Scenario One: Painted Skin — 5

In the next instant, beneath the phone's pallid light, the crystal chandelier in the living room began to sway wildly. The sofa, coffee table, and television all shook violently. Several translucent, distorted specters stretched unnaturally long and came shrieking toward them!

Lin Three grabbed Bu Jianhan and ran for the front door, but the specters swept around them like a gale, trapping them in their midst. At the same time, the sofa and low cabinet in the living room rose into the air and hurtled toward them with terrifying force!

Lin Three shoved Bu Jianhan aside and rolled across the floor, narrowly dodging the sofa and cabinet.

The two pieces of furniture crashed into the front door with a tremendous clatter. The door panel went flying, the frame buckled, and the escape route mere steps away was completely blocked!

The restless spirits continued circling and wailing beneath the ceiling, their cries piercing the air. The dining table overturned, spilling chunks of leftover meat and broth all over the floor. The cold food gave off a nauseating, gamey stench.

Lin Three rolled to the foot of the stairs. Scrambling up them in disarray, he shouted at Bu Jianhan, "Run! Hurry!"

Bu Jianhan was picking himself up as well. Even in the midst of the chaos, he remembered to yell back, "Where do you keep your fuses?!"

Lin Three froze, then answered instinctively, "The tearoom! There are spare fuses in the tearoom!"

"Much obliged!" Bu Jianhan called, then took off in the opposite direction from Lin Three.

"Wait—wait!" Lin Three belatedly realized that, even in such mortal peril, the man still couldn't stop thinking about repairing the breaker. His voice choked with emotion. "Escape first! Worry about that later!"

Bu Jianhan was already long gone.

The tearoom was the room farthest from the front door on the first floor. Half running and half crawling, Bu Jianhan made a desperate dash for it with a pack of ghosts on his heels.

The dining table had overturned, leaving the floor slick with soup and grease. His foot came down in the oily mess and his sole slid out from under him. He dropped hard onto both knees and hit the floor with a smack. With a yelp, he sent his phone flying.

After the phone clattered to the floor, Bu Jianhan heard a sound that nearly scared his soul out of his body.

"Beep."

"Battery critically low. Shutting down automatically."

The phone's screen and flashlight went dark at the same instant, plunging everything into pitch-blackness. With no light to hold them back, the ghosts grew even more excited and swiftly lunged at Bu Jianhan!

He seemed to have sprained his ankle, which began throbbing with waves of sharp pain. Bu Jianhan couldn't get to his feet at all. He could only brace himself on his elbows and knees and crawl forward on all fours. Groping in the dark, he retrieved his phone and finally reached the tearoom door in front of him.

He hauled himself upright against it, hands frantically searching the door in the dark. At last, he found the handle. Overjoyed, he twisted it down!

[Friendly Reminder: You need the Key of the Ox.]

Fuck!

The restless spirits were closing in, almost at Bu Jianhan's heels. Icy drafts crawled over his back, making every hair stand on end. It felt as if someone had slapped a giant ice pack between his shoulder blades!

In a desperate frenzy, he pulled the Key of the Ox out of his ass—uh, out of his inventory—and immediately used it on the tearoom door!

The door opened.

Bu Jianhan, who had been plastered against it, toppled into the tearoom with a thud. Ignoring the pain wracking his entire body, he scrambled farther inside on all fours, then used every ounce of strength he had to slam the door shut!

Bang!

That earth-shattering crash barred the countless restless spirits and their sinister winds from the room.

He had finally weathered that high-intensity scare.

Bu Jianhan gulped down air and wiped the nonexistent cold sweat from his equally nonexistent forehead. He rested against the door for a while, then raised a trembling hand, took a spare battery from his inventory, and installed it in the useless phone.

Fortunately, the phone booted up quickly after he changed the battery. Unfortunately, the spare wasn't fully charged either. A full battery had five bars, and this one only had about two left. It probably wouldn't last long.

But the suburban villa was simply too dark at night. Without the flashlight, he genuinely couldn't see a thing. Bu Jianhan had no choice but to keep the battery-guzzling light on and pray he could replace the fuse quickly.

Once he had finally caught his breath, Bu Jianhan got up and began limping around the tearoom in search of loot.

He soon collected several usable items from the room's display shelves.

[Item Acquired: Lighter, Almost Out of Fuel ×1.]

[Item Acquired: Brand-New Fuse ×1.]

[Item Acquired: Clipped Old Newspaper ×1.]

In a horror game, the text on an old newspaper was almost guaranteed to contain an obvious clue. Bu Jianhan immediately unfolded it and read the article.

"Body of Prominent Entrepreneur Lin Three Discovered at Abandoned Construction Site. Victim Found in Gruesome Condition. Police Suspect Murder; Precise Cause of Death Remains Under Investigation."

A chill swept over the back of Bu Jianhan's head.

Was this game ever going to give him a break?

Was there anyone in this villa... who was actually still alive?

When Bu Jianhan opened the tearoom door again and stepped out, the restless spirits that had pursued him so relentlessly were nowhere to be seen. If not for the toppled furniture and the wreckage of dinner strewn across the floor, he might almost have believed the scare just now had been an illusion.

The living room was unnervingly quiet.

His skin prickled all over. Bu Jianhan hastened toward the basement to replace the fuse.

The process went smoothly enough. Aside from a crystal dropping from the chandelier as he passed through the living room and giving him a minor fright, there were no further incidents.

Once the new fuse was in place, Bu Jianhan threw the breaker.

Click.

With a reassuring electrical hum, the basement abruptly lit up. The power was back on.

[Side Quest 1: Replace the blown fuse and restore power. [Complete]]

Bu Jianhan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Eighty percent of the fear in a horror game came from darkness. He never wanted to match wits in pitch-black rooms with things that might or might not be human again.

When he emerged from the basement, the living room was brilliantly illuminated, its blazing lights giving him a tiny measure of security. But when he turned off his phone's flashlight and looked up at the wreckage in the center of the room, he went rigid once more.

Yet another stranger stood in the living room.

The man wore a camel-colored trench coat. He scratched his head impatiently and sighed in frustration. "Oh, come on. How did it end up like this again...?"

He spotted Bu Jianhan and seemed entirely unsurprised. He even had the leisure to offer a greeting. "Yo. You must be Seven's friend. I'm Lin Two."

Bu Jianhan eyed him warily.

After suffering the triple nonhuman assault of Lin Seven, Lin Five, and Lin Three, he would never again trust any humanoid creature that appeared in this villa.

This Mr. Lin Two before him was most likely no human either.

"Relax. Don't look so nervous. I know you didn't do this to the living room." The man calling himself Lin Two shrugged. "You may already know that this villa is... well, a little unusual. Seven certainly seems eager to share his bed with you, but this really isn't a suitable place for overnight guests. I'm guessing you'd like to leave as soon as possible too. Unfortunately..."

He pointed at the doorframe the sofa had mangled and the heap of furniture—the sofa, television, and everything else—blocking the front door. "It doesn't look like you can get out through the front. Luckily, there's an outdoor staircase on the second floor. Head upstairs and leave that way."

[Side Quest 2: Find the outdoor staircase on the second floor.]

Wonderful.

Bu Jianhan thought.

Lin Eight, Lin Seven, and Lin Three had all gone up to the second floor and never reappeared. Now he was being forced to court death and go upstairs to stare the horror in the face himself.

Internally cursing up a storm, he kept a courteous smile on his face, thanked "Mr. Lin Two," and slowly climbed the stairs.

The instant he reached the second floor, the entire villa began shaking violently again. Bu Jianhan had to brace himself against the wall to keep from falling.

The stairwell wasn't so lucky. A section of ceiling holding a crystal light fixture broke loose and crashed straight down onto it, completely sealing off the narrow, steep staircase.

Then came another burst of electrical crackling, and the entire villa was plunged into darkness once more.

Bu Jianhan: "..."

The fuse I just fucking replaced!

Swallowing his bitter tears, Bu Jianhan took out his phone and switched on the flashlight.

His retreat had been cut off. All he could do was move forward.

A long corridor stretched out before him. Both walls were covered in dark-red European-patterned wallpaper, bleached deathly pale by his phone's light. Farther ahead lay fathomless darkness, like the fetid throat of a beast poised to devour its prey.

Bu Jianhan steeled himself and inched forward one step at a time.

Before he had gone far, a pitch-black side passage appeared in front of him.

As a general rule, if a side passage appeared in a place like this, it was bound to contain either a plot event or some collectible. Bu Jianhan hesitated briefly, then entered it.

There was a door at the end. Bu Jianhan tried the handle.

[Friendly Reminder: You need the Key of the Tiger.]

Bu Jianhan: "..."

Again?

He currently had three keys: the Key of the Rat, the Key of the Ox, and the Key of the Rabbit. He hadn't found the Key of the Tiger yet. It was probably supposed to spawn later in the story.

Just as he was about to turn around, leave the side passage, and return to the main corridor, a cold wind suddenly howled past his back.

His whole body jolted, and his manly intuition sounded every alarm!

Don't turn around!

There's something behind me!

His body went rigid, his back ice-cold. If he had been livestreaming a horror game, the screen would surely have been flooded by comments screaming "turnaround kill," along with bloodred "HIGH-INTENSITY SCARE AHEAD" warnings. If he'd had a neck at the moment, every hair on his nape would probably have been standing perfectly straight!

What should he do?

He could feel that thing climbing onto his back. If he didn't react soon, something terrible was going to happen!

At the critical moment, Bu Jianhan had a flash of inspiration and came up with a brilliant plan.

He started walking backward!

If I don't turn around, the scare can't get me!

Step after rapid step, he backed out of the side passage and returned to the main corridor. As soon as he was facing the right direction again, the weight on his back lifted, and the bone-deep chill slowly receded.

Bu Jianhan let out a long breath.

Good thing I'm smart. I really am one clever little devil!

Continuing down the main corridor, Bu Jianhan encountered another door. Faithful to the horror-game principle that every door must be opened, he tried the handle.

[Friendly Reminder: You need the Key of the Rabbit.]

Tears sprang to Bu Jianhan's eyes.

Finally, a door I can actually open!

He took the Key of the Rabbit from his inventory, used it on the door, and opened it.

Behind the door was a bedroom. Bu Jianhan cautiously slipped one hand through the gap and swept his phone's light around. Once he was certain no scare awaited him, he entered.

The bedroom's decor was rather strange. Lin Eight had said earlier that his family consisted of eight brothers and no sisters, yet this room looked like a princess-themed bedroom for a little girl. It held an enormous, plush bed; a table lamp with a lacy shade; wallpaper covered in luminous dandelions; and furniture painted pink. The warm, sugary scene was wholly at odds with the bleak atmosphere outside.

After considering it briefly, Bu Jianhan decided this was most likely Lin Eight's room.

According to Lin Eight, his parents had always wanted a daughter but never gotten their wish. If he had been telling the truth, then the likely explanation was that the Lin parents had prepared this princess room well in advance for a daughter who had yet to be born, only to keep having sons. By the time Lin Eight arrived, they had finally abandoned the dream and given their youngest boy the room they had already decorated with such care and love.

He was about to search the place for more keys when he tripped over something.

He looked down. A wrinkled, grayish-yellow object lay limply beside the bed, half draped over its edge and half trailing on the floor. It looked like a piece of clothing someone had casually tossed onto the mattress, which was why Bu Jianhan had overlooked it when he entered.

A vivid bloody handprint stained its surface, and dark spatters of blood dotted the bedding around it.

Bu Jianhan's heart lurched.

He examined the object's item information.

[Lin Eight's Skin]

[Item Description: The complete skin flayed from Lin Eight while he was alive. Expertly treated using special methods, it remains fresh and supple, forever preserving the youth of his twentieth year.]