What can ten thousand yuan do in modern society? Buy one-twentieth of a toilet in Yin City's City Centre? Stay at a bathhouse for an extra three days? Buy a room full of leek boxes and lie in them?
One of the things Li Ang said to the possessing ghost yesterday was true. He really had a part-time job as a home tutor, and due to Li Ang's grades, the pay for this side job was not low.
However, Yin City is the economic center of the Republic, an international city known for finance, shipping, trade, and technology innovation. Consumption is high, goods are expensive, and living conditions are difficult.
His part-time job's salary could only cover rent, utilities, internet fees, and daily expenses. Spending a little more could lead to a deficit crisis.
Usually, Li Ang was so frugal that he wished he could split a one-yuan coin in half. Suddenly receiving more than ten thousand yuan in cash naturally meant he had to plan and budget carefully.
He opened Taobao and started shopping: CQB Tactical Bulletproof Vest, anti-stab gloves, anti-shrapnel goggles, all-black tactical pants with built-in knee pads, Tactical Boots, high-intensity flashlights, anti-wolf sprays, anti-wolf tasers, seamless steel pipes, Camping Hatchet, Cold Steel Little Tuna folding knife, nail guns, high-strength towing ropes for sailboats, empty oil drums, various machine tools including small punch presses, junior high school laboratory equipment including alcohol burners and flasks, copper material, wood, chemical fertilizers, and motorcycle shock absorber pipes.
All these items were purchased using different Taobao accounts, and the delivery addresses were scattered throughout Yin City. The total cost of all the items was just enough to spend the entire ten thousand yuan.
While waiting for the items to be delivered, Li Ang didn't stay idle. He searched the internet for local urban legends in Yin City, leaving no stone unturned in his efforts.
Players only received rewards after completing tasks, and the best way to trigger tasks was to conduct field investigations and personally encounter those spooky, supernatural events.
These included things like creepy laughter echoing in apartment building corridors at midnight, green slime seeping from the walls of rental houses, and long strands of hair appearing daily under the pillows of single men.
Over the past few days, Li Ang visited many locations where supernatural events had reportedly occurred. Unfortunately, he found nothing, unsure if these events were purely fictional or had already been resolved by other players.
Li Ang also puzzled over this: with the Kill Zone game's development to this point, it was unclear whether supernatural events occurred around players or if they were randomly generated and subsequently attracted players.
If it was the former, that would be relatively manageable. But if it was the latter, that would be terrible—who knew how many supernatural events had already occurred without being discovered by players or national authorities?
The number of victims in such cases would be a terrifying figure...
Eventually, Li Ang arrived at Qianhua Road—the very center of all urban legends in Yin City.
This road, located in the People's Square area in central Yin City, is one of its busiest commercial streets.
In the early twentieth century, this street was incorporated into the French Concession, where large-scale, distinctly French-style residential areas were built. Following the October Revolution, Tsarist Russian nobles fleeing south established high-end shops here, revering French culture.
Amidst the tides of change, today's Qianhua Road still maintains its luxurious and elegant atmosphere. Centennial buildings blend with modern, international apex luxury shops, creating a world-class commercial street.
Simply put, Qianhua Road is extremely valuable.
On the top floor of a shopping mall adjacent to Qianhua Road, Li Ang sat by a café window, holding the shop's cheapest coffee. He watched a news video on his phone while gazing through the glass at Qianhua Road below.
Barricade signs were placed at both ends of the road. Shops on both sides had their doors and windows tightly shut. All non-essential personnel had been evacuated, leaving only maintenance staff in orange uniforms and fire engines on the street.
"At around 3:00 P.M. yesterday, a gas pipeline leaked on Qianhua Road," the news report stated. "Maintenance workers rushed to the scene for repairs. Traffic police and the fire department also implemented temporary closures of the affected road section and hosed down the area to dilute the leaking gas."
"As of now, the leak hazard has been largely controlled. The specific time for lifting the roadblock is still pending further notice from the fire department."
A gas pipeline leak? Don't make me laugh.
Li Ang shook his head. Qianhua Road was flanked by large shopping malls, headquarters of Fortune 500 companies, and internationally renowned luxury shops. To say this street was a money-making goldmine wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Money can make the devil turn the millstone; if it were truly a firefighting task, the dual pressures of economics and administration would likely have ensured the crisis was quickly resolved and the road reopened by now.
Being sealed for so long with no sign of reopening could only mean it was related to supernatural powers...
Li Ang sipped his coffee, watching the "maintenance workers" on Qianhua Road. After some discussion, they brought in a... super-sized rotary drilling rig.
This type of drilling rig weighed at least a hundred tons, had a drilling diameter of 1 to 2.5 meters, and could reach depths of up to 100 meters. It was generally used for the massive bridge piles of highways and railway bridges.
Now, the colossal drilling machine, its tracks churning, recklessly drove onto the commercial street. After the maintenance workers set up the casing, the drill bit gently touched the concrete ground and began to rotate and excavate with a ROAR.
One meter, two meters...
The drill bit slowly descended. The noise cut across the street, and the vibrations spread outward, causing ripples in Li Ang's coffee on the table.
Forty meters, sixty meters, eighty meters...
Gas pipelines definitely weren't buried that deep. What were they digging for?
Li Ang quietly put on his sunglasses and casually inserted the Cat's Eye.
With his slightly enhanced Perception Attribute, combined with the Cat's Eye's acute vision, Li Ang could meticulously observe the maintenance workers' every move.
BOOM!
The steadily sinking drill bit suddenly halted, startling Ding Zhensi, the driver inside the rotary drilling rig.
Ding Zhensi, just twenty years old, was a top graduate from the Lanxiang Technical School in Qilu Province—famous for the slogan "Which school is best for excavator technology?" He could carve intricate designs with CNC machines, stir-fry food with an excavator's scoop, and drift a hand-pushed tractor like an F1 race car.
He was battle-hardened; if the Republic ever had Gundam Troops, Ding Zhensi would undoubtedly be an ace pilot.
But now, gripping the control stick of the rotary drilling rig, Ding Zhensi was somewhat at a loss.
"Has the drill bit reached the bottom?!" a voice crackled from the walkie-talkie hanging from the cabin ceiling.
"No!" Ding Zhensi grabbed the walkie-talkie. "It seems like the bit is stuck! We should use a small percussion drill to clear the debris around it, then try to pull it out..."
Before he could finish, another loud BANG emanated from underground.
BOOM!
Eighty meters below, a tremendous force tugged at the drill bit. The immense power, traveling up the telescopic drill rod, caused the hundred-ton-plus behemoth on the surface to suddenly rear up and slowly tip forward, as if in slow motion.
The surrounding maintenance workers were dumbfounded, watching as the entire drilling rig toppled over.
The impact of a hundred tons crashing to the ground was deafening, sending dust billowing into the sky.
The rotary drilling rig's steel frame twisted and buckled. Ding Zhensi, dazed from the shock, instinctively crawled out of the shattered driver's cabin and collapsed onto the ground.
Nearby maintenance workers rushed over to drag him away, retreating rapidly.
Most of the overturned drilling rig's drill rod was still underground. Then, with a third resounding BOOM from beneath the earth, the long, red-painted drill rod was forcefully yanked into the ground, vanishing from sight!
It was as if... something underground had gotten angry because it was disturbed...
Inside the café, the young men and women who heard the loud noise flocked to the windows, pointing at the dust-choked Qianhua Road and filming with their phones.
Hidden in the crowd, Li Ang withdrew his gaze, downed the coffee on the table in one gulp, and left the building.
Whatever lay deep beneath Qianhua Road, it was not something he could afford to provoke right now. One must fight monsters level by level and complete tasks one by one; aiming too high would only lead to a faster death.