The writing on the sheepskin parchment was fragmented and broken—like someone had tried to erase it with a rubber. That single line was all there was.

At the time, Li Shoushi had been shocked after reading it. It was the first real lead the government had ever gotten about Ping’an City. He rushed it back to HQ and immediately began verifying Lin Xie’s identity.

But the result completely blindsided him—There was no Para-Hunter named Lin Xie registered in Ping’an City. When HQ contacted the Ping’an branch to ask, everyone there insisted they’d never heard of such a person. 

The whole thing looked like a prank. Some wanted fugitives were known for playing mental games with the authorities by leaving behind strange items and messages. So the matter was shelved for the time being.

But Li Shoushi wasn’t ready to give up. He continued investigating Lin Xie in secret, and eventually, he made progress.

He couldn’t find any trace of Lin Xie the person, but he did trace the parchment page back to its source. It came from a sheepskin notebook—a paranormal item said to contain three pages in total, according to records from the Ghost Market. All three had supposedly been sold.

And here’s where things got weird.

When Li Shoushi asked the Ghost Market merchant for the transaction logs, he found that only two buyers were recorded. Even the shopkeeper was confused. He stammered, saying maybe he had remembered wrong, and that maybe only two pages had been sold that day.

But that raised an even bigger question: If the third page hadn’t been sold, why were there no further records of it in the following months?

According to the vendor, the item had the power to predict danger—it would display warnings if paranormal risks approached. It should have been a hot-selling item—if there were any left, it would’ve been auctioned off again the very next day. In fact, there shouldn’t have been any leftovers.

The merchant was confident in his memory: all three pages had been sold. But… only two buyers were on record.

Which led Li Shoushi to propose a hypothesis: What if that third buyer… was the nonexistent Lin Xie?

He continued digging. But even after combing through every possible trace, he still couldn’t find a single clue about Lin Xie.

Eventually, he had no choice but to shelve the search and Ping’an City remained the most mysterious city in the country.

“It’s good if nothing paranormal exists in that city,” Li Shoushi said grimly. “But if something does... it might be far beyond what we can handle.”

Who knew how long “it” had been lurking—completely undetected?

And it had successfully suppressed every trace of paranormal activity in the area, making Ping’an City truly live up to its name.

A single S-rank captain might not be enough to deal with it.

“Nothing we can do,” the Paranormal Doctor said helplessly. “Everywhere else is under pressure too. Even sending one captain to Ping’an is already a stretch. It might look peaceful, but we still don’t know for sure if any paranormal forces are active there. HQ simply can’t send more manpower to deal with this—hell, we don’t even have the manpower.”

Sure, Ping’an City was suspicious. But were other cities any less dangerous? Any less mysterious?

HQ’s current force of Para-Hunters was simply nowhere near enough.

“Anyway,” Fang Hanxin added with a smile, “If Family keeps growing, things might get a little easier for us.”

“Since he’s going to be an S-rank squad captain, has anyone picked his team yet?” Li Shoushi asked. “I know a few promising rookies.”

Fang Hanxin shook his head. “The commander said to let him find his own teammates. Otherwise, ordinary folks probably won’t survive it. This lineup’s gonna need some serious survivability.”

Li Shoushi paused—then nodded solemnly.

Yeah…they’d need ironclad fate and thick skin. Anyone too fragile would get wiped just from being in proximity of that boy.

But letting Family pick his own teammates…That… didn’t sound particularly safe either.

A kid as cursed as him was bound to attract similarly cursed companions. Normal people wouldn’t willingly hang out with Bai Wan.

Which only made Li Shoushi more curious. Just what kind of ridiculous team lineup would this kid end up putting together?

“Don’t worry,” Fang Hanxin said, “To qualify as an S-rank squad, combat strength is still a must. That’s why I proposed a special assessment—let Bai Wan lead his team to Dahuang City and take down at least one A-rank fugitive to qualify.”

Then he gave a mysterious smile. Dahuang City was remote and chaotic—a known gathering place for wanted criminals.

Li Shoushi took one look at that grin and immediately saw through this scheming bastard.

“You just want to watch the show, don’t you?”

Family, with his abstract skillset, leading an equally abstract group of teammates…to hunt down fugitive criminals in Dahuang? Those poor bastards must’ve committed unforgivable sins in a past life to deserve an encounter with that kid.

“Well, anyway, it’s still a long way off,” Fang Hanxin waved it off. “Who knows when he’ll even manage to gather six teammates? For now, he’s staying in Lan City—he doesn’t need to come to HQ yet. His potential is phenomenal, but his foundation isn’t steady. After what happened in the haunted school, I’m sure he realizes that too.”

“Alright,” Li Shoushi chuckled, “I’ll be waiting to see what kind of absurd team lineup he ends up with. I’m off.”

“Not staying to see the forum results?” Fang Hanxin asked.

“Nah. My favorite drama is about to start. I need to get home and turn on the TV in ten minutes.”

Li Shoushi said this with utmost seriousness.

“Then safe travels. I’ve got a bunch of experiments to run too.” Fang Hanxin waved goodbye.

And just like that, the two high-ranking officials parted ways.

…

Back in Nightmare Haunted Campus, five minutes passed in stunned silence before the system finally spoke up:

[Cleared.]

[Settling.]

Bai Wan nearly burst out laughing. Back when the Ghost Cruise dungeon broke, the system had thrown out a half-assed “You cleared it” and called it a day.

But this time? It didn’t even bother using a subject. It didn’t even punctuate properly. Clearly, the system was even more mentally broken than before.

Seeing the system this annoyed? Bai Wan felt great.

[Players may now choose to exit. All players will be automatically removed in 30 minutes.]

Phew…Another dungeon complete.

Bai Wan looked at the scorched remains of the campus he’d just nuked into oblivion—and felt proud. Then he started reviewing and reflecting on his performance. 

This dungeon had given him something important: A clearer picture of his current strength. While his performance looked ridiculously overpowered on the surface, there were still a lot of shortcomings underneath.

First off—the Special Awakening Crystal.

The doctor had said it was extremely expensive to manufacture. He’d gotten one for free this time, courtesy of the officials. But getting another? That wasn’t going to be easy.

Sure, he could try to trade for one—but the bigger problem was that he couldn’t control it. Every time he used his awakened skill, there was an incredibly high chance he’d accidentally get himself killed.

Sure, he had the Blood Husk Bodhi Seed, which let him resurrect once—

But in this dungeon, he’d burned down the entire map. Even if he came back in the flames… he’d probably just die again anyway.

He also had another trump card—the Time Letter from “The Letter” dungeon. In theory, if he sensed something dangerous was about to happen after activating a bug, he could send a letter back to himself three days in the past, warning himself not to use the crystal.

But after thinking it through… he dismissed the idea. Because of his bugged nature, Special Awakening Crystals bypass cooldown restrictions. And if that’s the case, who knew whether a letter to the past would even have any effect? 

In short—the special crystal was still way too dangerous. It was a double-edged sword. If he brought it into a dungeon, it was hard to say who’d die first—the paranormals… or him. Until the doctor developed a more reliable crystal, he needed to be extremely cautious about using them.

Bai Wan considered himself a high-ceiling player. Given the right combo of skill and item usage, he had enough confidence to kill even a squad captain.

But that kind of badass performance depended entirely on getting the right tools. Like… the Large Sunshine Mushroom.

If he didn’t draw it? Just relying on a few basic sunflower plants to deal with high-level paranormals would be a serious struggle.

He’d already run into that issue while fighting the one-eyed teacher. Against her, all he could do was spam Kun Flash for defense—he didn’t have any real way to hurt her.

Not to mention the Large Sunshine Mushroom wasn’t guaranteed to appear each time. He’d gotten lucky in this dungeon, drawing the Mimic Mushroom as a substitute. But what if next time, neither of them appeared?

That’s something I really need to think about…

Bai Wan fell deep into thought.

Compared to other rookies, if the Large Sunshine Mushroom and the Awakening Crystal were taken away…He honestly wasn’t that much stronger than the rest.

Well… maybe a little.

He still had the powerful hammer, the sunflower plant summon, the “door removal” ability, the misfortune curse, the Bloody Skeleton Bandage, the painter’s sketch, the Time Letter, and an abyss grade paranormal item…

Okay, fine—still way ahead of other rookies.

At the very least, he could beat up ten Liu Tongs. But that level of power wasn’t enough to crush experienced players. If he went up against someone who’d survived ten or more dungeons, it’d probably take everything he had to win. After all, he’d only cleared a few dungeons himself.

Still, Bai Wan wasn’t discouraged. His next dungeon would be Desolate Village. Once he repaired the Ghost Ship, he’d receive the exclusive profession: Captain. At that point, even without mushrooms or awakened skill, he’d still be a powerhouse. He might even be able to solo a hundred Liu Tongs.

He was really looking forward to what abilities the Ghost Ship’s Captain would have. Additionally, Desolate Village also had a chance to unlock the Craftsman profession. With that, he’d be able to create artificial paranormal tools.

His eyes lit up just thinking about it. Ever since he was a kid, he’d loved making things. He prided himself on being handy. Surely, he could invent some powerful items of his own.

Once he sold them to other Para-Hunters, he’d be rolling in Paranormal Coins. Who knows? Maybe he’d even become a famous craftsman someday.

…Though for some reason, he couldn’t shake the vague feeling he’d forgotten something important. Still, he looked at his nimble hands and smiled.

I’ll definitely make something reliable.

But that was for later. Right now, it was time to claim his reward.

Completing three rounds of physical tests earned you a paranormal item. He’d held out until the school was completely gone. Surely his reward would be even better, right?

Dreaming about his bright future, Bai Wan reached the system timeout and was auto-exited from the dungeon.

A flash of white light.

He returned to his home.

The system message popped up—

[Nightmare Haunted Campus—Settlement begins…]

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