I stood in the middle of the street. It was empty—no one in sight. The words John Chou had just spoken made me doubt the entire city. I squatted down, one hand pressed flat against the ground.
I couldn’t feel anything. Even though John Chou claimed this city had its own consciousness, I couldn’t sense a thing.
“What’s going on? Didn’t you say…”
“Brother, that was just my guess. Nathan Ouyang has already been swallowed by this city. No matter how hard we search, we can’t find him. Doesn’t that strike you as odd? The best explanation is just that.”
“So what do we do now? Without the Endbringer Shard, none of this can end.”
I’d thought about it: I had to find a way to get the Endbringer Shard from Nathan Ouyang before the Blue Wraiths arrived. Otherwise, Mona Ouyang would be in grave danger.
“Brother, go into the story.”
John Chou suddenly said this. I immediately stood up and stared at him in surprise.
“That book, Horror Stories?”
I asked, and John Chou nodded. He then told me that the reason he’d been sealed in that book before was because of Mona Ouyang’s own will.
No matter what, Horror Stories was created by Mona Ouyang, and the book obeys her will.
Back then, when John Chou was sealed inside the story, he was supposed to be trapped forever.
“So how did you get out?”
I asked, and John Chou smiled.
“The story itself had too many flaws. That’s how I managed to escape.”
John Chou explained that originally, the book Horror Stories had no autonomous consciousness. This only began after Mona Ouyang abandoned it. At some point, the book developed a will of its own.
At first, Horror Stories hated Mona Ouyang deeply. It started a long collaboration with the Blue Wraith named Victor Duan, writing real-life horror stories into the book through its author.
That author was Ken Wang’s father, Simon Wang—a writer who never found fame.
“Why choose him?”
I asked, and John Chou smiled again.