Chapter 171 Learning from the Barbarians' Strengths to Control Them, Authority Enhanced, Large-scale... in Linjiang City
Zhou Fangdong only realized there was blood on the floor of his room after he stood up.
Looking at the ten bloody marks, he subconsciously glanced at his hands... Although there was blood on his fingers, the wounds were not obvious and were healing at an extremely fast speed.
Because he has no sense of pain, he didn't even realize his finger was injured until he saw the blood on the ground.
Zhou Fangdong went to the bathroom to wash the blood off his hands.
As the cold water washed over my hands, the drowsiness in my brain subsided considerably.
...The body repair progress is 99%, just a little bit more.
Once his body has fully recovered, can he leave the apartment?
However, only three floors of the apartment have been rented out so far, and only one room on the fourth floor has been rented out, which is less than half of the apartment's rooms.
Zhou Fangdong remembered that when he first bound himself to the system, the system said that he could only truly be resurrected and leave the apartment if he rented out all the rooms in the apartment.
I don't know if a complete body repair would count as true resurrection.
Hopefully the system won't be too unfair. If it requires collecting 100 gold coins or 100 diamonds to reach the remaining 1% of body repair progress, that would be too much of a cheat.
After washing the blood off his hands, Zhou Fangdong intended to open the system page and be transported to the Delicious Slaughterhouse.
But then, he suddenly realized that something seemed wrong.
—Teleportation to facilities around the apartment no longer requires the system.
Previously, to go to Izumo-kan or other facilities around the apartment, he needed to first bring up the apartment facilities interface in the system, and then click on the facility icon to teleport there.
To go to other floors of the apartment, you also need to first bring up the apartment floor plan in the system interface, and then click "Go".
Now, whether he wants to teleport to a tenant's room, another floor of the apartment, or to facilities around the apartment, he no longer needs the system as a medium to do whatever he wants.
It felt as if the Liwan Apartments had become a complete part of him, and that moving within the apartment complex was as easy as walking on foot.
Using skills no longer requires opening the attribute panel and clicking on the skill. Checking one's mental state is also no longer necessary; he can now sense how much mental state remains at any time.
There's also the renovation.
Now, he only needs to glance at the wall to know what color it can be changed to and how many ghost coins it will cost, without needing to open the system decoration interface and search inside anymore.
Moreover, his control over the ghosts in the apartment is now much stronger than before.
Just by standing in his own room, Zhou Fangdong could sense that he could completely suppress the ghosts in the apartment corridor.
Moreover, he can now forcibly change the rules of the room—his authority is above the conditions for ghosts to kill, and the rules he sets must also be followed by the ghosts in the room.
...In this situation, there's no need to even write rules for renting rooms; just issue an order prohibiting ghosts from attacking tenants.
This privilege upgrade is ridiculous; it's as if from now on, he has truly become the owner of the Liwan Apartments.
He now relies on the system much less; most of the system permissions have been transferred to him. The system seems to only serve a function of summarizing and collecting information, making it convenient for him to view task information and achievements.
Zhou Fangdong suddenly panicked and called out in his mind, "System, are you still there?"
[Yes, what are your orders, host?]
Hearing the system's familiar electronic voice, Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief.
He was terrified; he had thought the system was gone.
Having spent so much time together, even though the system was sometimes a bit of a swindler and he often cursed it in his heart, Zhou Fangdong would feel very uncomfortable if it suddenly disappeared.
Having struggled his way to where he is now, only the system has been by his side all along. In a sense, the two are comrades-in-arms.
After getting used to his newfound privileges, Zhou Fangdong was teleported to the Delicious Slaughterhouse.
His teleportation point happened to be the entrance of a factory. Upon seeing him, the security guards patrolling around the factory immediately picked up their walkie-talkies, called for the factory manager, and fled frantically.
The factory manager, carrying a chainsaw and with bloodshot eyes, appeared in front of Zhou Fangdong almost instantly.
When the factory manager saw who this 'ghost' that had appeared in the factory was, his eyes immediately cleared.
He rubbed his hands awkwardly, and to avoid making Zhou Fangdong look up at him, he bent his towering body deeply, and said in a somewhat ingratiating tone, "Why did you come in person? You can just tell me what you need."
The muffled voice coming from behind the mask sounded almost obsequious. It felt like a tenant who hadn't paid rent in a long time suddenly seeing a landlord at the door, begging for more time to scrape together the money to pay the rent.
Zhou Fangdong didn't stand on ceremony and went straight to the point: "I'd like to add a statue production line to the factory. Do you think that's convenient for you?"
"Convenient, that's so convenient! You don't need to ask me about such a small thing!" With that, he waved his hand and said, "Landlord, whichever factory you like, just renovate it."
...It went surprisingly smoothly, without even the need for the military suppression the system had mentioned. I had thought the manager of the Delicious Slaughterhouse would be a troublemaker, but he turned out to be surprisingly easy to talk to.
Zhou Fangdong couldn't help but take another look at the factory director.
Noticing Zhou Fangdong's gaze, the factory manager quickly bent down and continued to bow and scrape.
Seeing this, Zhou Fangdong didn't say anything more and directly used the factory production line blueprints.
The delicious slaughterhouse occupies a large area, and there is an open space not far away.
The moment the drawing was used, a glimmer of light appeared above the open space, quickly outlining a rectangular silhouette.
The moment the phantom fully materialized, countless building materials appeared out of thin air, rapidly constructing a steel framework based on the rectangular phantom outline, and filling it with bricks and flesh.
In just a few seconds, a brand-new factory building rose from the ground and stood firmly on that open space.
The moment it was completed, the stark white lights inside the factory came on one by one. Through the windows, you could see workers in uniform standing like statues beside the unstarted production line, waiting for the order to start work... They looked like frozen corpses, some with frost still clinging to their faces.
The factory manager recognized those corpses of workers; they were the goods that had been hanging in the freezer before they could be slaughtered.
Looking at his meat shipment, now half gone, the towering, burly factory manager bent over again. He dared not say anything, and even took the initiative to ask Zhou Fangdong if he needed any workers, as the remaining half of the shipment was ready to be put to work at any time.
Zhou Fangdong waved his hand, "It's alright, it's enough. Tomorrow I'll be sending over another tenant to take over this statue production line, so please take good care of them."
Hearing this, the factory manager suddenly remembered something, his eye twitched, and his voice became somewhat distorted: "That tenant...could it be named Miao Zheng?"
Zhou Fangdong glanced at the factory manager with some curiosity, wondering why he had suddenly brought up Miao Zheng.
"It's not Miao Zheng, it's another male... male tenant."
Upon hearing that it wasn't Miao Zheng, the factory manager breathed a sigh of relief: "Okay, that's good. I will definitely take good care of him."
After completing the production line, Zhou Fangdong returned to his apartment to deal with the unsealing devices for the evil spirits that the Supervision Bureau couldn't handle.
These unsealing devices are all very complex talismans, because the activation time is approaching, and if not handled properly, the evil spirits inside could easily be unsealed.
Professional matters should be handled by professionals, and this is where the Taoist priests of Chuyun Temple come in.
Yesterday's back building dungeon sweep has ended, and there are currently 6 Ghost Tenant Taoist priests available.
Zhou Fangdong first checked the rewards from yesterday's sweep of the back building.
The reward on the 3rd floor is similar to that on the 2nd floor, also more than 30,000 ghost coins. After deducting the labor fee for those Taoist priests, you get exactly 30,000.
In addition, a ghost tenant and an item were awarded as a reward.
Upon seeing the prop, Zhou Fangdong was stunned—the reward was actually a laptop computer.
The computer model is somewhat outdated, at least ten years old, but it's very well preserved.
Zhou Fangdong returned to his room and plugged the computer in.
...It can boot up normally, and there are even many games already installed on it.
Although the computer was offline, those games were all single-player games and could be played normally.
The system's electronic voice suddenly sounded:
[Host can play a game to relax a bit.]
Previously, the system was very strict, refusing to even put a single-player game on his phone, and would only create a beating simulator for tenants to play roles and fool him.
They're being so generous now...
Although he had been looking forward to playing games for a long time, Zhou Fangdong's attention was not on the games at the moment, but on the desktop wallpaper.
The wallpaper is a group photo of three people: a spirited young man with colorful hair, a serious old man with gray hair, and him as a child.
The three of them stood in a courtyard. The old man was holding him, and the energetic young man stood behind them with his arms crossed, looking nonchalant and quite unhappy.
Zhou Fangdong noticed that the young man's arm, which was crossed over his shoulders, only revealed his middle finger.
...It seems this young man was very reluctant to take a photo, so he used this method to subtly express his dissatisfaction.
Zhou Fangdong opened his computer's photo album and started searching through it.
There are many photos in the computer's photo album, and the main subject of the photos is him when he was a child.
The earliest photos were all taken with a camera, and he was always wearing black clothes with his long hair neatly combed.
The photos show him reciting his homework, practicing calligraphy, making paper offerings, and more... mostly of him studying.
The later photos became more unrestrained and looked like they were taken with a mobile phone.
The photos have changed from solo shots to couple photos, with the other person in the picture being that energetic young man.
There are photos of him being chased by several geese, running and crying in a sorry state. There are photos of him with his face blackened by firecrackers, while that energetic young man hugs him and laughs heartily. There are ugly photos of him with his hair tied into five pigtails and two red cheeks drawn on his face. There are also photos of him falling off the dance machine at the arcade, climbing over the wall and being too scared to jump down... Basically, it's all about his embarrassing moments, while that energetic young man gloats on the sidelines. It's a whole collection of his embarrassing history.
As I flipped through the photos, those fragments of memory in my mind gradually found their corresponding people.
I have a feeling of nostalgia.
In these photos, the energetic young man's hair is red, blue, and green, but it has never been black.
The old man's rigid rules and the young man's overly trendy aesthetics had a profound impact on Zhou Fangdong. He suspected that he might have been too repressed as a child, rebelled with the young man for a while, and then was dragged back by the old man. After that, he always had to wear a uniform when he went to work—because he couldn't express his own aesthetic sense, his yearning for freedom was never satisfied. This is probably what it means to be "trapped for life by what one cannot obtain in youth".
Thinking about this, Zhou Fangdong felt a renewed urge to renovate his apartment.
However, after glancing at his ghost coin balance, he calmed down again.
Before closing his laptop, Zhou Fangdong remembered that the sandalwood memorial tablet had changed when he saw the photo at the coffin shop in the ghost market last time, so he took it out.
The sandalwood memorial tablet began to tremble slightly as soon as it appeared in my hand.
As the memorial tablet shook, the photos on the computer disappeared at an extremely fast speed, and the nostalgic feelings in Zhou Fangdong's heart also dissipated rapidly.
With the photos cleared, his death date was revealed below his name on the sandalwood memorial tablet, in addition to his birth date—21st year.
Except for the year, the date of his death was exactly the same as his birth date.
[The sandalwood memorial tablet has been detected and the permission to switch apartment status has been enabled.]
[Holding a sandalwood memorial tablet, you can ignore external time and freely switch the apartment's interior to day or night. Note: Some floors are particularly active at night; please activate with caution.]
The collapsed areas inside the apartment building are only visible at night. With this feature, collapsed areas on higher floors can be repaired even during the day.
The collapsed area on the sixth floor last night has been repaired... Thinking of this, Zhou Fangdong teleported to the hidden room on the second floor.
After killing a mature little slime, Zhou Fangdong used the Evil God Core to install the renovation and protection device on the sixth floor.
Now he can add facilities to the apartment without going through the system; he can do it himself.
The installation required a countdown, so Zhou Fangdong continued with what he hadn't finished earlier.
After checking the loot from the raid, Zhou Fangdong sensed that the Taoist priests were not in the back building; they were all at Chuyun Temple.
He just upgraded Zombie Taoist Priest Zhang Zhiwu to a Realm Lord God; they must have gone to visit their master.
But that's perfect, I'll need to ask them to deal with those unsealed evil spirits near Chuyun Temple later.
Zhou Fangdong opened the City God's page and brought up the Chuyun Temple, which had been transformed into a temple for the deceased.
Even though the interface is pixelated, you can see that the small Taoist temple has changed a lot.
Previously, Chuyun Temple was just a small, square courtyard with only one main hall that could barely accommodate more than thirty people.
The current Chuyun Temple occupies an entire hilltop, complete with a main gate, side halls, and other halls, making it look magnificent. The original small courtyard has been transformed into a rest area, located at the very back of the entire temple.
Zhou Fangdong directly notified Zhang Zhiwu through the City God's website, instructing him to arrange for his apprentices to deal with the timed unsealing devices.
After finishing these trivial matters, Zhou Fangdong teleported to the hidden room on the third floor.
The training for the two Taoist priests was about to end, and he prepared to offer three sticks of incense and pray, hoping to unlock the blacksmithing skill.
Whether he has blacksmithing skills is crucial to whether his blacksmith shop in the ghost market can open successfully.
The lamp oil curing device can only be manufactured after the blacksmith unlocks it, and the [lamp oil hand cream] produced by the lamp oil curing device allows tenants to actively invade the God's space and seize the God's source power.
The main god is too cunning; his true form never appears. This is currently the only way he can contact the main god's true form.
While waiting for the countdown to end, Zhou Fangdong received an urgent call from the director of the supervisory bureau.
After reading the message, his expression became extremely serious.
Ever since the Xiahe Village incident, he's been worried about one thing. Now, his worries have become a reality—the main god no longer releases supernatural dungeons, but instead directly releases players with high destructive power.
This morning, the main god deployed many players in the city center.
These ruthless players with supernatural abilities turned Linjiang City into a massive dungeon, and began slaughtering its citizens.
Thanks to the timely discovery by the inspectors patrolling the area, although many citizens were injured and on the verge of death, they were all promptly sent to Liwan Hospital for treatment, and there have been no deaths so far.
During the investigation by the Bureau of Supervision, these serial killers went into hiding.
They are human beings, with no obvious supernatural fluctuations around them. In addition, they have the ability to change their appearance. Finding these players in a megacity with millions of people is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Helpless, the director of the supervisory bureau could only contact Zhou Fangdong, hoping he could help find these players as soon as possible.
These players are even more destructive than ghosts. If they are allowed to roam the city, ordinary citizens will suffer heavy casualties—after all, houses in the city can protect against ghosts, but not against humans.
Zhou Fangdong's blood pressure was a bit high because of the God's actions... If you can't have it, destroy it. The God's actions are just as disgusting as those of the evil gods.
It seems that he ruined three instances last night, which greatly angered the main god.
Zhou Fangdong sighed, first sending a message to Xiong Lei, telling him not to go to work at the nursing home today and to stay obediently in the apartment. Then he closed his eyes and began to sift through the apartment for suitable vengeful spirits.
Previously, Zhou Fangdong could only use tenants as a medium to corrupt the main god's copy with the vengeful spirits in the rooms.
As his authority increased, so did his control over the ghosts in the apartment. He could directly manipulate the ghosts in the room and release their ghost domains into the real world... He also had complete control over the conditions for killing within the ghost domains.
Simply put, each ghost's ghost realm is like a supernatural instance.
What Zhou Fangdong wanted to do was to let those players truly experience what a series of supernatural dungeons are like, and what true despair is.
The vengeful spirits in the apartment rooms can all generate ghost domains, and these ghost domains can cover the entire Linjiang City, which is enough.
After selecting a suitable ghost, Zhou Fangdong snapped his fingers.
The sound wasn't loud, but it was like an invisible command, instantly shattering the world's original balance.
The black fog that enveloped the apartment building paused for a moment, then began to spread outwards.
Unlike ordinary fog that spreads slowly, this thick, inky fog spread rapidly in all directions with a crushing force, like a giant black carpet laid directly over the entire city.
The sky darkened at a visible speed, the light was completely swallowed up, and in just a few breaths, daylight turned into eternal night, and the entire city was plunged into darkness.
As darkness descended, countless ghostly realms of varying sizes and shapes simultaneously emerged in every corner of the city, like slowly rising bubbles. They intertwined yet remained independent, forming a vast network that covered the entire Linjiang City.
These ghost realms have only one condition for killing—kill all humans who do not belong to this world.
At this moment, Linjiang City has truly become a large-scale, interconnected supernatural instance.
Zhou Fangdong leaned against the table, toying with a small iron hammer in his hand, and all the scenes of the ghost realm in the city floated into his mind.
...You like killing, right? You like clearing dungeons, right? Then come and clear them to your heart's content.
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