Chapter 1 What's the Best Thing About Having a Female Ghost at Home?

The answer is saving on electricity bills.

With doors and windows tightly shut, and heavy curtains drawn, the entire room was airtight.

Chai Cuiqiao lay on the living room sofa, playing with her phone, her feet resting on the sealed fish tank containing the corpse specimen. Her entire body emanated a chilling yin energy, like a high-powered central air conditioner, bringing coldness to every corner of the room.

In the bedroom, Li Ang wore a white plastic bag-style tank top and blue breezy shorts, his feet soaking in a basin of water, comfortably playing games on the computer.

It was late summer, early autumn, and the weather should have been gradually cooling down, but this year was different.

The sun blazed high in the sky, with not a cloud in sight. The air seemed to solidify, and the ground shimmered with heat. Even the usually bustling streets were deserted.

Yin City broke its historical high temperature record for autumn, air conditioners sold out, and most households saw their electricity bills multiply.

This weather was definitely abnormal. He wondered if it had anything to do with supernatural factors.

"It's so hot, I don't even want to go out and trigger missions."

Li Ang rolled his eyes as he complained and browsed the player luntan (forum).

There were only a few posts about the abnormal weather in Yin City on the luntan. Most players were more concerned with攻略 (gōnglüè, walkthroughs) for script missions or auctions of equipment and items on the black market.

"Looks like I can't find any information about the Daylily organization..."

He frowned and closed the webpage. After completing the Longheng Plaza mission, he had been searching for information about Daylily.

Being able to cultivate a unique individual like Xu Tuoan before the Killing Game even started over a decade ago, and attempting to bury a Juyin Zhen (Gathering Yin Formation) like that in Longheng Plaza within Yin City—whether they wanted to raise corpses or ghosts, it definitely wasn't a good thing.

After the mission was completed, the Special Affairs Bureau's field personnel quickly arrived at Longheng Plaza and sealed it off for a two-day investigation.

Just to be safe, Li Ang also anonymously sent an email to the Special Affairs Bureau two days later, vaguely pointing out that the events at Longheng Plaza were related to the Daylily organization.

As for what the Special Affairs Bureau's reaction or countermeasures would be, that was beyond Li Ang's control.

Chai Cuiqiao rolled over on the sofa and lazily called out, "Hey~ Li Ang, this corpse's yin energy is almost completely drained~"

"I know."

Li Ang called back without turning his head, "Conserve it for now. Let's go out tonight."

Going out meant going to places with heavy yin energy, such as hospitals and cemeteries, to replenish the energy of the Soul-Guiding Banner.

That was the downside of raising ghosts. You had to constantly prevent them from running out of energy. If it were ordinary little ghosts, you would only need to offer a few drops of blood every day.

But for a powerful ghost like Chai Cuiqiao, the amount of yin energy required to maintain her form every day was considerable.

Zou Zhengze, whose death was tragically horrific and who was made into a specimen soaked in formalin, could only provide Chai Cuiqiao with one month's worth of yin energy.

The Soul-Guiding Banner, which could accommodate three ghosts, was actually a very powerful item.

Even in the early stages of the Killing Game, a low-level player could rely on this item to raise three ghosts of the same level, instantly skyrocketing their strength.

But the consequence was a terrifyingly high demand for yin energy.

Just Chai Cuiqiao alone was already a bit of a drain. If all three slots were filled, he would probably have to find two or three corpses who died violently every day and extract their yin energy to sustain them.

This was also why Li Ang didn't really value the Soul-Guiding Banner—this thing was definitely a godsend for those Southeast Asian降头师 (jiàngtóushī, sorcerers specializing in raising ghosts and venomous insects), but for a player like Li Ang, who lived in the safe Yin City, the effect was much worse.

"Okay."

Chai Cuiqiao responded and looked at the fish tank filled with formalin, feeling extremely reluctant.

She had finally gotten used to these days of unlimited yin energy. Going back to her old life of secretly薅羊毛 (hāo yángmáo, freeloading) from cemeteries every day...

It's easy to go from frugal to extravagant, but difficult to go from extravagant to frugal. So difficult, old iron.

————

Yin City Hongxing Compound Fertilizer Co., Ltd. was established in 2017. The company has a complete product structure, covering active fertilizers, bio-organic fertilizers, compound microbial fertilizers, water-soluble fertilizers, soil conditioners and other new products.

The annual production capacity of compound fertilizer reaches 1 million tons. It has cooperated deeply with Fortune 500 companies and is a modern fertilizer group integrating research and development, production, sales and technical services.

This is the introduction on the official website of Yin City Hongxing Compound Fertilizer Co., Ltd. Following the website address, you can find a building located in the industrial park in the southeast corner of Yin City.

The building has a total of floors and is quite old. The exterior is covered with dark green curved glass, and the walls are covered with somewhat faded red bricks. Behind the building is a steel shed factory, integrated with the factories in the surrounding industrial park.

On the surface, this company seems quite legitimate. During the day, the factory machines run non-stop, trucks filled with fertilizer come and go, and they often import high-end and classy fertilizer-related machinery.

But two hundred meters underground, there is a vast and spacious space of ten floors. The headquarters of the Special Affairs Bureau is located here.

Wanli Fengdao, wearing a gray employee uniform, walked out of the elevator, swiped his card through the security door, and passed through a long, narrow corridor to reach the reception hall of the Special Affairs Bureau on the first floor.

The reception hall was quite spacious. Green plants were placed on the left and right sides of the entrance. Special light tubes were embedded in the ceiling to simulate the feeling of normal sunlight. The floors were made of dark marble tiles, and the sound of footsteps was crisp.

It was hot summer above ground, but cool and refreshing underground. At the innermost part of the hall was the front desk of the Special Affairs Bureau. Three Special Affairs Bureau employees sat behind the front desk, one man and two women, all extremely attractive and professional, responsible for reception and handling related procedures.

Although located underground, this was completely comparable to the hall of a Fortune 500 company in scale.

The three employees at the front desk were processing procedures for three visitors, while several people in various colored clothing sat on the benches on both sides of the hall, waiting.

These people all wore masks or facial coverings, and their gloved hands held filled-out proof sheets.

They were bounty hunters among the players.

As the Killing Game progressed, various abnormal events occurred frequently. As an official organization, the Special Affairs Bureau was limited by a lack of special operations personnel and could not comprehensively and timely resolve abnormal events.

Therefore, the Special Affairs Bureau would post some bounties on the luntan, encouraging players to provide relevant clues and information about abnormal events, or to help the Special Affairs Bureau capture wanted criminals involved in serious criminal cases.

After Wanli Fengdao completed the Guhan Temple mission, he had been in contact with Xing Hechou.

Recently, he had become a bounty hunter, solving an abnormal event that posed a major threat to the lives and property of the people, and maintained a good relationship with the Special Affairs Bureau.

Perhaps after a while, under the introduction of Xing Hechou, he would officially become a field agent of the Special Affairs Bureau.

Wanli Fengdao sat on the bench and waited for a while. Soon it was his turn.

"I just solved a Lv5-level paranormal event."

He placed a portable camcorder on the table at the front desk. "This is the relevant proof."

The小姐姐 (xiǎojiějie, young lady) at the front desk briefly inspected the camcorder, confirmed that there were no problems, and gave Wanli Fengdao a form to fill out, as well as a one-time pass.

The小姐姐 (xiǎojiějie) at the front desk smiled very professionally, and said gently and softly, "Please go to the Post-Logistics Department on the fourth floor for relevant appraisal. Once the appraisal is passed, you can get the bounty."

That's right, even if players just performed routine daily tasks and eliminated one or two insignificant ghosts, they could still come to the Special Affairs Bureau.

To receive a portion of the game币 (bì, currency) reward—although it wasn't as much as the system's mission reward, even mosquito legs are still meat.

This mechanism seemed like a short-term loss, but it was actually quite cost-effective—it not only encouraged players to actively solve abnormal events and help the official stabilize the situation, but also eliminated the estrangement between players and the Special Affairs Bureau, making more players inclined to join official organizations.

Just consider it spending money to attract talent, losing money to gain popularity.

Wanli Fengdao took the form and went to the fourth floor. As soon as he got out of the elevator, he saw a familiar face.

A burly, tall, and sturdy man with a square face, bloodshot eyes, and a haggard expression.

His left hand held a medicine bottle, and his right hand held a file bag. He was walking out of the door of the Post-Logistics Department.

It was Xing Hechou, the captain of a certain operations team of the Yin City branch of the Special Affairs Bureau.

Seeing a familiar face, Wanli Fengdao smiled and greeted him, "Brother Xing."

Xing Hechou, with heavy dark circles around his eyes, snapped out of his thoughts. He didn't recognize Wanli Fengdao at first glance—this post-90s man suddenly looked much younger after shaving his beard. His appearance age had regressed from over forty to over thirty.

Although he still looked like a greasy middle-aged man.

"Brother Fengdao, long time no see."

Xing Hechou squeezed out a few smiles and saw the form in the other party's hand. He asked, "Are you here to collect the bounty?"

"Yes," Wanli Fengdao nodded, looked at Xing Hechou's thin face and bloodshot eyes, and said hesitantly, "Brother Xing, are you okay? Should I call someone?"

"I'm fine." Xing Hechou coughed a few times, covered his mouth with his fist, and said, "I've been busy dealing with a case these past few days, cough cough, haven't slept well. I came to get a bottle of sleep-aid medicine..."

Case? Wanli Fengdao raised his eyebrows, feeling curious. After hesitating for a moment, he ultimately didn't ask too much.

Xing Hechou saw the expression on the other party's face, smiled, and put the file bag into Wanli Fengdao's hand, saying, "It's just a series of murder cases involving players. We've already posted the bounty on the luntan.

The difficulty is probably around Lv7. If you're interested, you can give it a try."

Wanli Fengdao curiously took the file bag and opened it. He read out the words on it, "Puppet...show?"