Fernan remained standing in front of him and nodded. Dillan also looked at the ghost, observing him.
"Have you been in this apartment for a long time?" he asked.
Fernan simply nodded in response.
"You mentioned earlier that you can't enter the caretaker's room. Why is that?"
Instead of answering, Fernan extended his right hand as if to reach for him. Dillan's eyes widened, but before Fernan could touch him, the ghost's arm suddenly began to smoke. Dillan saw Fernan pull back slightly, and it took several seconds for his arm to return to normal.
"Did I answer your question, boss?"
Dillan's mouth fell open. That meant that if someone who wasn't the caretaker entered the room, they could face a penalty—or, in the worst case, for someone like Fernan, they could disappear completely. He had many questions for Fernan, especially about the manual, but it occurred to him that the manual was meant only for the caretaker and that the apartment had a place that only the caretaker was allowed to enter. The ghost might not know anything about it, but he decided to ask him anyway.
"Are you familiar with the manual?"
Fernan tilted his head. "What manual, boss?"
Dillan said nothing after confirming his suspicion.
"Do you know how long this apartment has been here?"
Before Fernan could answer, the lights inside his room suddenly flickered.
"Boss…" Fernan called out to him. "I can answer other questions, but not anything about the apartment itself."
"Ah, I see. Sorry."
The lights returned to normal, and he continued asking questions.
"Can I ask how many years you've been here?"
"As far as I remember, I've been here in the apartment for ten years."
He wanted to ask why Fernan was still here and how he ended up in the apartment, but something told him that such questions would not be welcome. After all, it wasn't really appropriate to ask personal questions to someone he had only just met.
"How many tenants are here? And how many rooms does this apartment have?"
If he remembered correctly, the building had three floors. Assuming there were three to five rooms on each floor, depending on the available space, he estimated that Happy Stay Apartment had around ten to fifteen rooms.
"It depends on how many tenants want to rent here."
Dillan frowned at the ghost's answer.
"What do you mean, it depends? This building only has three floors, doesn't it?"
"This apartment has an elevator, boss. If you ride the elevator, you'll find out how many floors the building has. Even I don't know how many floors the apartment has because they change. If you look at the list of tenants, you'll find the answer."
Dillan turned around and looked at the table with several drawers behind him. He had not checked what was inside them yet, and the list Fernan mentioned might be there. He checked the time. It was already past six, and he remembered that today was the deadline for him to leave the dorm.
"Let's talk again later. I have something I need to take care of."
"Okay, boss."
After answering, Fernan floated into the air and disappeared before him. Dillan remained quietly seated for several minutes before pressing a hand against his forehead.
Yes, he needed the money, but he never imagined that the price would be his peace of mind and sanity.
"Haaa…"
He checked his phone again and read the message from the dorm. Afterward, he stood up and left the room.
He was about to go downstairs when he suddenly froze in place. At the bottom of the stairs, he saw a woman dressed in black. He could not make out her face very well because it was covered by her long hair. He held his breath when he noticed that she raised her gaze toward him. They remained in that position for a while, and Dillan couldn’t help but clench his teeth while waiting to see what would happen. Then he saw the woman turn her head and silently float into the air before eventually disappearing.
Dillan could not hear a single sound from the apartment. He crossed his arms, but his mouth was trembling. He touched his cheek and felt how cold it was.
Even though he was already leaving the apartment, Dillan could still feel eyes watching him from different directions. He took a deep breath, straightened his back, and walked out of the apartment without turning his head.
“I already signed the contract. It’s really a do-or-die situation for me,” he murmured.
"Whatever. At least I have a new place to stay that I don't have to pay for."
He opened the HAILA app and booked a ride. Just like before, he had to wait several minutes before a driver accepted the booking.
Since it was daytime, Dillan had enough time to take in his surroundings that he had not noticed the night before. From outside the gate, he could see the Happy Stay Apartment sign hanging on the wall to the right of the gate.
The words were handwritten in black against the sign’s faded white paint. The apartment had the same faded appearance as the walls inside his room, but it was well-maintained. There was also a huge parking area inside the apartment’s enclosed grounds, which he had noticed earlier while walking toward the gate.
Dillan’s attention turned toward the property in front of the building. There was only a concrete wall with barbed wire on top, and then trees. He looked to his left and right. Except for the streetlights, there were only walls and trees.
The vehicle arrived, and Dillan got inside. He opened his messages, most of which were from his family, along with an email notification from Nexford saying that he would be starting work the following Monday.
Then he felt a pair of eyes watching him. Dillan looked up, and his eyes met the driver's.
"Do you have something to say?"
"Ah, sorry, sir. I just wanted to ask what you're doing at that apartment," the driver asked.
He tilted his head before answering.
"I'm the caretaker of the apartment."
"Ah… I thought the place was private. It's my first time going to that haunted—"
The driver suddenly fell silent and did not finish what he was about to say.
"Why? Do you know something about this place?"
"Ah…"
Dillan smiled at him and said, "I won't be offended. I just want to know."
"Sorry, sir. The reason it's rare for drivers to accept bookings to Happy Stay is that a lot of HAILA drivers have heard stories about it. Aside from the place being somewhat isolated, I've heard stories that sometimes, it feels like someone is following them and watching them whenever they happen to pass through the area."
Dillan fell silent for a moment. He had not yet read the other details about the apartment and the area, but he would find out when he returned later. Now he understood why the ride had taken so long to get accepted and why the fare was somewhat expensive.
Eventually, they reached the main road. He checked the navigator and saw that it had taken them five minutes to get there from Happy Stay.
Now that he was the caretaker and also had a job at Nexford, it would not be practical for him to take HAILA every day because the fare was somewhat expensive. He might need to buy a motorcycle for transportation.
As the vehicle continued moving, he also kept thinking about how much he would have to spend. Even if he could afford the down payment, it would only add another installment to his expenses since he could not afford to pay for it in full.
"Haa…"
"It's okay, sir. Just because there are a lot of stories about the place doesn't mean you won't get any tenants in the apartment you manage."
Dillan looked at him and smiled. He did not bother correcting the driver's misunderstanding.
He wasn't worried about the tenants. There might even be more tenants than available rooms at Happy Stay. And based on his understanding of what was written in the manual, the caretaker had the final say on who could stay in the apartment.
The vehicle stopped outside the dorm gate, and Dillan got out. He immediately caught sight of students carrying their luggage and waiting for rides.
He did not waste any more time and headed straight to the dorm. Since his belongings were already packed, he quickly moved everything out and made sure he had enough food to last him the day before returning to Happy Stay.
When he entered the gate, he saw Fernan waiting outside the apartment. He pulled his suitcase along and walked straight inside while the ghost silently followed him.
"I just need to check something. We'll talk later, Fernan."
Fernan did not say anything and simply let him enter the caretaker's room.
Once Dillan closed the door, he immediately started checking the drawers one by one. He found a laptop, a brown-covered notebook with To-do List written on its cover, and a brown expandable envelope.
He opened the expandable envelope and found a familiar piece of paper. If he was not mistaken, this was the contract he had signed with Dontae. The only difference was that it now had several pages, unlike the single page that Dontae had shown him to sign. Dillan was always careful when it came to things related to scams, but he never imagined that he would become trapped by a contract simply because he had looked only at the salary and its duration.
He flipped to the next page and read through the sections concerning the obligations of the "Owner". There were not many.
According to the contract, he would receive his salary after completing his first night of duty as the official caretaker. If this were a normal job, an employee might think this arrangement worked in their favor. But based on Dillan's experience, he knew that his first night in the apartment would not be easy. When he read the sections for the caretaker, his eyebrows rose at what was written there.
Under the agreement, the caretaker would also be provided with his own vehicle after completing his first official night of duty. The young man also noticed the additional V20,000 hazard pay included in his compensation. He knew he should be celebrating and feeling happy, but Dillan could not bring himself to do so. If a job included hazard pay, it meant there was a risk to the employee's safety.
He looked through the rest of the contract to see if there was anything else that could surprise him and found another sentence.
When a tenant permanently leaves the apartment, the Caretaker shall be responsible for preparing the appropriate grave or tomb for the departing tenant in the designated cemetery associated with Happy Stay Apartment.
"Ah, so I have to dig graves too?" he said, feeling as though there was nothing left that could shock him about the strange jobs the apartment was giving him.
Now he understood why the salary was so high. Aside from being the caretaker, he was also responsible for digging graves for tenants who had departed. The contract also mentioned that if a tenant had a request, the caretaker was required to listen to it. However, the final decision on whether to fulfill the request was still up to the caretaker.
And at the very bottom, it stated that the caretaker had the right to request a service fee for anything he decided to carry out, depending on the complexity of the task.
Dillan leaned on his chair, placed his hands on top of his head and closed his eyes for a while to organize his thoughts. Then he opened them again, took the papers that he saw.
“Hmm?”
Dillan could only tilt his head and look at what he was holding—they were land titles. He examined the owner's name, but he couldn't understand why, no matter how many times he stared at it, he couldn't read the name written there. He also noticed the documents concerning the apartment and was surprised to see that it had legal papers, as if the people living there were normal residents.
"The owner of this apartment is incredibly meticulous."
He opened another closed drawer and found a set of keys strung together with labels: Lot 1 to 10. Dillan set them aside for now and thought that he would ask Fernan about them later. He then checked the notebook, where something was written.
Date: July 8, 2026
12:00 AM – Offer flowers and light candles at the three graves in Lot 2122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2k5NC5LyKU
03:00 AM – Visit the tenant in Room No. 502
The young man remained motionless in his seat, but in his mind, he had already cursed the notebook several times. Then he remembered what was written in the contract:
The caretaker will receive his salary after completing his first night of duty as the official caretaker.
"F***," the young man could only mutter.
122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgknxrChTHS
122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwA6IO85g4G
122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡudLQZiPshR
and then Add to home screen.