Area E.

After Tang Erda handed the property certificate to the child, Bai Liu heard his system prompt:

[System prompt: Congratulations to player Bai Liu for obtaining the 0812 Cemetery Building in Area E, and the main mission completion progress (1/5)]

After confirming that Bai Liu had obtained this cemetery building, Tang Er asked, "Shall we go to the next one?"

"Wait!" The kid who got the property certificate hesitantly grabbed Tang Erda, "Have you chased all the ghosts out of the building and got their property certificates?"

Tang Erda glanced at Bai Liu, and after Bai Liu nodded in agreement, he answered the child: "I only took away the property certificates, I didn't drive them out."

The child breathed a sigh of relief: "I'm glad I didn't get chased out."

Bai Liu raised his eyebrows: "Aren't you afraid of these ghosts?"

"I don't think they are ghosts." He looked into Bai Liu's dark eyes, "They are just people living underground."

Bai Liu became a little interested, and he walked over and said, "Actually, I'm very curious. You seem to know that after death, people will continue to work as ghosts. Then why do you only want to live to 26 years old?"

"Death is more difficult than life, so isn't it better to just keep living?"

The child was silent for a while, then he lowered his head and picked at his nails, then said softly, "Because I have no home when I am alive."

"My parents are both dead. When I pay off my mortgage and die and become a ghost, I can live with them in the cemetery room. It doesn't matter if it's hard. As long as we're together as a family, we can get through anything."

Bai Liu calmly asked back: "Even if you die for this, you don't care?"

The child raised his head and answered Bai Liu seriously: "Actually, I don't feel like I'm dead."

"Although I can't eat or sleep like a corpse and sleep in a cramped cemetery room every day, I feel that as long as we are together and support each other, no matter where we are or how hard it is, we will not perish."

He laughed, "Because I think one day, we will walk out of the cemetery house onto the land and see the sunlight."

"Even if we die and our bodies decay, as long as we exist as living ghosts wandering underground, that day will come."

Bai Liu asked: "Why were you afraid that the ghosts living in the cemetery building would be driven out?"

The child paused, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke: "Don't you know?"

"When people walk outside, the living developers will be charged land management fees, and when ghosts walk outside, the dead developers will be charged land management blood."

"Land management blood?" Bai Liu repeated, "What is this?"

The child lowered his head, looked around carefully, moved closer to Bai Liu, covered his mouth with his hands, and whispered: "——Developers will also become ghosts after they die. They will suck the blood of low-class citizens and second-class citizen ghosts."

Bai Liu lowered his eyes: "Ghost blood can't be regenerated, right? What if it's sucked dry?"

"Once the blood is sucked dry, the bone marrow will be sucked dry. Once the bone marrow is sucked dry, the skin and flesh will be eaten. Once the skin and flesh are eaten, there will be nothing left." The child's shoulders began to tremble as he spoke. "If it gets to that point, you will really die. There will be nothing left."

Bai Liu looked at the trembling child and asked, "Do you know where these ghost developers are?"

The child shook his head slowly. "I don't know. I've only lived here for a year. Some of this information was passed on to me by my deceased parents, and some of it was my own conclusions from observation."

"But if you want to find a dead developer..." The child raised his head and looked at Bai Liu, "You can try the unfinished buildings in various districts."

Bai Liu thought for two seconds, then nodded and thanked him, and then asked, "Is the developer of this cemetery building also dead?"

The child was startled: "...This cemetery was developed by the landowner of Area E, one of the five major developers. He has been dead for many years."

Bai Liu's eyes darkened. "Are all the cemeteries in each district developed by big developers?"

The child nodded. "Cemeteries are part of the infrastructure. They were all developed by the big developers in the early days. But now they have all passed away and left their assets to their descendants. Now the real estate in Sunshine City is all owned by the five major developer company groups derived from the descendants of the five major developers."

Bai Liu asked calmly, "Will there be any additional development or transfer of ownership of this cemetery in the future?"

The other party thought hard for a while: "It seems that there is no such thing. It has always been like this..."

"Then the property rights of this cemetery building should still be in the hands of the big developer." Bai Liu paused, then quickly and calmly looked around and gave an order, "Captain Tang, take this kid with you, we have to leave here immediately, something is coming out."

[System prompt: Congratulations to player Bai Liu for taking away the property rights of the 0812 cemetery building in District E from the big developer in District E.]

[System prompt: Player Bai Liu has disturbed (Developer of Area E), who is furious at your act of seizing his assets and is about to wake up from underground to hunt you down! ]

[(Developer of Area E) is about to attack! ]

The ground shook violently, as if the footsteps of some extremely heavy creature hit the ground and moved towards this side step by step. A roaring sound roared out from the ground, accompanied by a strong and nauseating stench of decay.

Bai Liu and his group retreated quickly. Mu Ke and Mu Sicheng, who were left behind, retreated while quickly looking back at the fog in the cemetery behind them, which was shaking with earthquakes. They reported in unison: "The monsters are moving slowly, and no one is chasing us!"

"No." Bai Liu looked down at the blue blood vessels under the skin on the back of his hand, where blood suddenly rushed inward rapidly. The slightly bulging blood vessels drooped in an instant. "The monster has caught up with us."

[System warning: Player Bai Liu's blood is being sucked, and his health is rapidly decreasing! ...87...73...]

Liu Jiayi quickly handed a bottle of antidote to Bai Liu, who took it and drank it. A violent cough was heard from behind Tang Erda, and the seventeen-year-old child carried by Tang Erda began to sob and struggle in pain.

Tang Erda quickly flipped him off his back. The child's face was blue, his lips and abdomen were rapidly shrinking and shrunken, the blood vessels in his body were slightly bulging and his skin was cracked, and the blood inside was flowing rapidly as if it was being sucked madly and greedily by someone.

Mu Sicheng and Mu Ke's faces darkened. They turned around again to confirm the source of the vibration that was chasing them. After confirming that the other party was far away from them, they quickly turned around and reported to Bai Liu: "The source of the vibration is still far away from us."

"That means this monster's attack doesn't need to touch us at all." Bai Liu turned to look at the others, "Besides me and this NPC, are there any other people showing symptoms of being attacked?"

Mu Sicheng, Mu Ke, Liu Jiayi and Tang Er all said in unison: "No."

[System warning: Player Bai Liu is being sucked alive, and his health has dropped below 80 again...]

The child in Tang Er's arms had his scalp dry from being sucked so much blood. He was in so much pain that he could hardly make a sound. His body was convulsing and twitching, his eyes were rolling back, and big, unconscious tears were rolling down his cheeks. He was murmuring "Mom" softly.

Tang Erda tightened his arms around the NPC and looked at Bai Liu with a tense expression.

"I can't give my antidote to the NPC." Liu Jiayi glanced at the NPC and her face turned ugly. She handed another bottle of antidote to Bai Liu and looked up at him. "According to the blood-sucking speed of this monster, my stock of antidote will be used up soon."

"We haven't figured out this monster's attack method yet!" Mu Sicheng looked at Bai Liu, whose face was pale and blood was gushing out from under his translucent skin, and cursed, "It started attacking without making contact. This is a judgment-type attack. This monster is very high-level."

Mu Keqiang calmly analyzed: "It must be high. The developer of Area E should be the top boss in this instance."

"For a judgment-type attacking monster, as long as the player meets its attack range and standards, the player will be attacked." Liu Jiayi answered quickly, "Only this NPC and Bai Liu were attacked here. What is the difference between you and us?"

Bai Liu glanced at the child NPC whose hands were slowly falling: "Housing problem."

Liu Jiayi reacted very quickly. She raised her head suddenly and said, "You mean!"

Bai Liu explained succinctly: "I own a cemetery building in District E. This NPC is a slave of the cemetery house in District E. The houses in District E belong to the land. The developer of District E owns the land ownership in District E according to the settings, so he can use the house to suck our blood."

"The house is the channel and medium through which he sucks blood from us."

Bai Liu stopped taking small steps backwards and looked forward with his eyes level: "But this judgment is not easy to cancel for the time being. If the house turns to you, you will also be sucked blood. Now we don't know the activity range of this developer boss monster. If the opponent's activity range is the entire map, running will be meaningless. The best way to avoid being sucked blood by this monster is-"

"—kill this monster."

Bai Liu pulled out his whip and gave a cold order, "Stop retreating. Mu Sicheng and Mu Ke will advance to fight the enemy. Liu Jiayi will guard the two injured, me and the NPC, and heal and defend. Team Tang will maneuver and prepare for the attack."

Mu Sicheng and Mu Ke drew out their skill weapons almost at the same time, and rushed forward into the mist, one with a cold look and the other with a bared tooth. However, after they rushed forward, they both stopped in the mist almost at the same time.

There was nothing in the bombing mist.

There were no ghosts, no developers, and the surrounding area was just a barren, undeveloped stretch of land. Not even a corpse could be seen. There were only constant vibrations and sticky roars coming from the ground in the distance.

Mu Sicheng dug the ground with one claw, but there was still ground underneath. He gritted his teeth and dug again unwillingly, but there was still solid soil underneath.

Mu Ke clenched the dagger tightly, his face was so dark that it seemed like water was about to drip out. He stepped forward and held Mu Sicheng's shoulders to stop him from digging further: "Don't dig. With our perception ability, we can feel that there is nothing under and around this land."

Mu Sicheng raised his head and looked at Mu Ke with red eyes: "Why is Bai Liu being sucked of blood all the time?"

"What on earth is this monster?!"

"What on earth is this heresy?!"

In reality, Su Yang watched with red eyes as people were continuously sucked dry and carried away in the Sunshine Building. He leaned his hands on the makeshift tent table, took a deep breath, and questioned himself and the teammates around him almost hoarsely.

The team members looked at each other in silence.

Su Yang closed his eyes, held his forehead, and opened them again. He took a deep breath and reviewed the test reports submitted by everyone again:

"Test results for units one to six show that the abnormal value detection fluctuation range is 7340~134212. There are a total of 5793 objects in the building. All objects tested off the building have no abnormalities."

"Test results for units six to nine show that the abnormal value detection fluctuation range is 7106~12985. The total number of objects in the building is 6903. All objects tested off the building have no abnormalities."

"Nine to..."

Su Yang read until the last test report, then took a deep breath again to adjust his mood, and said: "The fluctuation range and amplitude of the abnormal values ​​in all units are similar, but no abnormal values ​​were detected in the objects and building materials in the building."

He slowly stood up and looked at everyone: "That is to say, all objects in the entire Sunshine Building have no detected heresy values, but every place is at a heresy value of 7,000 to 13,000, and it is currently expanding outward in a circle at a speed of 13-15 meters per minute, affecting the surrounding residents."

Su Yang clenched his fists. He was silent for a second or two, his face almost blank. Then he quickly came to his senses: "Have all the residents around here been asked to evacuate?"

"All residents within a one-kilometer radius have been evacuated." A team member answered, but he smiled bitterly, "But Soviet team, at this rate of expansion, in one or two hours at most, the Sunshine Building heresy will expand to more than one kilometer. By then..."

Su Yang looked straight at the team member and said, "So we have to try to contain this heretic within an hour. Do you understand?"

Everyone's face was startled, and they raised their heads and said, "Yes, it's the Soviet team!"

One of the team members raised his hand and asked quietly: "Captain, is it possible that there is a heretic that has no entity, such as air?"

Su Yang shook his head slowly: "It's unlikely. If it's air, the diffusion speed of 13-15 meters per minute is too slow. For example, rose water can diffuse throughout the city in an hour."

"And the influence of this heresy is also very limited. It is different from the indiscriminate diffusion attack of the air." Su Yang pointed at the report with clear eyes, "It's the house."

"Neither the passers-by nor our team members who came to investigate noticed anything unusual. The only ones who noticed anything unusual were the residents who bought houses here."

Su Yang's finger moved down and landed on an electronic report sent from the hospital on the tablet. He paused:

"Ten minutes ago, the hospital sent me this report, saying that at first only those who moved out of the house had symptoms of schizophrenia, but later, as time went on, the residents who mainly lived here all had symptoms of schizophrenia to varying degrees."

Su Yang exhaled a breath of foul air: "And what has changed is that what we have detected here is that the speed at which heresy is expanding outward is getting faster and faster."

"It can be said that the heresy initially affected people who had the intention to vacate their homes, that is, people who wanted to escape from here. But as we processed the eviction certificates, the heresy began to suck the flesh and blood of these people and expanded outward at the same time."

Su Yang paused for a moment and said, "It can be said that our attempt to relocate the residents of the unfinished building has activated and strengthened this heresy, causing it to begin to want to absorb more residents who own houses here without restriction."

One team member added grimly, "Won't it become more powerful and kill more and more people?"

Su Yang glanced at the team member and said, "The job of the Bureau of Heresy is to stop the heresy before it becomes powerful."

A team member knocked on the door and came in with a report: "Captain Su, I just got the information about the developer of Sunshine Real Estate that you asked me to look up!"

Su Yang took it and looked at it carefully. Then he frowned:

"…After acquiring the land, the developer surnamed Li did not start development immediately. Instead, he secretly subcontracted part of the land to four other developers. After the other four developers injected capital, they started to build the Sunshine Building with him under the name of Baotou workers. Therefore, the Sunshine Building was jointly developed by five developers in total."

The team member nodded and said, "This is illegal. It was later discovered, but by then the developer, Mr. Li, had already fled."

Su Yang turned the page of the information, his brows furrowed more and more tightly. "This developer named Li was arrested and imprisoned last year. During his imprisonment, he showed many abnormal behaviors and sometimes disappeared suddenly during roll call."

"...I often go to the library to borrow horror books and games to read, and take notes on them as if I were preparing for an exam. I often mutter to myself, 'I'm going to be released from prison soon, I'm going to get that piece of land, I'm a key target of the prison guards...'"

"Not only that." The team member pointed to the data, "This man is very courageous. He often provokes the prison guards, saying that he can change the world. He also took the initiative to confess that the contract he privately contracted with four other developers stated that the land use period was as high as 9,999 years."

Su Yang frowned: "Normally the contract can only be extended for 45-75 years. His private contract is not effective at all."

The team member nodded. "The prison guards told him the same thing, but this guy laughed so wildly, saying that he had a way to make these contracts effective, a way to make every piece of land in the world his, and a way to make the residents who sued him work like slaves for him their entire lives just to buy a house from him."

"This person said that as long as he has the desire, he can definitely do it. He is a typical idealist."

Su Yang did not comment on this person's behavior, and then turned the page. His brows furrowed again: "Did this person have contact with Li Gou, the rapist who was stabbed to death by a prisoner in prison last year?"

"Yes." The team member nodded, with a subtle expression on his face. "When Li Gou's evidence disappeared during the trial, the Bureau of Heresy investigated but found nothing unusual. In the end, the evidence inexplicably reappeared and the trial went through normal procedures."

"But before the trial, this dog Li was mysteriously stabbed to death in prison."

The team member pointed to the file and said: "This developer surnamed Li had a brief contact with Li Gou when he was in prison. Later, Li Gou also showed the same mental symptoms as the developer surnamed Li - talking to himself, hiding and disappearing when his name was called, provoking the prison guards, and arrogantly saying that one day he would be able to kill the person who sued him."

Su Yang raised his head and asked solemnly, "Where is this developer named Li now?"

The team member said: "He is dead. He disappeared in prison for an hour in August this year, and then his body suddenly appeared on the playground."

"Dead?" Su Yang frowned and asked, "How did he die?"

The team member said: "After the autopsy, we found that the stomach and mouth were all filled with dirt. The stomach was directly ruptured by the dirt. He must have died alive."

in the game.

Mu Ke and Mu Sicheng walked back with ugly faces. Mu Ke shook his head honestly to Bai Liu: "No monster was found."

Tang Erda and Bai Liu exchanged glances, and Bai Liu ordered, "Switch defense. You two guard the injured and Liu Jiayi, while Captain Tang and I will go investigate."

Liu Jiayi looked at Bai Liu, took two deep breaths, and handed over a few bottles of antidote: "I won't use my skills anymore. If you have any problems, you can use my panel and my skills to heal them. Pay attention to your health."

Tang Erda nodded to Mu Sicheng and Mu Ke who had returned: "I will protect Bai Liu. You guys pay attention to the situation behind us."

Bai Liu nodded, and she and Tang Er walked into the mist of the cemetery one after the other.

Then I didn't see anything.

Tang Er held his gun against his leg and turned to look at Bai Liu with a serious expression: "Is your health still decreasing?"

Bai Liu's face turned pale to the point of being almost transparent. He nodded: "65, above the safety line."

"What do you think this monster is?" Tang Er's expression became more gloomy. "I have encountered colorless, odorless, and shapeless judgment-type monsters. They are all difficult to deal with, unless you find the existence of the other party."

"As long as we can find the deposited item and harm the opponent, there is nothing to be afraid of this monster."

"That's what I thought, too." Bai Liu squatted down thoughtfully. He looked at the ground and squinted his eyes. "...Captain Tang, what kind of monster do you think can simply pass through the house without any contact with the tenants, and suck the blood and marrow from the tenants at any time and any place, no matter where the tenants are, no matter whether they are human or ghost?"

"What would a real estate developer who is pursuing maximum profit most want to deposit?" Bai Liu lowered his eyes and looked at the lumps of earth on the ground that were shaking strangely after being dug twice by Mu Sicheng.

Tang Er was beaten up, and he followed Bai Liu's gaze downwards.

Bai Liu smiled and looked at Tang Erda: "I think it's the land."

As he spoke, he suddenly lashed down with the whip without hesitation, breaking the thick soil into pieces and splitting it to a depth of nearly four or five meters.

The earth let out a dull and sharp roar from the whip and began to sway from side to side.

Dark red clay-colored slurry seeped out of the cracks, and on the cross-section one could clearly see some of the broken and wriggling pipe openings. Blood clots were rapidly forming on the green-gray-white soft pipe flesh openings, and a strong smell of blood wafted from the "slurry" flowing out of the pipes.

[System prompt: Player Bai Liu attacked with a skill weapon (Developer in Zone E)]

Bai Liu looked at the blood-red "serum" and the soft-walled tubes that swung left and right, densely packed like capillaries trying to reconnect, and raised his eyebrows slightly: "Wow, this is the first time I've seen blood vessels growing out of the soil."

Tang Er exhaled: "The physical deposits of the five major developers here are the land itself."