Gang Cave

Su Wu quickly found an answer: under perpendicular illumination, light and objects do not produce shadows.

Yet he quickly thought of how that shadow ghost could crawl out from the shadows cast by all sorts of objects, and he simply had no way to make light shine perpendicularly on every object!

Supposing that after entering the simulation game, he did not turn on the lights, carried a flashlight inside, and made the flashlight shine perpendicularly onto the ground, perhaps it might not produce shadows-or perhaps only then; did the contour of the flashlight's beam count as a shadow?

This method had numerous drawbacks, and no matter how careful and cautious he was, there was a possibility of overturning.

Su Wu thought of the shadowless lamps in hospitals once more.

He understood the principle behind shadowless lamps, discovering that they merely reduced the umbra to its weakest state and could not eliminate shadows completely.

Even if shadowless lamps were effective and he could install them in his room, what about outside the room? What about the corridors? What about the stairwells?

He did not have that kind of financial power.

Since places with light inevitably produced shadows, could he choose to walk only in the darkness?

An inspiration flashed through Su Wu's mind!

He immediately opened his phone, ignored the jump-scrolling messages in his work group, and opened a small group named Fishing Guys.

Su Wu edited a message: "Brothers and sisters, is anyone selling an infrared night vision device?

Or is anyone selling this thing? I'm looking for a well-performing infrared night vision device, new or secondhand doesn't matter, budget is within five thousand!"

Less than five seconds after sending the message, a group member named Outdoor Fishing Guys' Gear Encyclopedia added Su Wu as a friend.

As everyone knew, fishing was an outdoor sport.

Night fishing was an even greater joy of fishing, and fishing by the wild riverbanks inevitably involved bumps and scrapes; someone selling an infrared night vision device to help others see the path clearly at night was completely normal.

Various situations easily occurred outdoors, and Su Wu had once had a friend who came face-to-face with a wild boar by the riverbank.

After Outdoor Fishing Guys' Gear Encyclopedia added Su Wu as a friend, he tossed over a few links, all of which were various brands and types of infrared night vision devices sold in his shop.

While asking him about the specific details of the infrared night vision devices of various brands and types, Su Wu opened a secondhand trading app.

With such expensive items, one always had to compare to feel confident.

Entering the app's main interface, many items pushed by big data appeared on the screen.

Because Su Wu liked browsing pets, cats and dogs, and cultural artifact collectibles in this app, most of the items pushed by big data to the main interface were also these things.

Usually, he would glance past these things with a single look, but this time he was attracted by an item.

That was a bone flute carved with mysterious patterns, resembling an animal's leg bone with one end wrapped in chased-copper grain.

Below was a brief introduction to this item: Gang Cave/Gangling, ox-bone bone flute, breaking-law and suppressing evils, calming emotions...

The introductory words of the item stirred Su Wu's mind.

He clicked into it, then browsed several similar items all the way along the recommendations.

The shadow ghost was an existence beyond common sense; could it be killed using methods beyond common sense?

For instance, using magical artifacts similar to this.

Anyway, since it was in a simulation game, why not give it a try?

His phone buzzed continuously, and the avatar of Outdoor Gear Encyclopedia popped up constantly in the upper left corner. Su Wu deliberated for a moment and felt it was worth a try.

Moreover, he needed to prepare for both contingencies.

He typed infrared night vision devices into the app, searched for related items, and after browsing around, felt confident. He continued chatting with Outdoor Gear Encyclopedia to negotiate the price, and finally bought a secondhand monocular head-mounted infrared night vision device for fifty-eight hundred.

Because he was in the same city as Outdoor Gear Encyclopedia, the other party readily agreed to arrange for a store clerk to deliver the goods to his door directly within two hours.

Subsequently, Su Wu operated within the app once more, buying a Gang Cave rumored to be made of yak bone for three thousand.

He confirmed with the seller repeatedly that this Gang Cave was of yak bone material.

After all, when browsing similar items, he discovered there were quite a few claiming to be made from the shinbones of eminent monks...

Now that the situation was bizarre, he was terrified of things associated with people.

Besides, who knew if the shinbone was taken from a truly eminent monk?

The seller promised to arrange for expedited shipping and strive to deliver the item into Su Wu's hands this afternoon.

Su Wu let out a breath of relief.

In a dozen minutes, nearly ten thousand was scattered out.

Although after his parents passed away, they left him two properties and hundreds of thousands in savings, he had preserved those assets well and hadn't used a single cent.

The money he was spending now was his savings from working over the past two years.

To have nearly one-eighth of his savings vanish just like that-saying he didn't feel a pang would be false.

Yet thinking that these items might help him gain a footing in the future and pave the way for his present self, he felt this money was well spent.

Afterward, Su Wu clicked into the Peaceful Garden Building 7 Tenant Group and tagged the landlord who possessed all eight floors of Building 7: "Big Brother, can you fix the voice-activated lights in the hallways?

I almost broke my kneecaps walking down the stairs this morning."

The landlord didn't need to work; at home, aside from drinking heavily and beating his wife, he played on his phone scrolling through Douyin.

So he quickly replied to Su Wu's message: "I'll fix them next month."

"You said that two months ago as well..." Tenant Qing Yu popped up to say.

"They really should be fixed; you can't even see the stair steps at night without a mobile phone," tenant Little Sheep Peppa said.

Following that, a few more tenants popped up successively to add a few lines.

Being interrogated like this by the tenants, the landlord didn't panic in the least, merely stating: "I said I'd fix them next month, so I'll fix them next month. If you're in a rush, go fix them yourselves and spend your own money!

Voice-activated lights don't cost that much anyway!"

Usually, when the landlord started acting tough, the tenants would quiet down unless they were unwilling to live there anymore.

These tenants had already lived in Peaceful Garden for three, five, or even many years, and moving alone would consume a great deal of energy. Making themselves have no way out just out of spite with the landlord was not the best choice for these tenants who had families to support.

The chat group grew quiet.

Yet before long, a message popped out of the chat box: "I'll fix them, I'll pay to fix them!"

The person who sent the message was none other than Su Wu.

The landlord was more than eager to save a few bucks, and seeing this, replied with the speed of a message too fast to recall: "Alright, alright, alright, you fix them, you fix them. When are you fixing them?

I'll give you the key to the main circuit breaker box for Building 6."

Not long after his message was sent, someone named Hardware Tools spoke up: "I have all types of voice-activated lights here, you can buy them from me, and I can also help install them."

"Let's fix them today, buy them from you, and you come help us install them @Hardware Tools." Su Wu didn't want to bother with too much trouble, and directly tagged that person in the group.

Thus the matter was settled.

He chose voice-activated lights with two functions-"smart voice-control/remote-control"-from Hardware Tools and installed them in all the hallways.

Even those voice-activated lights that were still usable were swapped out entirely.

At the same time, he quietly went to get a duplicate key made for the main circuit breaker box.