Saving the World in an Apocalypse-Style Text Game

Chapter 73: Chapter 76 Beeswax_1 Chapter 73: Chapter 76 Beeswax_1 [You noticed a slight anomaly at the fifty-eighth gravestone.]

[You noticed an oddity at the one hundred and twelfth gravestone.]

[You perceived a peculiarity at the one hundred and eighty-sixth gravestone.]

[You are at…]

…

He carefully read through the text and discovered that a total of five gravestones in the cemetery had such text.

Lin Xun tried clicking again.

[You have come to the fifty-eighth gravestone and noticed that it is well-preserved. The carved inscription on the gravestone is faintly glowing.]

Upon displaying this text, no further options popped up.

Lin Xun sequentially clicked on the anomalous gravestones, but the result remained the same.

Brows furrowed, he deliberated carefully.

Suddenly, a possibility crossed his mind.

He opened his inventory and clicked on the junk item he previously acquired—the White Kind Lotus.

[Do you want to place the ‘White Kind Lotus’ in front of the gravestone?]

Lin Xun’s eyes sparkled. As expected!

[You place the ‘White Kind Lotus’ in front of the gravestone, bows silently in tribute, the inscription on the gravestone glows even brighter!]

No further texts appeared.

Lin Xun began to suspect he didn’t present enough offerings.

He opened his inventory again and continued to click on the ‘White Kind Lotus’.

[You have already used this item for tribute. Reusing the same type of item will weaken the tribute effect.]

“…”

“This gravestone is rather picky,” he commented.

Lin Xun clicked on the junk ceremonial candle.

[You place the ‘ceremonial candle’ in front of the gravestone and light it, bows silently in tribute, the inscription on the gravestone glows even brighter!]

[A rumbling sound emanates from beneath the cemetery. It seems you’ve unlocked part of a mechanism.]

Lin Xun instantly understood. All five gravestones serve as preconditions to unlocking some mechanism.

He just needs to pay tribute to each of the gravestones to unlock a mechanism.

Following this logic, he rapidly unlocks each of the unique gravestones.

Until the last gravestone…

[You place the ‘White Kind Lotus’ in front of the gravestone, bows silently in tribute, the inscription on the gravestone glows even brighter!]

Just as he was about to click on the ceremonial candle, he realized he had run out.

He quickly went through the text of his previous visit to the market.

At that time, he got five Kind Lotus flowers and four ceremonial candles.

“Damn it! How did I end up one candle short?”

Lin Xun quickly mounted his beloved lion cub and rushed back to the market.

Upon re-entering the shop and searching around, he found nothing.

“…”

Left dumbfounded, Lin Xun wondered, what was he supposed to do now?

A key item needed to activate the mechanism was missing, preventing him from continuing his exploration of the cemetery.

He thought carefully for a moment. The previous texts indicated that the route behind the cemetery led to a shack.

Could it be that the candle is in that shack?

Motivated by this thought, he returned to the cemetery.

Luckily, he had a mount to ride on, otherwise, all his game time would’ve been spent en route.

[You have re-entered the cemetery…]

[You looked around. There was a winding path beyond the cemetery’s back gate. At the end of your sight, there seemed to be a dilapidated shack near the path.]

[Do you want to search within the cemetery or explore the shack outside of it?]

Lin Xun chose to head towards the shack.

[You’re riding the lion, passing through the cemetery’s back gate, and following the path forward…]

[Soon, you arrive at the ‘Outland Shack’.]

[You dismount from the lion and enter…]

[Inside the rundown shack, you see something familiar.]

[A large piece of the Book of Redemption, known as the Rest Page, is floating in mid-air, glowing dimly.]

[You have found a fragment of the Book of Redemption—Rest Page!]

“…”

Lin Xun was speechless. He had expected to find a treasure chest in the shack that would contain a key item like a candle.

Since he was already there, he decided to set his respawn point.

[You have set the Rest Page in the ‘Outland Shack’ as your new respawn point.]

Despite searching the shack thoroughly, as he suspected, he found nothing.

Lin Xun scratched his head, unexpectedly finding himself in a dead-end again.

“If only it was possible to bring real-world items into the game.”

He sighed quietly to himself.

If so, he could go to those stores displaying ‘All things for funerals’ signs to buy candles.

Instead of just candles, he might as well buy some paper villas and paper sports cars. That might impress the gravestone a bit.

After setting the shack as the new respawn point, he went back to the cemetery.

He scrolled through previous game texts, hoping to find an ‘You see a candle at the XXXth gravestone’ type of message.

If there was such a text, he wouldn’t mind going to a different gravestone than the ones he had visited to “rob someone else’s wool.”

Unfortunately, after a long search, even though his eyes were sore, he found no similar texts.

Lin Xun put down his phone, heaving a sigh.

He now understood the frequent frustrations of the other Apostles when facing the stuck stages.

The game not only had tricky problems and NPCs, but the level processes were also quite treacherous.

Presently clueless, he opened his computer and logged onto the Apostles’ forum to check posts.

He did not check the walkthrough for Chapter 323. The newbie Apostles in the forum who couldn’t even overcome the tower naturally could not provide an answer.

At last, he found a C-ranked walkthrough, but for a different chapter.

Thinking that he could learn from others’ experiences, he checked the walkthrough.

The Apostle who wrote the walkthrough did not collect and explore everything, meticulously cleaning out the entire map like Lin Xun.

The Apostle used his own natural ability to circumvent some problematic stages, skipped ahead,

Bought a powerful item after spending a large amount of spirit power, and brute-forced his way through the level’s final boss to pass that stage.

“That walkthrough holds no value. Skipping stages will only lower the clearance rating.”

Lin Xun shook his head and closed the forum page.

Straight-A students cannot get a high grade by copying the work of underachievers. It’s better to rely on oneself than others.

He reopened the game, scrolling through previous game texts for clues.

“Huh?”

After a tiring search, Lin Xun finally found a lead.

It was the game text from the first time he entered the small church in Fox Castle.

[Upon entering the small church, you noticed rows of benches filled with burning ceremonial candles. The pure white candlelight fills the entire interior, making you slightly uncomfortable. At the end of the church, there is an altar with the symbol of Bright New Moon engraved on it.]

Lin Xun smacked his thigh in realization. With that, he decided to go to the small church and get candles.

He rode his lion cub at full speed, and after some time, he finally arrived at the small church.

[You have entered the ‘Fox Castle’s Small Church’.]

[Behind the altar lies the Rest Page. Would you like to touch and resonate with it, or remain where you are?]

The treacherous game only detailed the decoration of the small church the first time you entered.

On subsequent visits, it seemed to intentionally skip these details, making Lin Xun forget the important clues.

He gave a cold smirk and chose to stay and search.

[The Apostle with a photographic memory seems to have discovered something…]

[1. Let out a yawn, lie down on the ground, and have a beautiful sleep. There’s everything in a dream.]

[2. Your lion cub appears to be impatient waiting at the church’s entrance. You should go and pet the lion cub.]

[3. (Hidden option) Covertly take a ceremonial candle from the pews in the church.]