Beneath the streets of "Kaluruin" there is an incredibly large labyrinth of underground necropolis, quite wide.

Ling Ze and his party came to this underground labyrinth, and as soon as they got down the stairs, the gloomy aura of the underground graveyard was already blowing in their faces, and this was one of the most important labyrinth areas in the entire fifth floor except for the labyrinth tower.

However, this staircase and the hall below have not yet entered the wild, this is still a safe zone, and in the hall under the stairs, dozens of players are in groups all over the hall, some are in meetings, some are dining, and there are even players who line up sleeping bags by the wall to rest for a while.

"Everyone is here to pick up relics, right?"

Asuna whispered, because these players are not all players in the strategy group, you can know by looking at their equipment, most of them are second-tier and third-tier equipment, and even some are simply unarmed.

"Yes, this hall has probably been picked up, and it's time to explore the surrounding underground ruins."

Kirito replied with a serious face, he looked a little worried, he felt that these players were a little too careless.

"Although it was safe here during the closed beta, based on the current experience, this kind of thing is not guaranteed, and maybe Akihiko Kayaba will make some changes."

Kirito's worries are not unreasonable, but as long as a powerful elite monster is arranged here, it will be a huge crisis for these second- and third-tier players and "tourists".

"It shouldn't be a big problem at the moment, let's move on, let's go deep into the ruins and explore the way first."

Ling Ze patted Kirito and motioned for him not to think too much.

Kirito nodded, and continued to lead the way in front, they didn't come here to grab "relics" with those players, but for the mission, they had given up continuing to pick up "relics", although there seemed to be a lot of "relics" here.

The group walked out of the bright hall illuminated by several torches, and as soon as they entered the passage, the surroundings became dark, and it was possible that the rain on the ground seeped down, and there were water droplets everywhere, and they would be hit directly in the head or shoulder when they walked in the passage.

In an eerie atmosphere, the group entered the narrow path from the main passageway, walked sideways through a narrow path only about thirty centimeters wide, and then climbed through a tunnel with a height of only about sixty centimeters, all the way to a place that resembled a chapel.

There were rows of benches in the chapel, and a strange stone statue that had half collapsed stood by the wall in the depths, and the light source was only a few candles on the floor that emitted a faint glow, and around the candles there were mountains of burned candle ashes, and the four corners of the chapel were covered in deep darkness, and the whole chapel stood out with a gloomy one.

The name of the quest is "Thirty Years of Sighs", and the story is very simple, the NPC who is the client is a middle-aged man who lives alone, and has recently moved here from other cities on the fifth floor, but his new home will have a mysterious sound of "click" every night, and the dishes will fall to the ground inexplicably, and the client wants them to help figure out how to find out why this happened.

The group first investigated the basement of the house, but found not even a trace of a mouse in it, so they continued to the catacombs below.

"So it's some kind of paranormal event?"

Klein had drawn his weapon, and he always felt that things were not so simple, that room was too haunted.

Everyone looked around the eerie underground chapel, but there was no sign of any living or non-living things.

"Maybe it's not time yet."

Ling Ze looked at the time and explained to Klein.

"It's true that the uncle said that the house starts shaking around two o'clock in the morning, so we may have to wait until two o'clock."

Kirito nodded, he directly supported Ling Ze's statement, this is a very normal logical reasoning of the game, and there are still a lot of time-related tasks in the game.

"But there are often shortcuts to this kind of task."

Although he affirmed Ling Ze's statement, Kirito changed his words and proposed another solution.

As soon as Kirito finished speaking, a strange sound of footsteps sounded in the chapel.

"What's that sound?!"

Asuna looked flustered, and she hurriedly walked around to Ling Ze's side.

"A man?"

Ling Ze frowned, and a petite NPC like a child suddenly appeared, he was wearing a hooded dark gray coat that covered his head and covered his face.

"That's weird, isn't it?"

This kind of scene, not to mention that Asuna was a little stunned, even Klein and the other big men were a little trembling.

Although the NPC was short, his unshoeed heels were unusually large compared to his physique, and his arms were extraordinarily long, and he carried a very dirty cloth bag in his left hand and a long candle in his right hand.

"Is this guy human?"

The appearance characteristics of this NPC are obviously a bit different from humans, of course, the possibility of deformity cannot be ruled out, but SAO is a fantasy world here after all, and there should be no need to deliberately design a deformed human form.

Asuna shrank behind Ling Ze, if there was anyone present who could give her the most security, it was undoubtedly Ling Ze, she poked her head out from behind Ling Ze and stared at the short man.

And the little man, as if he had not seen them, made a "popping" footsteps across the chapel and approached one of the candles that could be seen everywhere on the floor.

The short man crouched down and took out a brand new candle from the cloth bag, and then he lit a fire from the candle that seemed to be about to be extinguished, and erected the new candle on the ground, and the ashes around the candle were piled up, as if because of his actions, after lighting a new candle, the short man moved to the next candle mountain, and repeated the same action.

He appears to be the keeper of the catacommodation, but it is uncertain whether he is human or not.

"Hello?"

Seeing that the short man had no intention of talking to them, Ling Ze took the initiative to speak, because if he didn't speak, I'm afraid no one would take the initiative to speak, and these guys were obviously in a panic.

Hearing Ling Ze's words, the short man immediately stopped moving, and then he turned his face to Ling Ze with a stiff movement, although it was pitch black under his hood, there was a hazy light at the position of the two eyes.

"Good fellow, when this head is raised, it doesn't look like a human anymore."

Ling Ze was slandered in her heart, and after seeing the situation under the hood of this short man, Asuna couldn't help but tremble again, and her hands couldn't help but grab Ling Ze's arm.

"Are you responsible for replacing these candles?"

Ling Ze asked the short man, and the short man nodded silently, not answering, but he was obviously an NPC who could communicate verbally.

"It's about two o'clock in the morning, have you seen anything strange here, or something strange?"

Ling Ze then asked, this can be said to be a very straight ball.

The short man was stunned for a moment, and then a hoarse voice came from the depths of his hood:

"I, late at night, won't come here. When you wake up in the morning, light a candle. During the day, I make up for what I extinguished. At night, go to bed after blowing out the candles. ”

The short man seemed to have a hard time talking, and after he had said this, he began to walk again, and then, after replenishing the candles, he left the chapel with a "popping foot".

"Looks like there's a solution."

Ling Ze looked at Kirito, and the other party nodded.

The two soldiers split into two ways and quickly blew out all the candles lit by the short man, the light source in the chapel disappeared, and the terrifying atmosphere became more and more intense.

"What are you doing?!"

Asuna whispered, she had been by Ling Ze's side all the time, so she wasn't particularly flustered.

"Obviously, it's pitch black at two o'clock in the morning."

Ling Ze opened his mouth to explain, and Asuna instantly understood.

"So we're going to create this atmosphere, there's no sunlight here, so as long as the candles go out, whether it's early in the morning or not, it's the same effect!"

Asuna clapped her hands and explained the reason why Ling Ze and Kirito did this, and Klein looked like he suddenly realized.

In the dimness, a hazy light emanated from the center of the floor of the chapel, and this sudden change obviously meant something, and everyone in the "Wind Forest Volcano" held their breath.

It wasn't glowing moss, it wasn't a glowing magic prop, the light source didn't feel a trace of heat, and it even had a cold air of nothingness.

"Woo woo woo !!"

A sound similar to the howling of the winter wind sounded out of thin air, and this strange picture instantly made Asuna's body stiffen, but anyone who is not stupid knows what will happen in this environment.

Soon, a pale and transparent, slender hand like a dead branch stretched out from under the floor, the floor was not broken, the hand was directly through the floor, which was a self-evident thing.

"Woo woo woo woo !!"

The whistling sound sounded again, this time full of grumbling, and after the hand was outstretched, followed by the arms, shoulders, and head, a woman rushed up from under the floor.

With messy hair, a bony body, red ghost fire flashing where the eyes should have been, and sharp teeth showing out of the mouth, there is no need to suspect anything this time, there is no doubt that this guy is not human.

In the eyes of everyone, whether surprised or frightened, the female ghost waved her clawed hands and burst out with a sharp cry, the first two sounds were not wind sounds, in fact, they were the wails of this guy.

"Woo woo woo woo !!"

This time, however, she wailed the loudest, and the whole chapel shook violently with her howl, the benches toppled over and over, and the walls and ceilings fell with small stones that seemed to crumble at any moment.

"What's going on with this guy?!"

Everyone didn't rush up to attack the female ghost, because this guy seemed to be still going through the "cutscene", and she didn't even have a buoy on her head, although the short man didn't show any useful information before, but the short man at least had a buoy on his head.

"I don't know!"

Kirito replied as he dodged the stones, sadly because this development had exceeded his expectations.

The "female ghost" continued to make a mournful sound, and the vibration of the chapel became more and more intense, and it was clear that it was this "female ghost" that caused the house of the task to shake.

After dozens of seconds, the shaking finally began to weaken, and the voice of the "female ghost" gradually faded away, until finally it completely disappeared, and the silence came again.

"What's going on with this guy?"

Looking at the pale phosphorescent face of the "female ghost" in front of him, Ling Ze was very puzzled, and after the screaming ended, the "female ghost" floated over and looked at them with ghostly eyes.

"Why is she so close?"

Asuna also sent out a soul question, although she was trying to overcome it, but she was still afraid of this monster, even if she knew that this monster was just code in the game, but people's fear would not be weakened.

"Ahem, Miss, why are you screaming in this chapel?"

Ling Ze tried to communicate with this NPC, and after screaming, an NPC buoy finally appeared on the head of this "female ghost".

"Because... I can't get out of here......"

With a strong echo, the voice sounded like a cold wind in winter, and this way of speaking can only be said to be a very "female ghost".

"Why can't you leave?"

Ling Ze then asked.

"I... Imprisoned here......"

The "female ghost" replied, and the emotion in her voice was more sadness than resentment.

"Imprisoned here?"

Ling Ze frowned, although the door of this chapel was not easy to open, it was not locked, and this guy was obviously a non-physical monster that came out from under the floor, so neither the door nor the wall should be able to stop her.

"Who's imprisoned here?"

Seeing Ling Ze's doubts, Kirito took over the rhythm of the conversation, although he was also very confused in his heart, but he was obviously very proficient in this way of task dialogue.

The story of this "female ghost" is very bloody, she was imprisoned here thirty years ago, when she was still alive, and the person who locked her up here was the man who had made an appointment with her to spend the future with at that time, because of her resentment against that man, she was bound to this place after her death.

In this story, the bloody Ling Ze no longer knows what to say.

"It turns out that she is also a poor person......"

Asuna sighed, at this time, after telling the story, the "female ghost" had dissipated again, so at this time Asuna finally returned to her normal state.

"The next task is simple, find the guy who abandoned her, most likely a wealthy businessman, high-ranking official or something in the city."

Ling Ze shook his head, he could guess the follow-up of this mission.