ICSST CH44: Past Events

The appearance of his boss brought out a trace of hostility in Zhou Qi’an that was rarely seen on ordinary days. Even as he neared the rice shop, his face remained as cold as snow.

He nudged the frame of his glasses: “Forget it. Debt collection comes first.”

Every mission was a gamble with his life; the only solace was that all normal tasks granted instant rewards upon completion.

Yet this time was an exception. Beneath the blood-red special mission alert, there was only a dry, solitary status: Completed.

Zhou Qi’an hated nothing more than unpaid wages.

When he stepped back into the Bone Rice Shop, where the furnace sizzled and crackled, he didn’t see the figure in the sterilization suit. He wondered if the entity only appeared at night.

He had marched in valiantly, but as the overwhelming yin energy washed over him, Zhou Qi’an said with a cold face:

“Are you there?”

“What you instructed has been done. However, if you want to completely eliminate the owner of the building, there are still some difficulties… Do you think you could give me something for protection?”

His tone carried a faint trace of sorrow, but in reality, he was constantly highlighting his own achievements: “I destroyed the building owner’s protective charm. He won’t let me off easily.”

The building had been around for a long time, and the female ghost had died quite early on. If she were still alive today, using honorifics wouldn’t be out of line.

A full minute passed. The temperature inside the rice shop, which had briefly dropped when Zhou Qi’an entered, finally began to rise again.

The female ghost did not manifest.

Did she run away?

“…”

In his mind, Zhou Qi’an violently cursed eighteen generations of the ghost’s ancestors. Externally, however, he showed not a shred of dissatisfaction. As he walked out, he even said with utmost gravity: “Rest assured. A black-hearted capitalist like the building owner—I will definitely slay him.”

Just you wait. Next time, I’ll bring my boss to track you down!

As Zhou Qi’an prepared to meet up with the college student with a face as pale as death, the panel in his mind suddenly shifted. Immediately after, the long-absent mechanical voice sounded:

【Special side mission completed.】

【Reward distributed. Please check your personal attribute panel in a timely manner.】

Zhou Qi’an’s eyes lit up, and he checked it immediately.

Aside from his limbs and body hair, a new column had been added to his attribute panel:

【Bone (Special Advanced Evolution)】

Seeing the word Advanced, a wave of excitement washed over him, feeling like a stroke of unexpected luck from the heavens. But in the next second, his pupils dilated slightly:

【Bone Venom. A blessing from Jin Taotao’s Bone Rice Shop. Your bones are naturally venomous. Any monster that comes into zero-distance or negative-distance contact with your bones will suffer a certain degree of pollution.】

Zero-distance.

Negative-distance?

What kind of gut-wrenching, malicious blessing was this?

Zhou Qi’an fell silent for a moment, trying his best to focus back on the word Advanced.

For the game to classify it as Advanced, at least this bone venom had to be genuinely powerful.

Take the pair of invisible hands on the 18th floor, for instance. If the flesh were to rot away to the point of scraping the bone at the very end, those hands wouldn’t walk away unscathed either.

“Among the few evolutionary categories given on the ticket, ‘Bone’ wasn’t listed.”

It fell into the “Other” category.

“I wonder if this turned out to be a massive profit or a total loss.”

Zhou Qi’an shook his head, only to suddenly hear a familiar call.

“Brother Zhou.”

The college student stepped down from the emergency stairwell. His melon-seed face shape—resembling the female ghost—remained unchanged, though he had shed the eerie white dress.

Under the high-pressure environment of the instance, his imprint effect toward Zhou Qi’an grew stronger by the day. The college student said, “Turns out that black-haired girl didn’t want to repay me. She wanted me to…”

“…be her scapegoat, right?”

The college student’s eyes were filled with admiration. How could he guess that so easily?

Zhou Qi’an: “…”

It was the first time being admired by someone made him feel insulted.

Mu Tianbai suddenly interjected: “Are you keeping him around as a good-luck charm?”

From his slightly furrowed brow, one could tell that the brief time he spent moving around with the college student earlier had already given him murderous intent.

Zhou Qi’an didn’t speak.

Whether it was genuine kindness or hypocrisy didn’t matter. At the very least, aside from the college student, there were definitely not many players who could physically touch a sacred artifact without being harmed. This proved he still had some unique qualities.

Suddenly, Zhou Qi’an felt an itch on his back, the kind of sensation felt when a wound was regenerating new tissue.

Meanwhile, the college student, who had been full of vitality a second ago, suddenly collapsed weakly to his knees.

As Zhou Qi’an’s wounds healed at a speed beyond common sense, no matter how slow he was, he realized it was connected to the college student. He fell silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, “What is your skill?”

Aside from players with advanced evolution species, regular players’ skills were mostly similar and required late-stage growth. Seeing as the guy had tried to uphold labor laws, Zhou Qi’an was merely lending a hand to observe from the sidelines; he couldn’t be said to truly care.

“Healing.”

Mu Tianbai, who had just made the “useless college student” statement: “…”

Zhou Qi’an remembered a hot topic on the forum not long ago, second in popularity only to the sacred artifact thread, about a newcomer who unlocked a healing skill.

Healing items were the rarest commodity in instances; one could easily imagine how precious a healing skill was.

His eyes sparkled as he listened, though a trace of suspicion crept in: “Is your initial species evolution path the Sea Angel as well?”

For two newcomers with healing talents to appear one after another in a short timeframe didn’t feel right no matter how one looked at it. Especially since prior to their sudden emergence, this domain had been completely empty.

The college student nodded vigorously. He had also browsed the hot threads on the Deep Sea Forum and said, “I reckon the other person is a Yang Beast.”

“?”

“It’s like this: my panel has a note after the initial species evolution—Sea Angel (Yin Beast).”

The air fell silent for a short second.

Not knowing what he had thought of, Zhou Qi’an adopted a profound expression: “Great nature shapes divine marvels…”

Mu Tianbai calmly picked up the line: “…As Yin and Yang split dawn from dusk.”

The college student: “…”

“He’s praising how outstanding you are.”

In an instance, anything tagged with the character Yin (陰) was rarely simple. But Zhou Qi’an didn’t say more. He dry-swallowed two anti-inflammatory pills. Having used a contract item with Bai Chanyi, he wasn’t worried about her tampering with the medication.

“Where is that book?” With a faint bitterness in his throat, Zhou Qi’an extended his hand. He had nearly perished in the top-floor office just to grab that thing at the final moment.

The college student handed it over. Having already read it earlier, he picked out some important points to summarize.

Zhou Qi’an listened to the summary while flipping through the pages.

The Qimen Journal.

The reason it was called that was because it was essentially a diary belonging to the owner of the Jinxiang Building, interspersed with some metaphysics. The cover featured koi fish swimming in a pattern forming an auspicious omen similar to a Yin-Yang Bagua diagram.

The contents of the diary, however, were far from auspicious. Sandwiched inside were several pages of ancient texts related to array formations and ghost-raising.

As Zhou Qi’an flipped through it, he shook his head: “What proper person writes a diary?”

He thought of Xun Er.

It was one thing for good people to write one with a clear conscience, but what kind of mental state did it take to write down every wicked deed without missing a single detail?

Mu Tianbai: “I write one.”

The shadow said silently: I write one too.

“…” Zhou Qi meandered through the text, reading ten lines at a glance. Even when he came across deeply psychopathic sections, his expression remained unchanged. The college student kept staring, unable to tell what he was thinking.

The first half of the journal was largely identical to the newspaper reports, recounting the rise and fall of the building’s owner, Jin Furen, and how he later swindled the wealth and labor of his fellow villagers.

Zhou Qi’an summarized: “When meeting an old acquaintance in a distant land, the outcome is usually one villager scamming another, leaving both eyes filled with tears.”

Jin Furen had wanted to turn the Jinxiang Building into a premier commercial complex, but the hodgepodge result carried a heavy sense of cheapness.

The building’s performance was dismal, and the villagers’ relocation funds went down the drain. They wanted nothing more than to beat him to death.

With both their people and money gone, the enraged villagers were genuinely capable of doing such a thing.

Jin Furen knew that if this continued, he wouldn’t even be able to keep his life. Businessmen were superstitious; to stabilize the villagers and give them an outlet for their emotions, he sought out a feng shui master. The master gave an extremely malicious suggestion: Human Pacification.

Using a human life to pacify the feng shui.

In the early days, wealthy domestic individuals often built special coffins on their rooftops, symbolizing promotion and wealth accumulation.

To maximize the effect, Jin Furen specially remodeled the Jinxiang Building, making it perfectly square from the outside.

But whose life should be used for the pacification?

The villagers gathered, and after a round of voting, they set their sights on a girl named Jin Zhi.

There were three reasons: First, Jin Zhi’s parents had passed away early; she was an orphan raised by the village, so the villagers felt she had an obligation to give back. Second, Jin Zhi had been accepted into a university and possessed talent; the villagers superstitiously believed her death could extend the blessings of the God of Literature to their own children. As for the third reason…

Jin Furen’s diary mentioned that it stemmed from the dark psychology of some villagers, who believed that once a girl went out into the world, she wouldn’t return and would eventually be tricked away by outsiders anyway.

Besides, the name Jin Zhi sounded quite auspicious, making her very suitable to be used as a human pacification.

At that time, Jin Zhi was already preparing to report to her university. Jin Furen had her best friend trick her into coming to the building.

“It mentioned inside that Jin Zhi’s best friend was blind from birth. That should be the female ghost on the fourth floor—the one who wanted me to be her scapegoat.” The college student curled his lip.

The girl with long black hair had a weak personality. Although her parents hadn’t directly informed her of the plan, she vaguely sensed it wasn’t anything good. Yet in the end, she still allowed herself to be manipulated by the villagers and chose to lure Jin Zhi back.

Afterward, Jin Zhi was murdered, and the building indeed prospered for a while. But soon enough, various supernatural events began to occur.

Left with no choice, Jin Furen went to find the feng shui master again.

–“Damn it, the feng shui master actually said it’s because our method of killing her was too cruel! If you slaughter a pig, the pig will resist—how could the process not be cruel?!”

–“…Spent another sum of money to hire the feng shui master to subdue the ghost.”

–“The feng shui master actually died!! I wonder if the blessed beads I bought from the temple for a huge sum earlier are of any use? Fortunately, I found some incomplete pages of ancient texts from the clothes on his corpse.”

–“May the Buddha protect me and let me pass through this tribulation safely. If I survive, I swear I will build temples, perform good deeds, and offer sacrifices every single day!”

The college student stood to the side, filled with righteous indignation. Zhou Qi’an didn’t offer much commentary on Jin Zhi’s ordeal, instead asking about what happened after they went to the fourth floor to find the long-black-haired ghost.

“We did a puzzle-solving quest, which delayed the scapegoat effect.”

Mu Tianbai carried the entire puzzle-solving process.

The college student had actually triggered a death mechanism on the very first night. Completely lifting it was impossible; it was just a matter of whether he would be assimilated faster or leave the instance first.

Zhou Qi’an closed the Qimen Journal and said, “Something big is about to happen.”

The Jinxiang Building had suddenly initiated external recruitment, and the long-black-haired ghost was anxious to find a scapegoat. Everything seemed to silently foreshadow that a major upheaval was brewing in this building.

The college student felt a bit nervous and asked, “What should we do next?”

Zhou Qi’an coldly spat out one word: “Wait.”

Jin Furen’s beads had been destroyed, so the female ghost, who had accumulated resentment for a long time, would definitely go fight him to the death. However, Jin Furen wouldn’t be easy to deal with either. According to the diary, he had been using formations for years to slowly drain the resentment of the dead souls inside the building to raise ghosts, giving him the strength to fight back.

Only when both sides were mutually injured would the players have an opportunity.

Although the college student sympathized with the female ghost’s plight, he also knew that killing was an instinct once someone became a ghost. In the end, his feelings dissolved into a deep sigh.

Glimpsing Zhou Qi’an’s unwavering expression out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly felt that things wouldn’t be that simple.

“Brother Zhou, are you…”

Do you have other ideas?

Unfortunately, he didn’t get the chance to ask this question. Right now, most of Zhou Qi’an’s attention was focused on Mu Tianbai.

He had noticed long ago that the other man had a minor quirk: his blinking frequency was much slower than an ordinary person’s. Every time he closed his eyes, he would pause slightly for a few seconds before opening them again.

It gave off an absurd impression of day-dreaming.

Noticing his gaze, Mu Tianbai didn’t explain his own abnormality. Instead, he said, “You can consider what I said earlier.”

The matter of the sacred artifact couldn’t be hidden for long, and time waited for no one. The best way to survive was to find a backer before one fully developed.

“Protection fee during the novice period—it’s very cost-effective.”

Zhou Qi’an didn’t get angry. Toward those who laid their cards on the table, he never did anything extreme.

“Do you know how meager my monthly salary is?”

Zhou Qi’an counted on his fingers: “Nine-to-five, mandatory overtime on weekends, answering the boss’s calls at midnight as a norm… After deducting insurance and funds, I take home less than twenty thousand. Yet several of the plans I drafted were massive successes, generating at least millions in revenue for the company… From any angle, a beast of burden like me has already paid protection fees to the company.”

Mu Tianbai looked at him, unable to comprehend a single word for the first time.

He didn’t even understand why they suddenly segued into this topic.

What use was paying protection fees to a company?

Could the company throw punches for him during a fight?

“Brother Zhou.” The college student suddenly opened his mouth wide, staring straight ahead in utter shock.

Was he seeing a ghost? Why did he seem to see a senior executive from his company?

His boss was walking toward them.

He was wearing a business suit. In the left chest pocket meant for a pocket square, a small piece of monster flesh had flown in at some point.

Seeing the newcomer, Mu Tianbai furrowed his brow slightly. What kind of creature is this—neither human nor ghost?

“Didn’t you say earlier that you were going to find a place to work overtime?” Ignoring the other two, the boss walked straight up to Zhou Qi’an. His fingers were stained with blood that couldn’t be fully wiped away with a handkerchief. “Turns out you were chatting?”

Zhou Qi’an remained silent.

The college student trembled uncontrollably. Even if he were blind, he could sense something was wrong with the boss. A few seconds later, he suddenly calmed down.

He had fallen victim to the scapegoat trick. Although the white dress was gone, his long hair remained, and he still carried a face resembling a female’s. Even if his parents were standing right in front of him, they wouldn’t be able to recognize him.

Thinking this way, the college student deliberately raised a orchid-finger gesture and smoothed a strand of his hair.

“And you,” the boss’s ruthless gaze fell upon him, every syllable making one’s skin crawl: “Did you two plan this together to run into this ghost-infested place?”

The college student, who was attempting to play the role of the long-black-haired ghost: “…”

Zhou Qi’an informed him in despair: “Stop acting.”

Two years ago, after discovering that something was wrong with his boss, he had attempted to fake his death to escape the company. The next day, a colleague urged him to hurry back, saying the boss had personally gone to inspect his urn, only to find that the ashes inside weren’t his.

The scene from back then was vivid in his mind—

His colleague had anxiously placed a secret call:

“I told you that ashes coming out of the crematorium definitely have some mix-ups! But this bloodsucker insists that there are no bone fragments belonging to you, and now he wants to rush to your house to confirm!”

“…Help me stop him! You can’t let him meet my mom!”

“Right, your mother still doesn’t know you wanted to fake your death to resign. It’ll blow your cover.”

“Blow his ancestors! Either way, they can’t be allowed to meet. I have a hunch that something terrible will happen if they do… Hurry and stop him!!”

How was the matter resolved in the end?

Zhou Qi’an thought back, feeling utterly hopeless. He had rushed back to the company, making up an excuse that he had taken on a project for a psychology firm and wanted to run an experiment at the company.

He then expressed his willingness to accept a 20% pay cut to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the company’s founding. Only then did his boss forgive his “resurrection.”

Pushing the college student slightly forward, Zhou Qi’an used his mind for two things at once. Reviewing the contents of the Qimen Journal in his head, he seemed to catch onto something, and a decision gradually formed in his heart.

The college student desperately wanted to run, but he had a hunch that if he ran, he would be grabbed back by Brother Zhou to serve as a pledge of loyalty to the boss.

With a tearful face, he called out: “Brother.”

Zhou Qi’an snapped back to reality. After pondering the next decision regarding the mission, he faced the adversity head-on.

First, to divert his boss’s attention, he introduced Mu Tianbai, who had wanted to collect a protection fee: “By the way, this is my boss. And this is a new colleague who just joined our company.”

Their family of three from the company was completely reunited in this instance today.

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