Chapter 6: The Haunted House Evil Spirit

The moment Xie Sui entered the room, the door slammed shut, separating him from the two Little Ghosts carrying the camera and the lighting.

Xie Sui straightened up and turned to look at the thing that had attacked him.

The thing that had attacked him and forced him into this blood-red room was the long-haired female ghost who had appeared behind him outside The Haunted House.

The female ghost’s withered face was full of eerie deathly aura, and her blood-red eyes, hidden behind her straw-like long hair, were staring at Xie Sui with venomous hatred. Her sharp nails were almost as long as her fingers, and she was slowly lowering them from an outstretched position. Clearly, the chill Xie Sui felt earlier was caused by the movement of her ten fingers, which were as sharp as daggers.

Unlike its state outside The Haunted House, this female ghost was now extremely aggressive, and her body was no longer semi-transparent. In this blood-red room, the female ghost actually possessed a physical form.

Looking down, Xie Sui noticed something extending from the woman’s white dress, connected to the fleshy floor.

Looking at the bright red ‘umbilical cord’ that bound the female ghost like a chain, a look of realization appeared on Xie Sui’s face.

He roughly understood what this Haunted House actually was.

Just as Xie Sui was locked in the room, the livestream, which could only see the tightly closed door, began to boil over again.

“Holy crap! The one that suddenly appeared behind the streamer just now was the female ghost from outside The Haunted House, right! The streamer is doomed!”

“I wonder if the streamer can hold out until the Law Enforcement Team arrives. By the way, can the Little Ghosts the streamer keeps beat that female ghost? She looks really fierce.”

“Just wait. It’s a pity the streamer doesn’t have a moderator, otherwise we could have the moderator open a bet.”

Opening a bet was a form of entertainment on the Blue Sea Livestream platform. The gameplay was similar to gambling, but the stakes were not money, but rather the unique points exclusive to Blue Sea Livestream. Points could only be obtained by completing daily tasks on the platform, such as watching a livestream for thirty minutes. Although points could not be exchanged for cash, they could be used within the platform to redeem video VIP memberships or gifts to tip streamers. Gifts bought with points held the same value as those exchanged for money, and the streamer would still receive the same share of the profit.

[‘Ganfan Huahua Shijie’ gifted Space Battleship x4]

[Fan value reached 18,880. ‘Ganfan Huahua Shijie’ has automatically obtained the moderator title.]

“Whoa, Boss Huahua Shijie is so generous! Open the bet, open the bet! Bet on whether the one walking out of that room is the female ghost or the streamer!”

“Wait, didn’t you notice that the protruding face is the previous outdoor streamer who went missing? I watched that guy’s stream too, he also disappeared on the second floor!”

“So it’s the previous missing streamer? Fine, then I’ll bet 1,000 points on the female ghost winning.”

Clearly, most of the viewers in the livestream were more interested in the bet that had just begun than in the streamer’s safety.

After all, there was no sense of reality through a screen. To the viewers who enjoyed watching for entertainment, a human life was just an insignificant number. If this streamer was gone, there would always be another one to provide amusement.

With ‘Ganfan Huahua Shijie’ opening the bet, the points gambling in the livestream was quickly organized. Most people bet on the female ghost, wagering that Xie Sui would be consumed by this Haunted House just like the three previous groups of missing streamers.

Although the dense crowd of infant souls that had suddenly appeared around Xie Sui earlier looked terrifying, in most people’s eyes, babies were naturally weak. Even if they turned into ghosts, they certainly wouldn’t be as dangerous as an adult female ghost.

Moreover, the female ghost’s two sudden appearances looked very cool, and the Water Friends in the livestream had great confidence in this ghost sister’s combat strength. As for whether Xie Sui lived or died… that sort of thing didn’t matter.

Inside the room, after the door closed, neither the female ghost nor the giant face made a move. Xie Sui took two steps to the side, forming a triangular composition with the female ghost and the giant face that occupied the entire wall as they confronted each other.

After seeing this female ghost, Xie Sui understood what was going on with The Haunted House.

He had wondered why he couldn’t sense any other ghosts in this house. It was because the female ghost was part of the house itself.

This Haunted House was alive. It was eating people.

The people it ate would have their souls trapped here as Earthbound Spirits¹, never to be reincarnated. They would become malevolent spirits, part of The Haunted House, helping it lure in those who came to explore.

The female ghost appearing outside was likely just the ‘eyes’ of The Haunted House, used to confirm the number of humans around its perimeter. Ghosts trapped by The Haunted House would lose their offensive power once they left its range. The fact that the female ghost appeared behind Xie Sui earlier without immediately attacking him was the best proof of this.

After years of accumulation, some ancient objects or houses would give birth to a ‘spirit.’ These spirits generally lacked independent consciousness, being merely a thin sliver of intelligence born from the object’s desire to protect its master.

In a normal house, a guardian spirit would appear to keep the home safe, but this Haunted House was quite interesting. What it wanted was for more people to die inside its body… It was truly a malicious ‘spirit,’ though he didn’t know if it was due to the influence of the house’s terrible Feng Shui.

In this situation, it was no wonder his earlier gesture of offering a cigarette to the female ghost had been useless, because the one truly causing the trouble was The Haunted House itself.

Xie Sui took off the lapel microphone, turned off the switch, and tucked it into his inner coat pocket along with his phone. A lapel microphone cost over five hundred yuan, and even a second-hand one was over three hundred. He couldn’t bear to just toss it aside.

Sometimes he really envied the protagonists of action movies. They could crash cars worth tens of millions without even blinking.

In the short time it took Xie Sui to put away the microphone, three more ghostly figures similar to the long-haired female ghost appeared out of thin air. They looked like dried mummies, clearly having died of dehydration and starvation.

At the same time, the other two walls of the room also underwent changes, as two more giant faces protruded from the fleshy walls. The only wall that remained unchanged was the one with the door, yet that direction was firmly blocked by four ghostly figures, leaving no gap for escape.

The killing intent inside the room was heavy, as if The Haunted House wanted to keep Xie Sui in this room forever.

Standing in the center of the room, surrounded by numerous ghosts, Xie Sui looked like a lamb to the slaughter. However, instead of being afraid, he began to laugh.

“Suddenly bringing out so many ghosts, are you trying to gang up on me? That won’t do… the souls of my younger brothers and sisters are incredibly delicate. It would break my heart if even one of them got hurt.”

As his voice fell, a thick layer of malevolence suddenly masked his gentle and refined face. His already excessively pale skin instantly lost all color, and the blue-purple veins hidden beneath his skin became increasingly obvious, crawling over his pale, almost transparent skin like patterns on celadon porcelain.

The most terrifying part was his pitch-black, lightless eyes. Blood color gradually occupied the dark pupils, and his pupils slowly split into two, turning into blood-red Double Pupils².

Xie Sui looked perfectly at home standing among the group of ghosts. In fact, he looked even more terrifying than they did. For a moment, it was impossible to tell who was human and who was a ghost.

“It was truly thoughtful of you to deliver yourselves to me, saving me the trouble of hunting you down one by one…”

…

The livestream feed remained fixed on the door. After only two or three minutes, the tightly closed door suddenly swung open.

The Water Friends who were watching the livestream in real-time were all stunned. Then, under the clear white light of the studio lamp, they saw an unharmed Xie Sui walk out from the room.

Looking into the room through the open door, the pulsating flesh and giant human faces they had seen earlier seemed like nothing more than a hallucination. Aside from being somewhat dilapidated, the layout of the room Xie Sui had just exited was no different from an ordinary room.

The livestream audience was completely dumbfounded.

Xie Sui, acting as if nothing had happened, unhurriedly clipped his lapel microphone back onto his collar. He smiled at the camera floating in the air and said, “Don’t worry, that was also a holographic projection.”

[Streamer, I totally believe your lies]

[Man, that ended so fast? Now I really do believe the streamer when he says those were holographic projections]

[Damn it, tricked by the streamer again. Big boss Ganfan Huahua Shijie, are you and the streamer playing us? My points, ugh, I’m bankrupt]

Xie Sui took out his phone and glanced at the livestream’s bullet comments. Upon seeing the four newly appeared Space Battleships, the smile on his face became much more sincere, and even the fatigue in his body vanished.

In any case, no matter who won the bet, he wouldn’t lose. Making money through livestreaming was truly easy.

A blue bullet comment with a crown icon broke through the surge of comments and was pinned to the very top of the livestream.

[Ganfan Huahua Shijie: Streamer! Where is the female ghost? Did you subdue her?]

“The projector was accidentally broken just now, so the female ghost won’t be appearing tonight.” To prevent any issues with his livestream, Xie Sui quickly changed the subject. “I just found a few unconscious people in the room. They should be the streamers from the first three groups who came to explore The Haunted House.”

After saying this, he stepped aside so the camera could film the interior.

In that cramped room, six bodies appeared out of thin air, lying neatly on the floor.

The author has something to say:

The male lead’s ability is one of the important plot points, so the fight scene is skipped for now. It will be gradually revealed as the story unfolds.

I will only explain this once. Anything that feels off in future chapters is foreshadowing.

Translator’s Notes