Sapphire Mall

Shata's WeChat name was [Rabbit King]. After Gao Tian accepted her friend request, she sent him a photo. Judging by the wall's background and texture, it was probably a wall inside the Living Person Apartment.

The wall was covered in six neatly arranged lines of text written in an unknown, glowing green liquid.

[Rabbit King]:

At a glance, you could tell this was tomorrow's mission.

Besides Boss Jin, Jiangyang, and me, two other apartment residents would be taking part in the Second Green Text Mission.

[Rabbit King]:

Also, when we head out, you'll be given a specially modified walkie-talkie.

When a Supernatural Event occurred, electronic communications suffered severe interference. Most of the time, phones and radios couldn't be used.

But this Supernatural Walkie-Talkie was exceptionally durable and worked normally in almost every situation. Every resident sent out on a mission got one.

Gao Tian enlarged the photo and carefully examined the words written in green on the wall. Judging by the date the photo was taken, it must have appeared on the first floor today, three hours earlier.

[Second Mission]

Mission Requirements:

On January 3, search Sapphire Mall all day for six scattered Corpse Pieces and piece them together into a complete human form.

Complete the assembly by 6 p.m. (before Sapphire Mall closes).

After 6 p.m., the corpse will undergo Corpse Transformation.

Mission Participants: Big Elephant Jin, Su Jiu, Li Jin.

The mission location matched Xu Yuan's request. Even the mission itself matched what Xu Yuan had asked for: both involved a corpse.

To say there was no connection between the two would be like trying to fool a ghost.

If, hypothetically, the Corpse Pieces they had to find for the Second Green Text Mission were the remains Xu Yuan had left in Sapphire Mall while he was alive, wouldn't that mean Xu Yuan had already been dismembered?

As long as they helped Shata and the others find all six pieces and sealed them with the Ghost Transformation Spear, Xu Yuan's mission would be complete too.

Were the two missions actually one and the same?

Of course, it was too early to jump to conclusions. They would have to wait until they reached Sapphire Mall the next day to judge the situation.

Gao Tian suddenly remembered something. He should confirm the matter of the Ghost Transformation Spear with Shata. He really couldn't accept that a Supernatural Item said to be capable of overturning the entire era was just this thing.

[Gao Tian]:

By the way.

There's one more thing I'd like to ask you about.

[Rabbit King]:

Go ahead.

I don't know that much either. It's just that everyone more capable than me died, and somehow I ended up as the apartment manager and the mentor for newcomers.

I might not know the answer to your question, but I'll do my best to answer.

[Gao Tian]:

If there were a Supernatural Item, something like a knife, sword, or harpoon...

Its only effect was to turn anyone it killed into a ghost.

How would you rate this Supernatural Item?

[Rabbit King]:

That sounds like a very dangerous Supernatural Item.

Like the photo you brought in today, the one that can alter people's memories.

Until we understand exactly how it works, it should be contained inside the Living Person Apartment. Once these Supernatural Items leave the Living Person Apartment, they'll start causing trouble.

[Gao Tian]:

Would you consider using it as your main weapon?

The rabbit avatar on the other end of WeChat fell silent for a long time, as if she were trying to choose her words.

After a long while, Shata finally managed to type out a line.

[Rabbit King]:

I don't understand what you're saying.

You mean that weapon that turns people into ghosts after killing them—you'd bring it with you on a mission and use it as your main weapon against ghosts.

Is that right?

[Gao Tian]:

...That's what I mean.

[Rabbit King]:

Does this Supernatural Item you mentioned have any other special effects?

For example, if it can turn a living person into a ghost, maybe it can also turn a ghost into a living person?

[Gao Tian]:

It doesn't have an effect like that.

It only has one effect: turning the people it kills into ghosts.

This time, Shata was silent for even longer.

[Rabbit King]:

Gao Tian.

Is this your first Green Text Mission? Are you under too much pressure?

Be honest: would you take something like that out of the Living Person Apartment?

[Gao Tian]:

No.

Could it work in combination with some other Supernatural Item, creating an effect greater than the sum of its parts?

[Rabbit King]:

Good night. Get some sleep.

Get up early tomorrow.

There was no doubt that Shata's opinion was the same as any normal person's.

This Gun was trash. It had nothing but drawbacks and no benefits. Who in their right mind would take it on a mission?

Anyone who thought it contained some secret that could change this era had to be out of their mind.

The next day, outside Sapphire Mall.

Looking at the sprawling, partially enclosed shopping complex before them, Gao Tian, Shata, and the others had done their homework before coming. The mall had been planned fifteen years ago and completed twelve years ago. It had eight floors, including two underground levels. Since opening, there had been no reports of anyone dying inside, nor had there been any urban legends about it.

How Xu Yuan—or the Green Text Mission—had managed to hide an entire corpse in a busy shopping mall remained an unsolved mystery.

Besides Boss Jin, Shata, Jiangyang, and Gao Tian, two other newcomers were taking part in the Second Green Text Mission: Su Jiu, a female college student, and Li Jin, an ordinary office worker in his twenties. They also had two more hounds to search for the smell of rotting flesh.

After reading the mission and arriving at Sapphire Mall, Su Jiu's lips were already pale with fear, even though it was daytime. Her legs trembled as she walked. Li Jin at least managed to keep up a calm appearance, staying close behind the big shots, Shata and the others.

A gigantic neon billboard featuring the Female Star stood out above the main entrance to Sapphire Mall. Gao Tian saw the huge face of a certain woman looking down at the countless passersby scurrying in and out like ants, endlessly wiping on some popular pink lipstick.

Gao Tian recognized the Female Star. She was very popular these days, appearing frequently in all sorts of luxury advertisements. But he couldn't remember her name.

"It's 9:11 a.m. We have about nine hours until the mall closes.

"Check that the Supernatural Walkie-Talkies are working. Then we'll follow the plan we discussed yesterday."

Shata had been through dozens of missions and was already completely unruffled. She spoke calmly.

(She'd done five missions herself, not counting the countless wealthy newcomers she'd brought along.)

The mission participants had held a long meeting the night before, trying to guess where the six Corpse Pieces from the Green Text Mission might be hidden in the mall. They'd considered every possible place.

The dump, inside concrete pillars, construction ruins, unopened shops...

Any of those places seemed possible. But if the corpse really were hidden in one of them, the two specially trained hounds would sniff it out in no time, even amid the crowds in the mall—and even through a concrete wall.

Given the Green Text Mission's usual tricks, the places the participants could guess right away were often not the correct answer.

To save time, the participants would split into two groups. Shata and Boss Jin would make up one team. Jiangyang would take the two newcomers and search every suspicious spot on the first five floors and the basement as quickly as possible. Once they confirmed there were no Corpse Pieces in those places, they would move on to the next plan.

In the meantime, Gao Tian would be free to do as he pleased as an observer. He only needed to watch what the veteran residents did; he didn't have to participate in the mission himself.

But Gao Tian had his own plans. He needed to find Xu Yuan's corpse too.

After Shata and the others left the center of the mall's first floor, Gao Tian was alone at last. He could finally use his ghost abilities.

So far, no one else in the Living Person Apartment knew that Gao Tian had mastered the rules of two ghosts (the Shattered Face Ghost and the Memory Ghost). It wasn't because Gao Tian was selfish. Everyone in the Living Person Apartment was free to keep their own secrets. Yusheng was full of secrets and never talked about them, and no one forced him to.

His main concern was Yusheng. He couldn't let that Gray Monk know he had harnessed a ghost's power. If necessary, Gao Tian would force Yusheng's lips apart.

He wandered casually through the bustling crowd, browsing a few shops. As he passed an old security guard with graying hair and a black glove, Gao Tian finally made his move. He patted the man's shoulder and greeted him as if they were old friends.

"Hey, long time no see, old classmate. What a coincidence, running into you here. It must be fate.

"It's been over twenty years, hasn't it? Right, right, I'm Little Gao—Gao Tian. We went to middle school together. Don't you remember my face?"

Hearing someone pat him, the old security guard slowly turned around and looked at Gao Tian with an expression of bewilderment and irritation.

"Who are you, young man? Have you got the wrong person?"

No wonder the security guard was annoyed. They were more than forty years apart in age, and Gao Tian had walked right up and called him an old classmate. The guard was being polite just by not chasing him off.

Pretending not to notice the guard's expression, Gao Tian continued without batting an eye.

"It's me, Little Gao.

"Don't you remember? One day, you were walking past the school when Dao Ge and more than a dozen of his guys surrounded you. They nearly dragged you into an alley and beat you up. I happened to be passing by, and I told Dao Ge to let you go as a favor to me. How could you forget something that big?

"You wear that black glove because you got more than a dozen cuts on your arm when you blocked a knife that day. The scars never faded."

The Memory Ghost's ability took effect.

With Gao Tian's convincing words and gestures, a confused expression gradually spread across the old security guard's weathered face.

"I think something like that did happen...

"Right, right. Now that you mention it, I do remember.

"So you're Old Gao! It's been so long, but you haven't changed at all.

"Ah, don't even get me started. Even though decades have passed, that day scared me half to death. You can laugh if you want, but I've been out of school for ages, and I still sometimes dream about the day Dao Ge cornered me in that alley..."

Seeing the old security guard getting more and more caught up in it, Gao Tian knew the Memory Ghost's ability had worked. It had invaded an ordinary person's mind and implanted a false memory.

"Come on, let's go across the way. I'll buy you a drink, and we can catch up after all these years."

The old security guard was so enthusiastic that he insisted on treating this "old classmate," who was decades younger than him.

Of course, Gao Tian hadn't used the Memory Ghost's ability just to get this man to spend a little money.

"Old classmate, how long have you worked at Sapphire Mall?

"I have a few questions about this mall.

"Have there ever been any ghost stories or strange rumors about this place?"