Suddenly, the flame lit up, igniting the firewood.
The room gradually warmed.
Jiang Lin surveyed the room; it was a place for a single occupant.
According to the man himself, he had divorced his wife two years prior and was currently living alone.
Standing by the bedroom window, one could see the road outside.
The snowflakes in the sky grew denser, and pedestrians wearing top hats hurried past.
Some gazes, intentionally or unintentionally, flickered upwards, meeting Jiang Lin by the window before quickly shifting away.
After watching for a while, Jiang Lin turned around and saw the lean man standing at the doorway, looking at him.
Jiang Lin: ?
The lean man, under the gaze of those cold eyes, immediately remembered there was something he hadn't done.
He briskly walked to the kitchen and began preparing dinner.
Preparing dinner today was not difficult, as both the cake and the turkey were pre-made.
They only required simple handling,
followed by setting out the bowls and cutlery.
Midway, he saw Jiang Lin sitting on the sofa and poured him a cup of hot water.
Jiang Lin did not drink it,
but his abdomen clearly felt a pang of hunger.
For a ghost, hunger could be divided into two types.
One was a perceived hunger,
and the other was a lack of soul energy, a hunger signifying imminent disappearance.
The second type could be directly ruled out.
Jiang Lin was also certain that he wasn't simply craving food.
This situation occurring,
either the rules were making him hungry,
or this place was subtly depleting his strength.
Jiang Lin thought of something and took out the candy he had traded for from the little boy earlier.
He unwrapped one and put it in his mouth.
A sweet taste melted in his mouth,
and simultaneously, a warm current flowed into his stomach.
His body grew warmer, and the hunger in his abdomen lessened considerably. dafengfiction.com
'So that's how it is...'
Jiang Lin felt the remaining box of matches in his pocket.
The rules here were more akin to a survival simulation game.
Rustle—
The snow outside the window fell densely,
appearing somewhat hurried in the biting wind.
The sky grew darker, while the ground and rooftops gradually turned a vast expanse of white.
Houses were lit up one by one,
and through the windows, warm scenes could be seen.
Christmas Eve was approaching.
...
【Night has finally arrived. We watch Christmas for this very moment.】
【Players, please prepare. Darkness is coming.】
【Will he survive tonight? I bet three hundred冥币.】
【This house isn't like the dark alley. I'm quite curious about his life-saving items.】
...
Jiang Lin lifted his eyelids and glanced at the ceiling.
The glowing bullet comments, originally only in the sky, now appeared on the ceiling.
Had the scene transitioned?
From those rapidly flashing comments,
it could be seen that
the onlookers were very excited.
Rustle—
The candlelight on the dining table flickered.
Jiang Lin sensed something and turned his head towards the kitchen.
Through the half-open kitchen door,
the lean man's figure gradually blurred, only a black silhouette could be seen shuttling and busy within.
The Yin energy permeating the air grew increasingly dense.
Traces of ghost energy wafted out from the kitchen, carrying a frenzied aura.
Jiang Lin knew that the time was almost up.
He picked up the carved turkey from the table, turned directly, and entered the bedroom, locking the door behind him.
Bang!
The moment the door closed, the ghost figure in the kitchen abruptly poked its head out.
Its face, gradually becoming more spectral, held a sinister gaze.
...
In the bedroom,
Jiang Lin quickly finished the turkey,
then set up an invisible barrier within the room that would alert him if any ghost entered.
After making preparations, he sat cross-legged on the bed,
utilizing the increasingly dense Yin energy around him to begin cultivating.
The Yin energy here was still increasing, already comparable to a beginner's cultivation room.
The bullet comments on the ceiling posed a soul-searching question:
【He's cultivating??】
Cultivating using the Yin energy from a ghost building?
Brother, this is a ghost building!
It's fraught with life-or-death crises at all times!
【To actually treat a ghost building as a cultivation resource... Damn.】
【This move is truly f***ing audacious!】
【The players in this world are quite amusing. Following.】
...
In the live stream,
a group of viewers, after a moment of stunned silence, burst into laughter, clutching their stomachs.
"Hahaha, I respect no one but the streamer!"
"Streamer: This is clearly a cultivation resource delivered to my doorstep, why wouldn't I use it?"
"Freebie forever!"
What happens when a ghost messenger enters a place full of ghosts?
It's like releasing a cat into a mouse den.
It seemed that the ghosts in this place
had not yet realized what kind of existence they had provoked.
"Ignorance is terrifying. I'm already looking forward to it! (*❦w❦)"
...
As night descended, the snow on the streets fell even harder.
It laid a thick layer on the ground and rooftops.
The warm lights had vanished at some point.
In the darkness, house doors opened one by one.
Giant ghost figures emerged from the houses, their emanating ghost energy exuding a violent aura.
More and more ghost figures appeared on the streets,
dense and forming a massive procession.
They opened their scarlet eyes and moved uniformly in the same direction.
Bang!
Inside the lean man's house.
The bedroom door was violently slammed.
The lean man was no longer in the living room; only a ghost figure, two meters tall, remained.
It clenched its fist and furiously pounded on the door.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As it pounded, it let out beast-like roars from its throat.
The figure on the bed opened its eyes.
Jiang Lin paused his cultivation, his senses spreading out,
he saw the scene outside the door,
and also the swarms of ghost figures on the street.
They writhed densely, converging towards this direction.
Some living nearby had already climbed onto the roof of this building.
They clung with all fours, crawling towards the windows like spiders.
For humans, this might be a nightmarish scene.
But for ghost messengers, it was quite common.
Even...
somewhat tempting to engage.
Jiang Lin thought of something and took out the remaining box of matches from his pocket.
He took out a small matchstick and struck it on the box.
Swish!
The matchstick was lit.
The small flame flickered to life.
In an instant, the pounding outside the door ceased.
The two-meter-tall ghost figure hovered in the living room, as if it had instantly lost its target.
The crowded ghosts on the street also briefly stopped their advance, standing frozen in place.
After about ten seconds,
the small matchstick burned out, and the flame vanished.
Bang!
Bang!
The pounding on the door outside resumed, the force so great that the entire door panel shook.
As for the neighbors disturbed by the commotion, they had already climbed to the bedroom window,
their eyes bloodshot,
their teeth exposed like fangs, drooling, and greedily looking at Jiang Lin.
Jiang Lin inside the room unhurriedly took out a second match.
Swish!
The world fell silent once more.
All the ghosts fell into a brief confusion, milling about in place.
The matches extinguished,
and the ghosts roared again.
Swish!
The world fell silent again.
...
The bullet comments on the ceiling were dumbfounded.
【It's not the most dangerous moment yet, why did he use the matches?】
【Holy crap, why do I feel like he's toying with the ghost NPCs?】
【It was supposed to be an inspiring Hundred Ghosts Night Parade, why did it suddenly turn silly???】
【He truly isn't panicking at all.】
...