This Time, He Could Only Rely on His Teammates

"Vengeful Spirit Affinity currently owned:

Yin Guoheng (Lingering Spirit): Stranger (you're not friends yet; he helped you purely out of instinct)

Du Ruoshui (Lingering Spirit): Stranger

Yin Munan (Lingering Spirit): Stranger

Yin Xiaoxiao (Vengeful Spirit): Slightly Favorable Impression (you've caught her attention. In her eyes, you're a little closer than a stranger)

Zhang Ya (Red-Clad Specter): Devoted Love (you're special to her. She likes you, but she likes you after you've died)

Vengeful Spirit Affinity has been unlocked. You can raise a vengeful spirit's affinity by making her hear screams imbued with tourists' negative emotions, giving her items that carry resentment, or completing affinity missions.

Once her affinity reaches a certain level, she'll selectively obey your instructions.

Note: Only vengeful spirits steeped in resentment and bloodthirsty evil come with affinity missions. Completing an affinity mission can greatly increase her favorability and get her to help you do one thing that doesn't go against her will!"

This newly unlocked feature in the mobile game gave Chen Ge a deeper understanding of the "people" around him.

He lifted the smallest Ragdoll out of his pocket. On the surface, she looked no different from the other Ragdolls, but the mobile game had given her a different rating. The other three were all Lingering Spirits; only she was a Vengeful Spirit.

"With a look like that, you're a vengeful spirit?" Chen Ge poked Xiaoxiao's cheek. Dangling in midair, Xiaoxiao seemed a little angry. She made him think of an unweaned kitten, claws out and yowling, I'm really fierce!

"This counts as an unexpected bonus, I guess." If Yin Xiaoxiao was a gentle, kind-hearted exception among vengeful spirits, then Zhang Ya was probably at the other extreme. This was the first time he'd seen the mobile game give a rating specifically for a Red-Clad Specter.

"What's different about a Red-Clad Specter from an ordinary vengeful spirit?" Chen Ge tried tapping Zhang Ya's name. The screen flashed, and a blood-red interface appeared.

"Accept Zhang Ya's affinity mission? Warning! This mission carries a certain degree of danger!"

The blood-red exclusive interface made Chen Ge break out in a cold sweat. "Didn't it say that only vengeful spirits steeped in resentment and bloodthirsty evil came with affinity missions? Am I really that lucky in some way? Did I just pull a top-tier one at random?"

What Chen Ge really meant was, I don't want a top-tier one like this! But he was afraid Zhang Ya, hidden somewhere nearby, might hear him, so he didn't dare say it aloud.

"Devoted Love, and she likes me after I die. This woman's got something wrong with her!"

After exiting the mobile game, the fear the Mirror Monster had inspired in Chen Ge had completely faded. Compared with the one he'd drawn in the lottery, the shadow in the mirror seemed pretty ordinary.

That didn't mean he'd let it go, though. On the contrary, Chen Ge had already made it a target he'd eliminate at any cost. Only after dealing with the Mirror Monster would the House of Horrors be safe to open.

Unlocking Vengeful Spirit Affinity gave Chen Ge more options. In his view, this feature in the Black Phone was probably meant to prepare him to have vengeful spirits work at the House of Horrors later.

As the game's content continued to expand, Chen Ge grew more and more interested in it.

After looking over the newly unlocked feature, Chen Ge began examining his second reward—Yin Pupil.

The reward from a Nightmare-level mission could change his body. Chen Ge tried looking into the distance. Aside from seeing a little more clearly in the dark, the Yin Pupil didn't seem to have any other effect.

"Maybe this reward, like Corpse Makeup, needs a specific setting to activate." The floor was covered in mirror shards. He picked one up and held it in front of his face. Judging by his appearance, his eyes hadn't changed at all. They looked just like an ordinary person's.

"Literally speaking, Yin Pupil should let me see things ordinary people can't, but..." Chen Ge held Xiaoxiao in front of his eyes, but he didn't see anything strange. "Is it because I haven't figured out how to use it, or are there special techniques?"

After fumbling around for a while without getting anywhere, Chen Ge stopped worrying about it.

He stretched his numb limbs, brought his phone in front of him, and began editing a video right there in the bathroom.

"I went through all that trouble. It'd be a shame not to share it with more people."

First, he uploaded the original video to the Paranormal Forum. It was four in the morning, and Chen Ge hadn't expected many people to watch. But as soon as his new video went up, people started commenting.

Chen Ge glanced at the comments. The very first one was from the forum administrator. After thinking for a moment, he added a written account of what had happened in the game beneath the video.

Two or three minutes later, the comments began piling up. Chen Ge's account had already become fairly well known on the forum. Some people had even fallen asleep, only to be woken by their friends so they could get up and watch the video.

"Lying alone in a bathtub full of water at three thirty in the morning? Forget anything else—even with the lights on, I wouldn't dare."

"This video is even creepier than the last one the OP posted!"

"Did you hear any strange noises underwater? Or see anything weird? Please reply, oh great one!"

A few of the comments did make good points. Chen Ge skimmed them, just like last time, without replying, then left the forum and started editing the video.

He cut together the footage from when he got into the bathtub to when he finally broke free. It came to sixty-three seconds in total.

Short videos usually did better when they were shorter and more shocking.

But this time, Chen Ge went against the grain and posted a sixty-three-second video titled "Challenge: Hold Your Breath for One Minute."

Everyone following Chen Ge's ID received a notification as soon as the video was posted. Some people started commenting before they'd even finished watching.

"A breath-holding challenge? No horror video today?"

"Quit the theatrics. Isn't challenging yourself to down a bottle of liquor more exciting than this?"

"One minute holding my breath? I'll give it a try too."

"Nothing to see here. The streamer's run out of ideas—What the hell! What is that thing watching me from beside the bathtub? Get out of my phone!"