Sure enough, ADC players cultivate the Path of ruthless cultivation.
Otherwise it wouldn't make sense that the minion wave is theirs—and the kills are theirs too.
So Smlz and Uzi quickly reached a cooperative consensus.
Tu Bro didn't play fair—one stab, two victims.
Don't blame the brothers for going to other games to get their revenge back.
If you're scared of horror games, then you need to experience them properly.
They carefully observed the situation on the board, and Smlz couldn't help complaining.
"This bastard Tempo couldn't keep up with me when we played pro matches. In Goose Goose Duck his thinking is even more chaotic."
"I'm so done. How are they never hitting the key point? How can they not guess there's an invisibility wolf? Every time someone dies and the guy who wasn't even on scene is the killer," Uzi said, getting more and more annoyed as Lin Fan kept killing people.
"Aiya, Tu Bro hid it too well. Back then it was just you two spinning in circles—of course everyone would think you were the one who stabbed Xiao Zao," the younger sister said embarrassedly.
"Mainly Tu Bro is just too deceptive. People subconsciously think he's a good guy—plus he wasn't on scene," Xiao Lou added from the side.
"Sigh. Women!"
Smlz didn't dare say another word and silently gave Uzi a thumbs-up.
If he kept criticizing the younger sister, he'd be sleeping on the couch tonight.
Or maybe not even the couch—he'd get kicked out.
That's how K-Dog is.
Anyone who knows him understands: he has zero status at home.
"Tu Bro's big hammer is driving me crazy!" Caomei complained in ghost chat after getting hammered to death.
"What role were you?"
"I'm Justice!"
"You're just bad. You couldn't even stab him? If it were me, I'd stab him dead in one hit! Too bad I didn't spawn with a knife this round," Uzi shook his head.
"You're kidding. The lights were off and he's an invisibility wolf—how am I supposed to win a knife fight? I can't beat him in a duel!"
"I'd already guessed there was an invisibility wolf. I eliminated some possibilities and felt Shen Chao was likely… but I didn't expect Big Hammer standing next to me was the invisibility wolf."
Caomei was miserable.
It was his first time joining this lobby.
Before, he'd only watched them play—no logic at all.
He figured if he joined, it would be a dimensionality reduction.
Pure IQ crush.
But he didn't expect to die before doing anything.
He didn't even get to swing his Justice knife before the duck sent him away.
"Don't joke. Tu Bro is our unanimously recognized Duck King. If he wants you dead, no one can escape. Assassins are already terrifying—let alone a maxed-out invisibility like this."
"I strongly agree. The #1 Duck King in the League of Legends circle!"
…
Meanwhile, Lin Fan was looking for his next victim.
Sheriff had already been voted out, Justice had been killed by him.
Logically, there should still be a Pelican.
But the Pelican was probably playing solo.
With so many people grouped up, chances were the Pelican got killed by a teammate.
Once his cooldown came up, he'd kill two more and this round should be won.
Right now it was best to move as a group.
So he controlled his duck to go find Flandre.
This round, Flandre was also a wolf.
If he found him, it'd be double wolves, double knives—invincible.
He circled around and reached the library, where he saw Flandre moving with Longcheng Jing Shao and Shen Chao.
"What's the call? What's the call?"
"Mm. The three of us have been moving together. Haven't noticed anything. From the bottom of the lab we've been doing tasks…" Shen Chao hadn't even finished speaking when Flandre stabbed him dead.
Lin Fan saw it and immediately understood—Flandre had gotten the hint.
Hammer down, clean and fast—he smashed Longcheng Jing Shao into a meat pancake.
The "Ducks Win" screen appeared.
"Ah! Tu Bro is killing way too smoothly!"
"This invisibility wolf is so filthy. He came in and stole me—I genuinely didn't expect it. In that moment it felt like I was playing a horror game!"
"Yeah. He's so elusive. That hammer coming down startled me so hard—I got that Outlast vibe, like being back in that pitch-black asylum."
"Exactly, exactly. Tu Bro's invisibility is terrifying."
"Kinda nostalgic… how about we go play a horror game?"
"Sure. Any good horror games lately? Recommend, recommend."
"I heard Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is getting remastered. Interested in revisiting it?"
"…"
Listening to them, Lin Fan felt something was off.
Wasn't this Goose Goose Duck?
How did it suddenly drift into horror games?
That was a field he had never touched.
To be honest, even when he watched ghost clips on short videos, he'd scroll down to comments and watch in a tiny half-screen—only peeking with his peripheral vision.
Luckily, the domestic environment didn't really produce good ghost movies.
Otherwise, if a few real ones came out every year, he'd be scared into a dog annually.
This fear came from the depths of his soul.
Even the background music alone made his scalp go numb.
Horror games?
To this day, he'd never fully played one from start to finish.
Back then, when he watched pro players get "solo-killed" by Jia Hui, he laughed the loudest too.
But actually playing?
He didn't dare.
The only game in his library with even a hint of horror was Little Nightmares…
And even then he had to crank brightness to max.
When the chef chased him, he'd scream while running.
So he couldn't contribute to this topic at all.
He was even trembling, praying no one would cue him.
Don't cue me, don't cue me!
But of course, the more you fear something, the more it comes—
And the direction of the conversation was clearly to target him.
So whether he spoke or not, the topic was going to be dragged onto him.
More and more viewers noticed the pattern too.
"Hahahaha, so Tu Bro is scared of horror games!"
"No way?"
"Look at that face—he wants to join the conversation but doesn't dare."
"I noticed earlier. When he talked about Lwx getting solo-killed by Jia Hui, I could tell he was bluffing. I'm 100% sure he never played ParanormalHK!"
"You hindsight warriors are too slow. I already encouraged Xiao Zao to make Tu Bro play a horror game."
"Nice, nice. This is perfect. Tu Bro's been living too comfortably lately. When life gets too easy, form drops. Time to add some heavy spice."
…
"Fan-ge, are we doing it? I haven't played Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, but I heard Xiao Lou say it's scary. Feels like we can try it," Uzi said over voice chat.
"…"
"Let's just unite in Goose Goose Duck for now."
"Fan-ge, don't tell me you're scared? I've never dared to play horror games either, but I still want to. I heard it gets really intense."
"Can… we stream it?"
"It passed review, so it can definitely be streamed. When I say 'intense,' I mean the horror level."
"Come on, let's all play. I just checked the reviews—they're really high. I've played so many horror games, but I've never played Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. Let's experience it."
"Catching ghosts with a camera is always satisfying," Longcheng Jing Shao chimed in.
If Lin Fan had just admitted he was scared, nothing else would happen.
But Xiao Zao tossed in: "What, are you scared?"
Everyone in this call played games with their mouths.
There was no way he could fold.
The link came, and they went straight in.
And honestly, the visuals looked pretty warm and cozy at first.
So… soft…
The chat flooded with question marks.
To be fair, not many people actually play horror games.
Far more people watch others play.
A lot of viewers had never even heard of this game.
At first glance, you could mistake it for something else entirely.
Like… stalking.
But since it was Japanese horror, looking like that was understandable.
And people who'd actually played it knew—
Aside from the horror, the ending was surprisingly warm and deeply moving…
Lin Fan felt for the first time that base internet being too fast wasn't always a good thing.
Five or six minutes and it was done—from download to install in under eight minutes.
The moment he launched the game, he was already scared.
As for difficulty, he thought for a moment and chose Easy.
Games should be gradual.
Especially horror games—how could you go from zero to full in one bite?
Right? It's not because he was scared.
Then he hit Start.
Screen went black, story background started—set in the year 1980…
The moment it loaded in, there was a tiny candlelight.
Then voices.
A short cutscene finished, and the first little jump scare arrived.
Even the background music shifted noticeably.
"What the hell!"
Lin Fan pre-judged that something was wrong and immediately switched back to the stream screen.
Let's check chat—maybe there were tips.
Instead, it was just a wall of hahahahaha.
"Tu Bro is really scared."
"Exposed, exposed. So Tu Bro really is afraid of horror games."
"This is just the beginning and he's already like this?"
"It's nothing. Just a simple memory…"
"So much for Tu Bro being good at every game. Horror games are truly his unknown territory."
Lin Fan waited for his heartbeat to calm down, then switched back.
He lowered his head and peeked at the screen with his eyes.
Sure enough—it was just a simple memory.
Then it started teaching controls.
But with that background music, it still made your scalp tingle.
Still, early on everything was manageable.
He followed the flow, got the key, and then all those discordant sounds piled together—genuinely creepy.
There wasn't direct horror.
That's Japanese horror.
By normal pacing, reaching this point should've taken five or six minutes.
Lin Fan took twenty-two.
Every step he feared a ghost head would peek out from the corridor.
Constantly on edge, face pale as a sheet.
Tian noticed there was no sound and curiously leaned his head over… then immediately pulled it back.
When it came to horror games, he was also a coward—he didn't dare help mid build an advantage.
Back in the day, it only worked because GimGoon was there—top lane big daddy gave enough sense of security.
One look at Fan-ge's face and you knew he couldn't provide that.
If Tian leaned in, it'd become a double scare.
Chat spam went crazy.
"The atmosphere is getting more and more cursed!"
"Sanity plummeting!"
"Once you pick this up, I feel like the next jump scare is coming."
"Same."
In truth, Lin Fan had already sensed it.
Use the key to open the door—what's behind the door?
What the hell, what if a ghost pops out—even with mental prep—
"F*ck!"
Lin Fan was braced for the door-ghost, but someone suddenly appeared behind him instead.
It didn't follow the script!
He jumped straight up.
"AAAAAAAH—"
Watching this, people couldn't believe it.
Tu Bro slaughtered on stage in pro matches…
Yet in a horror game he couldn't even move.
In reality, brave people were the minority.
Many viewers quietly turned on chat and watched smaller.
Their hearts couldn't handle it either.
But laughing at him? That they could do.
After all, if you turned on bullet comments, you couldn't see the game anyway.
"Cough, cough… Yuan Xiang is actually pretty cute." Lin Fan's voice trembled after getting startled.
"Let's check everyone else's progress."
He pulled out his phone and scrolled Bilibili and Huya.
Uzi was inching forward too—he'd just gotten the key and was preparing to open the door.
Smlz was further ahead, and as long as his eyes hadn't fallen out, it proved his courage was insane.
"Hahaha, these two brothers aren't much better either."
"Uzi is shaking in fear."
"Smlz is only a bit faster than me. I'll catch up." Lin Fan pocketed the phone and controlled the protagonist forward.
What the hell—another door ahead.
This was really hard to endure.
Why does the prologue have this many doors?
He took a deep breath and prepared to open it.
Finally, it was the key-door interaction.
He used the key.
The door didn't open immediately—it triggered a cutscene.
Lin Fan's face turned ghost-white. He was starting to panic.
Especially as the camera panned deeper…
A nurse turned her head toward him, face twisting grotesquely.
Next second, the heroine flung the door open and sprinted inside.
Crouching and covering her head, Lin Fan relaxed a bit.
Just a cutscene—nothing.
"Damn, damn, damn…"
Next second, a disheveled female ghost stared at the crouching heroine.
Lin Fan instantly broke.
He jumped up so hard his headset flew off.
In that second, his heart stopped.
Why is this game made like a movie?
Immersive horror cinema, huh?
What the hell!
The cover looked so soft—how is it going this hard right from the start?
And people said it gets even scarier later.
Warm ending, but the process is pure torture?
Chat paused for a split second, then exploded even harder.
"I'm done. Tu Bro."
"I didn't want to laugh, but you're making way too much noise."
"This is just the beginning. Wait till later—it gets more intense."
"Damn, I don't even dare play Fatal Frame games. Tu Bro is a warrior…"
The other players in the training room saw Lin Fan jump up too and got startled.
"What happened, Fan-ge?" JackeyLove asked curiously.
"You want to know?"
JackeyLove nodded.
"Replay it from the start and experience it yourself," Lin Fan said, pointing at the screen like a demon whispering.
JackeyLove looked at the art style.
It's just a horror game, right?
So what?
I cleared ParanormalHK easily back then.
"Afraid of what?"
JackeyLove plopped into the seat and started a new game.
Lin Fan hid behind him, peeking.
A classic case of being bad but addicted.
Since Lin Fan had already played the cutscene, JackeyLove had some resistance now and didn't scream.
His face only trembled slightly, with no big outburst—you could tell his resistance was pretty strong…
"When mid can't, AD has to carry!" Lin Fan said to the camera.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup