Chapter 45: Chapter 44: [Oink Oink?]
"I am." The only person present who seemed relatively calm was Sister Nan, who answered the question.
"You’re the man?" He Xiaotian, carrying a box on his shoulder, was honestly surprised. He hadn’t expected the person behind such a wild nickname to be a wo... woman?
The group owner who "never looked back at explosions" was actually 180cm tall.
Even in the dark, he could see she was wearing flats, not high heels.
Her long legs were nice to look at, sure, but an average person would feel a lot of pressure standing next to her.
No wonder those young guys were standing so far away from her.
The "most adorable height difference" might sound like a compliment, but when the gender roles were reversed, it was, for some reason, a little comical.
"Is the ten million ready?"
The group owner may have been tall, fair-skinned, and long-legged, but He Xiaotian was only here for the money.
Hitting on girls?
Please. With that kind of time, it would be more worthwhile to watch a few anime or play some video games.
Of course, right now, his priority should be vanquishing demons and getting some Experience Points.
"That car just now?" The group owner, Sister Nan, was clearly not focused on the bet. Her attention was on the Ghost Car that had vanished into the night.
After all, how many normal people had ever witnessed such a scene?
Besides, for most people who did, the outcome was usually tragic.
They either disappeared mysteriously or wound up dead.
"A friend of mine likes to play pranks. That was just paper glued to the outside of a car to scare people for fun." He Xiaotian casually spun a lie, making the others roll their eyes.
’Dude, we’re all into cars.’
’Do you think we can’t tell the difference?’
’That thing was clearly made of paper, not a real car wrapped in paper like you said.’
The group didn’t believe him and wanted to press further.
He Xiaotian held up a hand to stop them. "Give me the keys. Have the ten million ready tomorrow morning. If you guys dare to screw me over..."
He left the rest unsaid, instead throwing the box from his shoulder onto the ground.
BANG!
The sound was like a sudden clap of thunder, making them jump.
Huang Mao gulped, took the keys out of his pocket, and slowly walked over to hand them to He Xiaotian.
"Well then, see you in the morning."
He shouldered the box again and walked into the Tuanjie Community.
"Sister Nan, where on earth did you find this guy?"
Seeing He Xiaotian leave, the group immediately crowded around her, all talking at once.
"I said he’s from the group chat. Would you believe me?"
"If you don’t want to say, we won’t press you. But that answer is a bit half-hearted, don’t you think? Everyone knows your group chat has 2,000 members, and 1,999 of them are your alt accounts. All the activity is just bought and paid for. This badass who showed up in a paper car, and you’re telling us he’s just a group member..."
The voice of the young man who was speaking trailed off, growing quieter and quieter until it disappeared completely.
Because Sister Nan had fixed her sharp, phoenix-like eyes on him, glaring as if with daggers.
’The truth was, this whole thing was a complete coincidence.’
’For some reason, if it hadn’t been for He Xiaotian, she wouldn’t have even noticed one of her alt accounts in the group had disappeared.’
’She had wanted to play a prank, pulling a classic "believe it or not, everyone in this group is one of my alts" to satisfy her own mischievous streak, so she’d approved his request to join.’
’Who could have guessed that just as she was getting started, having a little conversation with herself, He Xiaotian would cut right to the chase and ask about the ten-million-yuan reward.’
’After that, things went completely off the rails.’
So, Sister Nan decided she had to see for herself if this guy who’d stumbled into her private group was just full of hot air.
Then, she called a few of her rich friends to come to the Tuanjie Community and wait.
And as it turned out, the guy with the incredibly punchable username actually showed up!
And in a paper car, no less.
"We should really stop coming out at night. Turns out when my dad used to beat me, he was doing it for my own good." The one speaking was Huang Mao. If you looked closely, you could vaguely see that his face was a bit swollen.
"Sis! Look, look."
A young man shouted, pointing to where He Xiaotian had thrown the box.
The group all looked over. On the ground, a spiderweb of cracks radiated outward from a single point.
He Xiaotian, the cause of all this, calmly unlocked the door to Room 302 and went inside.
He felt for the wall next to the door and, sure enough, found the light switch.
CLICK!
The room flooded with light, revealing a neat and tidy living room.
The apartment was no different from any other: two bedrooms, a living room, and a bathroom.
Far from feeling eerie or terrifying, it actually felt quite cozy.
The color scheme of the apartment wasn’t harsh or unsettling.
He set the box on the floor and took out a massive iron hammer weighing over three hundred pounds.
Then, carrying it, he walked over to the sofa and sat down in a comfortable posture.
He then pulled a stack of Netherworld Currency from his clothes. This was the token the Ghost Car driver had given him.
The driver had said that as long as he burned one of the bills after sunset...
...he would be there to serve him within ten minutes.
The reason He Xiaotian let the old driver go was, for one, because the driver claimed he had never harmed anyone.
He only ever siphoned a bit of vital energy, which at worst would give someone a cold that a little medicine could cure.
For another, killing him probably wouldn’t grant many Experience Points.
He’d never seen such a cowardly ghost before.
The ghost had no skills to speak of. He Xiaotian even suspected...
...that if he had beaten the ghost to death, he probably wouldn’t have even gotten fifty Experience Points.
And finally, it saved money!
He would definitely need to take cabs in the future, and a single trip cost at least twenty yuan, right?
Go a little farther, and thirty or forty would be gone just like that.
It might not seem like much at the time, but it would add up to a significant amount.
Plus, with the Ghost Car at his disposal, his future movements would be incredibly discreet.
Besides, the guy really lived up to the name "old driver." His driving was smooth as hell.
He’d turned a half-hour trip into a fifteen-minute sprint.
He, He Xiaotian, was a man of his word. Since he had promised to let the driver go if he reached Haining Road in under twenty minutes, he couldn’t break his promise.
’Heh, it’s a shame the old driver can’t come out during the day. Otherwise, it’d be like having a private, and free, chauffeur.’
If the old driver could hear his thoughts, he’d probably cough up blood in sheer anger.
’Come on, man! Even a Ghost Car has ’fuel’ consumption!’
’It’s one thing not to pay, but you want to order me around day and night? Twenty-four-hour service?’
’Zhou Bapi just crowed like a rooster to get his workers up early. You, He Bapi, are even more ruthless than him!’
’Don’t ghosts have ghost rights?!’
After some time, He Xiaotian drifted off to sleep.
「Midnight. Twelve o’clock sharp.」
The lights in the living room began to flicker, as if the voltage was unstable.
Then, with a FIZZ, they went out completely.
All of Room 302 was instantly plunged into darkness.
Humans have an instinctive fear of the dark.
Because no one ever knows what might come crawling out of the pitch-black night.
It is a fear that originates from the soul itself.
DRIP... DRIP...
The sound of dripping water came from the bathroom, as if tempting He Xiaotian to come and investigate.
It was just a pity that he was already asleep.
A blood-red liquid began to seep out from under the closed bathroom door.
OINK?
As the liquid flowed toward the iron hammer beside the sofa, the sound of a pig’s oink rang out.
The blood-red liquid shot back into the bathroom as if terrified.
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