58. Making Full Use of Pawns

How could it be that no matter how many shots he fired, not a single bullet hit its mark? Even a blind cat catches a dead mouse sometimes, and he had fired thousands of rounds by now. There was only one explanation—the healing game had imposed a restriction on players! Players could play with guns in the game, but the weapons were merely ornamental in their hands.

This made Chen Sheng curse inwardly.

The little ghost girl, however, couldn't quite understand his reasoning. She pondered for a moment, finally grasping his meaning, and instantly assigned Chen Sheng a new label—shameless.

His marksmanship was simply abysmal!

Rolling her eyes internally, she looked at Chen Sheng and asked, "So what do we do now? Should we rush in, or try poisoning and assassination?"

As she spoke, her gaze drifted toward the execution device that always followed Chen Sheng—a crude gallows lurking in the darkness, constantly radiating its influence.

Ordinary ghosts couldn't approach; the mysterious force from the gallows would distort their senses, rendering them unable to perceive or even see it. Only ghosts close to becoming fiends could resist this influence. Yet even resistance meant discomfort, and the little ghost girl felt uneasy just by being near it.

"We should observe here first, figure out how many people are inside, then make a detailed plan," Chen Sheng decided, preferring strategy over blind action. He didn’t know how many NPCs his "beginner equipment" could handle at once, and when he fired earlier, several people tried to charge out despite the threat of stray bullets. Clearly, those were "elite monsters"!

The presence of elite monsters meant only one thing—the villa ahead was a small dungeon, and inside, surely, there was a boss-level wild monster.

Chen Sheng wasn’t afraid, but he didn’t want to suddenly hear, "The moon waxes and wanes, hero, please start again from the beginning."

"In that case, we don’t need to observe here—we just need a basin," the little ghost girl responded immediately.

"A basin?"

Chen Sheng was puzzled.

Seeing his confusion, the little ghost girl snorted, her lips curling into a smile. "Just wait!"

This was her specialty!

Soon, she returned, actually carrying a basin she had found nearby. It looked old, and unsurprisingly, it was a foot-washing basin.

Inside the water floated crescent-shaped toenail clippings and what appeared to be bits of foot grime...

Besides that, the water was still steaming.

"Where did you get this?" Chen Sheng couldn’t help but ask.

"I saw someone finish washing their feet, so I brought it out..." The little ghost girl pointed toward a distant house, its lights still on. A silhouette paced back and forth by the window, likely searching for the suddenly missing basin.

Chen Sheng: "..."

He looked at her oddly. "Why did you steal someone’s foot-washing water?"

"You said you wanted to know how many people were inside, didn’t you?"

"And what does this basin..." Chen Sheng was about to retort, when suddenly, figures appeared in the water. Several were dressed as police officers, and among them he spotted his "friend NPC," the police station’s intermediate officer, Yan Shidong.

Chen Sheng’s eyes widened. After watching for a while, he turned to ask the little ghost girl, "What are they saying?"

The basin only showed silhouettes, not voices. It was like watching a silent film.

"No idea!" She shook her head like a rattle.

Chen Sheng: "..."

The more he looked at her, the more she seemed like a fake NPC! Usually, when players asked questions, no matter how illogical, NPCs would have answers, right?

Well, this healing game was as meticulous as ever...

Chen Sheng grumbled inwardly, then asked aloud, "Don’t you know lip-reading?"

"Why should I know lip-reading?" She looked at him, puzzled. Did ghosts nowadays need to be fluent in all languages?

This hit the mark, so Chen Sheng declined to answer.

"Can you shift the scene in the basin to inside the villa? I want to see my true enemy, not Yan Shidong and the others."

"Sure!" she replied. The scene in the basin immediately changed.

It was a lavish room, more luxurious than any five-star hotel Chen Sheng had ever visited. Everything from the furniture to the decor exuded grandeur.

Chen Sheng couldn’t help but marvel again at the game’s meticulous designers. He vowed that one day, he would loudly praise their attention to detail in the bathhouse—anything less would be a disservice to his conscience.

Then, he saw a young man’s silhouette.

With a single glance, Chen Sheng recognized him. He matched the image from that yellow paper exactly, except now he was bald.

Ling Tianquan!

Chen Sheng shifted his gaze to the young woman before Ling Tianquan, and his brows furrowed.

After a moment, he spoke, "That girl—isn’t human?"

Chen Sheng couldn’t pinpoint why, but he sensed something off about her; every movement was tinged with an eerie quality. The feeling was baseless, much like how he could remain calm before beautiful women.

"Yes! She must be the fiend this man keeps," the little ghost girl nodded.

"Is this fiend powerful? Compared to you?" Chen Sheng asked. He wanted to know if they faced two bosses or just one.

"Of course she’s not as strong as me!" The little ghost girl lifted her face, displeased.

She was only a step away from becoming a true fiend. If only she could do arithmetic beyond counting on her fingers, she would have performed the ritual and proven her worth to the world long ago, joining the ranks of the fiends—maybe even earning a place on the list!

A fiend bound to a living person had no right to compare to her.

Chen Sheng nodded. Since this "tool NPC" wasn’t as strong, Ling Tianquan must be the real boss, and the strange girl was just an elite monster.

With that in mind, Chen Sheng made his decision. "Master, let’s sneak in together. You take on Ling Tianquan, and I’ll deal with the ghost girl. What do you think?"

A tool must be put to full use! Let her handle the toughest enemy!