Chapter 65 The ghost in Room 204 came knocking on my door with the conditions for murder...
Zhou Fangdong searched the room carefully again, but the room was perfectly normal, and even using [Ghost Eye], he couldn't see anything unusual.
He thought for a moment, then went back to the living room and tried to open the living room window.
It opens up and the view is pretty good. Below is the courtyard garden that has been dug out with a furrow. Looking to the right, you can vaguely see the entrance to the back building of the apartment.
This was the first time Zhou Fangdong had observed the apartment building from this perspective. The Liwan Apartment Building was shaped like a concave character, and he was currently positioned on the right-hand convex side.
Because of the building opposite blocking the light, and because the restless yin energy caused by using [Dead Zone Invasion] in the garden yesterday had not completely dissipated, the light coming in from outside was not actually very bright. However, it was made to look particularly well-lit by the dim light in the other rooms of the apartment building with their windows sealed off.
After admiring the gloomy and dilapidated scenery outside the window for a while, Zhou Fangdong closed the window again.
He leaned against the windowsill, looking at the spacious living room in front of him, feeling so at ease that he didn't know where to begin.
Could this room be free of ghosts?
Zhou Fangdong sighed and decided to use the old method again.
He left room 204, went to the door, bought a substitute doll from the mall, and threw it in.
However, something even more puzzling happened...
Zhou Fangdong watched as the substitute doll slowly circled around the room, touching the picture frame, touching the paint, and exploring every corner of the room before finally crossing its legs and lying down on the paint-stained bed in the second bedroom, without triggering any death conditions.
Unable to bear seeing it lying so leisurely, Zhou Fangdong took over control of the substitute doll and began to manipulate it to move around the room.
He first manipulated the surrogate doll to open the window.
As the doll opened the window, Zhou Fangdong, whose [Ghost Eye] was always on, focused his gaze and finally caught a change.
—The moment the window opened, a flash of light seemed to pass by the scapegoat.
Was it because of the action of opening the window?
Zhou Fangdong then manipulated the surrogate doll to open and close the windows several times.
Every time the window is opened or closed, a fleeting light flashes around the doll, and this afterimage becomes increasingly clear...
It looked like a emaciated, mummified corpse lying on the ground.
Is this the ghost in room 204?
Did it appear because of the wind?
But why didn't the ghost kill the substitute doll after it appeared? Was it because the death conditions weren't triggered enough?
After thinking for a moment, Zhou Fangdong manipulated the substitute doll to close the window, then had it pick up the palette on the ground and swing its arms up and down to fan the air.
This time, the mummified ghost did not appear where the wind had appeared, but instead appeared behind the doll.
Only then did Zhou Fangdong finally see the full appearance of the ghost in room 204.
This ghost is not just a single mummified corpse, but a long chain of mummified corpses connected together, resembling a human centipede.
The corpses all looked exactly alike, emaciated, with their limbs twisted and lying face down on the ground, extending like chains from the window all the way to behind the substitute doll.
It's almost like an animation of a mummified corpse crawling through a window, with the screen dragged frame by frame until all the frames are displayed.
When the mummified corpse appeared behind the substitute doll, the doll instantly lost its function and turned into a rag doll that fell to the ground.
The doll did not show any signs of death; this state was more like the ghost in the room had deprived the substitute doll of its usage time.
...Does this monster kill by taking away people's lifespan? Or by absorbing their life force?
If this is indeed an invisible method of killing, then it explains why the substitute doll was unharmed when opening and closing the window—because although the doll appeared unharmed during the opening and closing process, its usage time should have been reduced.
Moreover, only one second passed between the appearance of the ghost and the moment the doll lost its function.
The ghost in room 204 moves incredibly fast; without special abilities, it's impossible to detect its movements. Once an ordinary person triggers its killing condition, there's no way to escape.
Speaking of the conditions for killing, it seems that this ghost's conditions for killing are not as simple as just the appearance of wind.
Remembering the location where the ghost had appeared, Zhou Fangdong decided to try using a substitute doll again.
After the new surrogate doll entered room 204, Zhou Fangdong did not let it open the window, but instead let it do radio calisthenics indoors, jumping around in place.
Sure enough, the ghost reappeared when the doll was exercising.
The instant the light and shadow appeared, Zhou Fangdong immediately stopped the doll's movements. After the substitute doll stopped moving, the light and shadow disappeared as well.
Zhou Fangdong thought for a moment, then told the doll to quickly squat down.
As it crouched down, the ghost reappeared.
It seems that strenuous exercise and excessive airflow should be avoided in this room.
At first, when Zhou Fangdong and the first surrogate doll were slowly searching the room, no ghosts appeared, which proved that it was okay to move around normally in the room.
Therefore, the most important thing for tenants to live in this room is to be emotionally stable. If something falls, they should not panic and quickly crouch down. If they are startled, they should not dodge quickly. They should also open and close the door slowly.
As for cooking, stir-fries are definitely out of the question, and boiling water is probably a bit dangerous... Forget it, it's best to prohibit tenants from cooking in this room.
If you want to rent out this room, it's best to find a tenant who is emotionally stable, easygoing, doesn't like exercise, doesn't like cooking, and is rather laid-back.
Thinking of this, a Kapibal inexplicably flashed through Zhou Fangdong's mind.
Zhou Fangdong shook his head and sent Kapibala away.
We also need to leave some room for error for the tenants in this room... Therefore, there is one more thing to be sure of: besides the light and shadow, what other signs will appear before this ghost appears?
Unfortunately, when controlling the substitute doll, the control interface only displays the external injuries the doll sustained.
Although you can share the same perspective as the doll, you can't empathize with it or feel what the doll felt before the ghost appeared.
Zhou Fangdong simply went into the room, stood next to the substitute doll, and manipulated the doll to keep it bouncing around in place.
However, after Zhou Fangdong entered the room, no matter how violently the substitute doll moved, the ghost in room 204 did not reappear.
I was originally going to use [Soul Drain] on this ghost, but it wouldn't come out, so the skill had no target.
We'll have to think of another way.
Zhou Fangdong retrieved the surrogate doll and bought a mid-level fully automatic cleaning tool from the mall, which he then used to clean the room.
Then, while the cleaning tools were being used, he teleported directly to Izumo-kan.
When in doubt, consult the Taoist priest. The ghost in room 204 looks rather peculiar; it doesn't seem like an ordinary ghost. Perhaps that zombie Taoist priest has heard of similar beings.
When Zhou Fangdong came out of the main hall of the Taoist temple, he found Zhang Zhiwu standing at the entrance of the hall with his hands behind his back.
In the small courtyard in front of him, Zhang Qingyang was leading several children in sword practice.
Zhang Qingyang held a piece of iron sword with a plastic-like feel in his hand, which made a clanging sound when he moved it, just like the Tai Chi swords that old men and women use when they do their morning exercises in the park.
The children behind him each held a small wooden sword and struck poses in a very professional manner, following Zhang Qingyang's movements.
Because he frequently visited Chuyun Temple to ask the encyclopedic Taoist priest questions, Zhou Fangdong stopped bothering with formalities and went straight to the point, asking Zhang Zhiwu about the ghost in room 204.
After listening to Zhou Fangdong's account, Zhang Zhiwu stroked his beard and said hesitantly, "Young friend, what you're describing sounds a bit like a 'zǎn' soul."
“Zanhun?” Zhou Fangdong subconsciously repeated the name of the ghost.
Zhang Zhiwu nodded: "Yes, the spirit is formless and intangible. It appears by means of light and shadow and changing wind. To the naked eye, it appears as a distorted light and shadow or a gust of wind. This kind of thing is a collection of ghosts and usually only appears near places where great disasters have occurred or on battlefields where large-scale routs have taken place."
His voice sounded puzzled, as if he couldn't quite understand how such a thing could have appeared in the apartment.
"This kind of ghost is formed from the obsession of countless dead souls who want to escape quickly. These dead souls were unable to escape from disasters in time because they didn't run fast enough in life, so it hates anything that moves fast and wants to chase after anything that moves fast, devouring their speed and life. People attacked by the ghost will have their flesh and blood and essence absorbed at an extremely fast speed, and eventually become part of the ghost... Even ghosts cannot escape the ghost's pursuit."
Hearing Zhang Zhiwu say this, Zhou Fangdong roughly guessed how this thing ended up in the apartment.
It was the mutation of the fleshy Ganoderma on the second floor... When Zhou Fangdong was looking at Qian Duolai's memories before his death, he saw many tenants on the second floor trying to escape, but they were blocked by the cultists and the wildly growing flesh and blood, and died on the second floor.
With a sigh in his heart, Zhou Fangdong continued to ask, "Daoist Master, what signs are there before the Soul-Slaying Demon appears? If it targets you, how can you get rid of it?"
"The signs when it appears..." Zhang Zhiwu pondered for a moment before speaking, "If we have to say what the signs are, when the spirit appears behind you, people with strong intuition might hear a cracking sound of joints grinding together or an unnatural cold wind."
"It's easy to get rid of it if you're being targeted. Just stand still, or slowly sit down or lie down. Just stay still for 15 minutes. The worst thing you can do when you encounter this kind of thing is to panic. The stronger your reaction, the more the spirit will keep staring at you."
It really is necessary to find a tenant with stable emotions...
"Okay, I understand. Thank you for your explanation, Taoist Master."
"You're welcome. If you have any questions in the future, you can come to the Taoist temple to find me anytime."
*
Tang Huili has decided to move because she feels that the Penghu Garden community is now very unsafe.
Two days ago, when she was about to go out to pick up her takeout, she vaguely saw a middle-aged man wearing a melon-shaped hat in the stairwell.
The man gave her the feeling of a venomous snake ready to strike at any moment.
Tang Huili did not show excessive panic at the time. She simply put the trash outside the door, then closed the door as if nothing had happened, and stayed in the room all day without eating anything.
From a young age, Tang Huili has always had a keen intuition. She can sense others' likes and dislikes towards her, and she can also sense major crises that are about to occur.
She had been troubled by her overly keen senses.
Too many people greet you with a smile on their face, but in their hearts they wish they could kill you... This sense of disconnect makes her increasingly unwilling to interact with others and unwilling to show her emotions to others.
However, it is precisely because of this keen intuition that Tang Huili has never encountered a single ghost in all the years since the paranormal events began.
Of course, it could also be related to her being a homebody... As a professional comic artist, her longest record is 5 years without leaving home.
Therefore, Tang Huili trusted her intuition. Realizing something was wrong, she, who hated exercise and cleaning, immediately packed all her belongings overnight and prepared to move.
Although she hasn't chosen a new house yet, she has moved out of Penghu Homestead.
Large luggage can be stored first; you only need to bring your painting tools and a few changes of clothes.
In short, no matter what, we must leave this neighborhood as quickly as possible.
Tang Huili impulsively took her luggage and stood at the Penghu Jiayuan bus stop.
She didn't know where to go for a moment.
Just as Tang Huili stood at the bus stop, at a loss, the name of the infamous haunted building, "Liwan Apartment," strangely popped into her mind.
Why would she suddenly think of this godforsaken place?
Could it be because I saw that paranormal streamer a couple of days ago?
Speaking of that recently popular paranormal livestreamer, she's really amazing. She actually dared to move into the Liwan Apartment to gather material for her videos.
However, only streamers with the backing of the supervisory bureau would dare to do this. For ordinary people, entering this haunted building would be a dead end.
Although that's what she thought, Tang Huili still felt that she wanted to move into the Liwan Apartments.
When the idea popped into her head, Tang Huili found it somewhat unbelievable.
Although she has always trusted her intuition, this time it was a bit too far off.
As far as she knew, more than a hundred people had died in the Liwan Apartments, and there were some more whose deaths had not been disclosed or reported in the news... Because so many people had died in the apartments, the news dared not report on it anymore, for fear that people would be curious or would rent apartments in the Liwan Apartments because of the low rent.
Do we really have to go to this godforsaken place?
Tang Huili pondered for a long time before finally choosing to trust her intuition one more time.
Yes, she's going.
Just as this firm idea surfaced in Tang Huili's mind, a brand-new bus suddenly and silently pulled into the bus stop.
Tang Huili looked at the strange bus that had stopped in front of her, picked up her suitcase, and walked onto it without hesitation.
*
After returning from the Taoist temple, Zhou Fangdong took advantage of the cleaning tools cleaning room 204 to go back to his own room and write down the rules for renting room 204.
After writing the rental rules, he ordered a batch of furniture from Guijia Furniture Store.
This time, the furniture store manager did not refuse order X and quickly delivered all the furniture.
Fortunately, the ghost inside the furniture could carry the furniture upstairs by itself; otherwise, it would have been quite difficult for Zhou Fangdong to move so many large pieces of furniture up the stairs by himself.
Just as Zhou Fangdong finished tidying up room 204 and was considering whether to use the [Honest Advertisement] app, which he hadn't used in a long time, to post a rental ad, a pop-up window suddenly appeared on his screen.
[Beep—A new tenant has been detected viewing the apartment. Please proceed to the apartment entrance as soon as possible.]
Zhou Fangdong was stunned when he saw the pop-up window that suddenly appeared.
The system used to secretly give [Honest Advertisement Flyers] a guaranteed minimum, but now they don't even bother with that anymore. He didn't even use the flyers, and tenants just showed up at his door...
Sometimes the system is really thoughtful, as if it's afraid he won't be able to find the tenant.
First, go to the apartment entrance and see if this tenant is suitable for room 204. If not, we still need to hand out flyers.
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