Chapter 18

"...Mingming? Teacher Mingming?"

Qiu Yufei's worried voice came from the side, and Xu Ming came back to his senses.

"What's wrong? Is there something strange down there..."

Seeing that her face was not right, Qiu Yufei's tone became serious. Xu Ming thought for a while, but did not say much. He just led her back to the table to eat, and asked her to go home quickly after eating.

Qiu Yufei didn't understand, but left as she was told. Xu Ming was left alone. He sat there for a while, then opened the curtain and looked down.

But he could not see anything.

Xu Ming:...

"Eh?" She bent down skillfully and looked under the bed, and used a broom to pull out the blubber man hiding underneath, "Do you have any idea about that thing downstairs today?"

"...Ah?"

The blubber man was lying in the dustpan, his eyes were still half asleep, and he was confused when he heard the words: "What downstairs? What does it have to do with me?"

Don't ask it about all kinds of weird things, okay? It's not a search engine!

"The man downstairs who didn't open his mouth." Xu Ming crossed his arms, and said in a righteous manner, "You didn't feel it?"

Aren't the abnormal beings in novels all very sensitive, and can grin at their peers from a distance?

"——Please don't just add settings based on your imagination, okay? How can it be sensed from such a long distance? It's not ABO!" The blubber man was about to collapse.

"Besides, I've already said that I'm a mutant root, and I'm originally blunt... What misunderstanding do you have about my settings?"

Xu Ming raised his eyebrows: "What do you mean? Is the perception ability of the mutant root very weak?"

"At least it's very weak in reality!" The blubber man said unhappily, "There is a natural wall between order and disorder... Just staying in this world is enough to make people uncomfortable."

It's like wearing a heavy sack on my body, and the perception of the outside world is separated by a layer. Not to mention long-distance sensing, it may not be possible to find people accurately at close range.

This is why many mutant roots prefer to stay in the strange story area.

It is actually not bad. Some mutants, when in reality, not only have a dull perception of the outside world, but even have difficulty understanding certain concepts, especially when it comes to cognition such as direction, numbers, time, and color. They are often completely in the dark and can easily appear to be missing a brain stem...

"In that case, it might not be easy for the man you mentioned to find this place."

In the room, the whale man pinched his own feet and said casually: "Residential areas are the most annoying thing. There are geometry and numbers everywhere. For mutants, it's like a maze." "

?" Xu Ming raised his eyes to look at it, "How do you know that guy is a mutant? You haven't seen it before."

"It's very simple, did it threaten you?" The whale man spread out his hands, "At least from your description, it came here specifically to find you, and intended to attack you."

"And the dead can't attack the living directly. They can only intimidate. And it's coming to you at this juncture, most likely for the rule book. Most of the dead are ignorant, and even if they have roots, they have no concept of 'cultivation'. In comparison, the mutated roots understand what they need better."

It blinked the big kazilan eyes it had just pinched out, and looked at Xu Ming meaningfully:

"I told you, the matter of the rule book will be very tricky once people know about it."

"..."

Xu Ming pursed his lips, but didn't speak for a while.

Seeing this, the whale man thought she was scared and sneered instinctively. Just as he was about to say something, he saw Xu Ming suddenly raised his fist -

and then with a thud, it hit it directly.

Whale Man: ...

? ! ! "What are you doing?!" It looked over in shock, and it just laughed?

"Sorry, just testing the feel." Xu Ming apologized insincerely and looked at his hand, "If I can hit you... then I should be able to hit it too?"

All the fear came from insufficient firepower. No matter who the opponent is, as long as you can attack, it's not a big problem.

The whale man listened, but couldn't help but slap his forehead.

"What's the point of you using me for experiments? I'm tied to the rule book, and you're the holder of the rule book, so of course you can touch me."

"Abnormal beings like mutant roots have external manifestations that are similar to so-called ghosts. It would be strange if you could beat them."

Of course, there are such people, but just like Xu Ming's idiotic characteristics, this is a kind of distortion of psychic ability, and it can only be effective in the ghost story area.

In reality, it is a fantasy for humans to touch abnormal beings with bare hands.

"What can we do?" Xu Ming frowned, "Rule book?"

"This is the only way." The whale man exhaled, "But it also depends on the specific ability."

Like Xu Ming's rule book, only two abilities have been unlocked so far, "Paper Robe Authority" and "Work Badge Printing". Among them, "Paper Robe Authority" is only effective in the area of ​​​​the strange story, and it is definitely useless. As for "Work Badge Printing"...

"Wearing a work badge means being bound." Xu Ming had an idea, "Can we touch it after being bound?"

"That also requires it to be willing to wear it, and not to take it off after wearing it." The whale man said.

...Then this is indeed a bit unrealistic.

Xu Ming sighed again, and suddenly seemed to think of something. His eyes turned and his gaze fell on the whale man again.

"Wait a minute." She tilted her head, "Then can you fight?

"Of course not." The whale man immediately said, "I'm not good at fighting."

"But you can hit it." Xu Ming said slowly.

"Yes, I can..." The whale man suddenly realized something was wrong halfway through his words, "Wait, what do you mean I can hit it? ”

“…”

The only response to it was Xu Ming’s meaningful gaze and a long silence.

Blubber Man: …

Save me.

Although I have no idea what she is thinking, but save me.

*

That night.

Two o’clock in the morning.

The room was dim, and Xu Ming was lying on the bed, sleeping soundly.

——In her opinion, it was not wise to be afraid to sleep because of some hidden threat. Reasonable rest is very necessary.

Moreover, according to her experience, when it is really not time to sleep, the body will wake up on its own without anyone urging it.

... Just like now. In the dream, the self suddenly fell from a high altitude. Xu Ming, who was lying on the bed, suddenly opened his eyes. His heart was still pounding because of the nightmare just

now. Soon, he seemed to realize something and sat up suddenly

- there was a sound.

There was a sound outside the door.

Footsteps. Rhythmic and clear, echoing from the corridor one by one, the sound gradually increased from small to large, and it was obviously getting closer.

... Is it finally here?

Xu Ming's breathing stagnated slightly, and he tensed up. He subconsciously reached for the bedside table next to him, but then frowned again.

The sound stopped. But it didn't stop at his door.

It seemed to be a little further away, probably 1608 or 1609... Then there was a rustling sound, and occasionally a harsh beeping sound. Xu Ming was stunned for a moment before he realized that it was the sound of trying the door lock.

——The apartment building where Xu Ming lives uses electronic door locks.

...Does the monster need to unlock the door before entering?

This question only stayed in Xu Ming's mind for a short moment, and was soon suppressed with a click -

it opened the door.

Xu Ming suddenly became alert. Did it go in? Which room did it go into? Why? Should she raise the alarm immediately or go and have a look...

Before she could figure out what was going on, she heard another bang.

The door was closed, and the footsteps began to wander in the corridor again.

Not long after, they stopped again. Then there were the sounds of trying to lock and open the door. In less than a minute, the door was closed again, and the footsteps began to wander again.

Beep, click, bang.

Beep, click, bang.

The same sound kept repeating, and Xu Ming's breathing became more and more rapid.

What exactly did that guy want to do? Was he trying to scare himself? Was he trying to increase his pressure in this way? But how did he know that he was awake at this moment?

...Or was he mistaken? The guy who came tonight was not the one who came during the day? Then why did it open the door over and over again? It couldn't be that it was also looking for someone...

Wait a minute.

Recalling what the whale fat man said during the day, Xu Ming suddenly realized.

Yes, looking for someone. Maybe it really is looking for someone.

- That guy during the day, it counted the floors, but it didn't count the rooms. So now, it is blindly searching one room after another based on its feeling -

... stupid, stupid?

Xu Ming was silent for a moment, and for a moment he didn't know who was more stupid, the monster that couldn't find the door, or himself who was scared by the monster that couldn't find the door and was sweating profusely.

At this moment, the footsteps in the corridor stopped again.

Xu Ming was shocked, and his back stiffened again.

... This time, the footsteps finally stopped in front of her door.

The beeping sound of the lock test rang again, as harsh as claws. Xu Ming paused for breath and completely opened the bedside cabinet next to him -

inside was a newly opened pair of stockings, and the stockings were like a motionless whale blubber man. To put it in

a rounded form, it was a meteor hammer that could hit the opponent.

Slowly grasping one end of the stocking in his palm, Xu Ming stared at the flashing door lock and swallowed slowly.

At the door, the long and harsh sound of the lock test finally ended. With a click, Xu Ming's heart finally hung to the highest point -

it's coming!

She took a deep breath and suddenly turned over and got out of bed. The next second, she heard a scream from outside the door!

The whale fat man who was sleeping curled up in stockings woke up suddenly and grabbed his socks in fear:

"What's going on? Are you going to fight?! Don't hit my eyes, I just pinched my European double eyelids--" "

...Quiet." Xu Ming was confused by the noise, and he shouted in a low voice and hurried to the door. After looking at the cat's eyes for a while, he showed a dazed look again and opened the door hesitantly.

Outside the door, there was silence. The always-on lights illuminated the entire corridor, and there was no human figure at all.

...There seemed to be something on the ground. Xu Ming leaned over and took a closer look, and found a few bloody broken teeth.

Next to the broken tooth, there was a footprint that was so shallow that it was almost invisible. It was red and a little messy. Xu Ming felt it was familiar. After thinking for a while, she remembered that the footprint was almost exactly the same as the rain boot print she saw in the closet before, but it was a little shallower.

The footprint extended forward. Xu Ming hesitated for a moment, and decisively followed it with her stockings pulled up. She followed all the way to the escape passage downstairs, and picked up a piece of snakeskin bag fragments and a piece of...

well, a bloody piece of meat in the corner.

Xu Ming was not sure about the origin of the meat, but she was sure that she had seen the fragments. The strange man in the daytime was carrying a moving snakeskin bag.

Next to the minced meat, there were those red rain boot footprints again, the color was much darker than before, and continued to extend outward.

Xu Ming was even more confused, so he simply continued to follow. Following the set of footprints, she walked out of the escape passage, passed through the corridor downstairs, and disappeared into the elevator.

...Xu Ming tried to press it, and the elevator came down from the upper floor. So she took the elevator back upstairs, and sure enough, in the corridor outside the car, she saw new bloody footprints.

The color was darker and more vivid. Along the corridor all the way inside. Xu Ming walked along and finally stopped in front of her own door.

"..." Pursing her lips, she quickly opened the door. In the room, blood-red footprints were like blooming flowers, scattered everywhere. Xu Ming followed them around and finally locked onto her own closet.

She took a deep breath and opened the closet.

Inside the closet, a trembling figure was curled up.

He was wearing a dust mask on his face and a hotel cleaning uniform. He was wearing rubber gloves for cleaning, one of which had a hole in it; he was wearing a pair of dark rain boots on his feet, and large patches of blood were spreading under his shoes.

Noticing the door opening, she slowly raised her head. Through the gap of the dust cap, there was a pair of dark eyes. Next to the eyes, large burns were faintly visible.

"I'm sorry." She spoke to Xu Ming in a very low voice, "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, I soiled your bag and the closet."

Xu Ming: ...

*

To be honest, Xu Ming was really confused now.

Until she persuaded the girl out of the closet. Her mind was still full of confusion.

But thinking of the teeth and minced meat she saw before, she probably figured out one thing.

"Did you chase away that thing outside?"

She squatted down and looked at the curled-up girl. She tried to speak as slowly as possible and said, "It was the man with the snakeskin bag. You helped me chase it away, right?" "

..." The girl looked up at her slowly, and nodded after a moment, "Yeah."

"You helped me. So I want to help you, too."

"Help you?" Xu Ming was a little confused, "When did I help you?"

"You, took me out." The girl spoke very seriously, raised her hand weakly, and pointed at the bag Xu Ming put in the corner, "You also, spoke for us."

"Thank you. Thank you very much."

Xu Ming: "..."

So that's it. She remembered.

When she was on the third floor of Hongqiang, in order to hide the key to the downstairs from Lao Li, she once picked up a rubber glove with a hole in it. After that, the glove seemed to have been kept in the bag and never taken out again...

Until she left Hongqiang, she checked the things in the bag again, but she didn't see the glove again. Because ordinary objects taken out of the ghost story area will disappear themselves, she didn't study it carefully.

Looking at the girl's torn gloves opposite, everything seems to be self-evident.

"So, the bloodstains on the bag are yours, and the rain boots I saw before..." Xu Ming murmured, and suddenly frowned, "Then you deliberately avoided me before? Why?"

"..." The girl silently tugged at the hood on her face and said nothing.

Xu Ming observed her movements and wisely did not ask any more questions. Instead, he said:

"Then recently, many people in the community have seen strange shadows... is it you too?"

"... I'm sorry." The girl murmured, shrinking herself a little tighter, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. I just wanted to go home, but I can't remember where my home is. I only remember that it's nearby..."

Because she really couldn't remember, she could only turn around like a headless fly. She was obviously very careful, but sometimes she couldn't control herself and was accidentally seen by others...

"It's okay, it's okay, don't worry. You beat the bad guys away today, I can't thank you enough!" Xu Ming said quickly, and while speaking, he looked down inadvertently and his heart skipped a beat.

Under the girl's rain boots, the bloodstains were spreading more and more, like spilled paint; the girl herself was shaking more and more violently.

"......Hey." Vaguely aware that something was wrong, Xu Ming quickly pulled the whale man out of the stockings, "What's going on? Is it serious?"

"Oh, it's nothing serious." The whale man just glanced at him lightly, turned around and crawled under the bed again, "It's just an image of death."

Xu Ming: "..."

"!" She pulled him back with her backhand, "Speak clearly!"

"What are you talking about? That's what it means..." The whale man sighed, "To put it bluntly, he can't stand it anymore and is going to disappear."

...? !

Xu Ming glanced at the girl in surprise, then quickly retracted his gaze and lowered his voice: "How could it be..."

"Why not? She was a soul that was supposed to disappear. It's a gift that she can stay until now." The whale man was helpless, "I thought about it, and I guess her soul was originally one of the stronger ones. She was not completely dead. You put her in your bag when she was strong before, and she was inadvertently contaminated by the power of the rule book, so she was able to jump out again..."

"But this kind of temporary contamination can't provide much power. She just fought with the mutant roots... To be honest, it's very powerful for a dead person to drive away the mutant roots. You can't ask too much of her."

Xu Ming: "..." Is this a question of me asking too much?

"Wait, you just said that she was touched by the power of the rule book." She blinked and suddenly realized, "Then if I give her the rule book again..."

The blubber man: "Do you think it's American ginseng, that you can easily hang on?"

Xu Ming: "...What about tying it up? Tie it up like you do?"

This time, the blubber man was silent.

After a while, it slowly said: "This is feasible, but I have to say that I don't know how I tied it up..."

If it knew, it would have run away long ago.

Xu Ming already had a plan in mind, took a deep breath, and took out the rule book again.

"Little sister." She said to the person opposite her as she turned the pages, "You're about to disappear. And I have a way to let you stay in this world. The key is, are you willing?" The

trembling girl raised her head suddenly, and after a moment, she stammered and nodded.

"I want to see my home." She whispered, "Although I don't remember it, I want to take another look."

"Okay." Xu Ming pondered for a moment, nodded lightly, "Then I'll help you."

I will help you find a home. Although I don't know how long it will take, I promise I will help you.

Xu Ming pursed his lips and finally turned the rule book to the page with the printer. He wanted to figure out how to print it, but when he looked closely, he paused again.

He saw that on that page, there were new changes at some point.

——In the blank area, there is a neatly-made box, inside which is a smaller box, and several empty horizontal lines.

It looks like a blank work card template.

Realizing this, Xu Ming suddenly had a bold idea.

At the same time, the whale man also poked his head out again:

"…If you are really unsure of how to use it, you can only wait until you enter the strange story area. The use of the rule book actually depends on inspiration and talent, and it may be easier to trigger in the strange story area…???"

Seeing Xu Ming seriously taking out a fountain pen from his bag, the whale man paused:

"Wait, don't tell me you're going to draw directly..."

Before it could finish, Xu Ming had already started writing quickly on the rule book.

She had learned to draw before, and her hand speed was fast. It didn't take long for her to sketch a simple Q-version image in the work card template; she just casually filled in a number for the work number.

As for the unit she belonged to... Xu Ming paused for a moment, and after thinking about it, she curled her lips and filled in "Strange Talk Demolition and Relocation Office".

"Then in the end, only the name is left." Xu Ming raised his eyes and looked at the translucent figure opposite, "I'm not really sure, but you said your home is nearby, and I picked up the gloves from the third floor of Hongqiang..."

Although he was wearing a mask on his face and it was difficult to recognize, Xu Ming still wanted to give it a try.

"Gu Yunshu." She said softly, "I will register this name for you first. If you remember your own name in the future, or want to take another name, I will change it for you, okay?"

"..." The cleaner just tilted his head when he heard it, and it was not known whether he understood it or not.

After a while, he heard her say softly: "Okay."

Xu Ming breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his head, and carefully wrote the three words "Gu Yunshu" on the template in front of him.

With great solemnity, the last stroke fell.

Nothing happened.

"..." What's going on?

Xu Ming's eyebrows skipped a beat, and she began to study the rule book in her hand over and over again. Just when she was about to pick up the book and shake it, the whale fat man next to her suddenly exclaimed in a low voice——

"Oh, interesting."

...?

Xu Ming looked up in confusion, and then he noticed that there was something on the chest of the cleaning staff opposite him -

a palm-sized rectangle, neatly sealed with plastic. Inside the plastic was a Q-version portrait she had just drawn, and neatly listed personal information.

- A work badge, belonging to the Demolition and Relocation Office, appeared out of nowhere on the person opposite him.

However, what was tied to the badge was not a thin rope or a belt, but several thin red lines. When people looked at it, it would gently flutter, like floating blood threads.

Xu Ming: "..."

This line seems quite familiar?

Come to think of it, the red line between the blubber man and the rule book seems to be the same...

Xu Ming thought silently, and noticed that the cleaner opposite him began to lower his head and fiddle with his work badge, and he couldn't help but straighten up:

"How is it? Do you feel anything special?"

"..." The cleaner was silent for a while, shook his head lightly, paused, and whispered, "Thank you, thank you."

"It's okay, no need..." Noticing that the bloodstains under her feet finally stopped spreading, Xu Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief, "Let's leave it at that for now."

After saying that, he prepared to put away the rule book. While flipping through it, he noticed another thing.

——The page on the front of the printer with the initial three skills printed on it seemed to have changed.

Originally, of the three skills, the first two were blackened boxes. Now, looking at it again, it can be clearly felt that the black in the second box has faded, and even the handwriting below can be faintly seen.

...What does this mean? The skills are further unlocked?

Xu Ming was stunned for a moment, and immediately grabbed the whale man again. The latter was also confused, and after a long while he said: "No, you ask me, I also..." "

Could it be that because the unit has been expanded, the unlocking progress has been advanced?"

"......?" What unit, is that the monster talk about dismantling? ?

Xu Ming was speechless for a moment. The whale man yawned and said, "Oh, I don't know even after you told me this... If it doesn't work, you can try again."

"Go to the roadside and find a wandering ghost to issue work badges and see if the unlocking progress will change again."

"What you said." Xu Ming couldn't help shaking him, "Am I an HR who brushes performance? Just for KPI, anyone can be hired? And how can there be so many abnormal beings waiting for me to issue work badges..."

"Yes!" The cleaning girl was suddenly excited when she heard it, "Yes! Yes!"

"Yes?" Xu Ming looked at her strangely, "What?"

"There is someone, you can take it." The cleaner pointed to her rule book and tried to organize the sentence, "You can take it, your badge."

"It's nearby."

"...Nearby? In the community?" Xu Ming frowned, thinking of other rumors in the community recently, "Is it also undead?"

"Not sure." The girl whispered, "but he is there."

"Always guarding one place, stupid and pitiful."

He is only there at night and disappears during the day. At the same time, he seems to be a very nice person. She had seen him when she was wandering around, and he had treated her wounds, which reduced her bleeding.

"..." After silently looking at the blubber man, Xu Ming looked at the time and stood up resignedly.

Putting aside the issue of issuing work badges, since it is known that there is a conscious alien living in the community, it is better to go and see it first.

The girl immediately floated up and happily began to lead the way for them. To Xu Ming's surprise, the man was really close to his home -

in the next unit building.

As the girl walked all the way to the next door 1603, Xu Ming soon saw the "good man" she mentioned.

A tall man with pale skin and handsome face, wearing a hoodie and carrying a travel bag, looks like a decent human being.

...Or rather, looks quite decent. So much so that when Xu Ming saw him, he was stunned for a moment.

The subtle thing is that the other party was also obviously stunned when he saw her.

"Xu Ming?" He opened his lips slowly, as if he couldn't believe his eyes.

Then he raised his hand and pointed to 1603 next to him.

"You, don't live here?"

...?

Xu Ming was stunned. What kind of question is this?

"Of course not." After hesitating for a while, she said truthfully, "I live next door."

The man opposite looked even more stunned: "No. 276?"

Xu Ming's eyes immediately became more alert: "How do you know?"

"..." The man only looked at her more blankly, "So why don't you live here?"

The girl next to him finally couldn't stand it anymore and said, "Well, this is No. 274."

Man: "..."

I don't know if it was Xu Ming's illusion, but after he said this, the other person's expression suddenly became a little stiff.

The whole person seemed to be covered by a heavy shadow.