Ghostly Skills Company: You Turn People into Ghosts

"[World-Breaker Excavation] (The Past-Time Shovel seems to have formed a deeper connection with you; you may briefly summon it outside of instances.

Consumes a large amount of stamina to assist in one of your actions, imbuing it with the Weakness Break effect. This is equally effective against non-corporeal special entities such as restless spirits, flames, and the like.)"

Zhang Anzai was quite moved: "It's actually an enchanted attack. Finally, I have some direct means of dealing with enemies."

Although the skill effect was straightforward and served as an auxiliary to his attacks rather than letting him swing the shovel directly at people, Zhang Anzai was still very satisfied.

"I just don't know what the actual effect is, nor do I know how much 'a large amount of stamina' really entails... I'll have to find an opportunity to test it later," Zhang Anzai mused, spinning the Past-Time Shovel in his hand.

He didn't intend to test the new skill here in the settlement space, the River of the Past; it was just that at this point, only the final step of his settlement remained.

"What will I dig up this time?" Zhang Anzai held a sliver of hope in his heart: "It would be great if it were something related to Chen Xing."

In a sense, the ability to make wishes come true—whether for players or monsters—was one of the most powerful abilities he had ever seen in his life, Chen Xing's included.

Anything related to that ability was bound to be decent, no matter how you looked at it.

Zhang Anzai pondered as he dug a shovel into the river water below.

The river water was once again parted by Zhang Anzai as if it were soil, and what was revealed within was no longer an object, but a small cluster of glowing black mist.

"This is..." It was highly unlikely to be something related to Chen Xing. After all, he was all too familiar with the texture of this black mist; wasn't it the same mist that swirled around that ghost, the Road-Blocking Demon?

"Skill: [Ghost Wall-Building] (Ding)"

Although he had expected something, Zhang Anzai still couldn't help but lose his composure upon seeing the name:

"Damn, I figured it wouldn't be the full-fledged monster ability, but what the hell is Ghost Wall-Building? Was this guy a civil engineering major in his past life? What, did he get hit by a car while coming back from a foot massage?"

His ability was currently a total super-blind box. Even if he got at least a skill or an item every time, it was far too unstable.

Presumably, it would get better once the skill leveled up in the future.

Of course, even if it only consistently produced low-level skills, it was actually quite good. It wasn't easy to learn real skills inside instances, especially those belonging to ghosts.

"[Ghost Wall-Building] (Ding): This is a technique of generalization and self-deception. You can use an object as a focal point to obscure the space of a small area, but it is merely a concealment and can only withstand extremely weak impacts.

Once the flaw is discovered, even a slightly powerful attack can shatter it."

Zhang Anzai saw what it was at a glance; it was an illusion skill. You could use a fallen leaf to hide a large pit, or a brick to block an entire door frame.

It was similar to the "ghost hitting a wall" phenomenon, but not as powerful, and it could be physically destroyed. The specific effectiveness would depend on how he used it.

Come to think of it, since this ability belonged to the ghost category, it could also be handed over to his inheritance to be devoured for upgrades.

However, skills and items were different from materials; one had to weigh whether it was more useful to keep them or devour them. They could devour materials without any burden.

In the late game, a Grade-A skill or item could increase completion by a significant margin, but most players wouldn't do that. Powerful items and skills were no less valuable than half a new inheritance, making them much more meaningful to keep.

Resources were hard to come by in the early stages, so he couldn't afford to let any skill or item go to waste. Naturally, he kept this skill.

A quick glance at his player panel showed that it was clearly much richer than before; he finally looked like a proper player.

"Player: [Fate Controller]"

"Old Inheritance: [Past-Time Shovel] (1.03 completion)."

"Old Dust: 780"

"Skill: Ghost Wall-Building (Ding)"

"Item: True-Form Scissors (Ding)"

"Talent: Two-World Walker (Grade A), Dexterous (Ding), Literati (Ding), Indefatigable (Ding)."

"Remaining Rest Time: 9 days, 23:50."

"Whew..." After finishing the settlement here, Zhang Anzai's player body slowly faded away, returning to his original self.

The effects of the Ox-Horse Liver-Exploding Pill hadn't completely worn off, but because Zhang Anzai had consumed so much stamina, the weakness effect was already slowly creeping in.

However, since there was still an employee settlement to take care of, he remained full of motivation.

There wasn't much special about this side. Zhang Anzai sat in front of the computer, looking as weary as if he had pulled an all-nighter, and finished the settlement with a few keystrokes.

The reward was a plain and simple 500 employee points and 10 days of rest.

Although they, as administrators, had to accompany players into instances, and players could rest as soon as they finished exploring, they had to open instances every single day.

But since they were just watching from the sidelines without any real risk, there naturally weren't as many miscellaneous gains.

"Though I can't say there are none; it's mainly because I haven't been made a permanent employee yet..." Zhang Anzai muttered to himself.

Becoming a permanent employee was a very clear watershed for company staff. Permissions were different, the reward mechanism seemed to improve, and it was an almost all-around upgrade.

But come to think of it, having completed another mid-to-high-level task, he didn't seem far from becoming a permanent employee.

"The last 'mid' was adjusted to 'mid-to-high,' and with this 'mid-to-high,' at most one more 'mid-to-high' and one 'mid,' or three 'mid' ratings, and I'll be able to go permanent..."

Zhang Anzai muttered, looking at his employee panel.

"Employee Information: Zhang Anzai."

"Administrator Department, Class 10086, Group 7, ID 01."

``` [Task Completed: [Ghostly: Endless Night Road] (Mid-High) [Folk Taboo: Night-Shift Mountain Peddler] (Mid) [Seeking Dao: Stealing Pills from the Tower Temple] (Mid-Low)...]

[Employee Points: 770.]

[Remaining Working Time: 19 days.]

There was nothing special, just the pleasing number of employee points and the reassuring amount of remaining working time.

He had already depleted some of his time, but he had taken on a few other instances over the past two days, and with this ten-day haul, it had shot straight up to 19 days.

A sense of total security... As Zhang Anzai pondered this, he suddenly felt an unsettling gaze coming from the side.

He turned his head and nearly jumped in fright.

Because it was still very early and the office lights hadn't been turned on yet, Lin Zhao had appeared at the workstation beside him at some point, staring at him with a serious expression in the pitch-black room.

Zhang Anzai met her gaze for a few seconds, his expression quite puzzled: "What is it, Xiao Zhao?"

Lin Zhao scooted her office chair over and shook his shoulders with a nervous expression:

"Anzai, get a grip. Have you actually lost your mind? It's 7:05 in the morning, the office lights aren't even on, and I just came back to grab something, only to see you sitting here alone in the entire office with dark circles under your eyes, grinning like an idiot at the screen. Do you have any idea how terrifying that is?

Are you low on employee points again? I can lend you some, or are you worried about your performance review?"

Lin Zhao was terrified that her friend would drive himself insane before the performance review could even kill him: "This company turns people into ghosts!"

Zhang Anzai simply pressed his hand down calmly and replied: "Forgot the beginning, forgot the middle, anyway, how did you know I just completed another Mid-High rated task?"