Chapter 135 Skill Upgrade Successfully Completed: Ghost Tenant - Gardener Moves In, City...
Zhou Fangdong stood at the door of room 305, ventilating the room while mentally preparing himself. After a while, he finally went in.
During his time living in the Liwan Apartment, cleaning up various murder scenes every day and living with all sorts of grotesque ghosts, Zhou Fangdong had long since become desensitized to bloody scenes.
He can calmly clean up a haunted house littered with corpses or covered in blood, but he cannot accept cleaning a garbage dump.
Room 305 is even messier than the original Room 103... At least Room 103 could be described as a hoarding room; although it had a lot of clutter, it still looked like a human dwelling.
Room 305 was simply a garbage dump.
As far as the eye could see, there was a complete mess. All sorts of takeout boxes were scattered haphazardly, and maggots, as dense as grains of rice, were writhing in the food scraps. Blackened soup and oil dripped from the takeout boxes onto the floor, staining the entire room black.
Stepping on the completely black floor felt like stepping on glue; with each step, you could feel the floor clinging tightly to your shoes, making a 'slap, slap' sound as you walked.
Yellowed crumpled paper wrapped around unidentified objects were scattered among numerous takeout boxes, along with many plastic bottles and crushed aluminum cans...
However, these ordinary trash items are not the focus of this room; the most abundant items in this room are all kinds of shoes.
Countless shoes were roughly dumped into the room, piling up into small mountains against the dilapidated furniture.
Sneakers, sandals, leather shoes, slippers... shoes of all colors and types, old and new, are piled up in the room. The sweaty, sour smell emanating from the worn shoes, along with the pungent odor of cheap leather and rubber, overpowers the smell of rotting food emanating from takeout boxes.
Even after the door was opened for ventilation, the complex and pungent smell still stubbornly lingered in the room.
At this moment, Zhou Fangdong was very grateful that his body did not need to eat, and even though he felt nauseous, he did not have the urge to vomit.
...Aside from feeling a little dizzy and my eyes feeling sore from the irritation, I can still bear it for now.
The reason why the fully automatic cleaning tool was not used to clean the room is that the tool cannot be used on ghost derivatives - as the quest text of side quest 18 has already indicated, the trash in this room is all ghost derivatives.
As Zhou Fangdong approached, the giant ball of yarn, composed of hundreds of human legs, was still tumbling around the room, spitting out shoes and occasionally a few takeout boxes or crumpled pieces of paper, making one wonder if its interior was connected to some garbage station in the city.
The intertwined human legs, each foot wearing a shoe, were arranged in a chain. The outermost legs were the loosest, like gears; whichever leg touched the ground would push off forcefully, propelling the more than two-meter-tall mass of human legs forward.
The trash and shoes that it vomits out fall out through the widened gaps between people's legs as it moves.
As this thing rolls around the room, some of its legs will kick off their shoes and put on new ones when they find more suitable ones.
Zhou Fangdong felt that his endurance was nearing its limit. He stopped observing and used the [Heavenly Eye] skill to control the human leg ball of yarn, stopping it from moving. Then he used [Soul Absorption] on it.
After stealing 700 ghost coins, Zhou Fangdong discovered that the ball of yarn was indeed a spirit.
It is an aggregate of resentment arising from abandonment. It has reason, but not much, and its intelligence level is the same as that of a three- or four-year-old human child.
Its main body is a tattered rag doll, which is also the core of these human legs.
This doll embodies the resentment of all the old things discarded and forgotten by their owners in the junkyard.
Shoes symbolize departure and abandonment—after these old items are thrown away, lying on the ground unable to move, their only view is the ever-receding footsteps of their owner.
In order to make its master turn back and to stop its master from leaving, it became a spirit and developed an almost pathological obsession and collecting desire for shoes, especially shoes that had been worn and had human-like qualities.
It fantasizes that its owner will come back to look for the shoes, and then find it in the process.
And it's not just about collecting shoes; this spirit also wants to possess them.
It grew these legs so that it could wear the shoes it had collected.
This spirit can extend its power to various junkyards, devouring resentful discarded items to strengthen itself, and incidentally collecting shoes to satisfy its collecting desires.
As for the other trash in the room, such as takeout boxes, crumpled paper, or plastic bottles, they are all 'impurities' that it accidentally swallowed while devouring or carrying shoes.
After digesting the resentment of the abandoned things, it will spit out these indigestible impurities.
Because it had circulated inside the body and been contaminated by its yin energy, this garbage had become ghostly byproducts that were difficult to clean.
Nourished by the yin energy of the apartment, the spirit's resentment grew stronger, and it brought back more and more shoes.
All the ghosts that broke into room 305 were devoured and assimilated by it, turning into human legs in the 'ball of yarn'.
After reading the memories of this ball of yarn, Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief and left the room.
Since the creatures in this room are spirits, there's no need to feel guilty; we can let the ghost tenants move in directly.
Zhou Fangdong controlled the ball to roll out of the room, and then immediately used the guaranteed lottery ticket.
[Congratulations, host, on acquiring the ghost tenant [Gardener Yuan Xiu]]
The rental agreement has been automatically signed, and the unregistered tenant has been automatically placed in room 305.
[The [Ghost Tenant - Gardener] character's illustration has been unlocked. Please claim your illustration reward promptly.]
[Host detected to have unlocked [Ghost Tenant - Gardener], garden decoration page now offers 50% discount]
Zhou Fangdong paused for a moment when he saw the last pop-up window.
I never expected there would be such a pleasant surprise.
It's a pity that only garden renovations have discounts. It would be great if there were also discounts on apartment renovations, since apartment renovations are the biggest expense.
While Zhou Fangdong was checking the system pop-up, things were slowly changing in room 305.
The disgusting garbage and shoes are disappearing at an alarming rate, and the dump-like room is being replaced by another.
The walls were covered with light green wallpaper with a plant pattern, and the floor was replaced with light-colored wooden flooring.
Hanging flowers and potted plants filled the room, and the windows, which had been boarded up, were now covered with lush vines, turning into small windows made of green leaves.
The tiered storage shelf against the wall in the living room is filled with many bottles and jars, and various succulent plants are placed on it.
There was no sofa in the living room, only a huge work table, on which were placed many plant specimens, small cloth bags for packaging seeds, seedling trays, tools for preparing plant nutrient solutions, and many books related to plants.
A woman wearing a straw hat and overalls slowly appeared in front of the table, looking around the room blankly.
Blood was still oozing from the wound in her chest where pruning shears and a garden shovel were stuck, staining her white short-sleeved shirt and denim overalls. She held a large rake in her rubber-gloved hands, its sharp serrations also covered in fresh blood, whether hers or someone else's, it was unclear.
After this woman appeared, a quest completion pop-up appeared:
Room 305 successfully rented. Side quest 18 completed. Quest rewards: 800 Ghost Coins, 2000 Experience Points, 1 Random Skill Point.
Experience points have been automatically converted into attribute points. You currently have 15 attribute points and 15 skill points.
The newly minted ghost tenant looked around and finally fixed his gaze on Zhou Fangdong standing at the door, and the person behind him whose legs were tangled like a ball of yarn.
After witnessing firsthand how all the shoes he had painstakingly collected were wiped out, Yarn Ball went berserk and briefly broke free from the skill's control, trying to rush into the room... only to be suppressed and beaten up by Zhou Fangdong, who increased the control over it.
Watching the monster being beaten and crawling all over the corridor, the gardener silently withdrew his gaze, took out the shovel from his chest, and began to tidy up the flowers and plants in the room, pretending to be very busy.
Seeing that the strange tenant was adapting well and had no questions, Zhou Fangdong thoughtfully closed the door for her and then kicked away the ball of yarn blocking his way.
Mission accomplished, skill points acquired. As for this original Room 305 spirit... I'll take it to the basement to play with Shadow Demon.
However, how to stop it from eating and spitting out garbage is a very serious problem.
Zhou Fangdong didn't want his lamp oil production base to become a junkyard like Room 305.
Looking at the somewhat dirty and messy corridor in front of him, Zhou Fangdong pondered for a moment, patted the leg of the person closest to him, and said gently, "Now I am your master, I will not abandon you, so don't pick up things that others don't want anymore."
The leg twitched, and goosebumps rose on its skin. The gap between it and the other legs was widening, as if it wanted to vomit something out.
Zhou Fangdong used [Soul Drain] on the monster again.
After losing another seven hundred ghost coins, the spirit became listless.
Ultimately, whether it was the reassurance that worked, or the combined intimidation of [Heavenly Eye] and [Soul Absorption], the creature finally quieted down. Most of its human legs vanished, transforming from over two meters tall into a half-human-sized ball of yarn made of dozens of intertwined human legs.
Zhou Fangdong tried to release the control of [Heavenly Eye] and said to the spirit, "Come on, roll around in the corridor."
The ball of yarn rolled back and forth reluctantly, without producing any trash in the process.
Zhou Fangdong was very satisfied and took it to the basement.
Upon arriving in the basement, Zhou Fangdong discovered that Yingmei was studying human anatomy—it had cut open its own abdominal cavity and was displaying something on the floor with its intestines.
Upon noticing Zhou Fangdong in the basement, Yingmei instinctively lunged at him, only to trip over her own intestines and fall face-first to the ground.
As Zhou Fangdong watched Yingmei's face collide with the ground, he felt a phantom pain in his own face.
He helplessly helped the guy up, then pointed to the ball of yarn on the human leg and said, "This is your new playmate. Play with it when you're bored, and don't torture yourself."
"If it spews garbage out, beat it up," Zhou Fangdong instructed Yingmei. "Do you know how to do it?"
Shadow nodded happily and delivered a flying kick, sending the ball of yarn flying from one side of the room to the other like a football.
Zhou Fangdong nodded. "Hmm, you can go a little lighter, so you don't touch the corpse in the ice coffin or the corpse workers at work... Alright, go play somewhere else."
After dismissing the Shadow Demon and the Human Leg Yarn Ball, Zhou Fangdong opened his character attribute interface, preparing to upgrade his skills.
"System, upgrade the [Soul Absorption] skill."
[Host, are you sure you want to spend 15 skill points to upgrade the [Soul Absorption] skill?]
"Sure."
[Okay, [Soul Drain] skill successfully upgraded, [Judgment/Decision] skill unlocked]
[Judgment/Decree] (This skill has been upgraded to the highest level)
Skill Description: Quickly review the good and evil deeds of a person's life and make a judgment.
Skill effect: The intimidation buff has been significantly enhanced, now having a deterrent effect on monsters of all levels.
Under the powerful deterrent effect, ghosts that completely submit to you will voluntarily offer a large amount of ghost coins.
The memory access function has been upgraded, allowing selective access to fragments of a ghost's memories before and after death, or the ability to directly block memory fragments. This skill will also work on ghosts without reason.
The absorption function has been upgraded, adding a powerful attack effect that can directly shatter the soul of a ghost, devouring and stripping it of all its ghost coins. This skill can also devour the spiritual projection of an outer god.
After reading the upgraded skill description, Zhou Fangdong nodded in satisfaction.
Indeed, upgrading [Soul Drain] was the right choice.
When reading the memories of ordinary ghosts, you can actively filter out the memory fragments you want to see. When stealing ghost coins from irrational ghosts, you can directly block their chaotic memory fragments.
The [Shadow Soul Pact]'s devouring effect guarantees the inheritance of all the opponent's memories and skills; however, excessive use may have the side effect of causing mental confusion.
The [Judgment/Decision]'s devouring effect can block memories and inherit all of the other party's property.
[Judgment] is definitely more useful. I'll use [Shadow Soul Contract] as a control skill from now on.
Looking at his skills, Zhou Fangdong stroked his chin.
It seems that he hasn't used the ghost servant creation function of this skill since he obtained the [Shadow Soul Contract].
He has always obtained ghost tenants either through a lottery in the back building or by having the system create them for him.
Thinking of this, Zhou Fangdong looked at the ball of yarn leg that he had carried to the basement and felt an urge to experiment with it.
But he was a little worried that if he upgraded this ball of yarn to a ghost tenant as well, it might turn around and bully the Shadow Phantom.
Seeing Yingmei obediently squatting to one side, quietly and earnestly tying bows on those legs with her intestines, Zhou Fangdong finally gave up on the idea of turning the yarn ball spirit into a ghost tenant as well.
One ghost tenant, Shadow, is enough for the basement. Once that ball of yarn becomes a ghost tenant, it certainly won't be as obedient as it is now in playing with Shadow.
Let's talk about creating ghost tenants later when we find a suitable ghost.
After the skill upgrade was completed, it became completely dark.
Just as Zhou Fangdong was about to collect clues about the floor where the key ghost was active, a system notification pop-up suddenly appeared:
[The City God Temple has been successfully built. You can now open the City God page and activate the temple there.]
[Please arrange for human and ghost employees to take up their posts at the City God Temple as soon as possible, select the temple's management and defense modes, and activate its protective effects.]
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Author's Note: Bonus chapter at 9 PM tonight.
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