Fantasy Game: Infinite City

The next morning.

Garcia, who was half asleep and half awake, heard footsteps coming from the living room. The Death Hound was still sleeping beside the bed, and the sound of a lighter appeared, which made her confirm that the voice outside was Han Zu, so Garcia turned over and continued to sleep.

"Ah..."

A few hours later, Garcia walked out of the bedroom yawning, rubbed his eyes, stretched and walked into the kitchen, took a can of coffee from the refrigerator, drank it while walking to the sofa in the living room, looked around, and did not see Han Zu.

He looked at the door and found it was still locked. It seemed that Han Zu had not gone out. There was a sound of water in the bathroom. It might be that Han Zu was taking a shower. Everything seemed normal, so Garcia picked up the tablet next to the sofa and started to check the forum of Infinite City, looking for information. It was not until noon.

"Why is he still in the bathroom?"

The sound of water in the bathroom was intermittent, and the occasional smell of cigarettes coming from the bathroom meant that Han Zu had been in there and had not come out. Garcia felt a little curious, so he walked into the bathroom to see what Han Zu was doing. As soon as he entered, he discovered a very funny scene.

Han Zu stood naked in the bathtub, holding a lit cigarette in his outstretched left hand. His face was almost pressed against the shower head. He opened his eyes and let the water wash over his entire face. After showering for a while, he turned off the shower head, lay down in the bathtub, and watched the video on the tablet on the towel rack.

Garcia was stunned when she saw this scene, and she didn't understand what happened for a long time. During this time when she was stunned, Han Zu repeated the action again.

"Is this... performance art?"

Garcia couldn't help laughing. Han Zu then noticed her, "What are you doing?" Garcia asked, trying to suppress her laughter.

"My eyes have been very dry since last night, and I'm trying to find a way to hydrate them," Han Zu said as he poured water into his eyes from a cup in the bathtub.

Garcia first returned to the living room and took out a box from the storage room, which contained some small research equipment. Then he returned to the bathroom, walked to the bathtub, squatted down, and began to check Han Zu's eyes with the equipment in his hand. However, after some examination, Garcia found that there was nothing abnormal in Han Zu's eyes.

"The reason is not clear at the moment, but it seems there should be no problem now," Garcia said.

"But I do feel very uncomfortable, as if I have been standing outside with my eyes open for a long time in a windy day." Han Zu said as he lay back down and continued to pour water into his eyes.

Garcia thought about it and asked Han Zu a question, "Is it because of the poisonous gas I created last night? After all, you inhaled all the gas later."

"It shouldn't be, at least not the root cause."

"What specific feelings do you have? For example, are your eyeballs dry, or are there discomforts around your eyes?"

"How should I put it?" Han Zu continued to pour water into his eyes, "It's like something is... uh... sucking my eyeballs? And then making them very dry? But it doesn't seem to be absorbing water. However, soaking my eyes in water does relieve a lot."

Garcia put away his equipment and thought for a moment.

"If we want to understand it, we may need more sophisticated experimental equipment. I can't do a detailed study with just these simple instruments."

"It's true that we are not short of money, but if this happens, the Infinite Company will probably know something, which is not good."

"Don't worry about that now. They should have known it. Although they don't know what it is, they know now that there is something in you that they don't understand."

"What do you mean?"

Garcia told Han Zu about the data she saw when Han Zu was in a daze yesterday in the Infinite City today.

"Well, it's okay. In fact, I have thought about this possibility a long time ago. Now that it has been confirmed, it won't have much impact. After all, even I don't fully understand all their functions. Then I will do as you say and get all the experimental equipment and devices you mentioned before at once."

"Are you sure? There are a lot of things, and even if we buy them all, there won't be any extra space in the warehouse."

"Why don't you just buy a bigger place first? It's no big deal."

"Actually, you don't have to get them all at once, you can first..."

"Well, you've already said it, it's best to finish it all at once. I don't like to drag it out too long, so I'll leave this to you. By the way, you used to do biological research, do you have any medicine that can relieve my dry eyes? Make me some first, I'll help, it's not a good idea to soak in the bathtub all the time."

"Yes, but I need them to be made fresh. By the way, is there a large flower, bird and fish market in City C? Preferably one that sells some unique species?"

"Yes, it's also in the suburbs, but it's on the other side of the city. I'll tell you the address. It's at..."

After getting the address from Han Zu, Garcia walked out of the bathroom, changed his clothes and prepared to go out. Han Zu walked out of the bathroom holding a washbasin full of cold water.

"It's winter now, are you sure you can buy what you want?"

"Try your luck. If that doesn't work, you'll just have to soak in water for now. Where did you put your car keys?"

"It's on the shoe cabinet at the door."

Garcia left the warehouse with the car keys and drove to the flower, bird and fish market. Garcia was lucky enough to find nearly 90% of the materials there. After putting the purchased materials into the trunk, Garcia recalled the steps of making the potion and found the last two missing raw materials.

"Buried fan crab... and Chinese pokeweed. Chinese pokeweed is easy to get. You should be able to buy it in a Chinese medicine store. But the buried fan crab is not so easy to get."

Garcia called Han Zu and asked where the larger Chinese medicine shops were in City C, and then asked about the buried fan crab.

"Buried fan crab? What is that? It sounds like a kind of crab?"

"Well, a kind of crab that is poisonous all over. City C is not near the sea, so I'm not sure where I can get it. If it's a coastal city, I can make some bait specifically to attract burying crabs."

"I see. Let me take care of the fan crabs. Go buy the other stuff first. Buy a house or something. It's best to get everything done at once. You can buy the equipment later."

"Well, I see."

After hanging up the phone, Garcia drove to a Chinese medicine shop and bought some Rhizoma Coptidis, then drove to some sales centers. He found a suitable house in one of the sales offices and bought the place without saying a word. However, the salesperson at the sales office looked at Garcia strangely several times when she was buying the house, and repeatedly persuaded her to change places. However, Garcia was in a hurry to go back to make medicine and didn't take it seriously at all.

Even when Garcia signed the contract, paid the money, and returned to the car with the materials, the sales office staff and even the boss chased out, trying to make Garcia change his mind. However, Garcia did not argue with them. After getting in the car, he stepped on the accelerator and left, driving quickly towards the warehouse.

Back at the warehouse, Garcia saw a large seafood box at the door. She opened the box and found several fan crabs that she wanted.

"What are you talking about... crab? Is that what it is?"

"Yes, that's it."

Without asking Han Zu how he got these burying fan crabs so quickly, Garcia took out the experimental equipment he had purchased before and began to use the materials to make medicine.

An hour later, she produced a 200 ml bottle of blue liquid and told Han Zu to put a few drops in his eyes. It should relieve the abnormality of the eyes. Han Zu did as instructed, and after a while, his eyes really felt much better. Not so dry anymore.

"What kind of magic potion is this?" Han Zu asked.

"This is something I developed myself, and it's specifically designed for desiccation caused by lack of water. But it was originally used on whales, or creatures of similar size. Sometimes we need to conduct experiments on land, but at the same time we need to ensure that they don't die from dehydration."

"Thanks, this thing is really useful."

"Luckily you are from Long Country. Your Chinese medicine has many similar things, and some are even more effective than the raw materials. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to gather all these things in such a short time. This small bottle should be enough for about a week. Oh, and I've also bought a new place to live. Here are the documents. The sales ladies in your Long Country are really weird."

"Strange? Is it because you are a foreigner but speak fluent Chinese?"

"It's not that weird, it's like they don't want me to buy it. Isn't it good to make money anyway?"

"Is it because someone said they wanted to buy that place before, but never came? Most quality builders always have some wealthy repeat customers, which is actually..."

As he spoke, Han Zu casually flipped through the documents. When he saw the builder's trademark and the location of the building purchased by Garcia, Han Zu suddenly laughed.

"What are you laughing at? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no, I was wondering, this builder is famous for its excellent service attitude in addition to its excellent construction quality. I was just wondering how this could happen. It turns out that you bought in the wrong place."

"Ah? I think the building style is good, and the area is large enough, but it's a bit old. It's also a medium-sized manor. You know, it's not common to see a manor built in a densely populated city, and the surrounding transportation and necessary facilities are very convenient. Could it be that this manor has fallen into disrepair and the building is unstable?"

"Hahaha! No, no, no, this place looks very old, because it was built twenty years ago, when I was just in elementary school... I can't remember whether I was in the third grade or some other grade when I came here. But apart from the time, this builder did not cut corners at all. This manor is still very solid, even stronger than some buildings that were recently completed and contracted by small builders. And the furniture inside is also complete. Although it's a bit old, as long as you clean it up, you can even move in directly with your luggage."

"Isn't this great? All we need to do is clean it up, put in some new furniture and decorate it, and it'll be fine. What's the problem?"

"Didn't you realize that the price you paid for the entire manor, including the land, is not even as expensive as some high-end apartments?"

"I know, but isn't that because the manor is very old?"

"It's just old, but the price won't be so low."

"Huh? What does that mean?"

"Oh, it's nothing, it's just that this place is haunted, and the police don't care who lives here or who dies. Actually, to be honest, they can't do anything about it."

"what???"

"There was news from above that the manor was going to be demolished, but I heard that no one dared to take on the task, and the leader who proposed demolishing the manor died suddenly during a meeting. It was broadcast live throughout the city. Since then, no one dared to talk about it anymore. I didn't think much of it."

"If that's the case, then why are they still selling this place? Shouldn't they?"

"I understand what you mean. The contractor's previous boss had the same idea. The previous boss was hit and killed by a car just after the manor's sales license was taken down."

"The traffic accident can't possibly be related to the so-called haunting, right?"

"He was hit and killed by a car inside the sales office."

"What's inside?"

"The sales office was not even on the roadside, but inside the community. The news at the time said that the car was parked in a parking space in the community with no one in it, but it suddenly started on its own and drove straight into the sales office. The owner of the car was not even in the area at the time. I only found out about this after I came back from another place."

Garcia's face turned pale after hearing this, and her pupils dilated a little, but she still managed an awkward smile. "Hey! How could there be ghosts in this world?! It's probably just a coincidence."

Han Zu saw that Garcia's hand holding his arm began to get cold and sweaty, and began to tremble. He smiled maliciously, "I can even spit fire. Is it really strange that there are ghosts in this world?" He patted Garcia's thigh, then suddenly hugged Garcia tightly, whispering some weird words, deliberately scaring her. Garcia shuddered, and her body became even colder. He swallowed his saliva.

"You are a researcher, why are you afraid of ghosts? Shouldn't you be a staunch materialist?"

"Newton believed in religion in his later years. Who says that people who do scientific research can't be afraid of ghosts?"

Garcia calmed down and leaned towards Han Zu's arms unconsciously, "So you were trying to scare me on purpose, right?"

"Oh yes."

"Huh! I told you! How could there really be ghosts, especially in the city? You even said there was some news about it. If it really happened, how could there be no news about it? Haha."

Garcia calmed himself down and forced an awkward smile. But at this moment, Han Zu suddenly searched for something on his tablet and held it up to Garcia. There were dozens of pages of news about the manor being haunted, covering a period of exactly twenty years. In other words, this place has been haunted since it was built, and the most recent piece of news was even a few weeks ago.

"You're scaring me on purpose, is that true? Is it haunted... also...?"

"That's true too. Oh, look, you're on the news."

After refreshing the interface, a newly released piece of news appeared on the headlines and quickly climbed up the hot search list. After just a few minutes, it rose to the top of the hot list in City C.

"A mysterious foreign beauty bought the haunted manor in full. Tsk, that's concise, but the photo is a bit blurry, and only the back of the figure is captured."

The photo in the news showed Garcia's back as he was about to get on a vehicle, with the sales office staff and the builder's manager chasing after him.

"Huh? Why did you turn on vibrate mode?"

Garcia didn't know when she had completely shrunk into Han Zu's arms, her face pale and eyes closed, her hands holding Han Zu's arms, even leaving marks on Han Zu's arms. Her body was shaking. Han Zu suddenly remembered that when he was looking for a movie to watch last night, the last movie he watched was a Chinese horror movie with top-notch shooting quality. Garcia also watched it out of curiosity. At that time, Han Zu also explained to her the difference between Dragon Country horror and foreign horror.

"Fuck, if I had known this would happen, I shouldn't have told you about this last night. Mine, mine."

"I'll sleep with you for the next two days..."

"Oh, okay."