Chapter 80 The Effects of Lamp Oil: The Real State of the Apartment at Night, and the Pendant...
But soon, Zhou Fangdong realized something was wrong.
In the past, when he used [Soul Absorption], he could not only collect the ghost coins offered by ghosts, but also read the ghosts' obsessions and memories from their previous lives.
But now, facing this teddy bear, although the skill took effect, not only stealing some ghost coins but also stripping it of most of its body, Zhou Fangdong did not read any memory fragments.
The skill that was originally used to gather intelligence seems to have become a purely offensive skill.
Looking at the teddy bear lying motionless on the ground, only half of its body remaining, Zhou Fangdong wanted to try using [Soul Absorption] again, but suddenly noticed something...
His kerosene lamp was constantly in a state of explosive burning.
He then asked why the hallway lights had suddenly become so bright.
Zhou Fangdong quickly checked the status of his kerosene lamp.
...From the moment the teddy bear appeared until now, two hours of lamp oil have been burned in just a short while.
Because the kerosene lamp has been 40% repaired, a sliding mechanism for adjusting the flame size has been added to the cover below the handle.
This mechanism can be operated manually or with thought. It's currently slid to the far right, which is the maximum flame effect.
Zhou Fangdong looked at the kerosene lamp burning brightly in his hand, and then at the motionless teddy bear on the ground within the light's range.
After a moment of contemplation, he slightly reduced the flame of the kerosene lamp.
The teddy bear's head was out of the light's reach, but it remained unchanged.
Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief and slowly adjusted the kerosene lamp flame to normal.
During this time, the teddy bear on the ground remained motionless, as if it had died after being stripped of half its body.
After the kerosene lamp flame returned to normal, Zhou Fangdong used [Soul Absorption] on the teddy bear again.
The skill did not work this time.
Zhou Fangdong finally understood.
He turned the kerosene lamp flame up to its maximum again, keeping it in a high-explosive state. The kerosene lamp's light once again covered the entire teddy bear, and Zhou Fangdong used [Soul Absorption] on it again.
After receiving another 1,000 ghost coins, the teddy bear on the ground completely disappeared, and the remaining half turned into a cloud of black mist, merging into Zhou Fangdong's body.
This teddy bear doesn't have a physical form and doesn't seem to be a prop.
Moreover, after completely devouring the teddy bear, Zhou Fangdong felt a sense of familiarity.
...This doll looks a bit like the ghostly hands formed from the yin energy that emerged from the cracks after he used [Dead Zone Invasion].
The teddy bear is likely the physical manifestation of the skill effect after a person or monster uses a skill.
Therefore, [Soul Drain] cannot be used in normal state, and memory fragments cannot be read.
From his experience, Zhou Fangdong confirmed that the burning lamp oil could amplify his skills and increase his attack power.
[Soul Absorption] was amplified by the exploding lamp oil, increasing its attack power and thus neutralizing the teddy bear.
Thinking of this, he activated [Ghost Eye] again.
Originally, the [Ghost Eye] could only see the flow of yin energy and abnormal spiritual fluctuations. Under the bright light of the kerosene lamp, it not only has the ability to see through disguises, but also to make the disguises disappear.
Everything within Zhou Fangdong's field of vision had changed.
The luxurious, five-star hotel-like decor of the apartment corridor vanished instantly at night, replaced by a scene resembling hell.
The apartment was already eerie enough during the day, but once the luxurious and tidy facade was stripped away, the apartment's true eeriness was fully revealed at night.
Zhou Fangdong stood in the middle of the corridor, feeling a chill run down his spine.
The red carpet underfoot was still as soft as ever, but it was no longer fabric; instead, it was bluish-white internal organs covered with dark purple veins.
The carpet looked like it was woven from intestines pulled from a human body, dotted with some human internal organs that Zhou Fangdong couldn't quite recognize, and stretched from the end of the corridor all the way to the apartment's entrance.
The exquisite red velvet curtains on the side walls have been transformed into hanging human skins, and the bud-shaped wall lamps on either side of the tenant's door have become skulls. The once warm and soft light from the wall lamps has turned into eerie green will-o'-the-wisps emanating from the skulls' eye sockets.
The only thing that remained unchanged was the fresh and delicate fragrance of gardenias that permeated the corridor.
However, the most terrifying thing was not the change in the corridor, but the location of the elevator door directly in front of Zhou Fangdong.
The luxurious elevator doors, covered in gold leaf, have been transformed into two rows of jagged, white, menacing fangs, as if they were about to suddenly open and wait for their prey to walk into their trap.
Zhou Fangdong felt that if he took just a few more steps forward, as soon as he got close to the "elevator," he would be bitten and swallowed by those two rows of fangs, slid into the bottomless esophagus, and be eaten by this unknown, enormous evil spirit.
Looking at the huge mouth not far away, Zhou Fangdong immediately thought of the giant ghost face that suddenly popped out from the side of the system panel and jumped out to scare him when he was staring at the floor plan of the first-floor corridor and observing the day and night changes of the apartment not long ago.
Only after the giant, ghostly face opens its mouth and devours the apartment at night will the daytime apartment scene appear.
Zhou Fangdong originally thought that the ghost face only existed between day and night, but he didn't expect it to be waiting here at night.
What is the connection between this ghost and the apartment building? Could it be that the terrifying thing in the elevator that could instantly kill him didn't come down from the top floor of the apartment building, but rather came out of the ghost's stomach?
Zhou Fangdong stiffened and slowly retreated.
After retreating to a certain distance, he turned and ran without hesitation.
Who knows what kind of weird things might pop out of that "elevator"?
Anyway, he's already refilled the lamp oil at Zhao Dawei's door, so tonight's goal has been achieved. It's time to back down; life is more important. As for the truth about the apartment at night, we can explore that later after all our attack skills are maxed out.
Zhou Fangdong had the slime and the zombie Taoist priest cover their retreat, then, carrying the flaming kerosene lamp, sprinted back to his room at top speed.
After returning to the safe room, Zhou Fangdong let out a heavy sigh of relief.
I never imagined that the apartment would be like this at night, and that he had even wandered to the elevator door before... Ignorance is bliss.
Zhou Fangdong put away the kerosene lamp, leaned against the door for a while to catch his breath, and then stood up straight.
As he straightened up, he suddenly heard a soft click.
Looking down, Zhou Fangdong noticed that the clasp of the brass pendant hanging around his neck was open.
He opened the pendant and glanced at the photo inside.
After seeing what the photo inside the pendant depicted, Zhou Fangdong fell silent.
The photo on the left side of the pendant is a picture of him with two 'people'.
In this photo, to Zhou Fangdong's left stands a burly man in black, with a leopard-like head and bulging eyes, a puffy and pale face, holding a heavy chain in one hand, and wearing a tall black hat inscribed with the words "Peace Under Heaven." He stares coldly at the camera, as if he had been forcibly pulled over, and it's clear he's struggling to suppress his anger.
Standing to Zhou Fangdong's right was a tall, slender man in white. His face was deathly pale, like a paper doll, and a long, bright red tongue protruded from his mouth, hanging down across his chest. A faint bluish-purple ligature mark was visible on his neck below the tongue. He held a mourning stick in his hand and wore a tall white hat inscribed with the words "Seeing him brings wealth." Unlike the man in black, whose expression was one of suppressed rage, he seemed curious about the camera, his narrow eyes full of amusement.
Zhou Fangdong, dressed in a black suit, stood between the two ghost messengers, making a peace sign at the camera and smiling broadly.
Zhou Fangdong had no recollection of this photo.
The two people standing next to him in the photo must be the legendary Black and White Impermanence.
After he died in a car accident, was his soul taken by the Black and White Impermanence?
So, before being bound and taken away by the system, in order to avoid any regrets, I took a picture with these two ghost messengers as a souvenir?
A souvenir photo of a day trip to the underworld... Could this photo have been taken by the system? Otherwise, I really can't imagine what kind of camera is so powerful that it can capture the ghost messengers.
The photo on the right side of the pendant is a headshot of him. He looks like he was forcibly dragged here for the photo, and he looks very unhappy with a sour face.
In this solo photo, his hair is very long.
In the photo with the Black and White Impermanence, his hair was the same length as it is now, about collarbone length, tied in a low ponytail with a red ribbon. But in this photo, he has a high ponytail hanging down in front of his chest, and his hair looks to be waist-length.
Besides that, his attire was also strange. He wasn't wearing a suit, but rather... what looks like a funeral shroud?
The style of these clothes is similar to the clothes worn by the owner of the funeral clothing shop in the ghost market; they are definitely funeral clothes.
Looking at the two unfamiliar photos, Zhou Fangdong felt that he might have lost a piece of his memory.
After being hit and crushed by a truck, he may have gone to the underworld, stayed there for a period of time, and then been kidnapped by the system to work there.
Otherwise, it's impossible to explain what's going on with these two photos.
He had no recollection of the two photos in the pendant, and trying to recall them would give him a headache.
...If you can't remember, then don't think about it anymore. Zhou Fangdong rubbed his temples, fastened the pendant again, and put it back.
After returning from the apartment corridor, Zhou Fangdong originally planned to use a stand-in to go to the ghost market again.
I just learned that lamp oil can not only ward off ghosts, but also enhance skills. It's a very useful way to increase attack power, but it's consumed quite quickly... Just now, in such a short time, it consumed 4 hours' worth of lamp oil.
Therefore, Zhou Fangdong wanted to buy back the uniforms and shackles needed by the lamp oil makers from the ghost market as soon as possible so that the lamp oil production line in the basement could be started as soon as possible.
But to his surprise, he only stayed in the corridor for a short while, and the night was almost over... It was too late to go to the ghost market, and dawn was about to break.
I have important things to do during the day, so I'll go to the ghost market tomorrow night.
Taking advantage of the time before dawn, Zhou Fangdong activated the newly unlocked apartment garden beautification feature.
He discovered that in this interface, decorating the garden not only increases the overall decoration value of the apartment, but also increases the mood value of the garbage station.
As the garbage dump's mood level increases, it will produce more ghost coins each day.
Having just stolen two thousand ghost coins from that teddy bear, and since he had nothing better to do anyway, Zhou Fangdong decided to check how much it would cost to renovate the garden.
Renovating a garden is different from renovating an apartment hallway. Before renovating a garden, you must first repair the flower beds and fountains in the garden.
Repair a fountain, 1000 ghost coins.
Repairing a flower bed costs 500 ghost coins.
The increase in decoration value is only 100 and 50.
It's so expensive, more expensive than the interior decorations in the apartment, and you get less decoration value.
Zhou Fangdong looked at it for a long time, but finally gave up... For him right now, decorating the garden is not a necessity. He'll wait until he has spare money in the future.
Shortly after I closed the decoration interface, the familiar countdown pop-up appeared.
[Dynamic Event: Night Attack of a Hundred Demons (Countdown: 9 days)]
Zhou Fangdong stood up and, as usual, opened the rental preview interface to check the status of the tenants.
When he flipped to the first-floor floor plan, he discovered that he could teleport directly to the first-floor entrance.
In the past, when Zhou Fangdong wanted to go to the entrance hall, he would usually teleport to room 101 first, and then walk over there.
Sometimes when Zhao Dawei is in his room and it's inconvenient for him to teleport, he will resort to teleporting to room 102 instead.
But now he no longer needs to transfer through a tenant's room; he can be directly teleported to the first-floor entrance by clicking on the floor plan.
Zhou Fangdong discovered that the teleportation point was right next to the elevator. The only change next to the elevator was that he had casually bought two murals and hung them there before nightfall to increase the decoration value.
I never expected the mural to have a teleportation function; this was a pleasant surprise.
Zhou Fangdong tried clicking the teleport button.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of the elevator on the first floor.
The painting was hanging above the narrow door next to the elevator.
This is a landscape painting in the Impressionist style, with the composition interwoven with vibrant colors and shifting light and shadow. Although it focuses on tonal variations rather than realism, the hazy outlines formed by the color blocks still reveal that the subject is the two buildings of the Liwan Apartments.
The painting is taken from the side of the building, offering a view of both the front and back buildings, as well as the apartment garden in the middle.
This painting likely depicts the Liwan Apartments before their abandonment. The doors and windows of both buildings are still open, the garden fountain in the middle is intact, and the flower beds are full of flowers. The colors of the painting are bright and the brushstrokes are lively. Just looking at it can lift your spirits.
In this bright and cheerful scene, there is a very jarring brushstroke—above the building in the picture, there is a dark mark, like a stain that was accidentally flicked on after the painting was finished, which looks particularly unsightly.
Zhou Fangdong stood in front of the painting for a moment, then teleported directly to the elevator on the second floor to begin observing the murals there.
The painting on the second floor still depicts the Liwan Apartments, but compared to the warm colors of the first-floor painting, which is dominated by yellow and red, the second-floor painting is much colder, with a blue-purple hue that looks somewhat oppressive.
There's also a stain above the Liwan Apartment building in the second-floor painting, thicker than the one on the first floor, but not as noticeable. Because the stain is black, and the overall tone of the painting is also dark, the stain seems to be gradually merging into the image.
Each floor can only display one of these murals, which cost 200 Ghost Coins. However, Zhou Fangdong speculated that the murals on the third floor might be even more somber than those on the second floor—these paintings seem to be demonstrating the changes that Liwan Apartments have undergone from the beginning to the present.
For him now, these paintings are just teleportation points, so there's no need to pay too much attention to them.
Zhou Fangdong continued to check the rental preview interface he hadn't finished looking at earlier. After confirming that all his tenants were safe, he closed the system interface and walked towards the corridor where the tenants' rooms were located on the second floor.
A new day begins, time to clean a new room.
Zhou Fangdong arrived at the door of room 207 and pushed it open.
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