Candy-Buying Ghost

Biodata

Background / History

The Candy-Buying Ghost is the designated anomalous entity of Wu City’s artificial anomalous space, where eighteen-year-old students undergo their Companion Ghost awakening. Its serial number is 278006, and students are repeatedly warned not to agree to its request for candy. If a target whose level does not exceed its own agrees and buys candy for it, the ghost can trigger an instant-death attack 1.

Xin Yang encounters it in the trial space as a bizarre child requesting candy. Initially sensing Xin Yang’s fear, the ghost confidently repeats its usual request. Xin Yang’s older-brother personality instead agrees, purchases three Heart Candies, and lets the ghost eat one; the resulting instant-death attack grants Xin Yang one month of lifespan upon revival 2.

Xin Yang then exploits the ghost twice more. He coerces it into asking whether it can buy candy, feeds it his severed hand, and gains Ghost Energy +1 after reviving. On the third death, caused by another Heart Candy, he obtains the ghost skill Candy Buying; further deaths caused by this ghost no longer grant rewards 2 3.

Unable to kill the ghost through ordinary violence, Xin Yang buys Corpse-Oil Lighters from Ratman’s convenience store. He forces the lighters into the ghost’s mouth and ignites them, melting the Candy-Buying Ghost to death. This kill awakens Xin Yang’s Companion Ghosts, Little Black Ball and Dreamsource Ghost 3.

Although artificial ghosts normally reset through the power of sealed high-level wild ghosts, the Candy-Buying Ghost retains trauma from Xin Yang’s treatment. It no longer asks anyone to buy candy, keeps its mouth shut, and trembles whenever male humans enter to awaken 3 6.

Appearance

The Candy-Buying Ghost takes the form of a boy around ten years old in a dark-red cartoon T-shirt. Its childlike appearance conceals distinctly unnatural features 2.

• Completely black eye sockets with no visible whites of the eyes 2
• Eyes that dart unnaturally from side to side 2
• A grin filled with jet-black teeth 2
• Can bend its fingers at angles impossible for a normal human 2
• Xin Yang later mutilates its face by stabbing holes where a nose would be and repeatedly hacking at it 3

Abilities & Skills

Candy Buying

The Candy-Buying Ghost’s ghost skill centers on a deceptive request for candy.

• It asks a target to buy it candy; if the target agrees and completes the purchase, the skill triggers an instant-death attack, provided the target is not above the ghost’s level 1
• The skill successfully kills Xin Yang three times during his awakening trial 2 3
• Xin Yang plunders the skill after his third death at the ghost’s hands 3
• Xin Yang later considers the copied skill highly restrictive, since few ghosts would willingly agree to buy candy for him 32
• He eventually disassembles the copied Candy Buying skill into a Specter Skill point through Little Black Ball’s new function 48

Instant-Death Trigger

The ghost’s primary offensive effect is activated through the completion of its candy transaction.

• Three Heart Candies purchased for the ghost cost Xin Yang nine days of lifespan 2
• Each successful trigger kills Xin Yang despite his physical condition at the time 2 3
• The trigger is ineffective as a long-term solution against Xin Yang because his revival ability restores him after deaths caused by anomalous beings 2

Relationships

• Xin Yang — Awakening-trial target and eventual killer. Xin Yang exploits the ghost’s instant-death ability for plunder rewards, acquires its skill, and kills it with Corpse-Oil Lighters 2 3.
• Xin Yang’s older-brother personality — The personality that first reverses their power dynamic through intimidation, coercion, and mutilation 2 3.
• Ratman — Convenience-store proprietor who sells Heart Candies and Corpse-Oil Lighters used in Xin Yang’s encounter with the ghost 2 3.
• Wu City awakening students — Potential victims trained to avoid agreeing to its candy requests during their first artificial-space entry 1.

Story Role / Major Arcs

• Companion Ghost Awakening — Serves as the lethal tutorial entity in Wu City’s artificial anomalous space and introduces the danger of anomalous ghost skills 1.
• Xin Yang’s first plundering cycle — Becomes the first anomalous being Xin Yang repeatedly allows to kill him for lifespan, attributes, and a ghost skill 2 3.
• Dual Companion Ghost awakening — Its final death directly enables Xin Yang to awaken Little Black Ball and Dreamsource Ghost 3.
• Wu City mystery — Its unexplained refusal to speak to future male awakening candidates becomes an unsolved mystery lasting decades 3.

Trivia

• The Candy-Buying Ghost is only a first-tier Calamity Ghost, described as one of the weakest kinds of ghosts used for awakening trials 3.
• Ordinary physical attacks cannot kill it; ghosts require ghost-killing techniques, ghostly items, curse abilities, or ghost skills to be destroyed 3.
• Its sharp smell contributes to Xin Yang’s improved ability to detect corpse stench after obtaining the copied Candy Buying skill 8.