LotM: Surviving as a Marionette

"Upwards! Hurry!"

The Slender Man behind them, having already reacted, crawled frantically across the ceiling towards them. The monsters behind countless doors were also about to emerge from their rooms to join the pursuing horde.

"First bow to heaven and earth…"

"Second bow to the parents…"

As the trio stepped into the stairwell, the piercing sound of a suona horn drifted up from below.

Large red "囍" (double happiness) characters appeared on the stairwell walls. Red candles lit the space, casting a feeble glow.

But it was a bloody red. Blood overflowed from the third floor. A sedan chair floated atop the sanguine tide. Luxurious wedding robes adorned the figure of a woman within. Her red veil couldn't conceal lips as crimson as cinnabar or her deathly pale cheeks.

"Hehe, carrying the foreign doll…"

"Little sister carries the foreign doll… went to the garden to see the flowers… the doll cries, calling for mama…"

Perched atop the red sedan chair roof, a doll that seemed carved from pink jade hummed a song.

It carried something white on its back—a skeleton, borne upon the doll's back.

"Little sister carries the foreign doll…"

"Little sister carries the foreign doll…"

"Third bow to the parents—"

"AHHHHHHHHH—!"

The terrifying psychic pollution erupted in full force as the Abraham members entered the stairwell, layers crashing together.

From the Slender Man on the first floor, to the Bride in Red on the second, to the Porcelain Doll carrying a skeleton on the third.

Each was an extreme source of pollution. Anyone approaching or touching them risked losing control of their Beyonder characteristics, accelerating their descent into madness.

They were each the master of a particular room. Next, the terror of the fourth floor would emerge.

Up! Up!  

The three Abraham members abandoned all decorum. If they could just reach "504", they could rest briefly.

Soon, the horror of the fourth floor also manifested.

It was a woman dressed in blue robes, her hair hanging loose and disheveled.

She emerged from the last dorm room.

"Lang zai huanxin chu, qie zai changduan shi." (My love is joyous, while my heart breaks.)

"Weiqu xinqing you yue zhi." (My sorrow is known only by the moon.)

"Xiangfeng buyi fenli yi." (Meeting was hard, parting is easy.)

"Qifu ru jin huihui chi." (The abandoned wife now regrets, but it's too late.)

"Jun yi fou dangri fenghuang xin bi qu…" (Do you recall the joy we shared like phoenixes?)

Dripping wet, her figure moved faster than the Slender Man, the Bride in Red, or the Skeleton Doll.

She seemed to teleport, instantly seizing Charlie, who was screaming wildly and batting at the surrounding candles.

Rolled-back white eyes pressed against Charlie's face. Foul-smelling river water gushed from her mouth. Her skin sank inwards; black blood seeped from her lips, smearing across Charlie's face.

"Tell me, can someone who is a beast in human guise, with a serpent's heart and scorpion's sting, still live?"

Charlie's eyes rolled back in his head from the choking. Seeing this, the other two Abraham members acted: one gritted his teeth and grabbed Charlie's shoulder, the other conjured a phantom book in his hand.

"I came I saw! I record!"

The final page of this Traveler's record, containing the power of a Sun Priest, vanished. Blinding light dispelled the darkness, the blood-water, and the maddening whispers around them.

These monsters seemed to fear the powers of the Sun pathway. They had noticed this too.

But the mid-sequence Beyonder abilities of the Sun pathway could only repel them, not completely destroy or purify them.

As time passed and their recorded, stored Sun pathway abilities were depleted, they would face their greatest peril!

With a thud, the door slammed shut.

Inside the room marked "504" in ancient Hermes symbols, all three were drenched in cold sweat.   

"Another one added."

The slightly older Abraham member, Aidas, cursed under his breath.

They had to use this respite to recover their spirituality as quickly as possible. Then, escape!

"Perhaps we can jump from the window."

He glanced at the dilapidated window, lowered his head, frowned, and muttered silently.

Continuing like this was a death loop. Downwards was certain death; upwards was equally fatal.

They needed to break the rules of this place. Even if outside was more dangerous, it was better than being trapped here, unheard and unanswered.

Unnoticed by them, the room number plaque, inscribed in ancient Hermes, subtly changed.

'504' slowly faded, like ink dissolving in water, revealing the mottled metal beneath.

What was written there was:

'404'.

Dorm Room 404.

In truth, every 'X04' room was the same '404', disguised as an empty dorm room.

They simply hadn't had time to notice these bizarre changes while fleeing for their lives.

A hemp rope hanging outside the window swayed without wind. As the solar embers drifted down outside, a creak-creak sound echoed in the room, yet went unnoticed by the three inside.

---

Crimson Campus, Abandoned Library.

Don stood atop the weed-choked library, observing the distant student dormitory, pen in hand, jotting notes.

"As expected, it's still a bit too crude."

The Bride in Red, the Slender Man, Chu Renmei, and the Porcelain Doll could each be a mini-boss on their own. Having them clustered together like this felt somewhat wasteful.

"Moreover, this constant barrage of jump scares isn't very 'Bizarro Sorcerer'."

Don had his own unique understanding of the acting principles for a Bizarro Sorcerer.

The essence of a Bizarro Sorcerer lay in the bizarre, the eerie, the grotesque.

For those three Abraham members, the feedback from the 'acting' focused mostly on 'psychic pollution' and 'unkillable/unshakeable'.

It wasn't exactly wrong, but it still differed somewhat from Don's vision of a Bizarro Sorcerer.

Scares of this intensity could still yield strong spiritual feedback for the acting, but they were too visceral, lacking that slow-burn dread that intensifies the more you think about it.

The root cause was that this world wasn't familiar with horrors like Brides in Red or Porcelain Dolls.

Without the corresponding cultural context, Chinese horror always felt like it was missing that final touch.

After all, compared to things like axe-wielders or chainsaw maniacs, embroidered shoes, porcelain dolls, and paper effigies were clearly more interesting, weren't they?

"Perhaps I should switch careers and become a novelist, spreading this aesthetic of horror throughout the whole world."

Then, just placing a pair of embroidered shoes at an enemy's doorstep could scare them out of their wits. That would be perfect.

Picking up the Sun Scepter beside him, Don stuffed his notes into the system warehouse, saving them for later renovations of the Crimson Campus.

Meanwhile, his Marionettist potion was rapidly digesting.

The entire Crimson Campus was under Don's control. Some of these monsters were marionettes performing via the Theater's power, while others were creatures formed by the corrupting power of the Sun Scepter's black solar radiance.

After being marionettized by the Theater, they too fell under Don's command.

With no more 'actors' readily available to provide spiritual feedback for his Marionettist potion, these would-be spies among the Abrahams became his targets.

Did they really think all these marionettes were just for show, just acting alongside them? How many audience marionettes were hidden among them? Do you have any fucking clue?

Note: Chu Renmei is a reference to the iconic ghost from the Hong Kong horror film The Wicked Ghost (山村老尸). The song lyrics are from a Cantonese opera excerpt featured in the film.

(End of Chapter)