Chapter 5

That night, news spread among the residents that the new administrator would begin promoting the construction of a shop street within the realm of urban legends.

Yu Xing was in high spirits, planning in her mind the items and tools she would need for exploring the urban legends before going to sleep.

Exploring urban legends was different from conquering them; it was akin to conducting a preliminary survey before opening a store.

Relatively speaking, it was less dangerous than conquering urban legends, and the apartment manager had promised to provide Yu Xing with assistants and bodyguards.

Yu Xing needed to conduct an on-site investigation of the internal structure, the governing rules, and the monster roaming mechanisms of the urban legend realm, and acquire a business license from the domain master. This would count as completing half of the preliminary preparations.

When Yu Xing had worked as a logistics assistant at the Urban Legend Research Institute, her duties had included this kind of work, but back then she could only analyze through scarce documentation and rare footage.

Now, finally, she could enter the urban legend realm herself.

Like a primary school student before a field trip, Yu Xing found it hard to contain her excitement, her mind wandering wildly late into the night before she finally drifted into a fatigued sleep.

In the middle of the night, Yu Xing was awakened by a foul stench. She opened her eyes and reached out to turn on the bedside night lamp.

The stark white light pierced the darkness. Resident 444 was crouched beside the bed, waterweed-like long hair draping over Yu Xing’s face and neck. 444’s mouth was sewn shut with black thread, resembling a gruesome scar, as they leaned close to Yu Xing’s eyes.

“Kukuku—”

Though their mouth could not open, 444 emitted an eerie laugh.

Their pitch-black pupils were vacant and lifeless, without any whites, staring at Yu Xing with near spiteful resentment.

Yu Xing sat up, and without even glancing under the pillow, she knew what mischief 444 had been up to again.

She raised her hand to massage her brow, exhausted: “Coming over in the middle of the night—what’s going on?”

250 and 444 often visited Yu Xing’s room.

250 liked to talk about love but never for long. Every time a breakup happened, 250 would hide under Yu Xing’s bed, shedding blood-like tears while clutching a cursed doll.

444 could not speak. According to 250, 444 had a shy personality and led a miserable life before becoming an urban legend, leaving them trapped in unresolved regrets from their previous life. Whenever they felt down, they would slip their complaints under Yu Xing’s pillow.

The phenomenon of urban legends had only existed for barely twenty years—quite young compared to the long history of human civilization.

About ten years ago, someone had successfully brought out an ancient artifact from a relic urban legend.

Though many mysteries still surrounded these ancient relics, it had been widely confirmed that implanting them into the human body could grant supernatural abilities.

For people like Yu Xing, who were unaltered humans, implanting the right relic could potentially evolve them to possess such abilities.

The appearance of ancient relics in the modern world had sparked a widespread obsession with urban legends.

Since then, more and more people had become obsessed with studying, researching, and attempting to conquer urban legends.

In recent years, there had been many breakthroughs in researching the origins of urban legends, which were now classified into four major categories: natural urban legends, cultural urban legends, relic urban legends, and man-made urban legends.

From 250’s tone, 444 seemed to be a man-made urban legend.

Yu Xing had an idea: for her first exploration, she would enter 444’s urban legend realm and quickly open a shop there to distract 444’s attention. Keeping them busy would leave no time for melancholy and reduce disturbances to her sleep.

The next morning, Yu Xing followed her usual routine—brewing coffee and bringing breakfast to the administrator’s office.

The job of the dormitory administrator was actually quite dull, especially since residents were not allowed to leave during the day. Yu Xing’s mornings were leisurely, with only meal collection around noon and package pickup in the afternoon.

Yu Xing had once wondered if simple tasks like meal and package collection really required human labor, since robots could easily handle them.

Later, she understood: the cheapest domestic robots on the market cost at least a million star coins. A robot capable of meeting the needs of all the apartment residents would have to be highly intelligent, costing at least three million star coins.

Compared to spending three million star coins all at once on a robot, raising less than twenty thousand star coins a month for such tasks was much more manageable.

Yu Xing ate a beef pie for breakfast.

She had purchased a large quantity of semi-prepared food from nearby supermarkets to store in the fridge, allowing her to enjoy warm meals both morning and evening.

Semi-prepared food was not as delicious as fresh vegetables and meat, and it cost slightly more than nutrient liquid. Its advantages and disadvantages lay somewhere in between: cheaper than fresh ingredients but tastier than nutrient liquid.

Cooking semi-prepared food was relatively easy and quick.

Yu Xing had always disliked nutrient liquid—though it was filling, it lacked the satisfaction of enjoying real food.

Having worked for years, she had learned to improve semi-prepared dishes enough to get by.

As she bit into the crispy, juicy pie, she saw Yan Zhen walking a dog around the corridor corner.

Yan Zhen stopped at the inquiry window and spoke to Yu Xing through the glass: “This is Mu Ren, your partner.”

Mu Ren was the dog’s name.

Yu Xing had seen this dog before—the border collie waiting for her by the elevator on the first day she went to the fifteenth floor to meet the apartment manager.

Yu Xing stood up: “His name is Mu Ren?”

What a fitting name for an ancient breed from Old Blue Star.

So full of dreams.

Yan Zhen said, “Yes. Mu Ren has no domain, so he can accompany you when exploring residents’ realms without facing intense rejection. He’s smart and strong enough to protect you.”

Yu Xing lowered her gaze to meet Mu Ren’s eyes, then looked away after a moment. “Just me and Mu Ren?”

Yan Zhen replied, “I’ll send you the residents’ information later. Whether you need to hire a bodyguard depends on which residents you plan to visit.”

After all, hiring a bodyguard externally was costly. The apartment manager was already nearly drained financially, so adding a bodyguard would be especially burdensome.

Yu Xing said, “I’ll review the info. I’ve already decided on the first urban legend realm to explore.”

Yan Zhen was surprised: “Who? Which realm?”

Yu Xing: “Resident 444’s.”

Yan Zhen: “Her? Are you sure?”

Yu Xing: “What’s wrong with that?”

Yan Zhen explained, “Although 444 hasn’t been listed in the high-risk urban legend registry yet, she’s very strong. With your current mental and physical stats, you definitely can’t resist her contamination.”

In recent years, researchers graded urban legends by their level of danger.

There were nine levels in total: levels one to three involved bloodshed and horror, with monsters primarily killing humans; levels four to eight dealt with realms whose rules centered on destroying human mental willpower, rated even higher than pure killing threats.

In this era dominated by mental value as a measure of capability, mental demise was far more terrifying than physical harm.

Yu Xing had never even accessed information about level nine urban legends and could not guess their criteria.

Urban legends rated five and above were classified as high risk; 444, though unlisted, was at least level five or higher.

Man-made level five urban legends were indeed terrifying.

Yu Xing said, “The apartment manager’s rating should be even higher than 444’s. Since he can protect me from mental contamination in his own realm, couldn’t he give me a few powerful tools?”

She didn’t want to come home after work to find her bed stuffed with complaints again, nor be woken by foul odors in the middle of the night. It disrupted her mood and sleep quality too much.

Yan Zhen was at a loss for words.

In fact, since Yu Xing had entered Velvet Apartment, she had been continually subjected to mental contamination from the apartment manager.

Not only her—the residents had also been influenced and assimilated by the manager’s presence.

Domain masters who wielded immense power and madness within their urban legends appeared as ordinary humans in the apartment, maintaining a strange semblance of rationality.

Half of the residents came voluntarily; the other half had special reasons.

But this new administrator was different from all previous domain masters and administrators. She maintained a high degree of rationality consistent with the apartment manager, yet it did not seem to come from mental contamination.

Previously, administrators with high mental values hired at great cost would become alienated and lose their human form within a week.

Yu Xing had only a B-level mental value, and before officially starting, Yan Zhen had not expected her to last so long in the apartment manager’s realm, appearing completely normal.

Yan Zhen was silent for a moment, then kindly replied, “I’ll ask the apartment manager.”

The apartment manager was usually busy, and Yu Xing did not disturb him without cause.

Yan Zhen was the only resident besides Yu Xing with electronic communication means.

He was the apartment manager’s assistant, responsible for trivial matters in the apartment, including contacting the manager.

During lunch break, Yan Zhen returned to the administrator’s office to inform Yu Xing that both the apartment manager and resident 444 had agreed to her exploring 444’s realm.

The apartment manager had also provided an extra twenty thousand star coins to hire a bodyguard experienced in conquering urban legends. The two were to meet in the Ninth Star District.

Before leaving, Yan Zhen took a silver-white necklace from a compartment on his chest. Hanging from the chain was a strange pendant—a green hemispherical shape adorned with numerous swollen white flower buds, clustered densely.

Yan Zhen handed the necklace to Yu Xing: “This is a protective talisman from the apartment manager and also the temporary key to enter and exit the resident’s realm.”

Yu Xing had three chances to enter 444’s realm. If she failed to obtain a business license from the domain master within those three explorations, she would never be able to enter 444’s domain again as the apartment administrator, let alone open a shop there.

Yu Xing weighed the necklace in her hand; it was quite substantial. She casually slipped it into her pocket and looked up at Yan Zhen: “I’m going to the Ninth Star District. What about my administrator duties?”

Yan Zhen said matter-of-factly, “I’ll cover for you a few days. Time flows differently inside the domains; three exploration chances are enough for your initial survey. But you have a maximum of five days—if you can’t make it, then give up.”

Yan Zhen didn’t understand why the apartment manager had agreed to the administrator’s proposal to build a shop street within the urban legend realms.

They weren’t human—why imitate human lifestyles?

Yan Zhen didn’t know what the apartment manager was thinking, nor could he foresee the future of the urban legend shop street. He didn’t want to discourage the administrator; once she had entered a realm, she would realize how naive and laughable her proposal was.

Moreover, Yu Xing’s choice to explore resident 444’s realm was tantamount to courting death.

Failing the exploration would be one thing—she might not even be able to escape 444’s domain safely.

Perhaps it was time to start looking for a new apartment administrator.