Lin Fan pulled a one-meter-long black iron hammer from who-knows-where.
One swing!
He spun it—then smashed it hard onto the one-eyed ghost's head.
The one-eyed ghost's skull cracked instantly. Green blood slowly flowed out along with bits of shattered brain matter.
The one-eyed ghost felt excruciating pain from his head and opened his mouth to scream, but Lin Fan threw out a nail shrouded in black aura, about 10 cm long.
The nail drove into the wound. Lin Fan swung the hammer again, hammering it deeper into the fixed nail.
This amplified the one-eyed ghost's would-be scream to a whole new level.
"Ahhh!!!"
The one-eyed ghost clutched his head in agony, his face turning green as he glared viciously at Lin Fan.
"Yo, still daring to glare at me?"
Before the one-eyed ghost could react, Lin Fan raised the hammer again and smashed down.
"Ahhh!!!"
The one-eyed ghost's face twisted grotesquely. Enduring the pain, he staggered back a step, looking at Lin Fan with lingering fear.
Lin Fan pulled five more identical nails from his pocket—the same kind he'd just driven into the ghost's head—and looked at the one-eyed ghost with an amused, almost playful expression.
"How's that? Pretty nice, right? Want more?"
"No, no more!"
Seeing those nails, the one-eyed ghost's body stiffened. A wave of terror surged through him.
"Then hurry up and get me the sandalwood."
"Yes!"
The one-eyed ghost shakily pulled out four sticks of sandalwood and placed them on the plate.
"Mm, come here."
Lin Fan nodded in satisfaction and beckoned to the one-eyed ghost.
"Wh... what is it?"
The one-eyed ghost swallowed his fear of the hammer and nails in Lin Fan's hand and slowly walked over.
Lin Fan reached out and casually pulled the nail from the one-eyed ghost's head. The moment it came out, the pain exploded tenfold—like an unbearable agony of crushed eggs—and the one-eyed ghost let out a continuous muffled roar.
"Urghhh!"
Lin Fan indifferently put the nail away: "Mm, recycle and reuse. Nice."
To the screaming one-eyed ghost, he just offered casual comfort.
"Don't worry, the pain won't last long. Just a week and it'll be gone."
(Yeah, not too long at all.)
The one-eyed ghost's heart burned with raging fury at those words, but he didn't dare voice it.
By the time Saiki stepped up, all he faced was the one-eyed ghost's cold, ugly, blood-dripping face.
Facing the calm Saiki, the one-eyed ghost's eyes filled with killing intent.
(Geez, with that look, this ghost is probably gonna take his anger out on me now, huh~)
The one-eyed ghost saw Saiki close his eyes and assumed he was scared—even too afraid to look. Thinking he was an easy mark, his tone turned vicious.
"Brat, what do you think you're doing!"
He'd already decided: if Saiki said one wrong word and pissed him off, he'd eat him on the spot under the pretext of "disrespect."
But when Saiki opened his eyes, the one-eyed ghost met a pair of eyes emitting a faint green glow. His own gaze grew dazed.
[Food and medicine for patient in Room 601 on the 6th floor.]
Saiki symbolically reached into his pocket and pulled out a few melon seeds mixed with some random trash who-knows-what.
The one-eyed ghost took them, his eyes vacant like a machine under control. He mechanically placed ten sticks of sandalwood and medicine bottles on the plate.
It wasn't until half a minute after Saiki left that he shook his head and snapped out of it.
"What just happened?"
Lin Fan, who'd been watching from the side, walked over to Saiki with a delighted face: "That was amazing! What was that—mind control? Hypnosis? Wow, way beyond expectations."
(Since he figured it out so easily? Well, whatever—it was obvious anyway. Too bad he guessed wrong. That wasn't hypnosis.)
Just now, while watching from the sidelines, Lin Fan had thought that after getting beaten up, the ghost would definitely want to vent on someone else.
He'd planned to wait until Saiki got bullied, then rush in with his nails and hammer to take care of the ghost first—making Saiki owe him a favor before Saiki even acted.
But he never expected Saiki to solve it with a single glance, then toss out a bunch of melon seeds and junk. Way cooler than what he'd planned.
The onlookers were also stunned by Saiki. They hadn't paid much attention at first, but Lin Fan's commotion drew eyes. They'd figured the next person the ghost targeted would suffer badly.
But then Saiki handled it with just a few melon seeds. Aside from those who realized it was some kind of hypnosis, the clueless ones thought the melon seeds themselves were the key.
"Damn, that guy's awesome!"
"So you use melon seeds? Got it, I'll try that."
"Don't you dare try—you'll end up dead."
"..."
[Seriously, you just drew a ton of attention to me again.]
Saiki looked at Lin Fan speechlessly. If not for him, no one would have noticed the casual hypnosis earlier.
Yes, he admitted it—he'd used hypnosis just now.
The system popped out too, but its eyes were full of melancholy and complaint: "Saiki, you used your powers again. Weren't we supposed to avoid them as much as possible?"
[No choice. I don't have ghost coins. Without powers, I'd have to fight. That ghost just got pummeled—I'd feel bad beating him up again right after. Plus he's filthy; getting brain bits all over me? No thanks.]
"Not wanting to touch him is the main reason, huh!"
System: "Well... yeah, that's true, but..."
The system scratched its head, relaxed its expression, and said casually: "Whatever. Just don't use that hypnosis again. Next time, just beat him up!"
[Fine, fine.]
Saiki agreed. Using his powers like that was just habitual.
After all, in daily life, his abilities had become practically indispensable. It was hard to control not using them.
But next time he wouldn't. If it happened again, Saiki would probably just give the ghost a good thrashing. No helping it—he'd promised, so the ghost would just have to suffer a bit.
One-eyed ghost: What the ***
"Saiki, I have an idea."
It was Lin Fan speaking quietly: "I feel like we could cooperate a little. Your mission here isn't just being a caregiver, right?"
(That's obvious.)
"I think if we team up, we could finish the task faster and easier."
[Makes sense.]
Saiki nodded. Lin Fan thought he was agreeing and started to speak.
[But I refuse!]
Lin Fan froze in shock.
"Why?"
Saiki gave Lin Fan a speechless glance.
[You're too flashy.]
(Teaming up with him feels like it'd just get more and more troublesome.)
Saiki knew Lin Fan was strong, but he had to go out at night. He had a feeling that being with Lin Fan would attract all kinds of weird ghosts.
"Don't say that. I was just reacting like any normal person would. That ghost wasn't being reasonable."
[Would a normal person carry weird nails and a hammer? Would a normal person handle a weird ghost that easily?]
As the words landed, a scream came from the other queue.
"Ahhhhh!!!!"
The scream instantly drew a lot of attention. Saiki and Lin Fan looked over.
A somewhat handsome man, his face now twisted, was excitedly swinging a chainsaw into one of the one-eyed ghosts at the front counter.
"Let me go! Let me go!"
The one-eyed ghost knelt on the ground, staring in terror at the man in front of him.
The chainsaw-wielding man spoke in a magnetic voice: "Wouldn't it have been easier if you'd agreed earlier? Five ghost coins for five sandalwood sticks—if you'd just said yes, none of this would've happened."
[Well, looks like there are plenty of capable people here.]
"Damn, even I gave 15, and he only gave 5. That's way too much."
Lin Fan grumbled from the side.
(He's actually getting mad on behalf of a ghost?)
"Next time I'll do that too."
(Good, at least I didn't misjudge you!)
Saiki returned to Zhao Gao and the others' table, greeted them, and headed back to the ward.
Once back in the room, Saiki immediately asked them about the ghost coins.
Their reply: "We thought you already had money, boss!"
It turned out Aki and Fuyu had asked Saiki earlier if he had money. After he said yes, they assumed he knew about ghost coins and thought he already had enough and didn't need to ask them—so they never mentioned it.
The answer left Saiki completely speechless. How could he possibly know on the first day? So he didn't make a big deal out of it—just gave them a small punishment.
Yes, just a small one.
Saiki sat on the stool with arms crossed, coldly watching the three trembling ghosts kneeling on the floor.
[This time it's fine. But next time, if something's important, just say it directly. Got it?]
"Yes."
The three ghosts knelt there, eyes full of fear.
No one knew exactly what Saiki had done that day or what punishment he'd given to make them so terrified.
"Saiki-oniichan, do we not have to be punished?"
Aki and Fuyu stood behind Saiki.
[No need. You guys at least asked me, even if my answer was off-topic.]
Since they'd at least asked, he didn't make them kneel with the others, even though...
"Thank you."
Aki: "Actually, if you'd explained earlier, Onii-chan, we would've given you ghost coins. Not many, though."
Fuyu: "Yeah, but if you want to punish us, that's fine too. Just not like them. We can warm your bed."
[No thanks.]
(Warm what bed? Have ghosts warm the bed? It'll just get colder.)
"Don't be shy~"
[I'm not shy.]
Saiki casually pulled out two... sticks of sandalwood and gave them to Aki and Fuyu.
[These are from that one-eyed ghost in the cafeteria. This should be lunch, right?]
"Thank you, Saiki-oniichan! It's been so long since we've seen these."
The two took the sandalwood with delighted faces, eyes sparkling with joy.
[Weird. You guys don't eat this often? Can't you just buy it with ghost coins?]
Aki: "Yeah, but it's really expensive. Seems like seven ghost coins for one stick. We don't have that much!"
[Isn't it three ghost coins per stick?]
Saiki looked surprised. Today Lin Fan had pulled out 15 ghost coins wanting to buy five sticks!
The two shook their heads: "No!"
Saiki recalled Lin Fan's smiling face.
(He did it on purpose.)