Chapter 45 Angus

"Angus?" Hao Ren recognized the man not far ahead from his back. The other party's short, fat figure and slightly balding back of his head were quite memorable. "Is he the one stirring up trouble here?"

At this moment, Angus hadn't noticed the movement behind him. His attention was completely focused on the dark, silent stone wall in front of him. The stone wall abruptly cut off the tunnel, turning it into a dead end. Angus was anxiously groping on the stone wall, seemingly trying to find some hidden mechanism, but it seemed to be in vain. It was unknown how long he had been struggling here.

Angus was wearing a miner's lamp on his head and carrying a strange black box on his back, which looked like a large, battery-powered stereo. It was clear that he hadn't stumbled upon this place by accident, but had come prepared. Recalling the strange noises coming from the small church earlier, and the fact that he was the first to report the "haunted castle" incident, even Hao Ren should have understood what was going on. He took two steps forward, no longer trying to hide his footsteps. This finally caught Angus's attention. The short, fat hotel owner shuddered violently upon hearing the movement behind him, and then froze as if struck by lightning. Hao Ren and the others patiently waited for a few seconds before seeing Angus turn his head around tremulously, like a puppet that hadn't been oiled in half a year.

The beam of the miner's lamp swept across the dark tunnel, and a strange, fluctuating, and persistent black mist was surging in front of Angus. This sight was beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. The hotel owner immediately let out a strange cry, "Ah—"

The shout was so sudden that even Hao Ren was startled. He didn't know who was scaring whom. Vivian waved her hand to tell Hao Ren to be quiet. She cleared her throat and spoke in a sharp, strange tone: "What are you doing here?"

Hao Ren gave Vivian a strange look, thinking that this vampire really had a lot of tricks up her sleeve, even bringing her own mixer when going out.

When Angus heard such a terrifying voice coming from the "black mist," the fat on his body trembled even more violently. He couldn't even bother to answer Vivian's question, but desperately made the sign of the cross on his chest. Large beads of sweat dripped down. "God bless, God bless, God bless... I didn't do anything bad, I didn't do anything bad... I didn't do anything bad..."

"I'm asking you a question. What are you muttering about?" Vivian said in a devilish voice with a strong country accent. "Hey, can you stop trembling? If you don't cooperate, I'll let the dogs bite you!"

Hao Ren thought for a moment, then tugged on Vivian's sleeve and whispered a reminder: "...Your English level can't communicate with anyone here."

Vivian: "..."

"I'll ask," Hao Ren said helplessly, pushing the useless vampire aside. But he also knew that it was best not to reveal his voice at this time, so he began to communicate with his data terminal in his mind, "Do you have a voice-changing function? Like Vivian's."

"Voice changing? r-Ch-365B plugin, here you go—all set. Now no one can recognize your voice."

Hao Ren felt the air in front of him begin to condense in a peculiar way, so he silently thanked the aliens for their high technology. As soon as he opened his mouth, he heard a voice with a muffled thunder-like echo spreading in all directions: "What are you doing here?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Vivian poked him in the back. "Hey, hey, do you have to be so exaggerated? You sound like a villain."

Hao Ren helplessly said that he had no control over this alien PDA in his hand. None of its functions worked well!

However, although the fake voice designed for him by the data terminal was a bit too exaggerated, this evil voice, which sounded full of pressure, had a very good deterrent effect. Angus suddenly woke up from his chaotic prayers and sat down on the ground on the spot. "Noble knightly spirit, I'm just a small merchant in this area. I really didn't mean to disturb you... I live near Yorkford, yes, I'm from Yorkford. In a way, I'm also a citizen under your rule. Can you let me leave for the sake of the knightly code?"

Obviously, Angus regarded the black mist in front of him and the terrifying voice coming from it as a real castle ghost—although he was playing tricks here, he didn't seem to have much courage himself. He was at a loss when facing the abnormality.

Hao Ren felt that this misunderstanding was just right, so he didn't expose it, but continued to ask according to his own thoughts: "Are you the one who's been playing tricks here every day? Are the things that happened in the castle these past two days all your doing?"

When Angus heard that this black mist would actually talk to him, he immediately felt that it was possible to communicate with "evil spirits." He calmed down slightly, and although he was still trembling, he could speak properly. "Yes... it's me, but I only operate above. I didn't intend to disturb the souls below..."

"What are you doing pretending to be a ghost?"

Angus wondered why the "knight's spirit" in this black mist was so curious, but he didn't dare to say much at this time. He answered whatever the other party asked. "My hotel is going out of business, so I wanted to make a big headline... But I didn't expect it to get so big!"

At this point, the truth came out.

It turned out that the widely publicized haunted castle incident in Yorkford was just a scam, a false message released by a small hotel owner whose business was bleak in order to attract outsiders. Perhaps Angus didn't expect things to escalate to this extent at the beginning. He obviously underestimated the idle media and the highly motivated "ghost hunters." A small haunted incident was magnified into the current situation after being on television, which was something he hadn't anticipated.

Taking advantage of Angus's cooperation, Hao Ren quickly asked about the situation tonight. The details of the other party's ghost tricks also became clear little by little: the "ghost fires" in the castle were just lights set in the rock crevices in advance, and the howling wind that echoed everywhere was even simpler, coming from the large stereo on Angus's back... Everything was so ridiculous.

Angus was an old resident of the town of Bruyssal. He had grown up here since he was a child, and he was a wild boy who liked to run around everywhere in his youth. Many years ago, he often came to this castle to "explore," and it was at that time that he accidentally discovered the underground palace system under the castle that had not yet collapsed—a secret that only he knew.

This remote town had never had many outsiders passing through. The situation was better a few years ago, but in recent years, the situation had been getting worse and worse. Angus's small hotel business was also becoming more and more difficult as a result. Finally, when the business was about to fail, he set his sights on the castle next door.

Bruyssal wasn't an economic center, didn't have any special products, and wasn't a transportation hub. The only thing that could possibly attract outsiders here was the castle—if the castle became a tourist attraction, the small hotel's business problem would naturally be solved.

So Angus came up with such a bold idea: to haunt the place. In any case, he had to hype up the popularity first.

His ghost tricks these past few days had been very smooth. He was familiar with the structure of the castle, knew where he could hide his little props for pretending to be a ghost, and he was also very careful, always able to clean up everything before the "ghost hunters" who were attracted here bravely stepped into the ruins. The underground passage under the castle was another favorable condition for his activities. Even if someone ran into the ruins to investigate, he could transfer or hide from the secret doors everywhere in the castle at any time: no one knew that these things existed in the castle at all.

Under Angus's "hard work," every curious person who came to the castle to check the situation became a free promoter. So the haunted castle incident in Yorkford spread like wildfire. Of course, another important reason for the news to ferment was the public's boredom. Everyone knew that the haunted house adventure in the park was fake, but so many people still went there. What's more, there was a "real" one here?

Now, the only thing that was difficult to explain was the "fire" that Angus mentioned when he first called the police, saying that "many people saw the fire coming from the direction of the castle." That wasn't just his own statement, and now in front of Hao Ren, Angus was patting his chest to affirm that he had definitely seen the raging fire that day, and it was because of the bizarre fire event that night that he was given the "inspiration" to play ghost tricks.

What was the fire all about?

The castle was tens of kilometers away from Bruyssal. Even if the route was a flat plain, with nothing to block the line of sight, it would be impossible to see the fire in the direction of the castle from the town. How big would that fire have to be? It would probably have to burn down the entire highland.

But the details were really unknown. Angus didn't know what was going on. Now, the only thing that could be determined was that, apart from the initial fire alarm, the ghost incidents in the remaining period of time—were all faked by the fat boss alone.

It's just that there are so many people who like to join in the fun these days, that even if someone shouted "Look, UFO" on the street, at least a dozen people would stand up and claim to have seen it with their own eyes. Angus didn't expect that his bluffing lies would go unchallenged, so everything went wrong and led to today—

The hotel owner was stuck between a rock and a hard place and had to play the ghost.

But was this really just a case of pretending to be a ghost?

(Sanjiang votes, Sanjiang votes... Why are there only three hundred votes?)