Hell's Handbook

The world around Su Jin slowly lit up. He was in a restaurant that looked like it was from ancient China. Everything around him was made from wood. The sky outside was slowly darkening, so it seemed it was evening time.

Su Jin scanned the people around him. Sixteen people sat in the small restaurant and they looked rather nervous. Su Jin frowned slightly. Having so many participants meant that this was probably a Level A Challenge.

Sure enough, the first thing Su Jin noticed when he opened his Handbook was that this was indeed a Level A Challenge.

Level A Challenge: Night Parade of a Hundred Demons

Main mission: Survive until the sun rises

Side quest: The demons are split into four ranks from A to D. You will get 500 points if you kill one rank D demon, 1000 points if you kill a rank C demon, 2,000 points for a rank B demon, and 5,000 points for a rank A demon.

Su Jin let out a wow. This was the highest number of points he had ever seen the Challenge give to owners for completing quests. But if any owner was going to count on this to gain extra points, they were probably going to end up dead.

It was clear that none of them were stupid. Everyone’s brows were tightly knit, and it was obvious that a Level A Challenge really frightened them.

Su Jin didn’t think it was that bad. To prevent the Handbook from noticing anything amiss about himself, he suppressed his psychokinesis to the levels he had before it was sealed. If needed, he could unleash everything in an instant. He was doing this only to prevent unnecessary trouble.

He had powers comparable to a high level god, so this sort of thing didn’t mean much to him. His life would only be threatened if he was in a Heaven Level Challenge like the Grave of the Gods, and he was in danger only if he was being specially attacked.Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt

“Hello everyone. This is a Level A Challenge, so my team, Team Blazing Sun, would like to work with you guys. What do you think?” Besides Su Jin, the remaining 15 people seemed to belong to three different teams. But that was to be expected. Su Jin felt that he had been thrown into this Challenge all by himself because he was still at a much higher level than most owners even after suppressing his true powers.

The Handbook had deemed his powers to be equivalent to one team. But Su Jin thought that this situation wasn’t too bad either. He would only be able to get useful resources if he participated in higher level Challenges.

“Team Sunday is good with that. This is a Level A Challenge, so we will only survive if we work together,” the leader of another team agreed to the arrangement.

Team Blazing Sun and Team Sunday immediately turned to look at the last team. They too, did not hesitate and agreed, “Team High Mountains are good with this idea too. Working together does seem like our best option right now.”

After saying that, the leader of Team High Mountains glanced at Su Jin and smiled faintly when their eyes met. What a coincidence!

Team High Mountains was one of the teams in the Train of the Supernatural Beings along with Su Jin’s team. Su Jin was also surprised to not just see someone familiar, but to meet with him again in a Level A Challenge.

“Hello, Mr. Su. It’s been a long time,” the leader of Team High Mountains, Liu Bowen, nodded slightly at Su Jin. His team had suffered terrible losses during that Challenge, but all his teammates had been revived immediately after that. They had no idea what had happened, but they guessed that it had something to do with Team Boning Knife.

“You guys know each other?” asked Team Blazing Sun’s leader. Most teams had five to ten people, and based on Liu Bowen’s greeting earlier, Su Jin was not part of his team. But Su Jin was sitting alone and very far from Team Sunday, so he probably wasn’t from that team either.

“Ah yes, we worked together in a Challenge previously,” said Su Jin with a smile as he nodded back at Liu Bowen.

The leader of Team Sunday suddenly piped up, “I suppose you’re not a member of any of the three teams here?”

Su Jin nodded and said, “That’s right. I’ve been sent here by myself.”

All three of them were a little stunned. They could never truly understand how the Handbook assigned owners to Challenges, but sending a lone ranger to a Challenge with three teams made them suspicious.

“Is there a secret mission for an owner to turn against other owners? Or… is he a demon disguised as a human?” All three teams becwary, and even Liu Bowen was unsure despite having interacted with Su Jin before.

It was very common for high level Challenges to give out such secret quests, and that was one way to make the Challenge harder. Su Jin himself had run into an instance where one of the owners was a monster in disguise. Such a monster had hidden itself among the owners right at the start of the Temple of the Origin of Heaven.

Both of these were highly possible in a high level Challenge. If the owners were not careful and did not deal with such situations properly, they might end up dead.

Of course, Su Jin knew what they were thinking about, so he smiled and said, “Don’t worry about me. I will move about by myself and keep a good distance from the rest of you.”

The three teams were still very wary, so Su Jin just shook his head and walked out of the restaurant first. He didn’t blthem for reacting like that. Staying alive was the most important objective in any Challenge. Being overly cautious was not a bad thing.

But when Su Jin walked past Liu Bowen, Liu Bowen suddenly asked, “Mr. Su, Team Boning Knife… is only left with yourself?”

Su Jin stopped and sighed, then said, “We’ve disbanded due to sissues, so I’m all by myself now.”

Liu Bowen paused to think, then said, “If we get out of this Challenge alive, I’d like to invite you to join my team.”

Su Jin was a little surprised. He didn’t expect Liu Bowen to have any intention of taking him in. He scanned the members of the team and realized they were all the speople who were in the team during the Train of the Supernatural Challenge. In other words, Team High Mountains had made it through this twithout losing a single member, which was proof of the team’s capabilities and potential. No wonder Liu Bowen was confident that Su Jin would be interested in joining them.

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“Nah, I’m someone who… is a jinx to my teammates.” Su Jin chuckled, then waved to the team before walking out of the restaurant by himself.

Liu Bowen nearly burst out laughing. A jinx to his teammates? Death during Challenges was such a common thing. If that made one a curse, then every Handbook owner was a curse. But Liu Bowen knew that Su Jin just didn’t want to join his team and had merely found a nicer way to reject the invitation.

After Su Jin walked out, he started looking around him curiously. They were in a small town, and a large number of residents were moving out at the stime.

“Sir, could I ask why everyone is moving house?” Su Jin caught hold of an elderly man.

The elderly man was very anxious, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t walk away from Su Jin, so he said hurriedly, “Young man, don’t get in my way! It’s the 15^th day of the 7^th month today and our town is built right in front of the gates of hell. When night comes, the gates will open and all the ghosts and demons will pass through our town. If any living person stays here… they’re doomed for sure, so you’d better get moving too! Don’t stick around and wait to die!”

“The 15^th day of the 7^th month? Ghost Festival?” murmured Su Jin to himself.

“That’s right! It’s the Ghost Festival! Hurry up and run!” said the old man.

Su Jin bowed slightly and said, “I have reasons for not being able to leave, so… do you know if there’s a way to stay here and still survive?”

The old man stared at Su Jin as though Su Jin was completely out of his mind. He said, “Young man, nothing can be more important than staying alive! You’d better go now!”

“I really can’t…” said Su Jin with a frustrated look on his face.

The old man could not understand why Su Jin didn’t want to leave, but he still dropped a piece of advice, “There’s a City God temple in the east of the town, you can stay there tonight and you might be able to get through the night!” The old man pushed Su Jin aside and quickly made his way out of the town.

“Thank you!” Su Jin thanked the old man, then said to himself, “Sometimes, leaving the safe zone earlier can get you useful information.”