Bai Wan trudged wearily down the street.
A bus approached up ahead, but he didn’t dare to get on. Based on past experience, the moment he boarded, there was a fifty percent chance the bus would break down — reasons varied, including but not limited to: running out of fuel, traffic accidents, or the driver getting dumped by his girlfriend.
Looking at the mother inside cradling a crying baby, and the old grandpa peacefully basking in the sun by the window, Bai Wan decided to spare them this time.
A good deed a day keeps disaster away.
“I did another good deed today.” Bai Wan smiled, and his fatigue seemed to lift a little.
It took him quite a while to finally walk home. Standing at his front door, Bai Wan cautiously put on his gloves before carefully inserting his key into the lock.
Click.
As the door opened, Bai Wan inspected his surroundings carefully. Only after seeing the usual piles of garbage filling up the room did he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Yep, this IS his home.
Sometimes, even opening his front door would trigger a bug—leading him to weird places like his neighbor’s house, a public restroom, or even some unknown dimension...
There was one night when Bai Wan woke up in the middle of the night, desperate to pee. After relieving himself, he opened the bathroom door —only to find a barren wilderness outside. Nine moons hung in the sky, leaving Bai Wan standing alone in the howling wind, utterly dumbfounded.
Slumping down on his sofa in exhaustion, Bai Wan lazily sprawled out. His place was a complete mess — a Switch still powered on, manga scattered all over the floor, and most eye-catching of all — a large photo frame sitting on the table.
Inside the frame were four people and a cat, all glaring furiously at Bai Wan.
“You little bastard! After all the crap you’ve pulled, you still have the nerve to sit there and rest? Hurry up and light a cigarette for your grandpa!”
“You useless brother! I want to watch TV! Turn it on, turn it on! It’s so boring in this stupid photo!!”
“All you ever do is fool around outside! Get us out of here already! How did I end up giving birth to a son like you!”
“Meow!!!”
Shrinking into the corner guiltily, Bai Wan whispered weakly, “I didn’t mean for this to happen either... I just wanted to take a family portrait... What’s so wrong about that...?”
Honestly, Bai Wan was exhausted.
Ever since he could remember, his body naturally radiated bugs — not the insect kind, but glitches. Back in university, during a midnight screening of Ring, Sadako literally crawled out of the screen halfway through. Two students died of fright on the spot, and ever since then, the incident was known as the source of the university’s most infamous urban legend.
Later, when he was about to graduate, a meteor crashed into the campus, wiping out half the school. Thankfully, it was during the holidays, so the casualties weren’t severe. Even so, for the sake of everyone’s safety, Bai Wan took a break from school for a while.
He’d even considered fleeing to another planet — he wasn’t sure if Earth could withstand him much longer. Fortunately, as Bai Wan grew older, he gradually gained a bit of control over his glitchy powers, allowing Earth to survive a little longer.
Unfortunately... he got careless last month.
It was the Mid-Autumn Festival — a day for family reunions. Feeling sentimental, he decided to take a family photo. And then... his whole family turned into a photo.
“I should’ve never given birth to you!”
His mother, Zhang Yanfang, looked dazed. She couldn’t help but recall the nightmare her life had become after giving birth to Bai Wan.
When Bai Wan was still a baby, Yanfang would hold a potty to catch his poop. But just as the poop was about to land in the potty, the potty vanished into thin air — leaving Yanfang staring blankly at her outstretched hands, helplessly watching the poop fall.
At bedtime, she once told Bai Wan the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But by the end, when she saw seven dwarfs crowding excitedly around her in real life, Yanfang finally broke down and fainted on the spot.
After all the hardship of raising Bai Wan, he actually managed to turn his entire family into photo cutouts...
This unfilial son!
“Alright, alright, calm down.”
Bai Wan’s father, Bai Tian, gently tried to soothe her. “Every child goes through a rebellious phase. Back when I was young, I was pretty wild too — kicked a soccer ball and smashed the classroom window. Got scolded by the teacher all the time…”
“But at least you didn’t destroy the whole school, did you?” Yanfang said dryly.
Bai Tian coughed and continued, “The kid’s still young. He doesn’t know any better. As parents, our job is to guide him patiently, not just scold him all the time.”
With Dad stepping in, Bai Wan suddenly felt a surge of courage.
“Exactly!! Who hasn’t made mistakes before?! You’ve got to give me a chance to make things right!” Bai Wan raised his head indignantly.
Grandpa, Little sister, and Mom: “Shut up!”
“Ugh...” Bai Wan meekly covered his mouth.
“Dear, it’s exactly because you keep spoiling him that Bai Wan’s turned out like this!”
“Yeah, yeah! It’s because you always side with him that he’s become like this!”
“Meow meow!!”
Listening to his family’s scolding, Bai Wan felt like crying.
“Guys... now’s really not the time to be criticizing me... I got selected by the Paranormal Game last week... and tonight I’ll be entering the game.”
The more Bai Wan thought about it, the more hopeless he felt.
There was a terrifying rumor in Lan City. Anyone who received a black admission letter would be forced to play round after round of the Paranormal Game.
Just a week ago, one of his female classmates had received a Paranormal Game letter and was crying her eyes out. Curious, Bai Wan had picked up the letter to take a look at what it looked like.
Who would’ve thought? The moment he touched it...
The damn thing actually changed the name on it from hers to his — right in broad daylight??
Are you serious right now?! Even this bugs out?!
He still remembered how stiff his expression was when holding the letter... Even the girl who’d been bawling stopped crying, staring dumbfounded at the notification in front of her.
“That’s what you get for being so nosy! How did I raise a son like you — always touching other people’s things!” Zhang Yanfang scolded bitterly.
“Enough, stop blaming him at this point. I’ve heard this Paranormal Game is seriously messed up.” Dad frowned at the black admission letter.
Players selected for this game had an extremely high mortality rate. Most never returned after entering.
“Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll be careful. The game’s dangerous, sure, but it’s also our chance.” Bai Wan checked the time, the game was about to start.
He grabbed a rope and slung the half-meter-long photo frame over his back. The Paranormal Game would undoubtedly be filled with supernatural forces. Maybe... just maybe, he could find a way to turn his family back to normal. Bai Wan was determined to bring his family with him into the Paranormal Game world and search for a way to save them.
At exactly 8 PM, the black admission letter in his hand grew hot.
Whoosh!
A blood-red light burst forth from it.
When he opened his eyes again, he was already in a white, unfamiliar space. Looking around in awe, Bai Wan had to admit...
This Paranormal Game really had some tricks up its sleeve. It wasn’t as shoddy as the junky TV back home.
Even though he was scared, he couldn’t help feeling a little excited. This might just be his best chance to save his family.
Right then, a white light screen lit up in front of him.
Lines of text slowly began to appear.
[Player Name: Bai Wan]
[Age: 23]
[Gender: Male]
[Generating Talent Based on Real-World Conditions… Please Wait…]
[Talent Generated: ???…(&…]
[Talent Generation Failed. Retrying…]
[Retrying… ???*&Fai…l%]
[&…&&#R……e@%t#*#&r#%y@]
The screen began to flicker wildly.
Finally, right before Bai Wan’s stupefied gaze, the screen dimmed — looking exactly like the broken TV sets he used to buy…
“????”
“Hey!! Don’t do this!! Are you seriously crashing too?! How are you any different from the garbage TVs at home, huh?!”
Bai Wan was on the verge of tears.
In the end... even the Paranormal Game couldn’t escape the curse of becoming like his junky old TV...