A Terrifying Secret Meeting

[Blurb is tentative; the final version before publication will take precedence]

Zhou Qifeng was invited by his uncle, who ran an inn, to spend the summer in a small town. But as soon as he arrived, his uncle ran off.

Even more surprising, it was a horror-themed inn.

The weapon of a serial killer hung over the front door. The corpse of a resentful ghost was buried beneath the threshold. A demonic worship ritual circle had been drawn in the basement. An evil god turned a cross upside down, and a punishing nun appeared outside the window in the dead of night.

"It's all fake. Have you never been to a haunted house?" Zhou Qifeng explained to the terrified guests for the hundredth time.

Late at night, Zhou Qifeng woke up shivering and looked straight into a pair of rotting eyes outside the window. The stairs creaked, blood smeared the walls, and evil was awakening.

All he had at hand was an old fairy-tale book.

Zhou Qifeng: …

Help! How am I supposed to survive? Read fairy tales to the ghosts?

The forgotten fairy-tale book awakened once more and lent Zhou Qifeng its power for a time.

A gentleman in a suit emerged from the damp alleys of the fog-shrouded city, smashing the nun to pieces with his walking stick. "The lies of God will come to an end. Gears and machines are a sun that never sets."

A comical clown juggled a head and an apple, laughing maniacally. "The world is a grand circus. Who's the clown? Me, or you?"

A retired officer spun the cylinder of his revolver, his military coat fluttering on a blood-moon night. "An evil god? How many divisions does it have?"

A ghost bride lifted her black veil, took up a skull, and kissed it. "Humanity and I are both doomed by love."

Zhou Qifeng walked alone into an ancient, dark, mysterious world. He alone was the secret society beneath the hood.

Legend says it was the highest secret society before the gods fell, older than time itself.

Legend says it single-handedly brought about the Twilight of the Gods, and that its leader was the [Tyrant].

The various factions panicked and sent people to investigate, but not one returned alive. The mysterious world was thrown into turmoil.

And Zhou Qifeng...

#Running the inn at night, running secret identities by day#

#I was promised summer vacation, but now I have two jobs#And I don't even get paid!

Zhou Qifeng: I hate everyone equally for giving me more work. Hey, you over there, don't spit blood on the floor. Are you going to clean it up?

The factions came knocking to retrieve their missing people, only to find... What? Why are their missing elders sweeping the floor, and their holy sons cleaning windows? And they're so good at it!

Theme: Never give up and cherish life.