Chapter 114 The Familiar Ghost Tenant (Bonus Chapter at 40,000 words) The room is cleaned...
After clearing out the ghosts in rooms 102 to 106, Zhou Fangdong discovered that some of the ghosts in the back building were related to those in the front building.
The ghost in room 103 of the back building is a somewhat familiar charred, bald man. Through the causal lines on his body, it can be learned that he is one of the cultists who was blown up by Xiao Di, a junior high school student who was a former tenant of the apartment.
Zhou Fangdong had died more than ten times during Xiao Di's role-playing missions, and had a deep impression of the bald man who was chasing him. Even without using the [Heavenly Eye] skill and without looking at the causal lines on this guy's body, he could still see a sense of familiarity from this charred and unrecognizable tea egg-shaped head.
However, this familiar ghost only gave him 3,000 ghost coins... That's incredibly weak. Ghost tenants usually get 2,000 ghost coins upon moving in, but this guy only got 3,000 even after emptying his pockets.
These cultists are truly worthless, both in life and in death.
There are four ghosts in room 104, two middle-aged couples.
One couple looked elegant and well-maintained; the other, though slightly tired, was clearly a middle-class couple living a comfortable life.
Both couples were fused together, looking like two deformed people with two heads.
Moreover, they all had blank expressions and attacked anyone they saw, completely losing their rationality.
Because he had been using the [Heavenly Eye] skill, although he had never seen these four ghosts before, Zhou Fangdong recognized them from the causal lines on their bodies as the wealthy merchant couple who forced the wedding dress ghost to marry their son, as well as the long-tongued ghost and the wedding dress ghost's parents.
The middle-aged couple were likely killed by either the Long-Tongued Ghost or the Wedding Dress Ghost, as their bodies were initially hanging from the chandelier in room 104 of the front building.
As for the wealthy couple... it's probably retribution or they were tricked by cultists again. After all, no one who gets involved with the Bone Inheritance Society has a good ending.
The reward for eliminating these four ghosts was even less than that for the cultist ghost in number 103; the four ghosts together only gave 4,000 ghost coins.
The quality of these irrational ghosts in the back building is far too poor. The kind ghost in room 302 easily gave him 4,800 ghost coins, while the four ghosts in room 104 only received this much money together.
It's unclear whether it's because the ghosts on the first floor of the back building are too weak, or because Zhou Fangdong is now too strong, but he cleaned these rooms with overwhelming ease. He only needed to use the [Soul Absorption] amplified by the kerosene lamp once to clean each room completely.
Room 105 was also occupied by a bald, vengeful ghost from the Bone Inheritance Society. This time, he gave even less money, only two thousand ghost coins.
Room 106 is also a ghost of the Bone Inheritance Society... Did we stir up a bald man's den?
Room 107 is the boss room and is temporarily inaccessible.
Room 108...
After opening room 108, Zhou Fangdong was stunned.
Although he had used his [Heavenly Eye] skill to see that the room was occupied by a ghost before opening the door and was mentally prepared, he was still surprised when he actually saw the scene inside the room.
The rooms in the back building that Zhou Fangdong had just looked at were all unfinished cement buildings, and the ones with some decorations were all made of stone, looking exactly like tombs.
However, Room 108 is a small apartment room with a very homey atmosphere, even more so than some of the apartments in the front building.
This is a spacious one-bedroom apartment. Upon opening the door, a pair of sandals stained with blood and mud lay carelessly on the floor.
Further inside is the living room. On the coffee table in front of the sofa sits a steaming mug filled with brown liquid, next to which is an exercise book covered with dense mathematical formulas.
In the open kitchen, a kettle is boiling water on the induction cooker, with wisps of steam rising from the spout.
Next to the kitchen, the sound of water could be faintly heard from inside the closed bathroom door, as if someone was washing up inside.
Just as Zhou Fangdong was observing the room, the lid of the kettle, which was boiling water, was propelled by the steam and jumped up, falling onto the stove.
The moment the lid popped open, two grayish-white hands emerged from the narrow spout, their twisted fingers, like folded paper, gripping the edge of the kettle. Next, a similarly twisted and deformed head emerged.
Her long, wet black hair clung to her pale, flat face. She braced herself against the spout of the kettle, struggling to pull herself out of the kettle as if she were pulling a radish.
When she finally fell to the ground, she had changed from a flat piece of paper into a slightly better paper figure... but she was still very flat, and her skin was wrinkled, looking like a compressed towel that had just been soaked in water.
"Landlord." The female ghost who emerged from the kettle seemed to recognize Zhou Fangdong and greeted him naturally.
Then she turned around and called out to the bathroom, "Xiao Di, are you still not done? The landlord is here."
"Coming, coming." Another series of clattering sounds came from the bathroom, then the sliding door was suddenly pulled open, and a thin figure rushed out along with the damp, cold steam.
This is a boy who looks like a middle school student, wearing a sports uniform with short sleeves and shorts. He has fair skin, bright eyes, and is thinner than his peers. His hair and clothes are wet.
At first glance, he looks no different from a normal human being, but upon closer inspection, one can see that his skin seems a bit too pale, almost like a sheet of paper. There are also several raised areas on his arms, and one can vaguely see that underneath those raised areas is a patch of charred black, the same color as the skin covered by his clothes.
Xiao Di noticed Zhou Fangdong's gaze, patted her arm, and patted down the sticking-out 'skin': "Mr. Landlord, you're too fast. I only had time to put the outer skin back on."
He seemed to take this meeting very seriously, just like someone who would dress up carefully before going on stage to receive an award. Before Zhou Fangdong arrived, the boy had made himself look like a human.
Zhou Fangdong never expected that Xiao Di, the junior high school student he played in the role, would still be staying at Liwan Apartment and had become a ghost tenant.
...He thought the little boy was free, but it turned out he was also trapped in the Liwan Apartments.
The owner of the funeral shop in the ghost market once said that the underworld had been closed... Did Xiao Di stay in the apartment because she couldn't find her way to the underworld when she died?
Zhou Fangdong felt that by examining the past lives of the ghosts in the apartment, he could roughly piece together a timeline.
"Xiao Di, how did you get to the back building? I remember you used to live in room 108 in the front building, right?" Zhou Fangdong was a little worried. The yin energy in the back building was generally more chaotic than in the front building, so it was a miracle that Xiao Di could still maintain such a clear-headed state.
Xiao Di didn't think there was anything wrong with her situation at all, and explained with a smile: "After I died, I stayed in the front building for a while with my sister's soul, but the ghosts and monsters in front were fighting too fiercely. I had to protect my sister and couldn't beat them, so I came to the back building."
As he spoke, he patted his stomach, "After that, I wandered around the back building for a while and ate a few bald men who, like my parents, believed in evil gods. Inexplicably, I got pregnant."
"By the way, Mr. Ke Yan helped me with my sister's body, and he also helped me find a way to restore her soul. He's really amazing! I'm learning from him!"
He ran to the coffee table, held up the notebook filled with formulas, and proudly presented it to Zhou Fangdong like a treasure: "Look! This is my homework today—I want to become a dead scientist like Mr. Ke Yan in the future!"
Zhou Fangdong handed the workbook back. Although he couldn't understand a single word, he still smiled and praised, "Very good, keep it up!"
...Heaven knows why there are so many English letters in mathematics.
Xiao Di was completely unaware that her respected landlord was illiterate. She took the notebook and said gratefully, "I used to lose consciousness occasionally, but as you, landlord, continue to build the apartment garden, I've been awake for longer and longer periods. I'm able to do experiments with Mr. Ke Yan for extended periods, help him clear away ghosts, and search for corpses."
Zhou Fangdong looked enlightened.
He wondered how Ke Yan, who previously dared not fight any ghosts, managed to clean the back corridor so thoroughly... It turned out that Xiao Di had helped.
Xiao Di became more and more excited as she spoke: "I've been looking forward to your visit, Mr. Landlord! Last time you came to the back building, I was in a daze and missed you. Mr. Ke Yan told me about it, and I was sad for a long time. If he hadn't told me that you don't like the ghosts and corpses in the back building going to the front building, I was planning to go to the front building to find you."
"Landlord, let me sign a contract with you too! Mr. Ke Yan became so strong after signing a contract with you, and I want to become stronger too!"
As soon as Xiao Di finished speaking, the system's electronic voice rang out in Zhou Fangdong's mind:
[A typical junior high school student who is a "ghost tenant" wants to become a tenant at Liwan Apartment. Should a rental agreement be signed with him?]
After a brief pause, the system continued:
The tenant has already prepared a room, and a rental agreement can be signed directly with them.
"Let's sign it."
[[Ghost Tenant - Ordinary Junior High School Student] Successfully moved into Room 108 in the back building of the apartment. The tenant's profile has been unlocked. Please claim the profile reward in time.]
Xiao Di suddenly fell silent, then jumped up on the spot: "I really got stronger! The landlord is amazing!"
After Xiao Di successfully checked in, he was given 3,000 ghost coins. This is sustainable; he pays them every month. The ghosts in the other rooms can't compare to him.
After saying goodbye to Xiao Di, Zhou Fangdong went to room 109.
The ghost in this room is male, and he's also connected to the dismembered ghost in room 109 of the building across the street. Before he died, he spread rumors online that the dismembered ghost had cheated on him to clear his name as a domestic abuser and murderer, attempting to reduce the scumbag's sentence through public pressure.
Unexpectedly, it also died in the Liwan Apartments.
After getting rid of the ghost, you will receive 3,000 ghost coins.
It seems that the unknown ghost baby in room 102 is the strongest, as it dropped 7,500 ghost coins in one go.
After clearing away the ghosts from these rooms, room 107 became accessible.
Zhou Fangdong stood at the door and used the [Heavenly Eye] skill to check the information of this boss room.
The ghosts and monsters inside...
Zhou Fangdong frowned.
"System, do we have to kill the ghosts in the boss room? I remember the main quest says 'clear the game'... How do we clear the game if we don't kill the ghosts in the room?"
The ghost type displayed below the [Boss Room] sign on the door of room 107 is [Crying Female Ghost]. Next to it is a line of small print: "The wife of Ghost Postman Cai Yizhan, forced to separate from her child and husband, cries all day long."
Zhou Fangdong originally thought that the ghost postman's wife and children were also ghost tenants like him, and could only be found by using the lottery function.
Unexpectedly, she became the boss of the first-floor room.
Even if he cannot complete the fourth main quest, Zhou Fangdong will not lay a hand on this ghost.
The Ghost Postman and his family died tragically because of an unscrupulous developer, and after their deaths, they were buried alive in the foundation of the apartment building.
The Ghost Postman values his family most, and his Pokédex entries all depict him hoping for family reunion. If his wife is harmed, he will definitely go on strike.
At that time, not only will we lose a ghost tenant, but the courier station will also be shut down, the online store will be unable to operate, the [lamp oil pendant] will not sell, and reputation growth will be suspended.
Although [Shadow Soul Contract] can forcibly control ghost tenants to work, doing so is no different from being an inhumane and unscrupulous developer.
Compared to the cost of losing the Ghost Postman, the main quest 4 is really nothing... If there really isn't any other way to complete the game, then he won't continue. Anyway, the main purpose of coming to the back building is to make money, and the Ghost Coins he just cleared out one floor of rooms are enough.
Upon hearing Zhou Fangdong's question, the system replied:
The answer is literal: simply fulfill the boss's request to pass the level.
Zhou Fangdong nodded.
In that case, let's start looking for the child.
He remembered that the Ghost Postman's guidebook mentioned he had a son and a daughter, and that the foundation was built with live piles. His wife lived on the first floor, so the children probably wouldn't be on a higher floor.
The place closest to the foundation... the hidden room in the basement where Ke Yan lives.
Let's go check on him first.
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