Chapter 67

After leaving Room 204, Zhou Fangdong sent a message to Miao Zheng, asking her to inform Hong Zhong that Penghu Gardens was in danger and to request that he keep a close eye on the residential complex.

However, relying solely on the Supervisory Bureau wasn’t enough; other preparations were necessary. The Supervisory Bureau would likely not dispatch many people there.

The reason Zhou Fangdong trusted Tang Huili’s premonition so implicitly was that her high Spiritual Perception was system-certified. He trusted the system’s judgment.

The Supervisory Bureau, however, would not share his faith in this intelligence.

At the moment, it was merely a premonition with no physical evidence to prove that Penghu Gardens was truly in danger. Furthermore, supernatural incidents were occurring all over the city, and they were busy dealing with rampaging cultists. The Supervisory Bureau was already short-staffed; they likely wouldn’t mobilize a large force based on a single prophecy.

Even with Hong Zhong’s support, it wouldn’t help much. Hong Zhong was, after all, only an investigation team captain within the Paranormal Affairs Department. The manpower he could mobilize was limited. Asking him to help protect two people was doable, but protecting an entire residential complex was a tall order.

Thinking of this, Zhou Fangdong suddenly realized something and hurried to open the [Linjiang City Map].

On the map, four small red dots representing tenants were all clustered at Penghu Gardens.

…Good grief. The people Hong Zhong had sent to Penghu Gardens to protect those two girls were actually the four investigators living in Room 201.

Now he definitely had to intervene. He couldn’t just stand by and watch the tenants of his own apartment building die at Penghu Gardens.

Sigh, he just wanted to be a simple landlord. How did things end up like this?

It started with the erosion of a Main God Instance in a tourist town, which killed six bald guys and incidentally saved four reserve players who had been snatched by the Main God.

He hadn’t expected the people from the Sigu Society to find those four players, hoping to learn the cause of the town’s anomaly from them… Then, when their attempt to kill them with Evil God talismans failed, they simply tried to kidnap them.

Now it was getting even more extreme. Seeing that the two girls were protected and couldn’t be snatched, they planned to tear down the entire complex where the girls were staying.

Was it really necessary? Did that town instance later kill some high-ranking members of the Sigu Society or something? Why were those cultists so obsessed with investigating this matter?

Or did cultists have monthly KPI performance reviews¹ too? Were they trying to hit their quotas here?

Those cultists were crazy, but surely not this crazy. Causing a scene in the city center would definitely cost them dearly.

Zhou Fangdong began to consider the worst-case scenario.

The Sigu Society’s obsession with capturing those two girls suggested they had some method of obtaining their memories to learn about their experiences in the town.

Zhou Fangdong remembered that he had been using Mu Yuechan’s body at the time, sitting next to one of the girls. He had forgotten which one, but if the Sigu Society caught them and read their memories, they would certainly find out.

The worst outcome would be the cultists learning that the anomaly in the town instance was caused by Mu Yuechan.

It was currently unclear whether the Sigu Society knew about the connection between Mu Yuechan and the apartments, or if they would trace it back to the building through him.

Therefore, as a precaution, he had to stop the Sigu Society’s plot at Penghu Gardens.

Handling this was quite difficult for Zhou Fangdong. No matter how powerful his skills were, they were useless because he couldn’t leave the apartment building. He could only rely on the actions of his tenants to influence the outside world.

He considered whether to send Xiao Xiaoyu over to directly trigger a Main God Instance at Penghu Gardens—using magic to defeat magic.

But after thinking it over, he decided against it.

The buff on Xiao Xiaoyu that caused her to be hunted by the Main God only made it highly probable for an instance to appear; it wasn’t a hundred percent guarantee. She had gone to Penghu Gardens once before with Miao Zheng, and no instance had been triggered then.

Moreover, if a Main God Instance did descend, it would likely increase the casualties. The Sigu Society cultists might die, but there probably wouldn’t be many ordinary people left in Penghu Gardens either.

With this in mind, Zhou Fangdong called out to the system in his mind: “System, can the Possession Feature be used during the day?”

[It is recommended that the Host does not use it during the day. The more powerful a ghost is, the more its strength is affected by the transition between day and night.]

[Most powerful ghosts act at night and fall into a deep sleep during the day.]

“But Zhang Zhiwu operates at Chuyun Temple during the day. That priest seems quite energetic to me.”

[Because Chuyun Temple and the Guijia Furniture Store are both considered peripheral facilities of the apartment building, they are covered by the apartment’s Yin Energy, which reduces the daytime impact on Ghost Tenants.]

In other words, when using the Possession Feature during the day, a Ghost Tenant’s abilities would be greatly weakened… If he used possession to go out and settle the matter at Penghu Gardens, he might even lose a Ghost Tenant in the process.

Zhou Fangdong sighed.

He should look for some powerful items for the tenants to use instead, letting a tenant take an item and make the trip for him.

From last night until this afternoon, Zhou Fangdong hadn’t had a moment’s rest. He hadn’t looked at the newly unlocked Tenant Illustrated Guide yet, nor had he checked the reward for reaching one hundred Favorability with Mu Yuechan.

He would see if these could unlock any useful items first.

Zhou Fangdong opened the newly unlocked entry in the Tenant Illustrated Guide.

[Mid-level Tenant: Otaku Manga Artist with High Spiritual Perception]

Guide Description: An ordinary horror manga artist who holds a record of not stepping foot outside her door for five years. Her dream is to draw a horror manga that she likes and that readers love too.

Traits: Social anxiety, shut-in, physically weak, hates exercise, mild anorexia. High Spiritual Perception; can sense nearby danger. Liwan Apartments has given her a sense of security she has never felt before; she will absolutely never terminate her lease.

[Guide Unlock Reward: 300 Ghost Coins]

This reward was within expectations. Zhou Fangdong noticed that the reward for unlocking a Mid-level Tenant’s guide seemed to always be 300 Ghost Coins, just as the Low-level Tenant rewards were 30 Ghost Coins… with the exception of the 3-coin Zhao Dawei.

Zhou Fangdong continued scrolling down and clicked on the entry for the Ghost Tenant, Ke Yan.

[Special Tenant: Resurrected Researcher]

Illustrated Guide Description: A research madman who killed himself and then resurrected himself. A rare scientific genius from the Supervisory Bureau, but due to his paranoid personality and impulsive nature, he defected after stealing supernatural items sealed by the Bureau. He is currently still a wanted fugitive.

Traits: Airheaded, single-minded, paranoid. Once he becomes obsessed with something, he ignores everything else. Currently obsessed with merging ghosts and corpses to create a new type of human that can return from the dead. He wants to erase the boundary between the living and the dead, eliminate death itself, and turn the world into a bizarre new world where humans and ghosts coexist in harmony. After signing a contract with the apartments, he gained even greater power and wishes to remain in the apartments for his research indefinitely.

[Illustrated Guide Unlock Reward: Curse Tool – Human-Skin Shadow Puppet]

Looking at this reward, Zhou Fangdong was shocked.

Wasn’t this spiritual item a vital component of Ke Yan’s current body? Was the system even fleecing the ghost tenants now?

Was it really okay to give him this item as a reward?

Zhou Fangdong opened the rental preview interface to check Ke Yan’s current location.

Because the Apartment Rear Building had been successfully unlocked and a hidden room had been rented out, he could now view the floor plan for the first floor of the rear building.

Upon opening the rental preview, Zhou Fangdong found the curly-haired pixel sprite staying obediently in the hidden room, holding a pair of pliers and modifying a corpse on a mortuary bed.

He breathed a sigh of relief and claimed the curse tool.

[Curse Tool – Human-Skin Shadow Puppet]

Original Item Description: An evil curse tool created by the Sigu Society. After use, it can change a person’s appearance and physical attributes. Each use consumes five years of the user’s lifespan. After using this item, the user’s soul will turn into a shadow puppet upon death, becoming part of the tool.

Current Item Description: A curse tool replicated by the system from a ghost tenant based on their contract. This tool can only be used by the host.

Usage: Consume 50% of your Health Bar to create a shadow puppet. This puppet functions the same as a Scapegoat Doll; it can share its field of vision, can be controlled by the host, and can use the host’s skills. Skills used by the puppet have an attack power equal to 50% of the host’s.

(Note: The puppet cannot use the [Half-Body Shrine] skill. Two puppets cannot exist simultaneously.)

Seeing the effects of this tool, Zhou Fangdong’s eyes immediately lit up.

This was too practical. The halved attack power and the inability to use [Half-Body Shrine] weren’t problems at all—he didn’t have any decent offensive skills anyway.

In a bit, he would have a tenant take the puppet along. He could use the puppet to cast [Ghost Pupils] to help check for anomalies, which would make solving the problem at Penghu Gardens much easier.

After closing the Tenant Illustrated Guide interface, Zhou Fangdong opened the Favorability interface to check the reward for reaching 100 Favorability with Mu Yuechan.

The reward for Mu Yuechan’s max favorability was also a curse tool.

[Curse Tool – Marriage Red Thread]

Item Description: I only say that husband and wife shall prosper and grow old together; who knew that one might know a person’s face but not their heart? (Note 1)

Usage Effect: An item that must be used by two people together; there are no gender restrictions. After using this item, if one person is injured, both will share the damage, weakening the overall effect.

If both users are injured simultaneously after using the item, they become immune to damage. (Applies to all damage, whether physical or curse-based.)

The users must marry within seven days of using this item (hold a wedding ceremony and possess a marriage certificate). If they do not marry, the person who stops using the item first will suffer the backlash of all accumulated damage.

After reading the item’s effects, Zhou Fangdong fell silent for a moment.

Compared to other curse tools, the price of this one was actually quite gentle.

However, it seemed same-sex pairs couldn’t use it together, as they couldn’t get a marriage certificate.

This curse tool was useless for his current situation, so he decided not to claim it for now.

Zhou Fangdong closed the system interface and then activated the [Curse Tool – Human-Skin Shadow Puppet].

After 50% of his Health Bar was consumed, a small paper figure cut from black paper appeared in his palm.

Zhou Fangdong first spent 100 Ghost Coins to refill his Health Bar, then opened the rental preview interface to start selecting the tenants he would send out.

He needed to pick a few who were good at fighting and currently free…

Room 105, Xiao Xiaoyu, was ruled out first. If she went, a Main God Instance might descend.

Zhao Dawei from Room 101 and Duan Wenyu from Room 102 were also ruled out; both were ordinary people with no ability to protect themselves.

Hong Zhong in Room 106 was handling official business, and the four investigators from Room 201 were already at Penghu Gardens.

Although Zhang Qingyang from Room 107 had the ability to deal with ghosts, when facing cultists… recalling Zhang Qingyang’s trembling sword practice in the courtyard this morning, Zhou Fangdong silently shook his head.

He Yansheng in Room 202 was still in a state of passive depression, and his presence might incite a riot among the cultists, so he was also excluded.

Tang Huili from Room 204 had just escaped from Penghu Gardens; she was another ordinary person without self-defense capabilities.

Aside from the ghost tenants, the only ones left were Miao Zheng from Room 109 and the furniture peddler Hou San from Room 203.

Miao Zheng was a strong fighter, so he wasn’t worried about her encountering cultists. If she ran into ghosts, he could prepare some talismans for her; with her reaction speed, she could handle them easily. Furthermore, she knew the girl targeted by the Sigu Society and had been to Penghu Gardens once, making her more familiar with the neighborhood than the other tenants.

Hou San was a half-ghost who frequently went around stealing spiritual furniture and collecting the resentment of fierce ghosts; he should have plenty of experience dealing with supernatural events. Plus, if his stealing ability was used well, it could play a crucial role.

After selecting the tenants to send to Liwan Apartments, Zhou Fangdong bought two Scapegoat Dolls from the mall, intending to let the two of them carry them for protection.

Scapegoat Dolls were essential items for Zhou Fangdong to test the killing conditions of ghosts in the rooms; he would have to buy them sooner or later anyway, so it wasn’t a waste. If the two tenants didn’t end up using them, he would just have them return the dolls, and he could save them for when he cleared rooms in the future.

Alright, everything is ready. It’s time to find Hou San and Miao Zheng and have them make a trip for me.

Penghu Gardens, Building 2, Room 301.

Su Wan sat on the sofa, consumed by anxiety, glancing at her phone screen every few seconds.

The day before yesterday had been her birthday. Her boyfriend and Zhu Di’s boyfriend—Zhu Di being her best friend—had disappeared on their way to buy a birthday cake. There had been no news of them since.

Yesterday, Zhu Di told her that they were being targeted by bad people and warned her under no circumstances to leave the house. Zhu Di said she had asked a friend for help and that people from the Supervisory Bureau would be coming to protect them.

Su Wan didn’t doubt Zhu Di’s words. Ever since she’d had that strange dream, coupled with her boyfriend’s mysterious disappearance yesterday, she had been in a constant state of unease.

Consequently, after receiving Zhu Di’s warning, Su Wan had not stepped foot outside her door since yesterday.

Fortunately, there was still some food in the refrigerator, so she could cook for herself and wouldn’t go hungry.

Just as Su Wan checked her phone once more to see if there were any messages from her boyfriend, the room suddenly went dark.

She froze for a moment, looking up blankly.

A power outage?

No, it was noon. Even if the power went out, it shouldn’t have become this dark so suddenly.

Looking out the window, Su Wan discovered that the sky had turned pitch black at some unknown point, looking exactly like the middle of the night.

Eerily, this darkness was confined only to the perimeter of the Penghu Gardens residential complex.

Because Su Wan’s building was located at the edge of the complex, she could clearly see the distinct line between black and white in the sky above.

It felt as though the entirety of Penghu Gardens had been severed from the rest of the world by some unknown power.

Realizing that this might be a serious supernatural event, Su Wan quickly moved away from the window and dialed the Supervisory Bureau.

Perhaps because too many people were calling at once, the line was constantly busy and wouldn’t connect.

Su Wan steadied her nerves and decided to turn on the living room lights first… the room was simply too dark, and humans have an instinctive fear of the shadows.

The moment the warm yellow light filled the living room, Su Wan breathed a sigh of relief.

Thankfully, the power within the complex was still functioning normally.

After several more attempts to call the Supervisory Bureau resulted in the same “busy” status, Su Wan decided to wait.

For an ordinary person like her, there was little else to do but wait for help from the Supervisory Bureau when faced with a supernatural event. Running around aimlessly would only add trouble to the bureau’s rescue efforts.

Su Wan sat back down on the sofa and picked up her phone again.

She intended to check social media to see if there was any news related to Penghu Gardens.

Just as she picked up the phone, she caught something moving out of the corner of her eye.

She turned her head, but the floor there was empty, save for a shadow stretched long by the lamplight.

In that instant, Su Wan suddenly realized something was wrong—her shadow was off! She had short hair, so why did the shadow have long hair?

Su Wan bolted to her feet.

With her movement, the shadow changed as well… it was just an ordinary black shadow. The long-haired silhouette from a moment ago seemed to have been a trick of the light.

…Was it really just her eyes playing tricks?

Su Wan didn’t dare stay in the living room any longer. She backed away slowly, trying to distance herself from that patch of floor.

As she passed the television hanging on the living room wall, her reflection appeared in the black screen. The image in the screen looked like a glitching broadcast, lagging half a beat behind her actual movements.

Su Wan noticed the eerie sight out of the corner of her eye, and fine beads of cold sweat broke out on her forehead.

She didn’t dare move, nor did she dare turn her head.

But the figure in the television screen, identical to her, slowly turned its head. The angle of the rotation was stiff, its neck looking as though it were broken.

A bone-chilling cold pierced the back of her neck, crawling up her spine to her scalp.

Su Wan’s heart hammered against her ribs, her breathing becoming rapid. What remained of her sanity told her to stay calm and not act rashly.

But then, she suddenly saw her reflection in the stainless steel body of the kettle on the coffee table across from her.

The image was incredibly clear, showing no distortion despite the curved surface of the kettle, as vivid as if she were looking into a mirror.

On the kettle, her shadow stared back at her with a blank expression, its mouth curling up stiffly into a twisted, grotesque smile.

This smile was the final straw. Su Wan felt the tightly wound string in her mind suddenly snap.

She let out a broken scream and sprinted toward the bedroom at top speed. Without even kicking off her shoes, she dove onto the bed and wrapped herself tightly in the quilt.

Su Wan huddled under the covers, shivering uncontrollably. She reached for her phone with trembling hands, desperate to call for help.

However, the moment she pulled out the phone, the screen reflected her panic-stricken face—and the pale, ghostly face identical to her own that was perched on her shoulder.

When a person is terrified to the extreme, they cannot make a sound.

Su Wan’s limbs went weak as she tumbled off the bed, throwing the phone far away from her.

The moment she threw the phone, the lights in the room cut out simultaneously, as if a sudden blackout had hit.

The phone screen, lying on the carpet, lit up, becoming the only light source in the room.

Under the glow of the phone screen, Su Wan’s shadow appeared on the wall, growing longer and longer. Finally, a graceful, long-haired silhouette stepped down from the wall.

At first, the shadow’s gait was stiff, but as it drew closer to Su Wan, its movements became fluid.

Su Wan felt her body become paralyzed. An indescribable chill rose from the soles of her feet, slowly spreading through her entire frame.

As her warmth drained away, her entire being felt as though it were being hollowed out. She felt her thoughts, memories, and senses vanishing at a rapid pace.

Su Wan’s figure became increasingly flat, and the colors of her body began to slough off like melting oil paint. Finally, she transformed into a flat, black shadow, collapsing onto the floor.

Meanwhile, the shadow standing behind her had completely taken on Su Wan’s appearance, stepping onto the shadow that had once been Su Wan.

Silence returned to the bedroom. After a few faint crackles of static, the vanished light flickered back to life, illuminating the room once more.

“Su Wan” slowly moved her body.

At first, her movements were somewhat stiff, but they quickly became fluid and natural.

She leaned over and picked up the phone from the floor. Skillfully unlocking it, she found the pinned number at the top of her contacts and dialed:

“Zhu Di, did you see the strange things happening outside the neighborhood? I’m a little scared… can I come over to your place?”

Translator’s Notes