adventurers in the sewers

Wow, you're actually quite the smooth talker!

Despite the tense situation, Louis still felt a strong urge to complain.

He also discovered that the rat moved before the corpse spoke.

The gray-haired rat is controlling the hero's speech. Does this mean that the hero's consciousness is not in the corpse, but in the rat?

With this thought in mind, Louis answered quickly:

"You've misunderstood. Miss Nora and I just happened to hear that you died in the sewers, and that's how we got here."

"Our goal is simple: we just want to take the treasure you have. We have no other intentions."

"If you're not willing, we can leave now. Please release Miss Nora."

The gray-haired rat tugged at the corpse's hair, and then the corpse said:

I don't believe it.

Louis: "..."

How can we talk if you say that?

Before Louis could reply, the hero's corpse began to speak again on its own.

"I hate the person who is hunting me down. With his cunning, he will definitely send many men to capture me. I will not trust anyone until I get my revenge."

"And the fact that I have transformed into an undead creature must never reach that person's ears."

The hero's corpse's eyeballs shifted slightly, staring intently at Louis.

Although the eye was lifeless, Louis could sense a strong killing intent emanating from it.

Is this a plan to silence witnesses?

Louis felt a chill run down his spine, ready to activate his "Scent Concealment" to escape at any moment, while earnestly advising him:

"Hero, turning into an undead creature for the sake of revenge—doesn't that betray your original aspirations as a hero?"

"Besides, every wrong has its perpetrator and every debt its debtor. You can't kill two innocent people just because you suspect us."

Louis's verbal sparring was merely a stopgap measure; he was simply trying to buy himself time to escape.

But to everyone's surprise, after hearing these words, the hero actually lowered his head slightly and began to think.

A few seconds later, the hero's corpse slowly spoke:

"I'm no longer a hero."

He pointed to the class-specific secret manual that had been extracted from his chest cavity and said:

"From the moment I died with only a burning desire for revenge left, the Hero's Codex ceased to belong to me. My heart and actions naturally do not need to follow the Hero's Way."

Louis's expression stiffened slightly.

Should we ultimately silence them?

But the next second, the hero's corpse changed its tone.

"However, I am still a hero, and it is not my wish to kill innocent people for revenge. I will give you a chance."

With that, he sheathed his sword, walked slowly to the edge of the iron chain bridge, and hoisted Nora onto the bridge.

The girl gripped the corpse's arm tightly, her fair face turning purplish-red.

Louis was startled by this scene and instinctively took a step forward.

Fortunately, the hero's corpse showed no sign of letting go. It slowly reached out its other hand, pried out the red gem embedded in its chest, which was the hero's secret manual, and held it up to the openwork of the iron chain bridge.

"Next, I will knock your companion unconscious and throw her and the Hero's Codex down."

"You can only save one at a time; the other will be washed away by the sewage. Please choose."

The hero's corpse said coldly,

"Let me see if you are really good people."

Louis: "..."

The hero's corpse didn't give him much time to think; less than three seconds after explaining the rules of the trial, he made his move.

He first pinched Nora's carotid artery, causing her to lose consciousness, and then released his grip on her hands at the same time.

A person and a gemstone simultaneously freefall, hurtling rapidly toward a turbulent pool of sewage that is at least seven or eight meters wide.

In that critical moment, Louis instinctively activated "Scent Concealment," gaining a moderate speed boost.

With his incredibly agile body, he lightly pushed off the iron chain and shot out like a swooping bird, catching Nora in mid-air and using the momentum of the dive to land on the flat ground on the opposite bank.

Louis stood firmly on the shore and laid the unconscious girl, whose neck bore clear fingerprints, flat on her back.

Looking back, the ruby ​​had long been submerged in the foul-smelling river, its whereabouts unknown.

Louis was filled with regret.

But there was nothing that could be done about it, since no one had expected the hero's corpse to come back to life.

Louis saved Nora not only out of the instinct of a model citizen, but also with a little bit of selfishness.

—According to the hero's values, if he didn't save people and instead chose the class-specific secret manual, he was worried that the hero's corpse would jump down and chase after him.

If you lose your life then, wouldn't that be even worse?

Of course, this small selfish motive only accounts for a very small part of his motivation to save people; the main reason is that he genuinely believes that human life is more important than external things.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have died saving people in his previous life, and he wouldn't have been able to travel to this world.

"Can we leave now?"

Louis composed himself and looked up at the hero's corpse standing on the bridge.

The latter nodded:

"Please make yourselves at home."

"But before that, I'd like to ask you for a favor."

"What kind of help?"

Louis frowned; he really didn't want to deal with this seemingly corrupted hero anymore.

The hero's corpse: "Help me bury this body, don't let it be harmed."

Louis paused slightly, then asked in confusion:

"Didn't you want revenge? How can you take it if your body is buried?"

The corpse's withered lips tugged into a stiff smile:

"After all, I am a hero. First, I stole the body of a rat, and then I transformed my original body into an undead monster. This way of surviving is too ugly."

"Although I want revenge, I can't do it this way."

Louis's eyes flickered slightly, and he began to look at this fourth hero of the modern era with new respect.

The ability to face death with equanimity puts them ahead of 99% of the world's population.

"Okay, I'll find a propitious place to bury you."

Louis nodded and said.

"But don't blame me for secretly touching your corpse."

He added another sentence in his mind.

The hero's corpse nodded:

"Thank you... Also, please do me a favor. If you ever pass through Wind Chime City, go find a weapons merchant named Griffin and tell him that I am dead and that the person who killed me was named Ruan."

Where is Wind Chime City? Who is Griffin? And who is Ruan?

Louis was somewhat bewildered.

But before he could even ask the question, the hero's corpse swayed and, along with the gray-furred rat on his head, plunged headfirst into the sewage river.

Louis: "..."

He watched helplessly as the hero's corpse fell freely, splashing into the sewage river in a small spray.

That bastard!

Didn't you say you wanted me to bury him? What's the meaning of making him roll around in the sewage river?

But since he had already promised, and the man wanted to touch the corpse, Louis had no choice but to quickly take off his shirt and plunge into the water to retrieve the body.

The sewage river was wide, but less than a meter deep. The swift current couldn't overwhelm Louis, whose strength was still at 10 points. He quickly grabbed the hero's corpse.

As he climbed ashore, he collected the attributes of a hero.

The progress bar was unusually long, lasting a full thirty seconds.

Louis, dragging the corpse, moved much slower than when he went into the water. After thrashing around in the river for a while, thirty seconds had passed by the time he got close to the shore.

Just then, his foot was suddenly tripped by something, and he fell into the sewage river.

Louis cursed inwardly, not even bothering to check what attribute he had acquired, and first fished the thing that had tripped him out of the sewage.

But when he pulled the thing out, he was stunned.

In the palm of my hand lies a crimson oval gem, its radiance captivating and impervious to foul water.