Chapter 16

After returning to his room, Zhou Fangdong checked the newly unlocked Favorability interface.

Currently, his Favorability interface only displayed the names of two human tenants: Zhao Dawei and Miao Zheng.

Zhao Dawei’s Favorability was at 60, while Miao Zheng’s was at 80.

The System’s Favorability rankings were as follows:

0-20 (Stranger – Indifferent)

21-40 (Slight Impression – Friendly)

41-60 (Respect and Appreciation – Trustworthy)

61-80 (Heart-to-Heart – Absolute Trust)

81-100 (Unconditional Obedience – Blind Worship)

Miao Zheng had only moved into the apartment today. By all accounts, they had only known each other for half a day, yet her Favorability toward him had soared straight to 80. All he had done for this tenant was set up a broadband connection.

Recalling Miao Zheng’s jubilant expression, Zhou Fangdong’s face softened with a look of pity.

Reaching the level of Absolute Trust just for setting up broadband… what kind of miserable life did this tenant lead before? She was far too easy to please.

Once Favorability reached 80, a reward was granted. Currently, Miao Zheng’s name was highlighted.

Zhou Fangdong clicked on her name to preview the Favorability rewards.

The rewards Miao Zheng provided were: one voucher for a month of free broadband, one voucher for a 30-Ghost-Coin mobile data package, a basic first-aid kit, and a “20 off 30” food delivery coupon.

The broadband and data vouchers could be saved for next month.

The basic first-aid kit was useless to him. His current body didn’t get sick, and if he were attacked by a ghost, there would be no point in trying to save himself, as a C-rank Fierce Ghost could kill him instantly.

As for that last “20 off 30” delivery coupon… what on earth was that? Could one even order food delivery in this apartment? What kind of courageous delivery driver would dare to take an order for this place?

Zhou Fangdong shook his head helplessly.

Claiming these rewards would only take up space in his Inventory. He decided to leave them for now and let them sit there.

Zhou Fangdong closed the Favorability interface and stretched his body, preparing to continue the Roleplay Task he hadn’t finished last night.

He had just returned from Room 102. After using the Mind Reading skill on that little ghost, Zhou Fangdong felt that he was now terrifyingly strong.

If he attempted the roleplay again, he would definitely succeed in one go!

“System, can I perform a Roleplay Task now? I’ve put all the tenants on the Special Watchlist, so I don’t need to keep an eye on them every second, right?”

【Ding—No abnormalities detected among tenants. Roleplay Task can be initiated.】

Just to be safe, Zhou Fangdong confirmed once more: “If a tenant on the Special Watchlist causes trouble, can I immediately exit the Roleplay Task?”

【If a tenant on the Special Watchlist takes abnormal action, the host will be immediately removed from the Roleplay Task. The unfinished Roleplay Task will be automatically judged as a failure.】

Zhou Fangdong felt relieved.

This way, he didn’t have to worry about Miao Zheng causing trouble. After all, her adventurous personality trait was quite frightening. She dared to wander in and out of Liwan Apartments the moment she moved in, walking back and forth through the ghost-infested corridors several times as naturally as if she were returning to her own home…

Thinking of this, Zhou Fangdong suddenly felt something was not quite right.

Wait. After signing the Rental Contract, both Zhao Dawei and Miao Zheng could use their room keys to enter and exit Liwan Apartments freely without being attacked by the corridor ghosts.

A tenant could avoid ghost attacks with just a single room key, yet he was carrying the keys to every single room across all fifteen floors.

Zhou Fangdong’s expression suddenly turned exceptionally grim. He pulled the [Landlord’s Key (Damaged)] out of its socket and checked the item’s effects.

The equipment effect was: Can freely enter and exit any room below the 15th floor; grants the buff [Landlord’s Deterrence].

[Landlord’s Deterrence]: High-level ghosts and special ghosts will be unable to see the Landlord’s level and will not attack the Landlord randomly.

“High-level and special ghosts will not attack the Landlord randomly…”

If even high-level ghosts wouldn’t attack him, then it was even less likely that the low-level ghosts in the first-floor corridor would.

Recalling his time in Room 102, even when he touched the entity there, the little ghost hadn’t reacted at all. Zhou Fangdong suddenly let out a hollow, self-deprecating laugh.

Then what was that 90-Ghost-Coin protective talisman he just used for?

And what was the point of him lugging that kerosene lamp back and forth through the corridors all this time?

Was it just to show off how many Ghost Coins he had?

Looking at his kerosene lamp, which only had eight hours of burn time left, Zhou Fangdong felt a pain in his heart so sharp he could barely breathe.

A can of lamp oil in the System Mall cost thirty thousand Ghost Coins… which meant that by carrying the lamp everywhere these past two days, he had wasted ten thousand Ghost Coins for nothing.

God damn it.

Zhou Fangdong gritted his teeth, pronouncing every word with venom: “System, why didn’t you remind me that carrying the [Landlord’s Key] prevents ghost attacks?”

【After the host obtains an item, the item’s effects and equipment bonuses are fully displayed. The System does not interfere with how the host chooses to use items.】

“So you just watched me wander around like an idiot with a kerosene lamp, wasting oil?”

【The System does not interfere with how the host chooses to use items.】

“No wonder a can of oil costs thirty thousand—it’s because it’s not a consumable I even need right now! System! Give me my money back!”

【…】

“Talk to me, System! Damn it, if you don’t give me back my oil, I’ll harass you forever. Forever and ever…”

【Roleplay Task beginning. Host, please prepare yourself.】

A wave of dizziness hit him. In the blink of an eye, the familiar sight of the utility room appeared before him once again.

Zhou Fangdong’s chest tightened with rage.

He couldn’t contact the System during a Roleplay Task… That damn System was giving him the silent treatment again.

Zhou Fangdong calmed his emotions, intending to finish the Roleplay Task as quickly as possible so he could go back and continue cursing at the System.

He lay flat on the floor and reached under the bed.

the reason he had failed the roleplay last time was that the success condition wasn’t to keep the child alive. Instead, he needed to let the Ghost Infant in the utility room kill the parents before the outside ghost could do it.

The ashes of those four Ghost Infants were right under the bed; they were the unborn older sisters of the child from Room 102.

Before giving birth to the child, the woman in Room 102 had undergone four abortions. The man had brought those four fetuses back home.

He had burned the fetuses to ash and sealed them inside funerary urns along with blood-stained iron nails. He then used talismans to lock them away, ensuring these fetuses could never be reincarnated. This was his way of deterring any other infant spirits who might try to be born into his family, all to ensure that a girl would never again appear in his wife’s womb.

However, it was unclear whether something had gone wrong with the talismans or if the man’s actions had triggered a backlash from the infant spirits.

When the woman was pregnant with the child of Room 102, the secret check-ups they performed clearly indicated it was a boy. Yet, when the child was born, it turned out to be a girl.

Because the woman had undergone so many abortions, her uterine wall was too thin. After giving birth, she suffered a massive hemorrhage that left her unable to conceive again.

From then on, the couple subjected the child to constant physical and verbal abuse, treating her entirely as a tool to vent their frustrations.

The child of Room 102 had been able to see these four Ghost Infants since she was young. When the couple ignored her, it was these Ghost Infants who scavenged edible food from the trash cans downstairs to feed her.

But before their seals were broken, the Ghost Infants’ abilities were limited to this. They could only move inanimate objects and were unable to take revenge or harm the couple.

During the last Roleplay Task, because Zhou Fangdong wanted to survive the pursuit of that outside ghost, these Ghost Infants had acted like moths to a flame. They used their soul forms to block one fatal attack after another for him.

By the time he successfully escaped Room 102, all four Ghost Infants had been completely annihilated.

Compared to that couple, these four Ghost Infants were more like the child’s true parents. They fed her, loved her unconditionally, and were willing to trade their lives for her single chance at survival.

Thus, the child was willing to rebel against the parents she feared most for their sake.

Zhou Fangdong successfully felt around under the bed and found the four small jars. After shattering the funerary urns, four charred Ghost Infants crawled out from under the bed and clung tightly to his body.

Taking advantage of the fact that the woman hadn’t arrived yet, he climbed onto the bed as fast as he could, pulled up the covers, and pretended to be fast asleep.

He needed to deceive the woman when she came to check on him. Once she saw him sleeping soundly, she would let down her guard and leave the door unlocked, giving him the chance to slip out.

To break the seal and fully restore the Ghost Infants’ strength, simply shattering the urns under the bed wasn’t enough.

When the man had burned the fetuses, he had burned the soul-suppressing talismans along with the bodies. After breaking the urns, one still needed to destroy the primary talisman hidden under the bed in the master bedroom. Only then would the suppressing charms that had fused with the fetal ashes lose their efficacy.

Zhou Fangdong had very little time.

The Long-tongued Ghost from outside had invaded the room during the man’s second return. To succeed in the roleplay, he had to find that primary talisman before the man returned, and then have the Ghost Infants kill the man and woman before the Long-tongued Ghost could make its move.

The child of Room 102 must have planned this for a long time to have successfully found the primary talisman and released the Ghost Infants in such a short window.

But Zhou Fangdong was unfamiliar with the layout of this home, and he hadn’t gained the memory of the talisman’s location from the child’s mind…

However, he had an advantage. He was performing a Roleplay Task; as long as nothing happened to the tenant, he could try over and over again.

After three attempts, Zhou Fangdong successfully slipped into the master bedroom and found the talisman before the woman could discover him.

The moment he tore the talisman to shreds, the man walked in.

“Wife, come here. Come out with me for an interview. That wealthy businessman said that as long as we say in the interview that we’re living here by choice, he’ll give us a huge sum of money.”

Zhou Fangdong was currently hiding in the master bedroom. From his current angle, he could clearly see the man entering from the door, holding a red envelope in his left hand.

That red envelope had likely been left outside for a long time. Its surface bore the marks of weathering and erosion, and the bright red exterior had faded to a pale pink.

The area that should have been a gold tie-string was replaced by strands of black hair. Not much of the hair remained, and it had lost its binding strength, causing the envelope to hang open and reveal the thick stack of hundred-yuan bills inside.

No wonder an outside ghost had entered Room 102. It turned out this man had taken “life-buying money.”

To dare take a red envelope that so clearly looked wrong—he truly valued money over his own life.

When Zhou Fangdong tore the talisman under the master bed, the four Ghost Infants left his body.

Four charred, indistinct infant forms held hands, wobbling as they walked out of the master bedroom and into the living room.

Their movements seemed slow, yet their trajectory was impossible to track with the naked eye. Their forms flickered like a lightbulb with a bad connection as they rapidly closed in on the man and woman in the living room.

The man realized something was wrong and turned his head, locking eyes with those four unrecognizable, charred little faces.

The screams of a man and a woman rang out simultaneously. A gust of ghostly wind swept through, and the front door was slammed shut and locked tight.

The couple’s screams acted like an accelerant. As their cries echoed, forest-green ghost fire erupted violently, consuming the entire room in an instant.

A dark, cold resentment—so thick it was almost physical—oozed from the four Ghost Infants, transforming into several pitch-black ropes that coiled around the man and woman like predatory pythons.

The black ropes connected the four Ghost Infants to the couple, looking like umbilical cords connecting a mother to her fetuses.

Trapped in place, the man and woman wailed in the flames. Their flesh turned charred and curled under the licking tongues of fire, their features twisting and deforming in agony. They were clearly living people, yet they looked more like malicious spirits struggling in purgatory than the four Ghost Infants did.

Zhou Fangdong remained hidden in the master bedroom. Looking at the two charred corpses kneeling on the living room floor and the burning, forest-green flames that were nearly melting the house, he curiously reached out a hand.

Upon touching the fire, there was no sensation of burning at all—only threads of lingering cold.

Seeing that the charred state of the living room was about to match the reality of Room 102, Zhou Fangdong hurriedly ran out of the master bedroom and returned to the utility room.

The child from Room 102 ultimately died in this utility room.

Everything in the room had been destroyed by ghostly fire, and even the water pipes had melted away. Without food or water, the child—already malnourished from years of starvation—couldn’t last even a single day before collapsing from hunger.

The four Ghost Infants did not bring her food as they had in the past.

As the seals on their power were completely broken, they lost their humanity and reason, leaning entirely toward their ghostly nature. Although their instinct to care for the child remained, they forgot that humans need food and water to sustain life.

After burning the couple to ashes, the four Ghost Infants noticed the child lying unconscious in the utility room.

Thinking she was injured again, they instinctively possessed her, hugging her tightly. They tried to use their Yin Qi to soothe her pain, just as they had done so many times before.

And so, held in the freezing yet “warm” embrace of the Ghost Infants, the child starved to death.

Even after her death, the Ghost Infants’ Yin Qi continued to erode her soul. After an unknown amount of time, a pitch-black brat—covered in four fleshy tumors and looking like a melted clay sculpture—stood up from the mummified corpse of the child.

【Ding—Congratulations Host, roleplay successful】

【Reward: 1,000 Experience Points, Random Skill Point x1】

Translator’s Notes

• Yin Qi: In Chinese metaphysics and the ‘cultivation’ genre, Yin Qi (阴气) is the cold, dark, and negative energy associated with ghosts, death, and the feminine. While it can soothe a ghost, it is inherently harmful and ‘cold’ to living humans, explaining why the infants’ attempt to help actually accelerated the child’s death.

• life-buying money: A reference to the folk practice of ‘buying life’ (买命钱), where a person (often someone dying or a ghost) leaves money in a red envelope. If a stranger picks it up, they are believed to have ‘sold’ their life or luck to the original owner, or agreed to a ‘ghost marriage.’ In horror fiction, this is a common death trap.