Scenario One: Painted Skin — 6

Lin Eight's skin had been peeled off whole like this. Could he possibly still be alive?

For a moment, Bu Jianhan couldn't breathe.

Then had the Lin Eight he'd seen cooking in the villa that afternoon also been someone in disguise?

As he stared at the intact suit of human skin, all the details he'd overlooked and all the clues the story had given him came flooding back.

For instance, "Lin Eight" had gone upstairs to put on some clothes, and moments later, "Lin Seven" had appeared at the villa's front door.

For instance, when "Lin Seven" had described how Lin Five died, he'd mentioned that someone had "skinned him bare."

From this, Bu Jianhan could infer that the murderer was some kind of freak who enjoyed stripping off people's skin and wearing it. He still didn't know the killer's exact identity or motive, but Lin Eight, Lin Seven, Lin Three, and Lin Two—all of whom had appeared in the villa—as well as Lin Five, whose death by flaying had been confirmed, had most likely fallen victim to him.

Lin Six could likewise be presumed dead, and there was a very good chance the same person had killed him.

That left only Lin One and Lin Four unaccounted for.

The odds weren't looking good for them, either.

Bu Jianhan tried reporting his list of answers to "Who Is the Ghost?" to the system once more, but the Current Objective still didn't update. Apparently, deduction alone wasn't enough. He had to produce conclusive evidence.

Stepping around the human skin draped over the side of the bed, Bu Jianhan began searching elsewhere.

At last, he found something in the nightstand.

[Item acquired: Spare Cell Phone Battery x1.]

Besides this backup battery—the phone's own little spare tire—there was a small two-tiered box with its base glued to the nightstand. A mechanism inside allowed one key to be slotted into the bottom tier, pushing the key in the upper tier out.

The upper tier contained a Zodiac Dragon key.

If he slotted the upper key back in, the key in the bottom tier would be pushed out again.

Not every key would fit, however. Bu Jianhan tried all the keys he had and discovered that only the Rabbit key corresponding to this room's door could be used.

In other words, under the rules, he could take either the Rabbit key or the Dragon key, but not both.

The box was glued to the nightstand; he could hardly carry off the entire piece of furniture. He considered using his hammer to knock the box loose, but worried the noise would attract monsters.

After weighing his options, Bu Jianhan decided to take the Dragon key.

The Rabbit key's purpose was to open this room, and the intended progression probably called for trading it in for the Dragon key. A Dragon key he'd never encountered before ought to come in handy later in the story.

[Item acquired: Zodiac Dragon Key x1.]

Leaving the Bunny Princess room behind, Bu Jianhan continued onward.

A few yards later, he came to another door. In keeping with his enter-every-door policy, he tried the handle.

[Friendly Reminder: You need the Zodiac Dragon Key.]

Sure enough, he needed it the very next second.

After using the Dragon key on the door, Bu Jianhan cautiously pushed it open and entered.

Whoosh—

The open door created a cross-draft with an unshuttered window inside the room. The sheer curtain by the window billowed up in an instant, rippling through the air like the pallid tail fin of a butterflyfish—or a white funeral banner fluttering in the wind.

A transparent figure slowly emerged beneath the moonlight.

The flying gauze curtain passed through his translucent body, as though draping him in mourning robes. Dressed in a traditional Chinese jacket, he sat before an easel and gazed pensively at his unfinished work.

On the half-finished canvas before him was a human face divided like yin and yang. One side was a deathly pale, smiling face covered in skin; the other was a bloodred, weeping face stripped down to muscle and bone.

For one instant, Bu Jianhan thought he'd wandered onto the wrong set, crossing from a horror game into an arthouse drama. Then he saw the painting in front of the man and immediately understood.

The man turned to look at Bu Jianhan.

No opening kill, so he probably wasn't a monster. Bu Jianhan raised a hand and greeted him with a strained smile. "...Hello?"

"I know who you are. You're Seven's friend." The man inclined his head with consummate grace. Both his appearance and manner of speech made him seem like a scholar who had stepped out of a bygone era. He spoke without haste, even gently. "A pleasure to meet you. I am Lin Four."

Bu Jianhan stared at his translucent body. Once he'd confirmed that the curtain passed through him because he was a restless spirit, not because the graphics were clipping, he stammered, "Uh, your body right now... What's going on?"

"As you can see, I am already dead. All that remains here is the last lingering obsession of a dead man."

Lin Four stepped down from the stool and approached Bu Jianhan.

"Approached" wasn't quite accurate. A restless spirit had no need to walk on two feet; he floated over to Bu Jianhan.

"No outsider has come here in a very long time," Lin Four said, taking the Dragon key from Bu Jianhan's hand. "Why have you come? This place is dangerous for you."

"Well, because of Lin Seven. He's missing, and I came to find him," Bu Jianhan replied.

Lin Four smiled faintly. "Seven? Seven is already dead, too. Do you wish to leave this place now? I can give you the key to the exit. Or... would you rather seek justice for us?"

[Dialogue Choice: I choose to leave this place. / I am willing to avenge you.]

In a horror game, dialogue choices were usually turning points that triggered different endings. He had to choose carefully.

Bu Jianhan thought it over. His objective wasn't complete, and the truth remained hidden. If he left now, he'd probably be screwed. He therefore declared with conviction, "Lin Seven is an important friend of mine. I am willing to avenge you!"

[Player selected story branch: I am willing to avenge you.]

"Thank you, brave friend," Lin Four said softly. His figure grew fainter and fainter until it dissolved into the wind. "I hope that this time, you will truly set us free and bring salvation to us all..."

Clink.

The instant Lin Four vanished, the key in his hand fell to the floor. In the darkness beneath the moonlight, it gave off a tiny, brilliant gleam like a star.

Bu Jianhan picked up the key.

[Item acquired: Zodiac Tiger Key x1.]

It was meant for the first door he'd passed after entering the corridor.

Clutching the Tiger key Lin Four had given him, Bu Jianhan felt inexplicably heavyhearted.

Now Lin One was the only one still unaccounted for.

After leaving Lin Four's room, Bu Jianhan tried to retrace his steps and unlock the door that required the Tiger key. The moment he turned around, however, he slammed into something with a thud.

Startled, Bu Jianhan hurriedly backed away. But there was nothing in front of him.

Unconvinced, he took another step forward.

Thud.

Bu Jianhan understood.

An invisible wall!

Apparently, he could only follow this corridor all the way to the bitter end. He wouldn't be able to go back until he'd triggered some part of the story. If he tried returning to a room he'd passed before then, he'd run straight into an invisible wall!

So realistic.

Bu Jianhan stared at the empty, pitch-black corridor, speechless for a while. Then he turned around and continued onward.

As Bu Jianhan passed the next door beyond Lin Four's room, a tremendous muffled bang suddenly came from inside, making him jump. It was immediately followed by several more thunderous bangs—bang, bang—as though someone were ramming the door from within, accompanied by muffled moans of "Mmph, mmph."

Bu Jianhan couldn't be sure what was locked inside. After some hesitation, he checked the door handle and, sure enough, received a system message.

[Friendly Reminder: You need the Zodiac Horse Key.]

Without that key, he couldn't open the door.

Bu Jianhan shrugged and quickly left it behind.

Farther on, the corridor grew extremely cluttered. Perhaps ghosts were at work, because all kinds of furniture lay strewn across what should have been a tidy hall: sofas, rocking chairs, nightstands, round wooden tables, and even an entire wardrobe.

Bu Jianhan had no choice but to push everything aside and clear a path through.

Pushing the obstacles around inevitably blocked some of the doors, but Bu Jianhan tested them all. The doors he couldn't avoid blocking were all inoperable anyway. They didn't even produce a key requirement, so they were probably just painted-on textures.

The motley collection of objects occupied most of the corridor, which wasn't even straight. The clutter choked off at least two ninety-degree turns. It took Bu Jianhan ages to clear a tortuous path and then clamber and crawl his way through it.

Beyond the heap, he encountered three more locked doors, requiring the Goat, Monkey, and Rooster keys respectively. He had none of them, so he reluctantly gave up on looting the rooms.

Farther ahead lay the end of the corridor.

On the left side at the corridor's end was a glass door. Beyond it, he could just make out a railing and a flight of stairs. The stairs led all the way down to the front garden. All he had to do was descend, sprint across the garden to the front gate, climb over the wall, and bid farewell to this whole fucking nightmare.

But Bu Jianhan had a feeling it wouldn't be that simple.

[Friendly Reminder: You need the Zodiac Dog Key.]

Of course. A key. Another key!

Goddamn keys!

He released the door handle. The phone in his hand suddenly began to ring again. Having learned his lesson, he deliberately held it away from his ear when he answered, lest the screamer on the other end scare him out of his wits.

This time, however, the voice on the other end was so weak and so faint that he could barely hear anything.

He had to press the phone back to his ear. "And who are you?"

"Boo-hoo... Hoo... I... save me..."

The caller plainly had the voice of a grown man, yet his sobbing was heartrending, laden with sorrow and regret, each note lingering in the air. Set against the pitch-dark, sinister atmosphere of a haunted villa, it possessed a peculiar charm all its own.

Bu Jianhan said helplessly, "Stop crying for a minute. I can't save you when you're sobbing like that. Tell me who you are and where you are first. Otherwise, how am I supposed to help?"

"I-I... I'm the eldest son of the Lin family. My name is Lin Xiao Ming..."

Bu Jianhan: "...?"

A question mark slowly materialized over his head.

With your younger brothers named Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight, shouldn't your name be Lin Eldest or Lin One?

Who gave you permission to call yourself Lin Xiao Ming?!

Bu Jianhan suppressed the profound discomfort of his obsessive-compulsive tendencies flaring up and asked as pleasantly as he could, "Where are you now? What happened to you? How can I save you?"

"What happened to me? I..."

The caller seemed to go blank for a moment, then began crying even harder.

"I'm already dead! I'm dead... Boo-hoo... Please don't go. Don't leave this place. You're the only one who can save us!"

One what the fuck couldn't begin to cover Bu Jianhan's feelings.

He wanted to tell the man to stop crying. He didn't have the Dog key and literally couldn't leave.

But then he decided there was no point reasoning with a dim-witted spirit who knew nothing but how to cry. It would only waste his precious phone battery.

Once he was sure Lin Xiao Ming had nothing useful to offer besides news of his own death, Bu Jianhan coldheartedly hung up.

The instant he ended the call, he suddenly felt cold.

Not the deathly chill of a restless spirit drawing near. This was the bone-deep cold of being watched by some freak or homicidal maniac.

That sharp, excited gaze was like a snake's tongue, greedily licking every inch of his body. Everywhere it swept seemed to burn and sting as though scored by a blade, throbbing with muted pain.

His entire body stiffened as his skin prickled without end. Forcing himself past his fear and frozen rigidity, he shifted his gaze inch by inch toward the darkness at the far end of the corridor.

Deep in the shadows, a pair of huge, round, gleaming eyes stared fixedly back at him.

And those unnervingly bright eyes were set in a skinless face, its bloodred muscle fibers exposed around two rows of deathly white teeth.