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Page 6
He looked up and saw two illusory creatures sitting on either side of him in the dim light, their faces obscured. Directly opposite him stood a skeleton, a spark floating in its empty skull. Its exposed teeth curved upwards along the contours of its face, like a naturally smiling face, radiating warmth.
The skeleton was shuffling a deck of cards. Latis looked around and saw two ethereal, unidentified creatures sitting upright, looking like they were not easy to communicate with. Fortunately, there were a few lines of small writing on the table, and he quickly leaned closer to take a closer look.
"Compare sizes? Randomly acquire simulation talents of corresponding quality based on the outcome of the game?" Latis breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself, "I always had good luck playing cards in my past life. Although this is my first time playing, I should still have a chance to win."
After shuffling the cards, the skeleton dealer made a couple of quick cuts, grabbed the cards, and flicked them, sending a card into Latis's hand.
"Good technique!"
Latis quickly covered the card with his hand, pinched the corner of the card and slowly opened it, a semicircle slowly appeared under his fingers.
"It can't be a 3, right? No way, bro!"
His heart sank. He gritted his teeth, opened the cards in one breath, and saw a "2" clearly printed on the corner of the card.
"Won!"
Latis slammed the cards face down on the table with a loud thud.
He looked up with delight, only to see the skeleton dealer's unchanging smile quietly staring at him.
The two stared at each other for a few seconds.
"W-what's wrong?" Latis asked in a low voice. As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the player on his left turn over his card.
Jack of Spades, Queen of Spades, King of Spades!
"what?"
While Latis was still in a daze, the player on his right also turned over his card.
Clubs Ace, Hearts Ace, Diamonds Ace!
"Huh? No?"
Latis finally came to his senses and cried out in despair, "No, why do I only have one card?"
The skeleton dealer silently opened and closed his gaping mouth, then grabbed Latis's chips and showed them to him.
"Is 10 tokens equal to one chip, which in turn equal to one card?"
Before Latis could finish his question, the skeleton nodded and grabbed a few chips from the pile of chips behind him, tossing them to the two illusory, unidentified creatures on his left and right.
After receiving their chips, the two players glanced hesitantly at Latis, as if they really wanted to say something. After a moment of silence, they held back.
Latis, with a stern face, waited until his friend logged off before nodding firmly and saying:
"I see. Okay, I understand."
He got up and left decisively, and as he turned around, a tear of resentment slid down his cheek.
"Damn it, I've ruined my lifelong reputation..."
Boom!
He bumped his head against the wall behind him and then slumped back into his seat.
"hiss……"
Latis rubbed his forehead and opened his eyes, only to find the skeleton dealer standing in front of him, looking at him with concern through his large, empty eye sockets.
"I'm fine!" He immediately jumped up from his seat, about to defend himself righteously, but the skeleton had already stretched out a hand and placed a chip in his hand.
"Oh, oh. Is this for me? Bro, you're a really nice guy..."
The skeleton made a clicking sound, then raised its finger and pointed out.
"...Actually, I saw it just now." Latis said stubbornly, then ran towards the exit, waved back, and jumped into the exit.
For some reason, I seemed to hear faint laughter behind me.
"Speaking of which, that skeleton dealer seemed to be laughing the whole time. Was it just my imagination?" Latis shook his head, thinking to himself, "Never mind, that's how human bones are supposed to look. Don't overthink it."
The simulator's text appeared in his mind at just the right moment.
The talent gamble has ended; you have gained a talent.
[Osteophyte (Common): As a working professional, do you often suffer from lumbar disc herniation? Do you frequently experience joint pain due to bone spurs, even enduring unbearable agony? Now, everything will be different! From this moment on, you are born with the divine body of osteophyte. 206 bones is the limit for humans, but it is not your limit! Go forth and give the little kalami of the bone spirit world a little shock to working professionals!]
"What the hell?!" Latis felt his eyes sting from the merciless text, instinctively covering his face and lamenting, "Simulator, can't you be a little kinder? This is supposed to be talent?! Seriously?!"
Your dimensional journey is about to begin...
A sudden, weightless descent washed over him. Latis tensed his face, and in a hazy, disoriented state, he saw his hands turn into a pair of white bones. Then, a cloud of dark gray dust enveloped him, plunging his vision into darkness, leaving only the simulator's text still flashing.
[In the 13,247th year since the Bone Spirit Realm was created, a frail skeleton suddenly emerged from a desolate corner. Corroded teeth, a forward-leaning neck, a twisted lumbar spine—all of this is enough to prove that this is you, Mr. Latis.]
"Is he subtly criticizing me?" Latis was about to unleash a torrent of abuse when he realized he couldn't make a sound without vocal cords. He could only scream internally, "Turn on your mic! I'm reporting him! He's insulting me!"
Unfortunately, as a brand-new, newly born skeleton, you're instantly targeted by two clueless skeleton wanderers. They corner you in a filthy, messy pile of bones, giving you an instant sense of American bullying.
"What are you looking at?" You really wanted to say that, but you couldn't. So you extended your long, slender, and white middle finger to show your attitude.
The survival-of-the-fittest mentality of the Bone Spirit Realm makes you very uncomfortable, but what makes you even more uncomfortable is that you are actually going to be eaten.
The Wanderer has boiled a pot of thick, black Styx water, preparing to dismember you and stew you for a good meal. In the Bone Spirit Realm, skeletons with poor aptitude can only cultivate in this way; therefore, the Wanderer is the lowest of the low among the creatures in this world.
"This cannibalistic society!" you curse inwardly, bracing yourself for death. Suddenly, a voice enters your ears... uh, a skull?
"Are you my contractor?"
Latis, who was bound hand and foot, was stunned for a moment. He struggled to lift his deformed cervical spine and looked through his empty chest toward the source of the sound.
Beside the dark River Styx, amidst the chaotic ruins, a gray-haired, gray-eyed phantom floated in the air. She idly fiddled with her tightly bound maid outfit, and asked again in a completely emotionless voice:
"Are you my contractor?"
Chapter 10 Bone Spurs? Can they still be used after washing?
Was she talking about me?
Latis raised his head.
"Never mind, I can't speak anyway."
Latis lay back down on the ground.
The wanderers exchanged glances, nodded, and simultaneously tore off two ribs, holding them like daggers, before suddenly lunging at the gray-haired, gray-eyed spirit maid.
"Neither of you are my contractors."
The spirit maid spoke in a calm tone, then instantly possessed one of the wanderers, and a second before being pierced by a rib, she swung her bony arm across the neck of another wanderer.
Snapped!
The broken skull fell to the ground, and the dim sparks inside flickered twice before going out weakly.
The spirit maid sighed, then controlled the possessed wanderer to raise its hands and forcefully pull the skull out, throwing it to the ground.
……
"what sound?"
Latis listened listlessly to the heat of the soup pot, a faint sense of anxiety welling up inside him:
"The water's boiling, brothers! The water's boiling! Come on, turn off the heat!"
Pop, pop!
Two oddly shaped bones landed beside his head, followed by a pair of translucent little feet wearing black stockings and loafers floating beside him.
"Are you my contractor?"
The expressionless spirit maid looked down at Latis and asked the same question again in almost the same tone.
The skeleton in front of him stared blankly for a while, puzzled. Only then did he react and quickly nod.
He seems to have no problem with his intelligence...
"These two are for you." The spirit maid breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the bones from the ground and threw them into the soup pot, then released Latis from his restraints. "After you form a contract with me, accompany me to the Bone Control Competition of Star Sea Day."
The Soul Maid's voice echoed in Latis's empty skull. He stared blankly at the Soul Maid, his mind filled with the scene he had just witnessed on the ground.
There really is a universe under a girl's skirt!
The spirit maid looked at Latis's completely unresponsive, lifeless face, remained silent for a moment, and then a hint of helplessness appeared in her tone:
"It's so hard to understand what a skeleton is thinking..."
She floated up, cupped her cheeks in her hands, stared at the bones slowly melting in the soup pot, and circled the pot expressionlessly.
[You are fortunate to be rescued by Sai Leng, a girl from the Bone Spirit Clan, and fed two pieces of "soul bones" from wandering creatures. These bones are both weapons for the skeletons and organs that hold their soul power.]
Before being infused with soul power, a soul bone is merely a piece of ordinary, superfluous bone. However, after being infused with soul power, it transforms into various forms of artifacts. Generally, a normal skeleton possesses only one soul bone, but its power is already sufficient to move mountains and overturn seas.
[You consumed the Wanderer's Soul Bone, and now you feel a tingling, itchy sensation all over your body, as if every part of you is leaking air. You desperately want to ask Sai Leng what's going on, but in Sai Leng's eyes, you're just a skeleton that keeps clicking and rattling; your longing is beyond her reach.]
[Saileng tells you that the so-called Bone Control Competition is a journey undertaken by thousands of Bone Spirits, who ride their contracted skeletons, to the summit of Mount Augusta on Star Sea Day. The first Bone Spirit and skeleton to reach the top will gain the qualification to connect with the Star Sea.]
[An otherworldly mecha rally? Your jawbone fell to the ground. Sai Leng paused, hesitated, then picked it up and put it back in place.]
[You don't quite understand what the linking to the starry sea symbolizes, nor do you know the specific timeframe she refers to as "after several white moons," but the rare look of longing on the poker-faced girl's face makes you wisely refrain from interrupting her—you can't speak anyway, can you?]
[You've signed a contract with Seren, and wondrous bone spirit script has seeped into your bones. However, being illiterate, you can't understand it at all. All you know is that a brutal yet thrilling adventure is about to begin.]
On the first day, you and Sai Leng killed ten Wanderers. Three of them didn't have Soul Bones. Including the first two, you consumed a total of nine Soul Bones.
"It's strange. Even though you're covered in holes, the soup made from soul bones doesn't leak out. This other world is truly amazing!" you silently exclaimed in your heart. Meanwhile, Sai Leng, watching you drift off into a daze halfway through your soup, began to worry that you might get lost if you encountered a situation requiring autonomous piloting during the Bone Control Competition.
The feeling of being filled with soul power made you feel great. You swung your fists, creating a deep crater in the pile of bones on the ground. You were quite certain that you could now kill a bull with a single punch.
The next day, Seren unexpectedly discovered a skeleton pitcher. She told you that in this underworld you inhabit, very few skeletons can control soul bones to transform into long weapons and possess the corresponding combat skills.
She leaves you standing still while she floats towards the Skeleton Thrower. Just as you're filled with uncertainty, thinking she's about to find someone else, Seren suddenly snatches the javelin from the Skeleton Thrower's back and charges towards you.
"Run, you idiot!" You saw that tense look on the expressionless girl's face for the first time, so you smiled, confidently tensing your core—though you don't know if you actually did—and threw a punch at the grotesque skeleton pitcher.
When you woke up again, it was already noon on the third day. The dim, dark sunlight characteristic of the Bone Spirit Realm shone on your face, and you could feel a pair of small hands groping you.
[It turns out that Seren is assembling your pelvis. A clear look of confusion crossed her face; she didn't seem very skilled at assembling skeletons.]
[Your mischievous side is kicking in, and you're planning to keep peeking at her—after all, you did open your eyes, but you just look the same as when your eyes are closed.]
"Why would I be spying on her? Even if I looked at her a hundred times, would she ever belong to me?" Latis silently retorted to the simulator in his mind. "The most important thing right now is to review the fight. How did I pass out yesterday? Was my stance wrong? That was a right hook punch that I learned in my past life by spending eight hundred dollars on four private lessons!"
[You reviewed the battle: the skeleton pitcher charged straight at you; your fist pierced his head, shattering his soul sparks, but his heavy, solid body continued its descent towards you due to inertia.]