Chapter One: Transformed into a Porcelain Doll

“So cold.”

Not long ago, Feng Tianlin had been tucked under his blanket watching a horror movie, but now this damned weather had frozen him awake.

Then came a stench so foul it seemed to pierce his very soul—like all the refuse of daily life piled together, making him want to retch.

He tried to move, but discovered that aside from his eyes, not a single part of his body would respond no matter how he struggled.

“What’s happened to me?”

He rolled his eyes around and found himself surrounded by gigantic garbage bags, each many times larger than himself and bulging with trash.

“Why are these garbage bags so huge? No—wait. I’ve gotten smaller!”

Realizing this, he quickly looked down at his own body with the only part he could move—his eyes—and his heart sank with despair.

His human flesh was gone. In its place was a hard, white plastic body, clad in a tiny European-style suit for boys—astonishingly small!

“I’ve turned into a male doll?”

There was no need for further explanation. The look, the material, the size—he had undoubtedly become one of those infamous dolls at the heart of so many ghost stories!

So he had transmigrated, only to end up as a doll?

What a joke! It’s one thing not to become royalty or nobility, but couldn’t he at least have become a human? Even an animal would be better, and at the very least an insect. But a doll? What kind of absurdity was this?

He couldn’t even move—how was he supposed to do anything? This was hell mode from the very start!

Just as he was seething with frustration, a mechanical voice rang out in his mind.

“Host has successfully entered the horror world. Activation conditions met.”

“Fear System activated. Host can absorb fear directed at you to grow stronger, with no upper limit!”

“Absorbed fear will be quantified as Fear Points. Current Fear Points: 0.”

After hearing this voice, a new interface appeared in his mind, filled with items he could exchange for with fear points. Of all these, Feng Tianlin had only one: the Nightmare Body, currently at LV0 and not yet activated.

Nightmare Body: At LV1, grants freedom of movement. Upgrade requirement: 100 Fear Points.

If his mouth could move, Feng Tianlin would have burst out laughing. Wasn’t this the legendary cheat code?

As a young man raised in China, he knew well the power of systems—and usually, wasn’t there a newcomer’s gift pack or something?

But…

He waited for a long time, but the much-anticipated starter pack never arrived.

Feng Tianlin was left frozen on the spot.

Other people’s systems seemed to shower them with benefits, desperate to see their hosts grow strong. His own system, on the other hand, gave him nothing—he couldn’t even move, and was dumped beside a pile of garbage, where even a stray dog could end his sorry existence at any moment.

How was he supposed to scare anyone under these conditions? And if he couldn’t frighten anyone, how was he supposed to earn Fear Points, let alone unlock those seemingly powerful skills?

…

A gust of wind swept along with snow, and Feng Tianlin felt the chill seep into his very bones.

“This is nonsense! I’m a doll now, yet I can still feel the cold? And in this wretched weather!”

He grumbled, but humans are not creatures to sit idle in the face of death. They always find something to do.

Though he was now a doll, at heart, Feng Tianlin was still human, and he would not simply wait for the end. He focused, searching for any power he could muster within his body.

At last, his efforts paid off—he sensed a faint trickle of strength.

“This power—I can feel it! I really can! It turns out I’m not entirely powerless after all!”

Following that thread of strength, he summoned every ounce of effort and released it, filled with anticipation.

“What’s the name of daddy’s daddy? Daddy’s daddy is called grandpa. What’s the name of daddy’s mommy?...”

A gentle children’s song rang out, and Feng Tianlin’s heart plummeted with the melody.

So, he was a locally made doll after all! And this was the skill he’d managed to unleash with all his might?

Not far from the dump, a middle-aged man in a suit stumbled down the snowy street, a bottle of liquor clutched in his hand—clearly drunk.

His name was Long Tian, an unemployed drifter. Today, again, he’d found no work and drowned his sorrows in drink.

“Damn it, are those interviewers blind? I’m head and shoulders above the rest, and yet they hire those pig-headed idiots instead of me! Damn!”

As he vented his grievances, a children’s song caught his attention.

“What’s the name of daddy’s daddy? Daddy’s daddy is called grandpa. What’s the name of daddy’s mommy?...”

The song reminded him of happier days, when his wife was still around and the family would go out together. His daughter, Mengting, would insist on riding the coin-operated kiddie rides, which always played this tune.

But his daughter had developed leukemia, and the exorbitant treatment costs had left him saddled with massive debts. His wife had left him, too—not that he blamed her, for everyone had a right to pursue happiness.

Yet the once warm family home…

“Where’s that sound coming from?”

Following the melody, he turned down several alleys and found Feng Tianlin sitting on the ground against a wall.

Feng Tianlin, bored out of his mind, instinctively turned his eyes—the only part he could move—toward the approaching footsteps.

In that instant, his blue gaze met Long Tian’s, and with his uncanny smile, he sent the man tumbling to the ground in terror, disbelief written all over his face.

At the same time, the system’s prompt sounded in Feng Tianlin’s mind.

“Fear Points +50”

So it was this easy to acquire Fear Points! If he scared this fellow one more time, he’d have enough for the Nightmare Body he so desperately needed.

He returned his eyes to their original position. Next time, he’d move them again and scare the man out of his wits!

So he only glanced at Long Tian for a moment before turning his eyes away again—it all happened in a flash.

Long Tian climbed to his feet, shook his head, and checked the doll’s eyes again, only to find they weren’t looking at him at all.

“So it was just my imagination. Who’d throw such a fine doll away here?”

Drunk as he was, he convinced himself he’d imagined it, but his curiosity remained.

The children’s song had ended. He walked over to Feng Tianlin and examined him closely.

Just as Feng Tianlin was about to frighten the man again and rack up more Fear Points, he was suddenly grabbed, and a gentle, almost doting voice sounded in his ear.

“This doll is finely made—must have been tossed out by some rich family. I’ll take it home for Mengting and tell her I bought it—she’ll love it.”

And so the wretched Feng Tianlin was carried off in Long Tian’s hand, striding eagerly home.

He was jostled all the way, nearly sick from the swaying, until at last they arrived.

It was a tiny apartment, two bedrooms and a narrow living room with a small stove for warmth—it was plain this family was not well off.

“Mengting, come quickly! Look what Daddy bought for you!”

Light footsteps approached, and a girl of about twelve or thirteen skipped into the room in a pink dress, her face brimming with joy, as lovely as a child star on television.