Chapter 5 Main Quest Unlocks Hiring Cleaning Staff
When Zhou Fangdong opened the system store and found the unlocked kerosene lamp oil, he was stunned.
To prevent himself from misreading, he carefully counted the price numbers on the back of the lamp oil several times.
One 3, four zeros, that's thirty thousand, that's right.
At a point when he was reluctant to spend even 30 Ghost Coins, the system unlocked a consumable item for him that required 30,000 Ghost Coins to purchase.
Zhou Fangdong clenched his fists so tightly they cracked: "System, are you serious about this price? You couldn't squeeze 30,000 ghost coins out of me even if you squeezed every last drop of my bone marrow oil."
The system seemed not to hear and did not respond.
Zhou Fangdong was exhausted and didn't want to dwell on the matter any longer.
His kerosene lamp can still last for more than ten hours now, so he's not in a hurry. He'll see if he can find other ways to replenish the lamp oil when he has more time.
Zhou Fangdong checked the other rewards for the Newcomer Guide Quest ③.
The elevator being unlocked probably refers to the elevator opposite the apartment building entrance. Since he doesn't need to go upstairs right now, whether the elevator is unlocked or not is meaningless to him.
Tenant room preview interface unlocked...
Zhou Fangdong found this function in the system interface and turned it on.
A top-down view of a room appeared before him, with a chubby pixelated figure with "[Zhao Dawei]" written on its head walking around in the room.
He clicked on it and discovered that he could actually teleport directly to a rented room through this preview interface.
This feature is very convenient; if a tenant encounters any danger, he can simply carry the kerosene lamp to them.
The [Tenant Profile] has also been unlocked. Remembering that the system once said that lighting up the tenant profile would also reward you with Ghost Coins, Zhou Fangdong eagerly opened the profile.
Tenant Profile: [Low-Tier Tenant - Disillusioned Middle-Aged Man]
Illustration description: An ordinary middle-aged man going through a low point in his life, feeling depressed. All he wants is a place to stay.
Traits: Honest and reliable, will strictly adhere to tenant rules. Sensitive and easily startled; there is an 80% chance of them terminating the lease if the rent is increased.
Complete the collection reward: 3 Ghost Coins
Zhou Fangdong: ? ? ?
Is a middle-aged, disillusioned man only worth 3 ghost coins?
The fully automatic cleaning tools were each worth 30 Ghost Coins. He used one cleaning tool to keep the middle-aged man, but it turned out the man was only worth one-tenth of a cleaning tool?
Seemingly sensing Zhou Fangdong's rising anger, the system's electronic voice promptly sounded:
[Beep—Host, please complete the beginner's guide mission ④: Ensure the tenant in room 101 survives for one month. Reward: 300 Ghost Coins]
[Tenants are a sustainable resource. If they survive and do not terminate their lease, Room 101 will generate 300 Ghost Coins per month. Please take good care of your tenants.]
He swallowed back the words of cursing the system that were about to come out of his mouth.
Okay, 300 ghost coins will do.
The character's traits say that the middle-aged man is honest and won't easily do anything reckless. Plus, if he takes care of you a little, the 300 Ghost Coins are practically free.
It will take another month to receive it... He's really short of Ghost Coins right now.
Putting aside the 30,000 ghost coins for lamp oil that seems like an indefinite wait, he'll probably need [low-level exorcism talismans] and [low-level purification talismans] in the future, so he needs to prepare a few in advance.
Once you have more tenants, if you encounter any reckless tenants, you can use a [purification talisman] to put their rooms in a safe state.
[Exorcism Talisman] is a lower-grade alternative to lamp oil. If necessary, you can keep one for your tenants so they can save their lives when they encounter danger.
For future development, we must find a way to acquire some ghost coins now, otherwise we will definitely fall into a deadlock again later on.
Zhou Fangdong remembered that the system had said that completing system tasks, activating tenant profiles, and clearing out ghosts would all reward him with Ghost Coins. Special tenants and long-term tenants would also drop Ghost Coins periodically...
Since the ultimate goal of the system is to rent out the rooms, keeping the rooms clean must also be very important, right?
"System, if I clear out a room that can be rented out, will I be rewarded with Ghost Coins?"
[Beep—Host's desire to clean the room has been detected. Main quest initiated ahead of schedule.]
[Main Mission 1: Make all the remaining rooms on the first floor available for rent and find tenants to move in.]
[Task Rewards: Not displayed at this time]
Side Quest 1: Clean and rent out Room 109
[① Clean up excess garbage]
[②Discard the damaged furniture and buy new furniture]
[③Find the ghost hidden in the room and figure out the ghost's killing pattern]
[④ Draft a rental agreement and find tenants to move in]
Side Quest Rewards: 300 Ghost Coins, 1000 Experience Points, 1 Random Skill Point
Upon seeing this long list of tasks and rewards, Zhou Fangdong's spirits immediately lifted.
If you carefully select your tenants, unlocking their profiles will reward you with Ghost Coins. Tenants who survive for a long time will also receive Ghost Coins. In addition, you'll get 300 Ghost Coins for completing tasks, which can be considered a significant amount of income.
Furthermore, completing side quests will reward you with experience points and skill points.
Zhou Fangdong opened the character level interface.
His current level is 1, he has no character skills, and his health, stamina, and spirit are all at the level of an average adult.
1000 experience points are enough for him to level up... Zhou Fangdong glanced at the level preview status. After leveling up, he will not only have 3 attribute points, but also unlock a character skill.
Skill points can also be used to unlock skills, meaning that after completing this side quest, he will have a total of two opportunities to unlock skills.
Hopefully, a skill related to exorcising ghosts will be introduced, so that his ghost coin pressure won't be so great in the future.
However, Zhou Fangdong's joy was short-lived, as the system popped up again:
[Beep—Main quest unlocked, side quest unlocked, apartment elevator detected to be operational—]
[Dynamic Event: Countdown to the Night Raid by One Hundred Demons Begins (30 Days)]
Zhou Fangdong fell silent.
The system is definitely targeting him on purpose.
That "Hundred Demons Night Attack Incident" sounds ominous just from the name!
Zhou Fangdong closed the system page, picked up the kerosene lamp, and walked out of the room.
He was going to clean room 109; he needed to gather some items to deal with the ghosts before the night of the hundred ghosts' attack.
After leaving his room this time, Zhou Fangdong made a point of looking back.
He noticed that after he came out, the door to the room disappeared, and only a wall remained where the door had been.
There are only nine rooms on one floor. The landlord's room is extra, hidden in other spaces and not included in the building area of Liwan Apartment.
Realizing this, Zhou Fangdong finally breathed a sigh of relief.
So, when he first went out, the ghost that was blocking the door wasn't deliberately blocking his doorway.
He thought a vengeful ghost had been watching him all along, but it turned out that the door just happened to be in the same spot where the ghost was hiding.
Room 109 was not far away. Zhou Fangdong's first room to check during the newbie guide was this one. The black garbage bags all over the floor and the bloodstains sprayed on the wall were still fresh in his memory.
Pushing open the door to room 109, a familiar stench of decay hit me.
Zhou Fangdong covered his mouth and nose, looking at the mess in the room with a conflicted expression.
Where should I start tidying up...?
There was absolutely no place to stand, and no cleaning tools to be found. Carrying the trash bags out one by one myself would be far too inefficient.
Just as Zhou Fangdong was at his wit's end, the system page popped up again.
The hiring interface is now unlocked in the shop; the host can purchase as needed.
Zhou Fangdong opened the system shop with a blank expression and found the newly unlocked hiring interface.
It requires ghost coins again, right? Anyway, I can't afford to buy it, so I'll just look at it and feast my eyes.
The hiring interface currently unlocks three available cleaning staff.
① Ordinary cleaner
Hourly wage: 300 yuan
Personality: Timid, loves gossip
Cleaning ability: B
Bathroom nooks and crannies, adhesive residue on glass, and grease on range hoods can all be cleaned thoroughly. (However, bloodstains and corpses cannot be handled.)
Note: Seeing blood or a corpse may cause you to scream and run away, and there is a 99% chance that you will call the police.
[No life-saving skills, no ability to resist vengeful ghosts]
② Professional corpse collectors
Hourly wage: 10,000 yuan
Personality: Quiet and reserved, only does things for money.
Cleaning ability: C+
They only clean up corpses and bloodstains, and can help dismember bodies, but they don't care about any other cleaning work.
[Master of hand-to-hand combat skills, perfect sniping skills, and immune to ghostly attacks]
③ Part-time employees of the Investigation Department
Hourly wage: 50,000 yuan
Personality: Meticulous, detail-oriented, with mild obsessive-compulsive tendencies
Cleaning ability: A
Everything will be cleaned very thoroughly.
Proficient in reconnaissance and melee/firearms skills; possesses the ability to resist vengeful ghosts.
After looking at the introduction pages of these three available cleaning staff, Zhou Fangdong was stunned.
The unit of currency for hourly wages is not ghost money.
In other words, he could easily hire someone else to clean it!
Zhou Fangdong was immediately delighted. With a wave of his hand, he directly hired the part-time employee from the Abnormal Investigation Department.
Earning 50,000 yuan an hour is nothing to him now; it's not even a fraction of what he earns in his account.
Because while inheriting these two buildings, Zhou Fangdong also inherited a nine-figure bank account balance from a distant relative, directly achieving financial freedom.
Unfortunately, his current body cannot eat or drink, and he is trapped in this haunted building with nowhere to get out. He has money but nowhere to spend it.
After Zhou Fangdong chose to hire a cleaning service, a blue cleaning app appeared on his phone.
Having experience posting flyers on rental forums, Zhou Fangdong didn't need any system guidance. He simply opened the cleaning app, found a part-time employee in the inspection department, and placed an order directly.
*
Within the Bureau of Abnormal Inspections, the Section for Investigating Abnormal Events.
The text message notification sounded, and Hong Zhong rubbed his red eyes from staying up all night, picked up his phone and glanced at it.
"A cleaning job order... When did I apply for a cleaning job? Is this a prank?"
Hong Zhong's hand, which was about to delete the text message, suddenly paused. His brows furrowed: "An order from Liwan Apartment?!"
His volume was completely out of control, and his shout woke everyone in the office up.
Soon someone laughed and said, "Captain Hong, have you lost your mind from staying up all night? Wasn't the owner of the Liwan Apartments dead a long time ago? We were the ones who helped collect the body."
Hong Zhong quickly connected his phone to the monitor next to him and said while typing on the keyboard, "The signal is coming from Liwan Apartment. The order also requires me to go to Liwan Apartment."
The laughter stopped abruptly. Someone squeezed next to Hong Zhong's computer monitor and exclaimed in surprise, "The signal really is coming from Liwan Apartments... But it was because Liwan Apartments went out of control that the paranormal events started like this. That place is now a haunted house. Could it be that those ghosts have evolved to the point where they can use cell phones?"
Hong Zhong's expression was serious: "Stop joking. Xiao Zhang, write a report and submit this matter. Notify Xiao Liu from the equipment department to send over the equipment I used for fieldwork. I want to go and take a look myself."
A note from the author:
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