece of wood near the entrance, then counted four more steps and placed a second piece. He repeated this process until he reached the fifteenth, and placed two pieces: one on the left side of the grave, and the other on the right side.
Then he started lighting them, taking advantage of the fact that the smoke contained carbon, which is highly flammable, making it easier to light the wood.
And when he reached the fifteenth step, he looked back and saw three small columns of light flickering in the darkness and fog, as if marking the end of his temporary task.
He took a deep breath and advanced towards the corpse. He had tied a piece of cloth over his nose and mouth.
"Swoosh…" A cold wind blew over his tired body.
His short black and golden hair shimmered as he walked towards the hut with the cold wind.
He entered the hut, wearing a black coat filled with mud and stained with blood spots, and the white shirt looked worse, but he didn't care now, and moved towards the bed.
He tried to carry the corpse, but he couldn't; his body was exhausted… but this didn't make him despair. He gritted his teeth and lifted it with all his strength, and veins appeared on the forearms on his face.
Xiao Ping frowned a little, for his feet were trembling, and his stamina was decreasing. He hurried towards the exit, carrying the corpse vertically so it wouldn't hit the door, as it was very tall.
With every step, his face grew redder, his veins more prominent, and the wounds bled more than they did while digging. The pain increased, but he only saw his goal: to bury this man as quickly as possible, to fulfill his promise.
He advanced step by step, until only seven steps remained, and at that moment, black clouds gathered in the sky and emitted a roar:
"Dooom…"
Lightning split the sky and lit it up, and rain fell, causing the smoke to disperse and revealing the crimson moon illuminating the area in front of Xiao Ping.
This was a good thing for him, but also bad; good because it allowed him to see, and bad because the rain would extinguish the wood, and the hut had a hole in the roof, but he didn't care about that.
He kept advancing, and the rain fell mercilessly, washing the blood and mud from his body, and his black and golden hair became completely wet, and also washed the corpse in his hands.
He advanced, and only two steps remained, but he suddenly felt he could no longer endure:
"I'm sorry…but it seems I can't do this."
Xiao Ping gathered all his strength and threw the corpse into the grave, which had filled with rainwater seeping from the nearby slopes and trees.
He knelt down, gathered the soil with his hands, and pushed it into the grave, then pushed more with his foot until it was completely closed. He looked left and right and noticed a flower with a sky-blue violet color, strange with its multiple colors, near a medium-sized rock under a giant tree. He approached it and placed the rock at the head of the grave, and the flower in front of it, as a simple touch of beauty amidst the tragedy.
"Oh,I forgot… it will be beautiful for this moment."
He ran towards the hut and returned carrying the hunting hat, and an ID card fell to the ground without him noticing.
He advanced towards the grave, removed the hat with his right hand and lowered it to his waist, half of his hair covering his right eye due to the rain, so he could only see with his left eye. The crimson moonlight reflected in his pale green eye as he looked at the grave.
He sighed and said with a sad expression:
"I don't know you,sir, but you did me a great favor. I needed these things and I found them with you.
I don't know if you'd be upset if you could hear me now,but thank you… whatever your name is, rest in peace.
I will study those scrolls and avenge you if I can,and if I can't, it's because I am weak."
Then he put the hat back on and returned to the hut. He moved the bed to the other corner, cleaned it of the corpse smell, got rid of the blanket, and replaced it with the black coat to prevent rainwater from leaking through the holes in the roof.
He hurried to the kitchen, took the pot, got rid of the water in it, and placed it directly under the roof to prevent water leakage, then took a bucket and placed it in the other corner. There was a clear and annoying dripping sound, and yet the water kept dripping.
The hut was in complete darkness, and Xiao Ping had only the moonlight and the lighter, but he refrained from using it and decided to rely on the moonlight alone.
He only heard the dripping of rain on the roof, on the pot, and on the bucket.
He threw his body on the bed, mentally and physically exhausted from transferring to this world, and from his hard work digging and carrying the corpse, but he quickly pushed all thoughts out of his head, closed his eyes, covered himself with the coat, and slept.