The players’ expressions changed drastically.
Yu Nan had entered the executive suite for barely ten minutes before the System announced his death. If the rest of them went in, how long could they possibly survive?
Fang Yuan’s legs were already trembling. Xie Zhi and Jiang Heng looked equally grim.
The manager’s malicious smile told the players exactly what they needed to know: entering the executive suite meant certain death!
At that thought, Xie Zhi steeled himself and suddenly said, “We weren’t inefficient. Someone was slacking off!”
The manager immediately looked at him. “Who?”
Without hesitation, Xie Zhi pointed at Lu Jin. “Him! He slipped away instead of cleaning. I saw it myself!”
Xie Zhi had not actually seen Lu Jin leave, but his skill was [Distance Measurement], allowing him to sense roughly how far his teammates were from him.
Players who entered the same instance were automatically considered teammates. Xie Zhi had sensed Lu Jin’s distance earlier, and he could say with absolute certainty that ten minutes ago Lu Jin had not been inside the guesthouse!
The manager was delighted by the accusation. He had been searching for an excuse to punish Lu Jin, and now someone had delivered one directly into his hands. The timing could not have been better!
He instantly turned toward Lu Jin and glared. “You actually dared slack off! You must be punished. Go clean the executive suite by yourself!”
Lu Jin shrugged indifferently. “Oh. Then I’ll go.” He was not the type to deny something he had actually done.
But then his tone shifted, and he raised a hand to point at the silent Jiang Sui. “I wasn’t the only one slacking. He was too.”
The manager paused and looked toward Jiang Sui.
“No, I wasn’t.” Jiang Sui leaned casually against the white wall behind him, looking perfectly innocent. “I’ve been working very hard inside the guesthouse the entire time.”
He deliberately emphasized the words “very hard.”
Lu Jin: “…”
If Jiang Sui had been working hard inside the guesthouse, then what exactly had been exchanging blows with Lu Jin ten minutes ago? A ghost?
Fang Yuan scratched the back of his head. “Brother Sui really was inside the guesthouse. I was right next door. I could hear him scrubbing the toilet.”
Everyone remained somewhat doubtful, so they immediately went to inspect the room Jiang Sui had been assigned.
When the door opened, the room was spotless and bright. The floor had been polished until it reflected light, the sheets and bedding had all been changed, and everything carried the faint clean scent of sun-dried fabric. The room was immaculate.
The manager nodded repeatedly. “Mm. Excellent work!”
Then he turned and glared at Lu Jin. “He was clearly working seriously, and you still dared falsely accuse your coworker!”
Lu Jin frowned.
Jiang Sui had definitely slipped out of the guesthouse too. His ability was metal manipulation, not creating shadow clones.
Yet the spotless room in front of him could not be faked.
The manager continued lecturing Lu Jin without pause, while the other players looked at him with either sympathy or suspicion.
No one noticed that in the shadow beneath the guest-room door, a humanoid sheet of twisted metal quietly poked its head out.
It held a broom in its left hand and a rag in its right. Facing Lu Jin in the corridor, it smugly began doing a ridiculous folk dance.
Lu Jin: “…”
No one else saw it.
Only Lu Jin.
After all, the damned thing was dancing specifically for him.
Speechless, Lu Jin snapped the mop in his hand cleanly in half.
Damn it! How could someone be this shamelessly showy?
*
In the end, Lu Jin went alone to clean the executive suite.
After watching him leave, Xu Moyang spun around and glared at Xie Zhi. “Why did you snitch on him?!”
Xie Zhi did not care. “If he hadn’t slipped away and wasted time, would our progress have been this slow? He brought this on himself!”
“That’s nonsense!” Xu Moyang’s face flushed red. “I already cleaned all the rooms Brother Lu was responsible for!”
The manager had obviously been deliberately finding fault and provoking them. Xu Moyang refused to believe Xie Zhi could not see that.
Being forced into this damned game was already difficult enough. Yet there were still people stabbing others in the back!
“If you’re so loyal, go inside and keep him company!” Xie Zhi mocked, looking Xu Moyang up and down. “Aren’t you standing outside just like me? So what right do you have to stand on the moral high ground and condemn me? Don’t you want to avoid punishment too?”
“I—”
Xu Moyang was left speechless.
He truly was afraid of ghosts. When he learned Lu Jin would be punished, he had struggled internally. In the end, six years of friendship made him grit his teeth and decide to accept the punishment together with Lu Jin.
But Lu Jin had pressed a hand against his shoulder and shaken his head.
At that moment, Xu Moyang had felt relieved—relieved that he did not have to abandon his friend, yet also did not have to die.
And how despicable that relief seemed now.
Fang Yuan sighed, stepped forward, and patted Xu Moyang’s shoulder. “Staying alive is already difficult enough. If you couldn’t protect your friend, that isn’t your fault… I’m sorry for your loss.”
The atmosphere immediately grew heavy. It felt as though a stone had settled over every heart. Only the manager walked with light, cheerful steps, humming an off-key tune. Even the pitch of his scolding voice had risen.
“What are you still standing around for? Don’t you have work to do? Get moving! If you don’t finish cleaning tonight, I’ll package all of you up and throw you into the executive suite!”
The players jolted in fright and buried themselves in work again.
The manager looked toward the executive suite with a smile, greed gleaming in his eyes.
Human souls were the most delicious thing of all, especially at the moment they sank into despair. That flavor was simply indescribable.
That young university student looked particularly fresh and tender too~
*
Inside the executive suite, Lu Jin kicked a chair out of the middle of the passage.
The suite had many rooms. Besides the bedroom, there was a study, a card room, and a small bar facing the balcony. A dusty swing had even been installed outside.
The facilities were luxurious, provided one ignored the blood smeared across the walls, scraps of flesh wedged between sofa cushions, and dust that looked as though it had accumulated for years.
Lu Jin found Yu Nan’s body.
He was slumped in a corner, his face bluish. Before death, he appeared to have desperately clawed at something. All ten fingers were mangled, and even his fingernails had been torn off.
Lu Jin crouched and gently closed the eyes that had remained open in death.
He walked around the room once.
After people died, they became ghosts. Ordinary humans could not see them, but Reapers could—unless the soul had been devoured by another ghost, leaving not even a chance for reincarnation.
Yu Nan’s soul was not here.
He had disappeared completely.
Lu Jin returned to the living room. It was still filthy and chaotic, with blackened flesh on the floor and tangled strands of hair scattered everywhere.
Holding the broken half of the mop handle, Lu Jin looked around the executive suite, which was roughly five times the size of an ordinary guest room, and for a moment had no idea where to begin.
It would be nice to have a few helpers.
Lu Jin rubbed his temple as he thought.
Without him noticing, the blood that had originally pooled only near the entrance silently spread to his feet, gathering around him into an ever-expanding dark-red puddle.
The blood seemed alive. It made no sound and remained perfectly quiet. Only after it had surrounded both of Lu Jin’s feet did something slowly begin crawling out of it.
The first thing to emerge was a mass of long black hair, dense and tangled like aquatic weeds, completely hiding the face underneath.
Then a blue-white arm rose from the blood. Fingers stained crimson gently rested on Lu Jin’s shoulder with an almost tender, lingering touch.
“Handsome boy~ Come here~ Let’s have some fun~”
Blood-red eyes appeared through the curtain of black hair, shining brightly.
Food… exciting!
Lu Jin slowly turned his head and saw the female ghost behind him.
His calm, ancient-well eyes lit up too.
Labor… exciting!
Female ghost: “?”
Before she could react, a tremendous force seized her wrist!
With an over-the-shoulder throw, the female ghost became a human—or ghostly—pendulum, sweeping in a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree arc through the living room before crashing heavily to the floor!
Female ghost: “???”
Her head felt as though someone had smashed it with a hammer. Stars swam before her eyes, and the pain left her barely able to speak properly.
Sprawled on the floor, she stared blankly at Lu Jin. “Aren’t you… supposed to be terrified of me… run everywhere screaming while I appear wherever you go, scare you half to death, and then snap your neck?”
That was how the normal script went!
“Why aren’t you afraid? Why aren’t you screaming?”
Lu Jin looked down at the female ghost on the floor.
“Times have changed. That kind of old-fashioned ghost story stopped being popular years ago.”
The ghost pushed tangled hair away from her face, revealing a pair of bleeding, confused eyes.
“…Then what’s popular now?”
Lu Jin answered with perfect seriousness. “These days, players catch ghosts. Any ghost that gets caught has to work for the player. If it refuses, the player serves it a beating.”
“…Do you think I’m three years old?”
Lu Jin glanced at her sideways. “Have some dignity. You’re a ghost nearly a hundred years old. Stop pretending to be young.”
Female ghost: “?”
Lu Jin raised two fingers. “I’ll give you two choices. One: help me clean this executive suite.”
Female ghost: “Ha!”
Lu Jin: “Two: I beat you up, and then you help me clean this executive suite.”
The ghost’s face turned green with rage. She shrieked, “Go to hell! A ghost can be destroyed, but never humiliated!”
With that, she lunged at Lu Jin with claws raised!
Five minutes later.
Lu Jin dragged over a relatively clean chair and sat down, idly twirling the broken mop handle in his fingers.
The female ghost, bruised and swollen, knelt on the floor and scrubbed diligently.
“Couldn’t we have settled this through discussion?” Lu Jin said. “You insisted on making me use force. I don’t like being this violent either.”
Female ghost: “…”
Bullshit! He was clearly bullying the weak because he was stronger!
She did not dare curse aloud, so she could only scream insults internally. This pretty-boy university student had no shame! He only dared bully a weak ghost like her!
What kind of achievement was bullying a weak ghost? If he had the courage, he should challenge the Boss! Go act arrogant in front of some truly powerful ghosts!
Men were all the same. They only dared bully the weak!
The female ghost scrubbed the living room while simmering with resentment, rubbing her fingers red against the rough cloth.
She used every ounce of effort, but the living room was simply too filthy. Worse, her long hair constantly dripped blood, so the places she had just cleaned were dirtied again almost immediately. Even Lu Jin was beginning to feel his cleanliness obsession flare up.
He needed more labor.
More ghosts meant more strength!
Lu Jin asked the female ghost, who was scrubbing with her head down, “Are there any other NPCs in the other rooms?”
The ghost’s eyes darted. She knelt neatly on the floor, suddenly behaving with perfect obedience, and her voice turned sweet. “No. The other rooms are very safe. I’m the only one here~”
Lu Jin’s lips curved. “That’s the truth?”
“Of course!” The female ghost smiled until her eyes curved, trying her hardest to look utterly sincere. “Handsome boy, why would I ever lie to you? Heaven and earth can testify to my devotion!”
Author’s Note:
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