thefictionvixens Chapter 112: The Paranoid Tourist
Chapter 112: The Paranoid Tourist
"Could he have died long ago?"
"Died in the second ward."
"He disguised himself as a staff member at Tato Hospital, but he just wanted to lead us into the scene of the second ward to see the traces he left behind before his death, just like many earthbound spirits do!"
Su Ren gasped. "Are you kidding me? If this is going according to the script, shouldn't the money he gave me be ghost money?!"
"Look, this is real money!"
As he spoke, Su Ren pulled out the pile of banknotes that the bald man had given him.
Light a corner of a banknote with a lighter.
He would never normally do something so foolish—literally, he's burning through his money—but now he desperately needs to prove that the assumption he just made is wrong, which means he must prove that the banknotes are genuine.
A bizarre scene unfolded.
This stack of banknotes didn't turn into ghost money.
But it didn't ignite.
Instead, it turned into a puddle of black water and fell to the ground.
Upon seeing this, Su Ren's expression changed completely.
"It's not real money!"
"Holy crap, that bald guy is seriously inhuman!!!"
At that moment, he wanted to run away immediately, not wanting to stay in this eerie ward for even a second longer. He just liked adventure, which didn't mean he actually liked seeing ghosts.
Just like people who like extreme sports enjoy the thrill of surviving a near-death experience, rather than actually enjoying dying.
But as soon as he turned around, he suddenly stopped.
"What...what's wrong with you?"
"This place is clearly not right. Let's quickly throw away that stun gun and the straw hat, and run away."
"I'm never coming back to this haunted house again!"
As her female companion watched Su Ren's expression gradually darken, she suddenly realized something was wrong. This seemingly dim-witted adventurer's family situation appeared to be more complicated than she thought.
Su Ren is not a native of Hanjiang City.
His hometown is in another city. The reason he came to Hanjiang City was not for the common reasons of finding a job or dating, but for adventure.
That's right, we came here specifically for exploration.
The reason was that Su Ren read many posts on Xiao Lan Shu and discovered that Hanjiang City seemed to be hiding many strange urban legends.
Strange tales from the forensic medicine school.
Strange tales of Liwan Town in the eastern suburbs.
The Strange Tales of the Second Ward...
These ghost stories deeply fascinated him, so he chose to stay and experience them firsthand.
Su Ren's female companion was also someone he found through Xiao Lanshu. When they first met, Su Ren kept quiet about his family background, but later he learned part of the truth from snippets of conversation.
Su Ren's parents are both young, and were among the first batch of post-80s to be exposed to the development of the Internet in China. Later, they seemed to want to enter the live streaming industry, seeing the potential commercial value of online live streaming.
But something happened.
Su Ren's parents have gone missing.
From then on, Su Ren became very obsessive, determined to enter various cities to find strange tales, and he would film the adventure process each time and post the videos on Xiao Lan Shu.
It seems to be simulating a live broadcast...
"No, that's not right. If it really is a ghost..."
"He brought us here specifically, hoping we would notice his presence. He's also very lonely."
"What will he think if we get scared away?"
Female companion: ?
Male companion: ?
Excuse me?
Are you empathizing with a dead person or a mentally ill person?
"Brother, I have something to do. I surrender now. You better have some self-respect!" The male companion ran away immediately, waving at the security camera to indicate that he was done playing and asked Shen Yue to pick him up.
The male companion left.
Her female companion glanced at Su Ren with concern. At that moment, she understood Su Ren's thoughts. Like some kind of childhood trauma, Su Ren must have developed some kind of transference.
Putting aside the fact that the haunted house was too terrifying, she really wanted to stay with Su Ren.
The key is...
I can't let it go.
Boss Zhang's haunted house is still too scary.
"I'll tell you again, my phone number is 177... If you can't hold on, call me. I'll always be waiting for you, with you, understand?"
After her female companion finished speaking, she also reached out to the monitor, indicating that she was no longer playing.
Only Su Ren remained, as if he had made up his mind.
So he turned and walked into the mountains.
……
……
The interior of the haunted house.
After studying the system's special tasks for a long time, Zhang Ze finally figured out one thing.
His system is different from the black phone; it has a special "max favorability mission" that is triggered when his haunted house staff reach max favorability.
The rewards aren't generous, but they're certainly unique.
Xiao Men has only two wishes: one is to find his mother, which Zhang Ze has already helped him achieve; only his final wish remains.
Kill Xiong Qing to avenge him.
Completing this task will bring Xiaomen's favorability to its peak.
It won't trigger any special CGs, but it will unlock new features, making your nightmares come true.
Zhang Ze strongly suspected that this "dream come true" was a special task left for Zhang Ze by the system because it couldn't find a way to complete certain nightmare tasks. It was a sign that fate had intervened.
After all, Wesker was brought out for this mission.
Where is he supposed to find Wesker?
If the Umbrella Corporation were to travel to this world and create something like Nemesis or Hunters, it would be utter chaos and impossible to manage.
So the system came up with a new method: completing tasks in dreams.
Great, Zhang Ze's self-hypnosis was very successful; even he himself believed it.
"This is just a task to max out Xiaomen's favorability."
"What if it were Lingling, Guilian, or even... Xiaolin?"
Zhang Ze checked the employee list.
[Lingling: Affection -12. Her hand is in yours. If conditions allowed, she would like to tear you to pieces, but unfortunately, her true form is a pair of hands.]
[Grimace: Affection -20. Because someone believed he existed, he truly exists. You deceived his eyes, and he wanted to kill you, but now he can't see.]
[Zhang Peng: Favorability -99. You drove him crazy and framed someone else, but he'll never forget your face. Don't give him any more chances.]
[Xiao Men: Affection level 80. You have fulfilled one of his last wishes. He has deep feelings for you. He lacked a father figure in his life and may have seen you as that role, even though you yourself have not considered this.]
[Xiaolin: Affection level 10. Although there hasn't been any substantial progress, you've spent some time together, and she has developed initial feelings of affection and dependence on you.]
[Qiu Mei: Affection level -99. You'd better pray she never finds her left eye again.]
The immortals are numerous and numerous.
Zhang Ze wiped his sweat. All his employees hated him to the core. Apart from Xiao Lin and Xiao Men, it would be incredibly difficult to gain the maximum favorability of these awful employees.
No wonder the system dared to open up favorability tasks; even Chen Ge's black phone didn't have this function.
This is no less difficult than the mission in the haunted land!
"Gah!"
Suddenly, a crow cawed.
Zhang Ze raised an eyebrow, switched to the crow's view, and saw Su Ren's progress inside the haunted house.
What is this guy doing?