Chapter 160: Changes in Memorial Tablets in the City of the Wrongfully Dead, Construction of a Blacksmith Shop, Achievement Reward...
Zhou Fangdong frowned and quickly flipped through the yellowed old photos.
In most of the photos, he is in a baby state.
Each photo has a date it was taken and a message of blessing written on the back.
From black and white photos of the Republican era to grainy color photos of the 1980s, all the photos taken during this period were of infants. Only a few photos taken after the 1990s showed images of children.
The oldest black and white baby photo has the following written on the back:
My third brother was fortunate to have a son, a blessing to the whole village.
This photo is taken with the sole intention of wishing my nephew good health, freedom from illness and misfortune, and the cultivation of both wisdom and blessings. May he shine brightly like the rising sun.
Your humble brother respectfully inscribes this after washing his hands.
Mid-spring of the xxth year of the Republic of China
The baby in the photo is lying in a small coffin. Judging from the small red mole on his chin and the shape of his eyes, the baby in the coffin is him.
The subsequent photos all showed babies in identical coffins, their faces unchanged, only the dates and names changed.
The person who wrote the inscription and took the photo referred to himself as "my foolish brother" instead of "my nephew," "my grand-nephew," and "my great-grand-nephew."
They also changed their address for the baby in the photo from 'the son of the third brother' to 'uncle', 'great-uncle', and 'great-great-uncle'.
In the earlier photos, the babies are lying in the coffin with their eyes closed. As the photos are taken later, the babies' eyes are opened wider and wider, until finally they are fully open.
When the photos were taken by the 'great-nephew', the person in the photos finally looked like a child. However, the child was still sitting in the coffin, with cold and empty eyes, lacking any childlike vitality, and instead exuding an inhuman eeriness.
The size of the coffin kept pace with the child's changing size, always remaining just right.
The last picture, taken around 2000, shows a child who appears to be about ten years old finally leaving the coffin and standing on the ground. Apart from being shorter and smaller than other children his age, he looks no different from a living person.
Zhou Fangdong silently organized the photos and let out a heavy sigh.
...His growth cycle is so long, I'm so grateful to his family for always being there for him.
I wonder if anyone from the Zhou family is still alive, and how they are doing now.
Among Zhou Fangdong's existing memories, the most vivid childhood memory is of a relative who took him to play with excrement. He doesn't know who this person is or whether he is still alive.
While flipping through the photos, Zhou Fangdong noticed that his nephew's name was Zhou Zhufang, which was only one character different from the name of the ghost tenant paper craftsman, Zhou Zhuzhai.
From this perspective, the paper craftsman is indeed related to him, and should be a member of the Zhou family from his nephew's generation... Because he has always remained in the state of a baby, the paper craftsman does not recognize him and does not know their relationship.
In that case, the paper shop wasn't stolen by him—it's perfectly reasonable for the younger generation to voluntarily show respect to their elders, and for the elders to help the younger generation manage the shop.
Zhou Fangdong stroked his chin, his thoughts drifting further from this incident.
Both the paper craftsman and he could make paper figures. Although the paper craftsman's aesthetic sense was not as good as his and he was not innovative, he could still be said to be skilled... In this light, it is very likely that the family he was born into has been in the funeral industry from the past to the present.
The funeral industry is closely linked to the underworld, which explains why he was able to find a part-time job as a wandering spirit in the past.
Just then, Zhou Fangdong noticed that the sandalwood memorial tablet in his hand began to vibrate again.
Looking down, he saw that his childhood photos were slowly blending into the memorial tablet.
The original sandalwood memorial tablet only contained his name and did not include his birth and death dates.
Now, someone born in xx year of the Republic of China and died in... has appeared.
The date of death remains unclear, as if it were covered with a mosaic.
As soon as the new writing appeared on the memorial tablet, the system's voice rang out:
[Detected... Sorry, system detection error, please continue.]
Zhou Fangdong looked at the blurry date.
...The system malfunction was probably due to incomplete writing on the memorial tablet.
Once these inscriptions are completed, the sandalwood memorial tablet should gain new functions.
Apart from the coffin, nothing else in the shop could catch his attention.
Zhou Fangdong closed the coffin lid again and left the coffin shop.
Because the funeral clothing shop was not far from the coffin shop, he went straight to the funeral clothing shop after leaving the house.
Not long ago, he had many cult members deliver goods to his door; it's time to go and collect payment.
As soon as Zhou Fangdong arrived at the entrance of the funeral clothing shop, the tall old lady greeted him with a smile.
The funeral shop owner handed him a small cloth bag, the same kind of bag Hou San used to pack furniture. "Thanks to those cultists sent over from the apartment, our shop can make a lot more durable clothes. Here's the payment; please check it."
Zhou Fangdong took it.
As soon as he opened the drawstring of the cloth bag, a wisp of black smoke floated out and merged into his body.
[Congratulations, host, you have received 30,000 Ghost Coins]
Zhou Fangdong remembered that there were only about ninety cultists who came to the ghost market at his behest. The owner of the funeral shop was a nice guy and helped him round it up.
The ghost market auction was right behind the funeral clothes shop, but Zhou Fangdong forgot to bring his negative and supernatural props with him this time.
Those negative supernatural items probably wouldn't sell for much money, and he was too lazy to keep teleporting back and forth. He'd deal with it later... Once the ghost tenants with blacksmithing skills were trained, he would definitely come to the ghost market again.
The funeral clothing shop was located at the end of the Ghost Market Street. Zhou Fangdong took out the blacksmith's deed from his inventory and used it next to the funeral clothing shop.
The land deed instantly turned to ashes, and as the ashes fell to the ground, a wall of fire rose up. The scorching flames dispelled the black mist at the end of the ghost market, and the bluestone brick floor extended outwards in the firelight, the outline of a building slowly appearing in the flames.
Black, lava-like stones surged from the ground, piling up to form the building's exterior walls. Layers of black tiles, glowing with fire, were stacked up, and as the last embers of fire that enveloped the building's outline died down, a blacksmith's shop appeared on the open ground.
It is about two stories high, and there is an iron sign hanging above the door with three big characters written on it: Blacksmith Shop.
Unlike the wooden doors commonly found in other ghost market shops, the blacksmith's shop's doors were cast from a single piece of black iron, with both doors covered in protruding rivets. In the center of the doors were two symmetrical relief ghost faces, one with its eyes open and the other with its eyes closed, each holding a door knocker in its mouth.
The narrow windows on both sides of the door were not fitted with glass; they were just two rows of openings through which one could vaguely see the roaring fire inside the house.
The moment the blacksmith shop was completed, it caused quite a stir in the ghost market.
In the ghost market, all the people and ghosts in the shops were secretly watching the direction of the blacksmith shop, some hiding behind doors, others behind windows, all with the same fear in their eyes.
Zhou Fangdong grabbed the door knocker and tried to open the door, but received a system notification:
The blacksmith shop is currently closed and cannot be opened. It can only officially open when a ghost tenant with blacksmithing skills is placed there.
Zhou Fangdong released his grip and sighed with some regret.
He had initially thought that since he was so talented at making paper figures, he might also be talented at blacksmithing. He figured he could be self-reliant if there was any demand for blacksmithing in the future, and wouldn't need to bother cultivating ghost tenants anymore.
Unexpectedly, the system blocked this path directly.
After wandering around the ghost market for so long, it's almost dark. Since we can't go into the blacksmith shop, we might as well just go back to the apartment.
Zhou Fangdong teleported back to his room.
He first checked the new tenant profile rewards.
The twin brothers, Da Song and Xiao Song, have moved into room 307. They are both low-level tenants, and the reward for their illustrations is a total of 60 Ghost Coins.
The new tenant in room 401 is Bai Mingdan, who is an intermediate tenant. Zhou Fangdong originally thought that his reward for his entry would be the same as other intermediate tenants, 300 Ghost Coins, but he did not expect that his entry would give him an item.
[Strange Item - Reputation Crystal]
Item Description: A one-time use item, formed from the trust ordinary citizens have in investigative journalists. Crushing it will grant Liwan Apartments 300 reputation points.
Gaining 300 reputation points directly is roughly equivalent to a day's incense offerings at the City God Temple... This tenant is so thoughtful; reputation is exactly what he needs right now.
Moreover, this investigative journalist can generate press releases that boost his reputation, which is incredibly useful.
Zhou Fangdong did not use the item immediately, but simply took out the [Reputation Crystal] and put it into his inventory.
This item should be kept for emergencies. Having this [Reputation Crystal] provides a safety net. If you encounter a situation where you urgently need reputation when using [Sandalwood Rosary], you won't panic.
In addition to these tenant profile rewards, Zhou Fangdong also received an achievement reward after unlocking five low-level tenants: [Helping the Weak].
This achievement rewards a passive buff that only applies to apartment tenants: [Unity is Strength].
Buff Effect: When two or more low-level tenants are together, [Unity is Strength] will be automatically triggered if danger arises. This buff will randomly select a special tenant or ghost tenant and send it to the side of these low-level tenants.
This is a very reassuring buff; the safety of ordinary tenants in the apartment will be better guaranteed in the future.
After closing the achievements interface, Zhou Fangdong opened the lamp oil worker creation interface and used Nightmare Clone and health bar to create a repair worker.
He assigned the repairman to the sixth floor, instructing him to repair the collapsed cracks on the sixth floor that night.
He wore the title of "[Disaster Reconstruction Worker]", which would speed up the workers' repair of the collapsed areas of the building. He should be able to repair more than half of the collapsed cracks on the sixth floor that night.
Zhou Fangdong originally wanted to hire more repair workers to work together to repair the sixth floor, so that the repairs could be completed in one night.
However, I received a system notification:
[Currently, the intelligence of the restoration workers is relatively low. During the restoration process, if two workers' work areas overlap and both want to restore the same collapsed area, they will be stuck in place, and the restoration work will be forced to stop.]
"Exploiting bugs is really something..." Seeing this, Zhou Fangdong had no choice but to abandon his idea of having more repair workers.
After checking the system time, Zhou Fangdong found that it was already dusk, so he teleported directly to the second floor and obtained the note indicating the floor where the key ghost appeared, under the device at the end of the corridor in the tenant's room.
He then continued in the same manner, collecting notes related to the location of the key ghosts below the devices on the third, fourth, and fifth floors.
The notes on the second and third floors indicate that the ghost appears on the 7th floor, while the notes on the fourth and fifth floors indicate that it appears on the 11th floor.
After dark, Zhou Fangdong, as usual, started searching from the higher floors.
After taking the elevator to the 11th floor, Zhou Fangdong discovered that the key to this floor was not a projection of a ghost messenger.
Upon seeing this key ghost, he realized that ordinary key ghosts were different from the ghost projections that held keys.
Although the ghost projections communicate with each other in a very human-machine manner, they look like ordinary humans and appear much calmer than the irrational vengeful ghosts on the upper floors.
The ordinary ghost that ate the door key is no different from the other ghosts on the floor.
If it weren't for the fact that the landlord's keys on Zhou Fangdong's body would have a magnetic attraction when he got close to them, he would have wasted time checking them one by one.
After discovering the key ghost on the 11th floor, Zhou Fangdong used [Judgment·Decision] to devour the ghost, successfully obtaining 3,000 ghost coins and the key to room 1602.
After beating up and intimidating the other ghosts on the 11th floor to make them behave, Zhou Fangdong took the elevator to the 7th floor.
The key ghost on the 7th floor is a projection of a ghost messenger. Just like the colleague he saw on the 10th floor, this one on the 7th floor is also wearing a familiar black suit. However, instead of wearing an ancient-style robe, he is wearing an extravagant embroidered cloak.
Noticing Zhou Fangdong's appearance, the ghost messenger mechanically said, "Hero with the village's sword, please wait. You carry the hopes of our entire village. May I trouble you for a moment?"
Zhou Fangdong felt somewhat helpless.
I have no idea which idiot came up with the lines for the ghost messenger projection; it's so out of place for an RPG adventure game to appear in a management game.
Regardless of whether Zhou Fangdong responded, the projected ghost continued to read emotionlessly: "Our village is facing a huge crisis. Do you see the collapsing vortex behind me? This collapsed area is connected to an abnormal space."
“Great hero, I implore you to go to this space and destroy the monster and its minions that dwell there. Afterwards, I will give you a [key] as a reward for your service.”
Zhou Fangdong nodded and skillfully created more than a dozen Nightmare clones, controlling them to enter the collapsing vortex behind the ghost messenger's projection.
By focusing his consciousness on one of his clones, Zhou Fangdong discovered that this time he had not traveled the Yellow Springs Road or passed through the Gates of Hell. After the Nightmare clones passed through the vortex, they appeared directly in front of an ancient city.
The overwhelming black fog darkened the crimson sky above. Occasionally, distorted faces would emerge from the swirling fog. These illusory faces had hollow eye sockets and their mouths were torn to their maximum width, emitting silent wails.
The charred city ahead, its walls cracked and mottled, seemed to have been burned by karmic fire countless times. White banners hanging from the upper walls fluttered slowly in the mist.
Two twisted human-shaped stone statues stood on either side of the city gate. They were dressed in ordinary funeral clothes, with shackles around their necks, and both of them were crying with their faces covered.
The city gate was fully open, with three large red characters carved above it: "City of the Wrongfully Dead".
Zhou Fangdong looked into the city through the open city gate.
Although it is called the City of the Wrongfully Dead, there is not a single vengeful spirit in the city who died unjustly.
I don't know what kind of pollution they're cleaning up this time.
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