Chapter 139 A former colleague catches a dog, altered memories, creation...
Looking at the enormous archway in front of him called 'Gate of Hell', Zhou Fangdong tilted his head, somewhat puzzled.
It feels so familiar, like coming home.
Zhou Fangdong looked around, glancing at the sky glowing with a scarlet blood-red light, then at the desolate and scorched earth around him, feeling even more puzzled.
This godforsaken place felt even more welcoming to him than the Liwan Apartments.
Is it because he died once before?
Could this "Gate of Hell" be the same as the Gate of Hell in the underworld? Didn't the owner of the funeral shop in the ghost market say that the underworld was already closed? So what's going on where he is now?
Or perhaps this is a scene randomly generated by an abnormal space, which just happened to resemble the underworld...
Thinking of this, Zhou Fangdong looked back again.
...The collapsed vortex from where we came can no longer be seen.
Luckily, I entered using a Nightmare clone; otherwise, getting out would have been a problem.
Since we can't go back the way we came, let's follow the ghost's advice and find the monster and its minions that are entrenched in this strange space.
That female ghost was like a game NPC. This abnormal space might also be like a game, where defeating the boss will reveal a way out.
Without further hesitation, Zhou Fangdong walked straight into the gates of hell.
Because it wasn't the original body, he acted very boldly, without any intention of observing for a while longer, and went straight into the archway in the middle.
The moment his figure appeared directly beneath the archway, the strange thing happened.
A thick, eerie aura suddenly emanated from beneath the plaque of the Gate of Hell, and at the same time, many dark, ghostly hands emerged.
Those deformed, ghostly hands, like drooping vines, reached out and grabbed at Zhou Fangdong's location.
Zhou Fangdong didn't even try to dodge; he just watched as these ghostly hands pierced through his body—the Nightmare clone not only had no physical form, but also no soul like a ghost; it was a purely illusory state.
The ghostly hands missed their target, but they didn't give up. More ghostly hands drooped down, like a black waterfall cascading down.
However, these ghostly hands did nothing except make the edges of the Nightmare clone's humanoid outline a little unstable.
Zhou Fangdong shook his head helplessly.
It's creative, but not as good as the dismembered ghost sister in apartment 109.
It would be better if the ghost hand were white, so that the extreme color contrast created when it intertwined with the black yin energy would be even more oppressive.
The Yin energy at the Gates of Hell is black, and the ghostly hand is black; together they form a pitch-black mass, utterly devoid of any deterrent power.
Although these ghostly hands posed no threat to the Nightmare clones, they did obstruct their vision.
Zhou Fangdong controlled his Nightmare clone to use the [Judgment - Verdict] skill on these ghostly hands.
Although it only had 10% of the original power, it still devoured most of the demon hand.
Upon seeing this, the other ghost hands froze for a moment, then withdrew even faster than when they came.
Although he solved the Ghost Hand problem, Zhou Fangdong discovered a very serious issue after using his Nightmare Clone skill.
—Using the [Judgment·Decision] Devouring skill with a clone, I was unable to obtain Ghost Coins.
That's such a waste.
However, since the clone cannot transfer Ghost Coins to the main body when using the [Judgment·Decision] skill, does this mean that the side effects of the [Shadow Soul Contract] skill will not affect the main body?
From now on, the Nightmare clone can freely use these two skills—the clone only has 10% effect when using the skill. If the devouring ability of one skill is not enough, then stack the other one, perfect.
After Zhou Fangdong walked into the gates of hell, a village suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the scorched earth in front of him.
The path beneath my feet was no longer a dirt road paved with yellow sand, but a stone-paved road. A dozen or so mud-brick houses suddenly appeared in front of me, all dilapidated with their doors and windows wide open, and not a soul in sight.
As Zhou Fangdong observed the village, pairs of eyes lit up in the darkness at the end of the houses.
Those eyes, glowing red, merged together, like a raging fire.
Immediately afterwards, a strangely shaped vicious dog slowly appeared from the far end of the house.
The vicious dog that emerged from the shadows of the deserted village was over three meters tall, its body composed of countless canine heads. All of these canine heads were alive; the red light Zhou Fangdong had just seen were their eyes.
The dog heads on its body were all growling softly, staring intently at Zhou Fangdong, drool dripping from their mouths, as if they couldn't wait to rush up and kill him.
It seems that this vicious dog must be the monster and its minions that the female ghost was talking about... Hmm, this monster does have quite a few minions.
As the monster slowly approached, Zhou Fangdong's heart rate quickened.
...So handsome, so imposing, I'd like to keep him.
In the West, they have Cerberus, but here... well, countless heads. Raising one is like raising many. They have all sorts of breeds. It's a huge profit!
If you bring this dog to guard the apartment, cultists and evil spirits will definitely not dare to approach the apartment.
In the corridor on the 10th floor of the apartment, because he wanted to capture the dog alive, Zhou Fangdong created more than a dozen Nightmare clones and sent them all into the collapsed area behind the female ghost.
He wanted to try out the [Nightmare Clone] ability, which drags human souls or ghosts into dreams.
Because he was unsure how many clones he would need to succeed, Zhou Fangdong directly created clones to the limit of his abilities. He only stopped creating clones after noticing that his mental value in the upper left corner was dropping faster.
Zhou Fangdong planned to first use logistics to transfer the dog, then use his clone to drag it from the abnormal space into the dream world he controlled, test its abilities, find a way to control it, and then bring it into the real world.
But to his surprise, when he controlled more than a dozen nightmare clones to try to drag the dog into the dream, the dog cracked open the moment the skill took effect.
—The physical cracking caused the body, originally composed of hundreds of vicious dog heads, to collapse like a stack of building blocks, with all the heads falling off and scattering all over the ground with a crackling sound.
Upon seeing this, all the Nightmare clones froze.
A group of dark figures stood around the remains of the vicious dog, heads bowed, as if in mourning or paying homage to its remains.
Zhou Fangdong had considered that the skill might fail. After all, although this abnormal space and the world where his apartment was located were connected by a collapse crack, they were not completely connected, and the skill to drag him into the dream might be ineffective.
Unexpectedly, the skill took effect, but not completely.
This situation is like a person with the ability to pass through walls taking an ordinary person through a wall. The part of the ordinary person's body that was touched by the ability user successfully passes through the wall and arrives at another room, but the rest of his body is left behind, thus creating the effect of dismemberment.
well……
Under Zhou Fangdong's control, the shadowy figures surrounding the remains of the vicious dog suddenly squatted down together, each finding a dog's head with its eyes wide open and closing its eyes.
Zhou Fangdong silently mourned in his heart.
...I'm sorry, doggy, we're not meant to be. I hope you'll be reborn into a good family in your next life.
Shortly after the vicious dog was brutally dismembered, the entire scene suddenly began to shake violently.
Upon seeing this, Zhou Fangdong forgot all about mourning and quickly dismissed the nightmare clones.
As the anomalous space collapsed, the collapsed area behind the female ghost with the key in the apartment corridor also disappeared.
The female ghost also underwent a strange transformation.
Her face was gradually distorting and reforming, eventually transforming into a familiar appearance to Zhou Fangdong.
Zhou Fangdong was stunned when he saw her face.
Like this...
"System, is there a way to remove the face blindness debuff from the [Human Skin Mask]?"
[...]
"system?"
[After treating over 100 patients, Liwan Hospital obtained the recipe for a [Low-Level Curse Removal Potion]. The system shop has automatically added the potion to its listings for 200 Ghost Coins. Purchasing it will remove the face blindness curse.]
The electronic voice of this sentence was very soft, as if the system didn't want Zhou Fangdong to know about this method to eliminate the face blindness debuff, but was forced by the established program and could not disobey the host's command.
Ignoring the system's anomaly, Zhou Fangdong bought the bottle of [Low-Level Curse Removal Potion] and drank it down his throat.
With the negative effects of face blindness gone, Zhou Fangdong finally recognized the female ghost's face.
He never expected that he would actually run into an acquaintance in this haunted building in a parallel world.
—The face that the female ghost has conjured up is that of his former colleague!
To prevent the female ghost from escaping, Zhou Fangdong grabbed her arm: "Why can you conjure up this face?"
The female ghost opened her mouth, but what came out was a dull, emotionless quest settlement line: "Ah, great adventurer, you really succeeded, it's simply a miracle! This is the reward that was promised to you, please be sure to accept it."
[Congratulations, host, you have obtained the key to room 1601 on the 16th floor!]
Zhou Fangdong ignored the key and used his [Heavenly Eye] skill to carefully observe the female ghost's face.
Even the Heavenly Eye couldn't see any flaws; the face seemed to be the original appearance of the female ghost.
Zhou Fangdong frowned.
He was quite certain that the face belonged to his former colleague, a colleague he had a very good relationship with, and someone he had even attended at her wedding.
This colleague lives in Nanjing; he's the one who told him about the "cat ghost stealing the wedding." He not only attended her wedding, but he also helped create all the paper figures for the ceremony…wait, paper figures?
What kind of wedding uses paper figures?
Zhou Fangdong suddenly froze, and his hand unconsciously loosened its grip slightly.
In that brief moment, the expressionless female ghost vanished from the tenth-floor corridor.
Zhou Fangdong stared intently at the spot where the female ghost had disappeared.
At this moment, he finally understood why the suit worn by the ghostly woman on the tenth floor looked familiar.
He ignored the monsters fighting fiercely in the distance and teleported back to his room.
...There's something very important he needs to confirm.
After returning to his room, Zhou Fangdong went to the wardrobe and opened the door.
There was only one piece of clothing in the wardrobe, the blood-stained suit he was wearing when he first transmigrated.
Zhou Fangdong took out his suit, shook off the blood clots and dried brain matter, and examined it carefully.
...He was quite certain that the female ghost guarding the gates of hell on the tenth floor was wearing the same style of suit as his blood-stained suit.
In other words, the female ghost could very well be that colleague herself.
How could this be?
He wasn't with his colleagues when he was hit and killed by a truck while on a business trip, so how did she end up with him?
Zhou Fangdong was so certain because their work uniforms were not ordinary suits, but custom-made.
In his hazy memories of his life, he vaguely recalled that his boss was an uncle who was obsessed with ancient Chinese style.
According to veteran employees, their company's uniforms were initially all custom-made traditional Chinese-style robes.
During Zhou Fangdong's internship, their work uniforms were slightly modified and changed into black Tang suits with Chinese knot buttons, embroidered with auspicious patterns of five bats holding longevity symbols, the Eight Immortals, and swastikas, which made it easier for them to move around.
When he officially joined the company, the boss took the opinions of these new employees into account and decided to align with international standards by having a set of Chinese-style suits made for them.
These custom-made black suits may seem ordinary at first glance, but they are full of details.
The suit fabric is special, with subtle patterns embroidered on the surface using the same color thread. When the sunlight shines on it, the landscape pattern will be visible on the lapel and hem. The suit buttons are also custom-made silver buttons with cloud patterns.
The suits and ties were also embroidered with patterns representing their respective job ranks.
The boss originally wanted to customize a stylish cape for each employee, but after a joint protest from the employees arguing that it would be inconvenient to move around while on business trips and that it was "too eye-catching," he regretfully abandoned the idea.
Zhou Fangdong vaguely guessed what was going on, and his hand unconsciously gripped the brass pendant around his neck.
A photo of him in a suit with the Black and White Impermanence (the Chinese spirits of death)... A solo photo of him with long hair in a high ponytail, wearing a funeral shroud...
The female ghost on the tenth floor of the apartment was wearing a custom-made suit from their company and had a face he recognized… He had attended her wedding, a wedding that required paper effigies…
He gripped the brass pendant tighter and tighter, the metal clasp piercing his palm, blood trickling from the pendant, but he seemed oblivious to the pain, still holding on tightly without any sign of loosening his grip.
—It's not just that he lacks the memories of the period before and after his death; his memories of his life before death have also been altered!
A sudden, intense headache abruptly interrupted Zhou Fangdong's thoughts.
A strange sense of irritation welled up inside him. He didn't know if it was because he had just seen the fragment of the Outer God's memory, but he even had an urge to stick his hand into his head.
[Host's mental state has dropped drastically!! Please replenish your mental state with Ghost Coins as soon as possible!]
[Your mental energy is about to deplete enough to sustain the Nightmare clone. If not replenished in time, the City God statue will disappear, the City God Temple will close, the Realm Temple will close, and areas protected by the City God and Realm Temples will face retribution from ghosts! If a large number of citizens die, the Inspection Bureau will be attacked, turning the Inspection Bureau into a hostile force, significantly reducing its reputation. Tenants associated with the Inspection Bureau may also experience a drop in favorability, or even have their leases terminated. Side quests will fail, main quests will fail, and rewards will be reclaimed.]
[Without replenishing your mental energy, all your efforts these past few days will have been in vain! Host!]
Under the rapid-fire barrage of electronic voices, Zhou Fangdong's frustration vanished instantly, leaving only countless images of "[Reputation Greatly Reduced]," "Mission Failed," "Tenant Moves Out," and "Reward Reclaimed" echoing in his mind...
Startled by the system's direct attack on his pain point, Zhou Fangdong reflexively deposited two thousand ghost coins into his mental energy bar.
...That was a close call! I almost went back to square one overnight.
Zhou Fangdong wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and dared not think about the memory anymore: "System, in the future, when my mental bar is about to run out, just replenish it with ghost coins."
[Host, are you sure you want to authorize the system to automatically deduct Ghost Coins?]
Although Zhou Fangdong's mind was in complete chaos at the moment, he was unusually sensitive to matters concerning his savings: "I only authorize the deduction of Ghost Coins to replenish mental value. Don't even think about touching my Ghost Coins."
[Okay, the system has been enabled to automatically deduct Ghost Coins to replenish Spirit Points.]
[Host, the victor of the arena on the tenth floor corridor has appeared. Aren't you going back to check?]
Oh right, the ghost tenant we're supposed to work on tonight hasn't been done yet.
Zhou Fangdong left the room and took the elevator back to the tenth floor.
The fight is over, and the final victor is obvious: the ghost that took all the offerings from the tenth floor.
Zhou Fangdong casually snatched all the offering incense from the ghost's hand, put it in his inventory, and then used [Shadow Soul Contract] to turn the ghost into a ghost tenant.
The production process went quite smoothly, but the ghost tenant created from the ghost in the corridor was irrational, just like the ghost postman's wife and children.
It seems the only option is to choose the ghost in the room as the ghost tenant... but the easiest way is to go to the back building to look for one.
Zhou Fangdong used the [Shadow Soul Contract] to control the ghost tenant and planned to buy a decoration to decorate the garden later when he went to renovate it.
Just as he was about to take the ghost tenant to the garden, the system notification sounded again:
[Dynamic Event: Night Attack of a Hundred Demons (Countdown: 5 days)]
[Six cleaners have already applied for jobs on the cleaning job page. Please check them promptly.]
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