111: Chapter 111 The Underworld Demolition Team, Part 5: The Crying "Nail House"

No sooner said than done! Lin Chen's style had always been swift and decisive.

The day after the title of "Lord of the Underworld" resounded throughout the new Fortress, an unprecedented "oath-taking rally" was being held in the central plaza.

The protagonists were not human survivors, but an army—the Yin Soldier Legion under Lin Chen's command, which had been expanded and strengthened by nether talismans to reach a count of fifty thousand! They were lined up in five neat square formations, their soul bodies solid and their armor bright. The blades and spears condensed from nether energy in their hands shimmered with a cold light, and the soaring yin baleful aura caused the temperature around the plaza to drop by several degrees. Leading them were five "Yin Soldier Myriarchs" with exceptionally powerful auras.

Besides the Yin Soldiers, there was also a special "engineering team." Over a hundred massive, hideously shaped "Underworld Multi-functional Engineering Puppets" stood quietly to one side of the military formation. These puppets were items Lin Chen had just spent a fortune to exchange from the system; they could be used for construction, or for... violent demolition.

Zhang Hao floated beside the engineering team, his translucent ghost body appearing somewhat blurred in the sunlight, but the excitement on his face didn't diminish in the slightest. He had just tested his new abilities—passing through walls and eavesdropping on hearts—which were practically tailor-made for inspection and intelligence work. Su Qingyu stood slightly behind Lin Chen's side, holding a specially made nether talisman tablet, responsible for recording and dispatching.

Lin Chen stood on the high platform. Without any redundant words, he directly pulled up the Underworld Development Zone interface and selected a peripheral area closest to the real-world Fortress, marked as "barren but easy to develop"—the Barren Bone Plain.

"Target: Barren Bone Plain!" Lin Chen swiped his finger across the tablet. "Mission: Clear all unstable factors within the area, level the land, and establish an outpost! Move out!"

He raised his hand and waved. The majestic nether talisman energy within his body surged out, forcefully tearing open a massive teleportation gate dozens of meters high with dark energy flowing along its edges in the open space ahead! Inside the gate was a gray sky, an endless wasteland covered in all sorts of twisted white bones, and a cold, deathly still atmosphere that made even the soul feel uncomfortable.

"For the Lord of the Underworld! For the New District!" A Myriarch raised an energy warblade and let out a silent roar.

"Kill! Build! Demolish!"

The fifty thousand Yin Soldiers surged into the teleportation gate like a black tide, silent and orderly. Following closely behind were the rumbling engineering puppets.

Lin Chen took Su Qingyu and Zhang Hao and stepped through as well.

...

The moment they stepped onto the Barren Bone Plain, a gust of Yin energy, far denser and purer than that of the real world, rushed toward them. If it were a living person, they would be corroded into a zombie in an instant, but for the Yin Soldiers and Lin Chen, the "Lord of the Underworld," this place was practically a paradise. The Yin Soldiers' soul bodies became visibly more active, and even Zhang Hao took a comfortable breath.

"Start work!" Lin Chen ordered.

The engineering puppets immediately began to roar. Their massive mechanical arms started clearing the mountain-like piles of skeletons on the ground or directly flattening low, bizarre hillocks built from bones. The Yin Soldiers dispersed, clearing out the low-level skeletons and vengeful spirits wandering the plain. These native Bizarre Monsters were vulnerable before the well-trained and well-equipped Yin Soldiers, quickly being annihilated or incorporated.

Everything was progressing smoothly and with high efficiency. At this rate, it wouldn't take a day for this area to be preliminarily leveled.

However, just as the engineering work pushed into the center of the plain—a relatively "clean" area with only a few withered, black, strange trees—an anomaly occurred.

"Wuu wuu wuu... wuu wuu..."

An intermittent sound of a little girl crying suddenly drifted across the open plain. This crying was extremely sorrowful and filled with deep grievance, acting directly on the soul level and making people involuntarily feel pity.

The engineering puppets currently working suddenly froze. The core nether talismans controlling them flickered violently, seemingly suffering from interference. Some low-rank Yin Soldiers also grew restless, their soul fires flickering and their formations becoming slightly chaotic.

"What's the situation?" Zhang Hao pricked up his ears, trying to hear where the sound was coming from, but the crying was elusive, as if it came from all directions.

Su Qingyu frowned and looked at Lin Chen. "Boss, there's something strange about this crying; it can directly affect energy bodies and machinery."

Lin Chen narrowed his eyes, sensing the soul power within that crying, but a hint of interest curled at the corner of his mouth. "Oh? It seems we've encountered a local 'holdout'."

Following the guidance of the soul fluctuations, he looked toward those few withered black trees. Beneath the thickest tree, at some unknown point, a little girl had appeared, wearing a tattered red dress and hugging a dirty cloth doll. Her back was to the crowd, her shoulders heaving as she cried very sadly.

In this Underworld wasteland filled with white bones and deathly stillness, the appearance of a crying little girl was itself the height of bizarreness and horror.

"Little sister, why are you crying?" Zhang Hao, relying on the fact that he was now a ghost body and had Lin Chen's backing, floated forward a few steps and asked in what he thought was a kind (but was actually even more eerie) tone.

The little girl's crying stopped abruptly.

Slowly, bit by bit, she turned her head.

No pupils! Her pair of eyes was completely pale white, which, paired with her bloodless face, made one's scalp tingle. Two streaks of bloody tears were flowing down from her pale eyes, tracing across her cheeks.

"You... why do you want to tear down my home..." Her voice was ethereal and filled with malice; she was no longer crying but questioning. The dirty cloth doll in her arms also suddenly split its mouth open, revealing a stitched, extremely terrifying smile.

"Home?" Zhang Hao was stunned and pointed at the surroundings. "There's nothing here but bones. Where is there a home?"

"Here... is my home..." The little girl's voice suddenly became shrill. "Every single bone was once my toy! You bad people! You broke my toys! You must pay!"

Following her words, those white bones on the surrounding plain that had been pushed down and crushed suddenly began to vibrate violently. Then, as if controlled by invisible hands, they floated up one after another, assembling into twisted, massive bone puppets. Green soul fires burned in their eye sockets, and with a "clack-clack" sound, they lunged toward the Yin Soldiers and engineering puppets!

At the same time, the little girl's figure began to twist and elongate, her red dress unfurling like a blood-dripping curtain. A dense resentment soared into the sky, actually reaching the level of a Ghost General! The cloth doll in her arms also fell to the ground and instantly expanded, turning into a monster stitched together from countless scraps of cloth and resentment, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws!

"Holy crap! This 'holdout' is a bit fierce!" Zhang Hao cried out and quickly phased through a wall to hide behind an engineering puppet.

Su Qingyu immediately commanded the Yin Soldiers to form a defensive array, and the engineering puppets also switched to combat mode, their massive mechanical arms swinging to smash those bone puppets.

Lin Chen, however, stood where he was, not moving at all. He looked at the little girl in red who had revealed part of her true form and was radiating resentment, then looked at those bone puppets and the cloth doll monster with decent combat power. Instead of being angry, his eyes grew even brighter.

"Not bad, really not bad." Lin Chen stroked his chin as if admiring a product. "Pure resentment, the ability to control skeletons, and she comes with a mutated cloth doll pet... This 'holdout' has potential. She's qualified to be a minor regional boss or a featured 'attraction'."

Ignoring the fierce battle ahead, he directly opened the system interface and pulled up the "Investment Promotion" sub-option of the Underworld Development Zone, which contained a "Special Talent/Unit Incorporation" function.

"Hey, little girl in the red dress," Lin Chen shouted at the red-clothed little girl whose resentment was soaring, his voice clearly overriding the noise of the battlefield.

The little girl in red (or rather, the female ghost) snapped her head around, her pale eyes staring fixedly at Lin Chen, and the surrounding temperature instantly dropped several more degrees.

"Let's talk business." Lin Chen shook the system tablet in his hand. "I'm definitely developing this land. However, seeing as you have some skill, I'll give you two choices."

He held up two fingers.

"One, I personally take action and 'physically transcend' you, your doll, and these bone skeletons, demolishing everything clean."

"Two," Lin Chen paused, revealing a smile that seemed extremely loathsome to the female ghost, "sign this 'Underworld Development Zone Special Talent Introduction and Labor Contract' and work for me. Not only will I leave the core area of your 'former residence' untouched and turn it into a 'Red-Clothed Haunted House' attraction for you, but I'll also pay you a nether talisman salary and help you increase your strength. How about it?"

As soon as these words came out, not only was the Red-Clothed Female Ghost stunned, but even the fighting Yin Soldiers and Zhang Hao, who was hiding in the back, were dumbfounded.

Boss... is going to negotiate a contract with a ghost? Recruiting a "holdout"?

The resentment churning around the Red-Clothed Female Ghost stagnated for a moment. Her bleeding white eyes stared fixedly at Lin Chen, seemingly judging the truth of his words and... whether this human (?) had something wrong with his head.

"You... are you serious?" Her voice was still shrill, but it had lost a bit of killing intent and gained a bit of uncertainty.

"I, Lin Chen, have always done business with integrity," Lin Chen said solemnly. "Of course, the contract terms are a bit detailed, such as working hours, performance requirements, not harming tourists, and so on... You can take a look at the letter of intent first."

As he spoke, he tapped his finger, and a virtual contract composed of nether talisman energy, filled with densely packed terms, floated in front of the Red-Clothed Female Ghost.

The Red-Clothed Female Ghost looked at those complex terms, then at the surrounding Yin Soldiers and engineering puppets watching her like tigers, and then felt the unfathomable pressure from Lin Chen that made her soul tremble...

She hesitated.

(Hook: The aboriginal fierce ghosts held up signs in protest: "Oppose forced demolition!")

Just as the Red-Clothed Female Ghost was debating whether to look at the contract—

"Oppose forced demolition!"

"Get out of the Underworld!"

"Protect our home!"

A cacophony of shouts filled with resentment came from all directions of the Barren Bone Plain.

In the distance, within the gray mist, a large number of figures appeared indistinctly! There were Hanged Ghosts, water ghosts, Headless Ghosts, Painted-Skin Ghosts... all sorts, numbering in the thousands! Most of them were dressed in rags with dim soul bodies, but their numbers were extremely vast. They also held signs temporarily made from bones and rags, with words written like ghost talismans:

[Oppose forced demolition!]

[The Underworld is our home!]

[Foreign capitalists, get out!]

...

It was actually a group of native fierce ghost "residents" attracted by the commotion of Lin Chen's demolition, who had spontaneously organized a protest!

Leading them was a Hanged Ghost holding a broken gong, its tongue hanging out very long. It beat the gong while shrilly shouting slogans.

The Red-Clothed Female Ghost, who had just been hesitating about signing the contract, saw this display, and a hint of craftiness flashed in her pale eyes. Her resentment rose again, as if she felt she had something to rely on.

Zhang Hao looked at that mountain-spanning crowd of protesting ghosts and swallowed nonexistent saliva. "Boss... the situation seems... a bit out of hand?"

Lin Chen looked at this sudden "protest march," and instead of being alarmed, he was delighted. The light in his eyes was practically as if he were looking at a mountain of gold!

"Great!" He clapped his hands and said excitedly to Su Qingyu beside him, "I was just worried that the development zone didn't have enough popularity and that investment promotion would be difficult! Now, the first batch of 'potential customers' and 'employees' has delivered themselves to our door!"

"Pass the word down, prepare to 'welcome guests'!" A trademark smirk, filled with playfulness and absolute confidence, appeared on Lin Chen's face. "Today, we're going to have a good talk with these 'aboriginals' about 'cooperative development'!"