Afterimage ChronicleTaipei
The Guest Beneath the Skin
A woman lies dead in an old Taipei mansion. The coroner's report reveals an impossible truth—she is wearing someone else's skin.
Interactive mystery adventure
Afterimage Chronicle
The mirror read: Do Not Look.You looked.
Supernatural mysteries set in real places across Taiwan. Every choice leads you to a different truth.
- 16stories
- 64endings
- 5languages
- Freeto play
No download — plays in any phone or desktop browser
What kind of story is this?
Afterimage Chronicle is a free interactive mystery with multiple endings. You are Lu Li, the last Gatekeeper — someone who can see afterimages. A bronze mirror dug up in Bopiliao, knocking deep inside a Jiufen gold mine, coral soldiers rising from the sea off Penghu… behind every strange event lies a forgotten chapter of Taiwan's history. Your choices decide who is remembered, who is forgiven, and which ending you reach.
A story you read with your whole body
Every choice changes the ending
Each story has 4 endings. Collect Truth Fragments to piece together the mystery behind them all.
Real places in Taiwan
Wanhua, Jiufen, Taroko, Kinmen, Anping, Hualien… the stories happen where you could walk.
Living atmosphere
Rain, firelight, the deep sea, mine tunnels, ash and the void shift with the story and pull you in.
Music, sound and haptics
Feel heartbeats, shocks, and your own phone buzzing when a character's phone rings (latest app).
Text that performs
Typewriter reveals, echoes, whispers, burning words and glitches — the words themselves are the show.
Free and growing
All 16 stories across two series are free, with new stories on the way.
See it in action
Two series, 16 stories
Guicang
Nine Gates sealed, truth shattered, you are the last Gatekeeper.
NTU Hospital, Taipei
The Night Returner
In the basement of the old NTU Hospital wing, a massive banyan tree grows upside down, with a half-man, half-tree figure seated within. That same day, the ER admits a woman dead for seventy-two hours yet showing no decay. Every night at 3 AM, singing echoes from the morgue.
Wenzhou Street, Taipei
Guest Among Flowers
Hundreds of people in Taipei lose the ability to love overnight. Divorce rates surge fourfold. Emotions drain away as if extracted. All cases radiate outward from a bookshop on Wenzhou Street.
Jiufen
The Half-Waking Hall
Nine people in Jiufen have fallen into an unawakeable slumber. They are all smiling, all saying the same words in their dreams: 'Another cup, please.' Deep within the abandoned mine shaft lies a teahouse that should not exist.
National Central Library
The Wordless
Overnight, all written words in Taiwan vanished. Pages turned blank, signs faded, and people could no longer speak the word 'sorrow.' Deep within the National Library, someone is devouring language itself.
Lukang Old Street
The Stone Bearer
Thirty-seven traditional craftsmen in Lukang Old Street simultaneously lost their craft memories overnight. Their hands still remember—but they don't know why. Deep in the alley sits a photo studio where all the pictures on the wall have no faces.
Taroko Gorge
Stringless
Taroko Gorge is singing. The marble walls emit sounds that don't belong to this era - tourists hear Japanese military commands, hiking groups hear bird calls from species extinct for three thousand years. And a young Truku man hears the singing voice of his grandmother who passed away six months ago.
Kinmen
No Regrets
Kinmen Island lost its trust overnight. Engaged couples tore up their betrothal agreements, forty-year business partners turned against each other, and even the Wind Lion Gods were weeping. Deep within the underground tunnels lies a stone wall carved with countless oaths, now cracking apart.
Dadaocheng
Guicang
All eight gates collapse simultaneously. On the streets of Taipei, people's faces are changing, corpses in the morgue are moving, language is failing, and memories are randomly transferring between people. The bronze door handle at The Reliquary in Dadaocheng is vibrating. The 'Gui' birthmark on Lu Li's left wrist has cracked open—the ninth gate is awakening within him.
Mirror
Sealing Mirrors awaken, afterimages speak, can you see me?
Bopiliao, Wanhua
Reflection
A bronze mirror engraved with 'Do Not Look' was unearthed at the Bopiliao urban renewal site. Within three days, nineteen people developed burn scars that weren't their own, speaking a language from one hundred seventy years ago.
Xiyu, Penghu
Sea of Rebirth
Fishermen in Penghu's Xiyu pull up their nets—inside is a living coral hand. Then, forty-seven coral figures in Qing dynasty military uniforms rise from the sea.
Jinguashi
Mine Echo
The old mine shaft walls at the Jiufen Gold Mine Museum are 'sweating'—liquid gold seeps from the stone walls, solidifying into a boy's handprints. From deep within the sealed tunnel comes a knocking sound. Once every three seconds, seven knocks per set. It has been knocking for eighty years.
Meishan, Chiayi
Cradle
Meishan, Chiayi. The excavator at a new construction site stopped three meters underground—not because it hit rock, but because the driver's hands were seized by invisible hands. The ground temperature within a hundred meters of the site remained constant at 36.5 degrees Celsius. One hundred twenty years ago, someone dug here for three days and three nights. He is still digging.
Anping, Tainan
Shadow Play
Tainan, Anping. Visitors at the Anping Fort night tour discovered too many shadows on the walls—more than the people present. A shadow dressed in seventeenth-century clothing walked alone on the wall, reaching toward every visitor's shadow. It was looking for someone. Looking for someone on four-hundred-year-old coral stone walls.
Hualien
Ashes
Hualien. A layer of ash that won't cool was unearthed at the public housing construction site in Guofu Village—two meters underground, one hundred forty-eight years old. Workers who inhaled the dust began speaking a language no one recognized. Linguists identified it: Sakizaya. A nearly extinct language. There was the outline of a girl in the ash. She was repeating the same action—lighting fire. Extinguishing. Lighting. Extinguishing. Sixty-two years.
Dadaocheng
Void
Dadaocheng. Dihua Street. Lu Li returns to Shiyi Studio—the place where he sang Guicang one year ago. Every antique in the studio is vibrating. Six frequency paths from across Taiwan converge here. The center of the spiral. The floor cracks. Beneath the crack is not foundation—it is void. The seventh mirror was not buried by the Guicang Society—it grew on its own the day of Guicang. The Empty Mirror. A mirror that reflects nothingness. The person in the mirror is Hui. He has waited for thousands of years. He has only one question.
How to play
Pick a story
Start anywhere in the Guicang or Mirror series — every story stands on its own.
Make your choices
At key moments, choose what Lu Li does. The story branches with you.
Collect endings and fragments
Unlock different endings and gather Truth Fragments to uncover the secret of the whole world.
Frequently asked questions
What is Afterimage Chronicle?
Afterimage Chronicle (陸離殘像錄) is a free interactive mystery text adventure — an interactive novel / visual novel with multiple endings — set in real places across Taiwan. You play Lu Li, who can see afterimages, and make choices at key moments that change the story and its ending.
Is it free?
Yes. Every story can be read for free. The game shows ads, and some stories can be unlocked by watching an ad or sharing.
Where can I play?
There are apps for iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets. You can also read online in any desktop or mobile browser without downloading anything.
How many stories and endings are there?
Two series: Guicang (9 stories) and Mirror (7 stories), 16 stories in total. Each story has 4 endings, 64 endings in all, and new stories keep coming.
Where do the stories take place?
All in real places in Taiwan — Bopiliao in Wanhua, Jiufen and Jinguashi, Taroko Gorge, Kinmen, Xiyu in Penghu, Anping in Tainan, Meishan in Chiayi, Hualien and Dadaocheng — woven together with local history.
Which languages are supported?
Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. You can switch at any time in Settings.
Do I need to be online?
Stories and sounds load from the internet. The app keeps stories and sounds you have read on your device, so they open faster next time.
The truth has shattered. The fragments remain.
Start your first story now.
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