Chapter 1

Deep night, abandoned building, trembling.

A shadow stomped loudly on the creaking wooden staircase, twisting it hard twice.

The pitch-black environment, the dilapidated walls crawling with mold, the rotting stench—every moment revealed its strangeness.

"Is the noise coming from here?" Lu Qing stood in the center of the second-floor corridor, staring at the passage blocked by debris.

A sealed, pitch-black environment most intensifies inner fear, especially within the uniquely chilling stillness of an abandoned ruin, where every nerve was being stirred.

Ssshh—

A sound emerged, as if someone lay on the ground, stiffening their rigid flesh, dragging black hair across the floor, inching slowly toward him.

What was on the other side of the corridor?

He took two steps forward, his gaze sweeping over the pile of debris on the ground.

Clatter—clatter—clatter.

He stared closely and saw several shrunken skulls, their long hair still attached, striking the floor.

"Such a loud noise—what a good head," Lu Qing thought.

To observe deeper into the corridor without personally clearing the trash, he pondered again, then suddenly kicked his right leg forward!

Dust erupted; scattered debris slammed into walls and floor, producing intermittent crashes in the utter silence of the corridor.

The skulls had vanished; from the deepest darkness of the corridor, sleek black threads slithered forward like liquid seeping across the ground.

"Is it hair?"

Lu Qing crouched, pinched a strand that had crept near him, twirled it between his fingertips, and carefully felt its texture—smooth on the surface, fine and supple.

Gradually, his palm was gripped by black hair; each strand curled like a venomous snake climbing his shoulders, coiling around his neck and chest, binding Lu Qing tightly.

"Trying to kill me again?" Lu Qing's heartbeat quickened, yet his face showed not a trace of fear.

The black hair slowly tightened inward, as if aiming to crush him completely.

With his blood circulation cut off, Lu Qing's limbs turned icy, powerless.

His consciousness grew hazy, his vision darkened, and he fainted.

Lu Qing brushed the dust off his body, smoothed out the stains on his clothes.

The corridor resembled a storm's aftermath—wooden floorboards and sections of wall shattered into fragments, pale moonlight pouring through the gaps, everything in ruins.

He strolled leisurely out of the abandoned building, seemingly accustomed to what had just happened, not even considering the consequences of breaking into a private home and violently destroying property.

【Haunted Tale 'Hidden Figure' resolved, task progress +1】

Ignoring the voice in his mind, he stood beneath a streetlamp, holding a small brown notebook and writing:

"August 27, 2018, evening: Found haunted tale—black hair—at abandoned two-story building in northern Tokyo. Fainted once. Suspected ability to kill spirits, but cannot control it freely."

Flipping through the earlier scribbled entries, it also read:

"August 25, 2018, afternoon: Found haunted tale—undead corpse—at Inotori Park. After carotid artery pierced, fell unconscious. Preliminary judgment: rapid healing ability. Whether truly undead requires further confirmation."

He snapped the notebook shut, scanned the street on both sides, confirmed no one was around, then headed confidently toward his home in this island nation.

Like countless otaku teenagers yearned for, Lu Qing was a transmigrator, having inexplicably arrived a week ago in the body of this island-nation high school student named Niino Li; if all went well, he might have embarked on a vibrant romantic comedy life...

Unfortunately, the shattering of all those beautiful expectations began the day he went out to buy groceries.

Lacking experience in his first transmigration and having inherited none of the original body's memories, after returning from the convenience store near his home, he chose to stroll through the park, pondering how to continue living as Niino Li.

As he passed a patch of native forest in the park, a figure surged before him—one that shattered his understanding of reality.

The worldview defined by countless physical laws and formulas collapsed utterly!

The monster had pale gums, skin stretched taut over skull bones, hollow eye sockets, and an unbearable stench of decay.

Caught off guard, Lu Qing was knocked down, his neck bitten through, and he blacked out from searing pain.

When Lu Qing awoke again, he found himself lying unharmed on the stone pavement, not a single wound or mark on him.