“Codename: Ghost Stench.
Hazard Level: C.
Terror Level: C.
Its killing rule is that its entire body gives off an intense foul odor, and the stench possesses a certain degree of corrosiveness.
Within ten meters of it, ordinary people will feel unwell, and their bodies will show signs of weakness and limpness.
Within five meters of it, obvious signs such as peeling and cracking will appear on the body.
Within one meter, it is presumed that the body will be severely corroded, flesh and blood ulcerating, resulting in death. In the end, the entire body will rot away until only a skeleton remains.
The trigger condition for its killing rule is unknown. It is suspected to kill through random, indiscriminate contact.”
“Mm, all right. This one has been recorded,” Su Xinxi said.
Wang Liang said, “Then continue.
Codename: Ghost Wave.
Hazard Level: C.
Terror Level: B.
Its killing rule is to kill by waving. The victim will feel their entire body stiffen, their blood coagulate, and their heart shatter. It cannot be reversed; it is a certain-death rule.
The victim’s body will rapidly and completely die. The same applies to ghost controllers. Without special means, their body will die within two or three seconds at the latest.
The trigger condition is that the malicious ghost makes a waving motion toward the target, or that the victim has also made a similar waving motion.
The latter is speculation and has not been verified.”
“Mm-hmm, this one has also been fully recorded. By the way, may I ask, what do the ‘suspected’ and ‘presumed’ parts in the record mean? Roughly how accurate are they?”
“No. When you handle a supernatural incident, do you think you can figure out every single one of its rules every time? Neither I nor the malicious ghosts in supernatural incidents have that much time or that many chances to confirm the rules one by one.”
“Oh, sorry. Then are these two malicious ghosts to be handed over to headquarters? Given that there were two malicious ghosts in this incident, its complexity and difficulty have both increased. The subsidy for resolving this supernatural incident will be raised to four million yuan, and it will be transferred to you shortly.
If you hand over the imprisoned malicious ghosts as well, each ghost will earn you an additional reward of ten million yuan.”
“No need.”
Wang Liang had no intention of handing over the malicious ghosts. He was not short of money now. Keeping these malicious ghosts might prove useful in the future, especially those with certain-death rules.
These malicious ghosts were not currently part of Sadako’s puzzle, but they were very likely to be part of some movie ghost’s puzzle in the future.
“Oh, I understand. Then, Wang Liang, get some rest.”
Beep—
At the Ghost Controller Headquarters, inside a liaison room in the Asia Division,
Su Xinxi let out a breath. After checking the files on the two malicious ghosts once more, she waved toward Zhao Jianguo not far away.
“Captain, Wang Liang has already reported the supernatural incident he handled today. I’ve recorded all the information.”
Zhao Jianguo walked over and carefully looked through the malicious ghost files Su Xinxi had recorded.
“Ghost Stench, Ghost Wave? Two malicious ghosts existed within a single supernatural incident, and one of them even reached Terror Level B. Mm, there’s indeed no issue with such a killing rule.
According to Gao Yan’s report, this matter was resolved within half an hour. On his first day in office, he so easily took down a complicated supernatural incident. It seems this Wang Liang’s strength is indeed not simple. He’s a talent.”
After sighing in admiration a few times, Zhao Jianguo continued,
“By the way, did you mention to him that after handling supernatural incidents in the future, he should report the relevant situation to headquarters every time? What did he say?”
“I did. He said whatever he can report, he can report.”
“That’s enough. It seems his mental state is also very stable. Communicate with him like this from now on. If anything happens, tell me at once. When communicating with ghost controllers, you must maintain sufficient patience. They are all people who keep company with malicious ghosts, so their temperaments are inevitably affected.”
“Yes. I will communicate patiently,” Su Xinxi said firmly.
Compared to the mental states and conversational styles of ghost controllers that she had learned about from other liaison officers, Su Xinxi felt that Wang Liang was very normal aside from his habit of hanging up on her. That was already very good.
The next day, Wang Liang slacked off at home, preparing to wait until midnight to go to Changxing Road and make contact with that malicious ghost.
But at noon, a group of people arrived at Shuangqi Gardens, at the entrance to the villa where Wang Liang lived.
The villa doorbell rang. Wang Liang came out wearing flip-flops. On the surface, he seemed casual and indifferent, but in reality, his vigilance had already been raised to the maximum, and the Sadako supernatural power within him was ready to erupt at any moment.
After all, he did not want a repeat of something like the Wishing Ghost attacking him at his door.
These were all lessons learned through experience.
“Who are you?”
Wang Liang sized up the people standing outside the gate. This group looked like a professional team, the kind Zhang Wei might belong to.
Not Zhang Wei from Mysterious Revival, but Zhang Wei from iPartment.
They were all dressed uniformly in black suits. The leader was a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, about twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, with several tall men in black suits following behind him.
Wang Liang felt that the bespectacled man at the front was somewhat unusual. Although his appearance seemed very proper, the way he looked at people and the aura about him both gave Wang Liang a peculiar feeling.
A ghost controller?
“You must be Mr. Wang Liang, the newly appointed person in charge of Da’an City. I’ve long heard of your great name.”
“How long?” Wang Liang asked expressionlessly.
Feng Bo, who had brought people here to sound out Wang Liang, paused for a moment, but his expression did not change. He continued smiling.
“Mr. Wang is quite an amusing person. Let’s get to the point. Allow me to introduce ourselves. We are from Yongsheng Club, a civilian ghost controller organization established in Da’an City for mutual assistance and resource sharing among ghost controllers.
Previously, we cooperated with the former person in charge of Da’an City, Sun Su. Unfortunately, Sun Su died in a supernatural incident, causing many of our cooperative arrangements to be interrupted.
So we have come this time to discuss things with the new person in charge and see whether we can continue the previous cooperation, so as to avoid unnecessary conflicts between us later on due to unequal information, failure to reach a consensus, and other such factors.”
“Conflicts?” Wang Liang looked at the man before him with a half-smile. “What do you want to cooperate with me on?”
“It’s actually nothing major. Our club’s business sometimes involves certain… mm, things that are not very suitable to be put out in the open. We only need you, as the person in charge, to turn a blind eye. We can give you ten percent of the profits. It is expected to be no lower than this amount every month.”
As he spoke, Feng Bo raised two fingers and gestured toward Wang Liang.
Two hundred thousand? Two million? Twenty million? Two hundred million? Heh, surely it couldn’t be twenty thousand.
So why was this guy playing the Riddler for no reason? What was he pretending for? Did he think they were filming a movie?
Wang Liang could not even be bothered to ask what amount those two fingers represented. At that moment, the half-smile on his face vanished. His expression turned cold as he stared into Feng Bo’s eyes, his tone forceful.
“What do you mean by ‘things that are not very suitable’?”
Feng Bo gave an awkward laugh, attempting to gloss over the question.
“Heh-heh, it’s really nothing. Mr. Wang, you only need to—”
“What are they?”
“…Mm, just some possible disappearances, perhaps. Handling certain wild ghost controllers and so on. This has no real effect on you, Mr. Wang. On the contrary, you will gain a great deal, and Da’an City will become more stable internally. So I suggest—”