Chapter 23: Are you happy with the money you earn with blood? (1) Si Ling’s heart…
Mammon was heartbroken at being rejected again, but he couldn't force a sale. He said angrily, "Okay, good luck."
After selecting the props, the students left the Hell Technology R&D Department one after another. Si Ling returned to the dormitory and contacted Xie Bian, asking him for a protective talisman. He also asked about the incident in which Fan Wujiu was attacked by the twin sisters.
Xie Bian had previously promised to cover all her daily needs, and he didn't refuse this small request. He first sent Si Ling a surveillance video that detailed the details of Fan Wujiu's beating.
In the video, a pair of twin sisters have pretty faces and look fragile, but their magical powers are terrifyingly strong. Fan Wujiu is obviously not on guard and is attacked by the two sisters. Then a layer of black mist covers the entire screen. When the black mist dissipates, Fan Wujiu is covered with wounds.
After the black fog dissipated, Si Ling adjusted his viewing angle several times, found the angle that allowed him to see the two sisters' faces most clearly, stopped the illusion, then zoomed in, took a screenshot, and posted it on his Tongming disk.
As for the amulet that Si Ling wanted, Xie Bian immediately asked Yinsi Cross-border Express to complete the export procedures and send it to her.
Si Ling opened the box and counted it. Seeing that there were twelve talismans in total, she gave five to Ah Zhui. She gave the remaining seven to Aimerick, considering that vampires couldn't use the silver crosses for protection.
Aymeric was so moved that he almost cried: "Oh my God, Lady Ghost from the East, you are powerful, elegant, compassionate, and have a heart that tolerates everything..."
"Alright, alright, Your Highness." Si Ling put an end to the awkward situation before he could start his ancient praise. "I'm going to go pack my bags now. I wish you all the best."
.
The next morning, all the students participating in the mission gathered in the cellar after breakfast and entered Lingbo City together under the leadership of Lucifer.
Over the millennia, the human world has been divided into distinct kingdoms. In the underworld, Lingbo City, a distant counterpart to the Eastern Fengdu, is the home of all Western demons ruled by Satan. This vast city thus offers direct access to every God-believing kingdom on earth, just as Fengdu offers easy access not only to the Porcelain Kingdom, but also to the Kimchi Kingdom and the Cherry Blossom Kingdom.
An hour later, the ghosts arrived at the Lighthouse Kingdom on the human side. A familiar bus was already waiting by the roadside. Everyone got on the bus, and the ghost driver greeted everyone with a refreshed look: "Good morning, everyone!"
After everyone boarded, the bus started moving quickly. The distance was not short, and it took more than ten hours to drive. It was already midnight when they arrived. Ghosts like Si Ling were not sleepy, but most physical ghosts were asleep.
Therefore, many students were still dazed when they got off the bus, until they saw the situation clearly and woke up from the shock one by one.
"Oh my god!" Willey rubbed his eyes and gasped, "Is this the Tumba family's vacation estate?! A cult version of Las Vegas?!"
——Wherever you look, the holiday estate with a warm and cozy style is simply out of place.
The Tumba family had clearly invested considerable money and effort in this estate, which was meticulously constructed: there were several small villas for guests, each with its own entrance and courtyard, a small square with a hot spring, a garden, and a pavilion.
The most imposing building in the entire manor is the luxurious building in the center, which is about 20 to 30 stories high. It looks like a club-like facility and is brightly lit in the night.
The manor is surrounded by endless Gobi Desert, which exudes a desolate and solemn feeling in the bleak evening breeze, in sharp contrast to the beautiful scenery of the holiday manor.
It really has a bit of a Las Vegas feel to it.
Las Vegas is a casino built in the desert, and here is a manor built in the Gobi Desert.
It is truly a life of decadence built on sin.
Most of the guests attending the party have not arrived yet, and only a few employees of the Tumba family are making preparations in the manor, but they are basically asleep at this time.
The students took this opportunity to infiltrate the manor. Simply hiding from others allowed them to explore its layout, giving the physical ghosts ample time to find their hiding places. Lucifer also took advantage of the night to set up a spatial barrier outside the manor. As the gathering arrived, the "large-scale dungeon" targeting them could begin.
Si Ling, Xuan Chi, and A Zhui were all spirit-like ghosts, invisible to mortals unless they deliberately revealed themselves. The three spent a day and a night blatantly surveying the entire estate's facilities. Then, they entered a random villa, sat on the living room sofa, spread the estate map Lucifer had given them on the coffee table, and began to screen locations.
Si Ling had six rule scrolls in her hand, allowing her to select six locations to use. She and Ah Zhui had won MVP honors in the previous mission, giving them priority in choosing a location. Now everyone was waiting for them to choose.
Ah Zhui and Si Ling sat side by side on the sofa. They pointed at the grand club in the center of the map and said, "Just now I saw that the banquet hall on the top floor of the club was decorated very grandly. They must be having an event there. I guess everyone will be there. Let's choose it first and think about the others later."
Si Ling held his chin in his hand: "It may not be a good thing if everyone is here."
Ah Zhui frowned: "What do you mean?"
Si Ling said, "If we can use magic to kill people directly, this situation would be the best. Xuan Chi and I can kill them all with one spell. But our spells are not effective against humans directly. We have to make them lose their SAN first..." Si Ling curled his lips, "Having more people is the best way to reduce the sense of terror!"
The presence of other living people can be a powerful source of courage. That's why many people, afraid to watch horror movies alone, become more courageous when they have a friend.
This is also the reason why ghosts in horror movies mostly attack when people are alone. People are more likely to panic when they are alone. If there are many people, they will not only not be afraid, but will also be able to brainstorm ways to escape and fight back.
Even in zombie movies that can directly cause physical damage, in scenes with large crowds of people such as shopping malls and banquets, the number of heads that zombies can kill is actually very limited. Most people can squeeze into the crowd and escape. If the kill ratio is calculated, it must be much lower than the one that surrounds a small number of targets.
Ah Zhui thought it made sense, and nodded as he asked, "So where do you plan to choose?"
Si Ling stared at the map in silence for a while: "Let me think about it."
.
About half an hour later, all the ghosts in the holiday estate received the message from the temporary group that Lucifer created for this mission.
[Si Ling]: We have chosen the mission location.
[Si Ling]: The lounge on the 22nd floor of the club, the public restroom on the 21st floor, the temple directly behind the club, the convenience store next to the temple, the western restaurant opposite the convenience store, and the garden on the west side of the manor.
Next, a picture popped up. Si Ling marked the detailed locations of these six places on the picture to make it easier for everyone to identify them.
Most people simply replied with a "Got it" after receiving the message. Some noticed the number of locations Si Ling had chosen and marveled, "Six places? Will the boss be too busy to handle it all?"
A message popped up afterward, and even though it was just text on the screen, it still carried a clear mockery: "Biting off more than you can chew."
Si Ling frowned, pointed at the "Fredis" on the message and asked A Zhui, "Who is this person?"
"Oh...her." Ah Zhui came over to take a look, noticing the malice in the phrase "biting off more than you can chew" and gave a wry smile. "She's the one sitting in the back left corner of the classroom. Do you remember her?"
When A Zhui said this, Si Ling remembered.
This is another evil spirit, originating from a Nordic country rich in salmon. Centuries ago, witch hunts raged across Europe. During that dark time, if you wanted to kill someone, you simply had to conjure suspicion of witchcraft. Countless people died unjustly, and because women were more vulnerable during that era, nearly 80% of the victims were women.
Fredis was one of them. She was originally a noble lady, well-educated, well-educated, and beautiful. But when she was seventeen, her parents and two brothers died in an accident.
Fredis inherited a rich inheritance, but also lost the protection of her family. Her cousins, who coveted her property, initially wanted to marry her as a legitimate way to wipe out the family, but Fredis refused to compromise, so they immediately changed their strategy and began to fabricate charges against her.
They first started with Freydis, which was actually a very common name at the time, but if you trace its roots, it actually came from Old Norse, meaning "servant of the goddess Freya."
Freya is the goddess of love and beauty in Norse mythology, but the witch hunts began precisely because the then-prevailing Catholic Church wanted to suppress pagans. Norse mythology, as a completely independent belief system, remained thoroughly pagan, even though it had been completely forgotten by that era.
Therefore, in just one month, Fredis was sent to the stake and unfortunately became a charred corpse in the flames.
Perhaps it was because the psychological trauma caused by this experience and the tragic death was too heavy, but after Fredis's death, she not only became a ghost because of her resentment, but also a very lonely ghost - she sat in the corner of the classroom for many years, never spoke in class, and usually did not interact with other ghosts. She even liked to be alone when she was on a mission.
As for the issue of "personal image", Freydis didn't care at all. She never transformed, always appearing as a charred corpse. If you got close enough, you could even smell a bit of the burning smell.
In the advanced class that Si Ling is in, everyone has been together for many years, but only the Corpse Bride Elizabeth and Fredis are familiar with each other, while the others only know this well-known cause of death.
Si Ling was a little surprised at first that a fierce ghost who usually didn't interact with others suddenly showed such hostility, but he soon guessed the clue - it must be because of Elizabeth.
Si Ling looked at the screen, raised an eyebrow and smiled, showing no interest in replying. He meticulously folded up the map spread on the coffee table, stood up and said, "Let's go, let's go test the Rule Monster props first. If it really can't support so many scenes, we can reduce a few venues in time."
——Although Fredis’s words “bite off more than you can chew” were obviously malicious, they might not be wrong.
Because according to the detailed usage instructions that Mammon told Si Ling, their NPC can design the horror scenes that trigger the rules in advance, but all scenes require a lot of mana maintenance to operate normally, and the more terrifying the scenes are, the more mana is required.
If the creator of the ghost story is not present, the mana requirement will be multiplied several times.
Therefore, Si Ling wanted to construct six ghost stories at the same time, but she could only stay in one of them at most. Even Mammon could not estimate how much mana would be needed.
...But let's try it first.
Si Ling thought of the universal old saying from the Porcelain Country: Since we are here now!
The three of them drifted into the Western restaurant, which was open exclusively to the Tumba family and their followers. It wasn't very large, with only a little over a hundred square meters open to the public, eight tables, and two small private rooms. The kitchen was larger than the front, stocked with all sorts of high-quality ingredients. The head chef was a Michelin-starred chef, and the other staff also had impressive resumes.
"Are we going to kill these workers too?" A Zhui floated behind the front desk staff and asked Si Ling hesitantly.
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