Chapter 140 The Mature Supernatural Props: The Scarecrow Record Player, Garden…
Looking at the countdown to the nighttime attack of a hundred demons, Zhou Fangdong sighed softly.
It's dawn now; this night went by too fast.
With only five days left until the Night of a Hundred Ghosts, Zhou Fangdong felt no tension whatsoever, despite the approaching time.
He can now easily handle even the projection of outer gods, and resolving a dynamic event triggered during his beginner phase is a piece of cake for him.
Zhou Fangdong closed the task pop-up and opened the cleaner recruitment page.
The first cleaner recruited by the system turned out to be Xiaodi's older sister, Ajie.
Xiao Di and his sister live together in room 108 of the back building of the apartment. Although Xiao Di is a ghost tenant, his sister is just an ordinary vengeful ghost, and a vengeful ghost with a somewhat incomplete soul.
Because at first, A-Jie was just a remnant soul that escaped from the cruel sacrificial ritual of the Bone Inheritance Society. Later, Ke-Yan helped to adjust her, which restored her to her current state.
Zhou Fangdong did not hesitate and directly hired A-Jie.
He didn't know how good Xiaodi was at cleaning; he hired her purely out of personal motives.
Having experienced Xiao Di's repeated deaths more than ten times during her role-playing mission, Zhou Fangdong knew how difficult it had been for the child. A Jie was Xiao Di's only relative, and he hoped that the two children could live well in the apartment from now on, without having to worry about repairing their souls.
The cleaners have employment contracts with the apartment building. The cleaners at Qianduolai are all physically active, almost like ghost tenants.
After Ah-Jie becomes a cleaner, she will definitely have a body, and her physical condition will improve.
The remaining five cleaners were all ghosts that Zhou Fangdong didn't recognize, but judging from the appearance of those pixelated figures, they were all in good physical condition and did not have large wounds on their bodies. They seemed much more reliable than the old, weak, sick and disabled ghosts that Quan Wuming and the others recommended. It was indeed a paid system recruitment.
Zhou Fangdong then hired all five remaining cleaners as well.
He now operates four floors and has a total of twelve cleaners, which is sufficient.
We work in groups of three, with two people working and one person resting during the workday, taking turns like this.
After readjusting the cleaning staff's work schedule, Zhou Fangdong, controlling the newly created ghost tenant, arrived at a corner of the tenth-floor corridor.
He leaned against the wall, preparing to make offerings and wages for the apartment's cleaners and the ghost doctors and nurses at Liwan Hospital.
Making offering incense is a process of repeatedly depleting one's health bar. Fortunately, he had previously added six attribute points to his health bar, so he could make a lot more offering incense at once compared to before. Therefore, he was not tormented by the headache and dizziness of depleting his health bar for too long.
After storing the prepared incense in the system space and settling all the employees' salaries, Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief and listlessly led the ghost tenant to the third floor of the apartment building in the elevator.
After offering incense, Zhou Fangdong's expression was very unpleasant, and the oppressive atmosphere surrounding him was almost visible to the naked eye.
The frustration caused by what happened last night, coupled with the lingering phantom pain from repeatedly depleting his health bar and the continuous drop in mental energy due to the nightmare clones, left him feeling dizzy and depressed to the extreme, like a powder keg that had been hammered to its limit and was about to explode.
This is purely an emotional issue, and [Mental Recovery Potion] cannot improve it.
Ordinary people can adjust their mood by eating delicious food or sleeping, but Zhou Fangdong can only tough it out.
The elevator quickly arrived at the third floor. Zhou Fangdong told the ghost tenant to stand in the corridor and went to room 303 where Li Ou was.
He planned to ask Li Ou to make a statue of the deity of the Jingmiao Temple to settle the nightmare clone of the Jingmiao Temple in Linjiang Nursing Home.
Upon receiving the landlord's request, Li Ou readily agreed and immediately set off to purchase the materials needed to make the statue.
Zhou Fangdong was so frightened that he quickly stopped him.
...The event is likely to be triggered as soon as the tenant leaves the house, especially if it's a newly moved-in tenant. And he'll be going to the back building to do some dungeon runs soon, so he can't focus on the tenants for the time being.
After obtaining the list of materials for the statue from Li Ou, Zhou Fangdong sent the list to the director of the Supervision Bureau, asking him to send someone to purchase the materials and deliver them to the apartment.
After arranging the statue, Zhou Fangdong left room 303.
When he came out, he happened to run into the ghost tenant, the gardener, who was coming out of room 305.
The gardener glanced at Zhou Fangdong's gloomy face, then at the ghostly tenant next to him with a dazed expression, who looked like a puppet. After a moment of silence, he forced a smile and gave the terrifying landlord an awkward yet polite one.
Zhou Fangdong originally wanted to ask the gardener to help with the garden renovation, to see if there would be any additional benefits besides the renovation discount.
As a result, the tenant didn't give him a chance to speak at all, and simply took a step back and retreated to room 305, locking the door.
Zhou Fangdong realized something and turned to look at the dazed, drooling ghost tenant he was controlling.
...I always felt like the gardener had misunderstood me; he really wasn't the kind of heartless landlord who would harm his tenants.
Zhou Fangdong looked at the closed door of room 305 with a helpless expression.
Even if the gardener locked the door, he could still easily enter room 305 with the [landlord's key]... but forcibly breaking in now would only deepen the misunderstanding.
Never mind, let's talk about it later.
Zhou Fangdong led the ghost tenant to the apartment garden.
In the garden, the trenches blasted out by the [Dead Zone Invasion] have been filled in by Quan Wuming and his men. The ground is now smooth, and there is no trace of the trenches at all.
Zhou Fangdong nodded in satisfaction and opened the garden decoration page.
Since decorating the Ghost Postman's wife and children in the fountain statue, the total decoration value of the apartment garden is 620, and many good items have been unlocked in the [Decorations] section.
Zhou Fangdong's attention was drawn to a decoration called [Scarecrow in the Field], and he clicked to preview its effect.
The decoration is worth 20, and the price is the same as the fountain statue, but with the Ghost Tenant Gardener's 50% discount, you can buy it for only 500 Ghost Coins.
"System, what is the compatibility between the scarecrow in the field and the ghost tenant I just created? Can this scarecrow accommodate him?"
[70% match, can accommodate]
Upon hearing the system's explanation, Zhou Fangdong, the super-rich version of himself with a net worth of 160,000 ghost coins, did not hesitate at all and bought it directly, then decorated it in the planting area.
It was only a little past six in the morning. He Yansheng, who should have been working in the planting area, had just woken up and hadn't come down yet, so he didn't witness this horrifying scene.
Suddenly, a scarecrow appeared out of nowhere in the planting area. The scarecrow was originally just an ordinary-looking scarecrow—two wooden sticks were tied together in a cross shape, it was covered with a tattered burlap sack, its torso and limbs were filled with dry straw, and its neck was bound with hemp rope to form the shape of a head.
But after Zhou Fangdong put the ghost tenant inside, the scarecrow's appearance changed.
The torso, stuffed with straw, began to shrink rapidly, and the joints of the wooden sticks supporting the body gradually emerged. The head, constricted by hemp rope, also shrank, slowly transforming into the shape of a human skull. The sunlight streaming down from above clearly illuminated the shadows of the cheekbones and temporomandibular bones, making it appear at first glance like a human head tightly wrapped in a sack.
Ultimately, the scarecrow evolved into a perfect mummified corpse.
The mummified corpse was bound to a crisscross of wooden sticks, and through the tattered burlap sack covering it, one could see shriveled skin and dried, decaying flesh. Its head hung low, silently gazing at the land beneath its feet, driving away external disturbances that might hinder the growth of the supernatural artifacts on this land.
The ghost tenant has successfully renovated the area, granting the planting area the [Growth Acceleration] buff.
The first batch of supernatural items is fully mature and ready to be harvested.
[Warning: The [Scarecrow in the Field] will become highly aggressive after taking in a ghost tenant. Do not allow non-tenants to approach, or you may be in danger.]
Placing the ghost tenant inside the scarecrow actually gave it a growth-accelerating buff, which was a pleasant surprise.
Upon seeing the pop-up message that the supernatural prop had already grown, Zhou Fangdong quickly walked to the planting area.
After three days of nurturing, it has finally sprouted.
Zhou Fangdong casually picked up a supernatural prop that looked like a fountain pen. He remembered that he had taken this prop from the evil god's factory.
These supernatural items made from the clones of evil gods have strong side effects and are mostly cursed items.
The pen's original skill effect was [Curse]—using the user's blood as ink to curse others. The greater the curse's power, the more blood the pen's wielder consumed. Moreover, once the pen was started, it could not be released until all the user's blood was drained.
All the supernatural items produced by the Evil God Factory are of this kind—harmful to others but not to themselves. So Zhou Fangdong doesn't feel any remorse at all now that those supernatural items have become grass for the slime farm.
I wonder how the pen's effect has been refreshed after growing in the planting area.
Zhou Fangdong used the [Heavenly Eye] appraisal skill to quickly check it out.
[Strange Item: Negative Pen]
Item Effect: A highly spiritual fountain pen that can write without ink and possesses the power of foresight and divination. When the user writes with a question in mind, the pen will automatically write down the answer.
(Note: Don't trust this pen too much; it has a strong desire to express itself and often exaggerates the facts. When the issue is beyond its capabilities, there is a very high probability that it will start making things up.)
Side effects of the item: After using the pen, the user will become dependent on it and unable to part with it. If forced to separate from the pen, the user is very likely to experience symptoms of depression, and in a very small probability, will commit suicide.
After seeing the prop's effects and side effects, Zhou Fangdong was speechless for a moment.
He silently placed the pen aside and continued examining the other finished props.
After pulling out three fully-developed supernatural artifacts, Zhou Fangdong discovered that their side effects were all the same: users would become extremely negative, and with excessive use, they might lose their will to live and have suicidal thoughts.
Zhou Fangdong let out a long sigh.
Although the side effects are much fewer and less life-threatening, this negative situation is still...
Sigh, I feel like I can't let He Yansheng chat with the supernatural props anymore. He Yansheng is more cheerful and outgoing, but he's made these props seem negative after talking to them.
He Yansheng can continue farming and watering to exercise, but the person who talks to the supernatural props should be changed slightly.
Zhou Fangdong opened the rental preview interface and glanced around.
The tenants in his apartment are all busy, and he can't find anyone who is available right now... It would be great if there were any tools that could replace human chat.
Thinking of this, Zhou Fangdong suddenly remembered that he had not yet claimed the reward from the Ghost Tenant Gardener's Illustrated Guide.
Hopefully, we can unlock items related to the planting area.
Zhou Fangdong opened the illustration of [Ghost Tenant - Gardener].
[Gardener Yuan Xiu]
Illustration description: Before her death, she was a horticulturist at a landscaping engineering design company. She was the only female horticulturist in the company and was often assigned to low-paying and demanding projects by her superiors on the grounds that "clients trust male horticulturists more" and "construction sites are not suitable for women".
The last project she participated in before her death was the garden landscape design for the Liwan Apartments. During the site survey, she noticed something was wrong with the garden soil, so she dug it up and discovered a large number of fresh corpses buried beneath the apartment garden.
When she tried to call the police, she was attacked from behind by security guards hired by the developer. Although she killed two guards with a rake, she ultimately died from excessive blood loss due to a penetrating chest wound caused by pruning shears and a gardener's shovel.
After her death, she was buried in the garden of the Liwan Apartments, becoming one of those corpses.
Traits: Long-term oppression has made her accustomed to forbearance. She seems honest, but when pushed to the limit, she becomes extremely ruthless and will choose to take the other party down with her. She loves her work and dreams of participating in city-wide greening projects and designing urban landscapes. She is already a ghost tenant in Liwan Apartments, and even though she is terrified of the apartment's strange landlord, she will not give up the lease.
Complete the collection reward: [Decoration - Record Player]
Zhou Fangdong checked the prop effects of the record player.
This is a record player that can automatically play records and can be installed as a decorative item in the planting area. Regardless of the type of record, it will play music that promotes ripening.
(Note: The music played by this prop can replace human chat.)
Great. With this record player, the supernatural props in the field won't have to listen to He Yansheng's pessimistic philosophical ramblings anymore.
Zhou Fangdong received the record player.
Then he discovered that the prop was just a simple record player with no records on it.
...The system really goes to any lengths to promote sales.
Zhou Fangdong reluctantly opened the [Decorations] interface and searched for records inside.
Although it's not too expensive, a vinyl record costs only 100 ghost coins, but its validity period is also very short, only one day.
One hundred ghost coins a day... not bad, the system isn't too greedy. The garbage dump in the garden produces more than one hundred ghost coins every day, perfectly achieving a self-sustaining cycle for the garden's income and expenditure.
Zhou Fangdong pulled out all the supernatural props from the planting area and placed them on the bench next to him. Then he placed the record player with the record on the soil in the planting area.
He didn't activate it yet; he was going to the back building to run a dungeon later, where he would likely collect many supernatural items. He figured it was more cost-effective to save money and spend it wisely, waiting until he had planted all the supernatural items before activating the record player.
Let's talk about the garden renovations after he comes out of the back building.
While he's farming in the back building, he might encounter a lot of irrational ghost tenants. He'll have to find suitable decorations for them and furnish the garden.
Hopefully, this time we can find a ghost tenant in a similar situation to Xiao Di, to help him share the workload of the day and night patrol gods at the City God Temple.
-----------------------
Author's note: There will be an extra chapter around 11 PM tonight, but the time is uncertain. You can check it tomorrow.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com