Chapter 1: The Demon

Chapter 1: Demon

Under the veil of dark clouds, the moonlight was obscured, and on this tempestuous night, it felt as if something peculiar was about to emerge.

At the entrance of an upscale residential area, a group in identical uniforms were engaged in a dispute with the security guard. Each of them held a device resembling a scanner, with a triangular warning symbol faintly visible on their screens.

The sturdy uncle in his security guard uniform stood firm, "How many times do I have to tell you, you can only enter this neighborhood with the consent of the property owners!"

"One more time won't hurt," replied the tall, masked young man, his frustration palpable, "We're from the government department, we have a special mission here!" He groaned, "Ugh, what a troublesome neighborhood this is."

Another guard narrowed his eyes. "You're indeed disguised reporters, aren't you! There are celebrities living in our community. If you get in, we'll lose our jobs. Scram, scram, scram!"

"We'll lose our internships if you don't let us in!"

Wen Ying emerged from the bathroom, still steaming with moisture, and faintly heard the sound of an argument coming from the direction of the community gate. His brows furrowed, and he rushed over to shut the window in just a few strides.

At this crucial moment, on this very day, nothing was allowed to disrupt him!

He had moved too quickly just now, and the towel wrapped around his body almost fell off. Wen Ying tugged at the towel, let out a long breath, and stretched out his hand to count the seconds.

Bathed, hands washed, face wiped, phone case cleaned, and the phone screen sanitized with alcohol...

The young man's cheeks had a healthy flush from just having showered, but his lips remained pale, indicating to anyone that he was not in the best of health.

-- Except for his pair of eyes that shone with an extraordinary radiance.

Wen Ying sat down at his desk, clutching his phone tightly in both hands, and opened the game. As the loading screen progressed, his heartbeat accelerated, pulsating like a drum.

The page loaded just as moonlight pierced through the clouds, casting a silver path on his desk. Wen Ying felt that fate was on his side and promptly pressed the draw button!

The music swelled, and Wen Ying's expression began to shift. His blissful, silly smile froze after ten seconds, contorting into a grotesque snarl. He slammed his palm onto the desk in anger.

"Wahhh, bastard... One UR guaranteed after a hundred draws, and bloody hell, I really did only get one UR after a hundred tries. All the rest were R and SR cards! Ahhhhh!"

"How many hundreds of times have I drawn without getting an SSR... I just wanted the new Q-version Devil SSR card, who have I wronged? Ahhh, this is infuriating!"

"Want... a devil?"

A voice that didn't belong to him suddenly echoed, tinged with an eerie jest. Wen Ying's enraged roar came to an abrupt halt. A chill ran up his spine as he lifted his head in alarm. Outside his closed window, a dark face was pressed against the glass.

The black face possessed human features, but their proportions were bizarre, occasionally overlaying with a feline visage.

It was genuinely terrifying, like encountering a ghost in the dead of night.

Wen Ying's expression froze as he retreated until his back was pressed against the door. Upon regaining his senses, he touched his throat, which felt as if he had just run 800 meters, leaving him breathless and unable to speak.

Looking again at the unknown entity outside the window, it slowly passed through the glass. As it completely entered, something fell, and Wen Ying vaguely sensed it was the corpse of a cat.

Now wasn't the time to dwell on that. Almost entirely pressed against the door, Wen Ying's eyes fixated on the face-like black fog, his limbs trembling.

"Your anger smells so delicious, but I prefer to feast on fear. Hehe, do you want a demon?"

Wen Ying shook his head violently, swallowing hard. His voice quivered, "You misunderstood, I want a demon card."

"Hearing you loud and clear, you want a demon—!" The face-like black fog let out a shrill cry, abruptly expanding. Its grotesque, eerie face grew to two meters in size, almost causing Wen Ying's knees to buckle. Was this creature deaf?

A doll on a nearby cabinet fell, and the face-like black fog promptly penetrated it.

Upon recognizing the doll's appearance, Wen Ying's heart ached, overcoming his fear. He lunged forward, stretching out his hand towards the toy, "My limited edition three-headed dog figurine..."

It was too late. As Wen Ying knelt before the doll, the black mist had already engulfed its human face, and an eerie grin spread across the adorable, puppy-like toy's features: "Hehe~"

Wen Ying's hand trembled as he reached for the doll, a tumultuous mix of anger, fear, and heartache overwhelming his mind.

"I love human fear the most~ Hahaha," the doll levitated into the air, "Give me more—"

In an instant, a thick veil of black mist enveloped Wen Ying.

Was this the so-called burst of primordial power that people often mentioned when death approached, scientifically explained by the surge of adrenaline? Wen Ying felt an unprecedented surge of strength coursing through his body, invigorating him more than ever before.

His legs no longer weak, Wen Ying stood up and slapped the entity possessing the doll in anger, sending it crashing to the ground.

Having actually managed to do it, Wen Ying looked at his hand and then at the fallen doll on the floor, his eyes filled with astonishment.

"Damn it, how dare a human hit me... Wait, how were you able to knock me down?" The three-headed dog doll sat on the ground, more shocked than Wen Ying.

It angrily rose back up, and Wen Ying sensed that something was amiss. He saw flames emerging from the doll's mouth and stammered, "Uh, Uncle Firefighter said we shouldn't play with fire..."

A fireball, roughly the size of a basketball, was spat out, hurtling straight towards Wen Ying. Reacting instinctively faster than his thoughts, he dodged to the side.

Almost burned to death, Wen Ying was still in a state of shock. He smelled burning and turned his head to see his entire collection of demon dolls engulfed in flames.

Something seemed to snap in his brain, and Wen Ying's eyes frosted over.

"What a delightful aura of anger... Huh?" The low-level demon sensed the rapidly accumulating magical energy, shuddering as it turned its head to look out the window. Could a high-ranking demon have arrived?

When it turned back, the glowing human had transformed into an oval mirror. The mirror's silver-white frame was adorned with intricate silver-gray magical patterns that glimmered with power.

What had just happened? The low-level demon froze on the spot, instinctively feeling the need to kneel, but in the next second, a blinding white light burst forth from the giant silver-white mirror, dispersing the demon instantly.

The cuddly three-headed dog doll fell to the ground, and the low-level demon disintegrated into a black mist of magic, which was swallowed entirely by the mirror. The black fog in the room was also sucked dry.

The flames created by magic naturally vanished, but the traces of the fire remained in the room, leaving the dolls severely damaged.

Wen Ying returned to his human form, kneeling on the floor with a blank expression.

Something strange had just occurred, hadn't it? Did he eat something odd?

Feeling something beneath his hand, Wen Ying lowered his head to find an unfamiliar card pressed beneath his fingers.

"Why is it so noisy...?"

Wen Ying turned his head and saw a shocked expression on his father's face. He caught the smell of burnt objects, which made him quickly turn back to where the flames had just been. He panicked and said, "Dad, listen to me, I didn't play with fire! Really, Dad, you wouldn't believe me, but I just saw a ghost. It was ghost fire!"

His father should have been angry, but instead, he looked like he was about to faint. Wen Ying felt a strange sensation in his heart. Wasn't he the one who had seen a ghost?

"Ghost, ghost, ghost..." His father struggled to breathe, his face pale, and his fear seemed to materialize.

Wen Ying nodded in relief. His father still had his wits about him, knowing that he would never set fire to their home. It must have been the ghost.

It had been truly terrifying. Recalling the grotesque ghostly face, a chill ran up his spine. Wen Ying instinctively stepped forward, wanting to rush into his father's arms for comfort. However, as soon as Wen Ying took a step towards his father, a piercing soprano scream echoed throughout the entire building.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!"

Wen Ying almost went deaf, staring blankly as his father collapsed straight to the ground.

"Dad? Dad?!?"

Turned out his mother wasn't joking. His father really was terrified of ghosts.

Wen Ying rushed over and shook his father urgently. "Dad! Dad, what's wrong with you? The ghost has already run away! It's true!"

Lin Tianbao, hearing Wen Ying's voice as if it came from afar, slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a monster, causing him to roll his eyes back and pass out completely.

Seeing his father's reaction as if he had seen a ghost, Wen Ying turned his head in confusion, but found nothing behind him.

"What now? The whole building could hear you," Wen Qinxue hurried over, grumbling with disdain. "Lin Tianbao, I've told you there are no ghosts in this world... Ghosts!!"

"…Mom, it's me," Wen Ying's eyelids twitched. "Even if I almost got burned, I shouldn't look like a ghost, right?" His appearance was the only thing he took pride in.

"No, no, I just didn't react in time," Wen Qinxue smiled awkwardly. "Son, have you looked in the mirror?"

The ghost-like expressions on his parents' faces made Wen Ying's heart skip a beat. Could he have disfigured himself?

Wen Qinxue glanced at Lin Tianbao, muttering, "He's really scared easily," before going to her room to fetch a mirror, placing it in front of Wen Ying.

Wen Ying jumped back several meters, realizing too late that the person in the mirror was himself.

Wen Qinxue raised the corners of her lips and said confidently, "See, even you were frightened. So it's not that your real mother doesn't recognize you; it's just that I didn't react in time."

Wen Qinxue was actually feeling guilty. Despite having some knowledge, she had still been startled and failed to recognize her own son on the spot. But when she looked up, she found Wen Ying completely oblivious to her words, as if he was in a daze.

Approaching him, Wen Qinxue hugged Wen Ying with a pretense of calmness and reassured him, "It's alright, it's a genetic trait in our family. Your great-grandfather is very knowledgeable about this. I'll call him right now, so there's no need to be afraid."