Two in the morning, Jujutsu High, Tokyo Metropolis.
The light at the end of the corridor had broken again, flickering as if it were picking a fight with someone.
Yang Jian ignored it and pushed open his dorm room door.
He leaned the Chopping Knife against the corner, stuffed the Body Bag into the Golden Box, and snapped the clasps shut with two crisp clicks.
The room was dark. He left the light off.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he fished the can of cola he had kept under his pillow all day out and pulled the tab. The hiss of escaping fizz sounded especially clear in the quiet room.
"Ghost Wall, paranormal strength A. One hundred thousand for turning him in."
The math was simple. One hundred thousand from the paranormal invasion settlement, plus what he had saved before, brought his balance to two hundred fifty thousand five hundred.
The System Shop interface unfolded across his retinas, a blue screen floating in the darkness that only he could see.
Yang Jian first checked Ghost Wall's ability description.
After devouring other ghosts, he inherited their killing rules and abilities.
He read it twice more.
A malevolent ghost with no upper limit to his growth.
Left alone to feed freely, he could theoretically devour his way into a mobile, disaster-class amalgamation.
A single wall carrying a dozen different killing rules-you couldn't touch him, and there would be nowhere to run. Just thinking about it made his head hurt.
But conversely, if he could control what Ghost Wall was fed...
He cut that thought off before it could fully take shape.
The ghosts inside his body were already balanced. He should stick to exchanging points for the ghosts the system offered.
A snake that tried to swallow an elephant would choke on its own greed. Nobody needed to teach him that.
His gaze left Ghost Wall's entry and returned to the shop list. He swiped through the air twice, stopping on one line.
Ghost Eye-mid-stage upgrade, two hundred thousand.
Yang Jian stared at that line for three seconds.
The Ghost Eye was his foundation.
The number of layers in his ghost domain directly determined his upper limit. He had known that since the first day he took control of the Ghost Eye.
More importantly-the seven-layer ghost domain.
It could reset his own state. He couldn't keep it active for long, but it would be enough.
"Two hundred thousand."
Yang Jian crushed the empty cola can with one hand and casually tossed it into the trash can by the door. The sound of aluminum striking plastic echoed once through the empty room.
He had two hundred fifty thousand five hundred. After buying the Ghost Eye upgrade, he would have a little over fifty thousand left.
Enough. Keeping fifty thousand for emergencies was more reassuring than anything else.
"Redeem."
[Exchange confirmed: Ghost Eye upgrade (mid-stage). Cost: 200000 points] [Remaining points: 50500] [Ghost Eye upgraded to mid-stage. Current deadlocked ghost eyes: four]
There were no special effects, no light, and no sudden rush of enlightenment.
The change began inside him.
The Ghost Eye's presence grew "heavier," as though five nails that had been embedded shallowly in the surface of his consciousness had driven another inch deeper.
It didn't hurt, but he could feel them holding more firmly.
Yang Jian flexed his fingers.
His connection to Ghost Shadow had also grown a little steadier.
After taking control of Ghost Shadow, he could switch his consciousness freely between his human body and Ghost Shadow, but the mental feedback never went away-exhaustion was still exhaustion, and pain was still pain.
At the end of the day, he was still human.
He fell backward, the back of his head landing on the pillow.
The ceiling was dingy, with a hairline crack stretching from the light fitting to the corner. He had no idea when it had appeared.
He stared at it for a while, his mind emptying for a few seconds-moments like this were rare, and brief.
His phone screen lit up.
One message.
Suguru Geto: Heard the Adachi Ward incident's been resolved?
Yang Jian rolled onto his side and typed one-handed: You hear things fast.
Geto: Gojo was bragging in the group chat.
His exact words were, "I nearly got stuffed into a bag and shipped off as a package tonight."
Yang Jian pictured Satoru Gojo wrapped in the golden Body Bag, his six-foot-plus frame curled inside the gleaming sack, silver hair poking through the opening, his mouth still running. The corner of his mouth twitched.
Yang Jian: He's telling the truth.
No immediate reply came.
Six or seven seconds passed.
Geto: ...You put Gojo in a Body Bag?
Yang Jian: Pure gold Body Bag. Keeps things nice and fresh. Highly recommended.
Another several seconds of silence.
Then a voice message popped up.
Yang Jian played it. Suguru Geto's helpless laughter came through the speaker, breaking into a choke halfway through and trailing off into two coughs.
There was a faint clink of a cup against a table in the background-he had probably choked on his tea.
It was rare for the usually composed, impeccably polite Suguru Geto to lose his composure.
Yang Jian: I'll tell you the details another day. Pass a message to Shoko for me: I wasn't injured this time. No checkup needed.
Geto: Tell her yourself. She doesn't believe me.
Yang Jian: She doesn't believe me either.
Geto: All the more reason to go yourself.
Yang Jian didn't reply. He locked the screen and tossed the phone aside.
The ceiling light tube gave off a faint electrical hum, like a mosquito that couldn't fly away.
He closed his eyes.
His mind kept working.
With the Ghost Eye at mid-stage, the seven-layer ghost domain's reset ability was a reliable safety net. It could pull him back when his life was truly on the line.
But the erosion problem remained. Every use above five layers brought the Ghost Eye one step closer to reawakening.
He needed something to counterbalance it.
Ghost Hand, one hundred fifty thousand.
Highly useful, and suppression slots for malevolent ghosts were hard currency. But one hundred fifty thousand wasn't cheap, and his fifty-thousand balance couldn't cover it.
Ghost Lake, three hundred thousand.
Suppression, containment, and teleportation in one package. The value was obvious, but three hundred thousand was even further out of reach.
There was no rushing it.
One step at a time.
His thoughts drifted away from the shop list and inexplicably veered toward something else.
That kid, Megumi Fushiguro.
Was Satoru Gojo really planning to raise him himself?
That man tossed his socks onto the radiator, let instant noodle cups pile up from his desk to the floor, and went out without a wallet, relying entirely on people recognizing him. Someone like that, raising a child?
Yang Jian recalled Satoru Gojo crouching in front of Megumi Fushiguro, wearing that expression as he asked, "Want to come with me?"
He certainly knew how to talk a good game.
But the way that kid had looked at Gojo-
He was only four or five years old.
Forget it. It wasn't his concern.
His phone screen lit up again.
The group chat.
Satoru Gojo: @Yang Jian Hey, don't tell anyone about the kid thing.
Satoru Gojo: I mean the thing where I got stuffed in a bag.
Satoru Gojo: Hey.
Satoru Gojo: You asleep?
Satoru Gojo: Seriously? It's still so early.
Suguru Geto: It's three. Normal people are asleep.
Satoru Gojo: Normal people don't send messages at two in the morning either, Geto.
Shoko: @Satoru Gojo Since when did you get reduced to such a sorry state?
Satoru Gojo: What do you know? That's called biding your time.
Shoko: Read.
Suguru Geto: Good night.
Satoru Gojo: Wait, why are you all...
Suguru Geto: Read.
Yang Jian looked at Satoru Gojo's unfinished sentence sitting all alone at the bottom of the screen. He was silent for two seconds.
Then he typed one word.
Yang Jian: Read.
The instant his message went through, a voice message from Satoru Gojo popped up in the chat. He didn't play it.
He locked the screen and tucked the phone facedown beneath his pillow.
The phone kept buzzing.
Yang Jian rolled over to face the wall.
In the darkness, the outline of the Chopping Knife was faintly visible in the corner. Without any light, its dark red rust somehow looked clean.
Three seconds later, his breathing slowed.
He fell asleep.
(A quick explanation of the ghost ratings here: basically, they measure a ghost's paranormal strength. Ghost Wall hadn't devoured any ghosts or grown stronger yet, and even the complete Ghost Shadow, after merging with two puzzle pieces, was only slightly stronger and could withstand Ghost Wall's attacks, so I gave Ghost Wall an A. The ghost at the beginning could easily be suppressed by Ghost Hand with just one suppression slot, so that was a C. Having the Chopping Knife made things look relatively easy. Also, about the Chopping Knife-should I remove the "no cost" part? Since Ghost Shadow could repair it automatically, I added "no cost.")
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