Master of Kaidan

Chapter 7: Chapter 7 Labels

Listening to Old Li's words, Feng Xue felt awkward for a moment, but Old Li reacted first, shaking his head and saying,

"Well, I don't know if you're lucky or unlucky...anyway, talking about this is useless now..."

Feng Xue was infuriated by Old Li's enigmatic behavior, but he was more concerned about the "useless" information. So, he temporarily suppressed his desire to ask further and pulled the conversation back,

"So what does it mean to officially start working? And what are these 'tags'? How do you condense them?"

"This isn't something that can be explained in a short amount of time..." Old Li glanced at the corpse on the cart and then showed Feng Xue his work badge,

"For now, just finish the job. Then you can unlock the functions of the badge. Like this, you'll select the map, hold this magnifying glass, then enter 'Corpse Collector Old Li's House'. You can input this with your mouth or with your hand; there are no requirements for language or script. It mainly captures your consciousness. If you're confident in your concentration, you can just think about it in your mind, and that would be fine too."

As Old Li was speaking, he demonstrated to Feng Xue how to use the map function to find his house. Feng Xue, with his sharp eyes, also noticed items next to the map like "Account" and "Contacts."

"Is this really an intelligent machine?" Feng Xue found it absurd that Old Li, dressed in ancient clothes, was teaching him to use a smart device, but he immediately heard Old Li continue,

"Anyway, once you've dealt with the corpses, come find me at my house, and then I'll explain everything to you in detail. You just knock on the door."

Having said this, Old Li didn't give Feng Xue any more chances to ask questions and pulled his cart away toward the distance.

Watching his hurried figure, Feng Xue remembered the setting of this world where corpses could transform at any moment, and he quickened his pace. At the same time, he couldn't help but wonder why Old Li had stopped if he knew it was dangerous.

He certainly didn't think Old Li, who had already tricked him out of one-fifth of his life upon arrival, was the compassionate Holy Mother type.

...

After walking towards the wall for a while, Feng Xue saw that there was nobody around. He quickly ducked into an alley and swiftly started the refining process on the six corpses.

The refining result was good—only one of the six corpses failed, and the rest provided him with a total of 203 tower currency, and one element of "Female" and "Death" each.

"Out of nine corpses, two failed, resulting in three elemental outputs. I wonder if that's the usual rate, or if there are other hidden conditions..."

Feng Xue mused as he gazed at the seemingly sophisticated "Death" element. However, before he could ponder more deeply, a bizarre sensation spread from deep within his body.

It was an incredibly strange feeling, like a numbed arm slowly regaining circulation, a tangible flow emanating from his limbs and bones and restructuring within his body.

Despite never having had a similar experience, Feng Xue felt a peculiar sense of déjà vu, and once everything had settled, looking at the "Corpse Collector" tag inside his body, he finally understood the source of that feeling—

The process was exactly like when he had reforged his Sleeve Sword yesterday!

Although one could be seen directly and the other had to be felt, the principle behind both seemed to be interconnected. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Is this the so-called 'tag'?"

Feng Xue tried concentrating his attention on the "Corpse Collector" tag within him, and immediately a wealth of information flowed.

That might not be an accurate description, though, because the tag itself didn't exude information. It was more like an encyclopedia, filled with extensive data; when Feng Xue focused his consciousness on it, he could "read" the knowledge within it, much like reading a book.

It included basic information about the Corpse Collection job, such as how to determine if someone was truly dead, how to transport corpses more efficiently, and how to avoid infection from any pathogens the bodies might carry. In addition to that, it granted Feng Xue the ability to view others' tags and establish a connection with his work badge.

"No wonder Old Li said I would understand once I had condensed the tag..." Feng Xue felt the knowledge within the tag, took out his work badge, and as the power of the badge linked with the tag, a verification interface appeared—

[Please enter your username.]

Feng Xue thought for a moment and entered the two characters "小冯" (Xiao Feng), and with a twist on the interface, a new panel appeared before him.

It was a UI design very similar to that of a smartphone from his previous life, with a sleek dark background and four small squares labeled "Map," "Account," "Contacts," and "Browser."

But this browser wasn't for surfing the Internet; instead, it was similar to an e-reader, transforming the knowledge in the tags into easily understood text and pictures, facilitating learning and memorization.

Indeed, while the tag contained knowledge, it was just that—knowledge. To apply it effectively, he needed to learn on his own.

Without lingering, Feng Xue pressed the map button. Following the method Old Li had taught him earlier, he entered the search term, and soon, a red dot representing the "Corpse Collector Old Li's House" appeared in the southwest of the map.

"The southwest, huh... I thought he lived near my place..." As soon as Feng Xue spoke, he realized he was overthinking it. After all, considering the work notice he received today, Old Li probably showed up in City West yesterday because of a job, right?

Wandering for about fifteen minutes, Feng Xue reached a devastated residential area that was no different from where he originally lived, guided by the map.

The place corresponding to the so-called "Old Li's House" turned out to be a large container.

It was about twelve meters in length and less than two and a half meters in width and height, painted entirely in blue with a refined-looking security door on the side that gave off a post-apocalyptic punk vibe.

"Why do I feel this isn't reliable at all..." Although Feng Xue knew that in other countries, many people liked to convert various odd items (trucks, containers, caves, and even planes) into houses, this large container still felt somewhat unacceptable to Feng Xue, who was particularly attached to the idea of a house.

Nonetheless, considering this was an Otherworld, he still stepped forward and approached the door that looked somewhat legitimate, only noticing there was a card slot on it.

"Really, they use room cards?" Feng Xue grinned wryly, knocked on the door, and quickly Old Li's voice came from inside the container. But as the door opened, the scene inside was not what Feng Xue had expected...