With the full level of enlightenment, you can rub the fruit of transcendence with your hands!

Chapter 586: Cyberworld Investigator
The sunlight shone on Song Ji's face through the gap in the windowsill. He suddenly jumped up from the bed and only relaxed when he saw the familiar pile of junk and the mechanical Buddha.

"Awake? If you are awake, put on your clothes."

Miroku stuck his head out and threw a set of clothes to Song Ji: "Although we are both men, given that sexual orientations are quite liberal here, for the sake of my reputation, you'd better put on some clothes."

"Of course, if you have some special hobbies like bird-watching, you can also be naked. I will keep it a secret for you and won't tell anyone."

Song Ji, who knew Maitreya's character well, pursed his lips and grabbed the flying clothes: "As long as the price is right, right?"

Maitreya smiled and said, "If others want to get information, they have to pay for it. Don't worry, I'll give you 20% off the hush money and the money for buying clothes. If others want to know, they have to pay more!"

"No money, keep account!"

Song Ji said confidently that it is good to owe money. Apart from other so-called friendships, family ties and the like, owing money is the easiest human connection to establish. As long as the borrower does not want the account to become a bad debt, at least he has to ensure that the debtor has the ability to repay, right?
He put on the clothes, which had a white lining and a black outer garment. Song Ji touched the material and said, "Wow, where did this good stuff come from? Are you planning to make me owe you a large sum of money? Let's make a deal. I'm still unemployed and don't have that much money to give you."

Mi Le waved his hand: "It's okay, I can provide you with a low-interest loan, and I can also arrange for you to repay the loan in installments over three years. How about that, isn't that good enough?"

Although borrowing money to repay a loan was a bit confusing, Song Ji understood it. It meant that not only could he pay off the money for the clothes, but he could also borrow extra money, but the interest would become long-term instead of short-term.

Song Ji was not afraid of itching because there were too many lice. He nodded casually, touched the clothes on his body with some reluctance, and then looked at Maitreya with a serious expression.

"Thank you, Senior Maitreya, for your help," he said with a bow, which was a customary etiquette among cultivators. "Money is money, favor is favor, one thing is another, I, Song Ji, will remember this favor."

Miroku nodded nonchalantly, treating the inconsistent etiquette as normal: "Do you want to know what hurt you?"

Without waiting for Song Ji to answer, he took out a glass measuring cup from behind him. There was a ghost banknote stuck on the rim of the cup. The denomination on it was enough to cause a financial crisis and inflation in the underworld.

Maitreya lifted a corner of the ghost banknote and motioned Song Ji to look. Song Ji walked forward and saw through the gap in the measuring cup that there was a black paper man inside, with eyes, mouth and two red blushes dotted on it with red ink.

"This thing is peeled off from your back. It's called a paper man sticker, commonly known as a walking ghost. Once it's stuck on your back, it will follow you like a shadow, imitating your footsteps and affecting your qi and blood through your footsteps. When your heart explodes due to the rapid sound, this paper man sticker will drill into your heart from behind, lodge in your body, and control you."

After listening to Maitreya's explanation, Song Ji felt a chill in his heart. This kind of strange method that was carried out silently and without any trace was totally beyond his ability to cope with. Fortunately, Maitreya came to the rescue, otherwise he would have become a puppet of this ghost thing.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look at Maitreya with gratitude. Maitreya waved his hand and said, "It's all your fault. If the spiritual energy in your body hadn't been released, this thing wouldn't have possessed you. It can only be said that it was fate. I just happened to hear the noise. The footsteps in the middle of the night were so noisy that I picked you up." As soon as the words came out, Song Ji was basically open and honest. He no longer concealed it: "Senior, is it easy for a cultivator like me to attract such ghosts? Also, what exactly are these ghosts?"

"They are indeed ghosts. You can call them ghosts," Maitreya said, "but they are not ordinary ghosts. In the concept of monks, ghosts are the souls of dead people. They absorb evil spirits and resentment, and breed foreign objects. Their essence is still a kind of life, but people have changed their life form."

"But these ghosts are different. They come out of illusion and merge with reality. They are born under the distortion of mysterious power and absorb the resentment, desires and coincidences of people in reality."

Maitreya pointed at the paper figure in the measuring cup and said, "They are actually a kind of polymer of emotions, the product of the fusion of fluctuations and rules. They are not considered life force. This is the fluctuation attached to real objects. They are more like magic weapons with a price. Some ghosts have certain behavior patterns and subjective ideologies, and they look more like humans."

"To put it simply, when the rules of virtual objects conflict with the rules of reality and interfere with each other, bugs will appear and the program will not be able to run. Data redundancy and overflow will occur. Ghosts are the product of such bugs. Of course, there is a more appropriate name, which is anomaly."

Song Ji scratched his head and found something interesting: "Senior, are you saying that this paper figurine can be used as a tool?"

"Yes, even if it is abnormal, as long as you follow the rules, you can use it and deal with it. The cost of using abnormal items and avoiding the rules of abnormal ghosts killing people are the same. Of course, this also requires the responder to have a certain amount of strength. As the saying goes, a little force can move a lot. Without that little force, you will be killed as soon as you meet the enemy, and there is no need to look for the rules."

Maitreya pointed at the measuring cup and said, "Take this paper man for example. He likes to drink blood and control puppets. All you have to do is feed him a few drops of your heart's blood on the first and fifteenth day of each month, and then make him a body or a house, and he can be used by you."

drink blood?

Song Ji was too tired to complain about the increasingly bizarre reality, so he said to Maitreya, "Then, senior, what is the use of this paper man?"

Maitreya found a pair of tweezers, picked up the paper man, and placed it in front of Song Ji: "He has the power of spatial movement. As long as he is out of your sight, he can move behind you. It is with this ability that he can stick to your back."

"Let me think... If it's you, then as long as you are well fed and within other people's sight, he can help you move three times a day, jump behind the enemy, and backstab you righteously. However, if you use it more than the number of times in a short period of time, he will go crazy and attack indiscriminately. But the price is almost the lowest. After all, he doesn't want your life, but only your blood. If you give him enough blood, he won't make trouble. It's the same as working for a reward. If you want to use it, I can make a straw man for you as his home, and I'll give you a 50% discount?"

Song Ji nodded silently, then looked up at Maitreya: "So, Senior, what is the price? Or, what do you want me to do?"

"It's simple. Find out the source of everything, explore and uncover the mystery, become an investigator of this abnormal world, and survive."

(End of this chapter)