★Suspense master Cai Bigui (aka "Uncle Ghost"), a top influencer with 4.76 million Weibo followers, finally publishes his sensational work — once restricted and deleted on the "Tianya" forum for its explosive content — now thrilling six million fans!
★A series of bizarre and eerie stories, heart-stopping and addictive, each standalone yet interconnected, pointing toward the ultimate future of our lives.
★Acclaimed suspense writers Cai Jun, Zijin Chen, and Spider highly recommended: A unique blend of horror, mystery, sci-fi, and mind-bending twists!

"God can exist anywhere — even inside a video game."
Luckily, so can my hunt.
What you think is the end… is only the beginning.
If you're not a freak, you won’t encounter these strange events.
If you're not Uncle Ghost, you couldn’t imagine such madness.

The series includes 8 volumes:
"Weirdo's Bizarre Case Files: The Basement Prison"
"Weirdo's Bizarre Case Files: Taboo of the Snow Mountain"
"Weirdo's Bizarre Case Files: Death Pending"
"Weirdo's Bizarre Case Files: The Island Dream"
"Weirdo's Bizarre Case Files: Delusional Reality"
"Weirdo's Bizarre Case Files: The Assassination Loop"
"Weirdo's Bizarre Case Files: Game Shadows"
"Weirdo's Bizarre Case Files: The Time Prisoner"

Players of a popular international MMORPG began live-streaming their suicides — including several of my (Ghost Uncle) fans — sparking suspicions between me and Shui Ge, and drawing Interpol’s attention. Collaborating with agents, I went undercover as a game designer at the developer’s company. The investigation revealed ties to the elusive "Time Prisoner". With Shui Ge and Tang Shuang, I entered the game to hunt its final boss, hoping to force the Time Prisoner — mastermind of the conspiracy — into the open...
Grotesque suicides, a global gaming phenomenon, higher-dimensional beings behind the Time Prisoner, and a mission to save millions of lives... The relentless thrills will haunt you!

Cai Bigui, born Cai Zeng, is a bestselling sci-fi and mystery novelist with six million followers online. Awarded "2019’s Top 10 Most Influential Book Reviewers".
Since 2009, his novels have sold over a million copies, including the "Long Game" series, "The Hyperbrain", the short story collection "BBQ Horror Tales", and the screenplay "Memory Reconstruction". "BBQ Horror Tales" won "Fifth Chinese Original Fiction Awards — Most Popular Short Story Collection," while "Memory Reconstruction" received the 2019 Golden Feather Award. A film adaptation of "BBQ Horror Tales" is currently in production.

Chapter 1　　 "Monkey" Is Dead 　　　　　001
Chapter 2　　 Reunited with Agent Liang 　017
Chapter 3　　 Assisting the Investigation 031
Chapter 4　　 Ghost Uncle’s Theory 　　　047
Chapter 5　　 Zhai Xing Lu Online 　　　062
Chapter 6　　 TIT Corporation 　　　　　　083
Chapter 7　　 The Game Dev Team 　　　　100
Chapter 8　　 Inviting Vicky 　　　　　　119
Chapter 9　　 "I Shall Purge You All" 　　136
Chapter 10　　Someone Else’s Hand 　　　153
Chapter 11　　Do or Die 　　　　　　　　169
Chapter 12　　The Blueprint from the Future 186
Chapter 13　　Player #3217: Cai Bigui Online 198
Chapter 14　　It Was Her After All 　　　213
Chapter 15　　"Logging In" to a Body 　　242
Chapter 16　　A Close-Fought Finale 　　　252

First Message: "Uncle, get on QQ quickly!"
Second Message: "The monkey is dead!"
I was startled, and most of my sleepiness dissipated. The text message was from a girl named "Quanquan", who is the administrator of my fan QQ group.
A few months ago, I posted a story called "The Snow Mountain Taboo" on a forum using the ID "Ghost Uncle". It had no plot and no literary style, yet surprisingly, many people followed it, probably attracted by the undeniable charm that couldn't be hidden between the lines of my writing.
One day, Quanquan left a message: "Ghost Uncle, you should create a QQ group to interact with your readers more conveniently."
It sounded like a good idea, so I did it right away! I created a super group for 1,000 people that very day and gave it a very fresh and literary name: "Wuli Ghost Uncle Will Not Easily Guo Dei." [Wuli: A transliteration of the Korean word "our". / Guo Dei: A homophone of the English phrase "go die", meaning "to die".] Quanquan volunteered to be the group administrator.
I posted the QQ group number in my forum post, and within two or three days, the group size approached 500 people. Later, there was a dynamic equilibrium of around 500 members, with people joining and leaving occasionally. According to my observation, there were more female fans than male members in the group, with a ratio of about 7:3. It seems that although the girls appear gentle on the surface, they actually have a strong desire for excitement inside.
After chatting in the group for two or three months, everyone gradually became familiar with each other, especially the twenty or thirty active members who, intentionally or unintentionally, revealed their age, location, occupation, and relationship status. There were a few who were good at talking big, always boasting about making plans to meet up in the group, but none of them actually met in person. As the saying goes, "A barking dog does not bite". Those who really made plans probably added each other as friends and hooked up secretly through private messages.
The "monkey" mentioned by Quanquan is one of the active members in the group. I don't pay much attention to male fans, but Monkey is one I remember. His nickname is "Hou Sailei", which means "very cool" in Cantonese. He is a monkey-year-born, 23-year-old guy. He posted a photo of himself when he joined the group, and he indeed looked very thin like a monkey, with long arms and legs, a shy expression, and a prominent hooked nose that caught everyone's attention. Quanquan first called him Monkey, and later he goes by this name among all of us.
Monkey doesn't post very frequently, but his posts are spread throughout the 24 hours of the day. During daytime working hours, he is one of the people chatting. Even at three or four in the morning when the group is quiet, he would suddenly say something like "getting up to pee". At first, I thought he might be living in a different time zone, but later he revealed that he actually lives in Guangzhou, just a two-hour drive from where I am.
I sat up, scratching my messy hair with one hand and logging into my mobile QQ with the other. As far as I can remember, Monkey hadn't posted in the group for three or four days, but he had done this before, so no one paid much attention. Now Quanquan says he's dead. Such a young guy, although he is thin and a homebody, there was no sign of any illness. Could it be an accident? I hoped it was just a false alarm.
As soon as I logged into QQ, I found it had already exploded. Not only was there a flood of messages in the "Wuli Ghost Uncle Will Not Easily Gou Dei" group, but also more than ten fans from the group had sent me private messages. I clicked on Quanquan's ID, and in the pop-up chat box, there was a GIF animation in addition to the text.
The GIF was very dark. In a room, a thin young man was sitting on a computer chair. I frowned as I looked at the animation, feeling more and more uneasy. The person had long arms and legs. Although his head was down, he looked very much like Monkey from our group.
At first, the thin young man had his right hand behind his back. As the GIF played, he took out a fruit knife from behind his back - the blade was narrow and the tip was sharp. Then he lifted his left hand to lift up his shirt and without hesitation, he stabbed the knife fiercely into his lower abdomen!
Although the young man was thin, he had no abdominal muscles. His abdominal skin was loose. He used a lot of force, and the fruit knife easily went in halfway, at least 10 centimeters, just above the navel. Since he had little fat on his abdomen, the knife must have already penetrated into the abdominal cavity and cut into the large intestine.
I gasped. What on earth was going on?
At this moment, the young man raised his head, and the expression on his face was - a smile! Yes, although the smile only lasted for a few frames, I was sure it was a very common smile in daily life. If you didn't look at the actions below his neck, you could read warmth, friendliness, and comfort from his facial expression. This young man was indeed Monkey. I was completely puzzled.
After these few frames, Monkey lowered his head again. He pulled the knife horizontally from left to right, just like the Japanese seppuku. I gritted my teeth and looked down with discomfort, but the GIF ended here and returned to the beginning, playing in a loop.
I swallowed my saliva, closed Quanquan's chat box, and opened messages from other fans. What they said was different, but without exception, they all attached the same GIF. My first reaction was: Oh my god, Monkey really committed suicide?! After this obvious fact, countless questions followed.
First of all, the suicide method in the GIF, which had a religious ritual meaning, was too unscientific. It was difficult for a normal person to do. Even if someone had a mental illness, or had a god-like willpower, and could stab a knife into their own stomach to commit seppuku, it was impossible to raise their head and show such a relaxed and comfortable smile.
There was another point. In the GIF, Monkey was sitting on a wheeled computer chair, and his feet were on the floor. After the human body feels pain, the legs will subconsciously tense up. Therefore, the computer chair must move backward. However, the computer chair in the GIF was completely still. This was too unreasonable. Secondly, why did he commit suicide?
Finally, there was the GIF itself. Who shot the original video? If this person was filming Monkey's suicide, what was his relationship with this matter? And who made the video into such a bloody GIF and posted it online, spreading it to our fan group?
My mind was in a mess when suddenly, a new message popped up on QQ.
Hou Sailei: "Uncle Ghost, good morning."
I was so scared that I almost dropped my phone on the ground. My heart was pounding uncontrollably, and when I touched my forehead, it was already covered with cold sweat. Suddenly, it dawned on me - these guys were playing a joke on me!
They had said in the group before: "Uncle Ghost's novels scared us a lot. We must think of a way to scare Uncle Ghost badly." But they only talked and never took any action, so I didn't take it to heart.
Well, these guys, as soon as they made a move, they created a big sensation and really scared me. It's not an exaggeration to say that I was scared out of my wits. It seems that there are many talented people in my fan group, hiding dragons and crouching tigers. Just take the GIF of Monkey's suicide just now as an example. The details of the knife going in are so realistic, and the eerie expression on Monkey's face, the chilling atmosphere. Tsk, it's the effect of a horror blockbuster. If my novel were to be adapted into a movie or web drama, there would be no need to look for others. There is a complete filming team in the group, with directors, lighting, photography, and actors. These guys are not simple. After I finished watching the GIF, Monkey immediately started chatting with me. The timing was just right.
In order to complete this high-level prank, they first laid the groundwork on QQ. Then they had Quanquan, who knew my phone number, send me a text message at 8 in the morning when I was still asleep, reminding me to get on QQ. Next, they bombarded me with messages and GIFs, causing me great psychological tension. Finally, they pulled out the big weapon - Monkey came to say "good morning" to me.
I can imagine the joy when they discussed the plan in a small group and the smirks on their faces when they implemented it. They played it really well. In the language of the post-90s or even millenniums in the group, it would be "233333333333" "666666666666". Fortunately, I have experienced some scary things. A real man is full of courage. If it were someone else, they would have been scared out of their wits long ago.
I took a deep breath and was extremely relieved. These guys claimed to be true fans, but they played such a trick on me. Fortunately, I am clever and saw through their scheme. Otherwise, I would have been ridiculed by them for three months.
With this thought in mind, I opened the group chat window and calmly typed a message: "Good morning, babies."
The group was originally in chaos, discussing whether the GIF was really of Monkey and if anyone could contact him. After seeing my message, the previous chaotic discussion ended and was replaced by another kind of chaotic questioning.
"Uncle, you're finally here?!"
"Uncle, did you see the GIF I sent you?"
"Uncle, how is Monkey really?"
I suddenly had an idea. Should I pretend not to see through their prank and go along with it? This thought flashed through my mind, but I dismissed it. It wouldn't suit my style. Being as straightforward as I am, it would be better to just point it out directly.
With this in mind, I typed a few words in the group: "Alright, stop messing around."
The group fell silent for a moment, and then Quanquan piped up: "Huh? Uncle, we're not messing around! Monkey really had an accident!"
It seemed she wanted to keep up the act and continue the performance.
Annoyed by the slow typing, I decided to send a voice message: "Alright, alright, I know you all went through a lot of trouble to scare me. I'll give you 32 likes and even award you the Annual Most Creative Group Chat Award. How about that? Monkey, come out and represent the group to receive the award."
After I finished speaking, the group was quiet for a while, presumably everyone was listening to the voice message.
Half a minute later, some people said, "So it was a prank after all!"
There were also those who flattered: "Uncle Ghost is brilliant!"
And some who were wise after the event: "I guessed it was a prank from the beginning haha, Monkey's acting was too fake."
However, after observing for a while, among those who spoke, there was neither Quanquan nor the few who usually chatted a lot with Monkey. I frowned, pressed the Home button, and was thinking about whether to call Quanquan when, as if by telepathy, she called me first. I answered, and fortunately, Quanquan, a girl from Chengdu, spoke standard Mandarin instead of the "cute Sichuan dialect", otherwise I wouldn't have understood her.
As soon as she spoke, she asked, "Uncle, do you think Monkey was playing a prank?"
I was taken aback and said, "That's what I should be asking you."
There was silence on both ends of the phone, as if we were both trying to gauge each other's words.
Quanquan broke the silence first, "Uncle, have you contacted Monkey?"
I scratched my head and said, "He said good morning to me, and then there was no response."
On the other end of the line, Quanquan sounded very shocked, "Uncle, are you sure you didn't see wrong? Did Monkey really talk to you? On QQ, WeChat, or did he call you?"
I frowned. Just by listening to her voice, I could imagine the incredulous look on Quanquan's face thousands of miles away. Her tone was so emotional and expressive that it didn't seem like she was acting at all. My heart leaped into my throat. Could it be that my judgment was wrong, and Monkey's suicide was not a prank but a real event?
Seeing that I hadn't spoken for so long, Quanquan anxiously asked on the other end, "Uncle, are you still there?"
I responded, "Yes, of course I'm here. Hey, Quanquan, tell me honestly, this really isn't a prank? You're not just playing with me, right?"
Her voice almost sounded like she was about to cry, "Uncle! Do you think we're joking? It's true! Monkey really is dead!"
I took a deep breath. Her voice and expression were very genuine, full of emotion, and definitely not acting. So, Monkey really was dead. The person who committed seppuku in that GIF was indeed Monkey. The same Monkey who had chatted with me in the group just a few days ago, enthusiastically recommending a game he was playing to me, and asking when I would go to Guangzhou to have a meal with him, was really dead. And in such an eerie and bizarre way!