Chapter 105: Source of the Bodies in the Basement - Main Quest 6, Apartment Collapse...
After leaving the room, Zhou Fangdong immediately activated the [Heavenly Eye] skill.
In his eyes, the apartment at night transformed from a five-star hotel into a haunted house made of entrails and skeletons.
This time, he didn't encounter the zombie Taoist priest in the tenant corridor. Presumably, the Taoist priest had wandered to the other side of the corridor, and the two just happened to miss each other.
Zhou Fangdong walked to the door of room 101. As he approached the elevator, he asked uncertainly, "System, I can use the [Return] skill freely, right?"
Yes, the host can teleport back to the room at any time.
"No loading bar, no cooldown, I can teleport back whenever I want, right?"
【Yes】
Then there's no problem.
Zhou Fangdong walked to the elevator.
From his current perspective, the once luxurious elevator door had transformed into the mouth of a giant monster, with two rows of tightly closed fangs gleaming with a chilling white light.
This time, nothing rushed down from the elevator.
Zhou Fangdong wanted to take the elevator to the upper floors to investigate, but looking at the huge mouth full of hideous fangs in front of him, he couldn't convince himself to go in no matter what.
It looks dangerous; it feels like a lamb being led into the jaws of a tiger...
No, I can't be such a coward. He's not the penniless newbie he used to be.
If he doesn't figure out what kind of weird thing is running down from upstairs at night, he'll be stuck in his room staring at the system if it causes any trouble later.
Zhou Fangdong deactivated the [Heavenly Eye] skill, looked at the elevator that had returned to its original state, and without further hesitation, pressed the elevator open button and stepped inside.
The elevator looked luxurious with gold leaf on the outside, but inside it was extremely old and dilapidated.
The car was dimly lit, the surveillance system was broken, the walls were covered in scratches and rust, and there were splattered bloodstains on the ceiling.
The elevator floor buttons are blurry, and all the buttons above the 15th floor are incomplete.
The old-fashioned telephone above the floor control panel, which used to contact property management and security, had its lines cut and the handset missing, leaving only a lonely base stuck on it.
The dilapidated elevator interior, resembling a murder scene, actually made Zhou Fangdong feel a bit more relaxed—the environment was very similar to the Liwan Apartment during the day, giving him a sense of returning home.
Zhou Fangdong glanced at the numbers on the elevator floor buttons and selected a floor that looked relatively new and had been used less often: the 5th floor.
Since it was my first time taking an elevator to explore an apartment building at night, it was safer to start from a slightly safer floor.
After the floor button was pressed, the elevator started moving.
Contrary to its dilapidated appearance, the elevator ascended very smoothly, without the creaking sound of old metal rubbing together.
In just a few seconds, the elevator floor number stopped at '5'.
The elevator doors opened, revealing the fifth-floor apartment corridor at night.
It still looked like a luxurious hotel, not much different from the first floor, but Zhou Fangdong felt a chill run down his spine and didn't even dare to step out of the elevator.
Without further hesitation, he used the [Heavenly Eye] skill again.
The scene in the corridor changed instantly. Although it didn't resemble the haunted house on the first floor, which was filled with entrails and skeletons, it still looked very eerie.
The fifth-floor corridor seemed to have been torn apart and forcibly pieced back together by some terrifying force, with visual illusions everywhere. Every section of the wall was misaligned, and the floor was strangely raised, like a scene reflected in a broken mirror.
Those discontinuous, misaligned boundaries are sometimes a pitch-black slit, and sometimes a black vortex.
Whether it was the crevices or the vortexes, Zhou Fangdong had a very bad feeling about them. The places these crevices or vortexes led to seemed to be spatial turbulence that could obliterate everything, or like an endless abyss from which there was no end.
It seems that once you fall into that misaligned boundary, you can never come back.
There was one such crack in front of the elevator door, which was also the source of Zhou Fangdong's earlier feeling that something was wrong.
He turned sideways, carefully avoiding the crack, and walked towards the tenant corridor on the fifth floor.
However, the moment he stepped out of the elevator and stood firmly in the fifth-floor corridor, the system task panel suddenly popped up:
[Host detected arriving on the fifth floor of the apartment building at night; Main Quest 6 officially begins]
Main Quest 6: Banish the Main God and Prevent the Infinite Dungeon from Descending. Repair the collapsed areas of the Liwan Apartment building and strengthen its defenses. Clear the collapsed areas connecting to the Main God's dungeon and remove the external god's projections that entered the apartment from the collapsed areas.
[Note: For floors five and above, the collapsed area must be repaired overnight before the rooms can be cleaned and rented out during the day.]
[Renting out apartment rooms on the fifth floor or below, renovating apartments, clearing away ghosts from the buildings behind the apartment, and allowing the apartment to slowly repair collapsed areas on its own]
Looking at this new main quest, Zhou Fangdong couldn't help but frown.
Does the collapsed area refer to the cracks and black vortexes at these misaligned junctions?
According to the quest text, some collapsed areas connect to the entrance to the main god instance, and some collapsed areas can also allow the projection of the outer god to enter the apartment...
"System, what is this Outer God projection?"
Outer Gods are deities who roam the void. They have no world of their own, preferring to travel between worlds, seeking out those with weak defenses or undergoing transformation to devour. They take pleasure in destroying civilizations and feeding on suffering. Some, however, may be interested in humanity and enjoy its faith, and will play around with the world for a while before destroying it.
The Outer God projection is a spiritual projection of an Outer God. Because most Outer Gods are so large that they cannot be observed, when they invade the world, they usually create spiritual projections or spiritual clones to investigate.
Zhou Fangdong realized something: "Is the evil god of the Bone Inheritance Society also a kind of external god?"
The cracks and vortexes in the collapsed areas on the fifth floor reminded him of the black rift torn open in the sky of the mirror world by the arrival of an evil god.
Yes, because of the existence of evil gods and the main god, other outer gods dare not descend openly, but only secretly release spiritual projections and lurk in the shadows.
Currently, these alien projections are trapped on the rooftop of the apartment building.
Before completely expelling the evil god and the main god, the host needs to repair the collapsed area of the apartment to prevent other external gods from invading again.
[Note: Kerosene lamps can only ward off ghosts and spirits; they have no effect on projecting external deities.]
Zhou Fangdong understood. It seemed that what he encountered when he first left his room at night was not a ghost, but a projection of an alien god coming down from the top floor.
No wonder the kerosene lamp didn't work back then.
What was that teddy bear he encountered the second time? That teddy bear was very weak and affected by kerosene lamps. He stole it, body and ghost coins, with [Soul Absorption] the first time they met.
There are no memory fragments, it's not a ghost or monster, it seems more like a skill... Could it be a dungeon monster that ran out from a collapsed area of some connected infinite dungeon? Or is it a player's skill?
...But there's no need to worry too much. The real thing should still be in the apartment. Whatever it is, he'll find it sooner or later.
Zhou Fangdong looked at the gap at the elevator entrance.
"Since we're already here, let's try fixing it first."
"System, how do I repair the collapsed area?"
[...]
The system suddenly fell silent.
"system?"
[Requires bloodletting by the host]
Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief.
He was terrified. It was just bloodletting, why was it made so serious? He was so scared that he thought the system had suddenly disconnected again.
"I've kept the knife the butcher in the ghost market gave me inside the slime's body. Looks like I'll have to go to the hidden room on the second floor to get it..."
Please do not harm yourself. The system will provide you with bloodletting tools.
As soon as he finished speaking, a black ring appeared out of thin air on Zhou Fangdong's left index finger.
[After rotating the ring three times, needles will automatically appear, which can assist the host in bloodletting.]
Following the system's instructions, Zhou Fangdong turned the ring.
After a barely perceptible sting, a drop of blood trembled and flowed out, dripping down his finger and onto the crevice.
The dark gap in front of the elevator was quickly covered by a domineering red light.
Although the crack hadn't disappeared, the feeling of being potentially swept into the void at any moment was gone... It was as if the crack had been assimilated into part of the Liwan Apartments.
Moreover, Zhou Fangdong felt that the red gap was somewhat familiar, somewhat like the one he opened when he used [Dead Domain Invasion].
After the repairs were completed, Zhou Fangdong did not linger there.
There are many collapsed areas in the short corridor in front of the X elevator alone, and there are still many cracks and vortexes on the fifth floor waiting for him to repair.
The apartment was dilapidated, and the landlord patched it up.
After circling around the elevator doors, Zhou Fangdong arrived at the corridor leading to the tenant's room.
Just as he finished turning the ring and was about to drip blood onto the collapsed area in front of him, a ghost suddenly popped out from the wall next to him, startling him so much that he slapped it away.
Because the first-floor corridor was too quiet, Zhou Fangdong almost forgot that ghosts could also be active at night.
Although he is no longer afraid of ghosts, such a sudden, unannounced appearance is like seeing a cockroach flapping its wings and flying over while you are focused on doing something. Your first reaction would probably be to wave your hands frantically.
As luck would have it, the finger that Zhou Fangdong had just pricked and drawn blood slapped the ghost right across the face.
The moment it came into contact with the blood, it was swallowed by a strange, bloody light.
The aura emanating from that ghost was rising higher and higher; if classified by level, it seemed to have transformed from an ordinary C-level vengeful ghost into an A-level vengeful ghost.
As its strength rapidly increased, its eyes were slowly covered by a terrifying crimson.
But before losing its senses, the ghost's face gradually transformed into Zhou Fangdong's likeness, its expression instantly becoming blank, muttering:
"It hurts so much..."
Blood kept seeping from its body, and then half of its body and head suddenly collapsed, as if it had been crushed by a heavy object. Brain matter splattered everywhere, mixed with dripping blood, and the bare white bones broke into fragments, decorating the scarlet flesh with a red and white appearance.
The next instant, its body was completely intact again, then its face suddenly turned extremely pale, and dozens of throat-slitting wounds appeared out of nowhere on its neck.
At this point, no more blood was flowing from its body. The hideous wound on its neck was peeling open, revealing the pale, bluish flesh inside.
In the blink of an eye, the throat-slitting wounds disappeared, and the ghost's body was suddenly cut into dozens of pieces by invisible blades. The severed limbs and remains were scattered all over the ground like collapsed building blocks. Its lifeless eyes stared at the ceiling, and the sound coming from its mouth was no longer a painful wail, but... laughter.
It's laughing.
Amidst his maniacal laughter, the ghost began to retch again. Black cats with glowing green eyes emerged from his mouth, and his skin began to develop festering, coin-like wounds that rapidly spread, encircling his entire body. Cat-claw-shaped tumors grew from his neck, their claws writhing wildly and leaving horrifying scratches on his body.
The next instant, its flesh began to fester at an alarming rate, its limbs became deformed, and its tongue was pulled out of its mouth by an invisible hand...
The body was restored again, and then died again. The ghost died countless times and came back to life countless times. All sorts of bloody and terrifying deaths appeared and disappeared on its body.
It kept laughing throughout.
As Zhou Fangdong watched the ghost being tormented by various methods of death until it went mad with laughter, he silently took a step back.
Finally, amidst indistinct laughter, the ghost turned into a motionless corpse.
The corpse's final form of death was its disemboweled state.
Looking at the disemboweled body on the ground that looked exactly like his own, Zhou Fangdong silently clenched his hands, afraid of smearing blood on other places.
"System, are all the corpses in the basement from this source?"
【Yes】
Zhou Fangdong finally understood why the system was so worried about him bleeding... His blood seemed to have some kind of contamination, which would assimilate ghosts into his appearance, and then the ghosts would die as corpses after experiencing various ways of dying.
During the day, the apartment hallway is practically haunted by ghosts at every turn. If he accidentally smears his blood on one of them...
That scene was absolutely terrifying.
The corpse that made the lamp oil was essentially a ghost that had died after being contaminated and assimilated by his blood.
The power of evil gods is also corrupting; it can erode the souls of ghosts and monsters, assimilating them into part of the evil god.
If Zhou Fangdong hadn't witnessed the evil god descend upon the mirror world with his own eyes, he would have begun to doubt whether he himself was the evil god.
The kerosene lamp was repaired using slimes produced by the evil god's clone, so it seems the lamp's original material was also something similar to the evil god's clone that disgusted ghosts.
The lamp oil was made from the corpses of ghosts who died because of his blood, so it served to deter ghosts.
Is the kerosene lamp constructed from the power of an evil god, the oil from a gruesomely deceased ghost, and his blood?
No wonder it can dispel all ghosts regardless of level.
To put it simply, it's like someone carrying a corpse covered in excrement through a busy street—that's incredibly intimidating... The person carrying that thing is not only a pervert but also a deranged serial killer.
Zhou Fangdong looked at the ghostly corpse with his own face lying on the ground and sighed.
Sometimes it's better not to know the truth. He's starting to worry that he might accidentally bump into something and hurt the ghost in the apartment.
As Zhou Fangdong was feeling melancholy, the system's cold, electronic voice sounded again:
To prevent the spread of contamination, the body has been automatically moved to the basement.
As soon as he finished speaking, the disemboweled corpse on the ground vanished.
Even corpses can be contaminated?
Zhou Fangdong looked at his palm.
What kind of terrifying body did the system create for him? Can he really live a normal life in human society after being resurrected?
Zhou Fangdong sighed again.
Anyway, as long as I can survive, that's all that matters.
In order to recover and leave the apartment as soon as possible, I need to continue to work hard on the tasks.
The body repair is currently 90% complete. Hopefully, the unscrupulous merchant system won't follow Pinduoduo's example and get stuck in the last 10%.
Just as Zhou Fangdong was about to continue bleeding to fill the collapsed area, a figure dragging a teddy bear suddenly appeared slowly in the dark vortex on the ground, like a mirror.
The boy looked very young, probably a middle or high school student, and was running around in a panic.
The space he was in was separate from the space where the apartment was located.
From Zhou Fangdong's perspective, the boy in the floor vortex was running towards the apartment ceiling, so he was getting closer and closer to the ground, as if he might burst out of the vortex at any moment.
Zhou Fangdong noticed something amiss.
This is probably what the system meant by the collapsed area connecting to the main god's instance.
The teddy bear that ran out of the elevator and scared him last time was indeed a skill, a skill of an infinite flow player.
Within the black vortex, the boy's figure became clearer and clearer. Finally, as if he had made a desperate decision, he looked back at himself, gritted his teeth, and crawled out of the vortex, rolling over and sprawling on the apartment floor.
Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he felt his collar being grabbed and he was lifted off the ground.
The boy's face immediately turned deathly pale.
...Oh no, he knew that treating this godforsaken place as a safe house would eventually backfire!
He stared in horror at the man who had lifted him up, and then he found himself completely unable to muster any will to resist—it was like the feeling of utter despair and resignation one has when faced with a horrific natural disaster that one cannot resist. He was even a little afraid to look directly into those dark, lifeless eyes.
What surprised him even more was that the first thing this person said was:
"Hello, I'm the landlord here. Do you need a room to rent?"
The boy was stunned.
Renting a place? Are there shady real estate agents forcing people to buy and sell in an endless loop game?
"I……"
"No need to say anything more, I know you have it." Zhou Fangdong pointed to the dark, distorted void on the ground. "See? It's all because of you that our apartment was damaged. Either pay for it, or stay in the apartment and work for me to pay off the debt."
He wasn't angry because he had been frightened by the teddy bear last time; he just thought the boy had a unique physique and was very suitable to be a tenant.
He didn't mean any disgrace; he just wanted to snatch someone away from the Supreme God...
Zhou Fangdong activated the [Heavenly Eye] skill, maximizing the deterrence buff. He looked expressionlessly at the boy, then at the teddy bear in his arms.
...Damn it, you're the one who scared me with that teddy bear? You're not leaving now that you're here.
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