Old days, dice and investigator's manual

Baker assumed it was just another bad debt and didn't take it too seriously. Having run a pawnshop for so many years, he had plenty of ways to resell and cash out these things.

What truly made him realize the ring's real value was his mother-in-law.

Baker didn't like the old lady. She lived in the countryside, but every time she came to the city, she would come to the store every few days. She would say that she was coming to see her daughter, but in reality, her eyes were always glancing at the cabinet, trying to steal some small pawned items, while saying, "Anyway, nobody wants them."

That afternoon, my mother-in-law came again, holding up her bare finger and rambling on and on: "My ring... I don't know where it went, I've looked for it for ages but I can't find it..."

Baker understood what she meant; she simply wanted to see if there was anything suitable in the store that she could take with her.

He grew impatient with dealing with her and suddenly remembered that ring of Morzur. Since it was already pawned anyway, he figured he might as well send her away to stop her from coming over and nagging every now and then.

So he took out the wooden box, and his mother-in-law picked up the ring and examined it for a while. She said it wasn't very pretty, but she had already deftly slipped the ring onto her finger.

Baker thought the matter was over, but three days later, he received a message from his father-in-law in the countryside, delivered by someone, saying that his mother-in-law had passed away.

Baker was taken aback. Although his mother-in-law was old, she didn't have any serious illnesses. How could she have passed away so suddenly?

He rushed to his in-laws' house. His father-in-law opened the door, his face ashen, looking more like he had been frightened by something than sad.

He followed his father-in-law to the master bedroom. His father-in-law opened the door, and Baker glanced inside.

The person lying on the bed should be his mother-in-law, but the person lying on the bed looks completely different from the person he saw three days ago.

His skin had a grayish-brown, waxy texture, his eye sockets were sunken, and his lips were shrunken... He didn't look like someone who had just died.

The dark silver ring was still firmly fastened to the base of her finger.

Baker felt a chill run down his spine as he recalled the words of the man who had pawned his ring.

"The Ghoul Cult's items can keep the wearer young forever, but they require corpses to maintain their effect."

He initially dismissed it as nonsense, a fabricated story to inflate the price, but now his mother-in-law lies here, dead for less than a day, and her body has already deteriorated like this…

My father-in-law recounted the events of the past two days in fits and starts, saying that my mother-in-law's spirits had suddenly improved. She walked with a brisk pace, spoke loudly, and seemed ten years younger. She no longer tossed and turned in bed all night. When asked what was wrong, she said she wasn't sleepy and couldn't fall asleep.

My father-in-law thought she was in a good mood, but last night, my mother-in-law suddenly sat up in bed, muttering words he couldn't understand, and then collapsed and died.

Baker asked his mother-in-law what she said before she died. His father-in-law was shocked and couldn't understand or repeat what he said, but he mumbled a few words, one of which confirmed Baker's suspicions.

Morzur.

He had assumed the name was something the person who pawned the ring had made up on the spot, but even though he had never told his mother-in-law it, she uttered the name in her dying whispers…

Baker agreed with his father-in-law, saying that people are said to have a sudden burst of energy before they die, and while his father-in-law was entertaining the neighbors who came to pay their respects, he quickly went to take off the ring.

The ring was stuck very tightly. He twisted it a few times before finally managing to get it off. The moment it left his mother-in-law's finger, he vaguely felt that the corpse seemed to have shriveled up a bit more.

His father-in-law asked him if he wanted to have someone from the church come and take a look, but Baker quickly stopped him. If someone from the church came, they would definitely ask about the cause of death, and if they found anything wrong, they could trace it back to him.

His pawnshop couldn't withstand scrutiny. He knew perfectly well how much of what he had taken in over the years was stolen goods and how much was of dubious origin.

"If the church people come and investigate, and it all comes back to me, I'll lose my pawnshop. If you still want me to give you your retirement money every month, then don't tell anyone about this."

After these words, his father-in-law finally shut up. Baker breathed a slight sigh of relief, but the funeral and requiem ceremony were unavoidable hurdles.

Fortunately, news travels slowly in the countryside, unlike in the city, and the church has fewer people. Baker said he hired someone from the city, secretly bribed someone to impersonate a priest, and spent money to hold a funeral at his house. He didn't take the body to the church, and told everyone that his mother-in-law didn't like the atmosphere of the church and wanted to rest in her own yard.

After the funeral, the ring became a hot potato. Baker dared not keep it on his hand. His mother-in-law died suddenly just three days after wearing it. The ring's effects were definitely not as simple as "eternal youth".

But leaving it there isn't a solution either. What if someone finds it someday, or what if the ring causes some trouble on its own? He can't afford to take that risk.

After much deliberation, he decided to sell the item on the black market, which was the fastest way he could think of. There, they didn't care about its origin; as long as someone was willing to pay, the item could be sold, and he could even recoup his losses.

He had considered changing his story about selling the ring, such as not mentioning the condition of "needing a corpse" and only saying that it could prolong life, or simply making up other effects.

But then he thought, what if someone traces this back to him and finds out that he intentionally concealed crucial information? His situation would be much worse than it is now.

So he continued to sell it according to the man's original words: to maintain eternal youth, a corpse was needed to maintain the effect. As for any problems that might arise later, he simply said he didn't know.

He spent several days in the black market, and people came and went, asking about the price. The gimmick of eternal youth was indeed attractive, but when they heard that "a corpse is needed," most people chose to wait and see.

Baker grew increasingly anxious. He considered lowering the price, but he was afraid that lowering it too quickly would make people think there was something wrong with the item, even though he did think there was something wrong with the ring.

Fortunately, he finally sold it tonight, although the transaction price was much lower than he expected, and he was also bothered by those two hooded guys, but at least he got rid of it.

Now, he can finally get a good night's sleep.

……

"The above is what the FBI learned after conducting a psychic examination of Handel Baker's body."

Inside the FBI conference room, Morris addressed the other attendees at the table.

Five or six people sat on either side of the long table. Some of the attendees were writing something in their notebooks, while others were looking through folders containing photos and sketches taken on-site.

Carlo, sitting at the end of the table, raised his hand: "So, even psychic abilities can't reveal what happened to Beck before he died?"

Morris didn't look at him, tacitly agreeing.

A representative from the city police department, an inspector, raised his hand and asked, "Why would the FBI directly resort to psychic practices that desecrate the souls of the dead? Can you provide an explanation?"