Chapter 16: The Past Lives of 102 Successfully Portrayed Ghosts...
After returning to his room, Zhou Fangdong checked the newly unlocked favorability interface.
His current favorability profile only shows the names of two human tenants: Zhao Dawei and Miao Zheng.
Zhao Dawei's favorability rating is 60, and Miao Zheng's is 80.
The system's favorability rating system is as follows:
0-20 (Unfamiliar - Indifferent)
21-40 (I vaguely remember them - we got along well)
41-60 (Respect, Appreciation, and Trustworthiness)
61-80 (Open and Honest Communication - Absolute Trust)
81-100 (Unconditional obedience - blind worship)
Miao Zheng just moved into the apartment today, and the two of them have only known each other for half a day. However, Miao Zheng's favorability towards him has soared to 80, and all he did for this tenant was to set up broadband.
Recalling Miao Zheng's jubilant appearance, Zhou Fangdong looked sympathetic.
Just by getting broadband, this tenant has reached a level of absolute trust and goodwill... What kind of miserable life did this tenant have in the past? They're far too easily satisfied.
You will receive a reward once your favorability reaches 80. Miao Zheng's name is currently highlighted.
Zhou Fangdong clicked on the name to preview the favorability reward.
Miao Zheng's reward to him was: a 1-month free broadband coupon, a 30-ghost-coin mobile data package coupon, a basic first-aid kit, and a 20-yuan discount coupon for food delivery orders over 30 yuan.
Broadband and data vouchers can be carried over to the next month.
The basic first-aid kit is useless to him. His current body doesn't get sick, and he doesn't need help even if he's attacked by ghosts, because a C-level vengeful ghost can kill him instantly.
And then there's this ¥20 off delivery coupon for orders over ¥30... What the heck is this? Can you even order delivery in this apartment building? How brave must a delivery driver be to come here and accept orders?
Zhou Fangdong shook his head helplessly.
These rewards will just take up inventory space even if I claim them, so I'll leave them here for now.
Zhou Fangdong closed the favorability rating interface, stretched his body, and prepared to continue the role-playing task he hadn't finished last night.
He had just returned from Room 102. After using his mind-reading skill on that brat, Zhou Fangdong felt incredibly powerful.
If he plays the role again, he will definitely succeed on his first try!
"System, can I start the role-playing task now? I've put all the tenants on the special attention list, so I don't need to keep an eye on them all the time, right?"
[Beep - No abnormalities detected in the tenant; role-playing task can begin]
Just in case, Zhou Fangdong confirmed again: "If any of the tenants on the special watch list cause trouble, I can immediately leave the role, right?"
If a tenant on the special watch list exhibits unusual behavior, the host will immediately be removed from the role-playing task, and any unfinished role-playing task will be automatically deemed a failure.
Zhou Fangdong felt relieved.
That way, there's no need to worry about Miao Zheng causing trouble; after all, her adventurous nature is quite frightening. She dared to freely enter and leave the Liwan Apartment complex right after moving in, walking back and forth in the haunted corridors several times, returning to the apartment as naturally as if it were her own home…
Thinking about this, Zhou Fangdong suddenly felt that something was not quite right.
Wait a minute, after signing the rental contract, both Zhao Dawei and Miao Zheng can freely enter and exit Liwan Apartment with the key in their hands, and will not be attacked by ghosts in the corridor.
The tenant can avoid being attacked by ghosts with just one room key, but he carries the room keys for all 15 floors.
Zhou Fangdong's expression suddenly turned extremely ugly. He took the [Landlord's Key (Damaged)] out of the inlay slot and checked its effect.
The effect of this item is: it allows you to freely enter and exit any room below the 15th floor and grants the buff [Landlord's Intimidation].
[Landlord's Intimidation]: High-level and special ghosts will not be able to see the landlord's level and will not attack the landlord indiscriminately.
"High-level and special ghosts will not attack the landlord indiscriminately..."
If even high-level ghosts wouldn't attack him, then the low-level ghosts in the first-floor corridor would be even less likely to attack him.
Recalling that he had just been in room 102, and that even though he touched the ghost in room 102, the little ghost didn't react at all, Zhou Fangdong suddenly smiled with relief.
What about the 90-ghost-coin amulet he just used?
What was the point of him walking around the corridor with a kerosene lamp all this time?
Does he have a lot of ghost money?
Looking at his kerosene lamp, which only had eight hours left to burn, Zhou Fangdong felt so heartbroken he could hardly breathe.
A can of lamp oil in the system shop costs 30,000 ghost coins... In other words, he wasted 10,000 ghost coins by carrying the kerosene lamp around these past two days.
Damn it.
Zhou Fangdong gritted his teeth and said, almost word by word, "System, why didn't you remind me that carrying [the landlord's key] would protect me from ghosts and monsters?"
[After the host obtains an item, all item and equipment effects are displayed. The system will not interfere with how the host uses the item.]
Are you just going to stand by and watch me wander around with a kerosene lamp, wasting lamp oil?
The system will not interfere with how the host uses items.
"No wonder a jar of lamp oil costs 30,000; it's not a consumable I urgently need right now!! System! Give me my money back—"
[...]
"System, say something! Damn it, if you don't give me back the lamp oil, I'll keep bothering you forever and ever..."
[Mission begins. Please prepare, host.]
A feeling of dizziness washed over me, and in the blink of an eye, the familiar scene of the storage room reappeared before my eyes.
Zhou Fangdong was so angry that he felt a lump in his throat.
Unable to contact the system while playing a role... Damn system, it's playing this passive-aggressive game with me again.
Zhou Fangdong calmed himself down, preparing to finish the role-playing task as soon as possible and then go back to continue cursing the system.
He lay down on the floor and reached under the bed.
The reason I failed last time was that the success condition for this role-playing task was not to let the child survive, but to let the ghost baby in the storeroom kill the parents before the outside ghost killed them.
The ashes of the four ghost babies are under the bed; they are the unborn older sisters of the child in room 102.
The woman in room 102 had four abortions before giving birth to the child, and the man took the four fetuses home.
The man burned the fetuses to ashes, sealed the blood-stained nails and ashes together in the urn, and sealed it with a talisman to prevent the fetuses from being reborn forever. This was to deter other infant spirits who wanted to be born into his family and to prevent the girl from appearing in his wife's womb again.
However, it is unclear whether the talisman malfunctioned or the man's actions caused the infant spirit to retaliate.
When the woman was pregnant with the child in Room 102, the tests they secretly conducted revealed that it was a boy, but the baby was born a girl.
Because women who have had too many abortions have thin uterine walls, they are unable to conceive again after childbirth due to severe bleeding.
From then on, the couple would beat and scold the child, treating her as nothing more than a tool to vent their emotions.
The child in room 102 has been able to see these four ghost babies since she was little. When the couple neglected her, these ghost babies were always carrying food from the garbage can downstairs to feed her.
However, before the seal is broken, the abilities of these ghost infants are limited to this; they can only change the position of some inanimate objects and cannot retaliate against the couple.
During the last role-playing mission, because Zhou Fangdong wanted to survive the pursuit of that outsider ghost, these ghost infants, like moths to a flame, used their souls to shield him from the outsider ghost's deadly attacks.
When he successfully escaped from room 102, all four ghost babies were also completely destroyed.
Compared to the couple, these four ghost babies were more like the child's parents. They fed her, loved her unconditionally, and were willing to give their own lives to give her a chance to live.
Therefore, children are willing to rebel against their most feared parents for these reasons.
Zhou Fangdong successfully found four small jars under the bed. After breaking the urn under the bed, four charred ghost infants crawled out and clung tightly to Zhou Fangdong.
Before the woman arrived, he quickly got into bed, covered himself with the blanket, and pretended to be fast asleep.
He needed to fool the woman who would come to check on him later. Once she found him asleep, she would lower her guard and leave the door unlocked, giving him the opportunity to slip out.
To unseal the four ghost infants and fully restore their power, simply breaking the urn under the bed is not enough.
Because when the man burned the fetus's body, he burned the talisman that suppressed the soul along with the body. After breaking the urn, he also needed to tear up the main talisman under the master bedroom bed so that the suppressing talismans that had become one with the fetus's ashes would lose their power.
Zhou Fangdong's available time is very short.
The long-tongued ghost that came in from outside invaded the room when the man returned for the second time, so to successfully impersonate the ghost, you must find the main symbol before the man returns, and then have the ghost baby kill the woman and the man before the long-tongued ghost makes a move.
The child in Room 102 must have planned this for a long time, which is why they were able to find the main talisman and release the ghost baby in such a short time.
However, Zhou Fangdong was unfamiliar with the layout of the house and was unable to obtain the memory of the main symbol's location from the child's mind...
However, he also has an advantage: he is doing role-playing tasks, and as long as the tenants don't cause any problems, he can try again and again.
After three attempts, Zhou Fangdong successfully slipped into the master bedroom before the woman noticed and found the talisman.
The man entered the room the moment he tore the talisman to shreds.
“Honey, come here with me to an interview. That rich businessman said he’ll give us a lot of money if we say in the interview that we’re staying here voluntarily.”
At this moment, Zhou Fangdong was hiding in the master bedroom. From his current angle, he could clearly see that the man who came in from outside the door was holding a red envelope in his left hand.
The red envelope must have been left outside for a long time; the surface showed signs of weathering, and the bright red color had faded to a light pink.
The original gold ribbon had turned into black hair strands. There were very few black hair strands left, so they lost their binding effect, causing the red envelope to open and revealing a thick wad of hundred-yuan bills inside.
No wonder an outsider ghost entered room 102; it turns out this man took the money to buy his life.
They dare to accept these suspicious-looking red envelopes; they're really risking their lives for money.
After Zhou Fangdong tore apart the talisman under the master bedroom bed, the four ghost infants left his body.
Four charred babies, their features indistinguishable, walked hand in hand, swaying as they emerged from the master bedroom and entered the living room.
They moved seemingly slowly, but their movements were impossible to detect with the naked eye. Their forms flickered incessantly, like a faulty light bulb, as they rapidly approached the couple in the living room.
The man realized something was wrong and turned his head, only to meet the gaze of four charred, unrecognizable faces.
Two screams, one from a man and one from a woman, rang out simultaneously. A gust of cold wind swept in, and the door was locked shut.
The couple's screams acted like a kind of accelerant; as their screams rang out, the eerie green will-o'-the-wisps suddenly exploded, instantly engulfing the entire room.
Dark, almost solidified, chilling resentment emanated from the four ghost infants, transforming into several pitch-black ropes that coiled around the man and woman like predatory pythons.
The black rope connects the four ghostly infants to the couple, like an umbilical cord connecting the mother and the fetus.
The man and woman were trapped in the flames, howling in agony. Their flesh was charred and peeling from the fire, and their features were contorted in pain. They were clearly alive, but they looked more like vengeful ghosts struggling in purgatory than the four infant ghosts.
Zhou Fangdong was still hiding in the master bedroom. He looked at the two charred corpses kneeling on the living room floor and at the still burning, eerie green flames that were almost burning the house to ashes. He curiously reached out his hand.
—After touching the flame, there was no burning sensation at all, only a slight coolness.
Seeing that the living room was about to become as charred as the actual Room 102, Zhou Fangdong hurriedly ran out of the master bedroom and returned to the storage room.
The child in room 102 eventually died in this storage room.
Everything in the room was burned by the will-o'-the-wisp, and the water pipes were melted. Without water and food, the child, who was already malnourished from years of hunger, did not last a day and fainted from hunger in the storage room.
The four ghost babies did not bring her food as usual.
As the ghost infants' power was completely unsealed, they lost their humanity and reason, becoming entirely siding with the ghosts. Although their instinct to care for children remained, they forgot that humans need food and water to survive.
After burning the couple to ashes, the four ghost babies noticed the child who had fainted from hunger in the storeroom.
They thought she was injured again, and instinctively attached themselves to the child, holding her tightly, trying to alleviate the child's pain with their yin energy as before.
So, in the cold but warm embrace of the ghost babies, the child starved to death in the storeroom.
Even after the child died, the ghostly aura continued to erode its soul. After an unknown amount of time, a small ghost, completely black with four fleshy growths on its body, resembling a melted clay sculpture, rose from the mummified corpse of the child.
[Ding—Congratulations, host, you have successfully played the role]
[Reward: 1000 experience points, 1 random skill point]
A note from the author:
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