I swear, I can’t with these sneaky bastards!
Can you people stop destroying the everyday slice-of-life anime worldview?!
After leaving the real estate agency, Higashino Akira walked into a small park, found a bench, sat down, and opened the system panel.
[Emperor: Higashino Akira] [Spirit: 9] [Physique: 6] [Fortune: Red (3300)] [Authorities: Aura Reading, Imperial Investiture] [Territory: 523.6 square meters] [Harem: 1] Good news: he had discovered a new function of fortune.
Bad news: it had been passively triggered after running into a ghost.
And the automatic defense consumed 1000 fortune in one go.
With Akira’s current total fortune, he would not be able to withstand it many times.
All he knew was that the other side had made a move, and that it had been blocked.
As for whether it would attack again, when it would come, or what the specific attack frequency might be, he knew absolutely nothing.
[A son worth a thousand gold does not sit beneath a dangerous eave.] [As the emperor, please form a personal guard of at least ten people within three days to protect your side.
Reward: daily fortune +1000, 100 elite Embroidered Uniform Guards.] Immediately after he suffered the first attack, a new system quest was triggered.
It was just that this reward…
For the first time, the system, which had always felt so satisfying to speedrun through loopholes and mismatched mechanics, seemed like its style could no longer keep up with the version update.
Embroidered Uniform Guards would be useful for fighting people.
But fighting ghosts?
That might be a little difficult.
Akira closed the system panel and sat quietly in thought for a long time.
Then he took out his phone, found the number at the top of his call history, and dialed it.
“Moshi moshi, Higashino-sama.
Is there something you forgot to mention?” “Sato-san, I wanted to ask.
Since those stigmatized properties are that dangerous, did anything happen while your company held them before?” “Yes, but the company promptly consulted a professional in the relevant field, so there were no serious casualties.
Since then, we no longer enter those houses or locations.
That was also the professional’s advice.” “About that professional, could I trouble you to give me their contact information as well?” The other side of the phone fell silent for a moment.
“Higashino-sama, did something unpleasant happen to you?” “Just preparing for the worst.” Akira did not tell the truth.
After all, Sato was only an ordinary real estate agent.
Knowing too much about this kind of thing would not benefit him.
“I understand.
I’ll ask the company president for that professional’s contact information, then send it to you afterward.” The call ended.
A few minutes later, a text message was sent to Akira’s phone.
It contained a phone number and a bank account.
When Akira dialed the number, the ringtone continued for a long time before the call finally connected.
On the other end was the sleepy voice of a young woman.
“Who is this?
What do you want?
Hurry up and say it.” “Hello.
I got your contact information from a real estate agency.
I wanted to consult you about whether buying a stigmatized property could cause negative effects, and if so, how they should be handled.” “Of course it can.
Why else would they be called stigmatized properties?
The way to handle it is to stay far away.
Just don’t buy them because they’re cheap, and don’t move in.
Isn’t that enough?” “What if I already bought one, never went inside, but still got targeted?
Is there a way to deal with that kind of situation?” “Uh, wait a second.
Let me think…” On the other side of the phone, the woman’s originally drowsy voice suddenly became much more awake.
After that, there was no reply for a long while.
Through the phone, Akira could only hear the rustling sound of someone crawling out of bed, blankets piling up, and someone vigorously scratching their head.
After a long time, she asked, “The one in Gunma?” “Mm.” “Where are you?
Is everything around you still okay right now?” “The other party seems to have already launched one attack against me.
But because I’m somewhat special and had something on me that can resist these kinds of things getting close, it was blocked.” “Ah!” A startled cry came from the other end of the phone.
“That can be blocked?” “May I ask how to handle this situation?” “Well…
if we’re talking about my personal ability, then no.
I can’t handle it.” “What about when this property was listed under the real estate company before?” “You said it yourself.
It was listed under a company, not placed under an individual’s name.
A company and a person are different subjects.” “Then will the other party keep attacking?” “That thing is different from an ordinary haunted house.
A normal haunted house just has lingering residents inside who are very unfriendly and don’t welcome outsiders.
That house itself is unfriendly.
It’s extremely sinister, and it holds grudges indiscriminately.
Once it targets you, no matter what, the attacks won’t stop.” Akira fell silent for a moment.
“There’s absolutely no way?” “If you really have a way to block its attacks, then stay far away.
The farther, the better.
That way, the interval between each time it finds you will grow longer.
Never go near Gunma again.
Roughly speaking, that’s all you can do.” “If I settle within the Tokyo metropolitan area, how many times a day will it find me?” “At that distance, once or twice, maybe.
It’s hard to say for sure.
As long as you don’t deliberately run near it and provoke it, it shouldn’t intensify for no reason.” “All right, I understand.
Thank you for your help.” “Mm, that’s it, then.
Also, don’t think about reselling the house or finding another company to list it again.
Once someone has been targeted, they can’t escape.” Once or twice…
That was not completely unacceptable.
However, this incident did ring an alarm bell for Higashino Akira.
Before, it could not be helped because he did not know this world really had unscientific monsters, ghosts, and haunted houses that could chase people down and kill them.
Now that he knew, if he bought more properties in the future, he would need to run more detailed background checks.
The call ended, and Akira transferred a sum of money to this professional as a consultation fee.
As for stopping his purchases, honestly, he had never considered it.
His previous concern had only been that an unknown and uncontrollable factor had suddenly appeared.
But now, from what the professional said, he could roughly tell that haunted houses capable of targeting someone just because they had approached a little without even going inside were not the norm.
Since he could confirm that the risk was controllable, and that he could withstand it, then there was no need to be afraid.
If you’re scared, don’t play.
If you play, don’t chicken out!
The bold stuffed themselves to death, while the timid starved.
How could ghosts be scarier than poverty?
At least to Akira, as long as he did not recklessly court death everywhere, ghosts could not touch him.
But having no money would genuinely and severely affect both his quality of life and his enjoyment.
Meow~ The sky had already grown dark.
At some point, a small blue cat had wandered over to Akira’s leg.
It rubbed against his pant leg and circled around him, occasionally raising its head to meow at him.
Hey, you little squeaker!
Akira grabbed it by the scruff of its neck, lifted the little thing up, placed it on his lap, and stared into its eyes.
Meooow~~ “Hungry?” Meow~ The little cat cried once and quickly nodded.
Seeing that, Akira raised an eyebrow, a little surprised.
He was not sure whether this little thing could really understand human speech or whether it had just been a coincidence.
But this did open up some ideas for him regarding the task of forming a personal guard.
Casually appointing outsiders as guards definitely would not work.
Outsiders were different from people drawn by the system.
They did not come with one hundred percent locked loyalty, and unlike the harem, they could not provide enough benefits.
Akira could not trust them.
After all, the human heart was too complicated.
But the hearts of small animals were much simpler!
“I’m not Yukinoshita Nyanono, full of so much love for cats.
The imperial court doesn’t feed outside cats for free.
If you want imperial grain, you need to take a position in our household first, understand?” [Proceed with appointment as Imperial Guard?] “Appoint!” …
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