Chapter 61: A Major Incident

Until the following day, Ryûji did not encounter any attacks. After asking Videnina about the situation from the previous night, Ryûji let out a disdainful chuckle.

"Spineless cowards."

Shortly after, Ryûji took out his badge, contacted Wilder, and briefed him on the incident.

"Oh, it's nothing. Those are just soul reapers who have nothing better to do and want to make a quick buck. That's just how they operate; you don't need to get involved. They can't compare to us. Three years after graduation, if they want to enter the game again, they have to apply and wait in line based on their military achievements. Unlike us, as long as we remain morticians, we get an opportunity to enter the game once every year."

Hearing this, Ryûji generally understood why that Mr. Skeleton Worm valued the withered arm in his possession so much. To a soul reaper, that item was practically equivalent to a game opportunity.

However, now that the item was in Ryûji's hands, there was no way he would let it go.

"This thing is a menace to keep around; I should find some time to use it directly. However, it's not very easy for me to ask for leave right now; I need to figure out a way."

This brought to mind Connor, whom he had met on his very first day here. Although Connor wasn't the kind of all-knowing necromancer, he still knew a few things better than Ryûji did.

When Ryûji reached out to Connor, it was unclear whether Connor had just woken up or was lingering inside his own ghost city. The signal from Ryûji's badge was rather poor, and the incoming messages were somewhat intermittent.

Still, the general situation could be conveyed clearly, and whatever was unclear could be converted into text.

After reading through Ryûji's problem, Connor reacted quite swiftly. "Asking for leave just means finding someone to cover for you; it's very simple. Actually, you probably haven't noticed, but our jurisdictions overlap. As long as you discuss the leave time with the partners around you, it usually gets approved. However, you'd better avoid asking for leave in July and December—those are the busiest times, and no one will cover for you.

"Also, when taking leave, aside from applying to Wilder, it's best to build a good relationship with the several colleagues around you. If all else fails, bringing back some small gifts is a good idea, because after all, no one is going to work for you for free."

Ryûji was a sensible person when it came to such matters; even without Connor's reminder, he knew what to do.

After cutting off communication with Connor, Ryûji checked his jurisdiction map and discovered that his area indeed overlapped with those of several other morticians. If he were to take leave, and these morticians each shouldered a portion of the workload, they could genuinely handle the affairs in his territory while he was away.

Thinking about the time he had spent since arriving here, he realized he hadn't really interacted with any of those morticians. Aside from his normal work every day, he simply holed up in his underworld palace, making it difficult for him to ask anyone for a favor in the future.

So, Ryûji traced a line across his jurisdiction map and prepared to contact them one by one.

To his surprise, as soon as he connected with the first mortician, the person on the other end spoke up excitedly.

"You're Sandro Yide, right? I remember you. Your jurisdiction is right next to mine; I was actually planning to contact you these past few days."

Listening to the voice coming from the badge, Ryûji recalled who this was. It was a girl with a somewhat loli-esque voice. Ryûji remembered that when jurisdictions were being assigned, she seemed to have been sitting in a nearby corner, clutching a gorilla plushie taller than herself.

As for her name, Ryûji hadn't caught it clearly; he only knew her middle name contained the character "Tang," so she was likely a noble.

Given the situation, Ryûji didn't believe the other party was reaching out simply to be friendly.

He asked politely, "Yes, I am Sandro. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss... Fanny."

"Ha, you actually remembered my name. That's great," Fanny said happily.

Ryûji didn't respond to that remark; he certainly couldn't admit that he had secretly glanced at his contact list to recall her name.

"Oh right, Sandro, I have a favor to ask of you. I've already booked my game time for this year, starting around the day after tomorrow. I'm a V4 player, and the ratio of game time to real-world time is 72:1—meaning seventy-two hours in the game equals one hour in the real world, and two months of game time equals one day in the real world. I need about five days of leave, and I hope you can cover for my shifts during those five days."

As she spoke, a map popped up. "The area isn't large—just a few streets bordering your jurisdiction. I checked beforehand, and nothing major happens there. If someone dies, you just need to go over and handle it. As for the underworld jurisdiction, I'll leave my ghost city behind to guard it, so you don't need to worry about that."

"Sure. I actually contacted you partly to build a good relationship, so that you might help me handle my game-time leaves in the future."

Ryûji readily agreed to Fanny's request.

Hearing Ryûji agree so easily, Fanny was delighted. Morticians were great in every other aspect, but this particular issue gave them headaches: they couldn't just leave their jurisdictions at will. After all, in a city this large, people died every day, and the souls of the departed all required a mortician's processing.

Now that Ryûji had agreed, Fanny finally had some time for a break.

She happily said, "Wonderful! I'll bring you a gift when I get back. Thanks a lot!"

With that, Fanny directly cut off the connection with Ryûji.

Only after the communication ended did Ryûji remember what else he needed to do. He proceeded to contact the remaining nearby morticians, and fortunately, none of them had any travel plans in the near future.

Just making these contacts took nearly a full day. It was the first time Ryûji felt that socializing with people was such a troublesome chore.

Of course, aside from the hassle, this communication also brought Ryûji some benefits. He confirmed that one of the morticians' ghost cities was located near his own underworld palace; as long as a road was built, the two cities could be connected.

This was a good thing for Ryûji, who knew that both combat and trade were essential for the development of his underworld palace.

He had already agreed with that player that once he extended the road over there, the two cities could establish a certain level of trade.

After finishing the communications, Ryûji began his daily routine—which amounted to lighting a lamp, taking a stroll through his jurisdiction, and dealing with the newly deceased corpses.

They did not have the authority to process corpses directly. The so-called processing merely involved drawing a mark between the eyebrows of the deceased to guide their souls, allowing them to temporarily reside within their ghost city.

It was a simple task that didn't take much time.