I Am an Emperor in a World of Mixed Anime

"No."

Sato gave a wry smile, took out his tablet and pulled up some data: "Mr. Higashino, as you know, Tokyo is incredibly expensive; large tracts of land with clear ownership and no vacancy are extremely rare. Even if they exist, they are mostly undeveloped commercial plots, and the prices..."

He swiped the screen to show information on several plots of land located in relatively remote areas, and the price figures behind them were indeed astronomical for Akira Higashino at the moment.

"Without bank financing, it would be quite difficult to acquire a large area of ​​land in Tokyo with only 70 million yen in cash."

As for areas outside Tokyo, which are not their company's main business, they couldn't just turn away big clients who came knocking on their door, so Sato naturally didn't mention it. Besides, if they turned away some rural land, people might think their company lacked strength.

"What about properties with land ownership? It doesn't matter if they're a bit old."

"Yes, yes, there are plenty of resources in each district. Take a look." Sato swiped a few times on the tablet and brought up a large number of real estate resources for Higashino Akira to look up.

Higashino Akira flipped through the pages in silence, his brows furrowing involuntarily.

It's still too expensive. Whether it's land or property with land ownership, the prices are not cheap.

The main issue is his current situation; without sufficient assets or proof of stable income, it would be difficult for him to obtain a bank loan to buy a house.

Seventy million yen could buy a house in a relatively underdeveloped area outright, but the size would likely be limited; many properties wouldn't even be half the size of the detached house left by the old man.

From this perspective, Old Deng was already quite successful, able to buy a house in Tokyo with the land title outright, and even after his death, he still had a considerable amount of cash in his bank account.

"Are there any cheaper options?"

“Uh…” Sato seemed a little embarrassed. “Mr. Higashino, the price I showed you is already the most reasonable price for a normal property. Even other companies would find it difficult to offer a more favorable price. However, since you are paying in full in cash, if you decide to buy, I can try to find the owner to negotiate the price down a little, which would be a small discount.”

“Normal real estate…” Higashino Akira suddenly raised an eyebrow and asked, “Are there any abnormal properties?”

"Abnormal properties are basically foreclosed properties with unclear ownership, or properties where tenants cannot be evicted, or haunted houses."

Haunted house!

Upon hearing this word, Akira Higashino's eyes lit up as he realized what it meant.

As part of the East Asian cultural sphere, Japan also has many taboos regarding life and death. Therefore, houses where people have died are often less popular and harder to find buyers, and their prices are naturally lower.

If you want to maximize your land and property purchases with limited funds, haunted houses and properties are undoubtedly the best choice!

As for whether it will feel unlucky?

That's all money!

"A detailed account of the haunted house."

Sato was clearly taken aback, his professional smile fading as he carefully observed Higashino Akira's expression, trying to determine whether he was joking or serious.

"Mr. Higashino, you...you're not joking, are you?"

"I'm extremely serious."

Higashino Akira leaned forward slightly, his eyes filled with longing for Fukuzawa Yukichi.

Sato's expression turned grim. He lowered his voice as if he had a toothache, and said with a sincere tone but also a hint of admonition, "Mr. Higashino, in our line of work, there are some houses that we really can't recommend to clients casually. It's not about the price; the fact that such a house can't be sold at such a low price means trouble in itself."

"Not all properties can be considered haunted houses, because most are just houses where accidents have occurred. After the price is reduced to a certain extent, they can usually be sold quickly and held by subsequent owners for a long time."

“Properties that have been sitting in our real estate agency for a long time and have not been sold or have been sold but quickly resold often mean that multiple owners have experienced misfortune after moving in. These are the properties that are truly defined as haunted houses.”

"There are some things that science cannot yet clearly discover or give a reasonable explanation for, but we should adopt the attitude of 'better safe than sorry'."

“I understand.” Higashino Akira nodded, not backing down because of Sato’s words. “Don’t worry, Sato-san. My main purpose in buying the house is investment. I may not actually live there.”

Sato looked at Higashino Akira's calm yet persistent gaze, hesitated for a long time, and finally, perhaps out of professional ethics or because he didn't want to give up on a potential client, he sighed: "Since you insist, I do have information on a few properties like that, with prices that are unbelievably low, but those properties... I don't even recommend that you go inside to see them. Just look at the surroundings from the outside."

"Thank you for your trouble." Higashino Akira stood up.

Sato looked at the young client in front of him, who exuded a strange sense of confidence, and finally nodded: "Okay, please come with me, my car is parked outside."

The first property is located in a residential area outside the Tokyo metropolitan area, about an hour's drive away. It is a rather large two-story house, with the total area including the yard approaching 200 square meters.

The price is only 30 million yen, which can be considered a tearful clearance sale starting from the lowest possible price.

After only looking around from the outside and seeing that the building was in pretty good condition and not much different from the details given by the real estate agency, Higashino Akira heeded the advice and didn't insist on going inside to see the details. After all, he didn't live here, and commuting was too time-consuming. The greatest value of this house to him was the land it was on.

"Sato-san, this is the one. Including the other two properties, it'll be a total of 60 million yen. I'll take it all."

"Mr. Higashino, are you really not going to reconsider?"

"Need not."

"Then please remember, Mr. Higashino, that you must not stay there. If possible, it would be best to avoid even getting close to it."

Higashino Akira smiled and nodded in agreement, while also asking Sato to help keep an eye out for other inexpensive haunted houses so that he could raise funds to purchase more later.

Even after the contract was signed and the payment process was completed, Sato couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy when he looked at the young man in the prime of his life.

[Affected by negative energy, automatic defense triggered, Qi protection in effect, Qi -1000]

Akira Higashino: No, bro...it's a real haunted house!

Chapter Ten: I Picked Up a Cat

I'm truly speechless; these old fogies!

Can you please stop ruining the crossover worldviews of slice-of-life anime?!

After leaving the agency, Higashino Akira walked into a small park, found a bench, sat down, and opened the system panel.

[Emperor: Akira Higashino]

[Spirit: 9]

[Constitution: 6]

[Fortune: Red (3300)]

[Authority: Astrological observation, imperial decree]

[Land area: 523.6 square meters]

[Harem: 1]

Good news! A new function for improving luck has been developed.

The bad news is that it was triggered passively after the ghost encounter.

Moreover, the automatic defense deducts 1000 units of luck each time, which is far too much for Higashino Akira to withstand more than a few times.

All we know is that the opponent attacked and was then defended against, but we have no idea whether the opponent will attack again, how long it will take, or the exact frequency of the attacks.

A son of a wealthy family should not sit under a dangerous roof.

[As the emperor, please assemble a guard of at least ten men within three days to protect you. Reward: +1000 luck points per day, 100 elite Imperial Guards]

Following the first attack, a new system mission was also triggered.

However, this reward...

The system, which I used to enjoy for its fast and convenient interface, now feels a bit outdated in terms of design and updates.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard is good at beating people, but it might be a bit difficult to deal with ghosts.

Higashino Akira closed the system panel, sat quietly in thought for a long time, took out his phone, found the number at the top of the call log, and made a call.

"Mr. Moshimoshi Higashino, is there something you forgot to tell me?"

"Sato-san, I'd like to ask, since those haunted houses are so ominous, did any accidents happen when your company owned them before?"

"Yes, but the company consulted with professionals in the relevant field in time, so there were no serious casualties. Since then, we have stopped going into those kinds of houses and places. This was also based on the advice of professionals."

"Regarding professionals, could you please provide me with their contact information, Mr. Sato?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. "Mr. Higashino, has something bad happened?"

"Just in case." Higashino Akira didn't tell the truth, after all, Sato was just an ordinary real estate agent, and knowing too much about this kind of thing wouldn't do him any good.

"I understand. I will ask the president for the professional's contact information and then send it to Mr. Higashino."

After the call ended, a few minutes later, a text message was sent to Akira Higashino's phone containing a phone number and a bank account number.

After Akira Higashino dialed the number, it rang for a long time before being answered. The voice on the other end was that of a sleepy young woman.

"Who is it? What do you want? Speak quickly."

"Hello, I got your contact information from a real estate agency. I would like to ask you about whether there will be any negative effects after buying a haunted house, and if so, what should be done."

"Of course there are. Otherwise, why would they be called haunted houses? The way to deal with them is to stay away from them. Just don't buy them just because they're cheap, and don't live in them either!"

"If you've already bought the ticket but haven't been inside, yet you're still being targeted, is there a way to handle this situation?"

"Uh, wait a minute, let me think about it..."

On the other end of the phone, the person's voice, which had been sleepy, suddenly became much more alert. Then, there was no reply for a long time. The only sounds on the phone were the rustling of blankets being piled up as they got out of bed and the sound of them scratching their head vigorously.

After a long pause, "That house in Gunma?"

"Ah."

Where are you? Are you doing alright?

"It seems that the other party has already launched an attack on me, but because I am special and have something that can prevent such things from getting close, it was blocked."

"Ah!" someone exclaimed on the other end of the phone. "Can this really be blocked?"

"Could I ask about the procedures for handling this situation?"

"Well... if it's based on my personal ability, no."

"When this property was listed with the real estate agency before?"

"You said it yourself, it's registered with the company, not with an individual. The company and the person are different entities."

"Will the attack continue?"

“That kind of thing is different from ordinary haunted houses. Ordinary haunted houses are just haunted houses where the residents are unfriendly and do not welcome outsiders. That house itself is very unfriendly and evil. Moreover, it holds grudges indiscriminately. Once it has its eye on you, the attacks will not stop no matter what.”

Akira Higashino was silent for a moment, "Is there absolutely no way?"

"If you really have a way to deflect His attacks, then stay as far away as possible, the further away the better. That way, the intervals between His attacks will be longer. Never go near Gunma, that's about it."

"If I settled in the Tokyo metropolitan area, how many times a day would I be contacted?"

"At this distance, it's hard to say once or twice. As long as you don't deliberately go near Him to provoke Him, it shouldn't escalate for no reason."

"Okay, I understand. Thank you for your help."

"Okay, that's fine. Don't even think about reselling the house or finding another company to put it under. People who have been targeted can't escape."