Years as a corporate slave were not for nothing.
Zhou Qi’an was most skilled at flattery and manipulation. Every statement he made was precisely calculated to consider the other party’s perspective, while subtly conveying his own intentions, making the flattered party feel as if they saw through everything, yet not caring too much.
Just like now, the Newspaper Zombie completely felt Zhou Qi’an’s hatred for the group. But it didn’t care at all. In fact, because the other party was purposefully seeking help from a ghost, it didn’t have too many suspicions.
The eyes hidden behind the broken lenses and the newspaper could hardly move away from the pocket watch.
“This watch, give it to me first,” the newspaper boss said, his voice hoarse and deliberate.
“Impossible,” Zhou Qi’an refused flatly, as if embracing death. “In short, you can only get it with a head.”
“Three for one, what are you hesitating for!”
Seeing the Newspaper Zombie’s continued silence, Zhou Qi’an anxiously threw a head at it—a friendly sponsorship from Sixth Master.
“A deposit!”
Zhou Qi’an knew he had to give this vampire something to get it to move.
Shen Zhiyi could feel the illusion. Even with Sixth Master’s ability, the situation was still under control.
Seeing him clutch the pocket watch tightly several times, as if ready to use it at any moment, the Newspaper Zombie determined that the man was on the verge of collapse and magnanimously said, “Fine.”
A cold wind swept by. Before the words were even finished, the Newspaper Zombie suddenly approached. Shen Zhiyi stepped in front of Zhou Qi’an first.
The usually invincible newspaper was actually blocked in mid-air.
After being stopped, the Newspaper Zombie chuckled, “I just need something that belongs to the target, for tracking.”
Knowing this ghost was still planning a sneak attack, Zhou Qi’an obediently hid behind Shen Zhiyi and said, “Wait, I’ll go get it for you.”
He certainly couldn’t take the porcelain doll or other items that hinted at the group owner’s identity, nor could he. Worried that the office door would mysteriously lock again, Zhou Qi’an directly manipulated his white silk to retrieve the item.
In a moment, a potted plant that had been pulled from the soil appeared in front of the Newspaper Zombie.
Having been in the same space for a long time, this plant had surely absorbed some of the group owner’s aura, but not too much. In every sense, it was a suitable source for tracking.
“You wait here…” the Newspaper Zombie turned stiffly, its neck covered in foul-smelling corpse spots. “I’ll go get a head and be right back.”
It wasn’t afraid of Zhou Qi’an running away. No matter where he went, it could find him.
The moment the Newspaper Zombie turned around, Zhou Qi’an glanced at his phone. There was a new message in the group chat: [Found the inkstone.]
Zhou Qi’an immediately replied: [Bring the things downstairs immediately.]
He then gave a few more instructions.
While sending the message, he followed closely behind the Newspaper Zombie.
The Newspaper Zombie stopped.
Zhou Qi’an mustered his courage and said, “I want to see you kill him with my own eyes.”
What a fitting request for his character!
This request also resonated with the Newspaper Zombie. It was happy to have Zhou Qi’an follow, so it could promptly carry out the second harvest after dealing with the target.
Following meekly all the way, Zhou Qi’an activated an anti-eavesdropping item and said to the other two:
“It seems this ghost’s sense of smell is better than the hound’s. We can use it as a dog to lead us to the last of the four treasures of the study.”
The four treasures of the study would surely be more imbued with the group owner’s aura than ordinary items.
The hound certainly couldn’t achieve this level of scent tracking, or they would have found everything long ago. They had to switch dogs.
The office was where the group owner’s aura was strongest, but there was no one there, and he had temporarily sent the other players away. Zhou Qi’an had even specifically instructed Chen Su and the others to find a way to temporarily reduce their presence and aura.
By eliminating a large number of uncertain scent factors, finding the last brush was only a matter of time.
His boss suddenly asked, “Are the group owner and the Ghost Market’s administrator the same person?”
Zhou Qi’an nearly slipped, looking over in surprise.
That reaction was enough to answer the question.
“The brush, ink, paper, and inkstone can all be linked to the business license, and you’re so eagerly encouraging the newspaper ghost to act.” His boss sneered, “You’re full of such simple and obvious tricks. Do you think I can’t see through you?”
Zhou Qi’an feigned agreement, then turned and mouthed disdainfully to Shen Zhiyi: “He gets it again.”
Mr. Know-it-all.
After circling the fourteenth floor for a while, the Newspaper Zombie’s gaze turned to the reading area, as if it had confirmed something, and then walked towards it without hesitation.
The reading area was semi-open, with no door, just a section separated by sofas and bookshelves.
By the moonlight, Zhou Qi’an could vaguely see that some books were misplaced, and cushions were piled messily on the sofa. It seemed that some players had searched here recently, and the result was obvious: they had found nothing.
The Newspaper Zombie looked at the ladder next to it.
Zhou Qi’an narrowed his eyes.
The Newspaper Zombie was looking for someone. There was no one on top of the bookshelf, so why was it looking at the ladder?
“How could… he not be here.”
The Newspaper Zombie was slightly confused.
As if having lost all patience, Zhou Qi’an stepped forward before it could.
“Where is he! How can you not find him?” He threw a tantrum, kicking over the ladder. “You damn boss, come out, come out!”
He used all his strength, not forgetting to brandish his cane like a ruffian.
Books fell to the ground in a mess, and the ladder’s leg was broken. Zhou Qi’an kicked it, and the ladder moved closer to his boss.
Seeing him on the verge of madness, the Newspaper Zombie once again considered a sneak attack.
As luck would have it, Shen Zhiyi was standing right in front of Zhou Qi’an, his eyes giving off a faint warning.
The Newspaper Zombie naturally knew these people had some skills, or it wouldn’t have cooperated with them. But once it had completely devoured all the heads…
Then, all these heads would be its.
The Newspaper Zombie’s focus was entirely on Zhou Qi’an. His boss calmly inspected the ladder.
A small section of the broken part was hollow. He tapped it lightly with his finger, and a brush smoothly fell into his hand.
With that, the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone were all collected, but the people were not.
The items were currently in the hands of various players.
The Newspaper Zombie suddenly reacted again. This time, it was looking at the sky garden.
“Is he there?”
It seemed to have sensed a faint aura there.
Zhou Qi’an’s eyelid twitched. Damn, could the Ghost Market’s administrator really be on this floor?
He didn’t follow, still feigning madness and stomping his feet. He secretly sent a message, telling the other players to quickly find a way around the sky garden and gather in the reading area.
Shen Zhiyi reminded him, “The paper shredder is in the office. To get there from here, the sky garden is a must-pass.”
Zhou Qi’an nodded.
According to the instance’s malice, if the group owner was here, he would definitely be in the sky garden.
If this were a three-star instance, he could already be sitting on the sofa, waiting for the Newspaper Zombie to walk to its doom. But in this instance, the probability of the Newspaper Zombie actually confronting the group owner and getting beaten half to death was very low.
“Please let it get beaten a quarter to death,” Zhou Qi’an made a practical wish.
The Newspaper Zombie had already walked over. The elevator finally responded.
The elevator reached this floor, and the first to run out to investigate was the hound. Zhou Qi’an clapped his hands twice, and the hound immediately ran towards him.
Soon after, Chen Su and the others came out of the elevator. Confirming it was safe, they quickly ran over.
After midnight, they had all felt hopeless, but then the situation took a turn, and the Newspaper Zombie was somehow delayed.
Zhou Qi’an said, “Quick, give me the things.”
As she handed over the ink and inkstone, Yuan glanced into the distance and vaguely saw the figure of the Newspaper Zombie.
Zhou Qi’an finally got the last brush from his boss, and the system prompt finally came again:
[Congratulations on collecting a complete set of brush, ink, paper, and inkstone]
[The paper shredder password has been issued]
[Password: 444478]
“…”
What a good omen.
Zhou Qi’an took a deep breath. “Now all that’s left is to start the paper shredder and destroy the license.”
The others also noticed that to get to the office, they would have to pass the section where the Newspaper Zombie was. Qiao Song asked, “What about climbing through the ceiling or the outer wall?”
Zhou Qi’an shook his head.
The office was different from other places. The ceiling was a solid wall. The porcelain doll’s shadow could expand infinitely to cover the windows, so climbing in through the window was even more unreliable.
To get in, it seemed the only way was through that special door.
Destroying the business license was best done by someone fast. Zhou Qi’an volunteered, “I have experience. You all just need to guard my back.”
Fearing he was being too subtle, he added, “You guys hold off the newspaper boss, I’ll go to the paper shredder.”
“…”
The distant corridor was filled with a putrid smell. For some reason, the Newspaper Zombie just stood there. The sky garden was so close, yet it didn’t go in.
Wasting time was not beneficial. The group could only grit their teeth and move forward.
The sound of extremely light footsteps echoed in the oppressive, dark corridor.
Rustle, rustle, rustle…
It was the sound of the newspaper.
With every step closer to the Newspaper Zombie, a sense of panic inevitably rose in everyone’s hearts. Just the ability to strip away their five senses was enough to serve them a heap of death notices.
There was no good way. With only a dozen meters left, Zhou Qi’an pushed his speed to the maximum and chose to rush straight through.
The Newspaper Zombie, which posed a great threat, was like a floating cloud, easily passed by Zhou Qi’an. As he panted and relaxed, he suddenly turned around and found the Newspaper Ghost right beside him, with the familiar players behind it.
Yuan Nianshu, who was closest, had a look of clear shock on her face. They were supposed to help block the zombie. However, from the players’ perspective, Zhou Qi’an had just been doing a high-knee sprint in place.
In the darkness, the Newspaper Zombie’s eerie voice came: “Where… are you going?”
Zhou Qi’an calmly asked back, “Where’s the head I asked for?”
While asking, he quickly assessed the environment. Combined with the fact that the Newspaper Ghost had been seemingly circling in place earlier, Zhou Qi’an came to a very speechless conclusion: a ghost wall.
At this moment, the newspaper boss was peering at these players through the thin paper, suspicious.
During the time they were trapped, it gradually felt that something was wrong. Just now, its suspicion had reached its peak.
There was a difference between one person madly seeking death and a group of people doing it. These people seemed to have another purpose for rushing over.
As the newspaper boss pondered further, Zhou Qi’an, though not in the right, was still bold: “You got trapped by a ghost wall? What kind of ghost are you?”
“…”
In the silent confrontation, the players’ situation began to shift towards an absolute disadvantage.
Zhou Qi’an narrowed his eyes slightly. The ghost wall was definitely not the Newspaper Zombie’s doing.
To be able to easily control both humans and ghosts with such a method was enough to completely confirm that the Ghost Market’s administrator was the Hao Hui Sha Group’s owner.
The Ghost Market administrator’s plan was not hard to guess. First, it released its aura to block the path to the office with the Newspaper Zombie, then waited for the players to walk into the trap. When everyone was trapped by the ghost wall, it became a golden opportunity for the Newspaper Zombie.
If it used its brain a little, it would choose to take the opportunity to kill them all.
Using the pocket watch now was useless.
To get to the office, they had to pass through here. As long as the ghost wall didn’t disappear, the Newspaper Zombie would always be an obstacle.
As expected, a murderous glint soon flashed in the newspaper boss’s eyes.
If it could be trapped by a ghost wall, didn’t that mean there was a more powerful ghost nearby? It suddenly felt an urgent need to increase its strength.
As for the pocket watch, in such a small space, if it used all its power to launch a surprise attack, it might be able to get it.
Kill on sight.
The familiar feeling of deprivation swept over everyone present in an instant.
Zhou Qi’an’s reaction was also very fast. An item gentler than a sacred item, but with a larger area of effect, suddenly appeared.
[Lighthouse], its description said it had a thirty-five percent chance of immunizing against a ghost wall.
When he used the item, Zhou Qi’an’s palm was cold.
He knew his luck. He might not even be able to activate a ninety-five percent chance, let alone less than half.
Beside him, Shen Zhiyi suddenly said softly, “Don’t worry.”
The Ghost Market’s administrator, as an outside ghost, shouldn’t have directly interfered. But now that it had used a ghost wall, the nature of the matter had changed.
The game valued balance and fairness the most. Zhou Qi’an’s success rate in breaking the situation would increase exponentially.
[You have successfully immunized against the ghost wall for three seconds]
The prompt came so suddenly that Zhou Qi’an’s first reaction was that the game’s brain had short-circuited to be so merciful.
He didn’t think about the Ghost Market’s administrator bending the rules. His natural quality of wanting to fight everyone made him think that after defeating the Newspaper Zombie, he would still have to go and kill the Ghost Market’s administrator to end this instance.
Thoughts were thoughts, but his feet never stopped. Before his five senses were completely stripped away, Zhou Qi’an seized the three seconds and ran wildly.
At the same time, he threw the head in his backpack far away. Even if the other players couldn’t stop it, the newspaper boss going to pick up the head would buy them some time.
With their five senses diminished, Chen Su vaguely saw that Zhou Qi’an was no longer circling in place. She made a decisive decision: “Hold this ghost back!”
They had been in the game for a long time and all had a few trump cards. At this critical moment, there was no need to hold back.
Yuan was the fastest. An empty photo frame appeared in her hand, aimed straight at the Newspaper Zombie.
The moment they faced each other, the wood of the photo frame cracked on the spot. The Newspaper Zombie’s silhouette appeared in the frame, its movements much slower than before.
His boss was more direct. He used his tie skillfully, with no fancy tricks, just pure, extreme, violent aesthetics.
Shen Zhiyi didn’t immediately make a move. He glanced in the direction Zhou Qi’an had run, and to prevent the Ghost Market’s administrator from playing any more tricks, he awakened his shadow, which then swam after Zhou Qi’an.
…
All the sounds of fighting were left behind as Zhou Qi’an sprinted frantically.
“This is the feeling.”
My back is meant to be guarded.
Ahead was a deep, rich darkness.
The shadow in the office flowed in the air like a tide. As he approached this darkness, Zhou Qi’an’s fingers immediately clenched in pain.
The self-destructive consciousness was the hardest to resist.
He no longer cared if the office door would be sealed again. His nails were digging into his palms, and he just buried his head and rushed in.
As he passed the display cabinet, the face of the porcelain doll on the shelf changed. A pair of adult eyes suddenly appeared on the baby-fat face. Like in the Ghost Temple, they had eyes but no pupils, making the cute face look eerie.
Giggle, giggle.
Giggle, giggle, giggle.
The strange laughter exploded in his mind. Zhou Qi’an’s head was splitting, and his steps were dragged down by the shadow.
He still didn’t take out his sacred item. His remaining rationality told him that once he took out a weapon, the self-destructive consciousness would instantly expand to its peak, and he would stab himself like a fish.
A special rose condensed from black energy suddenly appeared before his eyes.
Zhou Qi’an was stunned.
On the bus, Mu Tianbai’s shadow had also given him a rose like this.
This action by the shadow was undoubtedly an admission of its identity.
The moment he hesitantly took the rose, the shadow’s color seemed to fade a little.
As one waned, the other waxed. Zhou Qi’an’s pain, which had almost made it impossible for him to walk, was alleviated. A new strength seemed to be injected into his heart, and he struggled to move his legs again towards the paper shredder.
The paper shredder was right across from the cabinet, and directly in line with the ceramic doll.
444…
He plugged it in and had only entered the first three numbers when his mind was filled with the thought of death.
Zhou Qi’an’s desire for death surpassed every past pursuit of life.
The black rose in his hand began to wither. The coolness seeped into his fingertips, but this coldness actually cleared his mind a little. Seizing this moment of clarity, Zhou Qi’an insisted on entering the last 478.
In the expanding shadow, the machine let out a beep, and a red light on top of the paper shredder flashed a few times.
Zhou Qi’an hastily stuffed the business license in.
A series of high-speed whirring sounds, kaka-kaka-kaka, filled the air. The sound of the paper shredding was unprecedentedly pleasant, as if it could shred the darkness along with it.
Witnessing the paper shredder in action, the resentment that had been building up in his heart for days was swept away. Zhou Qi’an’s back instantly straightened. Without a hint of hesitation, he spent a huge sum of fifty points to buy a megaphone:
“Attention, owner of the Fengdu Daily News, I’m about to shred your business license—”
The Newspaper Zombie had been chasing them since the afternoon. He didn’t know if it had discovered that the business license had been stolen, or perhaps it had discovered it but didn’t care too much.
An item that even a sacred item couldn’t pierce certainly gave it confidence.
Since successfully entering the paper shredder password, the shadow covering him had faded a lot, and the power that was brainwashing him to self-harm was weakening.
Confirming that the business license had been shredded to pieces, Zhou Qi’an looked at the fifty-point megaphone. “Can’t waste it.”
I have to use it a few more times.
————
Corridor.
The players who were forced to act as Zhou Qi’an’s knights were now lying on the ground like a pile of mud.
Of the five senses, the most terrifying was the stripping of touch.
Not long after Zhou Qi’an ran out, the ghost wall also disappeared, as if to encourage the Newspaper Zombie to hunt. The players had delayed for a while, and now only Shen Zhiyi and his boss could still stand.
His boss’s vision was clearly affected. The joints of his fingers, holding the tie, seemed to have stiffened slightly, making it difficult to bend them.
The ferocity he usually kept somewhat in check was completely unleashed.
Just as a bloody battle was about to begin, the Newspaper Ghost took a step forward, and something unexpected happened.
The newspaper that could arbitrarily take a life first softened, and then gradually began to dissolve.
The next second, a strange, amplified singing voice suddenly came from the empty darkness ahead—
“I’ll send you away, a thousand miles away…”
The blood-red characters on the newspaper lost their original color as they dissolved, turning from red to black ash. The clear singing voice continued—
“You are silent, black and white!”
Author’s Note:
Zhou Qi’an: Call me Golden Throat.
Shadow: Heavenly, flowers, applause~
Zhou Qi’an: You suffered today. Tomorrow, let me make up for your loss.
Shadow: Don’t understand, continue to offer flowers.
