After a brief sensation of weightlessness, Darius Kane found himself standing inside the same small wooden room where everything had begun.
The familiar table, chairs, walls, and simple layout were exactly as he remembered them, but the muscular man and masked woman were nowhere to be seen.
No other residents appeared either.
His placement trial had ended successfully, and the translucent system interface immediately opened before him with the final results.
[Personal Residence Renovation Complete.
Please Proceed to Move In.] [Homeowner: Darius Kane] [Street: 666] [Rank: Iron — 100/3000] [Rank Advancement Reward: Surprise Blind Box ×1] [Leaderboard Rank: 11,451] [Exchange Points: 500] [Trial Rating: A+] [World Re-entry: Unlocked] Another menu appeared beneath the results, displaying items connected to the world he had just completed.
[Terrifier World Exchange List] appeared at the top, followed by several options: Art the Clown’s Resurrection Ability — 1,000 Exchange Points, a bizarre clown-related concealment ability costing 66,666 points that could make certain killers, monsters, or demonic beings ignore the user’s presence, and ordinary firearms at much cheaper prices.
A shotgun cost ten points, a handgun cost five, while ammunition could be purchased in small quantities for a single point.
Darius studied the list for several moments but bought nothing.
The resurrection ability interested him, but he couldn’t afford it, and the cheaper items weren’t urgent enough to justify spending points immediately.
Every Exchange Point had effectively been earned by risking his life, so wasting them just because something looked useful would be foolish.
He preferred to save them until he understood what kind of threats future worlds would contain.
What surprised him more was the leaderboard.
More than eleven thousand residents existed here.
Darius had expected Horror Town to contain other survivors, but the number was much larger than he’d imagined.
He couldn’t tell whether the ranking counted every resident who had ever entered or only those currently active.
Judging from the system’s presentation, however, it looked more like a live ranking than a permanent historical list.
His attention soon shifted toward the fist-sized golden blind box floating nearby.
According to the information provided, residents received one whenever they advanced to a new rank, and the reward could theoretically contain almost anything.
Weapons, abilities, supernatural traits, rare items, or even absurdly powerful bloodlines could appear.
The range was enormous, but so were the odds of receiving anything truly exceptional.
Basically, it was a supernatural loot box.
Darius opened it.
Golden light immediately flooded the room.
For one ridiculous second, he wondered if he’d actually hit the equivalent of a legendary jackpot.
When the glow faded, a small spherical object hovered in front of him before suddenly shooting straight into his chest.
Darius barely had time to react before another information panel appeared.
[Multidimensional Horror Universe Star Chart] [Effect: Absorbs fear and terror aura from supernatural entities, killers, monsters, and other horror-related beings.] [When sufficient energy is accumulated, the holder will gradually evolve toward the Origin.] Darius read the description twice.
Then a third time.
“Holy shit.” The Star Chart was far more valuable than he’d expected.
According to the detailed explanation, absorbing enough fear aura would activate individual star tracks, and each completed track would strengthen his connection to the horror universe.
At sufficiently high levels, the artifact could grant resistance to supernatural terror, access to abilities associated with killers, ghosts, monsters, and other entities, and eventually even authority over them.
In simpler terms, it was a late-game monster.
If Darius eventually completed the entire Star Chart, he could theoretically stand above the horrors that currently hunted ordinary people.
Instead of being chased by slashers and demons, he might one day be capable of ordering them around.
In a universe built around fear, that kind of authority was close to absolute.
Of course, there was a catch.
The energy requirements were enormous.
The first star track required 1,000 units of Fear Aura.
The second needed 2,000, the third 4,000, and the fourth 6,000, with later stages demanding increasingly ridiculous amounts.
Darius also had no idea how much energy could actually be extracted from a single target, meaning he would have to experiment during future trials before understanding how quickly the artifact could grow.
For now, it was powerful but mostly dormant.
A classic scaling ability.
Weak early, terrifying later.
Darius admired the reward for another few minutes before sitting down and waiting.
He expected the muscular man, the masked woman, or at least another resident to appear eventually, but half an hour passed without anyone entering.
The room remained completely silent.
Something felt wrong.
He checked the system information again and finally noticed a line he’d overlooked earlier.
The room wasn’t actually part of the public Horror Town area anymore.
It belonged to a separate introductory space used only for residents who hadn’t completed their placement trial.
That explained everything.
The room was essentially a tutorial lobby.
Once a resident completed the placement match, they officially graduated into Horror Town and would no longer encounter incoming beginners there.
The muscular man and masked woman had presumably been transferred into their own post-trial spaces as well, assuming they survived.
“So I just wasted half an hour waiting.” Darius sighed, stood up, and pushed open the wooden door.
The moment he stepped outside, he froze.
This was Horror Town?
He had imagined something completely different.
A place with a name like that should have been covered in black clouds, twisted dead trees, endless graveyards, shrieking crows, crooked buildings, and a permanent blood-red moon hanging overhead.
Instead, warm sunlight spread across a bright blue sky dotted with clean white clouds.
A gentle breeze moved through perfectly maintained streets.
Detached wooden houses lined both sides of the road, each designed with slightly different colors and styles.
In the distance, Darius could see green hills, waterfalls, meadows, windmills, and a wide lake reflecting the sky.
Everything looked peaceful enough to belong in a luxury vacation community rather than the headquarters of an organization that threw people into horror movies.
The contrast was almost ridiculous.
“Horror Town, huh?” Darius shook his head.
“Apparently someone here has a sense of humor.” He started walking while searching for his assigned residence.
Several people passed along the road, and Darius soon noticed that he could see limited information floating above some of them.
[Homeowner: Hidden] [Street: Hidden] [Rank: Bronze] Another resident walked past.
[Homeowner: Ethan Blake] [Street: 125] [Rank: Bronze — 3000/6000] A third displayed only part of their profile.
[Homeowner: LostHeart] [Street: Hidden] [Rank: Iron — 1500/3000] Then Darius spotted another fully visible profile.
[Homeowner: PureRaven] [Street: 250] [Rank: Iron — 500/3000] [Exchange Points: 335] He immediately understood the system.
Residents could choose how much personal information they wanted others to see.
Some displayed everything, some hid only sensitive details, and others concealed their profiles entirely.
Darius didn’t even need to think about his choice.
He hid his information.
There was no reason to advertise his rank, address, Exchange Points, or anything else while he knew almost nothing about the people living here.
Horror Town might look peaceful, but everyone around him survived by entering worlds filled with murderers, monsters, and supernatural entities.
Being cautious around people like that seemed reasonable.
After another short walk, Darius finally reached Street 666.
His assigned house stood near the end of the road.
The exterior was painted a light mint green, giving it a clean and relaxed appearance that completely contradicted the number on the address.
As Darius approached, the front door opened automatically.
The residence recognized him as its registered owner and allowed access without requiring a key.
According to the system, only the homeowner and invited guests could enter.
Unauthorized residents were blocked automatically.
Darius stepped inside and looked around.
The house covered roughly fifty square meters and followed a simple one-bedroom layout with a living area, kitchen, bathroom, and basic storage space.
It wasn’t luxurious, but everything was spotless, and all the necessary furniture, appliances, and household items were already provided.
Honestly, it was comfortable.
More importantly, it was private.
If Darius wanted more space, better furniture, specialized equipment, or a larger property later, he could spend Exchange Points or purchase upgrades from other residents.
For now, however, the free house was more than enough.
Considering how little he’d owned before his death, suddenly receiving a private home in another dimension almost felt unreal.
“If you ignore the part where I have to survive ninety-nine horror movies, this place is pretty generous.” Darius dropped onto the couch.
At least Horror Town wasn’t forcing everyone to sleep in some shared barracks or crowded fortress with no privacy.
Every resident had personal space, individual access control, and enough freedom to live normally between trials.
If the death games disappeared, the entire place could almost pass for an expensive resort.
Darius opened his profile again.
Then his expression changed.
[Leaderboard Rank: 11,335] Half an hour earlier, he’d been ranked 11,451.
His position had risen by more than a hundred places without him doing anything.
Darius stared at the number for several seconds before understanding what it meant.
The leaderboard really was updating in real time.
And more than a hundred residents had disappeared from above him in barely thirty minutes.
They hadn’t all suddenly lost ranking points.
Most of them were probably dead.
Darius leaned back against the couch, the beautiful scenery outside suddenly feeling much less peaceful.
Horror Town looked like paradise.
But underneath that appearance, people were dying every minute.
(End of Chapter) [Chapter Rewards]