Rule Horror: From the Start, I Clear Caesar Grand Hotel

My name is Chu He, the Chu He from the Chu-Han River Boundary. When I was little, people always made jokes about my name. They said I was destined to be a bridge: the only passage between Chu and Han, and the deadly dividing line between two armies locked in battle. It wasn’t until I was dragged into that paranormal game where no one survived, and lived by stepping over the broken bones of my companions, that I understood the curse etched into my name. On a board, the Chu-Han River separates victory from defeat, yet connects the armies of Chu and Han in battle. And by the time you read these words, I will have become the “river crossing” between reality and the uncanny realm. I am the last person in the human world who can safely touch the rules of the uncanny domains, the final lifeline in the eyes of all those struggling to survive. I am also the last barrier keeping countless man-eating ghosts from tearing the human world apart. Everyone sees me as a savior, the only hope of resisting the tide of the uncanny. No one knows that the water in this river has long since gone cold, seeping into my bones and gnawing away at my humanity. I am no longer human. And no one knows that a river has never flowed in just one direction. I can send people into the uncanny realm, so naturally, I can let ghosts into the human world, too. Don’t stare at this sentence for too long. The instant you make out the two characters in “Chu He,” your feet have already touched my water. And the things in the river have already seen you.