Ghosts Are Here, and the Forum Seniors Helped Me Slay Hard

“Please confirm: are you a living person? Living users, proceed with caution before entering this forum.” It was a strange forum—one that couldn’t be accessed through any regular website or search engine. And now, it had suddenly appeared on Gao Shen’s phone screen. The forum’s background was pitch-black, with the blood-red title “Strange Tales Forum” glaring menacingly on top. Gao Shen was an ordinary student whose favorite pastime was browsing supernatural novels late at night in bed. Naturally, he wasn’t intimidated by such tricks, and he selected “Confirm Login.” What appeared next was a list of clearly abnormal thread titles. [Case No. E-98432: The Distorted Face Incident] [Case No. A-28943: The Extra Person Incident] [Case No. D-34324: The Clocktower Incident] [Case No. E-54934: The Crying Mountain Incident] … “Imitating the style of case files and documentaries? Pretty creative—and convincingly done.” Gao Shen clicked on one of the posts. [Case No. E-98432: The Distorted Face Incident] Date: 2025 Location: Japan Threat Level: Class C Status: Unresolved In January 2025, an eerie photo began circulating on multiple forums and websites in Japan. The image depicted a shadowy silhouette with a ghostly pale woman’s face. The facial features were vague—only black groove-like lines marked where the “eyes” and “mouth” should be. Within a month of seeing the photo, users reported repeatedly spotting the same pale face—reflected in windows, mirrors, bathtubs, or any surface capable of reflection, even during everyday life. As time went on, most victims died mysteriously in their homes, their corpses found in bizarre conditions. A few survivors remained, but they had suffered total mental breakdowns and were unable to provide any useful information to authorities. The image of the pale-faced woman has since been removed from the internet by governments worldwide. However, the source of contamination continues to circulate on the dark web. As the number of victims increases, the contamination level of this incident is escalating. The latest reports estimate that even individuals who have never directly seen the image may still be at risk of Contamination exposure. (Keyword redacted under Confidentiality Protocol 035.) Here is the photo of the Pale-Faced Woman. X (censored) (Contamination source has been blocked in accordance with Confidentiality Protocol No. 111) … If the full score were 10, Gao Shen would give this supernatural story no more than a 5—barely passable. An overly dramatic introduction, and an abrupt, inconclusive ending. He had seen this kind of narrative collapse too many times while reading web novels. Writers would constantly throw out so-called “earth-shattering secrets” to lure readers into continuing. Once they made enough money, they would abandon the story and disappear—leaving behind a trail of plot holes and frustrated readers. Gao Shen casually scrolled down the post to check the comments. To his surprise, many users seemed to be taking the story quite seriously, showing no awareness that it was clearly fictional. Some suggested using quantum exorcism techniques to scan electromagnetic waves and trace the origin of the photo. Others proposed using modified spiritual communication methods to determine whether the woman in the photo was still alive. There were even those blaming government agencies for negligence, …causing some victims—who might have otherwise escaped unharmed—to die here. The usernames on the forum were bizarre as well—things like “Corpse Burner,” “Soul Suppressor,” “Heavenly Master,” “Listener of the Dead,” “Exorcism Squad”… all clearly non-existent professions in the real world. Gao Shen browsed through a few more strange case files. The sense of realism was impressive, packed with vivid details and even accompanying photos. Yet most of the stories ended abruptly and felt rushed. The comment sections beneath each post, however, resembled serious academic discussions—filled with technical terms and layers of theoretical analysis. He glanced at the window—it was getting late. He had class the next day. Gao Shen exited the Strange Tales Forum and turned off his phone. Gao Shen was a senior student at a repeat-study institution in Shanghai City. Back in middle school, he had consistently ranked among the top students in his entire school—once even considered a contender for the prestigious Zhendan University, the top-ranked school in the city. But two years ago, a single incident completely changed the course of his life. It was an unremarkable weekend morning when his usually gentle and timid mother suddenly went mad—without warning, she grabbed a kitchen knife and brutally murdered his father and sister, who had been resting at home. By the time the police arrived, the once warm and peaceful home had become a scene of c*****e, soaked in blood. The police took his mother away. In the interrogation room, she repeatedly insisted that her husband and daughter had been replaced by some strange entities—that what she had killed were monsters, not her family. A psychiatric evaluation quickly followed. It concluded that she was not legally responsible for her actions due to mental illness. She was committed to a high-security psychiatric hospital and likely would never be released for the rest of her life. The incident nearly destroyed Gao Shen. He never returned to school, and didn’t even make it to the entrance exam hall for the national college exam. Fortunately, two years had now passed. Gao Shen had finally emerged from that unbearable nightmare. He saved up some money and enrolled in a repeat-study institution, preparing to give it one more try as a senior year student. Knock knock knock… Just as Gao Shen finished brushing his teeth and was about to return to his bedroom for the night, he suddenly heard a soft tapping sound coming from the living room’s floor-to-ceiling window. He turned his head—and saw her. A ghastly pale woman stood outside the window. Her eyes and lips were nothing more than thin black lines. She was staring at him blankly. Dressed all in black, her figure was almost completely obscured in the darkness of night. It was as if only her ghostly white face remained—floating eerily in midair. The most striking feature was the face itself: abnormally large, and unnaturally pale—too pale to belong to any living person. When Gao Shen turned to look at her, the pale-faced woman tapped the window again, as if motioning for him to unlock it and let her inside. “Who are you? Is there something you need?” After his father’s death and his mother’s breakdown, Gao Shen, with the help of some relatives, sold their old home and moved into this rental apartment. It had been less than a month, and he was still unfamiliar with the neighborhood. He had never seen this strange woman before. Her overly familiar demeanor struck him as odd. Bang! Seeing that Gao Shen wasn’t responding, the woman suddenly pressed her entire ghostly white face flat against the glass. Her face was already unnaturally large, and now it looked completely flattened against the surface—like a face mask. Her narrow eyes were stretched wide open, fixed intensely on Gao Shen through the window. Yet even then, they still looked like nothing more than two black lines. “Hey, don’t damage the furniture. The security deposit was expensive. If you break the window, the landlord’s going to make me pay for it.” Witnessing this disturbing scene, Gao Shen began to feel that something wasn’t quite right. But as a firm atheist, he hesitated only briefly before approaching the woman, trying to get a clearer look at what this “new neighbor” actually wanted. The moment he stepped toward the window, the pale-faced woman vanished into thin air. The spot where she had just been standing was now completely empty. Outside the window, there were no ledges or balconies—just two rusty air conditioning units clinging precariously to the wall, creaking in the night wind. Suddenly, Gao Shen remembered: This apartment was on the second floor.