Does Being a Ghost Make You Such a Badass?!

Lin En said with a (ー`´ー) expression:

"Could you stop cackling like that? You're really ruining the vibe, okay? Are you cosplaying an elder from Spirit Hall?!"

Beside him, Hana Ye was already trembling, her little hands clasped against her chest. Watching this handsome display, she knew she had made the right bet.

So... so amazing!

Sure enough, anyone who could casually wander around naked at this hour had to be incredibly powerful and badass. No explanation needed-he was definitely an amazing Exorcist!!

Waaah! I'm melting!

Even my little heart is pounding!

[Ding! Hana Ye's admiration for you +10]

The grotesque creature sensed something was wrong. Its gaze instantly turned vicious, and in a flash, it opened its enormous, bloody maw at Lin En. That abyss-like mouth was almost bigger than Lin En's entire head, and waves of foul stench poured out of it.

Whoosh-!

It looked ready to bite Lin En's head clean off.

"You think your mouth is big?!"

In that instant, Lin En opened his own mouth. It ballooned to dozens of times its size, stretching wide enough to swallow the creature whole.

The grotesque creature: "(ΩДΩ)?!!!"

Hana Ye: "(ΩДΩ) Aaaaaah!!"

[Ding! Heart-Burrowing Demon's Sanity -20!]

[Ding! Hana Ye's Sanity -30!]

No!

Something was wrong!!

What was happening?! What was going on?!!

Lin En rose to his feet with a series of cracks. Under the Heart-Burrowing Demon's shocked gaze, his legs began to lengthen with more cracking sounds. Like a slender phantom, his whole body towered several times higher than the demon, an immense shadow sweeping over it and engulfing it.

It backed away in terror, clearly never having expected this.

"Y-you..."

Shhk, shhk, shhk-

Over a dozen eyeballs instantly burst out of its body.

"You think you're the only one with lots of eyes?!"

Shhk, shhk, shhk, shhk, shhk-

Almost simultaneously, hundreds of densely packed eyeballs erupted across Lin En's body, covering almost every inch of him. Every one of them stared straight at the demon with the terror of an absolute sovereign.

The grotesque creature: "(ΩДΩ)? Daddy!!!"

Hana Ye: "(ΩДΩ) Mommy!!"

[Ding! You have given the Heart-Burrowing Demon an enormous fright. Sanity -50!]

[Ding! You have profoundly shocked Hana Ye. Sanity -60!]

Lin En revealed that indescribable form, his immense shadow looming down as he advanced on it with cracking sounds.

The Heart-Burrowing Demon had already collapsed against the wall in fright and was huddled together with Hana Ye, both trembling with (ΩДΩ) expressions. They had retreated into the corner, shaking all over, scared numb by the sight.

"What are you?! Y-you're not human?!!"

Lin En looked down at it with those hundreds of eyes, grinding his teeth. The expression on his face was grotesque beyond description.

"I hate it when people act like hot (beep-) in front of me. Who do you think you're dealing with? You're all grown up, and you're still out here scaring little girls. Ask her if I've ever scared her!"

Hana Ye nodded frantically, then shook her head just as frantically in terror.

"N-no, you haven't! Waaah!!"

Lin En extended his long arm and, like some colossal being, grabbed the ribs in its chest. He lifted it in front of him and ground his teeth.

"So you're a badass, huh?"

The Heart-Burrowing Demon was so frightened that its eyeballs pattered to the ground as it said:

"N-no! Not a badass at all!"

"Go on, cackle again!"

"N-no cackling! No more cackling!"

But Lin En clearly had no intention of letting it off. Baring his sharp, pitch-black teeth, he said:

"Where do you operate?"

The Heart-Burrowing Demon trembled with a (.;ﾟ;:anger:;ﾟ;.) expression. A pool of unidentified bloody liquid ran down its legs-it had practically wet itself in fear.

"Th-the first level of the Spirit Realm. I just take the occasional bounty... and come to the real world to hunt..."

"Being from the first level makes you a badass?!"

"No! No! o(╥﹏╥)o!"

Huge quantities of Sanity fragments kept dropping with little clinks, like loose change.

The Heart-Burrowing Demon was on the verge of tears as it asked shakily:

"M-may I ask... where you come from, my lord...?"

"Me?"

Lin En pointed upward and said with a (▼皿▼#) expression:

"I'm from up there!"

"!!!"

The Heart-Burrowing Demon instantly went (ΩДΩ), bristling all over. Bones burst out of its body and clattered across the floor.

Then the faint moonlight shone in, falling across Lin En.

At that very instant, Lin En's true form appeared in its hollow eyes. Countless writhing tentacles and eyeballs loomed before it like an ancient evil god.

In that moment, it felt like a tiny shrimp caught in Cthulhu's grasp.

"Waaaaaaah! Aaaaaah!"

[Ding! Heart-Burrowing Demon's Sanity -100]

[Ding! Heart-Burrowing Demon's Sanity -200]

[Ding! Due to the immense terror and fright you have inflicted on the Heart-Burrowing Demon, its Sanity has exceeded its limit. No further gains can be obtained.]

And right before Lin En's eyes...

The Heart-Burrowing Demon went (꒪Д꒪), its flailing feet stiffening. Its entire body melted down, spreading across the floor like a puddle of foul-smelling sludge. The head of the skeleton clutched in Lin En's hand lolled to one side.

Urk-

It went completely still.

[Ding! You have frightened the Heart-Burrowing Demon to death. Item dropped: Blood-Character Bounty Writ x1]

Lin En froze.

"Huh? It couldn't take even that much of a scare?"

He shook the skeleton in his hand, making it rattle, trying to wake it up. It didn't do a damn thing.

Lin En scratched his head.

Whatever.

If it died of fright, then it died of fright.

Going around scaring people with that little mental fortitude? What a disgrace to ghostkind. Absolutely pathetic!

Closing his eyes, Lin En casually tossed the skeleton behind him.

As for that thing it just dropped...

Lin En eyed the scroll in the bloody sludge uncertainly, then instinctively reached out, picked it up, and opened it.

[Blood-Character Bounty Writ]

[Description]: A bounty writ issued by the Spirit Realm. It places a curse through the target's blood. Once issued, the target will remain visible to all grotesque creatures in the Spirit Realm for its duration. Unless the target is killed or the bounty expires, the curse cannot be lifted.

[Current bounty target]: Youzhi Hana Ye.

[Requirements]: Preserve her body and imprison her soul.

[Current bounty amount]: 5,000 Spirit Coins

Lines of bloody writing covered it, and where the portrait should have been, the little girl Hana Ye's face had actually appeared in a hazy image.

Strangely, whatever expression Hana Ye made, the portrait on the bounty writ changed to match, as if it were a live feed.

"That badass?"

Lin En blinked.

A bounty with real-time motion capture! Impressive!

A thought instantly popped into Lin En's head: if the target was doing something weird, wouldn't all those wonderful facial expressions be broadcast worldwide through the bounty writ too? Was it really that wild?

Lin En closed his eyes and instinctively tucked the bounty writ away.

Then...

Lin En's gaze fell on the little girl Hana Ye.

Hana Ye instantly turned pale. Scrabbling at the wall like a cat, she said:

"M-monster... waaah... waaaah... I'm sorry! I didn't know you were a monster! Please don't eat me..."

Lin En immediately curled his lip with a (▼ヘ▼#) expression.

He stuck out his tongue.

[Ding! Hana Ye's Sanity -100!]

"(ΩДΩ)!!"

She jumped up and tried to run outside.

Bang-

Her head struck the wall beside her. Her little body slid down it, and she passed out with an o(x﹏x)o expression.

Lin En: "..."

Hey, isn't that a bit much?! I haven't even done anything yet! No need to rush off to your death like that!