Chapter 7 The Murder Case in Room 109: Preparations for Furniture Purchase...

While Hong Zhong was cleaning room 109, Zhou Fangdong was sitting in his room looking through the rental interface of the system.

In addition to room 101, there is also a temporary preview room in the interface.

Although Room 109 was not officially rented out, Zhou Fangdong could still see Hong Zhong and the condition of Room 109 because of the cleaning service he hired.

The image is an overhead view of the room, and Hong Zhong is depicted as a pixelated figure. Although the specific details are not very clear, it is still possible to tell what he is doing.

The pixelated figure opened the black plastic bag, and a dead man's head with a dragging spine emerged from it.

The pixelated character gets a headshot, pulls open a body bag, and puts the dead man's head into the body bag.

Zhou Fangdong couldn't help but applaud.

So professional! They dealt with a vengeful ghost so easily. No wonder they earn 50,000 per hour.

Hong Zhong wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. Looking at room 109, which was almost unchanged, he felt a chill run down his spine.

He had just opened four black plastic bags, each containing different pieces of corpse, all of which had transformed into highly aggressive Class C vengeful ghosts.

These ghosts were more ferocious than the last. The first ghost was dealt with with just one shot, while the fourth ghost, Hong Zhong, required a whole magazine of bullets to completely eliminate it.

Moreover, when he put the remains of these vengeful ghosts into specially treated body bags, the body bags turned into new black plastic bags.

He spent half a day busy, but the number of vengeful ghosts in the room did not decrease at all.

The ghost in this room is very strange; it's definitely not a low-level ghost that can be driven away by force.

This can't go on any longer. He doesn't have many bullets left, and if he keeps opening plastic bags, he'll be worn down and die here.

Hong Zhong looked around and saw that Room 109 was filled with black plastic bags, cardboard boxes, and various kinds of garbage.

Cardboard boxes and black plastic bags appeared most frequently, and Hong Zhong tried to look through the cardboard boxes.

Most of the cardboard boxes next to him were empty, and moving or opening them wouldn't anger the ghosts.

Seeing this, Hong Zhong pushed aside the cardboard box blocking his way and began searching for clues.

To eliminate such a troublesome ghost, one must first find its killing patterns, then find a balance in coexisting with it through those patterns, and finally imprison it. Having worked in the Extraordinary Investigations Department for many years, Hong Zhong was intimately familiar with these procedures.

While searching the room, Hong Zhong discovered peeling wallpaper and bloodstains splattered on the walls.

Following the trail of blood, he found the saw hidden under the cardboard box.

This must be the murder weapon used to dismember the body... To prevent any further complications, he did not touch the saw.

Looking at the clues, traces, and murder weapon he had found, Hong Zhong felt that they looked familiar, as if he had seen them somewhere before.

When he first joined the company, Hong Zhong had sorted out the files of Liwan Apartment and had some recollection of the murder cases that had occurred there.

He needed to confirm some things to determine how the vengeful spirit in the room came to be.

Hong Zhong took out his phone, intending to access the internal network archive to look up some information, but when he turned on his phone, he found that it was unable to connect to the internet.

He walked around the room holding his phone, but still couldn't find a signal. He even took out his satellite phone, but still couldn't contact the outside world.

Seeing this, Hong Zhong had no choice but to try speaking, "Landlord, are you looking? I need help."

Zhou Fangdong had been keeping an eye on the rental preview interface. When he saw the pixelated figures running around the room with dialogue boxes popping up above their heads, he quickly grabbed his kerosene lamp and teleported to room 109.

"What's wrong?"

Hong Zhong was startled when Zhou Fangdong suddenly appeared beside him.

...No sooner had he finished speaking than the landlord appeared. Could it be that this person hadn't left at all and had been secretly watching him all along?

Hong Zhongping composed himself and said softly, "I need a phone that can connect to the internet."

Zhou Fangdong hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

So, the reason I called him out was to get him to spend money...

Mobile data is so expensive, it costs 30 ghost coins a month. If it weren't for the system's mandatory requirement, Zhou Fangdong himself wouldn't be willing to use it.

Moreover, even if he were willing to give Hong Zhong a data plan, he couldn't do it; he only has a pitiful 3 ghost coins on him right now.

After a moment of silence, Zhou Fangdong decided to ask Hong Zhong what he needed to do first: "Do you need a mobile phone with internet access to do cleaning?"

Hong Zhong frankly stated, "I need to check the case files related to the murders in Room 109 to determine how the ghost in Room 109 was formed, so as to deduce its murder patterns. This is related to whether my cleanup work can continue."

Zhou Fangdong looked enlightened.

So there's a shortcut! This way, there's no need to risk your life to gather information about vengeful ghosts.

I never expected that a cleaner could even find out about a murder case that happened in Liwan Apartment before. No wonder the hourly wage is 50,000. There's a reason why it's expensive.

"Okay, let me think about it first." Although he said that, Zhou Fangdong was very unsure.

He really wanted to help, because to rent out the house, he needed to develop tenant guidelines based on the patterns of vengeful ghosts killing people. Determining how the ghost in room 109 was formed would greatly assist him in drafting the rental agreement.

But where can he get a phone with internet access? Maybe he can lend his phone to Hong Zhong?

As this thought surfaced in Zhou Fangdong's mind, the system's voice rang out:

[The phone is already bound to a host; if handed over to someone else, it will be destroyed immediately.]

"How about this, System? I have 3 Ghost Coins. How about you use these 3 Ghost Coins to give Hong Zhong a day's worth of data?"

[...There are no daily data plans available in the system.]

"Don't be so rigid. System, look, your monthly data plan of 30 Ghost Coins averages out to 1 Ghost Coin per day. I'll exchange 3 Ghost Coins for a day's worth of data, so you'll still make a profit of 2 Ghost Coins."

There are no daily data plans available in the system.

"System, is this the only thing you can say? Please help me out, you're not losing anything in this."

Zhou Fangdong negotiated with the system in his mind for a long time, and finally the system reluctantly agreed to give Hong Zhong's phone 3 hours of data for 3 ghost coins.

This is outrageous, a system full of unscrupulous merchants.

Seeing that Zhou Fangdong remained silent for quite a while, Hong Zhong couldn't help but feel nervous as well.

“Give me your phone, I’ll connect you to the internet.” Zhou Fangdong held out his hand to Hong Zhong.

Hong Zhong breathed a sigh of relief and respectfully handed him his phone.

Following the system's instructions, Zhou Fangdong created a hotspot on his own phone and connected Hong Zhong's phone to it.

“You only have 3 hours.” Zhou Fangdong handed the phone to Hong Zhong.

Hong Zhong nodded, indicating that he understood. He calmly took his phone back from Zhou Fangdong, but inwardly he was in turmoil.

He originally just wanted to try it out and test Zhou Fangdong's abilities, but he didn't expect that the landlord could actually do it.

Even though it only lasts for 3 hours, that's still amazing.

—x— This means that the young man who claims to be the landlord of Liwan Apartments is stronger than all the ghosts in the building combined. He can even easily break through the building's original chaotic magnetic field and maintain stability for 3 hours.

That's terrifying strength.

Hong Zhong secretly changed his approach.

To figure out the anomalies at Liwan Apartments, we absolutely cannot be too forceful; we need to be more respectful... Otherwise, given the landlord's terrifying power, even if the entire Anomaly Monitoring Bureau came, it would be a waste of time.

Hong Zhong knew that his every move was being watched by the unfathomable landlord, so after connecting to the internet, he did not do anything else. Instead, he went directly to the internal network of the Investigation Department to check the files related to room 109 of Liwan Apartment.

Room 109 has been the site of twelve murders, including three suicides and nine homicides.

In the murder case, the victims related to the dismemberment were a couple who were also the last tenants to live in room 109 of the Liwan Apartments before the lockdown.

After reviewing the case file, Hong Zhong confirmed that the ghost currently residing in Room 109 was the wife of the couple.

Although the couple in room 109 were dismembered, the murderers were not the same person.

The wife died first, the cause of death being domestic violence by her husband. Afterwards, her husband dismembered her body, put it in a black plastic bag, and disposed of it.

The investigation, based on the case file, revealed that the husband had a drinking problem. Although he frequently abused his wife while drunk, he was a model husband in public, and neighbors considered him a loving and devoted husband. His colleagues also viewed him as humble, polite, hardworking, and an invaluable employee.

The wife had no living relatives, so she was not discovered by fishermen until six months after her death.

After her husband was arrested, because he had cultivated a good public image, many people spoke out in his defense. His friends fabricated baseless charges against his wife, inciting netizens to criticize her and question her fidelity in the marriage... So, six months after her death, the wife experienced another round of death online.

Due to public pressure and the fact that her husband was diagnosed with a mental illness, he was only sentenced to life imprisonment and released on medical parole.

The husband died after the verdict was handed down. He was supposed to be in prison, but he suddenly disappeared. When they found him again, he had turned into pieces of flesh scattered on the floor of apartment 109 in Liwan.

Along with her husband's dismembered remains, more than a dozen black plastic bags that had once contained her wife's body were also brought back to Room 109.

The case was taken over by the Investigation Department after the husband's death.

Subsequent investigations confirmed that the one who dismembered her husband was none other than his wife, who had become a vengeful ghost.

After her death, this wife possessed the power of curses and the ability to regenerate clones. She was extremely aggressive and was officially classified as a Class B ghost.

Later, due to the complete lockdown of Liwan Apartments, the ghost was not dealt with further and was left to languish in the suburbs along with the apartments.

After seeing the certification of that B-level ghost, Hong Zhong felt a chill run down his spine.

Luckily, I didn't overconfident and continue opening that black plastic bag, otherwise I might have really died here.

After reviewing the case file, Hong Zhong already had a rough plan for cleaning the room.

Hong Zhong looked at Zhou Fangdong and said respectfully, "Based on the characteristics of the ghost in room 109, I cannot clean the bloodstains on the wall, the black plastic bag on the floor, or the bloodstained saw. These are all proof that the vengeful ghost once existed. The vengeful ghost moved its body and murder weapon from the dumping site back to this room, probably so that people would see it again... It has been ignored for a long time and does not want to be ignored again."

After a pause, Hong Zhong mustered his courage and continued, "The cleaning order did not require me to remove any ghosts from the room. For my own safety, I will not touch those things, but I will clean up the other trash."

Zhou Fangdong was looking at his phone and replied without looking up, "I understand. I'll clean up as you said. By the way, after you've cleaned up the trash, I'll need you to help me move all the broken furniture out. The furniture in room 109 is unusable."

Because Hong Zhong was using Ghost Coins to connect to the internet and was using Zhou Fangdong's hotspot, everything he saw was transmitted to Zhou Fangdong's phone in real time by the system.

When Hong Zhong finished reading the case file, Zhou Fangdong also finished reading it at the same time.

The case file contains photos of the crime scene. When the wife's body was first discovered, the furniture in room 109 was still intact.

But when the husband's body parts and black plastic bags appeared in the house, the furniture was destroyed, especially the wardrobe, which was completely dismantled, leaving only the cabinet doors.

These damaged pieces of furniture were left lying around in room 109, blending in with the stench of corpses, blood, dust, and mold, completely beyond any possibility of being recycled or reused.

Cleaning up the trash and removing broken furniture can be done by a cleaning service, but what about buying new furniture? He can't leave Liwan Apartments...

Just as Zhou Fangdong was pondering how to purchase furniture, a blue furniture purchasing app slowly appeared on his phone's home screen.

So he casually ordered some furniture through this new app.

However, after making the purchase, Zhou Fangdong discovered that the furniture store did not offer delivery service.

He couldn't help but complain: "Ordering furniture and they don't deliver it to my door, and there's no refund option. This store's service is terrible."

He's a complete swindler, just as unscrupulous as the system... Even though his money came from thin air, he can't just squander it. He has to find a way to get the furniture back.

A note from the author:

----------------------