Oh no! I'm surrounded by female ghosts!

Just as Su Ming was pondering Shen Wanyu's guess, a pop-up window suddenly appeared in front of him.

[Affection Level Up Quest: Survive for seven days in the clutches of the school beauty (Completed)]

【Affection Level: Close → Intimacy (0/400)】

[Capacity limit increased: 10 → 12]

Backpack capacity increased from 15 to 18.

If you calculate the time, seven days have indeed passed.

At this moment, Wen Qi's favorability rating increased.

The feedback after advancing was the strongest ever.

The power surging from deep within the body frantically strengthens the flesh, bones, and tendons.

And the next second.

A dense barrage of pop-up windows appeared before Su Ming's eyes again.

[Affection +10, (Wen Qi) Current: Intimacy (10/400)]

[Affection +10, (Wen Qi) Current: Intimacy (20/400)]

...

[Affection +10, (Wen Qi) Current: Intimacy (400/400)]

Before his body could even fully process the expanded power, Wen Qi had already maxed out his favorability rating.

"Is it full already?"

Su Ming's heart skipped a beat. Before he could examine it carefully, another pop-up window appeared in front of him.

[The current favorability level has reached its maximum, activating the favorability upgrade quest.]

[Affection Level Up Quest: Kill her]

Su Ming rubbed his eyes violently.

He once thought he had misread it.

What do you mean, "kill her"?

Before I could even think, the black mist swept in from all directions.

In an instant, it engulfed everything around it.

He only felt dizzy and the space was distorted.

Wait for the black fog to dissipate.

Su Ming heard the sounds of bustling traffic and vendors hawking their wares.

Opening his eyes, he was shocked to find that he was not in the first level of the abyss, but in an old-fashioned town full of life.

The city looked somewhat familiar; there were modern high-rises, but not many. Instead, there were rows of old-style bungalows and low-rise buildings.

The street is not wide, with asphalt interspersed with scattered gravel, and two rows of lush sycamore trees are neatly arranged on both sides.

The storefronts along the roadside all have uniform spray-painted metal signs with plain lettering, lacking any fancy neon signs.

"Oil and grain general store, old-fashioned tailor shop, convenient grain and oil store."

Su Ming whispered the names of the shops along the roadside.

These names carry a strong sense of nostalgia.

The traffic flow on the road is very slow, with few private cars and mostly old-fashioned bicycles.

The bells on these bicycles ring out, as if reflecting the sounds of a certain era.

The pedestrians were dressed simply and plainly, with rather outdated styles.

No one was looking down at their smartphones; most were pausing to chat.

Even when someone takes out a mobile phone, it looks like an old-fashioned phone.

"Is this Pingjiang City?"

Su Ming watched children chasing and playing in the street, with old utility poles crisscrossing with tangled wires.

These scenes are all etched with the marks of bygone days.

He walked along the street.

Many people were watching him because his clothing and appearance were clearly different from those of this era.

After walking for a few minutes, he stopped in front of a steaming breakfast stall, his eyes fixed on the calendar hanging on the wooden door.

【XNUM X Year X NUM X Month X NUM X Day】

"This is Pingjiang City 23 years ago."

Su Ming stood still, looking around, his pupils trembling.

23 years ago, Su Ming had not yet been born.

His parents didn't even know each other.

The system wanted him to kill Wen Qi from 23 years ago.

Wen Qi's Heng An Middle School existed 23 years ago.

He immediately opened the system page.

There is a large red exclamation mark on the system page.

[Mandatory task, cannot be quit midway]

[Automatically exit after task completion]

(Friendly reminder: Mission failed, the ghost school beauty has been eliminated)

This is a mandatory task; Su Ming is not allowed to refuse or choose.

He came to kill Wen Qi.

Only after Wen Qi died could the ghost school beauty appear later.

Moreover, Wen Qi must die in this era, at Heng'an Middle School.

If the mission fails, Wen Qi will be eliminated.

To erase means to disappear completely, leaving no trace, as if she had never existed in this world.

The system's functionality has also been greatly limited.

For the time being, Su Ming can only use basic functions such as Spirit Vision, Listening, Scanning, and his personal page.

Fortunately, the strength that Wen Qi, Shen Wanyu, and Tang Tang gave back to me is still there.

Open your personal page.

Name: Su Ming

Physical Strength: 244

Mental Resilience: 866

【Characters to be Raised: Ghost School Beauty (4%), Headless Female Corpse (2%), Ghost Bride (1%)】

Backpack capacity: 18

[Containment Item: 4/12]

He attempted to summon the ghosts he had taken in—the ghosts that jumped off buildings, the ghosts in human skin, the coal balls, and the aggregates of resentment.

As a result, the summoning could not be completed due to time constraints.

Start scanning.

There is only one red dot within a radius of one kilometer.

Su Ming remembered Zhou Zhengyang saying that the strange creature appeared thirty years ago.

At first, there weren't many strange creatures.

As time went on, the number of strange creatures gradually increased.

Take out your phone from your backpack.

Although the phone had no signal, the chat history and data were preserved intact.

He had to immediately review the documents he had kept.

It contains information about Heng'an Middle School.

At that time, he found three Heng'an Middle Schools in China.

Although they share the same name, their school emblems and layouts are different.

Looking back now.

Since the Rose Hotel can replace the Lychee Hotel.

Therefore, Heng'an Middle School, which Wen Qi attends, must be one of these three schools.

Luckily, I checked beforehand.

Otherwise, in this day and age, it wouldn't be easy to find Heng An Middle School.

After all, the internet wasn't as developed as it is in later times.

The only drawback was that transportation in that era was really inconvenient.

Although there are civilian aircraft, they are not located in Pingjiang City.

Furthermore, you must have an ID card to purchase a plane ticket.

Even if Su Ming had his ID card, it wouldn't be valid in this era.

Is he going to tell the ticket seller that he's actually from 2026 and that this is a new generation of ID cards?

Fortunately, you don't need an ID card to buy a ticket for trains or long-distance buses; you can buy one if you have money.

But when it comes to money...

Su Ming was also having a headache.

Although I spent a lot of money on my backpack, I still couldn't afford to spend it all in 2003.

So, Su Ming found a seemingly wealthy older brother and secretly swindled some cash from him.

The money problem has been temporarily resolved.

But he had to take a long-distance bus, enduring a bumpy ride, to get to the train station.

Unfortunately, 23 years ago, Pingjiang City was still a county town and did not have a train station.

Arrived at the train station.

He squeezed through the crowd and struggled to board the green train.

Green-skinned trains are now the main mode of transportation and the first choice for many people traveling long distances.

Fortunately, it's not Chinese New Year or a holiday, otherwise Su Ming wouldn't even be able to get a ticket.

There were so many people on this green train. The carriages were stuffy and crowded, with a mix of smells, and it kept swaying and rattling.

And it's incredibly slow.

Clang, clang.

Su Ming sat for several days in a row until he was almost sick of it, and finally confirmed that he was looking for Heng'an Middle School.

Wen Qi's Heng'an Middle School is located in Ninghai City.

It's much more prosperous than Pingjiang City.

Judging from its urban construction standards, it can even rival some second- and third-tier cities in 2026.

By the time Su Ming arrived at Heng'an Middle School, it was completely dark.

The middle school gates were tightly closed, all the students had left school, and the school was deserted, with only the streetlights casting a cold light.

But this problem couldn't stop Su Ming at all.

He swayed and silently climbed over the wall into the school, heading straight for the honor wall in the teaching building.

This wall of honor is clean and intact.

It was covered with photos and certificates.

In the most prominent position, Wen Qi's photo was displayed.

Always number one.

The academic genius of Heng'an Middle School.

His name will forever remain at the very top, unsurpassed.

Su Ming kept this photo.

He took out the old photos from his backpack.

Although this photo of mine is in very good condition, you can still see that the edges are slightly yellowed.

The photos on the honor wall are brand new and clean.

That was her most vibrant self during her lifetime.

In the photo, she is wearing a neat blue and white school uniform, with cool and aloof eyes, a clean and distant temperament, and a hint of youthful naiveté in her eyes.

So, as if possessed, Su Ming reached out and took the photo down.

As soon as I took it off, a blinding white beam of flashlight suddenly swept over me.

"Who's there?"

"What do you do?"

He is the security guard on duty at Heng'an Middle School.

By the time he ran over, Su Ming had already disappeared.

He shone the flashlight back and forth for a long time, feeling a chill run down his spine.

"Strange, where did it go?"

"I clearly saw someone standing here."

"This is unbelievable."

After saying that, he shivered and became more and more panicked.

Things have been rather unsettled in the city lately, with one strange thing after another happening.

A few days ago, I heard someone say that in a certain residential building, footsteps could often be heard in the stairwell at night, but when you went in, you couldn't find anyone.

Two bodies have also gone missing from the morgue of the People's Hospital.

These things have been making headlines lately, causing many people to be afraid to go out at night.

It is said that people from higher authorities have been sent down to investigate.

It is a special department that specifically deals with these strange things.

It seems to be called something like the Abnormal Management Bureau.