Chapter Five: Grilled Ribs Over Charcoal

To be honest, the sight of a naked teenage boy sprinting near the beach in the middle of the night was nothing short of indecent. If this were in a city, someone would have called the police in an instant and had him arrested as a pervert! Fortunately, this was another world, and one that was utterly desolate.

"Clack, clack, clack..." The skeletons' jaws snapped open and shut rapidly as they tailed him closely.

Jia Zhengjin found himself running across the grassy area near the ruins of his house, desperately glancing back at the relentless skeletons. It was almost like leading a marathon, torch in hand like the Olympic flame, happily guiding his companions—if only! In reality, he was scared out of his wits!

Among the skeletons was one that stood out—a skull completely different from the others. It resembled the skeleton of an upright animal, complete with a long tailbone trailing behind. As he ran, a thought flashed through Jia Zhengjin's mind: the number of these skeletons seemed to match the number of corpses he had seen on the beach that day. And that animal skeleton—could it be the beastman with the lion’s head?

But why did these corpses become skeletons at night? And why hadn’t he, who should have been one of them, transformed as well? Was it because his soul had taken over this body and, after resurrection, he was immune to this change? What was the principle behind turning into a skeleton?

His mind swirled with questions he couldn’t begin to answer.

The skeletons moved slowly, seemingly unable to catch up to him. But they never tired, and no matter how fast he ran, they plodded after him without pause. Jia Zhengjin’s stamina, unfortunately, was limited—strictly speaking, it was his endurance stat that counted! The continuous running drained it rapidly. With only 100 points, he wasn’t sure he could last until dawn.

If only he had a ranged weapon! With the skeletons’ sluggish pace, he could easily kite them, picking them off one by one. A basic bow could be crafted with three pieces of wood and three plant fibers, but he lacked the materials for arrows. Every arrow recipe required feathers, and his pack contained none. Besides, in the dead of night, with more than a dozen skeletons on his tail, there was no chance to hunt for feathers in the darkness of the forest.

Melee combat? Turn and fight with a dagger? Even if the skeletons were slow, being surrounded by so many would be fatal—a surefire way to throw his life away!

He was burning through his stamina and couldn’t keep leading the skeletons for long. Without a ranged weapon, he couldn’t pick them off from a distance. Their numbers made melee combat impossible.

Jia Zhengjin was in a precarious situation, with no matter which way he turned, it was likely the skeletons would catch him—an extremely dangerous predicament! His only weapon, a dagger, was useless. His only light source, the torch, had no effect. These were not beasts; skeletons were not afraid of firelight.

Still, not fearing firelight didn’t mean they weren’t afraid of fire itself! In this moment of crisis, Jia Zhengjin’s mind worked quickly. Setting the skeletons alight with a torch was impossible—bones weren’t flammable, after all, and there were far too many of them for him to calmly burn one by one.

Then inspiration struck as his gaze fell upon the ruined house he had abandoned. Though it had been scratched beyond recognition by the skeletons, with little left to show it was ever a house, nearly half of its wooden structure remained. What if he set the house ablaze and lured the skeletons over? These mindless undead creatures might simply walk into the flames.

A torch’s fire alone might not have much killing power, but a blazing bonfire could surely do the job!

Igniting the wooden house would be easy: he had a torch in hand, and plenty of wood and plant fibers in his pack to use as kindling.

No sooner thought than done. He quickly changed direction, leading the skeletons back toward the ruined house. As he ran, he pulled wood from his backpack, laying it around the house—using as much as he could—and scattered heaps of plant fibers in a circuit as he went.

He led the skeletons in a slow, chaotic chase. Once the setup was done, he paused, and before the skeletons caught up, began lighting the massed plant fibers with his torch. The fibers ignited instantly but burned out quickly, reduced to ash in seconds. Still, the sheer quantity served its purpose, and soon the massive bonfire constructed from the house’s remains was blazing fiercely, the flames growing more intense by the moment.

But as the fire roared to life, a new problem dawned on Jia Zhengjin: how would he lure the skeletons into the flames? Was he supposed to dash naked through the blaze, hoping they’d follow? If the skeletons weren’t destroyed, he’d be burned to death first!

A miscalculation! The only immediate benefit, it seemed, was that he could finally stow his torch—the bonfire’s light illuminated a wide area, making it possible to navigate without it.

Pausing to catch his breath, Jia Zhengjin glanced back at the skeletons, which were rapidly closing the distance. Suddenly, another idea struck him.

Although he couldn’t lead the skeletons directly into the fire, he could let the fire spread outward to burn them! The blaze was so intense now that any wood tossed nearby would catch quickly.

He had plenty of wood in his backpack. Before the skeletons reached him, he set off again, laying wood along the edge of the flames as he ran. The fire devoured each log almost immediately, spreading outward. He quickly laid more, forming a low wall of fire behind him.

Oblivious to the flames, the skeletons clumsily climbed over the burning barricade, charging straight ahead. The method worked—each time, the fire stripped away significant chunks of their life force!

Seeing its effectiveness, Jia Zhengjin’s morale soared. He continued to lure the skeletons after him, pulling away to a safe distance before fashioning another wall of fire from the giant bonfire, forcing the skeletons to pass through the inferno.

Watching their life force evaporate in the flames, Jia Zhengjin could almost taste victory! Exhausted, his stamina more than half spent, he pressed on, building firewalls.

[Message] You have slain a skeleton. Gained 10 experience points!
[Message] You have slain a skeleton. Gained 10 experience points!
[Message] ...

Notifications flashed one after another. The dozen or so skeletons were incapable of changing course. While Jia Zhengjin could circle around the burning walls and taunt them from behind, the skeletons simply plowed straight through the flames, relentlessly pursuing him. Their life force steadily consumed by fire, they began to fall one by one!