The Strange Creature Compendium: I Catalogued Myself First

(No System, mildly scary, with twists, no invincible protagonist, subverts expectations, and has a strong tragic tone. Read with care.)

Everyone says ghosts are vicious and cruel, and must be slain, subdued, and wiped from existence.

Yang Cheng'an once believed that too.

Until he opened the Record of Ten Thousand Ghosts and saw the buried lives behind every wisp of resentment.

Painted skin, depicting a thousand faces, yet not one like my own.

Hanged, three feet of white silk, one mistaken thought.

Drowned, abandoned in the water, cold bones sinking alone.

Housebound, unwilling to leave in life, afraid to depart in death.

Fallen in battle, returning home as bones, still standing in formation.

Beneath the ghosts' fearsome faces lay injustices left unresolved. Beneath people's polished exteriors lurked wicked hearts.

Amid the iron laws of the underworld lay plots and power struggles. In the bustle of the mortal world, people often kept ghosts for their own gain.

With this book in hand, Yang Cheng'an walked the narrow divide between humans and ghosts.

He slew the ghosts that deserved to die and settled grievances no one else could resolve.

From a nobody to a power in his own right, each step up the ranks brought him closer to the world's taboos.

At the end of the mist, something colder than a night when ten thousand ghosts roam awaited him: all of humankind was acting out a play called “Being Alive.”