On his first day at work, the curator collapsed in front of him.
Wen Yan had never imagined he would encounter such a situation before.
He quickly calmed down. He recalled the curator's words before he fell and considered how to deal with the situation. He didn't dare to rashly lift the curator. Instead, he extended a hand to check his carotid artery. Confirming the curator wasn't dead, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Then he bent down, supported the curator under his armpits, and dragged him out backward while tilting his head to make a phone call on his mobile.
After retreating less than two meters, he heard someone shout from behind him.
"Wen Yan."
He looked back, but there was nobody there.
Following that, he saw something at the end of the long corridor. In the reflection of the double-sided mirror at the entrance, a skeleton, seemingly covered in wax, was rapidly pouncing toward him.
In the blink of an eye, he vaguely saw a desiccated corpse, like a skeleton coated in a layer of wax, was face to face with him.
After the desiccated corpse had pounced on him, he only felt a chill from head to toe, and then watched as the desiccated corpse passed through his body like a phantom.
The desiccated corpse paused, seemingly surprised, then turned around and pounced on the unconscious curator.
A flicker of light flashed on the curator's body, and the ill-fitting suit tore open in several places, revealing stacks of old Large Bills inside.
Every time the desiccated corpse touched the curator, Wen Yan vaguely saw a layer of faint light flash, repelling it.
Seeing this eerie scene, Wen Yan's heartbeat sped up madly. Yet, an inexplicable sense of realization, mixed with the panic he felt when faced with the bizarre, washed over him.
At least, looking at the Large Bills packed seamlessly in the lining of the curator's suit, he understood that the curator was definitely not hiding personal money.
No wonder the first rule in the employee manual was not to tell ghost stories. So it was true!
Turns out, money has this kind of use too!
His head filled with a mixture of amazement, panic, realization, and excitement. His heartbeat, initially frenzied, slowly calmed. He even felt a bit eager to try something.
As the wax-coated corpse phantom lunged at the curator again, Wen Yan thought of his dream.
If what was happening before his eyes was true, then that ability he had wasn't fake, right?
After a moment's thought, he pointed at the corpse phantom and shouted out.
"I am Your Dad."
The next moment, a piece of information emerged in his mind.
"First Inherent Ability 'I am Your Dad,' current progress 1%."
At the same time, the corpse phantom paused, slowly turned its head, and looked at Wen Yan.
The flickering, blurred phantom in Wen Yan's eyes rapidly solidified, transforming into a fearsome and terrifying wax-coated corpse.
Two red lights suddenly ignited in the shriveled eye sockets of the desiccated corpse, and its rigid face trembled, morphing into berserk ferocity.
Accompanied by low, guttural sounds of 'GHRR... GHRR...', the corpse phantom's speed increased once more, directly colliding with Wen Yan.
Wen Yan only felt a chill far stronger than the first time surface, as the corpse phantom passed through him again.
Turning around, he saw the corpse phantom. It seemed to have lost all reason, its eyes flashing red as it attacked like a wild beast, continuously lunging and tearing.
Wen Yan couldn't touch the corpse phantom, and the corpse phantom couldn't touch Wen Yan.
He stood still, watching the frenzied corpse phantom continuously raging, shivering uncontrollably.
"I'm not the one who killed your father. Every debt has its debtor, you..."
Upon hearing the key word "father," the corpse phantom became even more frantic, as if determined to shred Wen Yan to pieces.
Wen Yan wanted to run, but his body felt frozen stiff and numb, and his face turned deathly pale.
The good news was that he really had a special ability. But the bad news was that this ability didn't seem to be what he understood it to be. It seemed he had completely angered this corpse phantom, which was now acting like a madman, hell-bent on smashing him to bits.
A few minutes later, the curator slowly regained consciousness. Upon opening his eyes, he saw Wen Yan, pale-faced with dark circles under his eyes, shaking uncontrollably. The corpse phantom was frantically attacking Wen Yan but couldn't even touch a hair on his head.
Even when the curator awakened, the corpse phantom didn't spare him a glance.
The curator barely opened his eyes, warily scanning his surroundings, and sighed at the odd situation before him.
"Capsized in the gutter, how humiliating."
He looked down at his torn suit, took it off, and as the corpse phantom lunged out again, he threw the suit at it.
The suit spun around, wrapping the desiccated corpse. Faint light flickered frequently on the suit, as the desiccated corpse's form twisted and trembled as if being electrocuted.
But its eyes were still staring at Wen Yan, completely ignoring the curator.
Watching the luminescence on the suit fade rapidly, the curator's face grew stern.
"Lure it inside, quickly."
As soon as the curator spoke, Wen Yan immediately thought of the curator's collapse earlier.
Was there something inside that could make the curator collapse and also make this desiccated corpse collapse?
He did want to run, but he felt so cold and numb that he couldn't even start running.
"I... I'm almost frozen stiff..."
He shuffled his feet shiveringly, as the desiccated corpse twitched as if electrified, still pursuing him relentlessly as if facing its father's killer.
The curator walked behind the desiccated corpse, swung his hand mightily, and struck the suit. This wrapped the desiccated corpse's illusion in the suit and sent it flying toward Wen Yan.
Wen Yan watched as the suit with the desiccated corpse inside flew towards him, gritted his teeth, and reached out his arms to embrace it.
The curator followed closely, stepped forward, and kicked Wen Yan in the buttocks.
With the help of the momentum, Wen Yan rolled on the spot, tumbling with the suit inward.
But after rolling out only two meters, he saw the frenzied illusion of the desiccated corpse vanish into a wisp of light smoke, leaving only the suit falling on the ground.
At this moment, the surroundings slightly distorted, and Wen Yan saw a line on the ground, which had moved two meters towards him from the end of the corridor.
The suit had fallen behind the line.
"Xiao Wen, do me a favor and bring my coat over."
"Oh..."
Wen Yan picked up the curator's suit.
The curator stared at the ground. Seeing Wen Yan cross the line with no reaction, he couldn't help but smile.
Having retrieved his suit, the curator didn't put it on but folded it up, hiding the Large Bills that were now exposed.
Before Wen Yan, full of questions, could ask anything, the curator went to the front of the line.
"Capsized in the gutter. I didn't expect this thing to get in here and use such deceiving Illusion Techniques. I was planning on telling you these things later, as they're part of the job requirements. Behind this line lies the Old Ice Warehouse, and except for Old Wang who's the night watch, no one is allowed to enter. Otherwise, anyone who crosses the line will pass out. You young people have a strong ability to adapt, so you should understand what I'm saying, right?"
"I understand," Wen Yan nodded repeatedly.
After all that had happened, Wen Yan wouldn't be surprised if the curator claimed to be some reclusive expert, a Maoshan Sect Disciple, or a Lin Family Heir.
Moreover, he felt that it might be best to thoroughly memorize the employee handbook as soon as possible, ideally word for word, making it second nature.
"Are you wondering why you didn't pass out?"
"Yes."
"In old terms, you're a person without a Soul, yet still alive. According to the tales, this means your Soul is completely merged with your body and cannot be separated. It's roughly equivalent to being born without a 'seat' for the Soul. Thus, there's no seat to be taken from you. Get it?"
"Got it."
Wen Yan felt a twinge of disappointment inside. He probably understood now. Yesterday, after meeting just a few people and asking some simple questions, he had been immediately taken to sign a bunch of documents and rushed into employment.
It wasn't his credentials that were impressive, nor was it because this place was short on staff and desperate to hire just about anyone.
The curator gave a few more instructions, noticing that Wen Yan was still shivering.
"Let's leave the rest for later. Go outside and bask in the Sun. There's not much for you to do these few days; just get familiar with the surroundings and bask in the Sun. Today's events will be considered a work injury, so you'll get compensation."
Wen Yan shiveringly left the old building. Outside, the Sun had fully risen; he sat on a chair in the courtyard, feeling the warmth of the Sun and gradually feeling a bit warmer.
His mind incessantly revisited what had just transpired and everything that had happened over the last couple of days. He felt that the world might really be different from what he had always thought.
It turns out that there really are mysteries—strange things.
Is it because the danger here is actually very high that the organization recruits new people every year, offering high bonuses and good benefits?
「Inside the old building.」
The curator walked up to the mirror at the entrance and tapped the mirror surface forcefully with his finger.
The curator's image in the mirror immediately changed its expression.
"Don't... don't, Old He, be gentle, or you might break it with a harder knock."
"When did this thing sneak in here? And it even cast an Illusion Technique here, tricking me into crossing the line. Old Wang, you're not doing a good job guarding this place! If it weren't for my luck this year in finding Xiao Wen, I might have really capsized in the gutter. My rotting body would then be laughed at for decades."
"I truly didn't know. I can swear, during my year here, nothing ever got past me into this place."
The curator nodded thoughtfully.
"That's also true. No one has approached the Old Ice Warehouse this year. It's possible that this thing has been hiding here, waiting for an opportunity for a year."
The curator shook his head, not bothering to continue the conversation. He looked at his suit and muttered as he walked away.
"Capsized in the gutter. Alas, this coat was expensive... Alas..."
In the courtyard, Wen Yan basked in the Sun, still digesting the information. He adapted quickly and even felt it was more normal for such incidents to occur here.
He pondered over the curator's words about the person without a Soul and thought about his dreams.
Was he the one without a Soul, his Soul devoured by the Soul Devouring Beast?