Alex hurried across the street, occasionally glancing back, his delicate face darkened and looking incredibly serious. The biting cold winds of the late afternoon slipped through his thin layers of clothing, making him shiver, but his footsteps did not slow down in the slightest.
Finally, unable to endure it anymore, he stopped, turned around, and let out a low growl.
"Stop following me!"
The soft, hoarse growl attracted the attention of passersby; they clamored to turn and look at the teenager whose face was flushing red. If not for this sudden shout, no one would have paid attention to this dirt-stained kid, and naturally, no one would have noticed anyone following him.
Alex realized what he had just done and lowered his head in shame. He pulled his scarf up to cover half of his face, his thin figure quickly disappearing into the crowd. He tried to shrink his presence as much as possible, weaving through the uneven cobblestone streets of the slums, where the smell of mold and coal blended together to create a suffocating atmosphere.
Turning a street corner, Alex brushed past a squad of fully armed knights, the sound of iron armor clanking with majestic authority. He bowed his head even lower, his heart pounding, and glanced back to check on the little tail that was trailing him.
That little tail was even more afraid of the Temple Knights from the Luminous Church than he was and had long since hidden in some nameless corner. The holy light radiating from the badges on the knights' chests was a deadly poison to weak wandering souls.
Alex breathed a sigh of relief, pulling his scarf higher. Taking advantage of the moment the little tail was hiding, he wanted to quickly shake off this troublesome follower.
But he had still underestimated this little tail. The persistence of the dead was sometimes even more terrifying than that of the living.
Hurrying through a narrow alley and turning onto the road leading out of the city, Alex's footsteps faltered. Looking at the little tail blocking his path ahead, he silently ground his teeth, took two steps back, and returned to the small alley.
"What exactly do you want me to do?" Alex looked at the frail boy in front of him - the little tail that had been clinging to him, a weak ghost.
The boy, hovering in mid-air, pointed to his own empty legs, revealing a confused expression, as if to say: *Why have my legs disappeared?* The jagged cut on his thighs was uneven, and illusory black blood was still oozing out, but the boy seemed to feel no pain, only extreme bewilderment.
Alex understood the meaning of this expression all too well; he was born with Yin Yang eyes and could see many things that ordinary people could not.
This little ghost hoped he would help it find its legs.
He pursed his lips, his eyes darting around to see if anyone noticed him talking to the air.
If it were any other day, perhaps he would have kindly helped this pitiful soul find its legs, and then stripped the corpse of any belongings as remuneration, but not now.
Alex looked up at the sky, which was gradually turning gloomy. Heavy black clouds were gathering at the horizon, signaling that night was about to swallow Dune City.
Today was the night of the full moon; if he didn't get home before dark, he would be in danger. Things lurking in the shadows would become doubly aggressive on nights like this.
Moreover, he carefully observed the attire of the little ghost in front of him. The tattered coarse cloth clothes were even more destitute than his own; there was absolutely no way the ghost had enough payment to make it worth the risk. There wasn't even a silver necklace or any valuable personal item on the boy's neck.
"No, I'm in a hurry." Alex's face darkened as he rejected the little ghost decisively.
The little ghost didn't know of Alex's pragmatic thoughts; it pointed at its empty legs again, emitting an "Ah ah ah" sound.
It couldn't speak in complete sentences.
It had no legs; if it went to be reincarnated like this, it would be disabled in the next life as well. An incomplete soul would lead to a defective afterlife; that was an unwritten rule that everyone feared.
Alex sighed, his breath turning into a thin plume of white smoke in the cold air. The little ghost blocked the exit of the alley, staring at him with large, pitch-black eyes; he had no other choice.
"Listen closely." He stared at the little ghost in front of him, his voice hoarse. "I don't have much time to waste on helping people for the joy of it right now. But your luck isn't too bad; I have to go collect my wages for today. If your luck holds up, maybe I'll find your legs."
The little ghost made an "Ah ah ah" sound, a look of confusion on its face, tilting its small head to the side.
*Couldn't understand?* Alex frowned, waved his hand, and signaled for the little ghost to follow.
The lightweight half-body followed behind Alex, floating just above the ground.
Alex didn't look back at it, nor did he linger too long, walking briskly toward the outskirts of the city.
The place he wanted to go to was located five kilometers from Dune City. It used to be an abandoned winery, with rotting oak barrels still lying in disarray. Currently, however, it had been commandeered by the Luminous Church to serve as a temporary morgue.
The sour smell of fermented grape wine from the past had now been replaced by the pungent smell of formalin and the stench of rotting flesh. It contained the people who died each day in Dune City, brought back by specialized collectors from all over the city. Afterward, the church priests would categorize the collected bodies: those with known names and those without, those with relatives and those without.
The dead with names and relatives were easy to deal with; their families would organize a grand or simple funeral for them and invite a priest to perform the rites.
But most of the people transferred here were nameless. They were beggars who had frozen to death, murdered prostitutes, or unlucky thieves.
And these nameless bodies would have their identifying features registered by specialized priests while waiting for someone to claim them. If no one took these dead people away, then after a period of storage, specialized personnel would transfer them to The Boneyard twenty miles away.
And the people who collected and transported these corpses were the Corpse Collectors. A lowly, filthy job that no one wanted to do, except for those at the bottom of society like Alex.
Alex was a Corpse Collector.