A moment later, Yun Zhenyue returned home, carrying the groceries.
As she stepped through the door, she suddenly heard a notification from the marriage system.
[Ding! Your task is complete!]
[You have perfectly completed the marriage task!]
[Congratulations! You have received a reward: Yin Qi Elixir x1]
[Gifting it to your marriage partner will help increase their affection.]
[May your family be happy and your marriage blissful.]
[Please continue to work hard. Reaching maximum affection will unlock your marriage partner's dungeon.]
'There are rewards?'
Yun Zhenyue pursed her lips lightly, a joyful expression spreading across her face.
Once she had put away all the groceries, she saw Gu Yuan still sitting on the sofa, playing his game.
Yun Zhenyue took the membership card out of the bag and handed it to Gu Yuan.
With a smile, she said, "Thank you, darling. I've bought everything."
"Mm, you've worked hard."
Gu Yuan turned, took the membership card, and casually stuffed it under the table.
The card had been a gift from one of his former subordinates.
Gu Yuan hadn't thought much of it.
Countless ghosts in the Ghost World were trying to curry favor with him.
If he actually wanted to accept gifts, his home would be overflowing with all sorts of rare treasures.
"No one gave you any trouble, did they?" Gu Yuan asked offhandedly.
"No..."
Yun Zhenyue shook her head. Her impression of the Shadowy Shop was quite good.
"The manager at the shop was really nice to me."
"Look, I only worked for a little while, and I was able to buy all this."
Yun Zhenyue said proudly.
"Very impressive." A smile appeared on Gu Yuan's face as he gently patted her head.
"Darling, I also received an extra reward. Do you want it?" Yun Zhenyue offered.
She took out the Yin Qi Elixir the system had rewarded her with.
Gu Yuan glanced at it.
That Yin Qi Elixir provided a significant boost to ghosts below the level of a Crimson-robed Ghost.
Gifting it to a marriage partner would indeed increase affection.
'So that's how it is.'
'This marriage system randomly issues tasks to the players.'
'Whether it's buying groceries, doing laundry, or cooking, completing them grants extra rewards.'
'The player gives the reward to their ghost partner, increasing affection.'
'The ghost, in turn, gives their own gifts to the player.'
'They exchange gifts with each other.'
'It's a positive feedback loop.'
'No wonder,' he thought. 'Just having a human and a ghost live in the same room and do nothing would make it too difficult to raise affection.'
'Turns out the marriage system comes with its own wingman.'
But these rewards were useless to Gu Yuan, so Yun Zhenyue put the elixir in a drawer.
"Oh, right~"
Yun Zhenyue suddenly remembered the marriage system's prompt.
She was still completely unfamiliar with Gu Yuan's dungeon.
As far as she knew.
Every marriage partner had a dungeon.
They were classified by power level.
From the lowest D-rank to the highest SSS-rank.
The main factor determining a dungeon's rank was the power of its strongest ghost.
The number and strength of the other ghosts present also influenced the dungeon's rank.
For example, Wansheng District had a Crimson-robed Ghost and many Fierce Ghosts, so it was S-rank.
The Shadowy Shop only had Fierce Ghosts, but it had many employees, so it was A-rank.
The manager, a low-level Crimson-robed Ghost, didn't reside in the shop permanently.
"Darling, what's your dungeon?"
"What rank is it? Can you tell me?"
Yun Zhenyue asked curiously.
Once she "conquered" Gu Yuan, she would become the dungeon's "lady boss."
'It'd be great if it was a shop or a restaurant. Then I wouldn't have to go grocery shopping.'
"My dungeon, huh—"
Gu Yuan hadn't expected Yun Zhenyue to ask this question so soon.
But there was no harm in telling her.
Gu Yuan decided to be a little mysterious, asking with a smile, "What do you think my dungeon is?"
"Would you be disappointed if its rank is too low?"
"Why would I be disappointed?"
Yun Zhenyue tilted her delicate, little nose, not understanding.
"As long as I'm with you, darling, any kind of dungeon is fine."
"What I'm thinking about is how to manage our dungeon well."
"Slowly growing it from D-rank to S-rank... hehe~ That sounds so romantic."
...
「Meanwhile.」
The audience in Dragon Country also had their interest piqued.
There was no information about Gu Yuan anywhere in the world.
So naturally, no one knew what his dungeon was either.
Besides him.
Among the other nine ghosts, the one with the strongest dungeon was Count Blood Banquet on the fifth floor.
A terrifying existence known as Twilight Castle.
It was a castle similar to those in medieval Europe.
Rumor had it that it had existed for over 700 years.
The castle housed over a thousand blood servants, all of whom were exceptionally powerful and had extremely strong life force.
Over the long years, the amount of Ghost Artifacts and ghost coins plundered and stored within the castle was astronomical.
If any country could unlock this dungeon, they could instantly become a world superpower.
This was also why.
Powerful ghost marriage partners were more popular with human players.
[Sigh, I'm not asking for much. I'd be satisfied if Gu Yuan just had the power of a vengeful spirit.]
[Yeah, a vengeful spirit would have a B-rank dungeon. It can't compare to the Shadowy Shop, but even a small convenience store would be good.]
[If only it was one-tenth as strong as Twilight Castle.]
[The person above is dreaming. One-tenth? The gap between an S-rank and a B-rank dungeon is night and day!]
[Even a public restroom could bring Dragon Country several thousand ghost coins a year!]
As the discussion turned to dungeon ranks,
they all looked with envy at the marriage partners of other countries.
Gu Yuan was good, sure, but it was already a widely accepted fact that he was weak.
After all, if he were powerful, how could he possibly be living on the third floor?
Besides him, only one other country's marriage partner lived on the third floor.
The rest were all on the fourth floor, to say nothing of Count Blood Banquet on the fifth.
...
'Since it has come to this.'
Gu Yuan felt it was best not to hide it anymore.
He chuckled and said, "I'm not as weak as you think. You could even say I'm pretty strong."
"My dungeon is an... orphanage."
In his past life, he was an orphan. After crossing over into the Ghost World, he developed a sympathy for children.
Growing from the weakest Residual Soul into a Ghost Emperor, he met many like-minded friends.
Among them were powerful Evil Stars and Great Evils.
Some ghosts, weary of conflict, simply moved into the orphanage to live.
Other ghosts were quite young, and Gu Yuan brought them into the orphanage as well.
'If it really had a rank, I wonder what rank the dungeon would be with a Ghost Emperor like me in it?'
'SSS?'
'Probably higher.'
Some of his friends, who were Great Evil ghosts, already had SSS-rank dungeons.
That place had gradually become like a home.
If he didn't have business that required a temporary stay in Wansheng District, he probably wouldn't have left.
As for why other powerful ghosts were living here?
They were probably enticed by the rewards offered by the marriage system.
The ghosts in Wansheng District had been locked in by the marriage system multiple times before.
"—An orphanage???"
Yun Zhenyue's eyes widened in shock. She could have wracked her brain and never guessed it would be this kind of dungeon.
"Darling, does that mean you're..."
"Yes, I'm an orphan."
Gu Yuan nodded.
"It might be a little difficult if you want to manage that place well."
"..."
Hearing this, Yun Zhenyue's heart ached for him. She grabbed his hand, already seeing him completely as her husband and feeling deep sympathy for his past.
"Don't worry, darling. I'm here now. You won't be lonely anymore."
She didn't know the real situation with the orphanage.
She just kept comforting Gu Yuan.
...
The global audience watching the live broadcast was plunged into doubt.
'An orphanage?'
When they heard Gu Yuan say it was "pretty strong," they had thought he was just bragging.
But when the word "orphanage" reached their ears...
many people were suddenly terrified.
Places like orphanages were usually filled with immense resentment; many tragic real-life stories took place in them.
If one became a dungeon, its rank surely wouldn't be low.
But none of them had ever heard of an orphanage in the Ghost World.
It wasn't in any country's intelligence files!
If such a powerful dungeon existed, it's impossible that every country would have overlooked it!
The audience from Dragon Country was completely baffled.
[Is Gu Yuan lying to Yun Zhenyue?]
[How come I've never heard of an orphanage in the Ghost World?]
[Uhh, a lot of the horror games I've played are set in orphanages. I'm practically traumatized by those places.]
[Theaters, wet markets, crematoriums, hospitals, churches, temples, orphanages... As far as I know, the first few on that list are basically all S-rank dungeons.]
[S-rank? Don't tell me Gu Yuan's dungeon is also S-rank?]
[No way, right? An S-rank would be this low-key, just playing video games?]
「At that moment.」
In the Dragon Country Ghost Marriage Research Headquarters.
Wang Xiuwen's brow furrowed slightly.
He couldn't figure out Gu Yuan's motive for lying to Yun Zhenyue.
But then, a terrifying rumor suddenly flooded his mind.
A drop of cold sweat beaded on his forehead. His pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks, and he even held his breath.
"An orphanage?"
"I remember a Dragon Country player once stumbled into an extremely terrifying place... wasn't it rumored to be an orphanage?"
"No, it's impossible. It can't be that place!!!"