North America
At a school in Round Clam Town.
"Hey, horror movies, I'm back with my brothers again. Today, we're continuing our classic American Horror Story series..."
A few days ago, Li Dan had been watching horror movie recaps on his phone while charging it on the second floor. Then a truck had sent him packing on the spot. That TV was on the second floor!
Getting hit by a truck was bad enough.
On top of that, a deck of Ghost Cards had appeared in Li Dan's mind. He didn't need to think twice to know it was the culprit behind his transmigration. One of the cards always displayed a line of text.
"No containable entity detected."
At first, he hadn't understood what "containable entity" meant. Then one day, after speaking with a priest from the Vatican, the card had displayed a notification.
"Trace of containable entity detected: Ghost Nun."
Li Dan had only heard of the Ghost Nun in the classic American Horror Story, The Conjuring Series.
Only then had Li Dan realized that life in North America was even more dangerous than he'd imagined.
Shootouts were small potatoes. It was the evil spirits, ghosts, and all kinds of serial killers and Deformed People that could really get you killed.
The biggest problem was that the ghosts and evil spirits here were downright unfriendly. Instead of just avenging themselves, they liked to kill innocent people at random. If he'd known, why had he watched horror movie recaps? Wouldn't romance and "movies" have been a better choice?
As for whether he should try to contain the Ghost Nun...
Give him a break. She was a demon sealed inside the Gate of Hell beneath a monastery. Could an ordinary person like him really contain something like that?
Of course, even so, he could at least accept the situation. He was still alive, after all.
What he really feared was getting caught up in Cloverfield, The Lighthouse, The Mist, or Call of Cthulhu...
That wouldn't be mere horror. It would be worse than hell.
Li Dan currently had 54 black Ghost Cards. The cards were divided into four suits: Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, and Clubs.
It was easy enough to understand. They worked just like the cards in the game of Dou Dizhu.
"Note: Having only 55 Ghost Cards does not mean you can contain only that many horrors."
The highest-ranking Ghost Cards were King K, Queen Q, and Jack, along with Big King and Little King, which stood outside the suits. They could also be called Big Ghost and Little Ghost.
Aces belonged to a special category.
The rest were number cards, from Two to Ten.
Kings and Queens could each have their own territory and space.
Every Ghost Card was blank on its face.
All kinds of horrors successfully contained would become his most loyal subordinates and Fusion materials. That was the basic rule of the Ghost Card game.
There were 54 Ghost Cards in total.
"Category: Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, Clubs"
The cards he could use right now were the Twos. Even a Two of every suit couldn't contain the Ghost Nun.
Her true identity was a demon from Hell. Could a Two really contain a Demon God without getting stuffed full and bursting?
The moment Li Dan had met the priest, the Ghost Nun might have set her sights on him. It was highly likely.
For an entity of the Ghost Nun's caliber, killing Li Dan might be no more than a casual afterthought.
Li Dan didn't want the Ghost Nun showing up at his door one day, so using his Ghost Cards to contain other ghosts and monsters had become a necessity.
After all, he didn't believe in God. He believed that only horror could fight horror.
The trouble was, taking that first step would be hard.
His thoughts didn't wander for long. Today was the day Li Dan had arranged to go sightseeing in North Carolina with a few friends from outside school.
The state's name sounded a little familiar, though. Wasn't it the site of some high-profile disaster...?
He couldn't remember.
Noon
On a winding road in North Carolina, a Jeep sped along the highway, with remote forests on either side.
There were three men and three women in the car. None of them were Black.
Two of the couples were dating. Scott and Carly were one couple; Li Dan didn't know the other very well.
The remaining woman was called Jessie. She wore a short crop top and standard jeans. She was a beautiful white woman with a wheat-colored complexion, tanned on purpose.
Quite a few Americans liked getting tans.
Jessie had invited Li Dan on the trip, but even on an outing, he hadn't forgotten to bring an Equalizer of All Beings. A handgun still gave him a little peace of mind.
Blue skies and white clouds. Even the detour around a traffic jam was scenic.
Everything seemed wonderful.
Until a tire blew, and then another car rear-ended them.
Scott got out to argue with the other driver. Just then, Jessie stared at her phone in frustration and complained to Li Dan.
"This place is so crappy there isn't even any signal. Li Dan, do you have any?"
The words "no signal" seemed to trigger some switch in Li Dan, making him instantly tense.
No signal in a classic American horror movie.
Then he learned that the man they'd collided with was named Chris and why he'd come here. That made things even clearer.
One classic splatter film in the American Horror Story genre was Wrong Turn. It was about Mutated Ogres—deformed cannibals born from exposure to chemical agents and generations of inbreeding—who hunted travelers.
Right on cue, the Ghost Card he'd been idly playing with in his hand offered a notification.
"Trace of containable entity detected: Mutated Ogres."
Li Dan glanced at the surrounding woods.
The Mutated Ogres far surpassed ordinary people in strength, endurance, and ability to withstand injury. Bare fists and ordinary clubs could hardly inflict fatal damage in a head-on fight, and they were skilled with all kinds of weapons, too.
Most importantly, there wasn't just one Mutated Ogre. All three brothers were here, and they even worked together.
They'd be difficult to deal with, but this might also be an opportunity.
After getting out to check the situation, Jessie turned back to Li Dan and asked, "Li Dan, do you want to go with us to call for roadside assistance, or stay here with Evan and the others and wait for help?"
Listening to Chris, Li Dan said, "We shouldn't split up. It's not safe here. I heard there are Ogres in this area."
"Ogres? Dude, are you trying to make us laugh to death?" Evan burst out laughing.
There was no question that the others didn't believe in Ogres, either.
Classic disbelief...
Li Dan had no choice but to go with Jessie, Chris, Scott, and Carly. They planned to walk along the road and see if they could find a place with a signal to call for help.
Though Li Dan knew Wrong Turn, he'd clearly forgotten most of the plot and only remembered the general outline.
Besides, it had a whole series.
They just kept coming. There was no end to them.
Chris laughed at the sight of him. "Come on, relax. This is America. How could Ogres possibly exist?"
Li Dan was on edge because he didn't want to end up like the cops at the end, taking a crossbow bolt from the shadows straight to the head. That would be a pretty unfair way to die.
They followed the road, searching.
At a small fork, they spotted an old cabin. White smoke curled from its chimney.
Several rusted, long-abandoned cars were parked around it.
Chris suggested checking it out, and the group headed toward the dilapidated wooden cabin at the end of the fork.
Li Dan studied the area. These cars were probably left behind by travelers who'd passed through, only to fall victim to the Mutated Ogres and end up on their dinner plates.
Sometimes he really wanted to ask what the hell the police around here were doing.
And those damn phones never had any signal.
"Hey, maybe we should leave," Jessie said, stopping at the doorway as she took in their surroundings.
Chris, however, thought they had strength in numbers and nothing to fear. Besides, who knew how far away the next turnoff was? It might be dark by the time they reached it.
"Hello? Anyone home?"
Chris knocked and shouted, while the woman from the other couple picked up an iron rod and curiously tapped it against a wire fence, making it ring.
Li Dan watched this suicidal behavior in silence.
When no one answered, Chris went right ahead and pushed open the cabin door. Jessie had thought it was terribly rude, but seeing Li Dan follow right behind him, she said nothing more.
As soon as they entered,
the stench hit them.
The table held not only a few scraps of "human" remains, but also blackened blood that had dried recently. All kinds of things were piled haphazardly in every corner, along with a delicious meal simmering in a pot.
It looked less like a house than a storage room for trash.
Ignoring the others' nonstop chatter, Li Dan started looking for a weapon he could use.
Unfortunately, there was no Equalizer of All Beings in the house.
There were only a few melee weapons.
Li Dan casually picked up a rusty, battered machete.
Chris, Scott, and Carly didn't touch anything in the house. They thought Li Dan was making a fuss over nothing.
Jessie glanced at the machete Li Dan had taken and tried to dissuade him. "Li, those things belong to someone else. We can't just take them."
"Take it for self-defense."
Seeing Li Dan's serious expression, Jessie shrugged helplessly. "All right."
Jessie treated Li Dan differently from the others. Although he was an international student, he wasn't like the short, yellow-skinned Asians she usually saw. He was tall and handsome, with naturally pale skin. Most importantly, he had money.
The group had barely finished looking around the room when they heard a woman scream from inside.
They went to the innermost room and saw a dismembered woman's corpse soaking in the bathtub.
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