Wu Heng took a few slow steps forward and carefully lifted the family portrait to examine it.
On the left was a cheerful little girl with twin ponytails, slightly chubby cheeks, and delicate features that made her look clever and adorable.
She clung with both arms to the woman in the middle. The woman was slender, middle-aged, and long-haired, with wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and a smile in her gaze.
Wu Heng stood on the right, a head taller than the two of them, grinning as he wrapped his right arm around the middle-aged woman's shoulders.
The photo had been taken three years ago.
Wu Heng studied it for a while, then went to the bedroom he remembered as his own and opened the door.
Against one wall stood an off-white wardrobe and a matching desk. There was also a soft bed and a bedside table, and nothing else.
Ignoring the pile of clothes in the corner and the crumpled tissues scattered across the floor, the room looked fairly tidy.
Wu Heng tossed the clothes into the trash can outside, then locked the living room door and his bedroom door. He went to the bedside table and used a charger to power up the phone in his pocket, which had run out of battery.
He put on the doctor's leather suit and found a black face mask to wear. Then, with a thought, he activated the Lighthouse Mark on his arm:
[Enter the Lighthouse?] Yes
In an instant, Wu Heng found himself standing in a spacious plaza.
The sky above was a deep, endless darkness, and the ground beneath his feet was smooth black tile.
A towering lighthouse stood at the center of the plaza.
The tower was steeped in the weight of time. Blood-red streams of light, like ripples on water, occasionally coursed across its surface.
The light at its peak rotated without pause, casting a warm glow over the plaza and driving back the thick darkness around it.
Wu Heng peered into the distance. At the edge of the light, it seemed to clash with the darkness, wavering back and forth in a narrow border.
Yet some faint beams pierced the darkness, revealing winding paths woven from warm light. Miniature lighthouses stood on either side of each path.
They were called miniature lighthouses, but judging by their distance and height, they were still several stories tall.
Each gave off a faint glow, like a candle lit in the darkness.
The whole cluster of lighthouses looked like a colossal beacon burning in the dark, with row after row of candles lit along its outermost edge, extending the reach of the light even farther.
From the endless darkness in the distance came soul-shaking roars, heavy footsteps, and all manner of strange cries and shrieks.
Wu Heng could even sense something moving restlessly through the darkness, circling the lighthouse's glow.
But the lighthouse's light shut all of it out, as if forming a protective barrier.
Wu Heng turned his gaze back to the people in the plaza.
There weren't many people there. Most wore some kind of disguise and hurried along alone.
Some wore matching badges or uniforms. They gathered in groups of three or five, clearly belonging to different organizations, and kept their voices low as they talked.
There were also some strange figures: some had ghostly faces, some wore funeral clothes and had no faces, some drifted through the air with nooses around their necks, some crawled with their joints bent backward, some were as thin as lampposts, and some looked like zombies.
Ordinary people in masks and disguises gave these strange figures a wide berth.
In the central area beneath the main Lighthouse stood a circle of tables. Only a few had someone with strange features sitting behind them.
A sign stood on each table.
"The Crow Society is recruiting. Members can join the Lifeless Tower. Interested parties, wait here. An examiner will arrive at 22:00 Lighthouse Time every day."
Below it was an introduction to the Crow Society: it had been founded by Crow, the master of the Lifeless Tower, in Blue Star year 2124, and had over a hundred members.
"The Occult Alliance is recruiting. We specialize in ancient worlds and only accept people from the Bright Realm."
"The Cangyue Alliance is recruiting. Newcomers can receive a full set of standard-issue Cangyue Star solo combat gear for free..."
Row after row of recruitment ads covered the tables.
As Wu Heng looked around, a man suddenly appeared beside him. He wore a Taoist robe, carried a peachwood sword on his back, and wore a coin-patterned mask.
He had a handsome bearing and an air of unyielding resolve.
He didn't look like a Taoist priest so much as a swordsman!
As if sensing Wu Heng's gaze, he turned and saw him staring. He smiled faintly and cupped his hands.
"I'm Duanmu Ruixiong. I just made it through a scenario and have only just entered the Lighthouse for the first time. A pleasure to meet you."
"Oh, likewise. This is my first time here too."
Looking at Duanmu Ruixiong's getup, Wu Heng figured he was another man who'd had an unusual stroke of luck. He just didn't know which Taoist ghost-story world he'd entered.
The two of them stood around looking at their surroundings with such curiosity that they clearly stood out from everyone hurrying past.
Several people noticed and swarmed over.
"Are you newcomers? Want a copy of the Lighthouse Encyclopedia? It's compiled by the Ghost Shadow Tower Master. Every newcomer needs one, and it comes with a booklet of intelligence."
A woman in a black robe and white mask held up a book as she spoke.
"Newcomers, the 1000 Detailed Explanations of the Lighthouse can answer all your questions. It's certified by the Puppet Tower Master, and it comes with intelligence too."
Another person, wearing a gorilla mask, held up a set of booklets.
"Learn the Lighthouse in Two Hours," "Three Thousand Questions About the Lighthouse"...
A crowd of people held up intelligence guides compiled by their respective Tower Masters, all talking over one another as they made their pitches.
"How much are they?" Wu Heng asked.
"100 survival points!"
"Same price."
They all charged the same amount. No one was undercutting the others.
"You, you, and you stay. The rest of you, forget it." Duanmu Ruixiong waved a hand grandly and pointed out the five people who'd mentioned that their books came with intelligence, one after another.
"Brother, in Lighthouse Space, intelligence is everything. Now's not the time to be stingy. You get nothing without giving something."
Duanmu Ruixiong held up the five booklets and intelligence letters he'd bought and waved them at Wu Heng.
"Uh, you're right, Brother Duanmu. But I'm short on cash, so I can only just manage to buy two."
"A shame." Duanmu Ruixiong looked at Wu Heng regretfully and sighed in disappointment.
Wu Heng chose the Lighthouse Detailed Guide 100 and the Lighthouse Encyclopedia.
Since the two of them were standing at the front of the crowd, the others clearly didn't dare shove them around.
Wu Heng held the two booklets and casually flipped through them, comparing their contents.
"Within the main Lighthouse's range of light is a safe zone."
"When transported to a scenario world, you will appear at a random location within five hundred li of the main character."
"The darkness outside the Lighthouse is known as the Mystery Domain. Anyone who enters dies."
"Every twelve fixed scenario months, Lights-Out Day arrives. All Tower Guardians enter a large-scale horror scenario, where deaths are expected. There are only three and a half scenario months left until the next Lights-Out Day."
After glancing through a couple of pages, Wu Heng decided to head back and read them properly later. He planned to keep exploring for now. The people beside him who had been hawking their wares saw that he wasn't going to buy anything else and were about to disperse.
'Her eyes, her eyes...'
'Like... like starlight shining...'
A Cantonese song suddenly began playing from a spot a hundred meters behind Wu Heng and the others.
Wu Heng immediately recognized it as "Ghost Bride," the theme song from Vampire Expert.
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