Chapter Eighty-Seven: Even Ghosts Were Once Human

The first ghost had only one ghost copper coin to its name.

That was all it owned.

It seemed that no matter where one went, the overwhelming share of resources was always held by a tiny minority. The rest could only pitifully scramble for the remaining scraps, doing everything in their power and resorting to every possible means just to get a piece of the pie.

But behind this ghost trailed another, a ferocious spirit much like the miserly one before it.

Its malice was strong; its bloodred aura rivaled that of a great fiend among the living dead. From a mere glance from afar, it had already noticed the execution device behind Chen Sheng.

The crude gallows frame held a power so fearsome that this malicious spirit wanted nothing more than to turn and flee on the spot.

But it did not run, because it had no head.

It was a headless ghost.

Its eyes were set in its chest, its mouth at its belly, and in its hands it wielded a dripping bloodstained chainsaw.

A modern-day version of the ancient executioner god.

After the headless specter departed, the number of ghosts that came afterward increased all at once.

This was thanks to the tireless publicity of the miserly one, who told every ghost it met that Chen Sheng possessed an execution device. That headless fiend had come precisely to investigate.

And Chen Sheng, as the one in control of the execution device, was naturally taken by these creatures to be a terrifying spirit. So one after another, they came to deposit their money.

After all, how could a fiendish spirit possibly swindle them for a mere handful of ghost copper coins?

It was like the son of the richest man in a city borrowing tens of thousands from someone: who would think he could not repay it?

Thus, although the ghosts of Golden Town had never heard of the Yu Xin Bank, they still felt it was trustworthy.

Some even thought that the bank’s former clientele must have been far too prestigious, while they themselves were merely lowly ghosts from a remote corner of the mortal realm, with limited knowledge, and so had simply never heard of it before.

Not only humans can invent explanations; ghosts can too.

After all, ghosts were once human.

So, before dawn, almost every ghost in town that had ghost copper coins in hand had come by at least once.

And when they left, each and every one of them was beaming with joy.

As for Chen Sheng, the instigator of this farce, he looked at the ghost copper coins before him and could not help but frown slightly.

The number was far smaller than he had imagined.

All the ghost copper coins in this entire town added up to less than three hundred. And forty of those belonged to the headless girl.

This made Chen Sheng immediately realize that the value of ghost copper coins might be far greater than he had thought.

And then...

Well, that was all.

To Chen Sheng, this was merely “game resources.”

Afterward, he quickly grew happy, because he had absconded with the funds. This was something he would never have dared to do in the real world, nor ever really had the chance to do.

After all, in the real world, anything under a million would merely count as running off with the money.

How absurdly surreal.

Even doing something bad had tiers now?

An invisible class system truly runs deep, embedded in the heart like something inherited in the blood.

“Why are we running?” asked the coin-loving little ghost, who had resolved to cling to a strong back and so followed along, though she could not understand Chen Sheng’s actions at all.

Were there any ghosts in Golden Town capable of threatening them?

“That question has a long story behind it, so let’s make it short. And the short version... I’ll tell you after we get back to Upper Three Rivers City.”

“But... didn’t we only just run out of Upper Three Rivers City not long ago?” asked the pale-faced girl, her eyes widening slightly with confusion.

“What contradiction is there in going back now?”

“This... seems... none.” After thinking it over and still failing to make sense of it, the little ghost could only give up.

Chen Sheng reached out and handed her fifty already-counted ghost copper coins.

“This is...”

For a moment she froze, and then, once she realized it was money, her eyes lit up.

“The reward I promised you.” Chen Sheng weighed the pouch of ghost copper coins in his hand.

“Reward?” The girl was stunned. “Isn’t fifty ghost copper coins a bit too much?”

She had only helped run an errand.

And besides, the reason the publicity had been so effective was entirely because of Chen Sheng’s execution device.

“Not fifty. Ten. The other forty were already yours to begin with,” Chen Sheng said with a smile, watching the headless girl to see how she would react next.

“This... this...” For a moment, little Ghost Coin Coin could not grasp the hidden meaning in his words. After all, Chen Sheng had previously said he would only give double the deposit after three days, and the headless girl had taken that entirely at face value.

Chen Sheng then said outright, “So now you understand why we had to run, right?”

Her eyes flew wide. She stood there dumbfounded, as though petrified in an instant. Now that Chen Sheng had said as much, how could she possibly still not understand?

“So... that bank was scamming—” Ghost Coin Coin’s speech turned halting and uncertain.

“Eh? How can you call that scamming?” Chen Sheng drew out the words and waved a hand at her.

“Not scamming... then what is it...”

“A damn fourth-dimensional disaster.” Chen Sheng said this with the utmost seriousness.

Of course, Ghost Coin Coin was still utterly bewildered; she had no idea what he was talking about.

Chen Sheng was just about to continue when, very abruptly, he turned his head. A trace of uncertainty flashed in his eyes. Then he looked to the headless girl beside him and asked, “Did you just feel like someone was following us?”

“No!” Ghost Coin Coin shook her head vigorously.

Seeing that she was nearly shaking her head clean off, Chen Sheng quickly held her in place, lest her skull go flying and smash the nearby flowers and grass.

Then a thoughtful look crossed his face. “No? You didn’t feel it either?”

He was no stranger to that sensation of being followed.

And oddly enough, whenever he felt it, everyone else around him could not sense anything at all. On that point, Chen Sheng was all the more familiar.

By rough count, this was already the third or fourth time he had experienced it.

“Is some hidden game plot progressing? But what exactly is this thing? Why bury a foreshadowing this deep?”

After thinking for a moment, Chen Sheng suddenly burst into a blaze of crimson light. It was like a curtain being ripped open by fire; in an instant, the entire area was shrouded in a fiery red glow.

Chen Sheng reached out and seized. A streak of red light surged forth like flame and crashed into the nearby grass and trees.

At once, branches snapped and foliage collapsed, and as though a typhoon had swept through, a large patch simply vanished into thin air.

The sight left Chen Sheng momentarily dazed.

He had not never experienced the manifestation of extraordinary power in this healing game, but what was a bit of speed and enhanced physique compared with a strike so dazzling in special effects it could blind the eye?

Still, he quickly came back to himself and struck again.

Yet from start to finish, nothing sprang out from the surroundings.

Only then did he finally stop. Fearing he might be accidentally caught in the crossfire, Ghost Coin Coin hurriedly said, “How about... you move ahead a bit faster, and I’ll go invisible to circle around nearby and scout the way for you?”

“Fine,” Chen Sheng agreed at once. A tool is only useful if you use it.