Jin Qiang stared at the phone, now more acutely aware than ever of the reality he had been thrust into. His body felt like lead as he rose and sat himself on the bed, rubbing his temples, trying to will himself into the energy he desperately needed.
The sunlight outside mocked his fear, a blinding contrast to the shadows creeping into his mind. His mind raced, trying to process everything that had happened.
A haunting event.
A 24/7 live-streamed life.
A creepy, floating entity named Xiao Hei.
All in just a single day.
It was all too much.....
Jin Qiang glanced at the event's countdown once more, and there it was, he had less than eleven hours until the event.
"Playground of the Forgotten…" Jin muttered, trying to convince himself that maybe it wasn't as bad as it sounded.
But the anxiety gnawing at him was a constant reminder that it was going to be bad.
His mind kept cycling back to the unrelenting fact that he was now trapped in a nightmare, one that was both watching him and feeding on his every misstep.
And Xiao Hei, of course, wasn't helping. The ghostly figure floated serenely on the screen, smiling at Jin as though this were some fun adventure rather than a living nightmare.
"Are you ready, Qiang-ge?" Xiao Hei said in a peppy voice, as if he were leading Jin to the most exciting rollercoaster of doom, "The Playground of the Forgotten is just around the corner!~ I can already feel the thrill building up! Hehehe~" He said excitedly as the cursed phone levitated towards Jin's face.
Jin sat on the edge of his bed and didn't answer, as his hands dragged down his face in sheer despair.
This wasn't a game nor a horror movie. This was real…
And real meant, it would have consequences…. Permanent ones.
"What... what am I even supposed to do now?" he muttered, half to himself, half to the cursed phone hovering in front of him.
"Well, you're alive, aren't you? That's step one!" Xiao Hei chirped, oblivious to the gravity of the situation. "Now, as for step two... You just have to be at the Playground of the Forgotten before the countdown ends~"
Jin rubbed his temples again, fighting the frustration that was creeping in, " Uhuh yeah, so tell me, how the hell do I get there, huh? Do I get to teleport? Fast travel?? Or some kind of ghost transportation?" he asked with a hint of disbelief and mockery.
Xiao Hei tilted his head dramatically, his grin widening. "Oh no no~, Qiang-ge. You're at Tier 0, so no teleporting for you…. You'll have to take the old-fashioned route... by yourself! Hehe~ But don't worry, it's not that bad! The system will guide you to the location, and I'll be here with you, so you won't get bored at all!~ I can sing for you on the way, or we can play games or –"
Jin wasn't listening to Xiao Hei ramble anymore as he let out a sound that was somewhere between a whimper and a laugh and muttered to himself, "Ha. Ha… So basically, I'm screwed… Ha… F*ck…"
"No, you're not~" Xiao Hei hummed, pulling up the map application on the screen, "Look, here's the place. It's about… Ehhh?~ 27 kilometers away from your current location?! Hahaha~"
Xiao Hei zoomed out the map to show the depressing distance, which made Jin visibly pale.
"TWENTY-SEVEN?!" he yelped. "That's practically another city!"
"Haha, yes it is~ But don't worry, Qiang-ge, I'll help you make a budget for it… Let's see~" Xiao Hei tapped through apps cheerfully.
"First, you'll need a train ticket… that's about ¥60 round trip.... Then a taxi… then maybe rent a scooter… and probably a cheap place to stay overnight so you can rest, Oh! and maybe food too… assuming you survive the event!…. Mmm… Okay~ You'll need ¥888 ~."
"Great… Today's my last day alive." Jin flopped backward onto the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
"What do you mean, Qiang-ge?" Xiao Hei asked in confusion as the phone went down and followed Jin's face.
"I can't afford that…"
Xiao Hei then wagged his finger dramatically. "Did you forget something, Qiang-ge?~"
"Huh?" Jin mumbled, not moving.
"You got a donation, remember? That lovely anonymous viewer who sent you ¥888 a while ago~!"
Jin blinked twice, cluelessly, and then, "Ohhh… right…" He said as he sat back up slowly, like a corpse reanimating. "That…"
Jin paused as he remembered.
It happened just a few hours ago, after he woke up from blacking out at that tunnel and receiving that cursed package from the GH.ST Network.
That donation was a brief spark of hope from his run-down life, and he had already mentally marked it for one very, very crucial thing...
To help lessen his two-month overdue rent. The landlady had already knocked twice this week. Once more, and he just might find his things on the curb.
He sighed so hard it could have knocked over a small animal.
"Guess I have no choice…" he muttered bitterly as he glanced at the hovering phone and saw his pitiful wallet balance on its screen.
Xiao Hei had opened his bank app, which displayed his balance.
[Current Balance: ¥1120.13]
His eyes drifted lower, then locked onto the message Xiao Hei had gleefully mentioned earlier.
[+¥888.00 - Donation from: ???]
Jin stared at the numbers, which should've made him feel better. But all it did was remind him what that money was supposed to be for.
"That was rent money…" he muttered bitterly again, dropping his head into his hands.
"Well~ You could always just stay home and let the system 'assign' you a replacement host~" Xiao Hei chirped innocently.
Jin immediately sat up straighter and blurted out, "NO!!.... I'll go!"
The memory of Xiao Hei's earlier warning flashed in Jin's mind, and whether it was real or not, he still wouldn't pick the hard way out. He didn't want to risk it, not when he's caught up in this absurd situation.
"Smart choice~!" Xiao Hei giggled. "Oh! Right~ You might have forgotten one more thing… It's now past 1 pm… Tehee~" he said as he brought up a note on Jin's phone.
[1:00 PM – Part-time shift begins – Food Delivery]
"...Shit!" Jin said as he rushed to get ready for his part-time food delivery job.
"Eh? You're still going?" Xiao Hei blinked at him from the phone screen, confused.
But Jin Qiang couldn't hear him right now. He was in utter frantic mode, his body moved on its own, and just reflexively did what he normally does when he was running late.
He didn't even remember he was live right now.
[Alive – Live Chat]
[🧃XxJuiceBoxx: someone give this man a raise and an exorcist, fr.]
[🍜Noodles4life: Xiao Hei do my taxes too, or just haunt me with financial advice?]
[🍀StreamerLuck: He better survive later… cause I'm emotionally invested now.]
[Dead – Live Chat]
[🖤FanOfFear: ngl respect… haunted af and still trying to survive capitalism]
[🔪ShadowTyped: Let him clock in. He might just clock out for good tonight. HAHAHA~]
[💤SilentScreamer: How nostalgic… watching the living cling to scraps of survival.]
Four hours later….
After multiple wrong addresses, cranky customers, and dodging traffic like his life depended on it, the mundanity of the task gave him a brief respite from his rising panic, but the constant hum of his chaotic thoughts never stopped.
Jin stumbled back into his small apartment like a dying soldier returning from war.
His body ached, and his soul ached more.
He even wondered what was the point, of him going to his part-time work when there was a possibility of him dying tonight.
Jin collapsed into a chair and then checked the timer.
[🎥Next Haunting Event: Playground of the Forgotten – 04:53:22]
(Less than five hours left…)
Jin Qiang stared blankly at the screen, the countdown ticking away with cruel indifference.
Xiao Hei then suddenly popped on the screen and greeted him excitedly. "Qiang-ge!! Look! There are a lot of viewers waiting for your Haunting event~ Hehe they can't wait for you to scream and panic later~hehe~" he said as if it were great news.
The live stream overlay was displayed on the cursed phone's screen, and Jin couldn't help but glance at the live chat, even though he knew it would only make him feel worse.
[Alive – Live Chat]
[🔮Ty_Oliver_9750: That countdown feels like a death sentence 💀]
[🖤0Black0: Playground of the Forgotten? Isn't that where those kids vanished??]
[🐸Froggo_: Bro, if I were him, I'd bail. That place sounds like it's straight out of a horror game.]
[Dead – Live Chat]
[🕳️CrawlspaceWitch: I left my teeth under the sandpit… Tell him to dig for a prize. Kekeke~ ]
[🩸BiteTheVeil: Hope he brought a second heart. The first one's gonna break~Hihihi~]
[🫥MimicMouth: I heard a child still laughs there. But there were no survivors.]
The comments swirled around him, feeding into his anxiety.
"Playground of the Forgotten," Jin murmured the name once again to himself.
"Just what the hell is that place?" Jin Qiang muttered as he opened his laptop, and the live stream overlay appeared at the corner of the screen. He could see the chat scrolling rapidly, a mix of morbid curiosity, amusement, and the occasional genuine expression of concern. But he ignored it and focused on typing [Playground of the Forgotten legends] into the search bar.
Xiao Hei, who had been idly flicking through the comments on the phone's live stream, turned his attention back to Jin.
"Qiang-ge?~ Hmm??~ Whatcha doing?~" He asked as he popped on the laptop's screen.
Jin was researching the location, as it felt like it was the only thing he could do now to exert some control over the chaotic situation.
"Ooooh~ Are we doing homework now? So studious! Just like a student cramming for exams the next day~!" Xiao Hei said as he tilted his head upside down on the screen like an overcurious bat.
"More like I'm the broke guy with no rent money and a death timer hanging over his head." Jin said seriously as he clicked through the first few results.
Xiao Hei just giggled, still hanging upside down on the screen.
At first, it was just forum posts, half-baked urban legends, and one extremely outdated news article buried behind layers of conspiracy blogs. It was mostly just hearsay.
Then one thread caught his eye on an old ghost forum titled:
"The Playground of the Forgotten – Urban Myth or Government Cover-Up?"
Posted 4 years ago by user: And13w
There used to be a playground on the edge of an abandoned development in Xinzhen District, just outside Zhi'an City. It was meant to be part of a new community center and residential neighborhood, but the company went bankrupt mid-construction. Only the playground and the skeletal frame of the housing complex remained. That's when it started.
The first incident was a missing boy in 1893. Then, a girl in 1894, and by 1896, the place was fenced off. Locals said they could still hear the merry-go-round creaking at night. Some said they saw kids playing there... even when no kids were around. The place became a teen dare spot, then a ghost story, then a police no-go zone. Nobody really knows what happened to the ones who went in. The most famous case was a live streamer who disappeared during a challenge stream. He screamed once. Just once. No one found him.
They called it the 'Playground of the Forgotten' because the kids who vanished were orphans, runaways, or street kids. Kids, no one came looking for. Kids… the world forgot.
Jin's throat felt dry as he read and scrolled down.
Where the comments were much worse.
[Reply by PennyXL]:
"I went there once with a group. We heard laughing. We left. One of us didn't. Never found him. We thought it was a prank until we found his shoes in the sandbox a week later. They were filled with blood."
[Reply by JJ_LD]:
"If you hear the song... DON'T listen. DON'T follow the voice. DON'T dig in the sand."
[Reply by LucidRuin]:
"A friend of mine who works at the local morgue says they once got a corpse with sand in its lungs. No sign of drowning. No water. Just... sand. Buried alive. While screaming."
Jin sat back slowly, eyes wide, as Xiao Hei floated cheerfully beside the screen.
"Oooh! Found the good stuff, huh? Hehe~ I love those creepypasta posts. Most of them are lies, but some of them…" Xiao Hei leaned in, eyes glowing faintly, "Some have a bit of truth ~"
Jin turned toward him. "Why didn't you tell me this?"
Xiao Hei gave him a wide, unbothered shrug. "Well~ I shouldn't spoil everything, right? Where's the fun in that?~Tehee~"
He muttered, "This is going to be a nightmare..." he said as he closed the laptop slowly, as if afraid it might pull him in next.
"Nope! It's going to be content~!"Xiao Hei said from the cursed phone, which got up from the desk and floated in front of Jin.
Jin blankly stared at the phone's screen, which displayed the live stream, the countdown timer, and Xiao Hei having a great time interacting with the chats.
[🎥Next Haunting Event: Playground of the Forgotten – 03:10:41]
Jin stayed silent for a while, just zoning out with chaotic thoughts, and then finally breaking his silence, he said, "…I think I need a drink."
Xiao Hei gave him a thumbs-up, "Hydration is important before emotional collapse!"
DING~
The phone then rang a notification sound.
And on the phone's display was a message floating in the middle of the livestream's footage.
[Prepare yourself. Your journey to the Playground of the Forgotten begins soon.]
[Bring: 1 flashlight, 1 offering, and your resolve.]
Jin Qiang exhaled, stood, and shuffled toward the kitchen. Behind him, the chats continued to scroll, both the alive and dead viewers alike, were eagerly… awaiting the show.
And far away, in the forgotten edge of Zhi'an City, a rusted swing began to creak.
Even though there was no wind.
And no child in sight.