Chapter 76 Character Customization, So Satisfying! (Bonus Chapter for 28,000 words) 206 Ghostly Creatures...
The skill took effect instantly. After receiving 500 ghost coins, Zhou Fangdong was presented with all the details of the ghost's past life and the conditions under which it killed.
The ghost in room 206 was once a tenant living here; she was a female anchor before her death.
When she was just an adult, she went to Linjiang City to work and became one of the many low-level live streamers in a company.
The company rented room 206 in Liwan Apartment as staff dormitory for her, and a total of 12 low-level live streamers, including her, lived here.
She has to broadcast for 10 hours every day. Unlike other jobs where you can slack off, she has to sit in front of the camera and broadcast the full 10 hours.
She streamed live for 10 hours a day and only rested for two days a month. Despite this high-intensity streaming schedule, she could only earn enough to barely make ends meet when she first started streaming.
Although it was tiring and tough, she was too young and naive to carefully read the contract she signed with the company. The ten-year contract and the seven-figure penalty for breach of contract made her afraid to resign.
Fortunately, she was fairly pretty, had a sweet voice, and sang well. With the company's beauty filters, she quickly gained a loyal following. Even though she had to give 80% of the profits to the company, she still earned some money and wasn't struggling to make ends meet.
However, as the popularity of the live stream increased, malicious comments also began to appear.
In front of the cold, impersonal camera lens, physical flaws are magnified infinitely. Viewers in the live stream subconsciously focus on those minor imperfections that would go unnoticed in normal social distancing and freely comment on them.
Because of these comments, she began to pay more and more attention to her appearance and body shape, and developed severe appearance anxiety and body image anxiety.
She started trying cosmetic procedures, began wearing heavy makeup, and started dieting, binge eating, and purging.
Due to excessive anxiety and work pressure, her hair began to fall out in clumps, and her face started breaking out in pimples. Because of excessive cosmetic procedures, her once delicate face began to become stiff and swollen... So she turned up the beauty filters in her live streams higher and higher, from the initial natural mode all the way to the highest level.
The real her is so heavily edited and obscured by special effects that even she herself has almost forgotten what she originally looked like.
She no longer dared to show her true face to others, and even when she was alone at home, she would wear full makeup, and she needed to mentally prepare herself before looking in the mirror.
This situation continued until one day during a live broadcast.
That night during her live stream, her viewership suddenly surged. She initially thought her company had bought her some streaming traffic, but what she didn't know was that the live streaming platform was actually experiencing a problem and undergoing emergency repairs. Many live streams experienced malfunctions as a result; some had distorted images, some lost sound, and some simply went black.
Although her live stream didn't go black, all the beauty filters were gone.
Her true face was laid bare before the camera—acne that even heavy makeup couldn't conceal, rough skin with powdery residue, thinning hair due to long-term anxiety, and a face that appeared somewhat stiff and swollen from cosmetic injections.
Her worst fears came true. She was like someone on an autopsy table, with everything laid bare before everyone for their judgment.
In a panic, the female anchor instinctively tried to shut down the live stream, but due to her excessive panic, the video froze at an extremely awkward moment before the stream was turned off—her mouth was half open, her eyes were wide open in terror, and her expression was distorted.
This scene was captured and saved by countless people.
The next 24 hours were the darkest moment of her life.
That "ugly picture" was turned into various memes, accompanied by captions such as "Online dating VS meeting in real life," "I'm devastated," and "So embarrassing I can't breathe," and began to spread rapidly like wildfire, topping the trending lists of multiple social media platforms within a day.
Her social media was flooded with a torrent of negative comments.
Someone created a hashtag and called on everyone to help Photoshop the image. Some minor internet celebrities even capitalized on the buzz by making reaction videos, exaggeratingly mimicking her panicked and distraught expression.
She curled up in bed, burying herself under the covers. She didn't want to look at the comments, but she couldn't help picking up her phone and refreshing it again and again, almost to her own masochistic urges... Every vicious comment was like a sharp knife, piercing her already riddled heart.
What made her even more desperate was that the company not only did not help her suppress the matter, but also urged her to continue live streaming while the hype was still going strong, otherwise they would demand a breach of contract penalty of up to one million yuan from her.
Although she was already in great pain, she still continued to broadcast live that night as required by the company.
This time, she wasn't wearing makeup or using any beauty filters. With her hair disheveled, she looked at the live stream camera, revealing her swollen and haggard face from crying.
The number of viewers in the live stream began to increase rapidly. Netizens who came to the live stream after hearing about it scolded her for being crazy to make money and daring to start a live stream. The barrage of comments mocking her appearance was constantly flooding the screen, interspersed with her memes.
Seeing that she remained expressionless and unresponsive, the comments section became increasingly chaotic and filled with hostility.
The live stream chat was filled with vicious comments such as "Go to hell," "A clown trying to attract attention," "Stop polluting the eyes of netizens," "I can't eat because you're so ugly," and "How can someone who looks like that have the courage to live?"
The few comforting comments were no match for this violent frenzy, and the live stream was quickly filled with vicious curses.
Seeing the curses in the live stream wishing her death, she calmly nodded, then took a small knife used for unpacking packages and, in front of tens of thousands of viewers, slit her own throat on camera.
Until the platform forcibly shut down the live stream, her eyes remained fixed on the camera.
Even after her death, the online frenzy sparked by her death did not end. The live stream recording of her death even became a gimmick for those seeking novelty, with some people even willing to pay to watch it.
Although the female streamer has passed away, the 11 other streamers who shared room 206 with her still haven't moved out. Forced by their contracts, they remain in that room, continuing their endless stream of work.
After the female anchor died, she became a ghost with her hair covering her face and remained in room 206.
None of the 11 junior livestreamers in room 206 got into trouble; it was the viewers who watched their livestreams who got into trouble.
The hair ghost has no physical form; it can only be seen through a camera lens, a mobile phone screen, or a mirror.
It can curse others to death via the internet.
Through the female streamers in room 206, it killed the viewers who had previously cheered in its live stream, and also killed the company boss who exploited the streamers.
Everyone who saw her video before she died was also killed by her.
All those killed by the curse of the demon died in extremely gruesome ways, with their internal organs pierced by long hair and hair flowing out of their seven orifices.
Later, the supervisory bureau discovered this, cut off the internet connection to room 206, and locked down room 206 for a period of time.
But not long after, the apartment owner quietly unsealed the room and rented it out cheaply to movers and laborers who needed to rest.
These movers came and went, and some of them occasionally saw the shadow of the Hair Demon in the mirror or in the reflection of a water glass, but the Hair Demon did not harm them... Before the mutation of the Meat Spirit Mushroom, none of the tenants in Room 206 died because of the Hair Demon.
Judging from the ghost's past life and the people she killed, she wasn't a rabid killer. Even if someone discovered her existence, they wouldn't be attacked by her. Her conditions for killing were internet access, leaving malicious comments that she would see, or watching a recording of her live stream before her death.
No wonder I spent ages using the scapegoat doll around the room and it didn't trigger the ghost's killing condition.
Zhou Fangdong looked at the tall dressing mirror in front of him, but the figure of Fa Gui was no longer reflected in the mirror.
Room 206 is much safer than the other rooms on the second floor. As long as you don't use the internet in the room, you should be able to live there safely.
In all the rooms of Liwan Apartment, Zhou Fangdong needs to purchase broadband and mobile data vouchers from the system before he can access the internet. As long as he doesn't provide internet access to room 206, there won't be any problems.
Once he finishes writing the rental rules and renovating the room, he can easily find any tenant to rent it out. Even if the tenant is an ordinary person like Zhao Dawei, it shouldn't be a problem.
Just as Zhou Fangdong was thinking of Zhao Dawei, a message popped up in his special tenant watchlist:
[Zhao Dawei, the tenant of room 101, has been captured by the Main God and has entered the Main God's supernatural instance.]
Then the system's electronic voice also sounded:
[Beep—Room 101 tenant has entered the main god's supernatural instance. Instance erosion function can be activated!]
Zhou Fangdong: ? ? ?
Wait a minute, wasn't Zhao Dawei working at the Guijia Furniture Store? How did he get captured by the God of War?
Zhou Fangdong opened the instance erosion function and the special tenant watchlist to check Zhao Dawei's movements.
It turns out that Zhao Dawei doesn't need to work today. His job at the furniture store is five days on and two days off, and today is his day off.
Zhou Fangdong remembered that Zhao Dawei had also had an accident during his last vacation. He was dragged into room 103 by two cult members and bled, and then spent the entire two-day vacation resting in bed.
Then something else happened during this break... This guy is just too unlucky.
Zhou Fangdong suspected that the problem might be due to a lack of lamp oil at Zhao Dawei's door.
He'll go out tonight to check on the lamp oil at Zhao Dawei's door. If it's still low, he'll refill it.
Going out at night and just glancing around in the hallway before returning should be fine. He's now unlocked the [Shadow Soul Contract], which allows him to control the mindless zombie Taoist priest at night. As long as he avoids the elevator area, he should be safe.
Zhou Fangdong glanced at the live video feed from the instance erosion interface and then at Zhao Dawei's movements, and suddenly felt something was amiss.
Zhao Dawei disappeared at a station in the city center. After getting off the ghost bus, he was directly dragged into the instance.
However, during the live broadcast of this instance, Zhao Dawei appeared out of thin air in a supermarket instead of a train station... This time, the supernatural instance of the main god did not directly descend into the real world.
Although it felt a bit strange, Zhou Fangdong still used the dungeon erosion function directly. After all, the ghost erosion dungeon in the room required a loading bar, and using it earlier would allow him to rescue Zhao Dawei from the dungeon more quickly.
However, the instance erosion function failed this time.
[The instance has been detected in a mirror. The ghost in Room 101 is a mirror ghost, which attacks by relying on reflective surfaces such as mirrors. It cannot invade the instance under these conditions. Please send other tenants into the instance as soon as possible.]
Oh no.
Zhou Fangdong took out his phone and called Hong Zhong directly: "Hong Zhong, is there a main god instance descending at the Green Garden Station in the city center?"
"No."
Green Garden Station is the station where Zhao Dawei just disappeared out of thin air. Now it's confirmed that the entrance to the main god instance is indeed not in reality.
After suffering several setbacks, the main god learned its lesson. Realizing that creating supernatural instances using real-world scenes would be detected by the surveillance bureau, it began creating instances in the mirror to lure people in.
How do I get other tenants into this instance? It can't be just any mirror.
"Hong Zhong, send me a panoramic picture of Luyuan Station." Zhou Fangdong didn't hang up the phone; he kept the call going while simultaneously switching to the text messaging interface.
Hong Zhong was very efficient; without asking why he needed the station photos, he simply sent over the panoramic view.
Zhou Fangdong noticed a large round mirror next to the station. This round mirror is a wide-angle mirror used to expand the driver's field of vision and eliminate blind spots. Zhao Dawei should have entered the main god instance through this mirror.
"Hong Zhong, are you near Luyuan Station right now? Or which of the four of you, Li Zhe, is closer to Luyuan... Any of the five of you is fine. I need one of you to go to Luyuan Station and help me with a main god instance."
Hearing Zhou Fangdong say this, Hong Zhong was very surprised: "A main god instance has descended near Green Garden?! How is that possible? No supernatural fluctuations of the main god instance have been detected there."
Although he was shocked, he still believed the information from the landlord of Liwan Apartments. While talking to Zhou Fangdong, he directly used the internal communication device of the Anomaly Investigation Department to direct his investigators to go to Luyuan Station... Li Zhe happened to be searching for missing people near Luyuan Station.
Zhou Fangdong explained, "This time, the main god instance is a mirror world, not in the real world, so it's normal that you didn't detect it. Zhao Dawei was suddenly pulled into the main god instance when he got off the bus and disappeared into thin air..." At this point, he suddenly realized something.
Could it be that those citizens who disappeared out of thin air yesterday and today disappeared because of this copy of the main god in the mirror?
Watching the live stream of the dungeon, Zhao Dawei had already encountered other people in the Mirror Dungeon Supermarket. Zhou Fangdong quickly opened the list of missing persons that Hong Zhong had sent him.
Several confirmed missing citizens were among the people Zhao Dawei encountered in the instance.
Zhou Fangdong continued, "The missing citizens in the city center are also because of this main god instance. Tell your team members who are searching near the missing locations to be careful of mirrors or other reflective objects. The main god may be using these to capture people and bring them into the instance."
"Okay, I'll give the order right away."
After hanging up with Hong Zhong, Zhou Fangdong was not relieved and began to think about whether there were other ways to enter the mirror copy.
It will take Li Zhe some time to get to Green Garden Station, and it's uncertain whether he will be captured by the main god and taken to the instance after arriving at the station.
Even if he successfully enters the instance, it will still take some time to load the process of corrupting the instance with the sick ghost in his room.
During this period, Zhao Dawei is likely to be in danger.
Zhao Dawei currently possesses a [Low-Level Talisman - Peace Talisman]. This item can protect the wearer from D-level ghosts, grant immunity to three C-level ghost attacks, and provide a fever warning when a ghost is lurking nearby.
In addition, he also had the [low-level exorcism talisman], [intermediate-level exorcism talisman], and [intermediate-level protective talisman] that he had given him.
With these items, Zhao Dawei should be able to last for a while in the dungeon... He must successfully corrupt the dungeon before he runs out of items.
Although Zhao Dawei appeared to be out of danger based on the live video stream, no one knew how long this peaceful situation would last.
Zhou Fangdong paced anxiously in front of the ghost mirror, pondering how to enter the main god's instance. Just then, a ghost suddenly appeared in the mirror.
It looked around in a daze, and as soon as it realized where it was, a look of shock appeared on its face. Then, countless black hairs emerged from the mirror and dragged it back into the mirror.
The mirror image clearly shows that the Hair Demon wrapped the ghost in its hair, forming a black cocoon. The hair strands slowly wriggled, like a spider catching its prey, quickly digesting the ghost completely.
The black cocoon vanished, the hair strands scattered, and shrank back into the hair ghost. Noticing Zhou Fangdong's gaze, the hair strands covering the hair ghost trembled simultaneously, and then the ghost escaped the mirror's reflection at incredible speed.
The scene of the ghost emerging from the mirror reminded Zhou Fangdong that this [ghost mirror] had a note that said, 'The mirror will occasionally produce ghosts; it seems to be the entrance to a gathering place for ghosts.'
Judging from the notes, this ghost mirror should also be a portal, through which one can reach a certain place.
Could this gathering place of ghosts and monsters be the world in the mirror?
Is it possible for him to enter the mirror world through this ghost mirror and find the main god copy?
Zhou Fangdong circled the ghost mirror once... How do you open the entrance to this ghost mirror?
Ghosts can freely enter the mirror world, but it's much more difficult for a living person to do so.
After pacing in front of the mirror for a while, Zhou Fangdong suddenly thought of something.
Oh, right, that giant slime that pooped in the hidden room on the second floor... that slime is now his body, and he can control it at will.
Since that slime is a ghost tenant, it must also have ghost characteristics. It should be able to easily enter the mirror world using that body.
Zhou Fangdong left room 206 and went to the hidden room on the second floor. In the last cell, he found the giant black slime.
After using [Shadow Soul Contract], Zhou Fangdong found that he could easily control the slime's movements. Not only that, the slime could also change its appearance at will.
Zhou Fangdong used the slime's body to conjure a free-spirited young man with a green buzz cut, wearing a suit jacket without a shirt underneath, tight pants and loafers, and a big gold chain around his neck.
Pinching a character's face is so satisfying!
However, since he was going to use this body to cause trouble in the dungeon, Zhou Fangdong reluctantly gave up using his own appearance in order to prevent his face from appearing in the dungeon and attracting the attention of the main god. He then sculpted a handsome face for the slime.
A face sculpted like a knife-cut noodle, a nose sculpted like a knife-cut, a chin sculpted like a knife-cut... tsk, it's a bit abstract, it's not what I imagined. Being a plastic surgeon is really not easy.
Looking at his slime body, Zhou Fangdong found it increasingly irritating.
He has no artistic talent, nor any character creation data that he can import with a single click. Oh well, too much trouble, let's just leave it at that.
Anyway, when controlling this body, it's from a first-person perspective, and you can't see your own face.
"System, when I use this slime body, can I use the skills of my original body?"
No, while using this body, the host can only use the Evil God Clone skill.
The evil god's clone skill... creates slimes?
Since he had never used this body in combat before, Zhou Fangdong decided to equip it with a few more items just in case.
The items he currently possesses that have offensive capabilities are mostly cursed items, all of which have negative effects.
The human skin mask is just for disguise; he can change faces at will with his slime body, so there's no need for him to wear it.
The life-or-death dice are useless; they're only used to make substitute dolls.
Then there's the Blood Compass, but that won't work either. The negative effects are too exaggerated, so I can't use it myself.
The marriage red thread requires two people to use together and has no offensive power.
As for the urn... bring the urn with you, the side effect is that you might become a ghost, or be possessed by a vengeful spirit.
His [Shadow Soul Contract] could easily suppress even the ghost tenants in the apartment, so no ghost should be able to take this slime's body from him. If it really was taken, he could just use [Shadow Soul Contract] again; it wouldn't take much trouble.
Zhou Fangdong retrieved the urn from the favorability interface and placed it in the slime's hand.
Then he was surprised to find that he could actually put the jar inside the slime's body.
Is it really that convenient? Then I can bring that giant blade with me too.
Zhou Fangdong teleported back to his room, then picked up the giant blade given to him by the butcher in the Ghost Market, and returned to the hidden room on the second floor.
Sure enough, the giant blade could be easily inserted.
This is a walking inventory! Looks like I can stuff all the useless cursed items into this slime's body from now on, saving it room space.
Zhou Fangdong returned to room 206 with the slime body.
After getting used to controlling two bodies, it felt just like walking on two legs, without any discomfort.
Moreover, with an extra pair of eyes, the field of vision can be 360 degrees without blind spots, and the two bodies can do different things at the same time.
This felt like running two accounts simultaneously in a dungeon. While using the slime body to search for the Mirror God dungeon, he could also use his main body to observe Zhao Dawei's situation in the dungeon in real time. If Li Zhe successfully entered the dungeon, his main body would directly control the diseased spirit to invade the dungeon.
Before manipulating the slime's body into the mirror, Zhou Fangdong bought five more intermediate-level protective charms and stuffed them inside.
These amulets are for other citizens who have been caught up in the dungeon. After all, his abilities are limited, and he doesn't know how strong the slime's fighting ability is. If he encounters any problems and can't get out, he can use the amulets to protect those ordinary people.
After everything was ready, Zhou Fangdong took a deep breath and let the slime's body touch the surface of the ghost mirror.
Just as he had expected, his ghostly tenant body successfully merged into the mirror.
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