Chapter 86 Ghost Market Procurement (Bonus Chapter 32,000 words) A Guide to Paper Craftsmen...

Zhou Fangdong bypassed the black plastic bags containing body parts and arrived at the hidden room on the second floor.

He searched through the cells in this eerie room filled with mummified statues, and finally found the newly unlocked Ghost Market teleportation point in the second to last cell.

The teleportation point is a large door standing in the middle of the cell. It looks like the door and frame of another cell were simply ripped off and placed here. The words "Ghost Market" are crookedly written in red paint on the door panel.

If Zhou Fangdong hadn't known beforehand that the door was created by the system, he would never have touched such a strange thing.

The Ghost Market teleportation point has been found. Zhou Fangdong left the room and went to the last cell.

Inside the cell, after a night of digestion, the giant slime that had been squatting next to the ritual rune produced two smaller slimes.

Zhou Fangdong stepped on the two small slimes to have the system recycle and repair the kerosene lamp, and then used the four kerosene lamp repair materials he had just obtained from the erosion dungeon. The kerosene lamp repair progress reached 75%.

Then he manipulated the giant slime, causing it to re-transform into a human body.

Practice makes perfect, and this time the face-sculpting went very smoothly. The face was already beginning to take on a human shape, and the hair color wasn't as fluorescent green as before. Zhou Fangdong was very satisfied.

He'll definitely become more skilled in the future, and then he'll be able to perfectly showcase his aesthetic sense.

Zhou Fangdong controlled the green-haired slime's body to arrive at the cell where the Ghost Market teleportation portal was located.

Actually, he was thinking of using his true form to visit the Ghost Market.

He now possesses a human skin mask, which can conceal his identity, but the mask's random negative effects are somewhat troublesome, making him hesitant to try it lightly.

I remember when I first met Hou San, he was a faceless vendor selling toilets at the ghost market. The mask he wore to cover his face was probably a human skin mask.

When I have time, I might talk to Hou San about the negative effects of this human skin mask. We might need to use this mask in the future, so it's good to know about it beforehand so I can be mentally prepared.

Before taking control of the slime's body to the Ghost Market, Zhou Fangdong opened the tenant encyclopedia.

Having just unlocked the tenant profile of [Ghost Tenant - Paper Craftsman], he wants to claim the profile unlock reward.

【Ghost Tenant - Paper Craftsman】

Illustration Description: A paper craftsman who runs a shop in the Ghost Market, whose family has been making paper crafts for generations. One day, an unknown disaster struck, causing him to lose his shop and forcing him to seek refuge at the Liwan Apartments.

Characteristics: Reticent (already corrupted), honest and upright (currently withdrawn), enjoys researching and improving his paper crafting skills. He handed over the paper craft shop to the paper figures, letting them sell themselves, and usually doesn't manage the shop's operations, only appearing in the shop when he develops new paper crafting techniques. (Currently, he has completely stopped managing the shop and has started a happy new ghost life in the Liwan Apartment.)

Encyclopedia Unlock Reward: [Cursed Item - White Paper Lantern]

Zhou Fangdong checked the prop's instructions.

【Cursed Item: White Paper Lantern】

Prop Description: An ordinary white lantern with the character '奠' (meaning "offering sacrifice") written on it in ink. When lit, it allows one to see things invisible to ordinary people, but it also attracts unseen misfortunes.

Item Effect: Carrying a white paper lantern, no one can tell if you are human or ghost. The lantern's light can illuminate the path to haunted areas. Carrying the lantern allows you to visit all open haunted locations, significantly shortening the distance required.

(Note: Using a white paper lantern will cause a one-day "get lost" debuff. This effect is stackable, and during the debuff period, you are more likely to attract ghosts.)

...A guide item that is temporarily useless.

Zhou Fangdong did not claim the item and closed the X Encyclopedia interface directly.

After closing the encyclopedia, he found that a [Rental Preview Interface] had appeared next to the [Rental Preview Interface] on his system panel.

The shop preview interface is a pixelated street with a very dark screen. The only light source is the will-o'-the-wisp floating on the street, and occasionally a few pieces of paper money with round holes fall from the sky.

The eerie street is currently deserted with only one shop standing alone on one side, with a sign that reads 'Paper Craft Shop'. Two pixelated paper figures, a man and a woman, are dozing off against the shop entrance.

Zhou Fangdong tapped on the shop, and an aerial view of the paper craft shop appeared.

The top left corner displays the number of Ghost Coins held by the shop, as well as the day's sales revenue.

The menu in the bottom right corner allows you to decorate your shop, adjust seasonal sales, hire a shop manager and staff, and research new paper craft products.

Increasing store decoration value, upgrading paper doll functions, expanding store space, and adding decorations can all increase store revenue.

Looking at the familiar pixelated interface, Zhou Fangdong felt like complaining.

...The system started being lazy again, directly using a template from a Kairosoft management game and giving it a new paper shop skin.

The paper craft shop is temporarily unable to operate due to the lack of a manager.

Zhou Fangdong planned to ask Hou San if he would be willing to be the acting manager of the paper offering shop after he returned from the ghost market.

Hou San has always been a supplier to the paper craft shop, so he must be very familiar with the operation of the paper craft shop and should be able to get started quickly.

After closing the system panel, Zhou Fangdong manipulated the slime's body to open the portal to the Ghost Market.

Beyond the door lies the interior space of the paper craft shop, decorated exactly as Zhou Fangdong had when he first visited, except that the paper figures inside all looked listless.

The paper figures in the paper craft shop can sense who the shop owner is, so Zhou Fangdong doesn't need to introduce himself; all the paper figures in the shop know that he is the current owner of the paper craft shop.

Whether it was Zhou Fangdong's imagination or not, the paper figures seemed to look even more desperate after seeing the slime's body appear in the store.

Passing through the dejected paper figures, Zhou Fangdong arrived at the Ghost Market Street.

Although it was daytime outside, the ghost market remained dark and eerie, devoid of light. Apart from a slight decrease in the number of pedestrians wandering the streets, it looked no different from nighttime.

A green-haired slime appeared in the ghost market street, and the pedestrians carrying white lanterns all avoided it as quickly as possible, as if they had seen something terrifying.

Zhou Fangdong, controlling the slime's body, easily made his way to the funeral shop.

He guessed that the 'ghost tailor' the system mentioned was probably the owner of the funeral shop, so he decided to ask here first. If not, he would try asking at other shops.

Zhou Fangdong walked into the funeral shop: "Boss, do you sell lamp oil worker uniforms here?"

The funeral shop owner behind the counter didn't reply, only staring at Zhou Fangdong expressionlessly. Zhou Fangdong tilted his head, meeting her gaze with a puzzled look.

Finally, the old woman seemed to have reached her limit and said in a disgusted tone, "Yes, I won't sell it to you. Get out of my shop and don't stay here. It makes me feel sick to be in the same space as you."

Zhou Fangdong was stunned.

Is this still the same kind and easy-going funeral shop owner who was at the beginning?

Back then, this boss not only took the initiative to video call him and introduce him to the ghost market, but also offered him 300 ghost coins to buy the skin of cult members. His attitude was particularly kind and gentle... But how did it turn out like this now?

Zhou Fangdong felt a little wronged.

Is it because his slime body is essentially an incarnation of an evil god? I didn't expect that even after being transformed into his body, the evil god's inherent qualities that demons find repulsive still remain... Sigh, I'll never use this body to come to the demon market again.

Zhou Fangdong sighed and obediently left the funeral clothing shop, heading to the silversmith's shop across the street.

As a result, the silversmith's attitude was the same as the funeral shop owner's... no, even worse, and he almost hit him with his small hammer.

Left with no other option, Zhou Fangdong returned to the paper craft shop and asked the two paper children at the door to buy him a uniform and shackles.

The money for the purchases was directly deposited into the paper shop's account. He had just checked and there were still plenty of ghost coins in the shop, which should be enough to cover the cost.

After going through many twists and turns to purchase two sets of uniforms and two sets of shackles, Zhou Fangdong returned to his apartment.

After throwing the slime's body into the last cell, Zhou Fangdong, carrying shackles and a uniform, teleported directly to the apartment's basement.

The moment his figure appeared in the basement, the head of the ghost tenant, Shadow, who was idly tossing corpses in front of the ice coffin, suddenly twisted 180 degrees. Then, keeping its head and body facing completely opposite directions, it bent over, its limbs touching the ground, and pounced on Zhou Fangdong like a large spider.

Zhou Fangdong was so frightened that he quickly dodged.

When others return home after a long absence, they are greeted by enthusiastic large dogs. But he was greeted by a terrifying ghost... and this ghost even had his face on it.

That's so weird.

Zhou Fangdong dodged the pounce, but Yingmei wasn't annoyed. It cracked its joints and twisted its body back into a normal human shape.

Seeing that it had no intention of attacking again, Zhou Fangdong opened the lamp oil worker crafting panel and began to synthesize workers.

There are two intact corpses in the basement. Once the lamp oil workers are ready, we can start making lamp oil.

The kerosene lamp's explosion can amplify skill attack power. If he encounters any danger in the apartment in the future, his [Soul Drain] can also become a powerful attack method, reducing the risk of him using [Half-Body Shrine].

After the two lamp oil workers successfully completed their task, Zhou Fangdong opened the lamp oil making interface and instructed the two workers to pick up a corpse and boil it into lamp oil.

I wonder how much lamp oil can be extracted from a corpse.

The two lamp oil workers had just stood up and were about to go to the ice coffin to lift the body when they were suddenly stopped by Shadow Demon.

The Shadow Demon probably felt that the corpse's face did not meet its aesthetic standards, so it created two more shadows and altered the lamp oil worker's face.

The change of faces was so fast that Zhou Fangdong didn't even have time to stop it. He could only watch helplessly as the faces of the two corpses also changed to resemble his own.

He watched as the workers lifted the body out of the ice coffin, placed it in an iron pot, and began to crush and boil it.

The workers who boiled lamp oil, the corpses used to boil the lamp oil, all had his face... This self-produced and self-consumed scene seemed a bit too eerie.

Out of sight, out of mind. Zhou Fangdong rubbed his temples, preparing to teleport back to the second floor to continue tidying up room 207.

But before he could transmit, a cold, electronic voice suddenly sounded in his ear:

[The Longevity Stone has been successfully digested, and the body's repair progress has reached 70%]

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Fangdong was momentarily dazed, and a strange fragment of memory flashed through his mind.

This feeling is similar to using [Soul Drain] to read fragments of a ghost's memory... except that the protagonist of this memory is not a ghost, but himself.