My Misfortune Crushed Instances-Chapter 130: Border Mission

Zhang Hujun added an explanation: "In the Nova League, it’s widely recognized that Brother Chuan ranks among the top three. The debate on who takes second and third places among them is ongoing, but there’s no dispute about the strongest individual."

Li Rui’s curiosity was piqued: "I remember seeing online posts where they call him Brother Ghost."

"That’s right, his full name is Guan Gui, and his profession is a rare corpse handler."

Dong Sanchuan explained, "We encountered him once further west. We learned that the Secret Realm he’s going to enter this time is the Xingyang Ancient Tomb."

"What did he do? Why was the Secret Realm removed? That symptom never occurred before."

The four looked at Li Rui, who frowned: "Why are you all looking at me?"

"You seem to have more experience in this area."

Li Rui was speechless for a while, realizing this bias wasn’t going away anytime soon, he could only reply helplessly: "The answer is simple, he’s a corpse handler. After entering the ancient tomb, the Secret Realm disappeared. It’s likely because he dug out and captured the tomb’s owner, definitely someone with prerequisite conditions—probably a boss—and there was a plot conflict afterward, so it died."

The four exchanged glances, then all gave Li Rui a thumbs up: "You’re the expert."

"..."

Li Rui lowered his head, picked up some shredded potatoes with chopsticks.

"Uh oh, his strength has improved again; Brother Chuan is even farther behind now."

Nan Jiumei hugged his head with both hands, as if it was he who couldn’t catch up, though he honestly couldn’t.

Dong Sanchuan sneered: "I never said I wanted to catch up with anyone."

Li Rui paid no attention to their banter, pondering a question: Wonder if my Divine Thunder can counter him?

Then, all four of their phones rang.

"Wow, the group chat’s exploding."

Nan Jiumei said, "I just want to know what level of ancient corpse he conjured."

Li Rui quietly asked Jiang Yu, who was sitting nearest: "This corpse handler digs up someone’s grave, and then he can summon them anytime?"

Miss Jiang explained with a smile: "It’s not that simple. He uses the corpse handler’s skills to awaken the dead, but must also defeat it alone to form a contract. From then on, he can control that resurrected living corpse. Also, this ability only targets Secret Realm creatures; people from the real world can’t be resurrected." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Li Rui thought for a moment: "Isn’t that just like a summoner?"

Jiang Yu hesitated: "Uh, it does seem that way."

She felt his thinking was quite unique; while everyone was marveling at the corpse handler’s power, he was busy deconstructing it.

Li Rui kept probing: "What about his first corpse? Since forming a contract requires defeating it solo, wouldn’t it be tough during his career switch when he controlled no living corpses?"

"There’s our Li Rui, always so smart."

Nan Jiumei snapped his fingers, "That’s why most corpse handlers are stuck at the very first Secret Realm, spiraling into failure until they die, their souls dissipating. But if they survive the initial stages, they grow stronger, becoming a one-man army!"

He enthusiastically said, "Let me ask you this: later on, when he can control ten, even twenty corpses at once, all of which are boss-level, how would you deal with them?"

"Just beat them all."

Li Rui blinked at him, not feeling there was much to ask.

"....."

Nan Jiumei sat back silently, while the other three stifled their laughter to the point of internal injury.

...

Days later, a vehicle smoothly traversed the desert’s edge.

"The zone of chaos isn’t a land without an owner."

"There are many countries here, but after the Secret Realm started, those wielding Extraordinary Powers grew in number. The government’s control weakened, leading to frequent wars."

The car slowly passed through a crumbling road, unrepaired for years. Beside the road lay an old town, a cluster of small, intact buildings marked with dirt-covered scars reminiscent of bullet holes, with some collapsing ruins turning into customary garbage heaps.

Li Rui looked through the car window to see a dark-skinned child outside the town kicking a fabric-stitched small ball back and forth, while not far away stood several young men with arms crossed, cigarettes in mouths, guns slung over their shoulders.

"This border town is relatively peaceful."

Jiang Yu sipped vigorously from a tin of Wa Xixi through a straw, "Further west, within the countries constantly at odds, there’s daily combat."

Zhang Hujun leaned back on the chair lazily: "In some places, legitimate governance has ceased. Some Extraordinaries have become lords of the mountains, managing nearby populations like gangs do; of course, there are warlords too."

Li Rui thought how miserable life must be for ordinary people in such regions.

During this time, he and the team handled two real-world assignments, both level 35. With their setup, anything lower wouldn’t be worth their attention.

And today was his first venture so close to the chaotic area.

Dong Sanchuan rolled down the car window, inspecting a distant scene through binoculars, and asked on the intercom: "Have you located the target?"

"Not yet," came Nan Jiumei’s voice.

This mission was to pick someone up from the chaotic area’s edge.

All five had received the target’s photo and a contact password, but nobody asked what the target did or why they needed to fetch them from the border; what’s unsaid meant no inquiries.

Soon, a small van emerged from behind the border town, while a youth leisurely strolled before the van, lifting his gun from his back.

After exchanging some words, a package—likely cash—was handed out from the vehicle, permitting the youth to step aside and let the van pass.

The van continued crawling toward them.

Li Rui was curious, noticing the driver wasn’t from Dragon Country. His features were more akin to those from the chaotic zone: curly-haired and slightly dark-skinned.

"Money."

The driver got out, doing nothing more than holding out his hand to say, "Money."

Jiang Yu produced two gold bars.

Accepting them, the man conducted a rough inspection before pocketing them. He weighed them without further verification, signaling a thumbs-up—with apparent trust in those meeting him.

He walked to the back, tapped the van four times, unlocking sounds erupted from inside, and a middle-aged man carrying a child jumped out, looking much like the driver, and to Li Rui at least, appeared similar.

Dong Sanchuan gestured at the additional-seating SUV, the man glanced at the driver for confirmation, who nodded. Consequently, he obediently boarded the vehicle with his child.

"Attention all. Switch to mission mode, escort the target safely to the outpost. Maintain maximum alert; success only, no failure. In an enemy attack, prioritize covering the target’s retreat."

With this directive, all leisure vanished completely; the mission truly commenced at this moment.