"Identity verification successful, welcome to log in to the card system No. 023"

Mechanical sounds echoed in the darkness, and the light screen emitted a faint brightness.

The boy stood upright in front of the screen with his fingertips placed on the authentication area.

The successful authentication prompt sounded once, and he withdrew his hand and scanned the several lines of prompts listed separately on the screen. The light screen was simply divided into two areas, one for the host information and the other for the mission area.

All the tasks that appear in the task area appear randomly and are refreshed and changed irregularly, so 0829 almost never saw tasks in the same world.

"Are there no benefits for newbies, system?" The boy went through the contract terms in his mind and did not see any missions with the easiest difficulty in the mission area marked with difficulty. As for those listed in the mission area, most of them were not acceptable to him at his current level.

The system still maintained a businesslike attitude: "There is a low-level task to adapt the system. Do you want to accept it?"

The boy sighed slightly, thinking that the system before signing the contract was more interesting. Now this one is so rigid that even answering basic questions requires triggering.

"Take it."

As soon as the words fell, the mission area faded away, leaving behind a square marked as having accepted the mission, but there was no prompt related to the content.

The characters floated and changed, the host interface did not change much, and a card pool interface was outlined with lines in the lower right corner.

His eyes paused for a moment on the name column. There was no surname or name on it, but a few cold numbers, 0829.

"Do you want to draw a card?" The system's voice interrupted the boy's wandering thoughts.

The boy numbered 0829 came to his senses and reached out to open the card pool interface.

The card pool opened by the novice mission only has NR-level cards, and you cannot see what they are before you draw.

The card system is a system that draws cards to enter the mission world. The system that deceived him before said that they have a formal business license and are an organization recognized by the world consciousness.

The card pools that can be drawn in missions of different difficulty levels are also different. There is a certain probability that a cooperative mode will appear in some high-difficulty missions. 0829 noticed this at the end when signing the contract.

0829 didn't know much about the cooperation mode. After all, he was just a newcomer and couldn't take on those high-difficulty missions.

I clicked on the small box with the word "extract" written on it. There were no exaggerated special effects, just some scattered light dots floating around, and the next moment, they disappeared without a trace as the card appeared.

0829 I took the materialized card and turned it to the front without any expectation - N card. The corners of my mouth twitched slightly. Although I was mentally prepared, I still felt a bit foolish when I saw it.

The front of the card shows a cannibal ghost that looks very different from a normal human. Although the word "cannibal" is used, the card introduction states that this is a special ghost.

「N【Ghost·Nameless】

Introduction: The lowest level ghost in the process of transformation.

Note: Please restrain your ghost instincts and protect at least one human being.

pain.

This thought is left in a brain that is close to being unable to think.

Cells that do not belong to the body cause the body to break down from the inside out, but due to its powerful self-healing ability, it can be restored to its original state.

The intense pain forces people to fall asleep, but the next moment even more unbearable pain wakes them up.

He opened his eyes, and could only see a hazy blood color.

The pain slowly subsided, and what followed was an overwhelming hunger.

"It smells so good..."

My sense of smell, which is more sensitive than that of humans, can clearly smell something not far away. The food I had eaten in the past seemed bland in my memory, and it was nothing compared to what I smelled now.

The nails began to grow into sharp curves, and a ghost horn emerged on the left side of the forehead.

The only word that the brain nerves clearly convey is "hunger".

His mind was suppressed deep inside, and he watched the scene before him like an outsider, but he was powerless to stop it.

'food--'

'What is food?'

Like a bell ringing in front of my head, my body, which was about to run towards the source of the smell, suddenly stopped. In this second, the suppressed reason and human thinking ability finally escaped from the cage.

That's a person.

This thought was unexpectedly strong, and he had a hard time swallowing his saliva. This strong thought could not be shaken off. The nerves in his brain were tense, and if he relaxed, he would become a demon driven by instinct.

'This is really...' 0829 finally regained control of his body from the hunger in his mind, and he dug his sharp nails into his arms, trying to suppress those thoughts with the pain.

"This state... is really bad." His vocal cords were pulled and he made a hoarse voice. His face, which vaguely looked like a human, was covered with ghost lines. His lips were accidentally bitten when his teeth opened and closed, and the smell of blood filled his mouth.

0829 At this moment, he deeply realized what "restraint" meant. He initially thought that it was just a little negative impact, but now it feels like he is slapping himself, and his cheeks are faintly filled with emptiness and pain.

If he didn't have a layer of system protection, he would have rushed into the nearby village.

The wooden door that was smashed when he lost his mind was still lying on the ground. 0829 stood up and the wound on his arm was slowly healing.

He looked outside at the sky. It was almost time for the sun to rise, and the only place in the house to avoid the sun was a small cupboard in the corner.

0829: "..." He felt a little sad about the treatment he received in his mission.

After thinking about it, the task still needs to be continued.

0829 He slowly walked over and opened the cabinet door. The narrow space required him to curl up to barely get in.

He tried to curl himself up into a ball, but he had to be careful not to poke a round hole in the not-so-hard cabinet with his horns. Then he stretched out his fingers and gently hooked the dent inside, closing the cabinet door from the inside with a click.

0829 He swallowed his saliva again. His body, which had just transformed into a ghost, was constantly crying out for hunger. He deliberately shifted his attention and opened the map provided by the system.

The white dot on the map is his location, the green dots are the villagers in the nearby village, and there is also a faint blue dot that suddenly appears at the entrance of the village and is about to meet the green dot.

What's going on?

0829 was slightly stunned, his eyes stayed on the blue dot for three seconds, and a line of prompts automatically popped up next to it.

Blue dot: Demon Slayer Swordsman (level unknown)

0829: "..." How unlucky it is to happen to meet someone from the Demon Slayer Corps.

He didn't dare to blink, watching the blue dot stop at the fork in the road, then turn right, getting closer and closer to the house where he was hiding.

0829 He subconsciously held his breath, his hands and feet were stiff and he dared not move at will, for fear that the swordsman of the Demon Slayer Corps who was already standing at the door would notice the abnormality and rush in to kill him.

"What's going on here?"

Murata was about to walk into the house when he suddenly stopped. He turned around and saw the old man who had brought him into the village asking him questions.

"Ah," Murata's eyes fell on the damaged door, and he said hesitantly, "Nothing, I just think this place is remote and I'm a little curious."

The old woman followed his gaze and glanced at the door panel, without wanting to say more: "You haven't had a good rest." She noticed the blue spots under Murata's eyes, and it was obvious that he hadn't slept much recently.

Murata, who had just finished a mission and stopped by this village, was silent for two seconds.

The old man held out his hand to take him to find a place to rest. Murata couldn't stay any longer and could only look back every few steps. He always felt that something was wrong in the house, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

The footsteps were fading away, and so was the blue dot on the map that belonged to the Demon Slayer swordsman.

0829 Finally I relaxed and realized that my life as a ghost was not easy. Not only did I have to fight against my cannibalistic instinct, but I also had to protect the humans that appeared on the recipe.

0829 Sighed deeply, deeply.

Even after the swordsman left, 0829 did not move any further and waited until dark before preparing to move.

On the map, the conspicuous blue dot moved back here after resting during the day.

"If I can't hurt anyone, I can only avoid it myself." With this thought in mind, 0829 quickly escaped from the closet, climbed out of the window, and hid in the woods behind the village. Soon, his figure disappeared into the depths of the woods.

Due to the presence of villagers, Murata was not suitable to enter the house directly. He took a short nap to replenish his strength, thinking that even if there was a ghost, it would not come out during the day, and then rushed there with full courage and sword in hand.

There had never been any reports of ghosts in this area, and Murata was just passing by to take a break, but he had no idea that he would stumble upon a place that might be problematic.

The chain crow set out earlier than him, flying towards the wooden house with a clear goal.

By the time Murata ran to the cabin, the chained crow had already landed on a tree not far away. If one did not look carefully, he would have subconsciously overlooked it.

Murata took a cautious step forward and placed his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist, ready to draw the sword as soon as any movement occurred.

The faint smell of blood that was not noticed during the day still lingers here.

His heart was beating wildly due to nervousness. Murata tried to move around the broken door panel as quietly as possible, with his Nichirin sword unsheathed in front of him, in a defensive posture.

——There must be something fishy going on.

The previous thought was confirmed at this moment, as there was still some dried blood stains left in the dark area on the ground.

The only place a ghost can hide during the day is in a corner cupboard.

Murata had noticed the tightly closed cabinet during the day, but now the cabinet door was wide open and there was nothing inside, as if telling him that he had been late for a long time.

The ghost disappeared.

Murata couldn't figure out why the ghost left, and Chain Crow didn't find any trace of the ghost.

"Oh yeah."

The moonlight passed through the door and cast long shadows on the ground.

Murata's heart, which had just relaxed a little, immediately became tense again.

The voice was filled with malice, and it sent chills down his spine. It was clearly the hottest night of summer, but he felt a chill all over his body.

"It seems like you have found an unexpected surprise." The demon stared at Murata's back with scarlet pupils, and the corners of his mouth pulled up into a smile, "Swordsman of the Demon Slayer Corps, why don't you turn around and look at me?"

0829 Ran deep into the woods to look for a cave but failed.

He was fully aware that he might have to go back to the small cupboard, but the consequence would be that he would be caught by the Demon Slayer swordsman on the spot.

"Forget it." 0829 maintained a positive attitude. "At worst, I can just run further to find the next village."

I have to say, apart from the disadvantage of becoming a demon that almost made him eat people, the other benefits of enhancing his five senses are still very good.

...No, this disadvantage is enough to outweigh all the advantages.

There was no point in walking any further, so 0829 simply sat down cross-legged on the spot, made sure that no one was around, and opened the system interface in the void to view detailed prompts.

The light from the virtual screen made 0829's face look dark blue.

"Let me see..." 0829 closed the mission details and zoomed in on the map to note his own location. "It's not too far from the village, so there's enough time to go back. The green dot hasn't changed much, so they should all be asleep. The blue dot is in my previous room, and there's this red dot——"

The sound suddenly stopped, and 0829 suddenly realized that something was wrong. He quickly got up from the ground, closed the virtual screen, and ran in the direction he was going.

——What happened to the luck of that demon slayer swordsman? The red dots on the map are demons that have eaten at least a dozen people!!