[Player Bai Xi has cleared Nightmare Haunted Campus. Settlement as follows:]

The Overbearing Sister: Cleared the dungeon relying entirely on her brother, making no contribution whatsoever. Only the base reward of 100 Paranormal Coins is granted.

Due to the character skill Drama Queen’s Acting, there is a chance to obtain the abilities of the played role. In this dungeon, you played the role of a Hanged Ghost Student. Skill roll successful—congratulations, Player, you have obtained the ability Hanged Ghost.

Hanged Ghost

Description: A pitiful student who died by wrongful hanging. Can release ghostly aura and summon the exclusive paranormal item Hanging Rope to attack any target, without consuming Paranormal Coins.

Note: The Hanged Ghost state lasts three minutes and can only be used once per dungeon.

Bai Wan was dumbfounded.

Damn, that’s amazing. Three full minutes in Hanged Ghost mode, with free use of the Hanging Rope? That’s a seriously powerful skill.

His sister now had two character skills: one from clearing Ghost Cruise—Life Is But a Stage, which allowed her to inherit the skills and experiences of the role she played. The other, gained in The Letter, was Drama Queen’s Acting, which sometimes granted her the skills of the character she played upon clearing the dungeon.

At the time, Bai Wan didn’t think it sounded too strong. But seeing it in action now? Pretty damn shocking.

If his sister ever played an unsolvable-level paranormal entity in a future dungeon, wouldn’t she be… unbeatable?

But after thinking for a moment, Bai Wan calmed down. No—it was because this dungeon was special. Everyone in the campus was a ghost student.

Normally, with her low-level character skill, she’d never be assigned a paranormal role—at best, she’d be some background villager. But in Nightmare Haunted Campus, the weakest students were still paranormals.

So she had to play one, and just happened to trigger Drama Queen’s Acting, which led to her gaining the Hanged Ghost ability.

Bai Wan was thrilled nonetheless—since his sister could return to the painting at any time, she could also be released at any time to transform into a Hanged Ghost. That gave him another ace up his sleeve.

His sister could freely enter and exit the Painted World for limited periods, and now she had the Hanged Ghost ability on top of that. That got him wondering—what about his other family members?

“Hey, system,” Bai Wan said, “all my family members took part in the dungeon. Don’t you think it’s a bit unfair not to give them settlement screens? This is the second dungeon already, and you haven’t given any of them a settlement. Doesn’t feel right, does it?”

After a brief silence, the system replied:

[Clear the next dungeon to gain one slot for a random family member to receive settlement.]

Bai Wan immediately felt the malice dripping from that. The Desolate Village event was coming up. Barring surprises, that would be his next dungeon.

Clearly the system was confident in its difficulty.

And fair enough—Desolate Village was notoriously brutal. Only players who’d earned a slot from the Blood-Red Skeleton Shop or higher could even enter. That meant every participant was a veteran player… and even then, parties were occasionally wiped out.

Its difficulty was said to surpass even The Letter. So the system probably figured he wouldn’t be coming back alive, dangling this as bait.

Still, hope was hope. If he cleared Desolate Village, he’d unlock the settlement reward for another family member.

Bai Wan checked the time, ordered some takeout, and sent portions into the photos for his family. Then he carefully wiped the picture frames, which counted as giving them all a bath.

His family smiled in satisfaction as they ate fried chicken inside the pristine frames—though his mother muttered about it being junk food between greasy bites.

He and his sister dug in as well. After all, the food in Nightmare Haunted Campus’ cafeteria had been disgusting enough to make him vomit. He was still a little hungry.

After eating, he flopped onto his bed.

The paranormal games were thrilling, sure… but exhausting. Like playing Civilization VI for a month straight.

Sleep hit fast. Even in his dreams, he mumbled words like “White Hair Descend” and “Bankai.”

…

Bai Wan slept soundly that night and showed up at the Lan City branch the next day.

Unlike some other departments, the Para-Hunter division worked in one big room, ready to repel sudden paranormal attacks. It was a habit born from the paranormal game—nobody felt safe being too far apart.

Of course, “work” here often meant hanging out in the operations room to blow off steam between incidents.

Bai Wan walked in to find Zhou Lu, Liu Tong, Wang Meng, and the others watching a movie, while Su Yuening sat at a desk reading what looked like a Complete Paranormal Encyclopedia.

As a rookie, Su Yuening hadn’t yet been corrupted by the lazy veteran atmosphere—she still studied diligently to prepare for hunts.

Zhou Lu spotted Bai Wan and grinned, “Out of the dungeon? Congratulations. If you made it back, I guess those criminals couldn’t touch you after all.”

He’d been worried—the opposing team this time had been strong.

Bai Wan was surprised. So… the straw doll from the Doctor really worked.

It erased the past week’s impression of him. And since Bai Wan had cleared the dungeon in just one day, he hadn’t even needed the full effect—erasing just one day’s worth of dungeon memories had been enough.

He nodded, putting on an appropriately shaken expression. “Yeah, Captain… this one was dangerous. I almost didn’t make it.”

“Surviving is what matters. Those criminals have way more clears than you. It’s normal you couldn’t beat them,” Zhou Lu said reassuringly.

Off to the side, Su Yuening rolled her eyes.

There he goes again. 

Don’t you have any idea why you almost didn’t make it back this time? Wasn’t it because you nearly blew up the dungeon—and took yourself along with it? 

As for those vicious villains, shouldn’t it be enough that you didn’t drive them completely insane?

The straw doll probably only worked for PvP-type dungeons. It clearly didn’t affect people right beside him, because she remembered every detail.

Then Zhou Lu’s expression turned serious. “Lil’ Wan… there’s something else. We’ve got news about that video of your future death.”

Bai Wan’s face grew solemn. “You found something?”

Last time, Dr. Fang had shown him a video of a walking corpse identical to him—one that had already turned into a paranormal entity. He’d been dwelling on it ever since.

So… in the future, he really did die? And then became a paranormal?

Zhou Lu continued, “We’ve identified the location in the video. It’s Black Mount in neighboring Jingnan City. That place has been haunted for years.”

Bai Wan’s brow furrowed.

Black Mount? So his future self died there?

“As it happens,” Zhou Lu went on, “Jingnan’s Para-Hunters are severely understaffed and looking for help. If you’re curious, you could check it out.”

“Thanks, Captain. I’ll head there tomorrow.”

From the video, it was years in the future, not now. So he wasn’t worried about dying in Black Mount this time. In fact, he was curious—would his paranormal self still have bugs after death?

According to the Doctor, he was already terrifying enough alive. Dead… he might be unimaginable.

Could his future self have been the cause of this haunted Black Mount?

Dangerous or not, Bai Wan had to see it. Maybe his future self had even crossed over to the present to deliver a message. He had to find out how he’d died.

“I’ll give you a contact over there,” Zhou Lu said. “When you arrive, link up with Jingnan’s Para-Hunters. They’ve got an op lined up. And… try not to do anything weird, okay?”

Thinking of Bai Wan’s track record, Zhou Lu couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

Bai Wan flashed a bright smile. “Don’t worry, Captain. I’ll be on my best behavior.”

“…Will you?” Zhou Lu asked, doubt clear in his eyes.

Well, Jingnan really is short-handed. No matter what happens, it can’t get worse, right?

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