Chapter 103, Tenant 301's mission rewards settlement, mother and daughter reunited...

The sandalwood memorial tablet was successfully thrown into the remains of the ancient god. As the system voice sounded, Zhou Fangdong felt his vision blur for a moment. The next moment, the perspective of both his bodies changed to the hidden room on the second floor of the apartment.

Zhou Fangdong paused for a moment, then switched the main perspective back to his own body and looked at the slime's body.

It shrank to three meters tall after going out for a while, it's so pitiful.

He sighed softly and stuffed the slime's body into the last cell.

The hidden room on the second floor is now very clean. The storage tools have been organized, and the corpses and supernatural items are neatly arranged in categories, making everything clear at a glance.

The odds and ends we just retrieved from the auditorium are still inside the slime's body... Let's deal with them later. The hidden room on the second floor is already full, so let's deal with these things in the room first.

The cult members' corpses were sold to funeral parlors, while the dismembered remains were dumped at the apartment building's garbage dump. Some of the more dangerous paranormal items couldn't be released; they'd be kept for farming later. The less useful items would be sorted out again tomorrow, and then the peddler would sell them.

It seems like I've forgotten something...

Zhou Fangdong glanced at the task panel that was still in the process of being settled, and began to unconsciously swipe through other system interfaces.

When he scrolled to the rental preview page and saw that rooms 106 and 207 were still empty, he suddenly remembered something he had forgotten—Hong Zhong and Hu Feng were still waiting outside for him to call back!

Zhou Fangdong quickly opened the [Linjiang City Map], and sure enough, the two little red dots were still standing by the river.

These two kids are so stubborn. They just kept waiting outside until he called... It's almost dark, and there are so many ghosts and monsters in the suburbs. They really don't care about their own safety.

Zhou Fangdong immediately called Hong Zhong and told him to come back quickly.

The call had just ended when the task reward settlement was completed.

[Task reward successfully settled]

[Urgent mission [Find the Body] has been completed. Reward: 2000 Ghost Coins]

[The remains of the ancient god do not require digestion; they are directly integrated, and the body repair progress is 90% complete.]

[Erosion of Authority Progress 50%]

[The core of the evil god's clone is slowly being digested; rewards will be distributed later...]

All the ghosts related to the mission have returned to their respective rooms. The ghost corpses are being purified. Once purification is successful, they can be automatically retrieved from the decoration purification devices in the corridors on each floor.

Lu Mingbian has been placed in room 301. Please sign a tenant agreement with him as soon as possible.

[Note: The evil god (incomplete) has officially revived and may attack the apartment at any time. Please upgrade the apartment's renovation value as soon as possible.]

Upon seeing the final prompt, Zhou Fangdong was immediately startled: "I didn't reveal my identity in the mirror world, did I? What gives it the right to attack the apartment?"

[This has nothing to do with the host; once the evil god is successfully resurrected, it will definitely come to the apartment.]

Zhou Fangdong frowned.

The cultists of the Bone Inheritance Society started causing trouble at the Liwan Apartments... What in the apartments did that evil god want? Or was this place very important to that evil god?

That guy probably doesn't want to compete with him for the property rights of the Liwan Apartments, does he? — Damn it, there's absolutely no way I'll give it to him; there can only be one apartment owner!

He painstakingly built this haunted building into what it is now, and that evil god wants to reap the rewards without lifting a finger. That's disgusting.

Zhou Fangdong continued, "System, when will the evil god arrive? Will there be any warning before it arrives?"

[The system cannot determine the timing of the evil god's attack; a warning will be issued when the decoration value increases.]

"Master, do you think my true form can defeat an evil god?"

[Increasing the decoration value will enhance the purification and protection effect, without requiring the host to take action.]

Zhou Fangdong stroked his chin. "How suspicious... System, why do you always steer the conversation to home renovations no matter what I ask? Will the evil god really come to the apartment? You're not just trying to scam me out of my ghost money to renovate, are you?"

The system cannot understand what the host is saying.

Ugh, what a garbage system.

However, it's better to be safe than sorry, so we can't take any chances. We still need to listen to the system and quickly increase the renovation value.

Regardless of whether that evil god will come to the apartment, it's always better to maximize the apartment's security first.

Moreover, we can't just sit and wait for the evil god to come to us; we have to find a way to get rid of it as soon as possible, otherwise who knows what kind of trouble this guy will cause in Linjiang City.

...The cultists of the Bone Inheritance Society alone have harmed countless people. Now that the evil god they worship has awakened, those bald men will surely become even more emboldened.

"System, is the air purification system on the third floor finished?"

Construction is complete; the interior decoration panels for the third-floor common area have been activated.

Zhou Fangdong opened the public area beautification interface, scrolled to the third floor, and directly bought six of the most affordable basic wall lamps and installed them in the third-floor corridor.

Then I bought another mural and hung it next to the elevator on the third floor.

The ceiling has not been repaired, so the ceiling light in the tenant's room hallway cannot be installed temporarily...

Let's get these done for now. The ceiling, floor, and walls are too expensive. We'll consider them later when we have more money.

It cost a total of 500 Ghost Coins, which increased the decoration value by 85...

He currently has a total renovation value of 1085 and a Ghost Coin balance of 25470.

Sigh, I'm so poor. This little bit of money is only enough to renovate the walls of one floor... It's time to go to the back building and farm some ghost coins.

Because he had always obtained supernatural items from the Bone Inheritance Society and obtained Ghost Coins from the Main God Dungeon, he never needed Ghost Coins urgently. Therefore, after the back building of the apartment was unlocked, he never went to farm them, nor did he pay attention to the main quest 4.

The fourth main quest is to have him clean all the rooms on the first floor of the back building of the apartment, clear the boss room, and obtain the final reward for the first floor.

Now that his attack power has increased, [Heavenly Eye] allows him to directly locate ghosts in the room, and with the amplification from the kerosene lamp, [Soul Absorption] can be used directly as an attack skill. To prevent any unforeseen circumstances, a few more [Suppressing Talismans] should be sufficient.

I'll go to the back building when I have time tomorrow. He can get ghost coins by robbing the ghosts in the apartment rooms, so he can definitely rob even more from those irrational ghosts in the back building. Plus, he doesn't have to hold back; he can just take all the ghost coins from them and then kill them to silence them.

After completing main quest 4, he'll probably receive another bonus of Ghost Coins, which will give him enough money to renovate his apartment.

Zhou Fangdong closed the system interface and was teleported to the third floor.

He planned to have Lu Mingbian sign the rental agreement, give her the key to room 301, and also check the karmic threads on her body to see where the human traffickers who abducted her were.

He didn't need to rack his brains to come up with any rules for renting room 301. Lu Mingbian was the biological daughter of the charred corpse ghost in room 301, so that ghost would definitely not harm its own daughter.

*

Room 301.

Lu Mingbian's consciousness gradually returned to clarity.

She slowly opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was the old-fashioned, beige curtains. A few weak rays of sunlight struggled to squeeze in through the gaps in the curtains, drawing several hazy beams of light in the room.

Lu Mingbian sat up and found herself lying on a soft bed, the floral quilt covering her exuding the unique dry and warm scent of sunshine.

This room is exactly the same as her bedroom when she was a child. The scene in front of her is just like a quiet afternoon in her childhood memories... Next, her mother or father will probably come in with a warm towel to help her wipe her face and wake her up from her drowsiness.

Lu Mingbian closed his eyes and rubbed his temples vigorously.

Was she dreaming? She vaguely remembered being in a car with people from the Inspection Bureau, heading towards the Liwan Apartments. Then, halfway there, she stumbled upon the scene of the car accident she'd experienced, and finally found her mother's body under a tree by the river…

When she touched her mother's body, the body seemed to respond to her, grasping her arm.

Then she seemed to faint, and her consciousness went into darkness.

While Lu Mingbian was still wondering how she had suddenly appeared here, a gentle and familiar voice suddenly rang in her ear:

"Yangyang, you're awake?"

Lu Mingbian suddenly opened his eyes... Yangyang was her nickname, and only her parents would call her that.

She turned her head and saw that there was a figure standing next to her bed.

When she saw the person's face clearly, her heart almost stopped beating.

...It's Mom.

It was not an unattainable phantom in a dream, nor a charred corpse burned beyond recognition in a pit, but a real, existing image of my mother from my memories.

Lu Mingbian could feel a warm hand gently touching her cheek and tucking her sweat-dampened hair behind her ear.

Her mother sat on the edge of the bed, looking at her with a beaming smile, her eyes crinkling into a beautiful arc: "My Yangyang, you've grown so much..."

Lu Mingbian stared blankly at the familiar figure... Her mother was exactly the same as she remembered, without the slightest change.

"Did you have another nightmare? Don't be afraid, Mom is always here." The mother bent down and hugged Lu Mingbian, gently patting her shoulder as if comforting a child.

A mother's embrace carries her unique, comforting scent.

Lu Mingbian hugged his mother back, burying his head in her warm embrace, greedily breathing in her scent, tears welling up silently.

Besides that familiar smell, she also detected a discordant, faint, burnt odor.

With tears streaming down his face, Lu Mingbian looked past his mother's shoulder and onto an old wardrobe across from the bed.

There was a blurry full-length mirror on the cabinet door, which clearly reflected the two figures embracing.

In the mirror, her mother was still holding her gently.

But the image of her mother in the mirror was a shocking sight of charred blackness.

The flesh was twisted and grotesque, and the black and red carbonized tissue was in a distorted shape, like black soil about to erupt with magma.

Even after seeing the truth and realizing that the person embracing her was a charred corpse, Lu Mingbian still didn't let go. She held her mother tightly, as if trying to merge her into her own flesh and blood.

The ghost that others fear is the relative she has been longing to see again.

No matter who comes this time, they cannot separate her from her mother.

"...Excuse me for bothering you, but could you please sign the rental agreement first?"

Lu Mingbian paused for a moment, then looked up from his mother's arms with a confused expression.

Has she been embroiled in too many lawsuits with unscrupulous landlords lately? How could she dream of a heartless landlord forcing her to sign a rental contract even in such a beautiful dream?

The moment this strange landlord appeared, the cozy scene in the room shattered.

The warm little bed, the clean floral quilt, the curtains letting in sunlight... all the beautiful scenes vanished in an instant.

Lu Mingbian found himself sitting on the cold cement floor in an abandoned room covered in dust and cobwebs.

The air was thick with the smells of mildew and burnt food. All the furniture inside was broken and dilapidated. The only window was boarded up, and a few dim rays of light pierced through the gaps in the boards, providing a faint source of light.

Lu Mingbian was very familiar with this dilapidated room. It was the source of her nightmares, buried deep in her memory and deliberately sealed away—after the car accident, she and her mother were cared for by that man in this room for a period of time, before she was forced to separate from her mother and sold to human traffickers.

After the illusion in the room disappeared, the mother in her arms also turned into the charred corpse she had just seen by the river.

The warm embrace became somewhat scorching, and carried a pungent, burnt smell... but Lu Mingbian still did not let go.

Noticing Lu Mingbian's puzzled expression, Zhou Fangdong explained, "I am the landlord of Liwan Apartments. You are not dreaming. This is reality. The two investigators who came with you just now also live here."

As he spoke, he handed the rental contract to Lu Mingbian: "As long as you sign this contract, you can move freely in Liwan Apartment without being harmed by the ghosts in the apartment. You can live in the apartment with your mother forever."

Lu Mingbian took the rental contract and quickly glanced through it.

The monthly rent is 30 yuan, and according to the rental contract and the landlord's words, after signing the contract and living in the apartment, one will be protected by some unknown force and will not be harmed by ghosts or monsters.

They actively helped her find her mother and protected her from supernatural disturbances, all for a mere 30 yuan.

Lu Mingbian held the rental contract, his eyes suddenly sharpening.

...Easy entry, strict exit—that's a scam.

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Author's Note: Bonus chapter at 9 PM tonight.