Why is my anime art style so weird?

As if the blow to Xu Ming wasn't enough, the system added another sentence.

—The contract price is not fixed and will increase with the target's current soul strength level. Please hurry.

Xu Ming was instantly conflicted.

His biggest wish is for his sister to level up as soon as possible so that she can have a body similar to that of a normal person.

The faster the older sister levels up, the higher the price of contracting with her.

Wanting everything, Xu Ming could only desperately try to solve the bizarre events (courting death) and accumulate bizarre points.

Out of curiosity, Xu Ming inquired about the price of signing contracts with the members of Polaris Dormitory.

The results showed that the lowest score only required single digits, while the highest score, even for the Medicine King, was only 300 points.

His older sister was more than three times his size.

If we compare this to a card collecting mobile game, the single-digit number of random characters are R cards, the tens of characters are SR cards, the hundreds of main characters are SSR cards, and your own sister is the legendary UR card.

Xu Mingzhen didn't know whether he should be happy or not.

In addition, Xu Ming inquired about the price of signing a contract with Isshiki Satoshi, but the system gave him a very unexpected answer.

—The target is a benevolent spirit, so a contract cannot be entered into.

The system's answer immediately piqued his curiosity.

"What is a benevolent spirit? Why can't a contract be made with it?"

—Good spirits are rare spiritual entities that have completed their obsessions and possess certain merits. They are protected by the gods and can be reincarnated, so they cannot sign a contract.

The world is so big, there are truly all sorts of wonders.

As for completing the preliminary events and starting the subsequent series of tasks, Xu Ming wasn't surprised at all.

Chapter Nineteen: The Spirit-Seizing Phone

Difficulty level equals danger level.

The system directly indicated the danger level of these branch events. Xu Ming didn't consider himself the protagonist of a fantasy novel, so he certainly wouldn't think of starting with the most dangerous one or engaging in any challenge beyond his level.

His first target was basically determined: the Chinese Culinary Research Association, the only place with a similar level of danger to Polar Star Dormitory.

However, before searching for information, Xu Ming first claimed the 'Spirit-Capturing Phone' as an extra reward from the system.

This reward, judging from its name, is meant to deal with 'weirdness'.

The scene of being passively attacked and ultimately forced to self-harm when facing the headless female ghost was still vivid in Xu Ming's mind. He didn't want to experience that feeling of helplessness again.

—Would you like to claim the bonus 'Spirit-Gathering Phone (Upgradeable)'? (Yes/No)

Xu Ming immediately clicked 'Yes'.

To his utter surprise, his phone, which he had placed in his pocket, suddenly flew out and was then enveloped in a faint blue light.

Xu Ming heard a faint, mechanical-like electrical sound coming from within the blue light.

The blue light quickly dissipated, and a cell phone fell out.

The system's voice sounded again.

— The modification is complete, please check.

"Wasn't the reward supposed to be a phone? Why is it a modification?! System, did you steal my phone?!"

There's a huge difference between brand new and refurbished items; nobody likes using secondhand goods.

—The main components of the spirit-capturing phone are soul-like substances, and its host is a human. To unleash the power of the spirit-capturing phone, it needs to be combined with a physical device.

The system explained, then added a sentence with malicious intent.

Of course, the host can also choose to transform themselves into a 'monster', which will allow them to directly use the spirit-capturing phone.

Xu Ming rejected the tempting offer without even thinking. He wasn't crazy enough to risk everything for a phone.

The system didn't insist, but instead began introducing the modified spirit-capturing phone.

—After being modified by this system, the phone will have unlimited battery life, be able to resist interference from resentment, and achieve full-area network connectivity.

The most important part of this renovation was the lens, which was transformed into a spirit-capturing lens.

—Ever since the invention of the camera, people have believed that it can capture the soul of the person being photographed.

—The spirit-capturing lens reproduces this function, and can have a strong interference effect on 'strange' things, especially spirits.

—After the upgrade, the Soul-Capturing Lens can even directly capture the target's soul fragments, causing effects such as slowing down, weakening, and damaging.

However, using the spirit-capturing lens consumes a large amount of soul energy, making continuous shooting impossible. This can be improved by upgrading soul components.

After listening to the system's introduction, Xu Ming picked up the Spirit-Sniffing Phone and examined it.

The front features the most common smartphone touchscreen design (for insert advertising space, please contact: XX).

The key feature is the back of the casing, which is light purple and covered with mysterious runes that emit a faint white light. Especially near the lens, there are countless runes the size of ants.

It looks very magical.

Xu Ming casually opened the upgrade panel of the Spirit-Snatching Phone in the system.

The system panel lists two upgrade items: Lens and Soul Stone.

Among them, the lens seems to be more important, so the lens upgrade projects are more complicated, namely: suppression, purification, and exorcism.

Suppression – Using soul energy to suppress 'strange' actions, simply put, it causes a slowing effect. The higher the 'Suppression' level, the more obvious the slowing effect and the longer it lasts.

Purification – Uses pure soul energy to wash away the negative energy of 'weirdness', weakening 'weirdness'. The higher the level, the more obvious the effect and the longer the duration.

Exorcising Evil – Using powerful soul energy to impact the 'strange' soul, directly damaging it; the higher the level, the stronger the damage.

The "exorcising power" of the "spirit-capturing phone" echoes the "exorcising power" of the "eye".

Presumably, the 'eye's' ability to 'exorcise evil' would also allow Xu Ming, an ordinary person, to harm the 'strange'.

In addition, there are four separate branches: Exorcising Demons, Demon Exorcising, Ghost Suppression, and Monster Extermination.

Each corresponds to one of the four different types of "weirdness" – demons, ghosts, and monsters. When the camera is upgraded, the effect is doubled when shooting the corresponding type of "weirdness".

Xu Ming understood the Soul Stone as an energy source specifically for the Spirit-Capturing Lens.

There are only two upgrade branches for Soul Stones: Energy Recovery and Soul Storage.

For unupgraded Soul Stones, a 10-minute interval is required between each shot.

Upgrading 'Energy Recovery' can shorten the interval.

Upgrading 'Spirit Storage' can increase the energy storage limit of Soul Stones, allowing for continuous attacks.

Simply put, 'energy recovery' affects cooldown time, while 'spirit storage' represents the number of times it can be stored.

It has to be said that with the spirit-detecting phone in hand, Xu Ming is much safer when investigating strange events.

Xu Ming currently has 15 strange points, which clearly means he can't buy anything good.

After thinking for a while, Xu Ming finally spent 10 Weird Points to upgrade the 'eye's' 'night vision' ability.

After all, humans are inherently at a disadvantage in the dark.

After upgrading his night vision capabilities, Xu Ming no longer needs to hold up his phone or flashlight at night.

Freeing up one hand will make him more agile.

After upgrading his night vision capabilities, Xu Ming prepared to test them out.

He first drew the curtains, then blew out the candles, making the room as dark as possible.

The curtains in the room were very thick, and once they were drawn, the entire room became much darker. Without activating his 'night vision' ability, Xu Ming couldn't even see his own fingers.

This environment is perfect for testing night vision capabilities.

Xu Ming slowly closed his eyes, then opened them again two seconds later.

With the help of 'night vision', everything in the room was presented to Xu Ming with perfect clarity.

Moreover, the scenery Xu Ming saw was completely different from the distorted fluorescent green of the infrared night vision device. It was as if the sun was shining brightly here, and every detail was clearly visible.

After testing his 'night vision' ability, Xu Ming began searching for information about the five locations on his phone.

Although Totsuki Salon has been closed for three years, it was once Japan's top culinary establishment, and there is a wealth of information about it online.

Xu Ming quickly discovered that all five locations were related to the missing or dead members of the Elite Ten of Totsuki.

The Chinese Cuisine Research Association was originally the eighth seat, the research association of Terunori Kuga.

Office Building No. 4 was the territory of Eizan Etsuya, the former Ninth Seat.

The animal park was originally the second seat, and Kobayashi Gentian is used to raise rare ingredients from all over the world.

The fairytale castle was originally the fourth seat, Momoko Akane's private kitchen.

As for the castle tower, it is generally used as the office of the first seat of the Ten Masters.

Chapter Twenty: The Coffin in the Photograph

Xu Ming kept tapping on his phone screen.

It must be said that although the main upgrade of the revamped Ghost Phone was its ability to target the 'weird', its other hardware functions were also significantly enhanced.

The touchscreen is sensitive and precise, with no lag whatsoever.

To test the performance of the Spirit-Sniffing Phone, Xu Ming deliberately opened a large number of electronic maps, web pages, and apps, but each new app opened instantly.

Moreover, the screen resolution is extremely high, resulting in excellent image clarity.

This performance completely blows away things like the Banana 20 and Justice 100.

The key thing is the internet speed; it's incredibly fast, downloading movies at speeds reaching 10GB/s. And it's not just advertised as 10GB/s but actually only 1MB/s; it's a genuine 10GB/s.

The system's cutting-edge technology is truly terrifying!

This isn't refurbishment; they completely replaced his phone, inside and out.

As Xu Ming was thinking this, he casually clicked on a forum.

After opening it, Xu Ming browsed for a while before discovering that it was a very niche forum with extremely low traffic.

It is filled with a large number of unverified or photoshopped fake ghost stories and rumors.

However, perhaps precisely because this was a remote corner of the internet, Xu Ming made an unexpected discovery.