It was noon.
After their passionate morning, Jennifer was in no mood to go outside, let alone head home to pitch the idea of moving in together.
In a situation like this, a demon would almost certainly follow her.
Dan Lee slapped her light on the bottom to get her to behave, telling her they were going to inspect her place first before considering any other requests.
And so, the two of them stepped out under the scorching sun.
The warm sunlight still managed to give people a strong sense of security.
The moment Dan Lee and Jennifer hit the street, they paused briefly before quickly brushing it off—just another day.
On the side path next door, an alligator was lazily crawling along.
It was probably someone’s pet, or maybe it had crawled up from a nearby lake.
Nearby, a high-street fashion guy wearing who-knows-how-many layers of pants walked past the alligator.
After getting swiped down by its tail, he scrambled up instantly, pointed right at the gator’s nose, and started spitting rap verses.
The alligator didn’t understand rap.
It snapped onto the guy’s pants and launched into a death roll.
The good news was that they weren’t in the water, and with so many layers of pants, the alligator gave up halfway through.
An Asian guy sprinted down the sidewalk on a “zero-dollar shopping spree,” yelling “Bakayaro!” as two police officers chased after him.
A white neighbor wearing nothing but swim trunks was doing push-ups by a public fountain.
Police Chief Old Joe had arrived on the scene as well, but unfortunately, someone had stolen a manhole cover, causing him to fall right into the sewer where he was currently shouting for help.
There was also a Black guy in a white t-shirt walking in place, standing right there looking exactly like an NPC from Grand Theft Auto.
Anyone unfamiliar with the area would think they’d walked into a phantom labyrinth.
People from other countries might find all of this shocking.
But this was Florida, land of magic and wonder—not to mention that Clam Shell Town had long enjoyed a reputation as the ultimate “Spawn Town.” So nothing that happened here was a surprise.
Dan Lee had been a bit bewildered when he first arrived, but by now he was used to it.
Clam Shell Town wasn’t particularly large, nor was it small.
It was a classic European-style small town, with houses and amenities that gave off a last-century vibe.
Dan Lee’s house was only a few minutes from the school, whereas Jennifer’s place was out in the suburbs.
On the way, Jennifer was still a little reluctant to bring Dan Lee to her house.
Compared to his private villa, hers was clearly just a modest little country cottage.
Dan Lee didn’t comment much on that.
He had never cared about such things.
Following Jennifer to the small house in the suburbs, the area was visibly sparse compared to the town center.
There were only a few neighboring houses, all belonging to elderly folks.
A small tree grew in the front yard.
Inside, the living room featured a beige fabric sofa paired with dark wood furniture and a decorative clock hanging on the wall.
The bedroom and rest areas favored vintage furniture and artistic tapestries, while the kitchen was fitted with off-white cabinets and a wooden island.
A very standard layout for a small American town.
After taking a look around, Dan Lee sat down.
Jennifer asked him what he wanted to drink.
“Tea is fine.” Dan Lee wasn’t picky.
While Jennifer went to pour the tea, a Ghost Card appeared in his hand.
Demons were invisible to the naked eye and often took a long time to reveal themselves.
[Containment Object detected: Demon trace] [True name: Unknown.] Demons usually possessed a true name.
Generally, as long as their true name was known, they could be banished back to Hell.
The Ghost Card had only detected the trace of a demon, which Dan Lee fully understood.
After scanning the room, he found no unusual marks or signs.
That meant only one possibility: Jennifer had only just been targeted, showing the early signs of an impending intrusion.
That made things tricky.
Every demon was different.
Some preferred picking off lone targets, while others would attack you regardless of how big a crowd you gathered.
*The Conjuring* franchise was a prime example of this.
So being around more people didn’t necessarily mean safety.
Furthermore, ordinary people couldn’t detect anything wrong in the early stages.
Even if they noticed anomalies, they would just rationalize it away.
By the time the full intrusion occurred, unless a priest or an exorcist was present, they could only sit back and wait for death.
But was there really no way to catch the signs early on?
There was.
The simplest method was keeping a dog.
Animals were extremely sensitive to the presence of demons and evil spirits.
This had been demonstrated in practice in *The Conjuring*.
When Roger and Carolyn bought the house in Rhode Island, their pet dog refused to step inside precisely because it sensed the traces of a demon.
It even barked frantically to warn its owners, but unfortunately, Roger and Carolyn were ordinary people who didn’t understand what the dog meant.
The dog died in their yard the very next day.
Dan Lee had thought about raising a dog before.
After all, dogs were the most loyal animals to humans and could make life a little less dull.
However, dogs were far too fragile against demons.
Encountering one almost guaranteed death.
Dan Lee didn’t want to raise a beloved dog only to watch it get dragged into danger and killed.
He wasn’t entirely cold-blooded; it would still affect him.
*If only Containment Objects could merge with animals.* Unfortunately, they couldn’t.
“Honey, do you want to watch TV or play video games for a bit?” Jennifer asked, sitting down beside Dan Lee while holding the tea.
Dan Lee nodded.
“Sure, let me watch some TV.” They couldn’t just sit here like idiots waiting for the demon to show up.
The two curled up on the sofa and watched *Tom and Jerry* together—yes, Dan Lee’s favorite show.
Dusk fell.
As twilight wrapped around the house, the interior gradually grew cold.
They had spent the entire day together without witnessing a single anomaly.
Perhaps this demon preferred targets who were completely alone?
At eight o’clock.
Jennifer planted a kiss on Dan Lee.
“I’m going to take a shower upstairs first.
I’ll be right back down to keep you company.” Dan Lee gave a low grunt and continued watching TV.
A few of the local channels were quite interesting; even though it was a reality show, the content was far more unhinged than back home.
It was a relationship test show for couples, and every single guest played harder than the last.
“Ahhh!” A piercing scream erupted from upstairs.
Dan Lee instantly fused with the Evil Spirit Wendigo, leaping to the second floor in a single bound.
Jennifer, wearing a thin nightgown, rushed over and threw her arms around Dan Lee, pointing terrified at the bathroom.
“I just saw the door suddenly open on its own!
The windows are all shut, so there’s no way it was the wind!
And when I stepped out, there looked like a person hiding behind the curtain!” Jennifer was finally terrified.
She had seen the window curtain blow open with her own eyes, filling out the silhouette of a human shape before falling flat.
It scared her so badly she screamed, and a second later, it vanished.
Now, she had begun to believe in the existence of the things Dan Lee spoke of.
It was a raw terror of the unknown.
Dan Lee inspected both the bedroom and the bathroom, but found nothing.
Did that mean this demon truly favored isolated victims?
“It should be gone for now.” “Maybe we should go stay at a hotel nearby for the night, or go to your place?” Jennifer clutched Dan Lee’s arm, refusing to step away even an inch.
She was thoroughly traumatized.
“It’s fine.
In a bit, we’ll just call some people over to throw a party.
You can call your girls, and I’ll invite a few of my friends.” How could Dan Lee possibly leave?
Jennifer was the one targeted, so changing locations wouldn’t do any good.
They had to try another approach: bring in a crowd to spread the risk, ideally provoking the demon into showing itself.
Back when Dan Lee first detected traces of the Demon Nun through the Ghost Card, he had thrown parties at home every day or hit the busiest bar in Clam Shell Town, gathering huge crowds around him.
Safety in numbers wasn’t just a comforting saying.
A demon couldn’t just keep killing endlessly in front of a crowd, right?
Hearing this, Jennifer finally calmed down.
Hosting a party with plenty of people around would certainly make things far less terrifying.