My name is Chen Mo, and I make a living by test-staying in haunted houses.
Other people look for a good location when renting. I first ask how many people have died there.
Then, on the night I moved into the “Crying Building,” my left eye suddenly saw a shadow covered in bloodshot veins. The eyeless doll in my arms was grinning. That was when I realized the cheap rent in Linyuan City came with a price, and the price was my life.
A cold, aloof restorer of ancient books burst through the window, wielding a soul-subduing ruler, just as a hand reached out from the mirror and dragged me toward the abyss. In the mirror, my mother’s face, which had vanished ten years ago, overlapped with mine. The jade pendant she left behind grew hot, revealing the outline of an ancient town beneath the entire city.
It turned out every haunted house concealed a spirit-binding object: reflections in mirrors dragged people into hell, dolls in the toy shop lured children’s souls away in the dead of night, and even the hospital rooms endlessly replicated the moment of death.
My childhood friend was possessed by resentment. My mother’s obsession replayed over and over in the mirror. And the descendant of the house guardians who promised to protect me had a soul-subduing ruler at her waist, engraved with the fate that she would not live past thirty.
When the whole city overlapped with the ancient town, vengeful spirits wandered through supermarkets and hospitals became endless corridors, I finally understood: these so-called haunted houses were merely sacrifices for the blood ritual in Abyssal Town.
And the eyes that let me see vengeful spirits had long ago been branded with the mark of a “sacrifice.”
“If you want to save her, go to Abyssal Town.” My mother’s voice came from the jade pendant.
Why were the eyes already corroded by resentment the key to restoring the seal?
As the faceless priest sneered in the space of resentment, and all those consumed by obsession screamed for me to pay with my life,
Would I become the next sacrifice, or tear open a crack in the curse?
(Haunted house levels: Mortal → Ghostly → Infernal! Every spirit-binding object you unravel brings you one step closer to the truth.)
