I became the emperor in the comic book series.

"No need for formalities. It's already this late, let's eat first. I brought you breakfast, Kongming."

Higashino Akira handed over the packed breakfast and casually placed the other packages on the bed, opening them one by one. "This is a cell phone, a tool used to communicate with each other in this era. You can think of it as a carrier pigeon, but it has more functions and is more convenient. I will teach Kongming how to use it later, as well as two sets of clothes."

Kongming, holding the lunchbox, asked, "Does my lord have something to do next?"

"Go and expand our territory."

"A war is brewing?"

“No, that’s too barbaric.” Higashino Akira shook his head. “We’ll buy it with money.”

"..."

Even a wise strategist like Zhuge Liang was momentarily taken aback and remained silent for a long time.

"Then shall I accompany my lord?"

"No need. I have other plans for Kongming. There will be many areas where Kongming will need to exert his efforts in the future. Before I need Kongming to come out of seclusion, Kongming just needs to wait patiently."

Chapter Nine is not a buddy...

At the language school, Akira Higashino brought Kongming here and enrolled him.

Learn two languages: modern simplified Chinese characters and Japanese.

Looking at Kongming, who was sitting upright in the classroom in a long robe, with a feather fan and a silk scarf, surrounded by a group of junior and senior high school students, Higashino Akira nodded in satisfaction.

I have to learn Japanese, since we're practically deep behind enemy lines, and not being able to speak the language won't do.

At noon, Higashino Akira met up with the real estate agent at the place he had arranged beforehand, where the agent had been waiting for a long time.

The agent was a man in his thirties, dressed in a well-tailored suit, named Sato Masahiko. He was already waiting at the agreed-upon coffee shop. When he saw Higashino Akira, he warmly greeted him and exchanged business cards.

After exchanging pleasantries, Sato got straight to the point: "Mr. Higashino, you mentioned on the phone that you wanted to look at land or properties with larger plots of land. I wonder what your specific budget and size requirements are?"

"A budget of 70 million is needed initially, but it can be paid in installments. The larger the area, the better." Higashino Akira accepted the coffee from the waiter, his tone calm.

“Seventy million…” Sato thought for a moment, then asked, “Is there a bank loan available?”

"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 are extremely rare. Even if they exist, they are mostly undeveloped commercial land, and the prices are..."

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

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

As for areas outside Tokyo, which are not the 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 pushed 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 amount of real estate information for Higashino Akira to review.

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 that given his current situation, without sufficient assets or proof of stable income, it would be difficult for him to obtain a loan from a bank to buy a house.

Seventy million yen could buy a house in a relatively underdeveloped area outright, but the area would likely be quite small, and many properties would be less than half the size of the detached house left by the old man.

Judging from this, Old Deng was already doing quite well. He was 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 cash in full, if you decide to buy, I can try to find the owner to negotiate the price down a bit, as a small discount.”

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

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

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 in smaller markets 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 Akira paused for a moment, 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."

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

Sato's expression turned grim. He lowered his voice as if he had a toothache and advised in a condescending tone, "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 a house like that can't be sold at such a low price is itself a problem."

"Not all properties can become haunted houses, because most of them are just houses where accidents have happened. After the price is reduced to a certain extent, they can usually be sold quickly and held by the 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 that have been sold but quickly resold, often mean that multiple owners have encountered misfortune after purchasing and moving in. These are the properties that are truly defined as haunted houses.”

"Although science cannot yet clearly discover and provide a reasonable explanation for some things, 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 in it.”

Sato looked at Higashino Akira's calm yet persistent gaze, hesitated for a while, and finally, perhaps out of professional ethics, or perhaps 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 these, 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 help." Higashino Akira stood up.

Sato looked at the young client in front of him, who exuded a strangely composed air, 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.

As for the price, it can be bought outright for a mere 30 million yen, which can be considered a tearful clearance sale starting from the ankle.

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 took 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's a total of 60 million. I'll take it all."

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

"Need not."

"Then please remember, Mr. Higashino, that you should never move in. If possible, it would be best to avoid even getting close to it."

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

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

[Attacked by negative energy, triggering automatic defense; the gas level in the body is -1000]

Akira Higashino: No, bro... you're a real nerdy geek!

Chapter Ten: I Picked Up a Cat

I'm truly speechless at this group of old fogies!

Can you please stop ruining the world-building of slice-of-life anime?

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

[Emperor: Akira Higashino]

[Spirit: 9]

[Constitution: 6]

[3300 units of air-cooled lipstick]

[Authority: Aura observation, imperial decree]

[Land area: 523.6 square meters]

[Harem: 1]

Good news! Another new type of gas-operated male deer has been developed.

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

Furthermore, the automatic defense deducts 1000 air units per use, which is currently the most advanced air defense system available.

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

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

[As Emperor, please assemble a guard of at least ten men within three days to protect you. A reward of +1000 points will be given for each day of service, and 100 points for each elite guard.]

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

However, this reward...

The system, which I used to enjoy using with its staggered speeds, now feels a bit outdated in terms of visual style compared to the latest version updates.

It's good for hitting people, but it might be a bit difficult to hit 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 dangerous, 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, which was also the advice of professionals."

"Regarding professionals, could you please provide me with their contact information as well, 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."

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

After Higashino dialed the number, the phone 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 consult you about whether there will be any negative effects after buying a haunted house, and if so, how to deal with it."

"Of course there are! Otherwise, why would they be called haunted houses? The best 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 item 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 heads.

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

"Ah."

"Where are you? Are you alright?"

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

"Ah!" came a gasp from the other end of the phone. "Is this even possible to block?"

"Could I ask about how to handle this situation?"

"Well... if we're talking about my personal abilities, no."

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

“You said it yourself, it’s attached to the company, not to an individual. The company and the person are different entities.”

"Will the attacks 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, then said, "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 lived in the Tokyo metropolitan area, how many times a day would I be contacted?"

"As for the distance, it's hard to say after one or two times. 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, let's leave it at that. Don't even think about reselling the house or finding another company to put it under. People who have been targeted can't escape."