My Phone Has a Direct Line to the Underworld

The most valuable currency in the world isn’t gold or Bitcoin. It’s the emotions surging in your heart: joy, anger, sorrow, and delight. When Lin Fan’s phone connects directly to the Underworld, he discovers that trade between gods and demons has long since changed. Exchanging merit for billions in cash is a trap; trading vengeful ghosts for supreme power is just a facade. The real “transaction fee” collected by the Underworld is the emotional core of his humanity. Use the Soul-Binding Lock, and anger is deducted. Open the Yin-Yang Eyes, and fear is consumed. Bring a loved one back to life, and you must pawn all your love. This is an equivalent exchange with no way back. With every increase in power, another piece of his humanity irreversibly shatters. Once all seven emotions have burned away, will he be the “Yama of the Mortal World,” commanding both realms, or a divine shell assimilated by the rules, without sorrow or joy? Mortals gaze up at the gods, unaware that the gods are all madmen who exhausted their emotions first. Take your phone. It’s the ladder to godhood issued by Hell. The price: no longer being human.