I, the Reality Janitor!

Unaware of his Director's shameless negotiations on his behalf, Leon stood a kilometer from the middle-aged nurse's residence. Through the Black Goat's soul vision, he vigilantly scanned every soul within range.

Though his first mission had concluded without incident - save for the bruise left by the anti-materiel rifle's recoil - Leon never forgot his pre-employment conversation with the red-haired Director and that staggering statistic:

The Cleanup Bureau's monthly fatality rate stood at 0.8%.

Both Senior Agent Emma and the Director had repeatedly emphasized extreme caution. Bureau targets were too unpredictable; one might inevitably encounter an anomaly that perfectly countered their abilities.

Even Emma with her immortality had been compromised during the hospital incident, half her body consumed by the building's structure. Had Leon and the Black Goat not been positioned earlier, only the Director could have saved her.

More chilling was the realization: This incident occurred three streets from Bureau headquarters. Had it happened in remote wilderness, or had Redbrick Hospital been mobile and untraceable...

She might have survived through immortality, but at what cost? Months? Years? Conscious yet immobilized in concrete, sustained in that absorbed state - a fate more agonizing than death itself.

Haaah... Caution. Caution. Then more caution.

After mentally reviewing his last mission, Leon took two deep breaths, drilling the mantra into himself: Even seemingly harmless situations demanded vigilance when anomalies might be involved.

His unique badge ability promised future growth, but in terms of survival skills? He couldn't hold a candle to Emma's expertise. If even her immortality couldn't prevent disaster, what right had he to be careless?

...

Having repeatedly verified the soul states of everyone nearby - particularly the middle-aged nurse's family - and confirmed their stable emotional states with no anomalies detected, Leon stuffed the grumbling goat head into a shopping bag. He strode toward their neighborhood.

Flashed his Cleanup Bureau badge to the apartment superintendent, claiming to investigate the hospital director's corruption. The police-issued credentials worked like a charm. The matronly supervisor even abandoned her half-knitted sweater to personally escort him upstairs.

"Officer, the Hannas are good folk," the white-permed superintendent in her sixties insisted as they ascended at a glacial pace. "Hannah worked at Redbrick Hospital, sure, but she's nothing like that money-grubbing director. Don't you go wronging decent people now."

"Over twenty years ago, when she was still a young girl, she started working as a nurse in that hospital. She has always been diligent and has never made a mistake. When my husband broke his leg and was hospitalized for half a month, she took care of him with such meticulousness that it was even better than our own daughter would have done.

The only flaw in that child was her straightforwardness. By seniority, she could have become the head nurse ten years ago, but the head nurse position required managing medication records. She refused to cooperate with those people in their dishonest practices, which is why she never got promoted each time."

After rambling on for a while, the middle-aged nurse's administrator quietly passed by the fifth floor, where the nurse lived, and led Lyon up to the empty sixth floor. She glanced at his expression while cautiously asking, "By the way, officer, are you here to find Hannah to testify against those people who are scamming us patients? Or do you want to take her back for questioning?"

"…"

It seemed that if I said I was here to arrest her, she would just prepare to find an empty room on the sixth floor, knock on the door for a while, and then tell me she wasn't home, right?

Feeling somewhat speechless, Lyon finally spoke up after stopping on the fifth floor: "Excuse me, ma'am… her home should be on the fifth floor, right? Did you go up an extra floor?"

"Ah? Oh, oh! I'm getting old, my memory isn't what it used to be, hehehe."

The administrator maintained her composure quite well; even when caught, she didn't panic. Instead, she slowly moved back down the stairs, but surprisingly still didn't lead Lyon to the middle-aged nurse's home. Instead, she headed towards another empty room on the left of the stairs.

"…Wait a minute… I already know her home is on the fifth floor. Are you really trying to take me somewhere else? This is getting a bit ridiculous, isn't it?"

"Tch..."

This persistent young pup must've done his homework!

When Leon stubbornly planted himself at Hannah's doorstep, the superintendent's eyelids and mouth corners drooped in unison. Waddling back with her slightly bowed legs clacking angrily, she hammered on the nurse's door before turning with a stormy expression:

"Listen here! Investigate properly if you must, but don't you dare smear Hannah's name! She's got nothing to do with that hospital's filthy business! And if she comes back with so much as a scratch, I'll testify against your Police Department for illegal interrogation myself!"

"..."

Under the superintendent's thief-wary glare, the door creaked open to reveal a middle-aged man with exhaustion etched into his features. Adjusting his spectacles at the unfamiliar visitor, the scholarly figure asked:

"May I ask who you're looking for?"

"He's--"

"I'm here to see your wife, Mrs. Hannah."

Raising his voice to override the superintendent, Leon swiftly explained:

"I'm Leon. Your wife tended to my sister's hospital ward. Did she mention this?"

"Oh! Yes! Yes!"

The man's weary face lit up. Throwing the door wide, he hurried over and seized Leon's hand in both of his, shaking it vigorously.

"Thank goodness you and your colleagues arrived yesterday to shut off the hospital's gas valve! Oh, and if your sister hadn't noticed something wrong, making Hannah slide down the bedsheet beforehand, she might've..."

"Ah! Truly! I don't know how to thank your family! We should've visited you first, yet here you are coming to us!"

"Please, my sister received plenty of care from your wife. She only suggested tying the curtains yesterday. Their safety was ultimately thanks to Mrs. Hannah."

"No, no, it was your sister..."

???

The superintendent stood frozen as she watched the two men at the doorway shaking hands vigorously, endlessly praising each other's family members in perfect harmony.

Wait... hold on... let me sort this out...

"Oh heavens! So you're the brother of Hannah's savior! This old woman misunderstood you completely!"

The once-ferocious superintendent now beamed with grandmotherly warmth, tugging at Leon's sleeve reproachfully:

"Why didn't you just say you came to check on Hannah? Flashing credentials like some stranger! I treat Hannah as my own daughter—had I known your connection, I'd have carried you upstairs myself!"

"..."

Yeah right. Who stopped me at the entrance and interrogated me like a criminal? I could've been upstairs ages ago without playing badge-bingo.

Under Leon's exasperated gaze, the superintendent flushed crimson. Clearing her throat awkwardly, she mumbled:

"I stopped you earlier 'cause you looked unfamiliar. Know everyone in this building, I do. Never seen you before, and you were... ahem... carrying such a big bag—had to be cautious."

Not the bag. My threadbare coat made you think I'm a thief.

Leon glanced down at his frayed overcoat with worn edges—a two-decade-old relic inherited from his father. The pathetic garment barely qualified as warm, but when your family subsisted on military pensions, you wore what you could get.

Though now employed with a decent salary, his first paycheck remained days away. Between the shabby clothes and his hunched posture against the cold, being mistaken for suspicious was inevitable...

"My apologies, lad. This old woman misjudged you."

Recognizing Leon's silent understanding of her unspoken prejudice, the superintendent hastily ushered him inside with the nurse's husband. She reached for his shopping bag:

"Goodness! Bringing gifts when your sister saved Hannah? Let me take that—your hands are red from the weight..."

Leon dodged her grasp, but the Black Goat's horns pierced through the bag during the struggle. With a dull thud, the grotesque head tumbled onto the floor.

"..."

"..."

"Ah... this is, um... soup ingredients our Director requested."

Quickly bending down to stuff the Black Goat's head back into the bag and tying the torn opening with a tight knot, Leon explained sheepishly to the stunned pair:

"Our Director absolutely adores lamb head soup, but she sleeps late and can't make morning markets. I happened to come here after buying this... And, well, being new to the job without my first paycheck yet, I couldn't bring proper gifts. My apologies."

"My apologies, lad. This old woman's too quick with her hands, hehe..."

Having thoroughly embarrassed herself, the superintendent muttered a few strained pleasantries before fleeing under the pretext of guard duty.

After her departure, the middle-aged man offered another apology:

"Aunt Mary... acted rashly today from worrying about Hannah, but she meant no harm. She's always helping residents here before being asked—truly kindhearted. If she offended you, I—"

"Not at all."

Recalling the soul signatures he'd observed earlier, Leon waved dismissively with a warm smile:

"I can tell she's deeply compassionate. In fact, everyone in this building seems to be... Which leads me to... might I make an impertinent request?"

After glancing at the closed bedroom door, Leon tentatively began: "The gas company's compensation officer mentioned your wife seems to have... unconventional thoughts about yesterday's incident? Please don't worry - I believe I understand her situation and might help resolve it. May I speak with her privately?"

"This..."

The scholarly man hesitated at Leon's request. Remembering this was the brother of his wife's savior, he finally relented with a stiff nod, guiding Leon into the inner bedroom.

"Hannah?"

Gently rousing the blanket-wrapped nurse from sleep, the husband hadn't even finished his introduction when the disheveled woman with bloodshot eyes abruptly sat up. She stared urgently at Leon:

"I recognize you! Anna's brother! You were there too, weren't you? Tell me! Did you see the hospital devouring people? That inhumanly strong bandaged woman?"

"Yes. I saw everything. That's why I'm here."

Leon gave the husband a reassuring look before continuing gently:

"You're not mad. What you witnessed was real."

"See! He saw it too!"

The nurse gripped her husband's arm triumphantly, voice rising with vindication:

"I told you I wasn't delusional! The hospital was corrupted! That bandaged monstrosity existed!"

"..."

Watching his wife's frenzied excitement, the husband's lips parted soundlessly as he turned to Leon, unspoken conflict etched across his face.

After taking some calming medication and enduring about two days in a half-asleep state, his wife still believed she had seen the bandaged woman. However, under the insistence of others, she seemed to start doubting whether she had made a mistake, and things appeared to be getting better.

But now, this sudden savior who had come to their door, confidently affirming her delusion, could it really not worsen her condition again?

"Never mind, you can stay and listen too."

Seeing the expression on the middle-aged man's face, Leon realized he probably wouldn't feel at ease leaving. He couldn't help but shake his head, abandoning the idea of sending him away. Instead, he turned back, grasped the doorknob, and closed the door to the inner room.

"What your wife saw was actually..."

"Zhi..."

[Encountering an incomprehensible special entity, the anomalous badge "Materialist Soul (Crimson)" is activated, expanding your cognitive boundaries and granting you partial information about this entity.]

[Name: Abode of Spirit Hosting (Miracle, Guardian)]

[Appearance: An old, ordinary apartment building, where an elderly woman with a head of white curls, a slightly hunched back, and bow legs sits year-round in the lobby's duty room.]

[...]

[Appearance: An old, ordinary apartment building, where an elderly woman with a head of white curls, a slightly hunched back, and bow legs sits year-round in the lobby's duty room.]

[Abilities: Exorcism of malevolent entities, accidental risk avoidance.]

[Cost: When leaving in the morning, please greet the caretaker with a smile, and if you have time, it's best to chat with her. If possible, please be kind to her ailing husband.]

[File: This apartment's predecessor was an almshouse established at No. 35 Qiao Street in the Old Capital District. Built by an elderly couple who lost their daughter, it provided free shelter and basic welfare for war orphans and disabled individuals for decades.

Approximately ninety-five years ago, the founding couple passed away. As the Road Administration Bureau never registered it as a legal welfare facility and no one continued paying property taxes, the almshouse was seized. After forcibly evicting all residents and renovating, it was rebranded as Bliss Residence for rental.

Strangely, despite its prime location in the Old Capital's sub-center - adjacent to numerous businesses, with excellent livability, convenient transportation, and low prices - Bliss Residence suffers abysmal occupancy rates below 30% of comparable buildings. Most tenants voluntarily leave within a month, with only a handful becoming long-term residents.]**

[Evaluation: An ideal lifelong home for ordinary people, ensuring household safety and prosperity. Pity its compatibility with you is catastrophically poor.]

[Corrosion Level: 0.1]

"..."

So...the entire building is an anomalous entity? Even that insistent superintendent is part of it?

Leon shivered upon digesting this information. Switching tactics, he urgently asked the nurse couple:

"How long have you lived here? Do you know how old that superintendent is?"

"Huh?"

Caught off guard by Leon's sudden questioning, the nurse couple exchanged glances. The scholarly man hesitated before answering:

"How long...? I moved here when I first started teaching at Qiao Public School, then met Hannah who also rented here... Must be twenty-seven or twenty-eight years now?

As for Aunt Mary, she already had white hair when I moved in. She must be ninety by now, though with no worries and good self-care, she appears much younger."

"..."

Ninety? A nonagenarian outpacing me on stairs? Snatching bags with reflexes I barely dodged? Since when do nonagenarians move like that?

Wait! Though not explicitly stated in [Materialist Soul]'s records, reading between the lines with [Abode of Spirit Hosting]'s name...

Could she and her ailing husband be the original almshouse benefactors who died ninety years ago? But why's she wary of me?

Leon's mind raced until landing on the evaluation's "catastrophically poor compatibility." With ominous dread, he summoned his interface and scrolled to the hidden trait of the [Demon's Progeny] badge from the Black Goat:

[Hidden Trait (Unaffixed): Your soul carries faint demonic traces, attracting attention from malevolent entities]

"..."

Now I get it.

Every puzzle piece clicked into place - the superintendent's initial suspicion, her reluctance to guide him, even the shopping bag grab. In this apartment with [Evil Purge] capabilities, Leon's demon-tainted soul marked him as an unwelcome guest, while the Black Goat was pure malevolence incarnate.

Knock! Knock-knock!

Just as Leon connected the dots, thunderous pounding shook the door. The nurse's husband opened it to reveal a mountain of a man chewing a cigar. Despite the late autumn chill, the septuagenarian wore only a tank top, muscles bulging like overinflated tires beneath scarred skin.

Nodding at the startled husband, the human bulldozer crushed his cigar between two calloused fingers and rasped:

"Mary mentioned a stranger. Came to check."

The basket-toting behemoth cracked a neck thicker than Leon's thigh. Burn marks and knife scars crisscrossed his face as moss-green eyes locked onto Leon with predatory intensity.

"..."

This is your idea of "ailing"?

Under the colossus' glare, Leon's scalp prickled. At nearly two meters tall with biceps dwarfing his head, this "frail" husband could probably hunt grizzlies in the mountains armed with nothing but a fruit knife.

"This is Uncle John... Aunt Mary's husband."

Noticing Leon's tension, the scholarly man chuckled reassuringly:

"Don't worry. Uncle John's glare isn't personal. He served as a marine in his youth—caught cannon muzzle flare to the face during pirate raids. Left him with facial nerve damage and permanent... intensity."

"He maintains the building, fixes pipes, weeds gardens—doesn't charge a copper. Loves catching butterflies for children in summer. Looks fierce, but he's gentle at heart."

Gentle? Since when do gentle souls radiate... that?

Under the scarred behemoth's unblinking stare, Leon's throat tightened. His free hand crept toward the Black Goat's horn in the shopping bag.

Crimson inferno!

Through soul vision, the corridor blazed with dark scarlet flames. A killing aura colder than Arctic glaciers surged from the old man, freezing Leon's spine. He retreated two silent steps behind the couple.

Gentle my ass!

If they weren't here, he'd pull that meter-long garden shears from his basket and turn me into Leon-gone in one snip!

"Uncle John, this is Leon. Brother of the girl who saved Hannah."

Noticing the tension, the scholarly man hastily intervened:

"You know about the hospital gas pipeline explosion? He's the one who risked closing the valve, saving hundreds!"

"Oh!"

At Leon's heroic deed, the scarred behemoth's stone-like face finally cracked. His scar-twisted lips curled into a gruesome mockery of a smile. Then—

A blur of movement.

The giant lunged forward, fingers brushing the nurse couple's chins with viper-like precision. Before Leon could blink, the pair collapsed unconscious, eyes rolled back.

But Leon anticipated it. Even as the giant struck, he shoved the slumping couple toward their attacker and—

Run.

He spun and bolted into the inner bedroom.

"Tch."

The colossus clicked his tongue irritably, catching the collapsing bodies mid-air with surprising gentleness. He laid them on the carpet like fragile china.

As the unconscious couple settled, the cigar between his teeth spontaneously reignited. Reaching into his basket, he withdrew meter-long shears that glinted wickedly. Dragging the blades behind him with a corpse-like expression, he limped toward Leon's hiding place.

As he spoke, he couldn't help but feel frustrated. It was so hard to find an "exceptionally kind" anomaly, only to end up being hunted down by it due to the taint of demonic energy on his soul. Wasn't this just too unfortunate?

Hearing the chilling sound of metal scissors scraping across the floor, Leon's face darkened as he rushed into the inner room. He didn't care about potentially damaging the middle-aged nurse's property; he kicked the window's security latch with all his might!

"Creak!"

With a piercing screech as the metal latch warped, Leon forcefully pried it off and flung open the window, intending to jump out and quickly get away from the impressively strong old man wielding scissors.

However, just then, his head spun slightly, and he heard the black goat's calm warning in his ear.

"Kid! I advise you not to jump!"

Leon paused for a moment, surprised.

Why shouldn't he jump? The burly old man with the scissors was about to come in! If he didn't hurry and jump out the window, was he really going to stay and fight him? Sure, he had a disability in his leg, but that old man's physique... wait a minute!

In an instant, Leon reached into his shopping bag again and quickly pulled out a piece of goat's head. To his shock, he discovered that, at some point, the old man's murderous soul had already slipped through the floorboards like a fish, slowly advancing toward him from below.

If he jumped out the window and crawled down using the security net, he would most likely run right into the old man waiting for him between the second and third floors!

Sinister! That old man was too cunning!

Suppressing the urge to curse, Leon hurriedly turned back, leaped over the unconscious middle-aged nurse couple, and dashed out the door.

Without a moment's hesitation about whether he might hurt his knees, he clutched the sheep's head and stomped down five or six steps in one go, leaping down half a flight of stairs. He began to dash down at a speed he had never managed in his life, racing down the stairs as if his life depended on it!

It seemed that the old man in the spirit world realized Leon hadn't jumped out the window; his spirit paused momentarily before slowly making his way toward the stairs.

"Faster now~ or he might just catch up~"

Hearing the black goat's gleeful reminder, Leon felt a tightening in his chest. He realized he wasn't fast enough, gritting his teeth as he tried to grab the stair railing at the corners to help him pivot more quickly between the two flights of stairs.

However, while the apartment building had been built reasonably well, it was aging, and the wooden railing occasionally had splintered edges that cut into Leon's palms, leaving them bloodied. Moreover, it was difficult to control his body while speeding down, and if he hesitated just a moment too long, the weight of his own body would jerk his arms painfully, leading to varying degrees of strain.

Yet all this pain was drowned out by the sharp "snip" of the giant scissors, and under the adrenaline coursing through him, Leon moved as if he were flying, darting through the stairwell. In just a few breaths, he shook off the relentlessly pursuing old man and burst into the lobby from the fifth floor.

Damn... I finally made it out!

Five strides from freedom. Five strides from sunlight.

Leon lunged toward the apartment's open gates, only to snag his foot on something. He crashed face-first onto the pavement.

Yarn? That superintendent's knitting thread?

As Leon reached to untangle the wool, the Black Goat's voice sighed in his mind:

'Farewell, kid. Gonna miss ya.'

What the hell are you—

Leon's head snapped up. His heart vaulted into his throat.

The scarred behemoth—nowhere near as slow as pretended—had tracked him through the building's very threads. The old man's shears gleamed like execution blades, their frosted steel edges widening to embrace Leon's neck.

NOW!

Instinct overrode reason. Leon swung the shopping bag upward.

CLANG!

The metallic screech of shears meeting horn echoed through the courtyard. Leon's arms went numb as if rammed by a bull. He somersaulted backward, tumbling ass-over-teakettle through Bliss Residence's gates.

'AAAAAAAAH!'

'MY F%#ING HORN! CHIPPED! YOU *$%#-BRAINED &^%!'

'USING ME AS A SHIELD? THIS AIN'T OVER, YOU LITTLE—'

Escaped... Nearly got myself killed just for asking a few questions. What kind of bullshit job is this Cleanup Bureau?

Beneath the Black Goat's furious string of [censored] Morse code in his mind, Leon painfully raised his head. He squinted toward Bliss Residence's entrance where the scarred colossus stood frozen at the threshold, shears glinting but unmoving.

With a bloodied middle finger thrust at the stubborn old bastard, Leon collapsed back onto the sunbaked pavement, chest heaving like bellows.

Screw your "Bliss" Residence! Haunted house knockoff! Never.

Fucking.

Coming.

Back.

…

[After surviving a life-or-death chase, you've unlocked the Iron-tier Badge "Parkour Novice"]

[Parkour Novice: A self-taught beginner who's mastered basic parkour techniques through relentless practice]

[Equip Effect: Though still clumsy, you've gained modest speed boosts (5-7%) in urban/complex terrain]

[Progression Path: Complete 100 complex terrain maneuvers + 100 50-meter sprints to upgrade to Bronze-tier "Skilled Runner" (Current: 0/100, 0/100)]

[Hidden Trait (Unaffixed): Hard-earned escape wisdom grants 10% reduced injury probability + 20% severity mitigation during high-speed movement]

[Through observation and adaptation, you've awakened the anomalous "Materialist Soul (Crimson)" badge. Your "Basic" parkour skill now dynamically improves with environmental familiarity - obstacle avoidance proficiency scales with location knowledge]