Chapter 4

Looking at the young man standing by the entrance with a lantern like a guide, Zhao Dawei summoned his courage and stepped into the Liwan Apartments.

The moment he entered the building, a gust of yin wind carrying the scent of decay rushed toward him, and the temperature instantly dropped several degrees.

Even though it was midday, the interior was unnaturally dim. The only source of light was the Kerosene Lamp in the young man’s hand.

Zhao Dawei followed closely behind Zhou Fangdong, peering fearfully at this legendary haunted building by the flickering, weak light.

To the left of the entrance were the residents’ mailboxes. From the room numbers on the boxes, he could tell the apartment building had eighteen floors, with nine units per floor.

Further in was the lobby, which featured a high, vaulted ceiling with a massive crystal chandelier hanging from above. Having been neglected for years, the crystals were completely shrouded in cobwebs and dust, and the chains were thick with rust.

As the two walked directly beneath it, the chandelier suddenly swayed without any wind, its rusted chains letting out a piercing, metallic screech.

Zhao Dawei instinctively ducked his head and quickened his pace, terrified that the chandelier might suddenly plummet.

Directly facing the main entrance were two elevators. Their indicator lights were dark, suggesting they were no longer operational.

To either side of the elevators were two pitch-black corridors. Zhou Fangdong led Zhao Dawei toward the one on the right.

Zhao Dawei couldn’t tell if it was just his imagination, but he felt that the further they went, the dimmer the light from the young man’s Kerosene Lamp became.

The surrounding darkness seemed to turn into a living thing, constantly devouring the meager light.

As the light faded and his vision weakened, his sense of hearing became infinitely magnified.

Zhao Dawei could vaguely hear rustling sounds in the darkness, like the sound of some monster feeding. By walking into the shadows of his own accord, he felt like a lamb voluntarily walking into a predator’s maw.

His unease grew.

Looking at the young man walking ahead of him, Zhao Dawei realized something late.

From the moment he entered the apartment until now, this young man hadn’t said a single word.

…What if this young man wasn’t the landlord who had posted the ad?

What if he was just a ghost wandering the Liwan Apartments, holding a Kerosene Lamp at the door just to lure people inside to be eaten?

At this thought, Zhao Dawei came to a dead stop. His face turned deathly pale, and cold sweat broke out in layers.

Zhou Fangdong had no idea what the middle-aged man behind him was imagining.

On the way to Room 101, Zhou Fangdong had originally intended to use some verbal finesse to euphemistically gloss over the apartment’s flaws and persuade the man to rent.

But on second thought, he decided to remain silent.

The more one said, the more mistakes one made.

Besides, this man was someone who had chosen to come see the place even after reading the 【Honest Flyer】! Did someone with that kind of courage really need more explanations?

However, just as they were about to reach the door of Room 101, Zhou Fangdong suddenly noticed the footsteps behind him stop.

He turned back in confusion, only to find the middle-aged man staring at him with eyes full of despair. The man’s face was bloodless, as if he were looking at something utterly terrifying.

“What’s wrong?”

Zhao Dawei took two trembling steps back, slowly moving out of the Kerosene Lamp’s radius. “I… I just remembered I have something to do. Uh, I’ll be going now…”

Zhou Fangdong was stunned.

What was going on? Why the sudden urge to leave?

If the tenant left before finishing the tour, would the system count the mission as complete? Besides, they hadn’t even signed the rental agreement yet.

Before Zhou Fangdong could say anything to make him stay, Zhao Dawei, who had already backed out of the lamp’s light, suddenly looked even worse.

His face, pale from fright, rapidly turned a dark, bloated purple, as if something were strangling his neck and preventing the blood in his face from flowing back down.

As Zhao Dawei’s complexion changed, his eyes began to bulge, and red veins quickly spiderwebbed across the whites. He struggled on his tiptoes, flailing his hands like a drowning man, his portly body supported entirely by the tips of his toes.

Seeing this, Zhou Fangdong rushed to Zhao Dawei’s side.

As the light drew near, a long, blackish-red tongue could be seen rapidly retracting from Zhao Dawei’s neck. Before the light could fully illuminate it, a distorted figure on the ceiling flexed its inverted joints and scurried away into a crack in the wall like a gecko.

“Cough, cough… hack…” Zhao Dawei collapsed to the ground, clutching his throat and coughing violently. A purplish-red mark was seared into the skin of his neck like a tattoo.

Zhou Fangdong had no medical supplies, so he could only stand beside the middle-aged man with his lamp, ensuring he stayed within the circle of light.

He had thought this man was some sort of hidden expert, but it turned out he was nearly hanged by a ghost the moment he stepped out of the lamp’s range.

Zhou Fangdong sighed softly, looking toward the direction where the distorted figure had fled with a grim expression.

There were far more ghosts in this building than he had imagined; they were like cockroaches. When you saw one ghost in the open, it meant the shadows were already so crowded they couldn’t hold any more.

At this thought, Zhou Fangdong unconsciously gripped the handle of the Kerosene Lamp tighter.

To move freely in this building, he had to find a way to replenish the lamp’s oil as soon as possible. It was currently his only means of survival.

It took a long time for Zhao Dawei to catch his breath. He stood up shakily, scanning the surrounding darkness with terror, and didn’t dare mention leaving again.

He didn’t know if this young man meant him harm, but he knew for certain that if he left the young man’s side, he was a dead man.

Liwan Apartments truly lived up to its reputation.

Seeing Zhao Dawei looking around in a panic, Zhou Fangdong spoke up to comfort him. “Room 101 is just ahead. You can take a good rest once we’re inside.”

Zhao Dawei nodded vigorously and followed Zhou Fangdong obediently to Room 101.

At first glance, Zhao Dawei was quite surprised by Room 101.

The room was much better than he had imagined.

Although the furniture was worn and the windows were nailed shut, the room was remarkably clean and tidy, without a speck of dust or a single stain. Most importantly, the lights in the room were actually on.

Zhao Dawei walked into the bathroom and twisted the tap; normal water flowed out.

Before arriving, he had prepared himself for a dilapidated shack filled with trash and stripped of water and electricity. He hadn’t expected such a pleasant surprise.

For thirty yuan a month, this room was cleaner than places in the suburbs that cost three hundred.

Seeing the expression on Zhao Dawei’s face, Zhou Fangdong breathed a small sigh of relief.

It seemed the deal was secure; that automatic cleaning tool had been worth the cost.

“If you’re satisfied, we can sign the Rental Contract now,” Zhou Fangdong said softly.

Zhao Dawei snapped out of his daze, his expression flickering with hesitation. “Um, if I stay here, can you guarantee my safety?”

Following the answer provided by the system, Zhou Fangdong spoke each word with deliberate emphasis: “Tenants who follow the rules are safe.”

Hearing that cold response, devoid of any emotional fluctuation, Zhao Dawei couldn’t help but shudder.

Tenants who follow the rules are safe… [Tenants] are safe.

Was that a threat? Was he saying that if he didn’t sign the contract and become a tenant, he wouldn’t make it out of this haunted building alive?

Zhao Dawei felt that suffocating sensation of impending death resurface. His neck seemed to begin aching all over again.

Well, he had come here to rent a room anyway, and since he was already here…

He gritted his teeth, threw caution to the wind, and shouted, “Please give me the Rental Contract! I’ll sign!”

The moment the words left his mouth, a piece of paper appeared out of thin air in his hand.

Written on the paper was:

【Room 101 Residential Rules】

1. Tenants are forbidden from opening windows, looking into mirrors, or bringing mirrors into the room.

2. From midnight until 6:00 AM the following morning, tenants inside Room 101 must not open their eyes.

3. Tenants must carry the Room 101 key at all times. Loss of the key will be regarded as automatic termination of the rental contract.

4. If you discover an outside person or ghost invading your private space, do not panic. As long as the above three rules are followed, the landlord will arrive immediately to resolve the issue for you.

5. A monthly payment of 30 yuan in cash is mandatory. Failure to pay on time will be regarded as automatic termination of the rental contract.

This Rental Contract was automatically generated by the system. According to the system, this was a benefit of the Newbie Guide Quest. In the future, if Zhou Fangdong wanted to rent out other rooms, he would have to discover the killing patterns of the ghosts in those rooms himself and then draft his own residential rules to protect the tenants.

In truth, the most convenient method would be to simply clear out the ghosts while cleaning the rooms, but for the current Zhou Fangdong, that was unrealistic.

His only life-saving item, the [Kerosene Lamp], could only repel powerful ghosts. Furthermore, the lamp oil was a consumable with no current means of replenishment. He couldn’t afford to keep the precious Kerosene Lamp lit twenty-four hours a day to guard a tenant’s room.

Zhao Dawei quickly scanned the Rental Contract, and the panic in his heart dissipated significantly.

The five rules of the contract weren’t harsh. Zhao Dawei signed his name without hesitation, then pulled out thirty yuan in cash, handing both the money and the contract to Zhou Fangdong.

The moment Zhou Fangdong took them, the contract and the cash vanished simultaneously, and a system notification chimed.

【Ding—Congratulations to the Host for completing Newbie Guide Quest ③】

【Tenant Illustrated Handbook unlocked】

【Tenant Illustrated Handbook: [Low-level Tenant: Frustrated Middle-aged Man] has been lit up】

【Please open the Handbook in the system interface to claim your rewards】

【Newbie Guide Quest ③ Completion Rewards: Elevator unlocked, Tenant Room Preview interface unlocked, Lamp Oil unlocked (Available for purchase in the Shop)】

Seeing that lamp oil had been unlocked, Zhou Fangdong’s heart skipped a beat.

However, he kept his face neutral, calmly selecting the key for Room 101 from the [Landlord’s Keys] and handing it to Zhao Dawei. “This is your room key. Keep it safe. There is a duplicate of the Rental Contract on the bedroom desk; if you forget any of the rules, you can check it there.”

“Be sure to act according to the rules. Tenants who follow the rules are safe.”

Zhao Dawei nodded heavily and gripped the key tight. “I understand!”

It wasn’t good to stand around staring into space at a system panel in front of others. Seeing that nothing had been missed, Zhou Fangdong used the [Return] skill to teleport directly back to his own room.

He couldn’t wait to check the lamp oil that had just been unlocked in the shop.

Translator’s Notes

• killing patterns: The term ‘killing patterns’ (sharen guilv) is a technical trope in Chinese ‘supernatural recovery’ (lingyi fusu) or ‘infinite flow’ (xianxia/horror) genres. It refers to the specific, logic-based triggers or conditions that a ghost requires to attack a victim. Understanding these rules is often the only way for non-powered characters to survive.

• eighteen floors, with nine units per floor: The building’s layout (18 floors, 9 units per floor) is a play on the ‘Eighteen Levels of Hell’ (shiba ceng diyu) in Chinese mythology. This numerical structure signals to the reader that the apartment building is a physical manifestation of purgatory or hell, reinforcing the horror theme.