My House of Horrors

“Current Affection Levels:

“Qin Guoheng (Lingering Spirit): Unfamiliar (You two can’t be considered friends; he was helping you out of kindness)

“Du Ruoshui (Lingering Spirit): Unfamiliar

“Qin Munan (Lingering Spirit): Unfamiliar

“Qin Xiaoxiao (Baleful Specter): Slightly Favorable Opinion (You’ve managed to attract her attention. To her, you are slightly closer than a stranger)

“Zhang Ya (Red Specter): Crazy About You (You are a unique presence to her; she likes you, but only after you’re dead)

“To increase the affection level, you could expose them to the screams of visitors that are wealthy with negative feelings, gift them presents that contain Malice Points, or complete their Bloody Heart Mission.

“When the affection level reaches a certain point, they will selectively listen to your orders.

“Warning: Only specters with deep malice and a dark history will be able to provide you with a Bloody Heart Mission. Completing the mission will greatly increase the affection level and will give you the power to get them to help you complete something that isn’t against their will!”

The new feature gave Chen Ge a deeper understanding of his ‘friends’. He removed the smallest doll from his pocket. This doll did not look that much different from the other dolls, at least physically, but the phone app had set her apart. She was the sole baleful specter among the family of lingering spirits.

Something like you can be considered a baleful spirit?

Chen Ge poked Xiaoxiao’s cheek with his finger. Xiaoxiao, who was raised into the air, seemed to be a bit angry; she gave Chen Ge the impression of a little kitten who hadn’t been weaned from milk, gnashing her teeth in a show of aggression!

I suppose this is an accidental discovery.

If Qin Xiaoxiao was the kind and gentle presence among the baleful specter, then Zhang Ya was the complete opposite. In fact, this was the first time Chen Ge had come across the term ‘Red Specter’.

What exactly is the difference between a normal Baleful Specter and a Red Specter?

Chen Ge tried to click on Zhang Ya’s name, and the screen changed to reveal a blood-red interface.

“Are you sure you want to accept Zhang Ya’s Bloody Heart Mission? Warning! This mission contains a certain level of danger!”

The blood red interface caused cold sweat to appear all over Chen Ge’s forehead. But the phone says only specters with exceptionally deep malice and a dark history will be able to provide me with a Bloody Heart Mission. Am I that lucky? To be able to win such a ‘prize’ from my first draw?

Actually, that was not the end of Chen Ge’s thoughts on the matter. He thought to himself, If that’s the case, I’d rather give up on such luck!

However, afraid of how Zhang Ya might have reacted if she heard it, he kept it to himself.

Crazy about me, but only after I’m dead? If that’s not twisted, I don’t know what is!

After exiting the app, the fear brought on by the mirror monster had completely disappeared. Compared to the ‘prize’ he had gotten from the Wheel of Misfortune, the shadow inside the mirror was nothing. However, this did not mean that Chen Ge would let it go. In contrast, Chen Ge had made it a threat that had to be removed no matter what. Only by removing it would the Haunted House be safe.

Unlocking ‘My Friends from the Other Side’ provided Chen Ge with more options. From how he saw it, this feature was to set up the foundation for the Haunted House’s spectral workers. As more features of the game got released, Chen Ge’s interest in it increased.

After gaining an understanding of the new feature, Chen Ge turned to inspect his second reward—Yin Yang Vision.

The reward from Nightmare Missions would provide him with a personal upgrade. Chen Ge tried to look into the distance, but other than the ability to see slightly clearer in the dark, this Yin Yang Vision did not seem to have any other uses.

Perhaps this power requires a special environment to trigger just like Mortician’s Make-up.

Chen Ge picked up a random mirror fragment from the floor and put it before his face. Physically speaking, there was not any noticeable change to his pair of eyes; they were similar to before.

From the description, Yin Yang Vision should grand me the ability to see stuff that normal people wouldn’t be able to see, but…

Chen Ge raised Xiaoxiao to his eyes, but he saw nothing but a normal ragdoll.Am I using it wrong, or is there a specific method to using the power?

Chen Ge came up with nothing after some more trials, so he decided to put it on the backburner for now. Working his limbs, which had gone numb, Chen Ge stretched inside the bathroom. Then, he sat down inside the bathroom to edit his latest video.

I’ve suffered so much. I wouldn’t be able to face myself in the morning if I didn’t share it with the world.

He uploaded the original video onto the supernatural forum. It was 4 am, so Chen Ge didn’t expect any responses. However, the moment the new video was released, there was already a new comment.

“Hello, is this a game to attract ghosts? Lying inside the bathroom at midnight will call out the spirits?”

Chen Ge glanced at the first comment and was shocked to realize it came from the forum moderator. He contemplated it for a while before adding the game rules and descriptions under the video and editing the name of the video to ‘Why would someone voluntarily drown himself in his bathtub at home?’

Two minutes later, the comment floodgate had been opened. Chen Ge’s account had garnered quite a following already on the forum. In fact, some of the users who were already asleep were woken up by their friends just to take a look at the video.

“Lying inside a filled bathtub at 3.30 am alone… Even with the lights on, I wouldn’t dare do that.”

“This new video seems to be even more supernatural than the previous one!”

“What the f*ck is the shadow squatting beside the bathtub‽”

“Did you hear anything or see anything out of the ordinary under the water? Boss, please reply!”

“The bathroom is the place with the heaviest Yin energy of the entire building, and the bathtub is a sort of hollow where Yin energy normally gathers. In Feng Shui, we call this ‘洼(wa)’. OP dares to play such a crazy game at a place like this, no wonder he stumbled across dirty stuff.”

“To linger at the line between life and death as the night changes into day… probably only a madman could come up with an idea like this, and only a madman would follow through with it.”

There were a few informational replies on the forum. Chen Ge gave them a cursory read, and similar to before, he did not reply. Instead, he logged out to start editing the video footage.

He cut out his final struggle at the end of the video, and the product he ended up with was 63 seconds long. For short videos, the best were those that were shorter but had more shock value.

However, Chen Ge went against the grain this time. He uploaded a video that was 63 seconds long and named it ‘One-Minute Holding Breath Challenge.’

After releasing the video, those who followed Chen Ge were notified, and some already commented without watching the video.

“Breath holding challenge? There’s no scary video today?”

“What is this? Even a drinking challenge would be more interesting than this!”

“Is this some new challenge? I’m going to give it a try, too.”

“It’s all over; the host’s talent has run out. What the F*ck! What is that thing I saw lying beside the tub‽ Get the f*ck out of my phone!”