Chapter 100 The Ghost in Room 401: Its Past Life, The Rules for Choosing Ghosts...
Zhou Fangdong quickly read through the task texts, his expression grave.
With a three-hour countdown, you must find the corpses of five ghosts and bring a living person out of the mirror world.
The world in the mirror is the core area of the Bone Inheritance Society's ritual to revive the evil god... What are those cultists up to this time?
He needs the slime body in the hidden room on the second floor to go to the mirror world. The slime body is essentially an incarnation of an evil god, which ghosts would hate. In this situation, if he wants to carry a ghost with him...
Zhou Fangdong took out the sandalwood memorial tablet with his name on it from his inventory.
Since the system has suggested using this memorial tablet, let's see if the ghost in the room can parasitize it.
Holding the sandalwood memorial tablet, Zhou Fangdong said to the charred corpse ghost in room 301, "You should be able to tell now that you can leave the room, right? Come out, let's go find your daughter together... I know you don't trust me, but you can go and see for yourself."
The charred corpse ghost looked at Zhou Fangdong with suspicion and uncertainty.
What shocked it was this—this young man could manipulate the power of the apartment at will, using it to protect room 301, allowing it to leave freely without worrying about being taken over by other ghosts.
The charred corpse ghost originally thought that this person was just an agent chosen by Liwan Apartment. Although his strength was terrifying and unfathomable, and it did not know whether he was human or ghost, it still had the confidence to refuse his request.
But now, it realizes it may have been simplistic.
Reason, which had been clouded by resentment and obsession, re-emerged. The charred corpse stared fixedly at the young man before it, its mind a jumble of thoughts.
He was definitely not just an agent... He could manipulate the power of the apartment with ease. The ghosts on other floors might not know how terrifying this situation was, but the ghosts in the third-floor room had been forcibly infused with yin energy by the apartment and had all experienced firsthand how powerful and uncontrollable the apartment's power was.
This power is beyond the control of either humans or ghosts—the person in front of you is not an apartment agent at all; he is the embodiment of Liwan Apartments!
With such terrifying power, he could have easily erased its consciousness and controlled it like a puppet, but he chose to speak softly to it instead.
Maybe he really wasn't lying to her...maybe something really happened to their daughter.
With that thought in mind, the charred corpse demon no longer hesitated.
Zhou Fangdong noticed that the flames in the room were gradually weakening. Then, the ghost realm suddenly collapsed, and the charred corpse ghost turned into a cloud of black smoke, merging into the sandalwood tablet in his hand.
Does this mean she agreed to go with him?
Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief and was teleported directly to Room 201.
The sick ghost paced around the room with his hands behind his back, looking melancholy, occasionally letting out a soft cough.
It slowly turned around, just about to change direction and continue pacing, when it bumped right into Zhou Fangdong, who had been teleported into the room.
Zhou Fangdong grabbed the sick ghost and, amidst its terrified expression, stuffed it into the sandalwood memorial tablet in his hand.
The sick ghost has been successfully captured; we still need to capture the long-tongued ghost and the wedding dress ghost, numbering 104.
Zhou Fangdong teleported to the convenience store again, grabbed the long-tongued ghost from the checkout counter and stuffed it into the memorial tablet, then rushed to the end of the shelf, grabbed the wedding dress ghost and stuffed it into the memorial tablet as well.
Beneath the veil of her wedding dress, her red lips were tightly pressed together, and every face on the hem of the dress seemed to be screaming silently.
Although she didn't want to be in the same space as the gossipy ghost, after sensing the increasingly terrifying aura emanating from the landlord, the wedding dress ghost didn't dare to resist and reluctantly crawled into the memorial tablet.
Now only the unknown ghost in room 401 remains.
Zhou Fangdong stuffed the sandalwood memorial tablet into his inventory and quickly ran to the fourth floor.
He needed to act quickly, as he only had three hours. He needed to find the ghost in room 401 as soon as possible and then take it to the Mirror World.
The fourth-floor corridor looked normal enough, but there were many ghostly figures in the corridor, and many well-preserved corpses lay scattered on the ground. A strange smell of disinfectant permeated the air.
This wasn't the clean smell of disinfectant found in hospitals, but rather a strong, pungent, nauseating smell of disinfectant that seemed to have been aged for many years, trying to mask the rotten smell but instead blending into it.
Although it smelled awful, it was still much more tolerable than the hot, bloody smell of the meat and lingzhi on the second floor.
The windows on the fourth-floor corridor were all nailed shut, and most of the ceiling had collapsed. Although the source of light was nowhere to be seen, a blue light shining from somewhere cast an eerie, ghostly blue hue over the entire corridor.
The ghostly figures standing silently in the corridor had no clear faces, only a blurry white blur, like faded old photographs or holographic projections with poor signal. Their outlines swayed slightly in the corridor's eerie blue light, as if they might vanish at any moment.
Zhou Fangdong ignored the faceless ghosts. He stepped over the corpses on the ground, onto the sticky corridor floor, and walked all the way to the door of room 401.
None of the faceless ghosts in the corridor attacked him. They simply turned their bodies slowly in the direction Zhou Fangdong was moving, always keeping their blank, smooth faces facing him.
Zhou Fangdong took out a kerosene lamp and pushed open the door to room 401.
As soon as the door was pushed open, a stronger smell of disinfectant mixed with the stench of fresh blood hit the door.
Along with the pungent smell came the sharp cries of a baby.
Room 401 has no normal room structure. The walls are not walls, but rather inner walls made of bluish-white flesh and blood. The whole room is like the cavity of some internal organ.
Slowly pulsating purple blood vessels coiled on the pale, bloodless flesh, which exuded an aura of death, like twisted vines parasitizing a tree, striving to draw nutrients from the bloodless, pale flesh and deliver them to an unknown entity.
Following the direction of the purple veins, one can see baby faces emerging from the pale flesh that forms the ceiling.
They squeezed the flesh and blood, and the bluish-white flesh and blood, with the baby's movements, expanded like a rapidly inflating balloon, and the skin began to become transparent.
The faces of crying infants strained relentlessly, their foreheads pressing against the fleshy membrane, as if trying to break free of this cage of flesh and blood. The flesh on the ceiling was stretched to an extremely thin layer, appearing a ghastly white as if about to be torn apart, as if countless infants, accompanied by filthy blood and tissue fluid, would fall from the sky at any moment.
However, just as the flesh on the ceiling is about to split open, those baby faces will slowly recede like the tide, only to be replaced by another batch that keeps crashing against the loose flesh.
It goes on and on, endlessly.
Those babies that keep crashing into flesh and blood are like parasites wriggling inside the human body, treating the womb that nurtured them as a playground and playing cruel jokes.
Zhou Fangdong entered the room, but because the cleaning task on the third floor was not yet finished, he did not trigger any side or main quests.
Room 401 must also be a ghost town.
In order to find the ghost in the room as quickly as possible, Zhou Fangdong used a kerosene lamp directly.
The warm yellow light dispelled everything, and the eerie scene in the room began to dissipate rapidly, revealing the true state of the room to Zhou Fangdong.
The room looked like a makeshift clinic converted from a shared apartment, with a row of beds against the wall, each covered in blood.
Opposite these hospital beds was an operating table, without any protective or sterilization facilities. The medical instruments scattered around hadn't even been wiped clean of blood, making it look like a completely bacterial environment.
Next to the operating table was a similarly dirty examination chair for pregnant women.
Zhou Fangdong turned off the kerosene lamp, and the next instant, a ghostly figure with a bulging abdomen slowly appeared in front of the ward.
The ghost was wearing a loose white dress, her abdomen stained with blood, and blood continued to drip from the hem of her dress, quickly pooling on the ground.
It didn't unleash its ghost domain again; it simply held its stomach and stared expressionlessly at Zhou Fangdong, who had suddenly barged in.
The moment the ghost appeared, his body reacted faster than his brain, and Zhou Fangdong subconsciously used [Soul Absorption].
...Seeing a ghost in the room and immediately using [Soul Drain] has become a conditioned reflex.
After stealing a thousand ghost coins, Zhou Fangdong sighed in despair and facepalmed.
What kind of nonsense is this? It was already impolite enough that they suddenly barged in and used a kerosene lamp to dispel the ghost realm, but then they robbed them of their money.
I'll need this ghost's help with the mission later, and if the favorability is too low, it will affect my next actions, so I need to find a way to make up for it.
After using [Soul Absorption], the past life experiences of the ghost in room 401 automatically appeared in Zhou Fangdong's mind.
The pregnant ghost in room 401 was an ordinary college student in her previous life.
Although she passed the exam and escaped the ignorant and feudal mountain village, the chains forged by her parents' love for her birth and upbringing still bound her, preventing her from flying too far.
Her mother always told her that blood is thicker than water, that she was a piece of her own flesh and blood, and that she had to repay the family and take care of her younger brother.
Her father kept telling her how much money they had spent raising her, and how other girls in the village had gone out to work at a young age, but she was still able to continue going to school.
The condition for her to continue attending university was the same as those girls who went out to work: she had to send money home every month, otherwise her parents would cause trouble at her school.
She had witnessed her younger brother being hospitalized, and her parents, feeling the medical fees were unreasonable, throwing a tantrum in the hospital, crying, rolling around, and displaying banners. Her mother even held her on the rooftop, threatening to jump. In the end, the hospital director paid the medical bills out of his own pocket, and only then did the couple settle the matter.
Fearing that they would also come to the school to make a scene and make her lose face in front of all the teachers and students, the girl worked hard during her school years.
She has good grades, but not top-notch ones, so she can't get a scholarship and has to earn money through part-time jobs.
Due to long-term overwork and malnutrition, she finally collapsed. The illness drained all her savings and caused her to lose her part-time job, making it impossible for her to send money home.
In her most desperate and helpless moment, she saw a line of small print on the toilet stall door: "High-paying egg donation, painless and safe, contact information..."
This small advertisement written with a ballpoint pen became her only lifeline.
The girl dialed the number.
On the other end of the phone was a very gentle and kind-hearted auntie. She told her, "Donating eggs helps infertile families and is doing a good deed," and "Donating eggs is just like donating blood; it has no impact on your health." These words gradually made her lower her guard.
What finally made her decide was what that aunt said at the end... she would give her 20,000 yuan for each egg she donated.
Twenty thousand! She couldn't earn that much even after working for seven months. With this money, she won't have to work so hard every month, and she can focus on her studies. Maybe she can even try for a scholarship in the future.
Although the clinic looked somewhat dirty and the long needle for egg retrieval, which was as long as an adult's forearm, looked quite frightening, the fear instilled in her by her parents was even deeper, and she still gritted her teeth and lay down on the cold operating table.
She didn't know why only one egg was retrieved, but the long needle pierced her body several times, until she fainted from the pain.
When she woke up, the doctor said she was in poor health and her eggs were unhealthy, and that he only gave her five thousand yuan.
The girl didn't dare to argue, fearing she wouldn't even get the five thousand in the end.
After that, she suffered from abdominal pain and bloating, fever, and blood in her urine for several days in a row, and her body became weaker than before, so she was unable to even do part-time work.
After barely managing to hold on for a month, the girl had no choice but to contact the aunt again after receiving repeated calls from her parents urging her to send money.
This time, the person introduced her to an even more lucrative job... surrogacy.
The aunt said she could receive a 10,000 yuan deposit in advance, and a 300,000 yuan payment after the baby was born... They would provide room and board, and the only price was to have her pregnant for ten months.
Although she said she would think about it, the aunt still gave her a deposit of 10,000 yuan.
After sending the money home, the girl thought about the reward the aunt had mentioned and felt that even if the reward was less than 300,000, only 100,000 would be worth it.
With this money, she would be free. With this money, she wouldn't have to worry about student loans or not having money to send home.
So the girl agreed, took a leave of absence from school, and moved into the apartment that the aunt had prepared for her... which was also like moving into hell.
She and twelve other pregnant women shared a room with sealed windows, filled with the smells of disinfectant and blood.
Her ID was confiscated, she was imprisoned in this apartment room, and turned into 'Number 23', a container for reproduction.
Pregnancy is an endless torment.
When a woman gets pregnant with her first child, she experiences severe morning sickness and vomits until the third month of pregnancy.
The so-called "nutritional meal" was just stuffing a paste-like substance down her throat like a duck being force-fed. She would vomit every time she tried to vomit, and then they would force-feed her again. In the end, she couldn't even speak anymore.
As the months progressed, her belly swelled up like an inflated balloon, her skin covered with purplish-red lines that looked like countless ugly centipedes crawling all over her belly.
The parasitic fetus turned and kicked inside her, and she could feel her internal organs being squeezed and her ribs feeling like they were about to be crushed.
Her hands and feet were swollen, like soaked buns, making it difficult even to bend her fingers.
No one cared about her health. Nutritious food, mashed into a paste, was simply fed to her regularly to ensure the healthy growth of the "goods" inside her... She felt like she was no longer a human being, but a piece of livestock on a farm.
And this is just the beginning.
After the first child, there was quickly a second, a third... There was no promised reward, no freedom, and she was completely controlled.
The girl was confined to the hospital bed, getting pregnant repeatedly, and her body received no rest... She lost her hair, all her teeth, and her limbs were thin and bony, with only her belly protruding high.
She ultimately lost her life due to severe bleeding during the delivery of her fourth child.
She didn't know how her body was disposed of; it was probably just put into a garbage bag and thrown away like medical waste.
After her death, her soul was trapped in this cell filled with her blood and despair.
She didn't know how much time had passed when she saw a reporter sneak into the small room and expose the dark industry of surrogacy.
The pregnant woman who survived in the room was rescued, room 401 was sealed off, and all those involved in surrogacy were arrested and sentenced... but it wasn't enough; her resentment could not be quelled.
As her resentment grew stronger, when the pregnant ghost discovered that her power could change reality, she captured the agent who had deceived her and everyone involved in the surrogacy industry and brought them all to this small apartment room.
She used yin energy to create ghost infants, stuffing them one by one into their bellies, making them experience the pain they suffered in their previous lives.
The ghost baby tore through their bellies and emerged, watching as they, like her, died from massive bleeding. The pregnant ghost's resentment remained unquenched.
So it trapped their souls in its own ghost realm, making them endure the pain of pregnancy and childbirth day after day...
Until one day, someone appeared in room 401, breaking the cycle.
The pregnant ghost stared expressionlessly at Zhou Fangdong, who was carrying a kerosene lamp.
Zhou Fangdong snapped out of his reverie, recovering from the fragments of the pregnant ghost's memory.
The pregnant ghost's body must have been taken away by the Bone Heirs Society... After reading these memory fragments, he roughly guessed the pattern of how they selected ghosts this time.
If each ghost in the "Searching for a Body" quest is related to the Bone Society, then based on the past lives of these five ghosts, the pattern the Bone Society chooses for ghost corpses is probably: birth, old age, sickness, death, separation from loved ones, encountering those one hates, and not getting what one desires.
The pregnant ghost in room 401 represents 'life', the charred corpse ghost in room 301 represents 'death', and the sick ghost in room 201 represents 'illness'.
The long-tongued ghost and the wedding dress ghost in room 104 are "those who resent and are forced to meet" and "those who cannot get what they want".
The only living person, Lu Mingbian, is 'Love and Separation'.
...Separation from loved ones is not limited to lovers, but also includes separation from close relatives and friends, the pain of not knowing whether the other person is alive or dead, and the anxiety of gain and loss.
There is only one 'old', and it is unknown whose corpse the heir will choose.
Zhou Fangdong sighed.
However, now was not the time to ponder what those guys from the Bone Inheritance Society were thinking. Seeing the pregnant ghost's increasingly gloomy expression, Zhou Fangdong decisively took out three sticks of incense for offering.
The pregnant ghost was stunned. She looked at the offering incense, then at Zhou Fangdong, frowned, and her eyes were extremely complicated, as if she couldn't understand what he was doing.
If a robber suddenly breaks into your rented room, messes up the room, kicks you awake, and then rudely opens your wallet but doesn't take all the money, only a few coins… you might think he's a local thug collecting protection money, trying to intimidate you. But then, unexpectedly, the robber turns around and pulls out an even more expensive medicinal meal for you, far exceeding the value of the small change he stole—what's he up to?
Then you discover that this strange guy is actually the landlord of the house you rented...
It's even stranger now.
The pregnant ghost felt that perhaps it had been dead for too long and was unable to understand the thought processes of the living.
Seeing that the pregnant ghost was staring at him without any reaction, Zhou Fangdong directly stuffed the incense sticks into its hand and said quickly, "After you accept the incense sticks, we'll be friends, right? We should get along well... I want to ask for your help. I need to find your body. Can you come with me?" With that, he took out a sandalwood memorial tablet.
The pregnant ghost sensed the presence of the other ghosts on the memorial tablets and then looked at the room that had been temporarily taken over by the apartment's power.
Unable to win in a fight, unable to escape, and even forced to accept benefits... The pregnant ghost silently accepted the offering of incense, turning into a cloud of blood mist, which also merged into the sandalwood memorial tablet.
Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief.
Offering incense is still the best option.
All the ghosts are here; now we can go to the Mirror World.
Zhou Fangdong teleported directly to the hidden room on the second floor, stuffed the sandalwood memorial tablet into the slime's body, and then used this body to teleport directly to the slime street in the mirror.
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Author's Note: Bonus chapter at 9 PM tonight.
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