The cultured man began to show off his limited knowledge.
“At the very end of the street is a mountain.”
Zhou Qi’an looked; indeed, it was.
Shen Zhiyi: “There’s usually a ghost temple built on the mountain. All ghost markets have a powerful administrator, and under its control, whatever the ghosts below do must be approved.”
This wasn’t hard to guess. Ghosts had no self-control when it came to appetite, so there must be something limiting them.
Zhou Qi’an pondered for a moment, then stopped and said, “Let’s sell insurance first. If it’s convenient, ask about the members of the previous ten groups.”
For some reason, Shen Zhiyi didn’t refuse to take on the title of best sales champion. He gazed at the distant ghost temple, a surging desire in his eyes, which he quickly suppressed.
While Shen Zhiyi went to sell, Zhou Qi’an searched the world for coffee, cheap coffee.
Unfortunately, tourist areas had a starting price. He cursed his boss silently as he painfully pulled out money.
After buying coffee, he slowly strolled around Fengdu Street, discovering that all the closed shops uniformly displayed a sign that read: [Law-Abiding Model]–Awarded by the Mountain God Temple.
Below it was a small, inconspicuous line of text, like the owner’s acceptance speech: “Must abide by rules and regulations,” with a fingerprint pressed next to it.
The day slowly passed in exploration. Shen Zhiyi’s mental control ability was a perfect match for this industry. By the time the two returned in the evening, he alone had completed everyone’s sales target from yesterday.
“All the previous employees’ insurance policies were sold to the owner of one particular shop.”
“The same one?”
Shen Zhiyi nodded: “It’s the owner of a newspaper office, Fengdu Daily. There’s a chicken cage at the entrance, so it’s probably a ghost too.”
Zhou Qi’an thought, that ghost must be really good at retaliating against society, tricking people in and then killing them.
Shen Zhiyi suddenly said, “If the newspaper owner killed the employees, it shouldn’t be simply for eating people. This is a food street; there’s no shortage of people.”
Zhou Qi’an looked at him: “A food street?”
Shen Zhiyi blinked.
A few seconds later, he said, “There are quite a few food vendors on this street.”
Ghosts saw people as food, and he saw ghosts as food. Unfortunately, it had been a while since he had a satisfying meal.
Their eyes met, and Zhou Qi’an half-believingly looked away.
The mysteries surrounding Shen Zhiyi increased, but Zhou Qi’an had figured out quite a bit about the instance.
“The ten groups came to the ghost market before their disappearance. The [most suitable selling area] lured them to sell insurance here, and their insurance clients were ghosts.”
“We just don’t know how this transaction triggered the complete wipeout mechanism.”
As Shen Zhiyi said, if it was purely for killing, there wouldn’t be the extra step of buying insurance.
Zhou Qi’an quietly looked at this overly lively street, his eyes deepening.
Now, no more information could be extracted from the ten group members. Next, they had to start with the ghosts.
Returning to Hao Hui Sha Group in the evening, the middle-aged woman had the most grim expression.
When she vaguely mentioned the information that morning, she expected Zhou Qi’an to contact her, but she heard nothing all day. When she couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to contact him herself, she found that the group name had been changed to [Three Missing].
The middle-aged woman felt a strange sense of relief, at least it wasn’t four missing.
Manager Wang didn’t conduct any more random checks of the employee handbook today.
The rest was the same as yesterday. He showed a malicious smile and pinched the middle-aged woman’s waist, full of suggestive meaning.
After Manager Wang left, the old man finally said, “It seems that as long as we open the door for the knocking ghost at night, these employees won’t make things too difficult for us during the day.”
Tomorrow would be the third day. With the middle-aged woman acting as a shield, they still had one more day to find a way out.
The middle-aged woman knew exactly what these people were thinking, and her eyes suddenly darkened.
“I’ll open the door tonight.”
At these words, everyone looked at her in disbelief.
Zhou Qi’an stood with his arms crossed: “I got some clues from my outing today, but they still need further confirmation. If something really goes wrong, a prop can block it.”
Even the cold-faced little girl couldn’t help but say, “Are you really going to open the door?”
Shen Zhiyi also couldn’t help but frown.
Zhou Qi’an quickly gave him a “watch my performance” look.
“Otherwise?” Zhou Qi’an glanced at the middle-aged woman’s bandaged hand. “Let her go to her death?”
Saying that, he paused: “My position as a team leader can provide some protection for everyone. I’ll try to save people when I can.”
Everyone present was shrewd. They sensed something was off, but their emotions were still somewhat stirred.
Zhou Qi’an had indeed saved the middle-aged woman’s life yesterday.
Compared to this kind of courage, commanding others to do things for the past two days was nothing.
The middle-aged woman, who was already close to an emotional outburst, remained in a stiff posture, her expression extremely complicated as she looked at Zhou Qi’an.
The person she had tried every possible way to kill was, in a critical moment, the only one willing to step forward.
“Everyone,” Zhou Qi’an’s clear eyes looked at everyone, “in an unfamiliar place, unity is the only strength. Only when our team as a whole is strong can we better protect individual interests.”
The boss, who had just returned from the restroom, happened to hear this sentence.
It sounded so familiar.
Wasn’t that what he had told Zhou Qi’an that day?
According to the imprinting effect, people in crisis situations develop a strong sense of dependence on those who guide them.
The boss scanned the changes in the players’ expressions, thinking emotionlessly:
So many birds.
Zhou Qi’an was speaking passionately when he suddenly caught sight of his boss standing at the back of the crowd, watching him. His smile instantly stiffened quite a bit.
He promptly stopped his speech, only wanting to escape quickly: “I’ll go back and lie down for a while to prepare for the night.”
Shen Zhiyi’s peripheral vision also caught this scene. Although it wasn’t ideal, he once again realized that having a sword hanging over Zhou Qi’an’s head was correct. He himself couldn’t be ruthless, but external factors could somewhat keep him stable.
Zhou Qi’an ran to the elevator, actively pressed the open button, and when the door opened, he handed over the coffee, signaling for his boss to enter first.
Other players didn’t know his little trick and thought the door was opened for them.
The eleventh floor was as narrow and dim as usual. Zhou Qi’an, to avoid his boss, was the last to exit the elevator.
“Wait.” Just as he stepped out, someone called him.
It was the middle-aged woman. She looked at Zhou Qi’an, hesitated for a moment, and said, “Beware of fake knocking ghosts.”
Zhou Qi’an raised an eyebrow.
The middle-aged woman reminded him: “Reanimated corpses.”
Zhou Qi’an’s mind whirred, and he immediately understood the potential implications, secretly sighing that this instance was like a blunt knife slowly grinding meat, each cut fatal.
“The real knocking ghost only knocks three times,” the middle-aged woman recounted her experience from last night in detail: “That ghost… it was somewhat like a zombie, and it was holding a newspaper.”
“Newspaper?” Zhou Qi’an’s expression changed.
The middle-aged woman nodded, not understanding why he reacted so strongly. “After the door opened, I asked the ghost, ‘Is there anything you need me to do? Like, do you have any unfinished business?'”
At this point, the middle-aged woman took a deep breath: “As soon as I finished speaking, it suddenly attacked me.”
If it weren’t for her prayer beads, she would be reporting to the King of Hell right now.
In the middle-aged woman’s view, this ghost was almost unsolvable. She couldn’t help but ask, “How confident are you?”
Zhou Qi’an shook his head.
In an instance, no one dared to claim absolute certainty, let alone actively opening the door to a ghost.
The middle-aged woman also thought of this and fell silent again. Finally, as if having made some kind of decision, she said, “I owe you a favor. You can come find me after the instance is over. I have something to tell you.”
If he was still alive, she would repay this favor.
With that, the middle-aged woman quickly returned to her single dormitory room.
Zhou Qi’an stared at her retreating back, a satisfied smile on his face.
His specialty was leveraging favors.
Before, he only suspected, but now he was 100% sure that she was connected to the Whaler’s Association. A normal favor would be repaid with an item. To specifically mention telling him something after the instance ended, she was probably afraid he would back out if he knew the truth beforehand.
At this moment, in the empty and quiet corridor, only Zhou Qi’an and Shen Zhiyi remained. The light emanating from the door cracks infinitely elongated their figures.
Shen Zhiyi repeated the middle-aged woman’s question: “How confident are you?”
Zhou Qi’an pressed down his curled bangs: “One hundred percent.”
Did he even need to ask?
“…”
Zhou Qi’an was 70% sure he could persuade the ghost, and 100% confident in his ability to retreat unscathed, as long as he precisely controlled the timing and used his pocket watch at the critical moment to rewind time to one minute before opening the door.
If he couldn’t win, he would cheat. Only a fool would fight head-on.
Shen Zhiyi said, “Actually, there’s a more stable method.”
For example, asking in detail about the knocking ghost’s appearance and characteristics, then going to Fengdu Street to look for clues.
Zhou Qi’an shook his head: “There’s no need to sacrifice extra lives just for 100% certainty.”
Now was a good opportunity to unite everyone.
The instance was trying every possible way to reduce the number of players. If the employees died, wouldn’t he, the bachelor team leader, have to do all the work himself?
Moreover, at settlement, whoever contributed the most would get the most experience points. He didn’t want to hand over the vested interests to others.
“Speaking of which, thanks to your knowledge.”
“Hmm?”
“I’ve thought of a possibility.”
However, it was just a spur-of-the-moment idea, and whether it was true still needed to be verified.
Zhou Qi’an walked over to Shen Zhiyi and whispered a few words. The latter’s expression subtly changed, and then he looked at Zhou Qi’an with undisguised admiration, as if he were looking at an incredibly magnificent jewel that would shine even brighter in the future.
The instance progressed to its third day, and the world’s distortion deepened.
There were no windows in the dormitory, so he couldn’t see the night view outside, but in the dark room, Zhou Qi’an clearly felt the room temperature was much lower.
Thump, thump.
Perhaps because the trick failed with the middle-aged woman yesterday, the reanimated corpse changed targets. As soon as it was past midnight, the knocking sound came first.
With the middle-aged woman’s reminder, he calmly bent one leg and lay on the bed, not even glancing.
The thing outside seemed to have very sensitive hearing. It knocked for a while, but since it didn’t hear Zhou Qi’an getting out of bed or approaching the door, it instantly became irritable.
The door was frantically pounded, and dust fell from the ceiling.
Zhou Qi’an was trying to catch some last-minute rest. Annoyed by the noise, he grabbed the cup next to him and slammed it against the door:
“What are you knocking for? Knock on your parents.”
“Get lost, let the next one come.”
“…”
After a brief silence, the ghost pounded the door even more frantically.
“Crazy ghost,” Zhou Qi’an shook his head.
The ghost’s time for knocking was limited. After a long while without a response, it reluctantly left.
After a while, thump, thump, thump.
This time, it was three knocks.
Zhou Qi’an still didn’t move. Yesterday, two players had died in a row.
He just wondered if the one who died the first day would visit tonight.
He remained as steady as a mountain. The outside entity’s routine wasn’t much different from the previous one; it finished its exercise-like door-pounding and then left.
Ten minutes later, a new knocker arrived.
Zhou Qi’an finally moved. He turned on his phone’s flashlight, aimed it at the door, observed for a moment, and then said:
“Stop pounding, the corpse fluid is leaking in.”
Yesterday, there was a puddle of foul-smelling liquid in front of the middle-aged woman’s door. The true knocking ghost had knocked on everyone’s door on the first day, and it hadn’t left any wastewater then.
As soon as the sarcastic words came out, the sound of pounding on the door immediately became as dense as raindrops.
The soundproof door, not very soundproof to begin with, endured three rounds of torment, always maintaining a state of being about to collapse. Yet, on the other hand, it was sturdy enough to become the most perfect barrier against dirty things.
A knocking relay race came to an end.
The world quieted down. Zhou Qi’an resumed his initial posture, waiting for the true knocking ghost. Time passed by the minute. After a full half hour, thump, thump, thump. This time, the knocking was steady and strong.
Zhou Qi’an put away his relaxed expression and got out of bed to open the door.
The moment he pressed down the doorknob, he was somewhat nervous.
There were no lights in the corridor, which was quiet and dark. Only a faint glimmer from the toilet at the end reached here.
The distorted light reflected on the twisted ghost shadow in front of the door. The visitor’s posture was very strange; it held a newspaper in front of its face, with “Fengdu Daily” boldly written on it.
Zhou Qi’an was almost certain it was the president of Fengdu Daily.
The other party wore a tattered suit, and beneath the rotting fabric, a greenish torso was vaguely visible.
… Newspaper zombie.
Zhou Qi’an’s mind subconsciously conjured this description.
He wondered if it would be like the setup in Plants vs. Zombies, where the newspaper was a second life, helping to block one instance of damage.
The Newspaper Zombie did nothing, standing still at the doorway, always maintaining its reading posture.
For some reason, Zhou Qi’an felt that the other party was looking at him through that paper.
He desperately wanted to speak, but as the zombie’s arm straightened and the newspaper began to approach his face, Zhou Qi’an’s breathing became difficult, the air seeming to be cut off, so much so that he couldn’t speak for a moment.
The middle-aged woman had at least spoken two sentences yesterday, but he had opened the door for less than ten seconds, indicating that the ghost today gave players significantly less time to communicate.
Damn it.
Even more exploitative than his boss.
In just a few seconds, as his tongue nearly bled, he managed to utter the first word of the night: “Need…”
A damp, fishy smell surged into his throat. As the paper completely pressed against his face, Zhou Qi’an managed to finish:
“Do you need my help killing ghosts?”
Sincere, earnest. Although his throat felt frozen, his voice didn’t tremble in the slightest.
It was like discussing business.
The surrounding temperature continued to drop sharply. The newspaper froze at a distance of less than two centimeters from his face.
The ghost didn’t immediately attack.
Zhou Qi’an relaxed. A satisfied gleam flashed in his glasses. He knew, with a high probability, he had guessed correctly.
There had to be a reason why the knocking ghost only knocked and didn’t kill in the early stages, especially since the Newspaper Zombie had actually bought insurance with real money and silver.
No one would spend money for no reason.
This attitude was more like “having a request for someone.”
The question was, what was it asking for? To put oneself in its shoes, one first had to consider the ghost’s situation.
To be honest, the ghosts and players were in the same predicament: living under high pressure.
If players killed the group’s employees, it would be immediately discovered. According to today’s discoveries in the ghost market, the ghost market administrator had absolute control over the ghost market, and the [Law-Abiding] sign was the best evidence.
If players wanted to kill veteran employees, would ghosts also have ghosts they wanted to kill?
“Exchange for killing.”
An evolution of killing by exchange in another sense, this was the true way out.
Zhou Qi’an resisted the urge to let his teeth chatter from the yin energy, waiting for the zombie to state its conditions.
The newspaper in the newspaper owner’s hand slowly moved down an inch. After a moment, a pair of eerie, turning eyeballs were revealed. It said in a broken, hoarse voice:
“Your company’s people have sold insurance on Fengdu Street,” it chuckled. “I know this group likes to recruit talented individuals.”
Zhou Qi’an’s expression shifted slightly, and he pieced together the logic of the story.
The ghosts of Fengdu Street knew about the predicament faced by the previous group of employees.
And in the instance’s background story, players were positioned as a group of people with unique skills, ultimately standing out from the talent market.
That’s why this ghost thought of a mutually beneficial arrangement.
From this perspective, the basic setting of the story was: players’ abilities could deal with ghosts but not humans; ghosts could kill with restrictions—at least there were frequent homicides around Fengdu Street—but they couldn’t kill other ghosts.
A strong interest flickered in Zhou Qi’an’s eyes. This was much more interesting than selling insurance.
Actually, the middle-aged woman’s logic wasn’t wrong. Ghosts had things they needed them to do. In a four-star instance, her approach would have been fine.
Unfortunately, this was a five-star instance, requiring precise articulation of the ghost’s needs.
“Who to kill? I’ll take my team members and go kill them right now.”
The newspaper owner’s eyes solidified, staring intently at Zhou Qi’an, probably not expecting such an enthusiastic attitude.
“I have three enemies,” it said, its voice filled with deep hatred, its inch-long fingernails seemingly about to pierce the paper. “They are the manager of the [Other’s Experience Hall], the chef of the [Gluttony BBQ Restaurant], and the director of [Swimming Pool No. 33].”
A damp, decaying aura approached. The newspaper zombie chuckled: “Before mid-month, if any of my enemies are still alive…”
The rest of the sentence was replaced by a strange laugh.
Zhou Qi’an pursed his lips slightly. The knocking ghost wasn’t a multiple-choice question. If the players hadn’t triggered the relevant plot and managed to survive until the sixth day, it would still wipe them all out.
[Main Quest Generated]
The system’s prompt sound arrived in the dead of night:
[Main Quest: Ghost Slaying (0/3)]
[Quest Content: After each ghost slaying, please take the ghost’s head and personally deliver it to the newspaper owner. It helps you kill people, you help it kill ghosts. Isn’t that fair? Hehe, you’re all so good at killing!]
[Quest Reward: Human heads.]
“…”
After stating its demands in a threatening tone, the Newspaper Zombie slowly turned around. Its movements were sluggish, taking heavy steps throughout. The light in the restroom suddenly went out, and the entire corridor plunged into darkness.
The Newspaper Zombie vanished into the darkness, and the corridor returned to its initial silence.
Zhou Qi’an checked the time: 12:44 AM.
He stretched his limbs, which had stiffened from the yin energy. The next moment, he rolled up his sleeves and started pounding on the doors: “Wake up quickly, everyone out.”
I’m not sleeping, so why are you sleeping?
The first to open the door was Shen Zhiyi. His shadow was even more eager than he was, stepping forward to confirm Zhou Qi’an was safe. Then, it relaxed.
Shen Zhiyi deliberately made a louder noise when opening his door.
On the other side, the middle-aged woman cautiously opened her door a crack, observed warily for a while, and then stepped out.
The third person brave enough to emerge was actually the little girl.
Zhou Qi’an estimated the little girl’s height and said, “Go call the person living at the very end. I’ll go urge the others.”
Everyone was eager for the clues in Zhou Qi’an’s hands. Seeing that he seemed to want to wait for everyone to gather before speaking, the cold-faced little girl didn’t think much and went to knock on the boss’s door.
A few seconds later, the sound of the door opening was even louder than the ghost pounding on it. The boss’s hair was finally no longer meticulously neat, and his terrifying morning anger made him exude dark energy.
“What’s all the noise about?”
The boss instinctively shaped his fingers into claws, ready to crush the throat of the inconsiderate person disturbing his peaceful sleep.
He grasped empty air.
It was then that he opened his eyes and saw a small child standing at the door.
The boss stared at the still-chubby face for a few seconds, managing to suppress some of his anger, and violently tied his tie.
The moment the tie tightened around his neck, he returned to his usual refined villainous appearance.
The cold-faced little girl and her dog quietly moved further away from him.
By then, the remaining few had also arrived. Zhou Qi’an surveyed the group and began to recount his conversation with the knocking ghost.
“Exchange killings.”
As these four words came out, almost all the players’ eyes changed. They immediately understood some of the problems that had long bothered them.
The middle-aged woman pondered for a moment, her gaze at Zhou Qi’an becoming increasingly complex.
When the Whaler’s Association first contacted her privately, they gave the reason: a new player, too arrogant for his own good, had messed up one of their plans in the instance. But the association was short-staffed and busy searching for holy artifacts, so they hired others to settle the score.
Now, it seemed things might not be so simple.
To forge a deadly feud with a promising and intelligent newcomer simply due to a single conflict seemed too rash.
After Zhou Qi’an finished speaking, the little girl was the quickest to react, her short eyebrows furrowing: “You called us out, you don’t mean…”
“Let’s go, overtime. Everyone, come with me to kill ghosts.”
The little girl, who had worked ten hours today after running sales all day yesterday: “…”
Damn it, she’s still a child.
__
Author’s note:
Zhou Qi’an: Group Leader of Group Ten, perfect ten.
