Chapter 159: Landlord's Childhood Photo Unlocks Apartment Exterior Renovation and Upgrades...
Before going to the basement, Zhou Fangdong remembered something, so he reopened the home renovation page and bought a mural to hang next to the elevator on the fifth floor.
Now we can be teleported directly to the fifth floor.
Seeing the purchased decoration records on the decoration interface, Zhou Fangdong nodded in satisfaction.
Dynamic wallpaper featuring blooming flowers and a tranquil mind costs 45,000 yuan; a starry sky ceiling with a free disco ball costs 75,000 yuan; and traditional Northeastern floral flooring costs 20,000 yuan…
It only cost 140,000 yuan to achieve such a gorgeous effect, it's such a great deal!
He still has 320,000 Ghost Coins in his hand. Sigh, how lonely it is to be invincible. Ghost Coin financial freedom is just too awesome.
Just as he was about to close the decoration interface, the system's electronic voice suddenly sounded:
[The apartment's renovation value has exceeded 3,500, unlocking the exterior renovation for Liwan Apartment.]
As soon as he finished speaking, another subpage appeared at the top of the decoration interface.
Exterior design?
Zhou Fangdong thought for a moment and figured this probably meant giving the apartment's exterior a new look...
It doesn't seem necessary; he can't leave the apartment anyway. Of course, renovations should be done where he can see them; that's when he feels a sense of accomplishment.
Seemingly noticing that Zhou Fangdong had no intention of making a purchase, the system voice continued:
An aesthetically pleasing apartment exterior is likely to increase the apartment's reputation growth rate.
Seeing that it could accelerate reputation growth, Zhou Fangdong paused, his hand already on the page, and clicked on the newly unlocked feature.
However, Zhou Fangdong was speechless when he saw the prices for these exterior decorations.
"The cheapest apartment costs 300,000 Ghost Coins just for its exterior... System, if you want to rob me, just say so. There's no need to use the guise of exterior decoration."
He didn't continue reading and closed the exterior design page directly.
It's just a bonus that increases reputation growth speed; it doesn't grant reputation immediately after purchase. 300,000 Ghost Coins is way too expensive.
Zhou Fangdong was teleported to the basement.
When he appeared in the basement, he was surprised to find that Shadow was not there.
He looked around, then realized something and looked up.
The ball of yarn resembling a human leg transformed into a fishing net woven from human legs, which then clung tightly to the ceiling.
The Shadow Demon was like a diligent little spider weaving its web. Its four arms and legs had all become flat and elongated, clinging tightly to the ceiling, while its remaining four arms were carefully selecting suitable human legs and placing them in the correct positions.
Seeing this, Zhou Fangdong fell silent.
She's already unraveled that ball of yarn? Shadow's house-destroying abilities are pretty impressive...
So, if it's been torn apart like this, is the ball of yarn still alive?
Seemingly having heard Zhou Fangdong's question, Yingmei pulled out a tattered rag doll from her bosom after realizing that there weren't enough human legs.
It shook the doll a few times, and then the doll suddenly gagged, and two legs slowly appeared in the Shadow Demon's hand.
...It seems that the ball of yarn is still alive, but only the doll itself remains; the human legs wrapped around it have been removed by the Shadow Demon.
Seeing that the two spirits got along so well, Zhou Fangdong felt relieved.
He didn't disturb Yingmei as she unwrapped the yarn and began his own work.
First, I went to the iron pot and collected two new jars of lamp oil. Then, I collected a new batch of finished lamp oil pendants from the workbench and put them on the online store. After that, I set aside a jar of lamp oil on the workbench and had the workers continue making pendants.
Just as Zhou Fangdong was about to control the corpse worker to move another corpse and throw it into the iron pot to continue boiling lamp oil, he suddenly realized that the lamp oil making interface seemed a little strange.
How did the body inventory become 61?
When he made the pendant last time, he remembered that there were only 10 corpses left. How come there are so many more now?
Looking at the gruesome corpses with his own faces in the ice coffins, Zhou Fangdong vaguely remembered something.
...By the way, he used [Half-body Shrine] yesterday.
During the process of devouring the ghosts on the 15th floor, a small portion of them may have been stained with his blood, turned into corpses, and were sent to the basement by the system.
That's great, it's an unexpected bonus. Now we don't have to worry about running out of lamp oil anymore.
Zhou Fangdong directed the workers to lift a corpse and throw it into an iron pot, then began to check the materials needed to make the lamp oil curing device.
However, as soon as he clicked on the lamp oil curing device, a pop-up window appeared: [To craft the lamp oil curing device, you need to unlock the Ghost Market Blacksmith Shop first.]
In that case, let's go to the ghost market first.
Zhou Fangdong suspected that creating this ghost tenant required blacksmithing skills.
Cultivating ghost tenants in the hidden room on the third floor requires a lot of reputation... Although each training session only requires 50 reputation points, Zhou Fangdong felt that he was unlikely to succeed on his first try.
You need to accumulate reputation points first, since making [Lamp Oil Hand Cream] also requires a lot of reputation.
It seems that the matter of using tenants to actively erode the God Space can only be put on hold for now.
Zhou Fangdong returned to the hidden room on the second floor and entered the Ghost Market.
The ghost market remained the same as before, with eerie green will-o'-the-wisps constantly drifting in the eternal night sky. However, there were more faceless pedestrians carrying white lanterns on the streets, and most of them were queuing in front of the paper offering shops.
Because the ghost market portal in the hidden room on the second floor is linked to the paper craft shop, when Zhou Fangdong went out, he saw a scene inside the paper craft shop that looked like a supermarket clearance sale.
The store wasn't very big to begin with, and it was filled with paper figurines. Plus, many faceless people were scrambling to buy the paper figurines, making it hard to even find a place to stand.
Hou San was sweating profusely as he tried to maintain order. He was only a half-ghost and was completely unable to handle so many guests who were neither human nor ghost.
Although paper figures can sell themselves, there are too many customers vying for them—many customers even fight over the same paper figure, and the paper figure being fought over doesn't know who to sell itself to.
The ghost tenant, a paper craftsman, was busy making paper figures to restock, trying to produce more so that every customer could buy one.
Zhou Fangdong was somewhat surprised by the bustling scene in the paper craft shop.
He gave the paper craftsman a new design for paper figures a couple of days ago, and he never expected that the paper figures made from those designs would be so popular.
Just as two customers were about to start fighting, Hou San was on the other side calming down the other customers who were fighting.
Seeing this, Zhou Fangdong went over and tried to help calm the guest down.
He originally intended to use the powerful deterrent buff that comes with the [Heavenly Eye] skill to control the field.
After all, these are customers who give ghost coins; they are the bread and butter of the paper craft shop. We can't directly control their consciousness, nor can we directly use [Judgment/Decree] to steal their money, otherwise the paper craft shop's reputation will be ruined.
But to his surprise, as soon as he got close, before he could even activate his skill, the guests who had been fighting so fiercely suddenly fell silent.
The paper craft shop instantly transformed from a bustling scene of clearance sales to an extremely solemn atmosphere, where you could hear a pin drop.
Wherever Zhou Fangdong's gaze swept, all the guests lowered their heads, not daring to meet his eyes.
Seeing this, Hou San wiped the sweat from his forehead and breathed a sigh of relief: "Landlord, you've finally arrived. It's good that you're here to help..."
Zhou Fangdong didn't say much, and directly brought up the paper offering shop's management interface.
"System, how many ghost coins are needed to expand the paper offering shop's area?"
10,000 Ghost Coins
"Okay, expand directly."
After a few seconds of silence, the cramped shop seemed to be stretched outwards by an invisible hand, as if the surrounding walls were slowly extending outwards.
The decaying wooden planks creaked and peeled away, new wood grain grew back, and the wax oil was automatically refreshed.
The wallpaper that had been held up with straw paper quickly fell off the wall, the mold spots that had been covered by the straw paper disappeared, and a layer of white putty was applied.
The ceiling rose higher, suddenly opening up the previously oppressive space. The old black tiles were renovated on their own, with a few wisps of eerie green light filtering through the gaps... Some of the will-o'-the-wisps that had been floating above the ghost market had seeped into the shops through the gaps in the tiles during the renovation process, adding light to the pitch-black interior.
The shelves that were originally crammed with paper offerings have been extended along the walls, and the densely packed paper offerings are no longer crowded together, but are neatly arranged on the brand-new shelves.
The best-selling paper doll even has its own long shelf in the middle of the room, ensuring that guests can get it no matter which side they come from.
All the changes happened in the blink of an eye.
After the paper shop was expanded, Hou San immediately clapped his hands: "As expected of our landlord! He expanded a ghost market shop with ease!" After saying that, he winked at the few small paper figures on the top shelf.
The little paper figures deftly pulled out a lot of scraps of gold foil from their pockets and scattered them down like ribbons.
Those guests who had been silent until now also joined in the applause.
Hou San alone created a lively atmosphere; all that was missing was setting off fireworks in the store.
Amid the applause, Zhou Fangdong felt his creative urge return. Looking at the newly renovated shop environment, he felt an urge to renovate the paper craft shop as well.
If he didn't have to go build the blacksmith shop later, he would have liked to stay in the shop a little longer.
The paper craftsman, who was still working hard to make paper figures, suddenly felt a chill for no reason.
...This is a dangerous warning.
The paper craftsman looked up at the landlord, who was keen on innovation. Mistaking him for someone wanting to revamp the shop's best-selling paper figures, he quickly advised, "Landlord, are you here to make paper figures again? The shop is a bit busy right now, and we're a little short on space... How about I deliver the materials to your apartment so you can create your art there?"
Although it was for the sake of customer traffic, compared to Hou San, the paper craftsman who directly told the boss to leave seemed to lack common sense.
However, Zhou Fangdong didn't care. He waved his hand to stop the others who were still clapping. "You guys do your thing. I'm just passing by and expanding my shop area. Don't worry about me. I have other things to do at the Ghost Market."
The customers in the store were just like Zhou Fangdong's soldiers, obeying his orders without question. As soon as he finished speaking, the store instantly returned to its previous state of complete silence.
After leaving the paper shop, Zhou Fangdong intended to find the location of the blacksmith shop, but he suddenly discovered that the coffin shop was diagonally opposite the paper shop.
Remembering what the ghost bus driver had said, Zhou Fangdong took a detour and arrived at the entrance of the coffin shop.
The coffins standing upright at the entrance were originally seeping blood, but when Zhou Fangdong approached, the blood stopped for a moment, then suddenly began to flow backward, and all the scarlet blood retreated back into the coffins.
Zhou Fangdong didn't pay any attention and pushed open the half-closed door as if he were going home.
As soon as the door opened, a scent of aged pine mixed with tung oil wafted out. It wasn't unpleasant; in fact, it evoked a sense of nostalgia.
Stepping over the high threshold into the shop, Zhou Fangdong immediately noticed the oil lamp hanging from the beam.
The flickering oil lamp cast the outlines of the upright coffins onto the mottled wall, resembling distorted, ghostly shadows.
Looking at the somewhat familiar oil lamp, Zhou Fangdong remained silent for a long time before taking out a sandalwood memorial tablet from his inventory.
The moment the sandalwood memorial tablet was taken out, it began to tremble slightly, and at the same time, an oil lamp pattern appeared on the tablet.
The oil lamps in the coffin shop and the oil lamps at the tenants' doors at night are the same kind.
Zhou Fangdong used the [Heavenly Eye] skill to examine it again and found that the oil lamp's effect was the same as the lamp oil refined from his corpse, but he didn't know what the raw materials were.
The coffin shop owner's place is very likely another way for the system to obtain lamp oil.
Zhou Fangdong looked around but couldn't find the coffin shop owner.
They are probably not in the store.
...The coffin placed at the door looked alive, and there was an oil lamp lit inside. The place was heavily guarded, so it seemed that no normal ghost or half-ghost would dare to break into an empty house. Therefore, the coffin shop owner left without even locking the door.
After looking around, Zhou Fangdong didn't find the boss, but he made another discovery.
Among the mostly black coffins in the shop, one scarlet coffin stood out. Its lid was slightly ajar, revealing a dark red interior, as if someone had just stepped out and hastily closed it…
How familiar it feels! Looking at this coffin is like seeing my childhood swaddling clothes.
Zhou Fangdong unknowingly walked to the coffin and opened the coffin lid.
Inside the coffin lid was a very modern and soft set of bedding.
Zhou Fangdong thought for a moment, then, following his own habit, picked up the pillow and felt inside the pillowcase.
He pulled out a few photos.
Several photos of him as an infant and as a child.
However... the time span marked on this photo seems a bit off.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com