“This starts from when we entered Black Mount… I first shelled a ghost with a Pea Cannon, then summoned the Sunflower Queen, but there were just too many ghosts… so we ducked into the sewer for a bit… Then the Mountain God from the future invaded, the current, young Mountain God swallowed its future self… Blood Husk Buddha and the Mountain God started brawling—two Unsolvable-class monsters, you know, crazy stuff. And in the end, the future me showed up… and fought the Mountain God…”

As Bai Wan gave the straight story, everyone at HQ just stares, stunned.

What on earth is this man saying? Sunflower Queen, hiding in the sewers… his future self?

The hell is this, a novel draft? Even as a novel, this chaotic storyline wouldn’t pass any editor’s desk.

They exchange looks, wondering if Family is having a psychotic breakdown.

“Sorry, can we bring out the Truth Crystal?” Li Miao says gently. “Sometimes your thoughts might be influenced by the paranormal, causing impossible fantasies and delusions. We once had a hunter swear he saw an entity painting inside HQ. Ridiculous, right? But don’t worry—some rest fixed it.”

Bai Wan nods.

Once the Truth Crystal was set on the table, Bai Wan repeated his account. The staff watched, wide-eyed, as the crystal remained perfectly clear. If he lied, it would glow red. Which meant… everything he just said was true.

How is that possible?

Li Miao eyed the crystal like it might be broken. “You’re telling me a future ghost crossed over and kept making phone calls, and even after the Mountain God vanished, it stayed? How could that—”

“—be?”

Before he could finish, the Truth Crystal flickered, and inside it a shadowy figure appeared, strolling past while making a phone call.

As it passed, the entity actually glanced out from within the crystal at Li Miao and Bai Wan, puzzled—like it was wondering, Huh? Someone called me?—then wandered off.

Li Miao: “…”

Bai Wan: “…”

Both of their jaws dropped.

Bai Wan jabbed a finger at the crystal. “See? That’s the one that keeps calling and yelling ‘Hairy Weirdo’!”

Everyone rubbed their eyes in dead silence. The briefing ended right there and HQ erupted into controlled panic. There was an unsolvable phone-ghost at Black Mount—and now everyone believed it.

The whole place boiled over.

While HQ hammered out an operation plan, Bai Wan slipped away and headed home—because his body had started to act wrong.

Ever since the future “Bai Wan” had looked at him, something inside him had felt off—like his bug physique had grown stronger.

…

He reached home, exhausted. It had been a trip.

At a traffic light, under the stunned gaze of pedestrians, red-yellow-green suddenly turned into a rainbow strobe. Several cars collided because the light malfunctioned. He bolted.

Too bad he was still in the city. There were traffic lights everywhere. One by one they flipped to rainbow, cycling colors madly.

He finally escaped to a stretch without signals.

On the ride home, he changed cabs six times. Five blew tires.

One cab shuddered mid-drive, its chassis locked together, and—boom—transformed into a towering bipedal mech. Two wheels for feet, sprinting with them aboard.

With the driver white as a sheet and foaming at the mouth, Bai Wan tapped the metal arm, embarrassed. “Uh… Optimus? Drop me off please.”

Before hopping down, he stuffed a few bills into the driver’s hand, consider it emotional-distress money.

…

Back home, he was almost in tears.

His bug has already been a headache. Now it’s stronger? How is anyone supposed to live like this?!

Fortunately, the hunt in Black Mount actually triggered a reward tally, which helped his mood a little.

System text scrolled through his mind:

[Congratulations, player Bai Wan. You have completed a real-world hunt and, for the first time, hunted an entity above S-class. Award: +1 character skill. You may learn a new skill. Keep up the good work.]

Bai Wan blinked.

I bag something above S-class and all you give is one skill? Stingy.

Then he remembered: real-world “Hunt Mode” was already a system freebie. Getting any reward at all was probably an exception—he had helped seal a Paranormal God-class entity, after all.

He tapped “Learn,” hopeful.

A new prompt popped:

[Congrats! You’ve learned a new bug skill: Fairy-Tale Book]

[Fairy-Tale Book] Latest content published on novèlfire.net

Description: Had a chance to passively manifest characters from fairy tales. Negative effects tended to target enemies (high chance), neutrals (moderate chance), and yourself (low chance).

Upgrades: Leveling reduced negative effects on allies/self, and increased negative effects on enemies.

“Fairy-Tale Book, huh?” He paused.

So fairy-tale characters can now randomly appear and influence a dungeon run—for better or for worse—pure RNG. Kinda fun, and with a lower chance of harming himself, it’s actually practical.

Sure, random spawns might have made scenarios even more chaotic—but the paranormal game had always been pure chaos. What’s a little more, right?

Soon, he’d be heading into the special dungeon: Desolate Village.

That scenario was special: it was the route to the rare Craftsman class, and it tied into his special class, Ghost Captain.

One way or another, he had to clear Desolate Village. The Fairy-Tale Book was the perfect wildcard.

Some fairy tales were downright busted. Better let them wreak havoc inside that dungeon.

Images crowded his head—The Little Match Girl, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Frog at the Well, The Emperor’s New Clothes…

He had no idea how they would show up, but he was looking forward to it. The messier the dungeon, the better shot he would have at stealing those rare classes.

As he was planning, another system notice popped:

[Rule-type Anomaly: Desolate Village]

Starts in: 72:00:00

Note: Player list has been posted on the forum. Check at your convenience.

He blinked.

The Desolate Village dungeon had been moved up?

Of course—typical damn system. It just can’t wait to kill him, can it?

Still… earlier is better. With his current conditions—better to wreck a dungeon than collapse reality.

More importantly, he now felt how underpowered he was. In Black Mount, he couldn’t do a thing to the Mountain God. If not for his future self crashing the party, who knew how it would have ended.

He hadn’t pulled a Large Sun Mushroom this time; with just a Medium Sun Mushroom and the Sunflower Queen, he had barely held the line. That was nowhere near enough.

He needed a true ultimate skill, a real trump card.

A special class—the Ghost Captain. Once he transferred to it, he was sure to become incredibly strong. Paranormal game classes were rare. Even the ordinary Craftsman class was already strong, letting its user design paranormal tools with insane survival potential. If a common class was that strong, a special class had to be monstrous.

He needed both: Craftsman and Ghost Captain.

And with Desolate Village being so deadly, he had to prepare.

[Ding! Your Flame Mountain has produced: 1 Flame Molten Stone.]

He brightened.

Nice. Worthy of a legendary title.

Its Treasure of Flame ability periodically yielded Flame Molten Stones and Flame Spirit Stones.

Molten Stones let him throw plants into Flame Mountain for reforging.

Spirit Stones were rarer—two of them could summon Flame Mountain itself to suppress a paranormal.

I wonder if Fire Mountain could suppress my future self… maybe not. But against the Mountain God, yeah, that’s worth a try. It’s the legendary Flame Mountain, after all.

This time, though, only a Flame Molten Stone had dropped. Still, he wasn’t disappointed. Given time, Fire Mountain would definitely be his to call upon.

He sat back, thinking. He had tossed the Sunflower into the Flame Mountain last time.

So…which plant should I throw in this time?