CH 3

Having the Same Name as the Demon Lord of the Abyss

Ye Zun opened his eyes and was instantly wide awake. His Adam’s apple quickly rolled several times.

The clock on the phone showed that it was 3:40AM.

“It’s only been three minutes. It was just a nightmare.”

It appeared that you shouldn’t read posts under the ‘refreshing’ and ‘horror’ tag before going to bed.

After realising that it was just a lucid dream, all his fears disappeared without a trace.

“So sleepy.” He still had work tomorrow.

When this sleepiness returned, Ye Zun wrapped himself in the blanket and turned over, closed his eyes, and continued to fall asleep.

……

Ice cold arms tightened around his waist, squeezing it intimately, as if they wanted to crush his bones and squeeze out his heart.

In the darkness, Ye Zun’s eyes were filled with panic. He instinctively used all his effort to free himself before the arms completely tightened and ran out of the door.

With the steep twisted stairways, one would fall to their death if they were a little unsteady.

The vague feminine voice suddenly reverberated from far and near in the corridor. “Linlin, where am I?”

Ye Zun stood there, looking down the hell-like stairs, not knowing if he should go down.

His shoulders were wet, cold and heavy. When he prodded at them, it was like he was touching ice.

What was going on? Was it leaking?

Ye Zun raised his head and looked behind.

In the dark corridor, a thin, black figure whose head touched the ceiling hung midair.

Slender, cold legs hung down, dangling close to Ye Zun’s shoulders. There was a steady stream of cold air the the smell of a corpse.

A chilling female voice said, “Have you found me?”

……

“Ha!“

Ye Zun abruptly opened his eyes and sat up. With eyes blown wide open, he opened his mouth and breathed harshly, his entire back icily cold.

“Of course, it’s just a dream ah.”

He switched on the light and then turned on his phone. His fingers were slightly unsteady and it took a long time before he could unlock the screen with the fingerprint password. The time displayed was 3:43AM.

“Only three minutes passed again, how can this happen?”

“Maybe, I didn’t actually wake up just then? I just thought I woke up in my dream?”

“That’s probably it ba. I was dreaming inside a dream, so after I fell asleep in the dream, I continued to enter the same nightmare.”

But this time, Ye Zun was extremely certain that he was wide awake.

Compared to the fear he experienced in the nightmare, he was more concerned about not getting a good rest because of the fears from his nightmares. After all, there was still work to be done tomorrow.

In order to make himself “super awake” this time, so as not to continue the nightmare, Ye Zun got out of bed, poured a glass of water and drank every last drop, then walked back and forth in the house several times.

In the dark night, there was only one room with its lights turned on, and there was only one who was awake. In the inexplicable silence, it was lonely and terrifying.

Just like the only light shining through a window, it had become a target for other beings that were awake, hiding in the darkness.

“I should be able to sleep this time.”

Ye Zun decided to keep the light on, and glanced at the time on his phone before going to bed out of habit. It was 3:50AM.

Although nightmares were frightening, after knowing it was a dream, you would feel much better.

Perhaps the nightmare consumed too much of his energy, since Ye Zun felt unusually drowsy.

……

Ye Zun laid in bed in his room and was awakened by a knock on his door. He climbed out of bed, body unconsciously going over to open the door.

But, why did he want to open the door? Who was on the other side?

Just when he feebly began to regain his consciousness, the door was pushed open from the outside.

An elongated black shadow supported the door, tilting its head in the darkness, directing a stare straight at Ye Zun.

Ye Zun slowly lowered his head. One by one, a pair of cold and pale arms stretched out from the feet of the black shadow, grabbing his ankle with the same force that could crush all the bones in his body. It mercilessly dragged him down the dark and steep stairway. 

The cold feminine voice murmured lowly, “Lin Lin, where am I? Have you found me?”

Ye Zun’s wide pupils looked at the coiling floor, slowly twisting itself into the ceiling of the corridor. His eyes were stuck on the female corpse that was slowly dangling upside down. “Wake up, hurry and wake up, it’s just a dream it’s just a dream, hurry, wake up!”

The part of his consciousness that recognised the dream struggled with the part of his consciousness stuck in the dream, and everything began to twist and retreat, instantly sending him from the dark staircase to when he was lying on the bed as time reversed.

Sure enough.

Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, on the side of the bed near the wall, a solid black shadow stuck against his back and arms that were cold as steel tightly embraced him.

“Lin Lin, you found me!”

Ye Zun slowly lowered his head. His chest and abdomen were trapped in the tightening arms and he felt his organs being squeezed, as if they were about to jump out of his throat.

He couldn’t move. He struggled with all the strength in his body but it was in vain.

“Hurry and wake up ah.” Deep in his heart, he did his best to remind himself.

In this constant struggle, his fingertips finally twitched slightly and Ye Zun suddenly opened his eyes.

There was a plane of light directly in his field of view.

“Hu.”*

[T/N: exhale]

The dim light illuminated the surfaces in this small rental room.

Ye Zun panted slightly, covered his eyes with the back of his hand to avoid the penetrating light, then turned his head to look at the time on his phone.

4:14AM.

This was the third time, waking up from the same nightmare.

“Why is it still dark outside?” Ye Zun laid back on the pillow, his chest heaving slightly with every breath.

This night was stretching out for too long.

Being able to read a hypnotic supernatural horror post in the middle of the night while suffering from insomnia was enough to show that Ye Zun was not a superstitious and timid person.

But now, the number 4 gave him PTSD.

“Even so, I can’t just go outside like this ah.”

Ye Zun got up and climbed out of bed, walked to the door and carefully tested the doorknob, making sure it was locked properly.

He thought for a while and moved the wardrobe in front of the door.

“To have this kind of dream is a psychological suggestion in itself. Carrying over to reality, it’s just me worrying about a thief.”

“Grandma is right. As long as you face your fear and find a solution to the problem, you won’t be afraid anymore.”

Ye Zun looked at his phone, then proceeded to open the forum again.

The post was still there. Ye Zun entered and scrolled all the way to the bottom.

The landlord’s reply was still stuck on when the xiao-jiemei asked her to come up quickly, saying that she was waiting for her at the top. There still wasn’t the last closing text that Ye Zun saw.

Only a few new comments from the readers appeared at the bottom.

“I want to curse someone out. Ever since I read the landlord’s post I’ve been having nightmares the second I fall asleep.” 

It wasn’t Ye Zun who commented.

“Same here. I’ve been having the same nightmare over and over again, always going down the stairs while I’m being chased by ghosts.”

“Wu wu wu this post is really evil. I’m also having nightmares and I’ve cried so much that I don’t dare to sleep anymore. I called my boyfriend and asked him to come and stay with me… My boyfriend’s here and knocking on the door, I’ll let him in first then come back and elaborate some more.”

Ye Zun felt a chill crawl over his back and he subconsciously pulled down the page to refresh. A line of red text popped out: This post has been deleted.

Ye Zun ceased all movements. He slowly laid back down, pulling up his blanket little by little, pulling until all that was revealed to the outside world was a single pair of eyes. The jut on his throat rolled slightly.

Those eyes stared at the dim light, blinking, then blinking again.

He felt that it would be better not to sleep tonight.

“Prosperity, democracy, civilization, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity, friendliness, prosperity, democracy…” 

The 12-word* mantra was indeed useful. This time, Ye Zun did not dream of that same nightmare again.

[T/N: core values on socialism, written in 24 chinese characters]

Instead, it was the nightmare’s world that dreamt of him.

Under the dim light, a translucent gray dialog box appeared in front of Ye Zun out of thin air, just like that.

The border around the box was coloured a translucent off-white and the font was in dark red. It made people inexplicably associate it with bones and blood.

【 Your name is Lin Lin, and you just moved into Paradise Apartments with your xiao-jiemei. It is currently three o’clock at night and you have found a ghost in your room. You must escape within half an hour, otherwise… 】

Ye Zun: “……”

The dialog box that only existed in sci-fi media suddenly appeared in front of him, and the red-lettered message screamed danger. After making sure that Ye Zun had read it in its entirely, it dissolved and disappeared, as if it were dripping into reality.

In the next second, the chilling air of a decaying corpse enveloped the entire room.

Under the flashing lights in the rental room, Ye Zun turned his head to look at the door he had purposely blocked with a wardrobe.

“My name isn’t Lin Lin. I am Ye Zun.”

However, in this situation when something was obviously wrong, even if they were calling him Tian Zun*, he still must run away immediately.

[T/N: honorable title of a deity; play on word as the ‘zun’ is the same in Ye Zun’s name]

Ye Zun suddenly jumped off his bed. Fortunately, after waking up from his nightmare for the second time he had walked around the room to make sure he was awake, so his body was currently fully clothed.

The wardrobes in the rental home were light and empty. Except for the limited space in the room, it was easy to move the furniture around.

Ye Zun only needed to push it sideways to the right until it was close to the wall, leaving enough space for him to open the door and let himself out.

The flashing lights trapped people under overwhelming stress.

In this situation where he was clearly told there was a ghost in his room, Ye Zun didn’t waste a single second of his time to find where the ghost was.

But he couldn’t stop himself from hearing the squelching of bones extending, rubbing against flesh, and the sounds of nails clacking as limbs crawled across the floor.

Ye Zun roughly pushed the wardrobe back into the room, and the unbalanced closet fell onto the bed. With a visible bulge, the blanket seemed to be holding something down.

Ye Zun only spared it a glance before running out and, as a person living in the modern world, absolutely did not forget to bring his phone when escaping.

Outside the opened door, a tall black shadow towered over him. The head that reached the ceiling hung down and stared at Ye Zun.

His body erupted in cold sweat. With slippers on his feet, Ye Zun instinctively kicked out at the shadow.

There was the feeling of stepping on a physical object, but after that Thing was attacked, it still didn’t get out of his way.

Ye Zun’s eyes widened in surprise. His pupils showed nothing but a blankness that reached all the way to the depths and his back was soaked with cold sweat.

In extreme fear, when the brain loses its sanity, its violent side will also be stimulated.

After this disorderly operation, relying on his slender figure, Ye Zun finally squeezed himself out of the gap between the door and the shadow, then ran down the stairs, absolutely not letting himself think about the horrifying corridor in the nightmare.

Except for the thin layer of sweat on his forehead, Ye Zun’s face had almost no obvious expression. He hadn’t even screamed once. Other than his attack on the dark shadow blocking the door, he hadn’t made any evident mistakes.

But the truth was, Ye Zun’s mind was nothing but a blank slate. He was experiencing a fear that he had never felt before.

His brain could no longer process the information before his eyes, and there was only one voice left, asking: What exactly is going on? Am I dreaming again?

But his subconscious mind told him clearly that this time, it was real, and that if he was caught this time like in the previous nightmares, he would die, and he would die a miserable death.

Death may not be scary, but what was scary, was having all his internal organs be squeezed out and dying as his body is twisted into distortion like in the nightmare.

The jut on Ye Zun’s throat rolled slightly, and he ran down the stairs.

The pitter patter sounds of his slippers echoed in the corridors, and the sensor lamps lit up one by one.

Even he was surprised at himself, that he could still remember to put on slippers at that time.

One floor, two floors…

The sensor light on the third floor was broken, as described in the post.

The door on the third floor near the stairs was also slightly ajar, unlocked and revealing a gap to the interior, just like in the post. 

“Meeting the exact same situation as that supernatural post,” he muttered to himself quickly in his head.

“No, it’s not so much a meeting, it’s more accurate to say that I was dragged into that post ba.”

Ye Zun didn’t make any rest stops, quickly running down the stairs.

Second floor, first floor.

Ye Zun stopped.

He reached the first floor, but he couldn’t see the corner leading to the unit door, only the staircase that continued to spiral down.

Even if he had long anticipated this outcome, he still paused when he encountered exactly the same situation as described in the post.

“What to do? Do I keep going?”

The landlord in the post came across the exit after walking another two sets of stairs. What if she never answered the phone and kept walking out of the community… What would happen? Would he escape?

In any case, there was no other path Ye Zun could take, and it was absolutely impossible for him to go back to his rental home.

The time on his phone displayed: 3:15AM.

Excluding the five minutes of conflict with the ghosts that prevented him from leaving his room, the 30-minute time limit to escape that the red letters gave him was clearly the same as how the landlord explained in the post, starting at 3:10AM.

“In other words, I must escape by three-forty.”

Five minutes had already passed. There were twenty-five minutes left.

Ye Zun decided to make the same choice as the supernatural post’s landlord, continuing to walk down the extra stairs.

As expected, after walking down those sets of stairs, another set appeared.

This time, he didn’t pause in his steps, and continued to make his way down.

After walking down the two additional stairways, the exit corner finally appeared in view.

The sensor light at the corner leading to the unit door exit did not light up. The passage was in complete darkness.

Ye Zun went over with large strides and pressed the switch to open the door. The iron door let out a distinct, elongated creak, an obvious sound of it opening.

Before the iron door automatically opened fully, he immediately reached out a hand to grab the door and pushed outwards. At the same time, his entire body barrelled outside, as if he would never be able to go out if he was even a step behind.

3:18AM.

Ye Zun finally walked out of the haunted apartment building.

He didn’t stop to rest, walking directly to the community exit in a haste.

The community was very quiet. The lush greenery obscured the barely-bright street lights, with vague shadows hiding in the silent darkness.

Ye Zun walked ten steps before his feet suddenly paused.

Then, did he want to look back?

Did he want to see if there was an extra fourth floor, if there was a red window, if there was a dark figure looking directly at him?

“There must be ba, didn’t that thing already appear outside my door?”

“But, why didn’t it chase after me?” Like in his nightmare.

Would the ghost do nothing and let him run away just like this?

The next instance, his phone rang.

The author has something to say:

When saving the manuscript and revising the text, I was told by a little angel that I had written the wrong name in a private message. GuGu looked at Lin Zun written above, feeling very confident that there was nothing wrong with it ah, then thought about the gong having the surname Ye, and my title is called having the same name as the boss… I suddenly came back to my senses.

Held my head and roared ‘Impossible, how could I have written him as Lin Zun?!’

The case was solved in the end, it’s because the ghost in this chapter kept calling Ye Zun Lin Lin Lin Lin, even I was confused.