Chapter 5

When Zhou Fangdong opened the System Mall and scrolled to the newly unlocked Kerosene Lamp oil, he froze.

To make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, he carefully counted the digits of the price tag several times.

A three followed by four zeros. Thirty thousand. No mistake.

While he was still at a stage where he couldn’t even bear to spend 30 Ghost Coins, the system had unlocked a consumable item that cost thirty thousand.

Zhou Fangdong’s knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists. “System, are you serious about this price? Even if you squeezed the marrow out of my bones, I couldn’t produce thirty thousand Ghost Coins.”

The system acted as if it hadn’t heard him and offered no response.

Zhou Fangdong felt bone-weary; he decided not to dwell on the matter.

His Kerosene Lamp could still last for over ten hours, so there was no immediate rush. He would look for other ways to replenish the oil when he had time later.

Zhou Fangdong checked the other rewards from Newbie Guide Quest ③.

The elevator unlock likely referred to the one opposite the apartment’s main entrance. Since he had no reason to go upstairs at this stage, whether the elevator was unlocked or not didn’t really matter to him.

Tenant Room Preview Interface unlocked…

Zhou Fangdong found this function in the system interface and opened it.

A top-down view of a room appeared before his eyes. A chubby, pixelated little man with [Zhao Dawei] written over his head was pacing back and forth inside the room.

He tapped on the screen and discovered that he could use this preview interface to teleport directly into the rooms of tenants who had already moved in.

This was a very convenient feature. If a tenant encountered danger, he could rush over immediately with his Kerosene Lamp.

The 【Tenant Illustrated Handbook】 had also been unlocked. Remembering the system’s mention that lighting up entries in the handbook would grant Ghost Coin rewards, Zhou Fangdong opened it with anticipation.

Tenant Illustrated Handbook: [Low-level Tenant · Frustrated Middle-Aged Man]

Description: An ordinary man currently at a low point in his life, feeling dejected. He only wants a place to stay.

Traits: Honest personality; will strictly follow the Tenant Rules. Mentally sensitive and easily frightened. If the rent is increased, there is an 80% chance he will terminate the lease.

Unlock Reward: 3 Ghost Coins

Zhou Fangdong: ???

A frustrated middle-aged man was only worth 3 Ghost Coins?

The Automatic Cleaning Tool cost 30 Ghost Coins. He had used one up just to get this man to stay, and it turned out the man was only worth a tenth of a cleaning tool?

As if sensing Zhou Fangdong’s rising fury, the system’s electronic voice chimed in just in time:

【Ding—Host, please work hard to complete Newbie Guide Quest ④: Ensure the tenant in Room 101 survives for one month. Reward: 300 Ghost Coins.】

【Tenants are a sustainable resource. If they survive and do not terminate their lease, Room 101 will produce 300 Ghost Coins per month. Please take good care of your tenants.】

The curses on the tip of Zhou Fangdong’s tongue were swallowed back down.

Fine. 300 Ghost Coins was acceptable.

The handbook traits mentioned that the middle-aged man was honest and wouldn’t easily go looking for trouble. Combined with a little extra care from Zhou Fangdong, these 300 Ghost Coins were essentially free money.

The only issue was that it would take a month to get his hands on them… and he was desperately short on Ghost Coins right now.

Setting aside the distant dream of thirty thousand for lamp oil, [Low-level Ghost Repelling Talismans] and [Low-level Purification Talismans] would likely be essential needs in the future. He needed to stock up on a few in advance.

Once he had more tenants, if he ran into any who liked to court death, he could use a [Purification Talisman] to keep their rooms in a safe state.

The [Ghost Repelling Talisman] was a lower-tier substitute for the lamp oil; if necessary, he could provide one to a tenant to save their life in an emergency.

For the sake of future development, he had to find a way to earn Ghost Coins now. Otherwise, he would inevitably get stuck in a death loop later on.

Zhou Fangdong remembered the system saying that completing quests, lighting up the handbook, and clearing out ghosts would all grant Ghost Coins. Special tenants and long-term tenants would also drop Ghost Coins periodically…

Since the system’s ultimate goal was to rent out rooms, then cleaning the rooms must be important too, right?

“System, if I clear out a rentable room, will I be rewarded with Ghost Coins?”

【Ding—Detecting Host’s intent to clean rooms. Main Quest initiated early.】

【Main Quest 1: Prepare all remaining rooms on the first floor for occupancy and find tenants to move in.】

【Quest Reward: Currently hidden.】

【Side Quest 1: Clean and rent out Room 109.】

[① Clear out excess trash]

[② Discard damaged furniture and purchase new furniture]

[③ Find the ghost hidden in the room and determine its killing logic]

[④ Draft a Rental Contract and find a tenant to move in]

【Side Quest Reward: 300 Ghost Coins, 1000 EXP, Random Skill Point x1】

Seeing this long list of tasks and rewards, Zhou Fangdong’s spirits instantly lifted.

If he screened his tenants carefully, unlocking their handbook entries would give some coins, and their long-term survival would provide more. Combined with the 300 Ghost Coins from the quest, this would be a significant amount of income.

Furthermore, completing side quests rewarded him with experience and skill points.

Zhou Fangdong opened the Character Level interface.

He was currently Level 1 with no character skills. His health, stamina, and sanity bars were all at the level of an average adult.

1,000 EXP was enough for him to level up once. Zhou Fangdong glanced at the level preview; leveling up would not only grant 3 attribute points but also unlock a character skill.

Since skill points could also unlock skills, it meant that after completing this side quest, he would have two opportunities to unlock skills.

He hoped to get a ghost-repelling skill so that his Ghost Coin pressure wouldn’t be so heavy in the future.

However, before Zhou Fangdong could celebrate for long, the system popped up again:

【Ding—Main Quest unlocked. Side Quest unlocked. Apartment elevator detected as operational—】

【Dynamic Event: Night Attack of a Hundred Ghosts countdown initiated (30 days).】

Zhou Fangdong fell silent.

The system was definitely targeting him on purpose.

That “Night Attack of a Hundred Ghosts” event sounded bad just from the name alone!

Zhou Fangdong closed the system interface and picked up the kerosene lamp, stepping out of the room.

He was heading to Room 109 to clean. He had to accumulate some anti-ghost items before that Night Attack of a Hundred Ghosts event arrived.

After leaving his room this time, Zhou Fangdong made a point to look back.

He noticed that once he stepped out, the door to his room vanished, leaving nothing but a solid wall where the entrance had been.

There were only nine rooms on each floor. The Landlord’s Room was an extra space, hidden within another dimension and not part of the actual floor plan of the Liwan Apartments.

Realizing this, Zhou Fangdong finally breathed a sigh of relief.

This meant that the first time he went out, the Jumping Ghost blocking the way hadn’t been intentionally targeting his door.

He had thought a powerful ghost was already stalking him, but it turned out the door’s location had simply overlapped with the spot where the ghost happened to be lurking.

Room 109 was not far away. It was the very first room Zhou Fangdong had checked during his novice guide mission, and the floor covered in black trash bags and the blood-spattered walls were still fresh in his memory.

As he pushed open the door to Room 109, the familiar stench of rot rushed out to meet him.

Zhou Fangdong covered his nose and mouth, staring at the chaotic mess inside with a conflicted expression.

Where would be the best place to start…

There was absolutely no place to stand, and he couldn’t find any cleaning tools. If he had to carry the trash bags out one by one by himself, it would be far too inefficient.

Just as Zhou Fangdong was at his wit’s end, the system page popped up again.

【The Recruitment Interface has been unlocked in the Mall. The host may purchase services as needed.】

Zhou Fangdong clicked on the System Mall with a deadpan expression and found the newly unlocked recruitment interface.

It required Ghost Coins again, didn’t it? Since he couldn’t afford anything anyway, he might as well just look to satisfy his curiosity.

The recruitment interface currently featured three available cleaning staff:

① Ordinary Cleaner

Hourly Rate: 300 Yuan

Personality: Timid, enjoys gossiping

Cleaning Ability: B

Can thoroughly clean bathroom corners, adhesive residue on glass, and grease on range hoods. (Does not handle bloodstains or corpses.)

Note: May scream and flee upon seeing blood or corpses; 99% chance of calling the police.

【No survival skills, no ability to resist powerful ghosts.】

② Professional Body Collector

Hourly Rate: 10,000 Yuan

Personality: Taciturn, works for the money

Cleaning Ability: C+

Only cleans corpses and bloodstains; can assist in dismemberment. Will ignore all other cleaning tasks.

【Mastery of combat skills, perfect sniping skills, no ability to resist powerful ghosts.】

③ Part-time Paranormal Affairs Department Employee

Hourly Rate: 50,000 Yuan

Personality: Rigorous, meticulous, slight OCD

Cleaning Ability: A

Will clean everything thoroughly, regardless of what it is.

【Mastery of investigation skills, mastery of combat and firearms, possesses the ability to resist powerful ghosts.】

After reading the descriptions of the three hireable cleaners, Zhou Fangdong froze.

The currency for the hourly rate wasn’t Ghost Coins.

In other words, he could actually hire people to come and clean!

Zhou Fangdong was instantly overjoyed. With a grand wave of his hand, he chose to hire the part-time Paranormal Affairs Department employee.

An hourly rate of fifty thousand was nothing to him now; it wouldn’t even touch the spare change in his account.

When he inherited these two buildings, Zhou Fangdong had also inherited his distant relative’s nine-figure bank balance, achieving instant financial freedom.

Unfortunately, his current body couldn’t eat or drink, and he was trapped in this haunted building with no way out. He had money but nowhere to spend it.

After Zhou Fangdong made his selection, a blue cleaning app appeared on his phone.

With his experience posting flyers on rental forums, Zhou Fangdong didn’t need any system guidance. He opened the cleaning app, found the part-time Paranormal Affairs Department employee, and placed the order directly.

Inside the Paranormal Investigation Division of the Bureau of Paranormal Oversight.

A text notification chimed. Hong Zhong rubbed his red, sleep-deprived eyes and picked up his phone to take a look.

“A cleaning order… Since when did I apply to be a cleaner? Is this someone’s prank?”

His hand, which was about to delete the message, suddenly paused. Hong Zhong’s brow furrowed. “An order from the Liwan Apartments?!”

He didn’t bother controlling his volume, and his shout jolted everyone in the office awake.

Someone soon laughed. “Captain Hong, you must be delirious from staying up late. Didn’t the owner of the Liwan Apartments die a long time ago? We were the ones who helped recover the body.”

Hong Zhong quickly connected his phone to a nearby monitor, typing away as he spoke. “The signal was sent from the Liwan Apartments, and the location requested in the order is also the Liwan Apartments.”

The laughter stopped instantly. Someone crowded around Hong Zhong’s computer screen and said in surprise, “The signal really did come from the Liwan Apartments… But the supernatural incident there spiraled out of control back then, which is why things are the way they are now. That place has long since become a ghost nest. Could those ghosts have evolved enough to use cell phones?”

Hong Zhong’s expression was grim. “Stop joking. Xiao Zhang, write a report and send this up the chain. Notify Xiao Liu in the Equipment Department to bring me my field gear. I’m going to go see for myself.”

Translator’s Notes

• Paranormal Affairs Department: The ‘Paranormal Affairs Department’ (异调科) and ‘Bureau of Paranormal Oversight’ (异常监察局) are genre-specific terms for government organizations that manage supernatural threats. In Chinese webnovels, these are often portrayed as secretive, highly disciplined agencies that bridge the gap between the mundane world and the supernatural.