Just one question like that.

Jiang Ye figured it probably wasn’t Zhou Qiming—

At least, not in Lin Jing’s case.

Maybe the five people on the right, who were under Zhou Qiming, had their coffins opened by him.

But Lin Jing had only come into contact with Zhou Qiming after leaving Apartment 9999 post–Quick Battle mode.

So then—who opened his coffin and revived him?

Lin Jing’s answer was simple and straightforward.

He shook his head and said, “Those five were probably revived by Zhou Qiming, but not me.”

Then he glanced at Ouyang and added,

“Also, Ouyang buried an account in the game too, but hasn’t been revived yet.”

Oh?

So that means Ouyang still has a resurrection chance left?

Jiang Ye didn’t really care. He just raised a brow and asked,

“So who opened yours? The Apartment 4444 Administrator?”

But Lin Jing shook his head again.

“In the game, when players want to retrieve a buried account, they usually go to an Administrator to handle it. Then the 4444 Administrator opens the coffin, and the buried account becomes usable again.”

“But my revival… wasn’t handled by an Administrator.”

“Actually, my situation was probably quite different from a typical revived player…”

As he said this, he gave Ouyang and Zhou Qiming’s five followers a glance.

He hesitated a bit, but continued:

“I don’t know how those five died, but I—died by suicide.”

Suicide??

What the—?!

Lin Jing… suicide??

That doesn’t sound right??

Jiang Ye was startled, but quickly worked through the possibilities and ventured a guess:

“Don’t tell me you killed yourself the moment you were invaded by an Eerie Being?”

Lin Jing looked surprised—he clearly didn’t expect Jiang Ye to guess it so quickly.

After pursing his lips slightly, he nodded:

“You can probably tell—I’m someone with a strong sense of pride.”

“So, when I realized I was losing control of my body to an Eerie Being, and that it might steal my identity…”

“I chose—death before dishonor.”

“And the Eerie that tried to possess me was really damn arrogant, condescending and cocky.”

“Of course I wasn’t about to let him take over me.”

“So I didn’t hesitate—I ended myself.”

“At the time, I had no idea I could be revived.”

“When I did revive, I didn’t even understand what was going on—just felt like I was trapped in some pitch-black, sunless, square-shaped space.”

“Back then, I actually thought the Eerie had succeeded and locked me up somewhere.”

“It was only later that I learned I had revived inside a coffin in Apartment 4444’s Graveyard.”

That part wrapped up the setup.

Lin Jing met Jiang Ye’s eyes and continued seriously:

“I don’t know if my death during possession was unique, or if I just have some natural talent.”

“But when I revived, I had two Glyph Pattern Abilities right from the start.”

“And Fleshweaving—one of them—started at Tier 2.”

Jiang Ye thought: That’s not just Tier 2.

Every organ ability he uses is incredibly powerful. He’s basically a top-tier user of Fleshweaving!

“I was trapped in that coffin for a long time, and while I was experimenting with Fleshweaving, I suddenly heard a voice asking if I wanted out.”

“At first, I thought it was the Eerie mocking me.”

“Later, I figured out from the voice that I’d revived in the Graveyard, but was just stuck inside the coffin.”

“Eventually, that voice proposed a deal—”

“He’d open my coffin, and in return, I had to kill the Apartment 4444 Administrator for him.”

“That’s why, even though I was strong, I still spent all my time on Duel Matches.”

“Because I needed the Madman Mask to pull it off.”

“I treated the players in Apartment 9999 pretty well too. I wanted them to reach 100 wins as fast as possible, so they could help me kill the Administrator.”

“Later, I met Zhou Qiming. His goal was the same—to kill the 4444 Administrator. That’s why we hit it off, and agreed to pull you in, so you could get an NPC to do the job.”

That basically summed up Lin Jing’s experience.

But Jiang Ye picked up on a certain detail.

He frowned slightly and asked:

“You said you were trapped in the coffin for a long time?”

“But when I first entered the Duel Room, you were already on the War God Ranking.”

Lin Jing nodded. “That part I can’t explain either.”

“From inside the coffin, it felt like I’d been there for ages. But once I got out, I realized not much time had passed.”

“It was like I’d just gone in and instantly come back out.”

“Besides that, I have this vague feeling that time in the Apartment… might not be what we think it is.”

“Our subjective perception just can’t detect it.”

Jiang Ye nodded, falling into thought.

He liked reading obscure books, and often came across a concept called “counterintuitive truth.”

Meaning—

What we perceive subjectively might be far from objective reality.

The simplest example being color.

The color we see on a raven’s feathers isn’t its true physical color.

Likewise, our sense of time passing might not reflect actual time at all.

There are tons of similar phenomena…

Like the Mandela Effect, Murphy’s Law, or survivorship bias…

In math and science, these counterintuitive truths appear even more frequently.

Especially in probability theory.

The odds we feel intuitively often differ greatly from those calculated using actual knowledge.

Jiang Ye always hated probability.

The “P” he calculated was always way off from the “P” in the answer key.

Made him feel like the whole world was a big ‘P’…

Lin Jing, unaware of Jiang Ye’s inner monologue, continued:

“As for why Zhou Qiming wanted to kill the Apartment 4444 Administrator, I think it’s the same as my reason.”

“In other words—there’s some special existence in the Graveyard that doesn’t want the Administrator to live.”

“I suspect it’s in the Tombstone Zone, the most elite section of the Graveyard.”

“Very likely, it’s a powerful Eerie Being waiting for resurrection.”

“That’s just my guess. What Zhou Qiming told me himself was—”

“As long as we kill the 4444 Administrator and gain Graveyard permissions, he has a way to get a huge number of coffins.”

“And each coffin equals one resurrection opportunity.”

“When that happens, all of us who followed him could get revival slots.”

That… actually matched Jiang Ye’s earlier theories pretty well.

But…

Jiang Ye raised a brow again and said, “But now that Apartment 4444 is set to be destroyed at the next midnight…”

“Won’t the Graveyard be destroyed along with it?”

“And if that happens, players shouldn’t be able to use coffins for revival anymore, right?”

Lin Jing nodded. “The Apartment’s early destruction only came up recently. No one expected Huang Bo to push things this far, so…”

His reasoning was sound, of course.

But Ouyang chimed in at this point:

“I feel like Zhou Qiming didn’t seem particularly afraid of Apartment 4444 getting destroyed early.”

“And there’s something else—did you notice—”

“Lin Shen revived in the Graveyard Coffin right around the time this generation of Beginner Apartments was born.”

“But even back then, there were already incredibly powerful beings in the Graveyard.”

“Beings that strong should be Eerie Beings similar to Reincarnated Eeries…”

“But they also seem… somewhat different from ordinary Reincarnated Eeries…”

Clearly, Ouyang was a thoughtful player.

Jiang Ye raised a brow and said bluntly, “If you’ve got something in mind, just say it.”

Ouyang no longer held back, directly speculating:

“I have a really strong hunch—”

“The entire Underground Graveyard under 4444… has more secrets than what we’ve seen.”

“Some of those secrets might not be destroyed along with the Apartment, but instead cycle like the Reincarnated Eerie does.”

That statement instantly shocked and made the others fall into deep thought.

Ouyang, having sorted his thoughts, continued:

“Also, think about it—”

“When we buried our accounts in the game, it was during the lifespan of some Beginner Apartment.”

“But the Apartment we buried our accounts in has already been destroyed in-game.”

“Yet now, in this new Beginner Apartment cycle, Lin Shen and the others could still revive in the Graveyard?”

“If the Graveyard really was destroyed with the Apartment, then after an update or reset, we shouldn’t be able to recover those buried accounts.”

“But clearly, no matter how many times the Apartments update, accounts buried in the Graveyard can still be retrieved!”

“Doesn’t that prove that the Graveyard wasn’t actually destroyed, but was recycled?”

“But in the game, I once sacrificed an account just to observe—”

“When Apartment 4444 was destroyed, the Graveyard was definitely destroyed along with it.”

“So what I saw and what I inferred—don’t line up.”

“That’s why I suspect—besides the Graveyard we’ve seen, which does get destroyed with the Apartment, there might be another hidden layer to the Graveyard.”

“And that secret might not just be about a specific Eerie Being’s reincarnation—but the reincarnation of an entire scenario!”

While the other players still needed time to process Ouyang’s theory, Jiang Ye instantly got it—

He realized that what Ouyang was speculating about might be the very same other Graveyard that Yang Wenchao had discovered.

And if this second Graveyard really could cycle alongside the destruction and rebirth of an Apartment…

Then between 4444’s destruction and the birth of a new Apartment—what would the state of that Graveyard be?

Jiang Ye was still thinking when he heard Ouyang continue:

“I suspect the real reason Zhou Qiming wanted to kill the 4444 Administrator might be directly related to this ‘other Graveyard’ I’m speculating about.”

It was obvious he was trying to win Jiang Ye’s favor.

Jiang Ye didn’t hold back, and asked directly: “So, about that Raven Egg buried in the Graveyard—how much do you know?”

Ouyang shook his head. “Actually, I wasn’t the one who buried the Raven Egg, I’ve never even seen it.”

“That was bait thrown out by Zhou Qiming. But since it was written clearly in the contract, it should exist.”

That did match what the White-Clad Woman had said.

She was only willing to act because the contract explicitly mentioned the Raven Egg in black and white.

At this point, Jiang Ye strongly suspected—

that the Raven Egg might have been buried in that “other Graveyard.”

Thinking back to the imagery he had seen using the Eye of True Sight,

he turned and asked Ouyang and Lin Jing:

“By the way, do you guys know about the ‘Soul-Eating Mound’?”

“Soul-Eating Mound?”

Ouyang furrowed his brow, shaking his head. “Is that some kind of Secret Realm? Sounds familiar, but I don’t think I’ve ever gone through one by that name…”

He turned to Lin Jing: “What about you? Ever ventured into a Secret Realm called Soul-Eating Mound?”

Lin Jing also shook his head, but after thinking for a moment, offered a lead:

“Never heard of Soul-Eating Mound, but over at Apartment 0000’s Rebirth Abyss, there’s something called Soul-Resting Mound of the Nether Butterfly.”

Ouyang quickly chimed in: “Right! The Soul-Resting Mound of the Nether Butterfly! Soul-Resting Mound, Soul-Eating Mound… sounds kinda related, doesn’t it?”

The Soul-Resting Mound in Apartment 0000?

Soul-Resting, Soul-Eating…

Jiang Ye was still deep in thought.

Meanwhile, the Light-type Sub-Replica he had left in the Underground Graveyard as bait suddenly sensed a faint tremor from the ground.

It felt like a miniature earthquake.

Originally, Jiang Ye had hoped this Light-type bait might draw some aggression.

But clearly, due to the dark-type beings’ fear of Light, no one dared to make a move.

He had already given up on that strategy in his heart.

Yet now, this sudden tremor startled him.

Though the Sub-Replica had no self-awareness,

Jiang Ye could instantly take full control by fusing with it.

So, the Light-type Sub-Replica, previously sitting cross-legged, stood up amid the tremor and cautiously looked around.

It didn’t take long to find—

the source of the tremor seemed to be coming from the Tombstone Zone.

Jiang Ye pretended to be cautious and didn’t act rashly.

In truth, he just didn’t want to leave the area covered by Confusion Incense, to avoid revealing how incorporeal his figure had become.

As he debated whether to swap in the real Light-type Replica,

a voice suddenly echoed in the Sub-Replica’s mind.

A deep, weathered voice, like that of an elder who had seen the world, called out intermittently:

“Little one… little one…”

Little one?

Was it calling him?

He was a Light-type, okay? Natural enemy of ghosts! What’s with this “little one” stuff?

Jiang Ye grumbled internally but kept up the cautious act, scanning the surroundings, turning in slow circles.

He even called out into the air, “Who’s there? Who’s putting on this spooky act?”

There was no reply from the formless voice.

Instead, it continued, slow and broken:

“Do you… want revenge…”

Jiang Ye was just thinking: What revenge would I even want?

The voice continued:

“Do you… want to kill… all 26 Apartment Bosses…”

Oh?

Jiang Ye’s brow lifted slightly. He frowned and shouted toward the sky again:

“What the hell are you? Quit with the creepy theatrics!”

As he spoke, he once again activated Light and Shadow Escape.

He even reached into the Replica Shared Space to grip the Entropy Scythe.

To the naked eye, it looked like a streak of light linking to a black rift.

While flickering around in light-form, Jiang Ye began randomly swinging the Entropy Scythe in all directions.

The dark-type aura of the Graveyard instantly dipped into silence.

He kept shouting,

“Whatever you are, if you don’t show yourself, don’t blame me for not being polite!”

Then, not even giving the voice time to respond,

he directly darted toward the Tombstone Zone,

as if he were ready to smash those gravestones to bits with the Entropy Scythe.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep