Chapter 91 Leaving Early
The dark figures lying on the ground raised their round heads, their scarlet eyes fixed on the ghost money in Fang Zhuo's hand. Wherever that hand moved, their eyes followed.
An extremely eerie atmosphere formed in the dormitory.
The bespectacled woman was still trying to pull Fang Zhuo away, and for a moment she dared not make any further moves, a million thoughts flashing through her mind.
Where did this newcomer get so much ghost money? Could it be that her source of information is wrong?
This money must add up to over a thousand. Surely it's not some kind of scam, or did she just stumble upon a real fortune teller?
The scene was so absurd that it was beyond her comprehension. For a moment, she almost doubted whether she was dreaming, or if her true self was still in prison and had never participated in any horror dungeons or met this strange newcomer who could casually pull out thousands of dollars.
She was under immense pressure, yet she heard a relaxed, devilish whisper in her ear:
"Isn't that enough?"
Fang Zhuo pulled out another handful of ghost money with his left hand: "How much is all of this?"
With over four thousand pieces of ghost money laid out before her, the bespectacled woman reflexively swallowed. She suspected that these shadowy figures had been tempted since Fang Zhuo first took out the ghost money, but were simply too excited to think straight.
A few seconds later, the dark figure actually struggled to stand up from the tiled floor of the dormitory.
It braced its elbows against the railing of the bed frame next to it and made a series of bowing gestures with both hands.
Then it opened its mouth, its bright red eyes narrowed with a smile, and it obsequiously gestured, "Burn, burn."
Players and bosses rarely make deals within the instance. The bespectacled woman didn't quite understand what the shadowy figure meant. Turning her head, she saw that the handsome guy she had just tried to push out was now holding a lighter she had bought from the official store.
What are they burning? Are they going to burn all the ghost money (paper money for the dead)?
What if she misunderstood the boss's meaning? Wouldn't all four thousand be wasted? She instinctively wanted to stop him, but then she remembered that she had just tried to attack him, so she swallowed her words.
As the flames ignited, Fang Zhuo burned the four thousand ghost coins before him without hesitation.
The burning produced a wisp of pale blue smoke, and all the shadowy figures in the dormitory stirred, taking turns taking a drag in an orderly fashion.
As all the paper money burned, the ghostly figures went completely mad, clasping their hands in greeting and dancing in a circle, as happy as little mountain sprites. They even drew a giant heart on the tiles, covered in the thick dust from under the dormitory beds.
The scene was even more bizarre than before, and at this moment, Fang Zhuo's live stream was flooded with a large number of question marks.
[The dungeon boss is completely absorbed in its own art.]
[Is this something I can see? I think I just saw the dungeon boss dancing happily. It must be a hallucination from lack of sleep. Don't worry, I'm going back to sleep now.]
[Where did all those people who were saying there was a 24-hour cooldown on using treasure chests go? This handsome guy is still alive and well!]
[I just entered the live stream, what's going on?? How much did they give?]
[A new player spent over 4,000 Hell Coins on the Split Shadow boss in the permanent newbie dungeon. You usually don't get much loot from this low-level mini-boss. If the Split Shadow wasn't a bit tongue-tied, it probably would have started singing.]
[Who can do the voice-over?]
[Here we are! Hop on board! Thank you, newbie, for bringing the carnival! We're here to pick you up, newbie! So handsome, so dashing and dashing, casually tossing away four thousand coins, even the dungeon boss loves you! Wow, wow, hello newbie! Bye-bye, we're getting off the bus!]
[Do not provide inspiration for the split shadow]
After burning all the ghost money he had, Fang Zhuo said to the celebrating shadowy figures, "I don't want to stay here tonight. Take me to a nicer hotel nearby."
They were well-trained and lined up in a row, forming an arrow shape on the ground, signaling Fang Zhuo to follow them out.
The moment he stepped out of the dormitory, the girl with glasses behind him suddenly shouted, "Handsome, are you going to a hotel alone like this? What are we going to do?"
Her expression was now full of ingratiation, and her face was plastered with smiles.
"Anyway, you're not short of money, so please help us out. Just consider it helping a dog on the street, woof woof woof."
The programmer immediately realized what was happening, and knelt on the ground like a puppy. Half of his soul was terrified, but his body made an expectant, silly grin.
Fang Zhuo waved his hand: "Good luck to you."
He's not some saint; he has no sympathy for the player who just tried to frame him.
He turned and walked down the stairs, and at the corner he heard terrified and pained screams coming from the direction of the dormitory.
The city was much livelier at night than during the day. Pedestrians wearing hooded trench coats were everywhere on the main streets, and some people even took off their trench coats to reveal their limbs that had mutated into tentacles.
Along the street, there were also some extremely lax sentries. The dark figure leading the way exhaled a very thin, dark blue smoke, and the sentries turned a blind eye, letting him walk brazenly on the road.
After crossing two blocks, Fang Zhuo arrived in front of a brightly lit building.
There were hardly any people around. The receptionist, a timid man leaning on a cane, cautiously asked:
"Sir, what type of room would you like?"
Fang Zhu thanked the figures in the shadows, then turned and said, "Presidential suites, one for a month, the other for two months, the higher the floor, the better."
The receptionist stared wide-eyed, fiddled with the computer for a while, and then respectfully checked him in for the top and second-to-top floors.
I simply taped the wristband to the POS machine and had over 90,000 yuan in ghost money swiped away.
The moment I received the room key, a huge, grotesque octopus leaped out of the elevator. The enormous marine creature trailed a long puddle of slime, with a cleaner following behind it, ready to tidy it up at any moment.
It bowed to Fang Zhuo several times in a funny manner, and brought two rows of employees to greet him.
On the tray sat a specially crafted orange-flavored cocktail with a touch of alcohol. Fang Zhuo casually pointed to a wine from the last century in the liquor cabinet, and a waiter immediately rushed over to decan it. The water in the bathtub was kept at a constant temperature, and a late-night snack menu was on the table.
He picked it up and glanced at it: "Clear soup with matsutake mushrooms, steamed shrimp balls with egg white, and sunflower chicken."
The giant octopus gave a wink, and the room attendant immediately bowed slightly in politeness and said:
"Okay sir, your late-night snack will be delivered to your room within half an hour. We won't disturb you any longer. Have a pleasant stay."
He was used to this kind of service, but at this moment, the players who had entered the instance with him were still fighting against the shadows in their dirty and simple dormitories, making this brief moment of peace all the more precious.
After finishing his meal, it was 2:30 a.m. Fang Zhuo briefly reviewed his next steps on the system interface.
Before entering the instance, the system issued three tasks: to build a safe house, to establish a guild, and to find the original male protagonist. He also owed Fu Zhaoyu a certain number of survival days and an employee card, and needed to find him in an S+ level instance.
The other tasks require clearing the current instance first before further planning; all he can do now is start working on the safe house.
The system had previously given him a link card, which would automatically link all the properties he purchased in various instances. If he wanted the safe house to cover most instances, he would need to purchase a large number of properties first.
After glancing briefly at the property prices in the information list provided by the tattooed man, Fang Zhuo turned off the live stream that came with the game and stepped into the bathtub.
The instant the live stream screen went black, the chat was filled with all sorts of wails and lamentations—
[This is the first time I've ever hated the feature to manually turn off live streaming in the living area. What is it that we viewers can't watch?]
[I experienced five-star hotel service in the live stream, it was awesome!]
[Did anyone see how much ghost money was just swiped on the bracelet?]
[I didn't see it clearly, but the zeros at the end are so long, they could buy my life QAQ]
[When will the dungeon boss give me tens of thousands of ghost coins and tell me that they've already booked a presidential suite for me on the top floor of a luxury hotel, just waiting for me to check in? If that happens, I'll be rich overnight.]
[So you're going to take everything, huh? You don't want to lose out at all.]
After resting at the hotel for one night, Fang Zhuo arrived at the company on time at 7:30 the next day—only three people remained in the original fifteen workstations, and each of them had wounds that were even more severe than the day before.
The woman with glasses and the programmer were gone; the remaining three had huge dark circles under their eyes, and their combined rest time yesterday was less than six hours.
The three men looked at each other with a faint sense of death mixed with a hint of envy.
Fang Zhuo first swiped his card, then beckoned the fat man over and smiled amicably:
"Please make an exception, I need to leave early today. I'd like to go to a real estate agency today to buy a room inside the Huitong Building. Do you have a real estate agent you'd recommend?"
The fat man hesitated for a moment.
If it were just a matter of loosening the rules and regulations, that would be one thing, but for such a grown person to disappear from the office is procedurally too difficult to handle.
"Is the Huitong instance on a rotating shift system? I see there's another boss in the dorm tonight. It's a bit noisy here at night, it must be affecting your sleep. This is a room key for the second-to-top floor of the Dingtai Hotel. The room has been booked for two months, you can go there to rest anytime."
The fat man stared at the gleaming gold room key in the other person's hand, speechless with emotion.
He recognized every single word in the God of Wealth's words, but when put together, they evoked a strange sense of happiness.
He held the rather heavy card tremblingly in his hand, feeling as if he had been transported to a bathtub in a five-star hotel the next second.
Everyone in the instance had a ruthless view of money, treating it like their life depended on it; they'd practically have a penny glued to their kidneys, and every cent had to be used wisely. Whether as a player or a boss, he had never stayed in such a luxurious hotel, especially not for two months…
What else is there to say? We're good brothers, so we'll just cover for each other.
The chubby guy excitedly brought out a city map from his dorm room, thoughtfully marked the locations of real estate agencies next to it, and even wrote a line of text beside it:
“Not just Huitong, she has most of the city’s real estate resources.”
Fang Zhuo said thank you, and the moment he stood up from his workstation, the loudspeaker on his desk immediately began broadcasting:
"Employees are prohibited from leaving their workstations without permission. Please report the reason for leaving immediately. Restroom breaks must not exceed two minutes."
The sound stopped abruptly. The fat man rushed to the table, turned off the speaker, and gestured towards the door for the door to open.
He's quite professional when it comes to getting paid to do things.
Fang Zhuo left the company amidst the envious gazes of all the office staff, and as usual, took a taxi to the building marked on the map.
This is an old commercial building that looks quite dated, but it's much better than the peeling walls of the buildings designed by Huitong Design Company.
Following the floor plan to the real estate agent's office, he could hear a hoarse voice complaining loudly from a distance:
"It's because of people like you who overestimate themselves and keep coming to buy houses that my workload has become so heavy. Haven't you seen the posts on the forum for raid bosses? Don't you have any idea about housing prices?"
"I showed you all the houses, and I talked until my tongue was sore, and then you tell me you don't have that much money? Are you kidding me?"
"Alright, alright, stop using illiteracy as an excuse. If you're illiterate, find someone to read to you... I always said the official team should organize literacy training. The illiteracy rate among the bosses who joined 300 years ago is too high, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the dungeon. Some people can't even understand what players are saying to them. It's a real shame."
"I know that ignorance is a blessing, but it would be even better if illiteracy didn't bring me extra work."
As they were driven away, a four-legged creature with two horns on its head awkwardly retreated from the office.
Fang Zhuo brushed past him, and just as the door opened, he could still hear the complaints coming from inside:
"Verify funds, verify funds! I'll definitely make sure the client verifies funds before the next viewing!"
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