This comic supernatural mystery novel starts with two tropes -- Switched at Birth and Infinite Horror Game. A poor young man finds out that he was switched at birth and is actually the heir to a wealthy family of exorcists in another town. Turns out, his newfound relatives have been turning malevolent ghosts loose on people and extorting them in a protection racket. The fake heir tricks Chi Shen into a ghost holding pen and leaves him there to die. Instead, he stumbles into a Death Game in another dimension,... more>> with the promise that he can return to our world if he wins. Winning takes him over a hundred years and then he gets dumped back the second he left, only with top grade supernatural weapons, a century's ghost-hunting experience, and very little remaining memory of the world he was born in. His scum relatives have no idea what they've unleashed on themselves.

Meanwhile, Chi Shen has to navigate a modern world he barely remembers and finds himself more comfortable with ghosts than people. He gets a day job developing horror games and a sideline as a police consultant/mental health therapist for ghosts. In the process of helping the undead deal with their traumas, he takes a bunch of ghosts home to live with him, including a handsome young phantom who may or may not actually be dead.

The novel unspools as a series of mysteries. There's the mysteries of the individual ghosts, the mysteries involving various magic-wielders of various degrees of virtue, the mysteries of exactly what his different scum relatives are up to, and finally the biggest mystery of all -- what actually happened to him in that Death Game?

If you like your mystery leavened with supernatural comedy, this is for you. Enjoy. <<less

Not bad but it's somewhat boring. I don't understand the main character at all. He says he wants to be normal but then spends all his time with ghosts? He says he wants to make friends with ghosts but beats them first? He says he doesn't want to hurt anyone but ignores when they torment humans? He says he feels no emotions towards his abusers but torments them anyway, in a long-winded and indirect way. What does our MC actually want because I still don't know. It's like there's a... more>> hole in his brain.

There's no one interesting at all, the plot is stale, and the MC is too op. I can't feel any emotions from him at all. So, I can't connect with him and I don't care about anything happening. <<less

Wanted to mention prior to my review that asianovels group has completely translated this on their website, but are taking quite a while to post all the links to NU. It's an edited MTL, with many small mistakes but still easier to read than when I tried to use MTL myself.

One element I'm unsure of that still bothers me about the translation is the main setting location. When I used DeepL as an MTL extension on Chrome browser to read some chapters (the asianovels site was temporarily down), it translated... more>> the main setting location as Hong Kong. Most of the time, the author will refer to the city as the harbor city, and sometimes the asianovels translators will use Hong City (Hongcheng) but I think the actual name is Hong Kong (which is a harbor city, called Victoria Harbour). If it is Hong Kong then that also fits some side character descriptions. Zhong Yi's police trench coat was remarked as a harbor city fashion (this long/big coat style is commonly used in Hong Kong), and the ghost in the floral dress when she was meeting with her lover in his dream had a typical Hong Kong girl hairstyle and fashion of a few decades ago. I just want to say to the translators on asianovel and others who are using MTL -- DeepL is more accurate than Google Translate for modern language databases, but both don't work as well for ancient words or phrases. I recommend using DeepL as a primary tool and Google as a secondary tool for MTL. And I often use the MDGB Chinese Dictionary to check difficult terms, names, or phrases when I am MTLing danmei or other Chinese novels for myself.

If it is a novel set in Hong Kong, I have to say something about the villainous Bai family (which is ridiculously disgusting as far as villains go). By analyzing the plot, you can tell the author is promoting a nationalistic mainland Chinese agenda in a low key way. Why I say this is because the main villains of the Bai family (bio family of Chi Shen, the MC) are criminals who use ghosts to extort money and even mu*der people. They're all sick psychos who even raise their children into fierce ghosts full of malevolent energy (Bai Wan, the bride ghost;

Spoiler

Bai Ran, the fake young master,

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etc). These criminals have lived in Hong Kong for generations and don't agree to take part in the mainland China's supernatural police force because they want to hide their evil deeds. Isn't this a negative commentary on Hong Kong citizens who protest against mainland China's reforms and control? Authors in China can't cover political topics because it's censored, but some authors can skirt around banned topics by pointing out political issues in a subtle way like the way this one did.

I have to say that it's really annoying for foreign readers to read web novels from any country with nationalistic vibes. My guess is that such authors don't want to gain a global audience.

I'm not sure if I will continue reading this beyond ch 170 because the backstory of the ML is way too tragic.

Spoiler

Ji Xingchen (or actually Wen Xingchen) turns out to be the son of Wen Qin, an extremely disgusting pe*verted guy who is described as a supernatural talent working for the Bai family. Wen Qin is a sociopath who used his son to create a malicious spirit by conducting horrific abuse and torture on him from an early age (his other son was also turned into a powerful ghost). All of Ji Xingchen's painful memories were isolated by Wen Qin, so initially he had no clue about any sad or unhappy moments while he was still alive, no memories of his f*cked up dad, and no memories of his death.

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I was so enraged by the scene where his abusive childhood was revealed that I feel a bit scared to continue reading. People who find child abuse triggering may want to avoid this novel.

Conclusion: Even though I disagree with the low key nationalism aspect of the story, this novel is a very good mystery and ghost story. If it was yaoi, I'd give it 5 stars! The romance is extremely minimal,

Spoiler

and it looks as though ML will be separated from his corpse and completely turn into a spirit. If so, the romance will probably only be platonic for the entire story. Since this is shounen ai, it makes sense. But since the majority of shounen ai couples are capable of having s*x but the explicit scenes are just not shown, the platonic nature of their relationship is a little frustrating for me as a reader...

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. I wish someone who has better skills with translating, edited MTL or otherwise, would take up this novel though. It's deserving of a better translation. <<less

I noticed too late that I already tried to read this some time ago.

What attracted me was the writer's notice that the ML is a ghost and will stay that way, something you rarely see.

The thing that ruins it for me is the brainless hidden identity plotline.

MC pretends to be a normal person in front of everyone, really everyone, even people that wouldn't give a damn and wouldn't put his peaceful life at risk.
It's a constant circle of people underestimating him, calling him a waste, and getting face slapped by MC's ghostly friends/some other means caused by MC.

That gets old and annoying very very quickly, mainly because there's absolutely no need for it.
He's the most powerful person around, no one can do anything to him, and he doesn't want anything to do with his family.
But he still pretends so they cause trouble for him again and again, instead of coming clean and forcing them to leave him alone.

The mental gymnastics characters do to justify why it definitely isn't the MC, even making up some mysterious person when nothing points to someone like that existing, are laughable.
Not in a comedic manner, but in a "writer didn't know how to keep it up" kind of way.

It's artificial drama that drags down a nice idea and a romance I was very much interested in but will now never see because of the forced, nonsensical hidden identity plotline.

Huge fan of the ending, which tied up almost all the loose ends and was very satisfying; I also enjoyed the reasoning for the infinite flow game. Fun main character, and I think he had great (subtle and sweet) chemistry with the love interest. Super wholesome story-- I love how they treated death and passing on, and how love and grief stay behind after. I cried multiple times.

Going to give this five stars to offset the low review count. Personally, I think its cute and a worthwhile read, but a 4 might be more accurate.

A nice slice of life comedy with some action. I really like the way the author has subverted the infinite flow genre by writing about the MCs life after the Infinite Flow Game. It lends well to the comedy. Man I love these ghosts.