Sign Your Damn Black Coal Mine Contract

Scraps of paper fluttered through the air, each one like a slap across Gu Chengfeng's face.

A deathly silence fell over the entire Awakening Square. Even a pin dropping to the ground could have been heard.

Everyone stared at Su Bai as though he were a madman.

"Holy shit, has this guy lost his mind? He actually dared tear up Young Master Gu's contract?"

"He's got an abandoned Divine Kingdom of ten square kilometers, and he still dares make threats? Who gave him the courage, Fish Leong?"

"He's finished, he's finished. He's completely offended the Gu Family now. We'll probably see his corpse in the moat tomorrow."

Gu Chengfeng's face had gone from ashen to the color of pig liver.

He was the dignified young master of the Gu Family, a peerless genius with S-rank talent, yet a good-for-nothing who ranked dead last in the entire school had challenged him in public?

"Su Bai! You're courting death!"

Gu Chengfeng roared, and a powerful surge of spiritual energy erupted from his body.

A phantom image of a heavily armored berserker, two meters tall and wielding a giant axe, faintly appeared in the space behind him, radiating a suffocating pressure.

The surrounding students scrambled backward in fright, afraid of getting caught up in it.

Su Bai stood where he was without so much as batting an eyelid.

Although he had yet to create a ghost story, this was the school's Awakening Square.

Under the laws of the Great Xia Nation, anyone who used the power of their Divine Kingdom to attack a fellow student on school grounds without authorization would, at best, have their cultivation crippled and, at worst, be executed on the spot.

No matter how arrogant Gu Chengfeng was, he wouldn't dare kill someone here.

Sure enough, before the phantom berserker could fully take shape, the shadow of a whip suddenly descended from above and cracked against the ground in front of Gu Chengfeng with a smack.

A half-meter-deep fissure instantly appeared in the hard granite pavement.

"Gu Chengfeng, are you trying to rebel right under my nose?"

A woman in a black business suit and gold-rimmed glasses strode over.

Her face was cold and beautiful, her gaze sharp as a blade, and her entire body radiated the terrifying pressure of a Demigod Stage powerhouse.

She was Qin Wan, the homeroom teacher of Senior Year Class Seven.

Seeing Qin Wan appear, the fury in Gu Chengfeng's eyes subsided somewhat, but he still spoke through gritted teeth. "Teacher Qin, you saw it too. This good-for-nothing provoked me first!"

Qin Wan shot him a cold glance. "All I saw was you trying to use force in Awakening Square. Withdraw the phantom of your Divine Kingdom, or I'll detain you right now for endangering public safety."

Gu Chengfeng took a deep breath and forcibly withdrew the phantom berserker into his body.

He glared viciously at Su Bai and lowered his voice. "Fine, you've got guts. Let's see how long Qin Wan can protect you!"

"Su Bai, just you wait. At the citywide mock Divine War a month from now, I'll personally apply to the school to have my Divine Kingdom matched against yours!"

"When the time comes, I'll have my berserkers grind your wasteland Divine Kingdom to dust! I'll make sure you don't even qualify to dig coal!"

Having delivered his threats, Gu Chengfeng stormed away with his lackeys.

The students who had gathered to watch also hurriedly dispersed, afraid of getting on Qin Wan's bad side.

Qin Wan walked up to Su Bai. Looking at this student who usually had no presence in class, she knitted her brows.

"Su Bai, you were too impulsive." Qin Wan sighed. "The Gu Family isn't someone you can afford to offend."

Su Bai shrugged, looking innocent. "Teacher Qin, he was the one who insulted me with a contract selling me into servitude. I couldn't just smile and sign it, could I?"

Qin Wan felt a headache coming on as she looked at Su Bai, who was like a dead pig unafraid of scalding water.

"I saw the state of your Divine Kingdom. The contamination index is too high. Under school regulations, we have to revoke your enrollment today and hand you over to the Municipal Services Bureau's Pollution Treatment Division."

Su Bai's heart sank.

Hand him over to the Pollution Treatment Division? Wasn't that just another way of sending him to clean up trash on a suicide squad?

He had only just bound the system and hadn't created a single ghost story yet. If he were taken away, he would have ten deaths and no chance of survival.

"However..." Qin Wan changed tack. "I already submitted an application to the Academic Affairs Office, citing the service your father rendered in the mining district back then, and secured a seven-day observation period for you."

"You can keep your student status for those seven days. If the contamination index in your Divine Kingdom is still getting worse after that, with no sign of improvement, even I won't be able to protect you."

Su Bai's eyes lit up. "Thank you, Teacher Qin," he said sincerely.

Seven days was enough!

As long as he had time, he could turn that wasteland Divine Kingdom into an Anomaly forbidden zone that would make everyone's scalp tingle.

"Don't celebrate too soon." Qin Wan adjusted her glasses. "You'd better stay home and behave yourself for these seven days. Don't go provoking Gu Chengfeng. If you really can't manage, buy some purification potions on the black market. Even if they only reduce the contamination by one percent, that would still prove your Divine Kingdom is worth saving."

With that, Qin Wan hurried away in her high heels. She still had to handle the other students' awakenings.

Su Bai stood there, rubbing his chin.

Purification potions?

What a joke.

Other people feared contamination, but right now he couldn't wait for the contamination index to climb even higher.

Su Bai eagerly found a deserted corner, closed his eyes, and sank his consciousness into his mind.

"System, are you there? Come out and serve a customer."

[Ding! The Ghost Story Creator System is at your service.]

[Host's current status: a penniless false god.]

[Current Divine Kingdom area: 10 square kilometers (not even as good as a standard golf course).]

[Current contamination index: 99% (excellent. Recommended to maintain it and not buy any trashy purification potions).]

Su Bai automatically tuned out the system's snark and asked directly, "Tell me what exactly you can do, and what that newbie gift pack is."

[The core function of this system is to create rule-based ghost stories.]

[As long as the host provides sufficient materials (including but not limited to corpses, ruins, resentment, fear, special objects, and sources of contamination), the system can fuse them and transform them into Anomaly followers with specific rules.]

[Ghost story followers do not need to eat or consume spiritual energy. They grow solely by absorbing fear, resentment, and contamination.]

[When outside enemies invade the host's Divine Kingdom, the more afraid they are, the more likely they are to trigger a rule. After enemies die, their corpses and souls will automatically be converted into new ghost story materials.]

[Put simply: others wage war by mass-producing troops; you wage war by opening horror dungeons.]

Su Bai's blood boiled with excitement.

This setup was exactly to his taste!

Berserkers, elves, dragons-when faced with the absolute killing power of rules, they were all just delivering takeout!

"What about the newbie gift pack? Open it, quick!" Su Bai rubbed his hands together.

[Ding! The newbie gift pack has been opened.]

[Congratulations, host. You have obtained: Low-Level Resentment Collector ×1 (automatically collects free-floating resentment within a hundred-meter radius).]

[Congratulations, host. You have obtained: Rule Deduction Sandbox ×1 (can deduce in advance whether there are loopholes in a ghost story's killing rules).]

[Congratulations, host. You have obtained: basic ghost story blueprint-Midnight Female Ghost in Red.]

Su Bai's attention was instantly drawn to the last blueprint.

He opened it, and lines of blood-red text appeared before his eyes.

[Ghost story name: Midnight Female Ghost in Red]

[Required materials: one hundred corpses (any species; the more miserable, the better), thirty points of resentment, one abandoned building (preferably a school or hospital), and one bloodstained red garment.]

[Basic rule: after the midnight bell tolls, anyone who hears her singing must never turn around. Those who turn around die.]

[Potential rating: three stars (can grow).]

Su Bai looked at the recipe, his brows gradually knitting together.

One hundred corpses?

An abandoned building and bloodstained clothes too?

Was this damn thing asking him to go stock up or dump bodies?

"System, do the corpses have to be human?" Su Bai asked tentatively.

[Any species. However, if the corpses belong to powerful humans, the resulting ghost story will have higher initial attributes. If they are ordinary animal corpses, the ghost story may be rather sluggish at first.]

Su Bai breathed a sigh of relief.

Any species would do, then.

He was so poor he could barely afford food. Where was he supposed to find a hundred corpses of powerful humans? Even if he went to the black market, selling himself wouldn't be enough to buy a single thigh.

As for the abandoned building, his Divine Kingdom happened to have an abandoned school building, saving him the trouble.

The only question now was where to find a hundred animal corpses and a bloodstained red garment.

"Brother Bai! Brother Bai, are you okay?"

Just as Su Bai was working out how to get the materials, a chubby figure came running over, gasping for breath.

It was Lin Que, Su Bai's deskmate and best friend.

Lin Que was another hard-luck kid. He had awakened the C-rank talent "Ironclad Lizardman." Though it was a little better than Su Bai's, he was still cannon fodder in the eyes of the elite class.

When Gu Chengfeng had flown into a rage earlier, the fatty's calves had cramped with fear, but he had still gritted his teeth and edged two steps forward, wanting to help shield Su Bai.

Su Bai kept that kindness in his heart.

"What could happen to me?" Su Bai smiled and patted Lin Que on the shoulder.

Lin Que wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, still shaken. "You've got some nerve, daring to tear up even Gu Chengfeng's contract. I heard he's already said he'll beat you so badly in the mock battle that you won't be able to take care of yourself."

"Brother Bai, why don't you run while you can? Go hide in the neighboring city. Teacher Qin got you seven days, anyway."

Su Bai shook his head. "Run? Why would I run? It's still too early to say who'll beat whom in the mock battle."

Lin Que thought Su Bai had been so badly shaken that his brain had broken. He stamped his feet anxiously. "Bro, my dear bro! He's got an S-rank Divine Kingdom of eighty thousand square kilometers and ten thousand heavily armored berserkers! What are you going to fight him with? Are you going to smoke them to death with the black fog in your ten square kilometers?"

"I have a clever plan of my own." Su Bai smiled mysteriously, then suddenly leaned close to Lin Que's ear and asked, "Fatty, you know your way around. Do you know where in Linhai City I can get a lot of cheap animal corpses? The cheaper the better-ideally free."

Lin Que froze. "What do you want animal corpses for? Your Divine Kingdom is already ruined. Are you thinking of switching careers and selling barbecue skewers?"

"Cut the crap. Just tell me whether you know."

Lin Que scratched his head and thought for a long time. "Cheap corpses... There's been an outbreak of mutated giant rats near the waste treatment plant in the west of the city lately. The Municipal Services Bureau put out a bounty: ten yuan for every giant rat killed. The corpses are all piled up at the incineration station, and nobody's dealing with them. If you don't mind the stink, nobody will stop you from hauling away a truckload."

Su Bai's eyes lit up at once.

Mutated giant rats?

Excellent!

Not only would he get corpses, he could probably collect resentment along the way too.

"Thanks, brother!" Su Bai slapped his thigh. "Oh, right, help me ask around too. Find out where there's an old abandoned school in Linhai City, preferably one where something happened and people died."

The way Lin Que looked at Su Bai changed completely, as though he were looking at a pervert.

"Brother Bai, you... you haven't been so badly shaken that you're planning some kind of cult ritual, have you? I'm warning you, dark matter contamination can drive people insane!"

"Get lost. I'm going to take care of proper business." Su Bai kicked Lin Que. "Hurry up and ask around. I'll treat you to a big meal later."

With that, Su Bai ran toward the school gates without looking back.

Time was tight. Within seven days, he had to get the "female ghost in red" up and running.

Gu Chengfeng, didn't you want a Divine War?

Then I'll prepare a midnight surprise you'll never forget as long as you live!