At the same time...

First Floor.

Lynn yawned, sitting in front of a chair with his legs crossed, patiently waiting.

It was then that, suddenly—

Clank-clank—

The sound of chains clinking behind him echoed through the room.

Lynn quickly spun around.

And there it was. The mutilated, skinless corpse that had been hanging suspended moments before was now standing motionless on the ground.

A cold, unnatural chill filled the air.

Lynn stared, eyes wide.

He slowly turned back to face the front, sitting up straight.

Snap.

The sound broke the silence.

Lynn whipped his head around again.

This time, the skinless corpse was much closer. Just a few feet away.

"Is it haunted?" Lynn raised an eyebrow.

This time, he didn't turn away. He kept his eyes locked on the motionless bodies, watching them intently, waiting for them to move.

Minutes passed.

He blinked.

And when he opened his eyes again, a skinless corpse was standing right in front of him—its grotesque face just five centimeters from his own.

Lynn's eyes widened, and his body stiffened. He leaned back, almost falling off his chair...

Second Floor.

The Blood-clad Evil Spirit chuckled, eyes gleaming with delight as it watched Lynn's frozen form through the mirror.

Meanwhile, in the dark realm’s viewing channel, the other evil spirits were buzzing with excitement.

"She’s truly the Queen of Blood! Her methods of creating horror are top-notch. If I were that guy, I'd be scared out of my mind too!"

"Yeah, yeah! Suddenly all those skinless corpses coming to life? Anyone would lose their nerve!"

"By now, he's probably too terrified to blink. If he blinks, his neck could get ripped off in a second!"

The evil spirits chattered excitedly.

Then they saw the image of Lynn. He was slowly leaning back, eyes wide open.

He extended his hand cautiously, reaching toward the mouth of one of the skinless corpses.

"What is he doing?"

The evil spirits were confused, unsure of his intent.

It didn’t look like he was paralyzed by fear.

Click.

Suddenly, with swift precision, Lynn yanked a golden tooth from the corpse's mouth.

He wiped it clean with a handkerchief, blew on it, and pocketed it.

The Blood-clad Evil Spirit: "..."

The Burning Ghost: "..."

The Blood Doll: "..."

The channel fell eerily silent.

What... was going on?

This was not what they had imagined would happen.

"What’s he doing?"

A spirit typed in the chat, still stunned.

"Gold is highly valuable in the human world, kind of like the skull coins... a form of currency," one of the spirits explained.

But even that didn’t seem to explain the bizarre scene.

Skeleton Mage: “Look! He's moving! Is he about to escape?!”

The spirits were all watching, glued to the screen.

They saw Lynn slowly slip out from beneath the skinless corpse's arm, eyes still wide.

Then, he moved around to the back of the corpse.

With one swift motion, he pulled out a bone-cutting knife and stabbed it right up through a hole in the corpse's body.

The Blood-clad Evil Spirit: "!!!"

The Blood Doll: "(ΩДΩ)!!!"

The Burning Ghost: “He’s stabbed it! He’s actually stabbing it!”

The spirits all recoiled, shivers running down their spines, their faces contorted in fear.

Shlick—Shlick—Shlick—

Every time Lynn drove the knife in, the spirits watching from the dark realm flinched, as though the blade was piercing their own bodies.

After stabbing that corpse repeatedly, Lynn turned his gaze toward another skinless body.

Shlick—

Another stab, in the exact same spot.

"A demonic butchery!! (ΩДΩ)!!!"

The spirits were losing it now.

Every time Lynn stabbed, they all felt as though it was happening to them, and the fear grew.

“This is insane! These puppets can’t scare him at all—he’s getting more excited!”

“Stop! I can’t take this! My scalp is tingling!”

“He doesn’t even feel fear!”

The next moment, they watched as Lynn approached yet another skinless corpse, preparing to strike again.

The Blood-clad Evil Spirit ground its teeth, its voice dripping with venom.

“Kill him!”

At that command, the motionless corpses suddenly twisted and jerked.

One of them let out a low, rasping scream.

Shlick!

But before it could finish, Lynn’s bone-cutting knife thrust straight into its mouth, silencing it.

And then, in a flurry of rapid, precise strikes, Lynn started taking down one skinless corpse after another.

In less than three minutes, dozens of skinless puppets were lying on the ground, defeated.

Silence.

The spirits in the dark realm were stunned, unable to process what they were seeing.

"This... this human is... this strong?"

"He killed them all!"

"And he isn’t even scared!"

"I think I'm scared now!"

Then, just as they were processing what had happened, they saw Lynn dash toward the door.

For a moment, the spirits felt a flicker of hope.

“Is he trying to escape?!”

But before they could blink, the sound of screeching echoed from the outside.

“What’s that sound?” one spirit asked, confused.

And in the next instant, Lynn reappeared, now holding a chainsaw.

The evil spirits stared in horror.

"He... he’s really asking for it now!"

With a roar, Lynn revved the chainsaw and, in a fury, began to saw through the fallen corpses, tearing them apart with terrifying, relentless force.

Screech—screech—screech—

The air was thick with blood and terror.

The Blood Doll screamed in terror: “I can’t watch this! It’s too much! He’s not even leaving the bodies alone!”

The Burning Ghost shrieked: “This is just like last time! He’s doing it again! Ahh!”

The Blood-clad Evil Spirit screamed in a panic: "He’s no ordinary human! Queen, you can’t use regular methods on him! He’s worse than his teacher!"

In the channel, countless messages flooded the screen.

The spirits couldn’t tear their eyes away from the horrific scene.

The Blood-clad Evil Spirit slammed its fist into the table in frustration.

“That... that guy!”

First Floor.

Ding! The Blood Doll's fear level towards you has reached "Extreme Terror," you have gained 100 experience points.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Ding! The Burning Ghost's fear level towards you has reached "Psychological Trauma," you have gained 150 experience points.

Ding! The Long-Haired Ghost's personality trait "Timid" has been successfully changed to "Reclusive," you have gained 200 experience points.

And so on.

Ding! Your reputation in Soul Alley has increased by 30!

Lynn: "???"

He paused, holding the chainsaw, looking around in confusion.

Something was off. He’d just been cutting up some puppets, so why suddenly was he receiving all this experience, and what were those familiar names? Were they all in this room?

Lynn swiftly glanced around, carefully checking the room while still holding the chainsaw, but he found nothing else out of the ordinary.

"Strange," he muttered, shrugging.

He proceeded to clean up the scene, then casually sat back in his chair, pulling out a small bottle of old wine from his coat pocket and poured some into a goblet, closing his eyes to savor it.

In the Regional Channel.

The dark creatures were finally snapping back to reality after the horrific scene they had just witnessed.

"I think this guy's been training for this kind of thing for years! The way he handled that chainsaw... It’s obvious he’s been shadowing his twisted teacher for way too long!" one of them commented.

"He’s not scared at all!" another added.

"Yeah! If I were him, I’d have broken down already!"

The Bloodstained Specter narrowed her eyes, speaking with icy confidence:

"So what? He’s still just a fragile human. If he’s not scared of physical monsters, I don't believe he can escape the relentless spirits. Let’s see how he handles that."

Suddenly—whoosh—a cold breeze brushed past Lynn’s ear, making him shudder instinctively. The candles on the table flickered violently.

Lynn froze. He set down his goblet and glanced around the dimly lit room, muttering:

"What now? What’s all this nonsense?"

For some reason, the atmosphere had grown suddenly cold.

And then—

Lynn caught movement out of the corner of his eye: the eyes of a portrait on the wall seemed to flicker.

He quickly turned toward it, crossing his arms as he walked over to the painting. It depicted a noble-looking, blonde-haired, blue-eyed man.

"Why is there a human portrait here?" Lynn wondered aloud as he observed it.

But what he didn’t notice was that something was slowly creeping up behind him, in the darkness.

The candle flames flickered again.

At that moment, Lynn suddenly felt a coldness on his shoulder, as if something had rested its hand on him.

Without thinking, he spun around.

Snap!

He was face to face with a ghostly woman—pale, rotten, and blood dripping from all seven orifices. Their faces were mere inches apart.

"…"

"…"

The air went eerily silent.

In the Regional Channel.

One dark creature after another, their breaths caught, stared at the screen in sheer tension.

"This is the most terrifying kind of ghost... intangible, fleeting," one said, their voice shaking.

"If I turned around and saw that face... I’d probably wet my pants," another added.

"This human's mental fortitude must be off the charts! There’s no way he won’t panic after this!"

Everyone was holding their breath, eyes wide, as they watched the scene unfold.

For a brief few seconds of eerie silence, then—

Lynn winked at the ghost’s face. He just casually grinned and gave her a playful wink.

The whole regional channel was in shock.

"Wait... What? What is this? Why isn't he scared?"

The ghost paused, clearly thrown off by Lynn’s lack of fear. She had expected a terrified reaction, but instead, the human was smiling at her, as though she were no threat at all.

Lynn closed his eyes, sighed, and said, "Don't bother trying. You’re just another one of those actresses sent by that lady to try and spook me, right? Tell her not to waste her time. I’m just here as a guest, and this is getting really awkward for me."

The ghost froze, her eyes widening.

Then—Snap!

Lynn slapped her face with a crisp smack.

"Why make your mouth so big, are you trying to die?" he muttered nonchalantly.

In the Regional Channel.

"Wait... Something's off! That’s supposed to be an intangible ghost! How could he slap it like that?!" one creature stammered, eyes wide.

"Can he even touch ghosts?" another asked in disbelief.

"This is wrong! Something’s not right!" someone else shouted.

Meanwhile, in the video, Lynn, after slapping the ghost back into place, reached out kindly and grabbed her by the hair, turning to spot another transparent, headless ghost in the corner.

He gently set her head on the body, hearing a series of cracks as he fixed it in place.

"Don’t go tossing your head around or scaring people. Just be a nice, quiet girl. Why do you have to scare people like the others?" he said, softly smoothing her decaying hair.

The ghost just stared blankly at him.

After a beat of awkward silence, she finally stammered, "How... How can you touch me?"

Lynn, grinning charmingly, pulled out an empty potion bottle from his coat.

"I’m an apothecary, you know? Been working with spirits for a long time. If you don’t drink potions that can interact with spirits, how would you know how to deal with them, right?"

The ghost: "???"

Lynn, with a gentlemanly smile, held up her hand and said, "So, what's your name? I'd love to get to know you better."

The absurdity of the situation was mounting. The ghost, unsure how to respond, began to crack her face open, making her eyes fall to the ground with a sickening plop.

Lynn didn’t even blink.

The ghost, still in her grotesque pose, asked, "Aren't you afraid?"

Lynn coughed, patted her on the shoulder, and said, "You know, that scary tactic? Your lady already tried that on me. As much as I’d love to play along... this just isn't going to work for you."

The ghost: "???"

Lynn sighed, bent down, and picked up her fallen eyeballs, gently pressing them back into her sockets.