Chapter 80: "Javier's Resentful Morgue"

Roy didn't really know if this Nikola J. dude was actually down to make the spider armor, but he was sure there was a master smith in the outer city.

Roy was kinda blown away; the black market was packed with hidden gems.

As for who this mysterious Nikola J. was, Roy figured he was probably from the inner city.

I mean, fighters can level up just by brawling and learning, but if you need a ton of specialized knowledge, you gotta be from somewhere legit, like the Alchemy Academy of the Dark Tower or big groups like the "Alchemy Guild."

Roy guessed this guy was another big shot with a sketchy past.

But hey, that worked for him; the less tied to the inner city, the safer it was for him to deal with.

When Roy bounced from the black market, it was still early. He hopped on his bike and zoomed back to Green Street, heading straight for the arena.

Lately, there'd been some gnarly death matches with pros, and he got back just in time to catch the main events.

After racking up some corpse XP, he and Kai broke up a few fights, and the night flew by.

In the morning, Roy rode his bike to Ginkgo Street.

He grabbed some bread for breakfast and had a thought. He slapped a note behind the mailbox at 14 Ginkgo Street, outside Bellman Bakery.

Roy wanted to hit up Danny for some special potions. That [Abomination Repellent] that saved Rena last time was clutch.

Stocking up on some could be a lifesaver down the road.

After leaving the note, Roy didn't go far and kept an eye on the mailbox from a distance.

Sure enough, a kid showed up soon. He found the note, looked around, and quickly snatched it and bolted.

Roy, munching on his bread, got curious and decided to tail him.

The kid was pretty slick, always checking his back and ducking into empty alleys, showing some anti-tracking skills. But Roy had [Advanced Tracking Techniques] down pat, and his mechanical gloves' steel cables let him scale walls and rooftops like a pro, so the kid didn't notice him.

Eventually, the kid looped back and ended up on Camellia Street, four blocks from Ginkgo Street.

This was a rough part of the outer city, full of rundown gray buildings and "iron box houses" made from stacked shipping containers and steel frames.

Roy leaned against the roof of a three-story building with dark red tiles, watching the kid who took the note meet up with some buddies in an alley.

In the grimy alley, a pale corpse of who-knows-how-old lay in a pile of trash, with a bunch of big gray rats munching on it, making creepy noises. They didn't care about people, just kept eating while staring at the humans at the alley's entrance.

"Luke, weren't you supposed to be 'working' on Ginkgo Street today? Why are you back?"

"Don't block me; I got a job from Brother Danny. I got the letter!"

"Someone wants to buy potions. Hope they buy a ton so we can get some bread."

"Beta, quit saying stuff like that. It makes Brother Danny uncomfortable."

Listening to their chat, Roy figured out the alchemist's name was Danny.

The kid, Luke, dashed into a rundown building and didn't come back out.

Roy didn't bother following him inside. He was just curious and wanted to make sure he had a way to reach them if he needed special potions later.

Having found the spot, Roy headed back.

Soon enough, Roy was back at 88 Ginkgo Street, hiring some folks to move a bunch of big boxes into the small building.

No one noticed that one of the boxes, looking like a cello case, had a big black scythe inside.

A new tenant moving into the "haunted house" didn't get any neighborly hellos, probably because of the bad vibes.

Roy was cool with that.

After the movers left, he did a thorough check of the house for the third time and found nothing weird. He set up some small warning traps on the windowsills, roof, and doors, and pulled all the curtains shut.

With that done, Roy headed straight to the basement.

He set up some shooting targets on the walls and moved training sandbags and gear down there.

With a bit of arranging, the training room started to come together.

He'd prepaid the rent for six months, so this place was gonna be home for a while.

Roy knew that even though his [Death Reaper] talent let him level up his skills and knowledge super fast, it didn't do much for his physical body.

To make his body keep up with his growing skills, he had to train hard.

But hey, this world had some high-tech stuff, and there were shortcuts to getting in shape. Besides various alchemical potions, there were also gadgets.

Among the big boxes was a "steam-powered ultra-low temperature therapy device" to help muscles recover fast and a "neuro-muscular bioelectric stimulation device" to speed up muscle growth.

Roy had snagged these from a mechanical shop in the black market.

These metal pieces had been taken from a decommissioned military arsenal in the inner city and sold on the black market, probably meant to be scrapped for parts.

Not many folks in the outer city knew what these gadgets were for.

But after digging through the memories of a Dark Tower Academy assistant in the underground, Roy knew these were "military-grade equipment" used by the inner city military's training department for new recruits.

Even though the devices were a bit old, they were still top-notch for physical enhancement.

Used right, these two gadgets could seriously boost the efficiency of his training.

Roy tinkered with the devices, found them working, and left them be.

After setting up the basement, Roy went to the corner and pulled out the black scythe.

Such a badass weapon would be wasted if used just as a "suicide bomb" in a life-or-death fight.

Roy wanted to see if there was a way to dodge the scythe's curse backlash.

As a puppet master, his first thought was to use a puppet.

So, he controlled a puppet to grab the scythe and take a swing at the wall.

The first try, just using physical control, flopped.

The second try, with dark energy, managed to create a tiny spatial rift.

Roy didn't dare make it too big, just the size of a fingernail.

To dodge the backlash that could kill him on the spot.

An hour later, standing naked in front of the mirror prepping for first aid, Roy suddenly felt a chill on his butt, and a jet of blood spurted out.

It was an awkward spot, but luckily, it wasn't dangerous.

"Figures."

Roy sighed and sprinkled some medicinal powder on the wound on his butt.

The failure was expected.

If it were that easy to find a loophole, Roy figured the previous owner of this black scythe would've used it to cause chaos.

"Regular puppets are useless. Looks like the scythe's curse traces back to the user. The most likely targets are 'living beings,' 'energy sources,' or anything with some life signs."

Roy got the gist of the scythe's curse backlash, but he wasn't ready to give up just yet.

He thought, "High-level puppets have the [Substitute Puppet] ability that can transfer injuries from the main body. That might work. Or I could use steel wires to control someone else's limbs and make them swing the scythe, which should also dodge the curse backlash."

As a puppet master, Roy instantly thought of these two methods.

But for now, Roy wasn't skilled enough to make a [Substitute Puppet]. And controlling someone else to use the scythe was still a long shot. He had just started learning puppet control techniques and was far from mastering them.

Thinking of this, Roy's fingers moved rapidly, making the two creepy dolls in the room dance in circles. He was habitually practicing puppet control.

Roy suddenly thought of something and muttered to himself, "If I could get my hands on the corpses of a few puppet masters, my control skills would improve quickly. Unfortunately, puppet masters are a rare breed, and there might not be many in all of Old Linton."

The multitasking skill let Roy control the puppets with his hands while his mind wandered to other thoughts.

Since he couldn't do much else, his thoughts drifted far away.

Looking around the house, Roy wasn't sleepy and instinctively thought about the fact that people had died in this place.

Based on his experience from watching a ton of horror movies, a "haunted house" where people keep dying definitely had issues.

With this thought, Roy's mind started racing: "Let me think, if this house has problems, what could be the cause besides dark energy causing mutations?"

In an instant, countless horror movie scenes flashed through his mind, and Roy's eyes gradually deepened.

Then, he quickly analyzed several possible causes of death.

NO.1: The landlord pretends to rent the house but actually lures tenants in to rob and kill them;

NO.2: The house hides an undiscovered "dangerous source" like radiation, causing death invisibly;

NO.3: The house contains something that only appears under certain conditions, like a "ghost seed" or supernatural force;

NO.4: Other reasons, such as random theft leading to robbery and murder.

Roy almost instantly ruled out the first possibility.

Before renting, he had already identified himself as a member of the Cross Society, making it unlikely for Gloria to dare do such a thing.

He also had the All-Seeing Eye, which could see body data panels, and negative magnetic fields couldn't be hidden, so the second option was also ruled out.

As for the fourth possibility, it was possible but unlikely.

Then, Roy used the process of elimination to narrow it down to the last option.

Thinking about it, he felt a bit speechless: "If the cause of death in this house is really a problem, then there might be a 'ghost seed' in the house. It can't be that coincidental."

When it came to life and death, Roy never took chances.

After mulling it over, he went straight to the landlord, Gloria, using a mix of threats and sweet talk to get the scoop on the previous tenants.

Turns out, in the past year, three tenants had died in this house.

The first two seemed pretty standard, likely dying from mutations. One had a tumor in the head, and the other went nuts and died from mutation spots on the body.

But the third tenant, a blind guy, was super weird.

From Gloria's words, Roy picked up several oddities about the blind man: 1. He had a mysterious background, not from the South District, maybe from the inner city; 2. He seemed to be investigating something; 3. The doors and windows were sealed, and the blind man vanished without a trace, no body found; 4. The blind man was very skilled, able to locate by sound.

After getting this info, Roy immediately felt that this house was probably more than just a "haunted house."

The third blind guy might have left without a word and might not be dead.

Or he might be dead, and the body was missing.

Whether it was wild speculation or cautious instinct, Roy always sought clues to reason out the doubts in such strange events.

It was like playing a puzzle game; he wouldn't stop until he solved it.

"The blind man came to investigate something. If he was looking for someone, there were no living people, but there might be a ghost seed."

"Or maybe there's a treasure in this house."

Back in the basement, Roy looked at the surrounding concrete walls, and a thought became increasingly clear in his mind: "If he was looking for something, the All-Seeing Eye hasn't detected anything unusual. Could it be that this house has a cursed object or a sealed item that can only be seen (triggered) under certain conditions?"

"Assuming the blind man is dead and the body is missing. Either a monster ate it, the killer took it, or the body is hidden in some crevice in the house. No, this is a supernatural world."

"Maybe this house itself is a man-eating monster."

As soon as this thought popped up, it felt like a psychological suggestion, and Roy increasingly felt that there was something "strange" in this house.

His gaze unconsciously focused, scanning the entire basement.

And at that moment, suddenly!

The basement wall, which the All-Seeing Eye had previously found no abnormalities, revealed a line of information.

[Harvey's Resentful Morgue]

Explanation: It only exists when you realize it exists; it appears when you think of it.

"Got it right."

Roy's eye twitched.

Seeing the changing scenery around him, he felt for the first time that having a wild imagination might be a curse.

This wasn't a game. Solving puzzles might be satisfying for Roy, but it could also trigger some inexplicable things. Old Linton was an ancient ruin, and even now, "strange events" still occasionally popped up in the city.

Just thinking about it triggered it.

It wasn't the "ghost seed" Roy had speculated, but it was even more bizarre.

PS:Due to the author's circumstances, this book will now be updated weekly. Thank you for your support.