Chapter 40: The fifth tenant is being hunted down by the God System in an infinite flow game...
Zhou Fangdong first closed the system pop-ups, then said urgently to Zhang Zhiwu:
"Master, then please draw four talismans first, and then have Zhang Qingyang recite the 'Supreme House-Suppressing Cat Spirit Chapter' a few times in room 106 to clean the grease in the room. I have other things to take care of, so I'll be leaving now."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Fangdong felt it wasn't right to let others work for free, so he took out five sticks of incense from his inventory.
"Master, would you like some incense? Consider this as payment for your help."
"Wow!" Looking at the five incense sticks offered as a sacrifice, Zhang Zhiwu was unusually flustered.
With a flick of his long sleeves, he swiftly took the incense from Zhou Fangdong's hand, sniffed it, and let out a satisfied sigh: "Young friend, your incense is excellent! The purity, the aroma... Don't worry, I guarantee I'll have my little apprentice clean this room of cat fat spores!"
"By the way, do you need me to get rid of the cat ghost in this room? It's a bit of a hassle, but considering the incense you offered..."
"No need, no need, please don't try to clean up the cat ghost," Zhou Fangdong quickly stopped him.
Furthermore, it is still unclear whether the cat ghost in the room is simply resentment, or whether the resentment includes the ghost of the veterinarian and her unborn child.
It would be terrible if she were accidentally injured. This veterinarian already had such a tragic life; it would be too cruel to let her soul be scattered after death.
Just in case, Zhou Fangdong added, "Taoist Master, you only need to clean off the grease; please don't harm the ghosts in the room."
It's unclear what Zhang Zhiwu was thinking, but the Taoist priest nodded mysteriously and lowered his voice, "I understand, I know what you want to do, young friend... Go ahead and do it with confidence, I'll back you up!"
Zhou Fangdong looked completely bewildered. Although he didn't know what the zombie Taoist priest was talking about, Duan Wenyu's situation was urgent, and he didn't have time to think about it.
After giving his final instructions, Zhou Fangdong teleported back to his room.
Back in his room, he quickly reopened the Erosion instance page and clicked on the flashing purple dot.
"System, can I use the instance erosion function now?"
[Anytime]
*
After arriving at the location with its unusual supernatural fluctuations, Duan Wenyu never imagined that he would be drawn into another supernatural instance created by the main god.
As an intern investigator in the Paranormal Investigation Department, his task was simply to approach the paranormal location and record the energy fluctuations with instruments, without requiring on-site investigation.
After a full day of intensive training on the use of various instruments at the Supervision Bureau yesterday, Duan Wenyu drove to the investigation site early this morning.
What he wanted to document was an abandoned funeral home located in the southern suburbs of Linjiang City.
But to his surprise, when he arrived at the funeral home, he saw a little girl nearby.
The detector showed that the little girl was alive.
She had two braids and wore a blue short-sleeved shirt and shorts with white lace trim. Judging from her height and appearance, she should be in the fifth or sixth grade of elementary school.
Moreover, she was limping, and her eyes were empty and unfocused, as if she couldn't see...
The blind and lame little girl stumbled and walked into the funeral home, but her body was leaning back and tense, as if she was fighting against some unknown force—it seemed that something in the funeral home was pulling her, trying to drag her into the funeral home.
Although he didn't know how the little girl got here, Duan Wenyu couldn't just stand by and watch her be dragged into the funeral home, which seemed to be a supernatural location, by that unknown force.
He ran off the bus as fast as he could and grabbed the little girl's hand.
Just as Duan Wenyu was about to pull the little girl back, a flash of white light appeared before his eyes, and he found himself inside the funeral home.
Looking at the pale, cold room filled with metal cabinets, Duan Wenyu knew he was in trouble.
This familiar feeling is exactly the same as when I was caught up in the graduation hall incident.
What's even more disheartening is that, in order to get to the little girl as quickly as possible, he had just abandoned all his burdens, including his backpack, in the car...
He lost the equipment provided by the Investigation Department, and also the cell phone he used to contact his landlord.
Empty-handed, carrying a blind little girl, they entered a supernatural instance that seemed to be created by the main god.
The abnormal paranormal fluctuations recorded by the Supervision Bureau were within the funeral home, and he clearly hadn't even stepped inside. So why was he caught up in it? It's really too strange.
Moreover, not only that, a familiar points system popped up on him.
However, for some reason, the points system emitted an electronic sound, which then seemed to get stuck and kept dragging on until it turned into a piercing scream. Then, the points system that had just appeared on him disappeared.
...It was as if I was being dragged away by something.
It's weird, but that's not the time to think about this points system...
Duan Wenyu, holding the little girl, took a step back.
Also present in this eerie funeral home were three adult men who looked extremely fierce.
These three people appeared here at the same time as Duan Wenyu, and they are now staring at him with hostile eyes.
After a brief standoff, one of the men, with a buzz cut, spoke up disdainfully: "Tsk, a newbie and a blind little girl? Is the God of War messing with us? We got these two trash teammates for a B-rank dungeon?"
The other blond man was even more rude: "Newbie, yes, I'm talking about you! You and that little girl, you two team up, we won't take care of you two burdens—hey! Don't you dare say a word to me, I get annoyed seeing cannon fodder like you, if you have any questions, ask your points system, I have no obligation to answer your questions."
The last muscular man didn't say a word, but his expression showed the same disdain.
The three of them ignored Duan Wenyu and left the place that resembled a morgue without looking back.
Duan Wenyu silently swallowed the question he hadn't had a chance to ask.
Actually, he had roughly guessed the identities of the three people from what the two had just said.
These three people clearly know each other, and they keep referring to the main god and the points system... Obviously, these people are all players chosen by the main god and have teamed up to clear the dungeon.
Sure enough, the place with the unusual and supernatural fluctuations was a dungeon created by the main god.
The first two times the main god created a supernatural instance, no supernatural fluctuations could be detected. After that, no one knows what equipment the Surveillance Bureau updated, but they actually discovered the pattern of the main god's instances and found a way to investigate them.
The reason he was sent here to record this was probably to verify whether this pattern was accurate... Now he has verified it himself, and it is indeed quite accurate.
Duan Wenyu actually had some doubts. Could it be that the people from the Supervision Bureau wanted to use him, as a tenant of Liwan Apartment, to test how the landlord would handle the God of War instance?
No, we shouldn't make such malicious assumptions about those who sacrificed everything to protect the citizens.
The Bureau of Abnormal Inspections is unlikely to sacrifice the life of an innocent man just to test the landlord's power.
He was only instructed to take notes, not to investigate. His accidental entry into the funeral home was entirely his own doing, and the supervisory bureau cannot be blamed.
Thinking of this, Duan Wenyu sighed heavily.
Who would have thought that you could get involved even if you didn't enter the funeral home?
Perhaps Duan Wenyu's frustrated and helpless expression was too obvious, because he suddenly felt the little girl he was holding gently pat his arm and whisper:
"I'm sorry, I'm the one who dragged you down. I am the player chosen by the God, and everyone who comes into contact with me will be brought into the instance by me."
After saying that, the little girl paused and made a promise to him: "However, I am not as weak as you think. You will stay with me in this instance, and I will take you out."
Although she looks like a girl who has just started elementary school, the girl speaks in an unusually mature tone. If you didn't listen to her childish voice, you would think she was an adult.
"This dungeon is called 'Substitute Death'," the little girl continued. "The dungeon description says, 'The soul of someone who dies prematurely before their lifespan has ended will seek a substitute. A paper doll in human form can be used as a substitute, burned and fed to the spirit, to avert the calamity of death.'"
"So in this instance, the five of us will be hunted down by five vengeful ghosts who are looking for a substitute to die. Before that, we need to find our own paper doll substitutes so that the paper dolls can die in our place."
After a pause, the little girl added, "However, this is a B-rank dungeon. Don't believe everything you hear in the dungeon description; there might be traps inside."
"It's possible that those vengeful ghosts seeking a substitute for someone else have infiltrated those paper figures. The description in the copy guides us to actively seek out the paper figures, which is leading us toward death."
After saying all this, the little girl's expression clearly fell. She sighed, "Sigh... I finally managed to draw this instance that belongs to my original world, but I unexpectedly got dragged into a newbie. Oh well, this is probably fate. I guess I'll never be able to go home in this lifetime."
A copy of her original world... Duan Wenyu suddenly realized something.
Could this little girl have once been a part of their world?
She just appeared outside the funeral home, was she fighting against the force that wanted to pull her into the dungeon?
His intention to help the little girl seems to have backfired...
Duan Wenyu was filled with deep regret.
If only he had known this would happen... he was still too reckless.
But it's no use regretting it now. The most important thing now is to figure out how to survive in this instance.
Duan Wenyu asked, "How do we find our paper doll?"
His question stunned the little girl: "Don't you know your role in this instance? The points system should have given you a hint. Everyone has to find a different paper figure, so you have to find it according to the hints."
Remembering his points system that had been dragged away by an unknown force, Duan Wenyu felt a pang of guilt: "I... I don't have a points system."
The little girl was even more shocked: "How is this possible?! You are in the main god instance right now, you are the chosen player, how come you don't have an points system..." Halfway through her sentence, the little girl suddenly thought of something, her face changed, "Quick, carry me and I'll show you the way, let's try to go to the funeral home exit."
Although he didn't know what she wanted to do, Duan Wenyu obediently followed her instructions and ran out of the morgue.
Duan Wenyu did farm work and carried fertilizer every day at school. Although he looked thin, he was all muscle and strong. Even carrying a little girl didn't affect his running speed. And the little girl wasn't heavy at all, only about the weight of a 50-pound bag of rice.
Although the little girl was blind, she seemed to know the way around the funeral home very well. Under her guidance, they actually ran all the way to the entrance of the funeral home's first-floor auditorium.
Seeing the open door at the end of the hall, representing the exit of the funeral home, Duan Wenyu's spirits lifted, and he immediately quickened his pace, rushing into the hall.
But at that moment, the lights in the auditorium suddenly flickered.
Immediately afterwards, the lid of a coffin placed against the wall suddenly flew up and slammed directly at Duan Wenyu.
Startled, he quickly turned and retreated back into the corridor.
The next instant, the sound of the coffin lid slamming against the wall suddenly rang out, and the flying wood chips even flew into the corridor, scratching Duan Wenyu's cheek.
Duan Wenyu stood in the corridor holding the little girl, but the little girl's lifeless eyes seemed to be able to see through the walls into the auditorium.
"Oh no, there's a paper figure in the auditorium, it's floating towards us. We don't know if it's the paper figure we're looking for, or a vengeful ghost coming to take our lives."
Duan Wenyu was also a little flustered: "Where do we go next?"
“I was originally going to test if you could leave this instance without the points system… Never mind, let’s get away from this guy first. Whether it’s the paper doll we’re looking for or not, we can’t let it get close right now.”
Duan Wenyu nodded, picked up the little girl, and ran back.
During this time, the little girl seemed to have a bad feeling, and her face became increasingly pale.
She produced a silver longevity lock and two heavy gold bars from somewhere, stuffed them into Duan Wenyu's breast pocket, and said in a hurried voice:
"My name is Xiao Xiaoyu, and I live in Penghu Jiayuan, Jinxi District. My detailed address is on the back of the longevity lock. You don't have the points system, so there's a high chance you can get the dungeon. Please go and see my parents. If they have new children, don't bother them. If they keep looking for me, tell them that their child, who went missing ten years ago, was adopted by a kind foreign couple and is currently living happily abroad and doesn't want to come back. If they don't believe you, give them this longevity lock. Consider these two gold bars as my reward for you; they should be worth around 200,000."
Just as Duan Wenyu was about to say something, he suddenly noticed a figure appearing across the corridor, running towards them—it was the man with the buzz cut!
In such a short time, he seemed to have gone through a fierce battle, his face was bruised and swollen, and blood was seeping from the corner of his mouth. He looked somewhat panicked and lost.
Upon seeing Duan Wenyu and the little girl, the man with the buzz cut's eyes lit up, and he ran straight towards them.
He appeared in front of them in just two steps, as if he could teleport, before the little girl could even react.
The man with the buzz cut looked at Duan Wenyu and the little girl, a cruel smile curling at the corner of his mouth. After using a talisman, he vanished into thin air.
The little girl seemed to realize something and let out a roar: "Put me down!!"
Duan Wenyu reflexively let go, and the little girl landed lightly.
At the same time, a paper figure suddenly appeared out of thin air where the man with the buzz cut had disappeared.
The paper figure has a distorted and eerie face; it looks like a vengeful ghost.
It surveyed the area and its gaze locked onto Duan Wenyu.
Meanwhile, the little girl was not idle. She pulled out a cleaver from somewhere and cut off her left leg, pulling a blurry, transparent chain from the flesh of her left leg.
Although she was blind, she seemed to be able to see the movements of ghosts and monsters. She swung the transparent chain to the left of the paper figure, and the paper figure seemed to be cooperating with her, crashing straight into the chain.
The paper figure that was originally lunging at Duan Wenyu was entangled by chains and frozen in mid-air. Taking advantage of this moment, Duan Wenyu picked up the little girl with the broken leg and ran in another direction in the corridor.
However, at this critical moment, the blond-haired man and the muscular man reappeared in the opposite corridor—they had also attracted two more paper figures that were meant to bring death!
Judging from their expressions, they were doing it on purpose, their aim was to sacrifice Duan Wenyu and the others, using these two living people as their substitutes.
With wolves in front and tigers behind, they were already in a desperate situation.
Just then, the little girl in Duan Wenyu's arms suddenly cried out in surprise, and then, completely disregarding the fact that her broken leg was still bleeding, struggled to jump off his arms.
Before Duan Wenyu could understand why she was running, he suddenly saw his stomach bulging at a visible speed.
Several small, dark hands emerged from his belly.
The smell of burning, along with specks of eerie green phosphorescence, filled the dim corridor, and a faint but mournful cry of a baby suddenly rang out.
The already dimly lit ceiling light in the corridor suddenly exploded without warning. Immediately afterward, countless tiny, black handprints appeared out of thin air on the floor and walls of the corridor… As the number of handprints increased, the eerie, flickering will-o'-the-wisps also multiplied, completely dyeing the corridor a ghostly green.
The three paper figures present began to spontaneously combust amidst the ghastly green will-o'-the-wisps.
Their expressions were extremely painful, as if they wanted to escape, but they were imprisoned in place by some terrifying force and could only wail silently in the flames.
Upon closer inspection, the paper figures' bellies also seemed to be bulging.
After reaching a certain critical point, three charred infants crawled out of the paper figures' bellies, and the paper figures burst open with a 'bang' like punctured balloons, turning into countless burning scraps of paper.
At the same time, a deformed black mass, about half the height of a person, emerged from Duan Wenyu's swollen belly.
Duan Wenyu stared dumbfounded at the lump of flesh he had 'given birth', his mind completely blank.
It didn't hurt at all, I didn't feel anything... What did he give birth to? Nezha?
The blond guy and the muscular man who summoned the paper figures were dumbfounded... Were they dreaming? How could this seemingly unremarkable newcomer be more terrifying than the ghosts in the dungeon??
Looking at the live broadcast on the system interface, Zhou Fangdong breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
I made it! I finally made it! Who would have thought that using the Ghostly Corruption instance in room 102 would require a loading bar?
He had just watched Duan Wenyu being attacked from both sides by paper figures in the corridor, and he was so anxious that he paced around the room in circles. Fortunately, the loading screen ended in time. If he had spoken a few more words to Zhang Zhiwu at the door of room 106, Duan Wenyu might be dead.
The three pitch-black ghost infants that crawled out of the paper figure's belly climbed to Duan Wenyu's feet and merged with the deformed black mass of flesh that had emerged from his belly.
Just then, the blond-haired man and the muscular man seemed to realize what was happening and turned to run away.
"Hurry and let your ghost infant kill them! We can't let them leave this instance alive!" Xiao Xiaoyu shouted. "They already know you're the variable in this instance. If they return to the Main God Space and report this to the Main God, you'll be the one who dies!"
Duan Wenyu wanted to say that he didn't know how to control the ghost baby either... Although this thing came out of his stomach, it was completely beyond his control.
Zhou Fangdong heard what the little girl said and immediately tapped the three people on the screen.
Even if the little girl doesn't speak, he will still control the ghost baby to kill them.
These three are pure evil.
The system broadcast live footage to him like a surveillance camera. While observing Duan Wenyu, Zhou Fangdong could see footage from all the rooms in the funeral home.
Zhou Fangdong witnessed how the three of them discussed and decided to make Duan Wenyu and Xiao Xiaoyu their scapegoats.
Finding the paper doll in this instance carries a 50% risk of death, while choosing a living person in the same instance as a substitute is much safer. Fortunately, the reward the three of them received in the previous instance was a talisman that could transfer curses.
However, this kind of curse-transferring talisman requires the curse to be activated before it can be transferred, so they still need to find the paper doll.
However, with Duan Wenyu and Xiao Xiaoyu backing them up, they became much bolder. If they could obtain a substitute paper doll, they would use it to escape the instance; if they obtained a vengeful ghost, they would find Duan Wenyu and Xiao Xiaoyu to transfer the curse.
These three were only superficially teammates. The bruises on the short-haired man's face were inflicted by the blond man and the muscular man. Duan Wenyu and Xiao Xiaoyu could only be substitutes for two people. One of the three still needed to risk being killed by the vengeful ghost to find the paper doll that could take his place.
The man with the buzz cut was thus excluded from the group.
Unfortunately, the first paper figure he encountered was a vengeful ghost, but he happened to run into the corridor where Duan Wenyu was. After using an item to transfer hatred to Duan Wenyu, he teleported away, escaping the paper figure's pursuit.
Although the man with the buzz cut is no longer in the corridor, he can't escape the pursuit of the ghost child in room 102.
The erosion instance has now ended, and the instance originally named 'Substitute Death' has now completely become the domain of the ghost infants.
Each flicker of the will-o'-the-wisp in the forest creates a ghostly infant in the shadow cast by its glowing light. In room 102 of the Liwan Apartments, the number of ghostly infants could be counted on one hand, but in this funeral home, they seemed to multiply infinitely, existing wherever there was shadow.
Moreover, these ghost infants also became extremely vicious.
Outside the apartment, the child ghost seemed to have become the dominant force among the ghost infants. Unlike her four older sisters, she was less inclined to burn them with will-o'-the-wisps. Instead, having starved to death, she preferred to tear apart and devour her prey with her mouth...
As soon as Xiao Xiaoyu finished speaking, instructing Duan Wenyu to control the ghost baby to kill the blond-haired man and the muscular man, she saw the pitch-black, deformed mass of flesh that crawled out of Duan Wenyu's stomach rapidly stretch and grow taller like a lump of highly malleable clay, transforming into a tall, slender, black humanoid monster with its head reaching the ceiling.
On its face, so black that its features were obscured, a huge crack appeared, revealing layers upon layers of vicious, jagged teeth arranged like the blades of a meat grinder.
It simply bent down slightly and swallowed the blond-haired and muscular man, who were standing there dumbfounded with fear, whole.
A sickening, meat-grinding sound came from its closed mouth. After the sound disappeared, its body began to shrink, returning to the deformed lump of flesh that was half a person's height.
Meanwhile, its ghost baby sisters also found Cuntou hiding on the second floor of the funeral home.
The ghostly infants clung to the man with the buzz cut, and a soft gnawing sound filled the air as the man's figure gradually disappeared.
The process of devouring these three infinite flow players was not the end; the ghost infants then began a thorough search of the vengeful spirits within the dungeon.
The exaggerated chewing sounds echoed throughout the funeral home, as if one had mistakenly entered a buffet restaurant hosting a competitive eating contest.
Finally, after confirming that there were no ghosts or monsters left in the dungeon, the overwhelming number of ghost infants returned to the corridor where Duan Wenyu was, merging into the black lump of flesh beside his legs.
Then the deformed black mass of flesh crawled up Duan Wenyu's trouser leg to his waist and then burrowed back into his stomach.
Duan Wenyu silently looked at his flat stomach.
Xiao Xiaoyu silently looked at his flat stomach.
The two looked up at each other at the same time, and then Xiao Xiaoyu silently took a step back, dragging her broken leg.
"Um, let me explain..."
"It's nothing, no need to explain. I was blind to your greatness." Xiao Xiaoyu respectfully cupped her hands in greeting. "Boss, can we leave now?"
Duan Wenyu's expression was unusually conflicted.
He didn't know if they could get out now.
*
[Congratulations, host, for successfully infiltrating another supernatural instance of a main god!]
A pop-up window appeared in front of Zhou Fangdong's eyes. For some reason, the system seemed particularly happy this time, and even popped up a few small fireworks next to the window for him.
The main god instance corrupted by the tenants cannot be converted into apartment-related facilities. The ghost in room 102 has completely destroyed the instance, and the rewards are being converted...
[We are currently recalling the tenant of room 102...]
[A player in room 102 was detected to have brought an infinite-flow player with them when leaving the instance. The player's points system has been automatically removed.]
[Successfully captured the points system from four official players; reward calculation in progress...]
For some reason, the reward calculation time for this Erosion dungeon is unusually long.
Just as Zhou Fangdong was getting impatient and was about to go to room 102 to see if Duan Wenyu had returned, the system's reward pop-up finally appeared.
Upon seeing the reward pop-up window for the first few items, Zhou Fangdong froze on the spot.
[Xiao Xiaoyu, a player in the Infinite Flow dungeon, has been automatically converted into a tenant.]
[Room 105 detected as unused. Use excess energy obtained from the Erosion Dungeon to clear the room...]
[This player in the Infinite Flow game has been detected to have a half-ghost constitution, possessing [Yin-Yang Eyes] and [Soul-Binding Rope]. They can coexist peacefully with the ghosts in the room without needing to establish tenant rules.]
Xiao Xiaoyu has been placed in room 105.
[New Tenant Profile: Special Tenant - The Infinite Flow Player Being Hunted by the Main God, now unlocked]
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