Chapter 20: Resentful Specters and Sensitive Interactions

Pulling his thoughts back, Long Yuan stopped wasting time. He drew the kitchen knife from his waist and headed straight toward the creature.

The other players’ faces lit up with obvious relief. None of them cared about the trivial bet; they just wanted to survive. Ji Yan watched from the sidelines, his eyes flickering with an inscrutable gleam.

Ahead, the Rat-Spirit Spectre was gnawing at the corner of the apartment building, its body swelling into a mound of flesh. The hole it had ripped through the reinforced concrete was already the size of a basket. Strangely, blood was oozing from the cement bricks it had torn away! It seemed as though the vast Crimson Apartment had been built with mortar mixed with human remains.

Treading through the filth and garbage on the ground, Long Yuan reached the creature and shouted at it. As the spectre turned its head, Long Yuan swung his knife. Its bloated head fell to the ground, and Long Yuan crushed it under his boot. He then turned around, shaking the pus from his blade, and walked back.

The entire process took less than half a minute. The players were stunned. This... wasn't this a bit too simple and crude? It was like slicing a watermelon.

Long Yuan stared at Ji Yan, his expression nonchalant with a hint of mockery: "Are you convinced of your loss?"

These spectres not associated with the dungeon's main plot lacked background stories and wouldn't harbor deep-seated grudges. Without such buffs, they were merely animals that looked a bit horrifying; cut off their heads, and they would stay dead. Everything he had said before was just to scare the newbies. Only by creating a desperate environment could one amplify a person's will to survive to its absolute limit.

However, Ji Yan pointed behind him and smiled: "Why don't you take a look behind you?"

Long Yuan looked back, and in the next second, he froze.

He saw the Rat-Spirit Spectre’s severed neck gushing with thick, black blood, and in an instant, a new head sprouted. It was even more irritable, tearing into the apartment building with renewed madness.

"Pain... so much pain!!"

As the hole widened, swarms of rats scurried into the apartment.

"It didn't die?!"

Long Yuan looked stunned, and immediately after, he noticed the kitchen knife in his hand being corroded by the black blood. A warning panel popped up instantly:

"Ding! Your Ghost Item [Butcher's Kitchen Knife] has sustained damage. Durability decreased by 30%, enchanted damage decreased by 55%."

"Warning! Your actions have caused losses to the apartment. The tenants are cursing you. The favorability of 12 spectral tenants has decreased by 7%."

After the two warning panels appeared, Long Yuan’s expression turned sour. He finally realized the truth and glared at the creature: "Damn it, don't tell me this thing is a tenant of the apartment?"

If this spectre couldn't be killed, it meant it held a grudge. If it held a grudge, it was definitely tied to the background story of the Crimson Apartment dungeon. The most troublesome aspect of a "Grudge Spectre" was that as long as the grudge remained, it was impossible to kill!

Looking at his damaged knife, Long Yuan felt a pang of regret. He turned to the Bandaged Spectre and asked in a low voice: "What is this thing's relationship to the apartment?"

The Bandaged Spectre was silent for a few seconds before slowly saying: "A former tenant, later evicted from the building."

"And what else?"

"You'll have to ask the old landlord."

That was the only information the Bandaged Spectre provided.

"Bad luck," Long Yuan muttered. He sheathed his knife and spoke to the administrator: "Tell the landlord I can't clear this plague. I'm quitting."

The Bandaged Spectre replied: "Because of your actions, the apartment has suffered losses, and the landlord is very unhappy. He says you may quit, but you must pay an extra month’s rent as compensation."

"A month?!" Long Yuan looked at the Rat-Spirit Spectre, his face ghastly. In the end, he agreed. As a veteran player, he hated dealing with these Grudge Spectres; they usually drained too much energy and consumed too much equipment. It was low-reward, high-effort work. Just one strike had cost him so much favorability with the tenants; even if he managed to clear it, the rewards wouldn't make up for the loss. He hated losing money on a deal. If he had known this was the nature of the task, he wouldn't have come. He had missed a step—he had forgotten to interact with the landlord and had accepted the task without learning more information.

Putting away his knife, Long Yuan turned to leave. Seeing him walk away, the other players panicked: "You promised! You can't just leave!"

"What will we do if you go? If you really have to, we can add a few more days—we'll use our own blood to nourish your blade!"

Long Yuan sneered impatiently: "My knife is damaged, its quality has dropped. What would I need your blood for? Bad luck. I ran into this pile of crap the moment I stepped out today."

He turned to walk away, but was stopped by Ji Yan’s voice: "What about our deal? You lost, didn't you?"

Long Yuan looked at Ji Yan and laughed: "Fine. If you can survive to make it back to the apartment, you can have this broken knife. You'd better worry about how you're going to survive the dungeon yourself."

With that, Long Yuan disappeared into the fog. Ji Yan didn't press the matter; he could settle this debt later. For now... it was time to focus on the task. With all this commotion, there were only two hours left.

Ignoring the death-pale faces of the players, Ji Yan walked forward and reached out to pick up a fragment of the head Long Yuan had severed. This was part of his plan. The Rat-Spirit Spectre held many unknown dangers, and touching it directly was too risky. That was why he had agreed to Long Yuan’s terms—to let the other man trigger the danger first, giving himself a chance to activate his talent and obtain more hidden information.

From the start, he had known through the hidden info that this spectre held a deep-seated grudge. If it could have been killed in one strike, there would have been no need for Long Yuan to draw his blade. Now, by touching the remains, Ji Yan gained more insight.

"Ding! Talent [Omniscience] successfully triggered. Player has obtained new hidden information—"

[Rat-Spirit Spectre: Former resident of Crimson Apartment 102, original name Huang Sheng.]

[Later evicted for serious violations of apartment rules. While wandering in the thick fog, he was gnawed upon by spectral ghosts, causing his grudge to fester before he returned to the apartment.]

[Hint: The grudge persists, the soul remains, undying and unkillable. To break the cycle, you must find the source of the grudge.]

Ji Yan frowned as he processed the information. It was a lot, but still not enough! He looked at the swaying apartment building and turned back to the Bandaged Spectre, attempting to interact further. However, the Bandaged Spectre was like a programmed NPC; other than the one line about the eviction, there was no other information to be gained.

"Truly an NPC," Ji Yan shook his head. Since the other spectres offered no info, he would have to get it from the source himself.

Ji Yan walked over, but after being struck, the mutated rats had become incredibly aggressive, leaving no room to approach.

"Huang Sheng!" Ji Yan shouted the name from a distance.

The effect was instantaneous: the Rat-Spirit Spectre became even more agitated, destroying the wall corner with renewed ferocity.

"Warning!! Your actions have caused the damage to the apartment to escalate. Tenant favorability has dropped; a total of 14 spectres now harbor malice toward you!"

Ji Yan: "..."

His mouth twitched. A single shout was enough to trigger it? This Rat-Spirit Spectre was like someone with hypersensitive skin—it couldn't be touched, couldn't be yelled at, and any stimulation only accelerated the destruction of the building. Was this task even meant for humans?

But then, Ji Yan noticed something. The lines the Rat-Spirit Spectre was muttering had changed...