Novels like The Countdown Begins
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as The Countdown Begins, best match first.
- 1 Witnessing Terror 见恐 [Infinite Flow + Mild Horror + No Romance + No Golden Finger + A Touch of Despair] On a rainy night, Ji Yunfeng receives a call from an “old acquaintance” and sets out to hunt down a serial killer nicknamed the “Rainy Night Butcher.” To his surprise, he stumbles into a “mysterious house.” Inside this “house,” he somehow ends up being sent, along with three people chosen by the “Death Letter,” to a “trial ground” known as the “Death Domain.” This world is home to a host of terrifying beings known 2.3kReads—Score207Shelves
- 2 Off Work, Then I Encountered a Subway Urban Legend 下班，然后遇到地铁怪谈 [Rules-Based Horror + No System + Utterly Rational + Infinite Realms + Outsmarting Puzzles + No Needless Self-Sacrifice + Terrifying Twists] Su Bai was born with a “condition”: he can’t feel fear, and he suffers from severe logical compulsions. When the midnight Line 13 subway, with no final stop, carries him into a bizarre instance filled with despair and death, all the players tremble in the darkness and pray for dawn. Midnight falls. In the hospital room after the lights go out, a rotting fac —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 3 Writing Correct Characters in the Advent of the Gods 我在神临写正字 [Infinite Flow] [Not Mindless] [Consistent Logic] [Single Female Lead, Much Later] [Deduction] [Story] Have you heard the legend of the Mo River? They say stones float on its surface, one after another, like teeth growing out of the abyss. Behind anyone who steps onto them lies the eerie abyss; ahead is black water with no visible end. With every trial passed, the stones shift a little farther back, farther from the abyss and closer to the truth. Some say the oldest one has crossed a thousand ti 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 4 Imprisoned 入狱 [Light Horror] [Infinite Flow] [Survival] [Original Instances] [Mystery and Twists] [No Female Lead] A sinister apartment building lays a curse on one group of people after another. None of them ever return. At regular intervals, they must return to a place called “Public Prison,” take the elevator to a terrifying world, and resolve a supernatural incident… Qin Xiu is unexpectedly chosen after nearly being wrongfully killed. He may have escaped death once, but trouble is surely waiting for 15Reads8.0Score—Shelves
- 5 A Dreamlike Life: What Do You Mean I'm a Nightmare? 浮生入梦，什么叫我是梦魇？ [Infinite Flow] [Fantasy] [May Have a Female Lead] [Not Mindless] [Mild Horror] A quiet day, a fleeting night: this is one person's day. A quiet day, nightmares at night: this is Bai Ye's day. On an ordinary afternoon, Bai Ye receives a message from an online acquaintance, and the nightmare that once belonged only to him begins to spread. He peels back the trappings of the dream. The truth hidden for years lies inside that old, peeling notebook. At the top of the stairs on the rooftop, his h 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 6 Thriller Game: I Can Eavesdrop on Ghosts 惊悚游戏：我能偷听鬼话 [Infinite Flow] [No Female Lead] [Light Horror] [Multiple Twists] Six months ago, a blood mist sealed off Nandu City, trapping its ten million residents inside. Strange beings invaded the fog, and one abnormal incident after another unfolded. Lin Xu has no idea why he appeared in this city. A strange game appeared at the same time, forcing him to enter a horror instance every seven days, where death was all but certain. But the items he obtained in the game could be used against the strange enti 21.4kReads7.0Score2.2kShelves
- 7 Multiple Fears 多重恐惧 An invitation to a party brings together nine writers, each with a very different style. At the party, the novelist who invited them traps everyone inside and demands that each guest tell a story. With no other choice, they comply. One story after another unfolds at the party: will they reveal the clash of human nature or unleash ghostly terrors? Everything will come to light here. "This is my debut work. I hope you'll show it plenty of support." 9Reads—Score—Shelves
- 8 Nightmare Invitation 噩梦邀请 [Infinite flow, original instances, mild horror, no romance] An invitation sent from the Nightmare World drags a group of people into a haunted place, where they struggle desperately to survive. Those pulled into the Nightmare World have no idea what lies ahead. They only know they must do everything they can to stay alive. Fight the locals! Fight the ghosts! Fight the Nightmare World! Until... they escape the Nightmare World. 1.4kReads6.6Score104Shelves
- 9 The Haunted House: The Evil God Descends 诡舍：邪神降临 [A Strange House fanfiction + horror + survival + infinite loop] Ning Qiushui sealed the Gray Sun, bringing the calamity of the old world to an end. But the Heavenly Dao demands balance between yin and yang. With the old evil destroyed, an even more powerful evil god was born. After lying dormant for ages, the Strange House's blood-red door appeared once more. The blood-red door swung open. Yin and yang were reversed, the underworld fell, and the six paths were severed. A new generation of S 8Reads—Score—Shelves
- 10 Cha Mi High School 茶靡高校 [Infinite Flow] [Instance-Based Story] [Original Horror Instances, Mildly Spooky] My name is Lin Fen. A bizarre car accident turned my peaceful life upside down. That day, my mother and I were crossing the street. A speeding car came hurtling toward us. My mother pushed me out of the way at the last moment and was struck dead by the roadside. I watched in terror. Then I remembered: I didn't have a mother at all! I, Lin Fen, had only ever known busy caregivers since I could remember. I was a chil 8Reads—Score—Shelves
- 11 Infinite Eerie Domains: Starting with a Haunted Classroom 无限诡域：从诡异教室开始 [Infinite Flow]+ [Fake terror]+ [Ghosts kill people]+ [Emotionless]+ [Mild horror] Late at night, Su Wang receives a strange black letter that appears out of nowhere in his home. Its four blood-red survival rules reveal a terrifying, unknown realm. In the blink of an eye, he is forcibly dragged into a strange study hall at Chenfeng High School, where he and six strangers are trapped together. The one unbreakable rule is carved into the blackboard: Keep quiet. One survivor loses control, makes a 31.9kReads8.0Score4.3kShelves
- 12 Rule Horror: The Infinite Loop's Haunted Campus, Don't Trust Any Rule 规则怪谈：无限流诡异校园，别相信任何一条规则 Rule Horror: An Infinite-Flow, Supernatural School. Don't Trust a Single Rule 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 13 Rule-Based Survival: I Can Foresee Death 规则求生：我能预知死亡 [Infinite Flow, mild horror, terrifying dungeons, no romance, survival, not a saintly protagonist] One night, Chen Feng was walking through an abandoned park after finishing his shift at the crematorium when something strange happened. There was clearly no one behind him, yet he heard faint footsteps. At first, he thought he was imagining things, but when he listened closely, the footsteps were still there, gradually drawing nearer. They sounded as though they were deliberately mimicking his own 22.3kReads7.6Score2.2kShelves
- 14 One Cursed Letter, and I'm in the Eighteenth Layer of the Ghost Realm? 一封诅咒信，我入诡界十八层？ [Horror + Survival + Infinite Flow + Plot-Heavy + Three Updates a Day + No Fighting Monsters to Level Up + Original Horror Instances] They say that when a white letter mysteriously arrives in your hands, a curse has attached itself to you… Rotting books, an empty bus, a door seeping blood… In bizarre ways, a group of unsuspecting people who receive letters are sent to one eerie world after another. They are called Curse-Bearers, and in the eldritch realm, they must endure their own curses. No 1.3kReads6.4Score111Shelves
- 15 The Calamity of Gui Water 癸水之祸 If even your memories are fake, who are you? Lin Zhou receives a death invitation from his younger sister, Lin Yao, who died twenty years ago. To uncover the truth, he enters the "Constellation Instances": twenty-eight prisons holding beings more ancient than the corruption itself. Each instance demands that he trade memories for power, and every dead person bears the cost on his behalf. When he finds his own file in the archives, stating that he cleared the Ghost Golden Sheep instance at age —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 16 Infinite Nightmares: Where's My Golden Finger in This Paranormal World? 无限噩梦：我在诡异里的金手指呢 [Infinite Flow + No Romance + Plot-Driven + Mild Horror + Mystery] Lin Jiu is a struggling paranormal livestreamer. That is, until he enters an old apartment building where an elderly woman is laid out for her wake. The person in the coffin counts heads. The mandarin ducks on the red wedding dress have no eyes. In every mirror, another you is standing there. This is a Chinese-style infinite-flow horror scenario. There is only one way to survive: Don't break any taboos. Not even one. 30Reads—Score101Shelves
- 17 The Otherworldly Netherworld 异站冥途 A bus bound for reincarnation, visible only to those on the brink of death. Every stop beyond the platforms brings an unknown crisis. At the Netherworld bus stop, queue up and board; the living get off, the dead stay behind. To find his long-lost girlfriend, Zhao Jichuan unhesitatingly boarded the bus. In an ocean of blood and tears, in a world of pain and fear, betrayal was commonplace and screams were nothing unusual. Just as he was about to despair, he thought he saw a ray of light... 15Reads—Score—Shelves
- 18 I Keep Being Reborn in an Infinite-Loop World 我在无限流里不断重生 [Infinite-flow horror, ensemble cast | No System, no golden finger | No mindless power fantasy] After clearing my twelfth instance, I didn't get to go home. Everyone had been deceived. Clearing an instance didn't let us leave at all. It turned out that clearing an instance didn't mean escaping. We were trapped in an endless cycle of worlds, each layer harder to tell from reality than the last. The boundary between the instances and reality had blurred completely. Was anything before our eyes 13Reads—Score—Shelves
- 19 Girls’ Dorm Rule Horror: Survive! 女寝规则怪谈：请活下去！ The Dormitory Girls’ Rules of the Strange: Survive! 116Reads—Score—Shelves
- 20 Strike It Rich by Opening the Coffin 开棺发财 [Handcrafted from scratch + Traditional supernatural horror + No System + No cultivation + Extremely scary + Based on true experiences] Paper figures carry the coffin, a black dog tosses the grave, and an old man falls in love with a ghost. An opened coffin is carried home, and a beautiful fairy follows through the door. My name is Qin Yang. I was down on my luck and only hoped to make money by opening coffins. I never expected that it would turn out to be such a high-risk profession. (Friends i 1.6kReads—Score134Shelves
- 21 The Haunted House 诡院 [No rating yet, but one should be available later] [Infinite stream + suspense + deduction + no female lead + ensemble cast] At the end of a long street stands a small courtyard. Old objects are displayed all along the street. No one knows how the street came to be, or why a strange courtyard stands at its end. Those chosen are swept into this street, where dusk lasts forever, in the middle of an ordinary moment. Then they are forced to push open a door and enter the ghost realm. They have to su 3.4kReads—Score389Shelves
- 22 The Strange Platform 怪谈站台 (Rule-based horror + infinite scenarios + battles of wits) Everyone has a train of their own. The train stops at unknown stations at irregular intervals. The conductor must survive the rules of each horror scenario to claim the rewards and continue onward. Understand the rules, use the rules, create the rules! Struggle to survive in an infinite world of horror scenarios! 1.2kReads—Score123Shelves
- 23 Infinite Nightmares: I Have a Pair of Ghost Ears 无限噩梦：我有一对鬼耳 [Infinite Flow], [Mild Horror], [No Female Lead], [Survive by the Skin of Your Teeth], [Unconventional Turtle Soup Riddles], [Nontraditional Rule-Based Horror], [Not a Wish-Fulfillment Story, Not Invincible] [Slow-paced, packed with details, and full of complex plot twists!] [Read at your own risk if that's not your thing!!!] I sat on a deserted street in the dead of night, listening to them whisper. I was a little confused. Wasn't I the only one here? (Instance 1: Prolonging Life) A bit lon 27kReads7.9Score3.3kShelves
- 24 The Paranormal Investigation Bureau Needs Talents Like Me 怪谈调查科需要我这样的人才 [Handcrafted from scratch!]+ [Vengeful Ghosts Return]+ [Supernatural Escape]+ [Killing Patterns]+ [Rule Horror]+ [Mystery and Twists]+ [There’s a Romance, but It’s Not the Focus] [Please Give Me a Chance to Tell a Ghost Story] Doppelgängers, dismemberment cases, vengeful ghosts, whatever you do, don’t look back, a deadly exam, zoo horror stories… The world is being invaded by the supernatural, and ordinary humans can no longer survive. Lu Ming, a rookie at the Paranormal Investigation Bureau, di 94Reads—Score—Shelves
- 25 Prove That You Were Once Human 请证明你曾是人 After Chen Zhou woke up, he was thrown into a “test of human worth” spanning the ancient past, the modern era, and the future. Plague cities, royal courts, trials, shipwrecks, stock market crashes, nuclear crises, space colonization… Each world had its own bizarre rules, and every choice demanded a sacrifice. Yet the same name appeared on every death record: Chen Zhou. Before the rules devoured everyone, he had to prove one thing: Humanity’s true worth has never been obedience. —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 26 Nightmare Subway 噩梦地铁 (The rating has only just opened and will rise later.) [Infinite Flow + Survival + No Saintly Heroine] A driverless subway train carries a group of cursed passengers toward unknown, terrifying stations… A subway card is proof of survival, and a ticket to Hell. At each subway station, Jiang Fengye faces one terrifying instance after another, each a brush with death. The starving corpses in the basement; The crawling sounds in the abandoned tunnel; The skinning monster in the old castle; … "The 18.1kReads7.0Score1.9kShelves
- 27 Rule Horror: I Can See Echoes of the Old Days 规则怪谈：我能看到旧日余响 [Linked Instances + No Romance + Tracing the Origins of the Rules + Unconventional Rule-Based Horror] (If rules have a past, they must have left behind truths that were forgotten.) The bizarre has invaded reality, and the Chosen Ones are sent into an old world that has already been destroyed. Shen Yan gains the talent [Witness], which lets him see echoes of the past connected to the rules. When others face a strange tale, all they can do is guess which rule is false. Shen Yan discovers that the 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 28 No Hints in the Instance 副本无提示 [The rating just came in, and it will rise later] [Mild horror + varied horror styles + original scenarios + fresh, unconventional scenarios + intelligent characters + no female lead or romantic subplots] Have any of you watching heard of the elevator ghost game? They say that if you follow the instructions, you can reach another world. Chen Feng is a video creator whose content is playing all kinds of horror games found online. He occasionally livestreams, too. During a livestream of the elevat 71.4kReads7.8Score11.5kShelves
- 29 I Heard of Strange Things That Year: Never Read This Late at Night 那年听闻怪事，千万别深夜翻看 These stories are adapted and fictionalized from various experiences shared by friends. They are written in an accessible style and make for a good way to unwind. A reminder: reject superstition. This is all imaginative fiction. Any similarities to real events are purely coincidental, so don't take it seriously! 12Reads—Score—Shelves
- 30 The Infinite Haunted House 无限诡异屋 [Original eerie instances + infinite-level progression + handcrafted + no female lead + slow burn] Qiao Ze collapses in front of a mirror, where his reflection wears a smile like that of an impostor. Along with a group of people from all over the world, he is dragged into the same sealed, bizarre incident. A deformed child crawling like a beast, A demonic baby still attached to half an umbilical cord, A pregnant woman with two heads, An impostor whose mouth stretches from the corners to the back 130Reads—Score123Shelves
- 31 Old Tales of Strange Happenings 民间旧诡事 The woman in red who knocks on doors late at night, the soul-binding bones beneath the locust tree, the copper-bell curse in an old house in an abandoned village... These old tales of the uncanny, scattered across the countryside, are the idle chatter of old folks and stories sealed away by time... 39Reads—Score—Shelves
- 32 Come Listen to a Ghost Story! 来听诡故事！ The chime of midnight is the switch that starts each story. Hidden here are 365 eerie legends from every corner of the world. Maybe it's the strange sobbing in the night-shift office during overtime, a stranger's long hair beside your pillow in an old residential complex, or a passenger in a white dress who vanishes in front of a cemetery. One short ghost story every night, tearing through the everyday facade to reveal the chilling truth beneath. Do you dare open this collection of midnight tale 34Reads—Score—Shelves
- 33 Fierce Netherworld: Starting as a Rainy-Night Killer 凶冥空间：从雨夜杀人魔开始 [Infinite Flow + The Weird Arrives, No Heroine] Could the beautiful new neighbor really be a serial killer who strikes on rainy nights? Gu Li sees through her disguise, only to get dragged into an even stranger space. Black fog rolls in and terror descends. To survive, Gu Li searches for a way to clear each instance, solving puzzles like mad and escaping certain death. But after completing a series of missions, he discovers that the weird has already arrived in the real world, and a supernatural 5.3kReads7.1Score365Shelves
- 34 The Hall of Mirrors 镜厅 [Infinite Flow] + [Mild Horror] + [One Heroine] + [Instances] The moment you step inside, you enter the endless Mirror Abyss. Every Mirror Abyss holds the lingering obsession of someone who has died. The rules for survival must be tested with human lives. More terrifying than ghosts are human hearts. Some stand shoulder to shoulder in the darkness, while others stab their companions in the back when all seems lost. Can the rifts deep within the Mirror Abyss ever be repaired? Put your mind to 3kReads6.4Score362Shelves
- 35 The Endtime Haunted Town 终焉诡镇 [Infinite Flow] [Mystery Solving] [Mildly Frightening] [One Female Lead] A red letter, a rusty key, a town shrouded in mist… The people of the town called the place they lived the “Ghost Town.” There was an altar in the Ghost Town. Every so often, someone had to offer up their life and take part in a ritual. Otherwise, unimaginable things would happen in the town. When Xu Yuan arrived in this eerie town carrying a letter, there was no way out. He could only complete one terrifying ritual game af 30Reads7.0Score—Shelves
- 36 I Came from the Underworld to Deal with Those Who Defy the Rules 我从地府来，专治规则不服 I Came from the Underworld to Make the Rules Behave 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 37 I Work as a Gravekeeper in an Unknown Cemetery 我在无名墓园当守墓人 [Infinite Flow + Mild Horror + Mild Suspense + Survival + Plot Twists] The protagonist isn’t a do-gooder, the villains aren’t idiots, the plot doesn’t drag, and every mystery gets resolved; An unnamed Taoist temple deep in the Hundred Thousand Mountains; A merchant ship adrift across a vast sea; A mysterious ruin in an ancient forest; An endless desert stretching beyond the horizon; Snow-capped mountains where the snow never melts; A breathtaking woman in red who is a ghost, and an entity that c —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 38 The Haunted House: The End of the Mist World 2 诡舍：迷雾世界终点2 [Transmigrate into a book + infinite flow + mild horror + instances + single heroine] Fu Jinyue unexpectedly transmigrates into the world of a book. After going through one bizarre, uncanny instance mission after another, Fu Jinyue gradually gets closer to the truth: the secrets of the four great families, and whether rebirth truly exists... 128Reads—Score—Shelves
- 39 True Accounts of Eerie Dreams: A Big Shot's Practical Guide to Faking It 诡梦实录：假装大佬实战教学 [No Romance + Infinite Flow + Forced Rank Skipping] Undergoing a major rewrite. The ending of the first dungeon is being written now, and the whole dungeon will be posted at once when it's finished. Currently rewritten up to Chapter 15. New blurb: Before Mo Bugui dies, the System asks her if she is willing to cooperate and play the role of a high-level player. She is still hesitating when the monsters outside draw closer. Desperate to survive and pay for her mother's medical bills, Mo Bugui grit —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 40 Grandpa Started the Trouble, Three Generations Must Pay 爷爷闯下的祸，三代来还 The trouble Grandpa caused will take three generations to repay. 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 41 Eerie: Trapped in a Horror Game 诡异：我被困在恐怖游戏中 (Survival + no System + mild horror + mystery and deduction + no goody-two-shoes protagonist + no invincibility) There has always been a rumor circulating online: in the eerie mobile game Candle, the characters drawn by players aren’t just AI data. They’re real, living people. Xu Hanshan, one of the world’s top-ranked players, doesn’t believe it. But... While streaming the game, a bizarre bug sends him plunging into Candle’s eerie world as a one-star starting character. Xu Hanshan doesn’t kn 56Reads8.6Score—Shelves
- 42 Supernatural Horror: Someone Behind the Wall Is Calling My Name 惊悚灵异：墙里有人叫我的名字 Horror and the Supernatural: Someone in the Wall Is Calling My Name 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 43 Rule Horror: Infinite Instances, A Grimoire of the Eerie 规则怪谈：无限副本，诡异图鉴 [Infinite-flow + instances + no romance + eerie + suspense + mind-bending + horror + supernatural + imaginative suspense] Worried there aren't enough instances to keep you reading? This book will satisfy you. At three in the morning, the eighth rule at the convenience store is written in blood. Wu Yan only wants to earn eight hundred yuan for a night shift, but he receives an illustrated book that turns its own pages. Rules-based horrors, urban legends, Nanyang curse magic, memetic contamination 24Reads—Score—Shelves
- 44 The Top Scholar Goes on a Killing Spree in a Horror Game 状元她在恐怖游戏杀疯了 [Infinite Flow + Horror Game + Mind-Bending Suspense + No Romance] Ji Yao, the top science student in her province and a hardcore gamer, enters a horror game with a body that could shut down at any moment. The entire livestream audience is waiting for the pink-haired “fragile vase” to die, betting she won’t last three seconds. Until When the rules start killing, she gives a cold laugh and mocks the dungeon’s logic for having bigger plot holes than the gaps left when Nuwa patched the sky. When mo 1.7kReads9.1Score231Shelves
- 45 After Losing My Memory, One Terrifying Ghostly Incident After Another 失忆后恐怖鬼事接连不断 (An alternate world. No tired tropes, no invincible protagonist, no plagiarism, entirely original. Any similarities will be changed immediately. Comedy, deadpan humor, no official pairing, a touch of horror, and characters with sound values.) Accidentally drawn into a paranormal incident: a girl whose mouth has been sealed shut, the walking dead with no eyes to see, monsters covered in tumors that crawl along the ground... Is the world turned upside down, or is this an elaborate hoax carefully s 5Reads—Score—Shelves
- 46 The Haunted House: The End of the Foggy World 诡舍：迷雾世界终点 [Transmigrate into a Book + Infinite Flow + Mild Horror + Survival + One Heroine] Fu Jinyue accidentally transmigrated into the world of a book. After going through one bizarre and eerie instance after another, he finally learned the answer... 369Reads—Score105Shelves
- 47 Strange Survival: Drawing an NPC as My Cheat from the Start 诡异求生：开局抽个NPC当外挂 [Rules-Based Horror + Infinite Flow + Card Draws + Beautiful Female NPCs + Supernatural Survival] Supernatural horrors descend, dragging countless people into one eerie world after another to fight for survival. Jiang Jue is sitting in a classroom when a countdown suddenly appears before his eyes. [3, 2, 1] [Welcome to the Dance of Death.] When he opens his eyes again, he is standing in the middle of a lavish court ball. The duke’s daughter before him is dressed in elaborate finery, her beauty b 10Reads—Score—Shelves
- 48 Clan Cultivation: From the Start, I Transmigrate into a Demonic Rope 家族修仙：开局穿越成了魔绳 #Cultivation Clan#Slow-Burn Ordinary-Mortal Story#No Female Lead#Decisive and Ruthless... Shen Mo transmigrates into a demon god sealed by a rope of Immortal King rank. A cultivation clan on the brink of destruction finds him. He can communicate with its members and lend them his power for a short time, but the price is their lives, essentially a sacrificial possession. He can also briefly possess outsiders, grow stronger, and clear away obstacles. From then on, he dwells within the demonic rope —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 49 Rule Horror: Every Rule Is Waiting for Me to Break It 规则怪谈：所有规则都在等我违规 Rule Horror: Every Rule Is Waiting for Me to Break It 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 50 The Eerie Abode: Infinite Flow Instances 诡所【无限流副本】 [Survival + No System + Mystery Solving + Supernatural Stories + Horror Atmosphere] [Fast-paced, enters the first instance in Chapter 2] [Ancient Mansion + Village + Campus + Hotel + Bus + Temple + Island + Skyscraper] Every city has a mysterious place called “Nirok Manor,” home to a group of residents marked with black patterns. Whenever a strange letter appears in their mailbox, whoever is named in it must undertake a perilous green-text mission! As Si Chen completes one green-text mission aft 41Reads—Score—Shelves
