Despite not really wanting to meet those strange people, he still needs to make a living. He stopped his cab and just as he was about to ask the man where he is headed, the man opened the passenger door and sat inside the cab.
Damn! I forgot that the lock on the passenger seat was broken. I should have not been very stingy. I should have got it fixed. Now I'm in this situation.
He glanced at the mirror above. Behind him was a fully wrapped man. The man was wearing a black hoodie, sunglasses, and a mask.
That get-up raised alarm bells for the driver. This isn't a robbery, right?
The driver tried to remain calm. He asked in a friendly voice, "Sir, where are you headed?"
The man on the passenger seat leaned his head on the window. When he heard the driver's question, he replied, "To the abandoned mausoleum beside the Eve Cemetery."
Despite looking very imposing, the man's voice was unexpectedly gentle and a bit weak, as if he had just recovered from an illness.
But no matter how gentle that voice was, the moment the driver realized where this passenger was going, his heart almost leaped out of his throat.
Who goes to that godforsaken place this late at night? Especially in that get-up?
If this were daytime and the situation were a bit normal, the driver would have refused. Unfortunately, in this eerie atmosphere, the driver swallowed his words and stepped on the gas pedal, hoping for the best outcome.
The creepy man, Xievian, looked at the clearly uncomfortable driver in confusion. 'Is this guy constipated?' he wondered.
Yes, Xievian planned to visit that place in the dead of night. He had nothing to do at the moment, and his Life Points clearly needed to be urgently replenished. He didn't plan to livestream now; he just wanted to check if the location was what he really wanted.
Before coming here, he already tried checking the place with the appraisal, but it seemed to be invalid. Not sure if it was due to a lack of energy points or if he really needed to go to the place in order for it to work.
As for his strange get-up, he was an art teacher in a particularly prestigious private school. Although he seemed a bit off, he really did care about his reputation. He also planned to wear a disguise during the livestream to avoid being recognized.
Thinking about what would happen if they managed to find out about his sideline made his scalp numb.
No. Although he didn't have a phobia of people, he still somewhat disliked attention.
The car jolted, snapping Xievian out of his thoughts. He looked at the pale driver and asked, "What happened?"
The driver wanted to point his hand at the windshield, but he was too afraid to do so. Xievian looked at the driver's gaze and looked at the windshield.
Bloody handprints?
Yeah, they do exist.
But looking at the pale driver, Xievian couldn't bear to scare him. He couldn't offer any logical explanation about the glaring bloody handprints, so he just said to the driver, "You can drop me here."
The driver, still stiff from fear, nodded and didn't say anything.
Xievian paid him his fare. He gave the driver his contact number in case something happened to him in the middle of the road. He told him to send him a message if he managed to arrive at the main highway safely.
The driver, very compliant, accepted his number and promised to send him a message.
Xievian looked at the taxicab that was getting further and further away. When it finally vanished from his view, he took his gaze back and looked at his surroundings.
Fog. That's all Xievian could see. Although he was not familiar with the mausoleum, he did know where the Eve Cemetery was.
It's not very far from here.
But Xievian felt that there was something around him. That bloody handprint on the windshield was a testament to that.
He opened the system mall. The only reason why he had not done that before was because he was sure that he could not afford any of the stuff they were selling.
Mall:
[Protection Talisman: 2 Life Points or 20 Energy Points
Additional Information: A protective barrier will wrap around the user for 30 seconds.
Wooden sword: 5 Life Points or 50 Energy Points
Additional Information: Can be used to hit ghosts but not really harm them. It could harm humans, though.
Durability: F- (Can only last 3 uses.)
Ghost Talisman: 10 Life Points or 100 Energy Points
Additional Information: Can harm ghosts. (One hit per talisman.)
Attack talisman (For ghosts): 50 Life Points or 500 Energy Points
Additional Information: Can attack ghosts for 30 seconds straight. Can it kill a ghost? It depends on your luck.
Requiem: 200 Life Points or 2,000 Energy Points
Additional Information: It can give peace to ghosts and send them to the river of reincarnation.
Range: 1 kilometer in all directions.
...
Reach level 5 to open this section of the mall.]
Yeah, he could not afford anything. And aside from the expensive ones, the cheap ones sounded very unreliable. Although they might be useful during critical times, not by much.
He continued walking in the deep fog, the interface was still open, he decreased its size and let it hover beside him. He planned to redeem the protection talisman if something unexpected came up.
It's cold. Fortunately, he was wearing his jacket. He already took off his sunglasses and surveyed his surroundings.
Wilderness. He was surrounded by wilderness. There should be some animal sounds, right? But Xievian couldn't hear a thing. It was a deafening silence; only his shoes scraping on the cemented road could be heard.
His only reliance was probably his devouring ability, but the idea of biting ghosts was not a very tasty picture. First, let's check if he could bite ghosts. Even the side effects were something Xievian was cautious about.