“There’s no need to worry too much.”
Seeing that Little Ka’s expression was still a bit dark, Mo Shao thought for a moment before explaining in more detail.
“We are not in a region where Halloween culture is highly popular, so the impact of the festival here will be much weaker.”
In fact, if it weren’t for various merchants and games running Halloween events, this area wouldn’t have been affected by it at all.
“Furthermore, the compatibility between those spirits and a body they want to possess is never as high as the original owner’s. So, the probability of the original owner snatching it back is actually quite high.”
“I see...” Little Ka punched her palm in realization, her mood shifting to excitement. “Then let’s make some Jack-o'-lanterns first!”
“Mhm, we definitely need those,” Mo Shao nodded.
A ‘one cubic meter’ Jack-o'-lantern in Minecraft was truly exaggerated in size—large enough to safeguard a vast area.
She had ten pumpkins prepared. Her primary goal was to create golems. While she couldn’t afford an Iron Golem yet, a Snow Golem was perfectly doable.
However, even though she already had pumpkins, she still needed to use bone meal to ripen a few more plants. With Halloween approaching, these things would be very valuable!
***
Mo Shao used a bit of Bone Meal to instantly mature several pumpkin stems, then waited for the pumpkins to bear fruit.
In Minecraft, a mature stem takes an average of about 4 minutes and 31 seconds to produce a pumpkin; a full day in Minecraft is 20 minutes.
Converting that to real time, it would take roughly five hours. By nighttime, they would definitely be able to grow two rounds of pumpkins—maybe even three if they were lucky.
Mo Shao also remembered a few other things. She hadn't placed functional blocks like Composters yet, so she set those up while she was at it.
She also had to place various torches. Pumpkin growth required a certain light level, and a well-lit Wilderness simply looked better anyway.
“What about dressing up as monsters?” Little Ka looked at Mo Shao.
“That’s even easier. Just throw a curtain over your head and cut two holes for eyes,” Mo Shao said with a light chuckle, shaking her head.
In a region like China where Halloween wasn’t popular, using a curtain to fake it for the night was more than enough.
After all, the people who had died in these past few days of the apocalypse—at most, they had been dead for five days. Spirits like that were complete trash; they hadn’t even reached their seventh-day wake yet.
Only a rare few with extraordinarily high levels of resentment, or those who had bound special abilities before dying, required serious effort to deal with.
If all else failed, they could just light a bonfire. While the effectiveness wasn’t as high as a Jack-o'-lantern, bonfires didn’t have a power limit!
As long as you burned down a house, no ghost would dare approach; blazing flames would naturally incinerate all evil spirits!
...Unless the ghost was someone who died in a fire.
***
“Oh! So that works too!” Little Ka’s eyes lit up, but worry soon followed. “But wouldn’t it be easy for someone to pull the curtain off?”
“Eh?” Mo Shao was slightly surprised to hear that.
“What are you looking so surprised for?” Little Ka puffed out her cheeks.
“Nothing.” Mo Shao waved her hand. She really hadn’t expected Little Ka to think of that possibility—living humans and spirits working together to harm others.
Spirits couldn’t do anything to a person who had taken proper precautions, but once they gained a body, things changed. If a collaboration could be formed...
In the Skyscreen's Retrospectives of various Phantom events, several depraved individuals had performed such maneuvers just to secure a better body for themselves.
Thus, preparing for Halloween wasn’t just about warding off spirits; one also had to be wary of the malice of the living people around them.
However, there was an ultimate trick to deal with that aspect as well.
“In that case, just use skeleton face paint,” Mo Shao stated the ultimate method developed in the future... well, it wasn't exactly ultimate.
Anything painted on, even with waterproof paint, could eventually be wiped off if someone held you down and used enough effort.
The true ultimate method was to directly disfigure one's own face to the point where even healing magic couldn't restore it.
Of course, most people wouldn't go that far.
For now, painting a face mask would be more than enough.
But after all was said and done, this situation ultimately depended on one's own strength. If you were strong enough, you naturally didn't have to fear such things.
You could just beat the ghosts into submission!
***
“Speaking of which, what about going door-to-door for candy? Does that actually do anything?” Little Ka asked as she looked at the finished Jack-o'-lanterns.
“It symbolizes ‘sharing food to avoid mischief,’ and laying out offerings can also soothe spirits,” Mo Shao answered briefly.
“However, a Jack-o'-lantern is still the best. Soft appeasement like that isn't nearly as effective as direct intimidation and repulsion.”
That trick only worked against brainless spirits.
After all, under the temptation of gaining a body to return to the world of the living, almost no spirit with a shred of intelligence could resist.
One could only say that the Halloween festival was quite trashy; unlike the Double Ninth Festival, it didn't provide a bunch of positive buffs.
Almost all of the Halloween customs were designed to deal with spirits—but the problem was that the spirits were brought about by Halloween in the first place!
Thinking back to the Retrospective, the only useful thing was eating apples, which could grant a small luck buff. It was barely okay, better than nothing.
***
“Then that's all for now.” Mo Shao and Little Ka finished the ‘curtains’ and the Jack-o'-lanterns; only the skeleton face paint remained unpainted.
Since it was still early and none of it was needed yet, they could just apply it later.
“Mhm, it's already 10 AM. Time to go out.” Little Ka checked her watch. She had roughly woken up at 8 AM.
In other words, they had been busy for about two hours. Actually, building things in Minecraft wasn't that slow.
It was just that the two of them were often dissatisfied with what they built, leading them to tear things down and rebuild repeatedly, wasting time.
Exiting the suitcase and digging through the layer of soil above, Mo Shao and Little Ka finally returned to the human world from their ‘coffin.’
Strangely enough, it felt very much in line with the Halloween theme...
After they both returned, they popped their heads out in perfect sync to look around.
Everything was quiet on the island; no accidents had occurred. Next, they would continue sailing west across the sea to reach Seven Hills City.
When they arrived at the western side of the island, Wu Yingzhe and the others also appeared. Compared to Mo Shao's duo, they had clearly been waiting there for a while.
“Good morning, you two!” Wu Yingzhe seemed quite happy.
“Mhm, morning,” Mo Shao greeted him openly.
“Good morning, everyone!” Little Ka followed with a bit more enthusiasm.
Next, aside from everyone learning a bit more about Halloween from Mo Shao, they discussed various matters regarding the journey to Seven Hills City.
The area of the ocean surrounding the island was not uniform.
From this island to Seven Hills, the distance was roughly fifty kilometers. However, since it was a sea route, there were many possibilities for unexpected accidents.
This was why Mo Shao still chose to travel with the group; she could avoid many risks, and the safety level was much higher.
If they truly encountered some massive danger, with so many people around, she could easily use invisibility and flight to make a getaway.
Of course, this was just a necessary precaution and hypothetical plan for potential accidents; Mo Shao herself did not wish for anything to go wrong.
After all, once they crossed this ocean, everyone would go their separate ways. For this final stretch of their journey together, it was better to let it be peaceful.
Rate on N.U.
