Actually, I'd Really Like to Play Along Too

The first floor.

[Ding! Blood Doll's attitude toward you has reached extreme terror. You have gained 100 EXP.]

[Ding! Burned Ghost's attitude toward you has reached psychological trauma. You have gained 150 EXP.]

[Ding! Long-Haired Ghost's personality trait [Timid] has successfully been changed to [Withdrawn] by you. You have gained 200 EXP.]

And so on.

[Ding! Your renown in Wandering Soul Alley has increased by 30!]

Lynn: "???"

Holding his chainsaw, he turned his head blankly and looked around.

Something's not right.

All I did was saw up a few puppets. Why did I suddenly get so much EXP? And what's with all those familiar names?

Could they all be in this room?

Lynn swiftly glanced around, then searched the room thoroughly with his chainsaw in hand, but found nothing else.

"Weird."

Lynn shrugged in bewilderment, then cleaned up the scene.

He sat back down on the chair as though nothing had happened, even pulling a small bottle of aged liquor from his coat. He poured it into a stemmed glass and savored it with his eyes closed.

In the Region Channel.

Eyes wide, the dark creatures finally began to recover from the horrifying scene they had just witnessed.

"I think this guy must have been toughened up ages ago! And judging by how he sawed those people up, that's definitely the result of spending years around that freak of a teacher!!"

"This guy doesn't get scared at all!"

"Exactly! I don't think making this guy crack is going to be easy!"

The Blood-Robed Evil Spirit narrowed her eyes and said:

"So what? No matter what, he's still just a frail human. If he isn't afraid of physical monsters, then what about elusive evil spirits? I refuse to believe he's immune to those too!"

Whoosh-

She yanked hard on another tentacle dangling beside her.

On the screen, Lynn was savoring his liquor with his eyes closed when he suddenly felt an icy breeze brush past his ear, making him shiver instinctively.

The flames of the two candlesticks on the table also suddenly began flickering wildly.

Lynn paused.

He put down his glass.

Turning to survey the dim surroundings, he asked in confusion:

"What are they playing at now?"

For some reason, the atmosphere around him seemed to have suddenly turned cold and sinister.

And just then.

All of a sudden.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lynn noticed that the eyes of the portrait in an oil painting hanging on the wall seemed to move.

Lynn quickly turned to look in that direction.

Folding his arms, he strode over to the painting on the wall and looked up at the blond, blue-eyed man depicted there, who looked like a human noble.

"So why is there an oil painting from the human world here?"

Lynn studied it curiously.

But what he failed to notice was that.

In the darkness behind him.

Something was approaching him, step by step.

The candle flames flickered wildly.

And it was then that Lynn slowly began to feel a chill on his shoulder, as though something had pressed down on it.

Almost instinctively, Lynn turned his head to look at his shoulder.

In an instant.

Their eyes met.

The deathly pale, rotting face of a female ghost, bleeding from all seven orifices, stared back at him from practically no distance at all.

"..."

"..."

An eerily profound silence settled over the room.

In the Region Channel.

Every dark creature watching the screen held their breath, eyes wide as they watched nervously.

"Exactly. These intangible ghosts are the most terrifying!"

"If I turned my head and saw that, I'd probably wet myself."

"Surely this human isn't so mentally tough that even something catching him completely off guard doesn't scare him!"

Everyone held their breath as they watched.

On the screen.

A few brief seconds of silence passed.

Then they suddenly saw Lynn wink flirtatiously at the female ghost's face on his shoulder.

Everyone: "(꒪Д꒪)ノ??"

The ghostly face seemed to freeze as well.

Because she could clearly sense that the human before her showed absolutely no fear at her appearance.

Lynn closed his eyes, exhaled, and sighed.

"Save your energy. Are you another extra that lady brought in to mess with me? Tell her to stop with all these fancy tricks. I came here as a guest, and treating your guest like this really puts me in an awkward position."

The ghostly face paused.

Then her eyes instantly widened, and her mouth stretched several meters wide as she let out a terrifying, howling scream at Lynn.

Smack-

Lynn delivered a crisp backhanded slap to the ghostly face.

Everyone: "!!!!"

The unexpected slap knocked the ghostly face's mouth straight back to normal, leaving her looking stunned.

Lynn shook out his hand and said with his eyes closed:

"Are you trying to get yourself killed, opening your mouth that wide?!"

The Region Channel.

"Wait! That's not right! That's not right at all! Isn't she an intangible ghost? Why did his slap land with such a crisp sound?! (ΩДΩ)!"

"Can he actually touch ghosts too?!"

"Something's wrong! Something's definitely wrong!"

On the screen.

After slapping the ghostly face back to normal, Lynn amiably reached out, grabbed the stunned face by the hair, and turned around. His gaze immediately landed on a headless, translucent body several meters behind him.

Just as amiably, Lynn placed her head back onto that transparent body.

Click, click-

He fitted it into place.

"Don't send your head flying around, and don't go scaring people for no reason. Wouldn't it be nice to be a quiet, well-behaved girl? Why insist on copying other people and frightening everyone?"

Lynn gently smoothed the hair along her rotting cheeks.

The ghost stared at him blankly, finally unable to stop herself from asking:

"How can you touch me?"

With a chuckle, Lynn promptly pulled an empty potion bottle from his coat and said:

"I'm a potion maker. I deal with evil spirits all year round. If you don't regularly drink potions that let you touch evil spirits, how are you supposed to operate on them?"

The ghost: "(꒪Д꒪)..."

Lynn charmingly lifted her hand and smiled like a gentleman. "Miss, what's your name? May I get to know you?"

That sudden, charming question, which sounded like a pickup line, instantly silenced the entire Region Channel.

Everyone stared blankly at the scene on the screen.

They had a nagging feeling that things were gradually heading in a strange direction.

Something wasn't right!

Something really wasn't right!

On the screen, the female ghost was instantly at a loss as well. Then she remembered the lady of the house's instructions and hurriedly contorted her face, desperately trying to create a terrifying scene.

In an instant.

Her entire face split straight down the middle.

Plop, plop-

Both eyeballs fell out of her sockets and onto the floor.

"..."

"..."

A brief silence followed.

Lynn gave no reaction whatsoever.

The female ghost continued stiffly holding that terrifying pose.

An unbearably awkward atmosphere spread unchecked through their surroundings.

"Aren't you scared?" she finally asked, unable to hold back any longer as she stared blankly.

It felt like a comedian desperately telling joke after joke to entertain the audience, only for everyone below the stage to sit there with stiff, deadpan faces, showing no intention of playing along.

It was painfully awkward.

Lynn coughed, patted her shoulder, and said, "Your lady has already tried scaring me this way. Although I'd really like to play along too... I don't think that would make you feel any better..."

The ghost: "(꒪Д꒪)..."

Lynn considerately picked her eyeballs up off the floor and pressed them back into place.