The Lord Demon King is Unfathomable!

Jingluo Nanbei: "Doesn't it look like one?"

Andy nodded slightly, speaking in a low voice.

"Mm..."

Jingluo Nanbei smiled and continued speaking in a casual tone.

"Then what do you think demons should look like?"

Andy hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he whispered the story passed around the village...

including how demons would snatch disobedient children and how they'd turn human offspring into skewered BBQs.

After listening to his story, Jingluo Nanbei simply smiled and then continued to speak.

"Did someone tell you this, or did you see it with your own eyes?"

Andy spoke softly.

"Uncle Brook told me... He was an adventurer before."

Shark East and West chimed in, speaking in a teasing tone.

"So would you rather believe what he told you, or believe your own eyes?"

Andy hesitated for a while before honestly replying.

"I don't know... The adults always say you're not good people and told me to stay away from anyone with horns on their head, but I feel like you're actually not bad. At least you didn't chase me away. On the other hand, those guys on horseback, they obviously don't have horns, yet they drove us out of the village..."

Xiao Wan and Shark East and West exchanged a glance.

Jingluo thought for a long while before speaking in a gentle tone.

"When you start thinking this way, it shows you've grown up, and you've realized that black and white are not the norms of this world. Instead, the shades in between are."

Andy looked at her with a half-understanding gaze, letting the chilly wind brush against his face.

After a long moment, he mustered the courage to speak.

"Can you... tell me your story?"

Jingluo Nanbei smiled and said.

"Of course... Once we're back by the warm fire, I'll tell you slowly."

...

As the "Jing-Shark-Wan" trio escorted the two stray human children back, a commotion erupted at the construction site at the foot of Beifeng Mountain.

Due to someone slipping, a domino effect unfolded, followed by a loud crash. Snow piled on the wooden beams toppled down along with the collapsing framework.

Watching the wooden house collapse with a thundering boom, [Emotionally Stable], who had been laboring all day, couldn't hold back their frustration any longer. Just before the avalanche buried them, they let out a furious curse.

"F***—"

The "ing" of "f***ing hell" was swallowed up by a deluge of snow that filled their mouth while piercingly cold wind shot right through their hollow ribcage.

From the corner of their eye, they saw a massive wooden beam descending from above. It felt like someone had smashed their head with a sledgehammer, and the screen went black as they lost connection...

Several minutes later.

Four familiar skeletons emerged from the Northwind Mine's entrance, grumbling as they grabbed shovels to dig through the piled-up snow, retrieving their corpses from the wreckage.

Recovering one's body refunded a portion of the resurrection costs, and this routine was something they'd repeated so many times that words were no longer needed in the process.

Just building this one house had already cost them far too much.

If they weren't getting their skulls smashed by falling beams, they were breaking their spines by slipping off the half-built roof.

[Emotionally Stable] had never played such a hardcore game in their life.

If skeleton soldier death penalties weren't negligible and if there weren't other games as unique as this, they weren't even sure if they would've stuck around.

"MMP! Does this game seriously not have a one-click build function?!" Holding their shovel, [Urban Lifer] couldn't help but complain as they looked at the half-day's "effort" that still resembled a pile of trash.

Brushing the shattered snow off their face, [Soon Potato in the Office] wore a defeated look as well and said.

"+1. At this rate, I won't die in real life from office work. I'll die grinding in this game first."

[Want to be a Corpse] sighed and said.

"If only there were an auto-build feature."

Looking at the ruins scattered before them, the four skeleton soldiers fell into a speechless silence.

It's worth mentioning there were indeed skilled builders in this game.

For instance, construction experts who'd worked on real-life sites, renovation contractors running legit businesses, or old-timers capable of chiseling dovetail joints by hand.

Sadly, none of these people were them.

In the distance, the other construction site bustled with activity. Kilns were rising for brick firing, and a few hybrid-style brick-and-wood buildings were already taking shape in the swirling snow. All of that progress made the mess at their feet seem even bleaker and more pathetic by comparison.

Embarrassing, to say the least.

The Great Graveyard Project had been their brainchild to begin with, yet they—the so-called "original initiators"—hadn't made a single ounce of progress.

As [Emotionally Stable] debated whether or not to keep going, a slow, dragging voice suddenly came from nearby.

"What are you all doing? Corpse dumping?"

The Translation Crystal hanging on [Emotionally Stable]'s waist translated the NPC's sarcasm into language the players could understand.

The four players simultaneously turned their heads toward the voice, only to see a transparent ghost floating beneath a snowy tree.

Its head dangled like a morning star, with only a strip of skin and half a skull attached. Its eyeless sockets resembled two deep, dark voids.

Startled by the ghost's sudden appearance, all four skeletons jumped in fright. [Emotionally Stable] reacted the most dramatically, blurting out a scream.