A ghost storyteller can lose his life but cannot lose his job

Chapter 2 The whereabouts of the second strange story

"So what you mean is that you suffered from schizophrenia when the ghost story first broke out three years ago, so you created a special treatment. You escaped from the mental hospital and sneaked into the "Black Goat Manor" where the ghost story was occupied. The Black Goat Ghost Story made you lose your self-awareness, so you worked as a... rat in the manor for three years. It was not until now that you were rescued by the army and regained your sanity?"

"To be precise, this is called 'shock therapy'. The high-intensity mental shock puts the patient into a state of shock, causing the patient's consciousness to stop and the body to enter a self-repair mode, ultimately completely getting rid of the schizophrenia."

On this side of the table, a handsome young man was talking eloquently, and it was obvious that he was eager to share his "shock therapy".

The recorder Ding Lihai on the other side of the table couldn't help rubbing his temples. He felt a headache about this well-mannered young man whose behavior was so crazy.

Using mind-erosion horror stories to heal your split personality?

Do you firmly believe that you can survive until you regain sanity by relying solely on your physical instincts without any self-awareness?

That is the core area of ghost stories, where the highest level of known black goat ghost stories are located.

I have to say that this young man named "Zhong Xie" is more talented and crazier than imagined.

Ding Lihai put away his distracting thoughts and focused back on his work:

"Three years ago, it should have been the early days of sporadic outbreaks of ghost stories. Logically, mental hospitals should strictly manage their patients. I want to know how you left the hospital? Did you use some kind of ghost story power to do this?"

This matter needs to be confirmed first. When strange stories first appear, some people will find ways to control them and can control extraordinary strange story powers in the early stages.

"Strange talk? Are you referring to Miss Black Goat's...superpowers? What kind of superpowers do you need to walk out of the mental hospital?" Zhong Xie smiled lightly, his eyes narrowed into a beautiful arc, "Our dean often taught us, 'Life is short, enjoy it while you can. As a mental patient, just do whatever you want. Don't worry, you have a powerful judicial institution behind you.'"

He shrugged, "So, I left and here I am."

Ding Lihai: “…”

What a mess, the director of a mental hospital teaches this kind of stuff?
Is it because of the ghost story that caused his memory to be distorted?
It seems that a full-body examination needs to be accompanied by a mental evaluation to confirm that there are no problems before further recommendations can be made.

Yes, recommended.

This is his second duty.

The survivors of the ghost stories are judged and those with talent are selected to enter the "school" to be trained as ghost story masters.

A person who has lost his self-consciousness in a ghost story occupied area and survived for three years, his body has been subtly optimized to be the most suitable physique for controlling ghost stories, far stronger than those reserve ghost story masters who grew up in the safe zone of human cities.

"Okay, I already understand your situation. Since you lost your human consciousness in the early stage of the revival of ghost stories, let me tell you about the changes in the past three years." Ding Lihai put the evaluation report into a sealed bag, took out a booklet and handed it to Zhong Xie who was sitting across the table, and spoke at the same time.

"As you can see, the world's ghost stories are now fully revived. Due to the isolation and interference of the ghost story forces, we have lost contact with most areas. The area you are currently in is the Eastern Theater. We have taken control of 26 cities and are trying to capture and liberate the ghost story occupied areas in the west, north, and south. The 'Wangcheng' represented by the Black Goat Manor is the latest progress in the capture."

The corresponding map emerged in Zhong Xie's mind. From Ding Lihai's words, he could roughly guess the scope of the human-controlled area, which should be around the three provinces.

Ideally, there will be other war zones surviving, but they are unable to communicate freely due to the influence of ghost stories. They must actually conquer the lost territories before communications can be restored.

As early as the early days of the revival of ghost stories, he dared to use ghost stories to treat diseases. Now his interest in the "power of ghost stories" is even stronger, and Zhong Xie has an irrepressible excitement in his heart.

Interesting, so interesting.

As a guy who has spent half his life in a mental hospital, Zhong Xie especially cherishes every day that he can freely control his body.

The doctor didn't allow him to leave the restraint bed in the first place, and he had to rely on his own efforts to get out of bed and move around. If he couldn't create unlimited fun in a limited time, wouldn't it be a waste of time to get out of bed?

Danger is far less terrible than boredom.

One only needs to spend three days on the restraint bed to understand this. Although Zhong Xie has earned the privilege of playing with his cell phone through his own ability, it does not mean that he is not bored.

"In the early days of the revival of ghost stories, we did not find a suitable way to fight against them. Conventional thermal weapons can only have a weak effect on ghost story creatures with physical bodies. The structure and abilities of many ghost story creatures are counterintuitive. Countless people have been involved in ghost stories and have disappeared or died. The survivors can only continue to migrate to places with lower concentrations of ghost stories until we find a way to control the ghost stories." Ding Lihai continued.

"People who can control and use strange stories are called 'Strange Story Masters'."

At the same time, Zhong Xie opened this booklet, which could be regarded as an introductory guide, and his eyes fell on the first page.

“Human beings are the carriers of strange stories and one of the ways in which strange stories are materialized.”

Ding Lihai knew that Zhong Xie had received a good education, so he used more precise and professional words when guiding him: "Before being observed by any 'existence', the essence of a strange story is an abstract thing, and a strange story master has the ability to visualize it, which is called 'explanation'."

"Explanation? That's a very strange statement." Zhong Xie noticed this.

A more professional name would be "materialization", a more immature name could be "awakening", but what does this term mean now?
Ding Lihai gave a timely answer to this question: "After harvesting the prototype of a strange story, you will get the original name of the strange story, such as 'Bloody Mary', 'Back Room' and 'Zoo', and what you need to do is to help the strange story obtain 'entries' and use these entries to explain the strange story. You can understand 'entries' as the specific characteristics of the strange story, and also the specific ability of the strange story."

"It's just like the equipment in online games. At first you get ordinary equipment, but you can enhance it by adding attributes like 'critical hit rate' or 'attack speed'."

At some point, Ding Lihai had already regarded Zhong Xie as a reserve ghost story master. Perhaps he subconsciously thought it was a pity to not live up to his talent for ghost stories. Ding Lihai continued, "The difference is that all ghost stories have a core concept, namely the 'origin name'. When too many contradictory terms are added to a ghost story, the ghost story master will be backfired, and death is the best outcome."

"Well, the term equivalent to a spear is installed on a dagger, which is inconsistent with the origin, so it will die." Zhong Xie understood this concept. When he heard that "ghost story teller" and "death" were implicitly linked, he did not feel nervous, but relieved.

This is right.

Gaining power should come at a price, otherwise it would be too boring.

"If you want to know more specific details, you can turn to page 17, which records a standard case." Ding Lihai reminded at the right time.

Page 17:
The ghost story master A obtained the ghost story prototype egg in Taicheng and stored it. Its original name is "Big Rudder".

"Rudder" means a device for controlling direction. After analysis, the ghost story master determined that the explanation direction of this ghost story should be "guidance", "leadership" and "giant". Therefore, the ghost story master A conducted corresponding trials and obtained terms such as [Leader], [Huge Body], [Barrier Breaker] and [Prophet]. The degree of ghost story explanation reached a "perfect" rating.

"I understand." Zhong Xie nodded. It was very clear if analyzed using standard cases. The positioning of the Kaidanshi in this regard was similar to that of a Pokémon trainer, helping Kaidanshi to obtain more reasonable entries and become stronger. The two sides had a highly bound relationship.

He had a new question: "How to obtain the entry?"

"Generally speaking, there are two standard methods: training and adventure." Ding Lihai said concisely, "Some entries can be obtained through corresponding training methods. For example, the entry [Flexibility Optimization] requires continuous flexibility training. The entry and the corresponding training method can be viewed in the official system after you officially become a ghost story user."

"In addition, adventures are more common. In areas with abundant ghost story power, it is easy to trigger ghost story events. Completing ghost story events has a chance to get corresponding entries as rewards. Secondly, special activities in areas where ghost story events have been triggered can also easily give rise to entries."

Zhong Xie turned to the next page and saw a sentence:

"As long as the explanation of strange stories is rational, special interpretation methods can break through the potential limitations and reach the pinnacle."

There is a special case recorded in the textbook.

The initial weird talk of the weird talk maker B is "quilt". After thinking, B chooses to work towards a special direction. The final entries are [Energy recovery], [Hypnosis], [Incapacity], [Mind deprivation], [Pill swallowing], [Pleasure delivery] and [Avoiding ghosts]. The weird talk explanation degree reaches the "perfect" rating, and the origin name is advanced to "Bewitched".

The quilt means "pill swallowing" and "hypnosis", "energy recovery", "mind deprivation", "powerlessness" and "pleasure delivery" after sleep, and it is even combined with the rumor that "sleeping in the quilt is immune to all ghosts". In some ways, it is indeed a perfect fit.

A bad hand of cards was revived, and the ghost story was perfectly advanced. Perhaps the final paper strength of the two cases is equal, but "Being Demoned" is obviously more interesting than "Big Rudder".

"This kind of case is almost impossible to replicate. We need to do it according to our ability. Every year, there are strange talkers who die miserably because of their wild ideas." Ding Lihai saw the change in Zhong Xie's eyes, so he reminded him, "We are committed to cultivating unconventional strange talkers, because strange talkers with imagination and execution have a higher probability of being promoted to T1, but the corresponding mortality rate is also higher."

"Ultimately, we still need to return the issue of 'explaining strange stories' to rationality."

Ding Lihai looked up at Zhong Xie with mixed emotions in his heart. He knew that people like Zhong Xie were the epitome of "unruly", so he could only repeatedly emphasize "rationality".

You can break some rules, but you have to follow reason.

"Kaidan is divided into three stages: embryonic form, growth form, and extreme form. In daily life, the embryonic form of Kaidan is basically called a 'Kaidan Egg'. It is born in an area with strong Kaidan power. Only Kaidan at this stage can be collected and controlled by Kaidan Masters. Wild Kaidan Eggs will hatch and condense entries after a period of time, and then they will often become extremely aggressive."

"When a strange story's entry is nearly perfectly explained, it can be transformed into an extreme form. At this time, the strange story will gain powerful characteristics based on its own entry. The process of collecting entries between the extreme form and the prototype is the growth form, which is often a long process."

"In every ghost story occupied area, there will be a 'root ghost story', that is, a natural limit ghost story. For example, the black goat you know, they can't be controlled or killed, they can only be restricted and sealed. After the root ghost story is contained, some of the ghost stories in the occupied area will be restored to the form of 'ghost story eggs'. This period of time is the best time to harvest ghost stories."

The following scene immediately appeared in Zhong Xie's mind:

Miss Black Goat was clinging to the cage with tears in her eyes and was taken away by the prison van pitifully. Mother Mouse and Mr. Kuster in the house suddenly turned into eggs. It was quite interesting.

"The quality of ghost story eggs varies. Generally speaking, the closer a ghost story is to the root ghost story, the higher the quality of the eggs it is restored to. The closest one is called the 'Second Ghost Story' and has the terrifying potential to grow into the 'Root Ghost Story'." Ding Lihai said. He remembered something and casually mentioned an inside information that was not critical. "But this time the vanguard team has not found any trace of the Second Ghost Story. This situation is not common. If the Second Ghost Story is not restored to an egg, or if it hatches itself again within a short period of time after restoration, it will be troublesome."

Didn't find the second story?
Zhong Xie’s mind moved.

Speaking of which, the person closest to Miss Black Goat is of course my rival in love - her husband - that damn Mr. Kuster!
This coward really ran away when Miss Black Goat was murdered...

wrong.

Zhong Xie's memory gradually became clearer.

At that time, Miss Black Goat asked Mr. Kuster to go to the basement to get the "killing agent", right?
That is to say-

Mr. Custer was most likely reduced to an egg, which is still in the utility room in the basement, but has not been found.

Miss Black Goat's house is not complicated, but it is easy for outsiders to get lost.

And there is probably no one in this world who knows the structure of the basement better than Rat, not even Miss Black Goat herself.

(End of this chapter)