A Dark Presence in the Haunted House

After discovering that supernatural creatures seemed to exist in this world, what worried Li Wei most wasn't fighting vampires, serial killers, or werewolves. It was curses, ghosts... things whose true nature was almost impossible to understand, let alone figure out how to deal with.

At the very least, they weren't things ordinary weapons could destroy.

Li Wei felt the magazines in his pocket. This time, he had brought silver bullets and incendiary rounds, but no mercury rounds. His plan was simple: if he really couldn't handle things, he would burn this damned place to the ground. As for the silver bullets-he could only pray they might prove useful.

Even Li Wei's system couldn't offer much help in this regard. His only advantage was that he had watched, read, and played a few thousand more horror movies, novels, and games from every era and country than the people of this world. The experience they offered would probably, perhaps, possibly, maybe, hopefully help with this investigation.

What else could I do? Clutch the All-Seeing Eye and pray for the Holy Lord's protection?

That did sound like something the nun might do.

As for what Katie would do, Li Wei had no idea.

The others... well, they would have to leave it to fate.

"Welcome, guest."

A voice suddenly sounded beside Li Wei's ear. Almost instantly, he spun around, raised his gun, and aimed toward its source.

Then he saw a maid standing quietly beside the door, watching him.

"The banquet has already begun."

"Banquet?"

Li Wei frowned and looked toward the door beside him. Sure enough, he could hear music, conversation, and the clinking of cutlery inside. But the sounds resembled the noisy background audio in a game. He could make out overlapping voices, but couldn't understand a word.

"Who's hosting the banquet..."

Li Wei looked back at the maid, only to discover that all that stood before him now was a wooden puppet in a maid's uniform.

Good thing I'm a seasoned veteran. I've seen plenty.

Li Wei's cheek twitched, then quickly returned to normal. Thanks to the convenience of the information age, practically every form of fear humanity could conceive had already been thoroughly explored in movies, games, and novels. So he remained fairly composed.

Had Katie been here, she might have screamed and punched it outright.

Looking away again, Li Wei studied the door before him. After a moment's hesitation, he reached out and pushed it open.

The hubbub vanished instantly.

Only a tape recorder continued playing music. Li Wei entered the room and saw several dolls dressed as guests seated around a long dining table. Some held knives and forks, while others held wineglasses. Yet every doll had turned its head toward the doorway, as though they weren't dolls at all, but living people staring at this uninvited guest.

"This would make a pretty entertaining escape room."

Li Wei's quip helped settle his nerves again. That was right-for him, this felt like a real-life escape room. At least so far, no monsters had attacked him. But honestly, he would rather have something come after him than stand here trading startling looks with these wooden figures.

"Sorry to intrude."

Li Wei removed his hat and nodded to the puppets. When he raised his head again, the dolls that had been staring at him had turned back to gaze at the food before them.

Ah, I know this one.

Anyone else would probably have been terrified by now. Li Wei, however, wasn't particularly frightened. He had seen scenes like this so often in horror movies that he was sick of them. The dolls would move when his attention wandered, then stop whenever he looked at them.

Just like a game of red light, green light.

So would they kill me?

Li Wei wasn't sure, so he turned to examine his surroundings. The entire room was spotless and tidy, nothing like a house that had been abandoned for years. Numerous oil paintings hung nearby. He knew that portraits displayed in places like this usually depicted the family's highest-ranking members, successive holders of its noble title, and so on.

Of course, with the advent of the steam age and the invention of cameras, black-and-white photographs had gradually replaced oil paintings as a new means of recording people's likenesses.

This family, however, apparently still followed the old ways. The oil paintings on either side depicted successive heads of the household.

As he walked, Li Wei compared what he saw with the information he had gathered earlier. Clearly, this wasn't the original family. It looked more like the last family to disappear...

Suddenly, Li Wei felt someone seize his wrist. He turned to find a boy doll seated beside him staring up at him. Somehow, its hand had closed around his wrist.

It's all the usual tricks. Stay calm, stay calm.

Li Wei sighed inwardly and pulled his hand free of the doll's grip. Then something suddenly occurred to him.

In a horror game, this would be a triggered cutscene. Could there be a clue nearby?

At that thought, Li Wei stopped again and carefully examined his surroundings.

Then his gaze sharpened.

Once he concentrated, Li Wei quickly spotted something. It was an oil painting. Judging by its position, it should have depicted the current head of the household. The man looked stern, and Li Wei had never seen him before. But that didn't matter, because he soon found what he was looking for in the painting.

The man in the portrait held his right hand against his chest. Li Wei could see a ring on his right index finger.

It was a bright red ring. Whether by the painter's deliberate choice or not, it didn't have the texture of a gemstone. Instead, it seemed fluid, like flowing blood held in place!

And Li Wei had seen that ring before!

At the same time, a system notification finally appeared before his eyes.

[Special quest activated: A Dark Presence in the Haunted House]

[Quest objective: Find the source of evil in this house]

[Quest rewards: Lifespan +80, authorization to own Crimson Temptation, random reward]

"These things are connected too?"

Staring at the ring in the painting, Li Wei's expression grew grave. While investigating the vampire, he had visited that jewelry store and seen the ring. According to the diary and the shop assistant, the vampire had clearly been very interested in it.

Li Wei also remembered seeing some sort of vision when he examined the ring.

Wait, that's not right!

Looking at the quest notification again, Li Wei suddenly noticed the problem.

The quest reward was actually ownership of that ring?

What does that mean? How could ownership of a mere ring be a quest reward?

Couldn't I just go and buy it? If the lifespan reward reflects the difficulty, this quest is far harder than the vampire one! I'd be risking my life just to gain ownership of a ring-hmm?

Wait... if that's the case...

After carefully recalling everything that had happened, Li Wei noticed something. Back at the jewelry store, what had he done after examining the ring?

He had put it back in its box!

Why did I do that? Thinking about it now, Betty was interested in the ring, and I saw a vision through it. So why didn't I buy it to study it more closely, instead of putting it back?

And Betty, too... if she really liked that ring, even if she didn't have the money, couldn't she have stolen it with her vampire abilities?

Yet as far as he could tell, neither Li Wei nor Betty had ever even considered simply taking the ring away.

Why was that?

Could it be just as this quest says-that I can only take the ring after obtaining authorization to own it?

Then what was going on with these portraits?

Li Wei turned toward the dining table again, but this time there was no one behind him. It was as though the guests had finished their meal and left while he was admiring the painting.

"If it's just a puzzle game, I can accept that."

Li Wei didn't like horror escape games, but he could handle a puzzle game.

He searched the dining room again. Once he was certain there was nothing else unusual, he approached the door. Just then, he heard children laughing and playing outside, along with the running footsteps of their roughhousing. At those sounds, Li Wei paused again before reaching out and pushing open the door.

The corridor before him looked different this time, somewhat dilapidated. A boy and a girl were playing there, the boy running and the girl chasing him. A maid beside them was trying to help the girl keep from falling. The boy stood at the foot of the stairs leading to the second floor at the end of the corridor, making a face at the girl.

Naturally, they were all dolls.

Li Wei fell silent for a moment, then headed toward the stairs. He had a feeling that these dolls were appearing before him as a kind of "guide," and that all of this most likely had something to do with that ring...

Climbing the stairs, Li Wei soon saw another row of oil paintings. Clearly, the people depicted weren't the same ones he had seen in the dining room.

The reason was simple: their family crests were different.

Li Wei studied the paintings as he advanced, then stopped before the portrait at the top of the second-floor stairs.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

Hurried footsteps sounded behind Li Wei, passed him, and entered the upstairs corridor. Then he heard a door slam, followed by screaming and arguing.

They seemed to be putting on a performance.

By now, Li Wei had more or less figured it out. These dolls apparently represented people who had once lived in the house, reenacting their daily lives here.

The arguing ahead sounded like the conversation in the dining room-some kind of background noise. Li Wei could hear a man's angry shouts and a woman's screams, but couldn't make out what they were fighting about.

He would soon find out, though.

Li Wei pushed open the door and walked inside.

The arguing stopped abruptly.

The bedroom was in utter disarray. A man held a sharp knife and pinned a woman to the bed, the blade raised high. The woman had both hands wrapped around his wrist, struggling to escape his hold. On the floor, two children lay in pools of blood.

Li Wei glanced around, then looked at the wall beside the bed. An oil painting hung there, showing a loving couple. What caught his attention wasn't the couple themselves, but the man's right hand as he held his wife. On his index finger was another blood-red ring.

It was identical to the previous one.

Li Wei looked back at the pair on the bed. The man's pose had changed; his blade was descending now. Yet there was no ring on the hand holding the knife.

The woman seemed to sense the approaching danger as well. Her eyes bulged, filled with terror and despair, as though she were alive... hmm?

Li Wei stared at the woman for a moment. Then his gaze sharpened, and a flash of gray passed through his eyes.

At the same time, he abruptly raised his gun!

Bang!

The gunshot rang out, but the male doll, which had been frozen in the act of stabbing, suddenly vanished. Li Wei swiftly shifted his gaze-and saw it clinging upside down to the ceiling on all fours like a spider!

It stared at Li Wei and opened its mouth, aiming that pitch-black opening at him like the muzzle of a gun.

Clack-!

The puppet thrust out its hand and hurled its knife at Li Wei. In that instant, his figure abruptly flickered and vanished, then reappeared in the shadows of another corner. At the same time, his gun was already aimed at his target again!

Shadow Movement!

Bang!!

This time, Li Wei didn't miss. The doll's head exploded into fragments, and its headless body fell from the ceiling and slammed into the floor.

As the doll hit the floor, the female doll on the bed emitted a flash of light. Then Li Wei saw Katie tumble out of the light and crash headfirst into the nearby wall. Fortunately, the young lady's skull was hard enough to spare her a head covered in bumps. Even so, she clutched her head and moaned softly in pain.

Only when she looked up and saw Li Wei did she breathe a sigh of relief.

"Th-that was terrifying, Mr. Detective! I thought I was going to die!"

"That certainly was dangerous."

Li Wei cast a wary glance at the puppet whose head he had shattered. It still lay on the floor, and blood was even flowing from the broken opening in its wooden head...

Then Li Wei turned to Katie.

"What exactly happened?"