My House of Horrors

Before the memory of Patient 101 was wiped away, Zhang Yi still managed to scour some things. For example, the workers at the cursed hospital could be delineated as day shift doctors and night shift doctors. The day shift doctors were people who were not normal while the night shift doctors were ghosts that treated the patients. The cursed hospital had a lot of day shift doctors but only ten night shift doctors. This number had not changed in a very long time until a few days ago.

The most experienced night shift doctor had disappeared in Jiujiang. According to rumors, that specific doctor had accompanied the hospital director when he came to Jiujiang twenty years ago. He was one of the hospital director’s most trusted confidants. To investigate the reason behind that doctor’s disappearance, the cursed hospital had stopped at nothing. They had infiltrated Jiujiang through many different methods. Most of the people from the cursed hospital who had been spotted in Jiujiang were there to search for the missing night shift doctor, but there was also a very small portion of patients who had unique powers who were given other missions, like this Patient 101.

His unique power was his ability to keep his presence hidden. Even a Red Specter would not be able to tell that he had taken possession of a normal person. Other than that, he could tell whether a person was lying or not based on that person’s presence, and through the same presence, he could triangulate the target’s location. In other words, he was a walking lie detector and GPS tracker. Due to his unique power, he was given this heavy task by his attending doctor. The doctor had him disguise as a visitor to come visit Chen Ge’s haunted house and infiltrate the deepest part of the haunted house to see the real situation in Chen Ge’s haunted house.

Actually, the cursed hospital was already as careful as they could be. This could be seen from the steps that they had taken just in case things went wrong. The moment the eyeball exploded, all of Patient 101’s memories had started to silently disappear. If not for the fact that Chen Ge possessed Zhang Yi, this Half Red Specter who could read and delete people’s memories, he probably would not have gotten any information related to the cursed hospital.

“Overall, it is not a complete loss. Even though Patient 101 has collected some information for the hospital, he has also exposed the information about the cursed hospital to me. It is an even trade.” Chen Ge was about to have his employee yank Patient 101 out of Cha Wen’s body when Zhang Yi revealed yet another important nugget of information to Chen Ge. The patient’s garb and the items that he carried with him when he left the cursed hospital were hidden at Cha Wen’s rented apartment in Jiujiang. He had a feeling those things would perhaps be helpful to Chen Ge.

At the moment, Chen Ge could not draw himself away from the haunted house. He was worried that the cursed hospital might send other people after him, so he had to stay guard at the haunted house. Otherwise, if the Red Specters really got into a battle with those people, things would only get worse. At the end of the day, he was running a business. He was not going to risk his visitors’ lives. He could not leave the haunted house, but it did not mean that he could waste any time in going to get those items. That was because the cursed hospital might react right after Patient 101 was exposed, and they would send their own people to retrieve those items.

After some brief contemplation, Chen Ge had Zhang Yi give the address of the apartment to Bai Qiulin, and then Chen Ge had the latter go to the apartment immediately to grab the items left behind by Patient 101. Initially, Chen Ge wanted to send Men Nan on this mission, but he failed to find the boy in the scenario. Therefore, due to the time constraint, he had to leave the mission to Ol’ Bai.

“With the items from Patient 101 and parts of the memories that Zhang Ya managed to coax out from Patient 101, perhaps I could try to remake a new Patient 101.” Chen Ge’s eyes were shining. The cursed hospital prioritized the deletion of the memories that were related to the cursed hospital first, while the everyday habits and little details of Patient 101’s life were wiped out at the end. By then, Chen Ge had already had a full understanding of Patient 101’s personality. “All the patients at the cursed hospital were only given a number and no name. In other words, this Patient 101 could be called Zhang San or even Lee Si. Hell, he can even be called Sun Xiaojun.”

It would be very hard for Sun Xiaojun to take over the role of Patient 101 perfectly. First, he had to have superb acting skills and extremely powerful mental acuity. Furthermore, there would not be a script to follow, so he would need to have the ability to react to the changes around him as well. These were skills that Sun Xiaojun did not possess, but coincidentally enough, these were the skills that Chen Ge and the other haunted house actors specialized in. “Looks like I will need to give Sun Xiaojun some intense training and try my best to turn this coal into diamond as fast as I can.”

Chen Ge had great expectations of Sun Xiaojun. After all, Sun Xiaojun was someone who was given approval by both the black phone and the ghost fetus. Chen Ge himself had also experienced how uniquely talented Sun Xiaojun was. As long as he was placed at the right place, Sun Xiaojun could unleash an effect even larger than a Red Specter. The memory of the original Patient 101 was fading. Chen Ge did not plan to kill him. He temporarily removed him from Cha Wen’s body and then trapped him for now.

“The rest of you should take Cha Wen and his girlfriend to the red high heels. Tell her to remove the curses that are still inside their bodies.”

Seeing Cha Wen and his girlfriend as they were carried away, Chen Ge also sighed with lamentation.

“With just a small payment of forty RMB, you will be able to be granted the service of a Top Red Specter to have the curse taken out of your body. If that is not a steal, I do not know what is.”

After Cha Wen and his girlfriend left, Chen Ge immediately resumed his project of finding Sun Xiaojun. Ol’ Zhou, Duan Yue, and the other experienced employees followed closely behind him. The professional team had now officially taken over the game.

…

“Did you guys hear any voices?” Xiao Sun, who was surrounded in the group of visitors, suddenly turned back to look. There appeared to be a cry for help that came from the darkest part of the black fog.

“Stop trying to distract us.”

A moment after Ma Feng warned him, Shang Guan Qing Hong pulled lightly on his shirt. “CEO Ma, I do not think he was lying. I heard someone cry for help as well. It appeared to come from behind us.”

After Shang Guan Qing Hong said that, the group of visitors realized that something had happened. They turned back to look and realized that two more people had disappeared from their entourage.

“When did the couple disappear?” Now, Ma Feng was really panicking. Minus the three people from Jiujiang Medical University, their group of twelve only had four people left. When the others disappeared and how they disappeared, the survivors had no idea at all.

“We have been keeping our eyes on Sun Xiaojun so much that we forgot to check behind us. Is it possible that the haunted house employees used that opportunity to come after the two of them?” Shang Guan Qing Hong tried to analyze their situation. Ever since he entered this place, he had gotten a very bad feeling about this place. As his teammates started to be plucked off one after another, that bad feeling was slowly turning into reality.

“The method of disappearance of the couple is different from how Fu Bole and Wei Chaochao disappeared,” Sister Snake said with a darkened face. “The people that disappeared earlier, be it Liang Er and Liang San or Fu Bole and Wei Chaochao, they disappeared after they had left our line of sight, but that couple appears to have disappeared into thin air while they should have been steps away from us. It is incredibly difficult to make two living adults disappear without a trace at such a close distance to the other visitors, unless of course they chose to voluntarily leave on their own.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I suspect the couple from Xin Hai are actually actors hired by the haunted house.” Sister Snake tried to rake her memory and said, “Do you still remember this detail that was mentioned in the files of information regarding this haunted house. There was a couple that died horribly inside this place, and their souls are still wondering around the various scenarios inside the haunted house and have been refusing to leave.”

“But according to my memory, the surname of the male victim is Zhou, and he is slightly older. When we entered the scenario, I purposely sneaked a look at the disclaimer forms of that couple from Xin Hai. Neither of them have the surname Zhou!”

“The disclaimer forms are meant for the visitors. It could be tempered with by the actors. As an actor at this place, they could fill in any information that they want. Who can tell if they have used a fake name or not?” Sister Snake managed to keep a cool head. This went to show how mentally stable this woman was.

“Then what about Sun Xiaojun? What should we do about him?”

“Now that there are only four of us left, of course it is best that we do not stray from each other.” Sister Snake stared at Sun Xiaojun for a very long time. Her scrutiny caused Sun Xiaojun to wilt under it. “What we need to do next is find the people from Jiujiang Medical University and try to meet up with them as soon as possible.”

“But didn’t Fu Bole say that they are quite possibly actors hired by the haunted house?”

“After they departed, people have continued to go missing in our group, so the people from the university probably have nothing to do with their disappearance. Furthermore, think back to the words that the forensic students and doctor have been trying to tell us from the very beginning. Their intention was to unite the group, but they were sorely misunderstood by Fu Bole and Wei Chaochao.” Sister Snake finally got it now, but it was already too late. “if we still wish to clear this scenario, we can only make this bet. If the forensic students are actual visitors, then we still have a chance of clearing this scenario. But if they are also actors hired by the haunted house, there is nothing else we can do but the surrender to our fate.”

When the nine people entered Chen Ge’s haunted house earlier, their pride had practically been palpable, but twenty minutes later, the most prideful among them had already been taken care of.

“We have not stumbled across any scare points, but the visitors have disappeared one after another. Are we messing around in a haunted house, or is the haunted house messing with us?” Ma Feng’s brows were tightly knitted together. Ever since the black fog rolled into the street, his brows had not relaxed even an inch.

“A four-star scenario is literally the most difficult scenario at this haunted house; being messed with by it is totally normal.” Sister Snake appeared to have accepted their hapless situation. “Since we are already in this unfortunate state, there is no point complaining. It is meaningless. Earlier, when I was thinking back to what the forensic students said at the beginning of the game, I realized something very important.”

“What did you discover? Is it related to the exit?” Shang Guan Qing Hong immediately sidled over to her.

“The student called He San compared this black fog to poisonous fog in games, and staying in the black fog for too long will cause bad things to happen. Now think about it. The first team to disappear, Liang Er and Liang San’s group, was the first to encounter the black fog. The couple that was originally behind us and the disappearance of Fu Bole and Wei Chaochao probably had to do with the fact that they stayed in the black fog for too long as well.” Sister Snake was coming up with her analysis with the little clues that they had. “The black fog represents literal misfortune. If we do not wish to end up in the same fate as them, we’d better stay away from the black fog.”

“Then, let’s not waste time and hurry on to the next scenario,” Shang Guan Qing Hong urged desperately.

“The black fog is continuing to spread. In the end, the whole scenario will be covered by the fog. There is no escape. Now, the only way that we know to proceed in this scenario is to search for the hidden pathways. Liang Er, Liang San, and the woman disappeared in the first building, so they must have found the hidden pathway, but the pathway could only be used one time. Therefore, we need to find a new pathway.” Sister Snake sighed. “The black fog is just the first challenge. Perhaps the real game will only begin after we enter the hidden pathway. The difficulty of this haunted house is indeed over the top. It is definitely not for normal visitors.”

“Stop grumbling. We should start departing to go look for the hidden pathways and the medical university students now.” Ma Feng glanced at Sun Xiaojun, who was standing to the side with a blank expression on his face. “You should come with us as well.”

“Oh… okay.” The remaining four visitors hurried to leave the cafeteria because this place was slowly being enveloped by the black fog as well. Thus, they decided to skip exploring the cafeteria and hurried down the street. One had to admit that due to various reasons, these few visitors had made the best decision. Not long after they departed, the cafeteria entrance slammed opened with Wei Chaochao and Fu Bole being tossed out and landing on the ground unconscious.

Behind them trailed a woman in a red raincoat, a boy in a red shirt, and a fatty wearing a red school uniform and a chef’s hat walking out from the cafeteria. The three ‘people’ were harboring a pot of fire in their hearts as they rushed toward the surviving visitors.

After about half a minute, Chen Ge and the other experienced employees arrived at the scene. They sent a few people to carry Wei Chaochao and Fu Bole to the underground morgue while the others chased after the three enraged Red Specters.

The black fog was spreading at an incredibly fast rate. To prevent themselves from being consumed by the black fog, the visitors had decided to skip a few scenarios that they encountered along the way and came to the end of the Voiceless Small Town. At the end of the dim street, to the left was a maternal and childcare center that was half buried underground while an apartment building that was painted fully back was on the right. These two sub-scenarios were respectively the scariest building in the world behind Wu Sheng’s door and the scariest building behind Ying Tong’s door. In comparison to these two buildings, the Soundless Home could only be considered a beginner’s tutorial.

“Which one should we choose? Quick. We need to come up with a decision before the black fog rolls over.” Ma Feng turned to look at Shang Guan Qing Hong and Sister Snake. The two could not come to a decision either.

“Normally hospitals are places with the most intense Yin energy. We’d better pick the apartment building on the right.” The three of them soon reached a consensus, and they had Sun Xiaojun lead the way.

“Do you guys want to reconsider this? We still have something.” Xiao Sun knew the place that they were heading toward was actually the sub-scenario called the Spire of Darkness. This sub scenario was very unique. Just like how the Soundless Home could absorb sound, the Spire of Darkness could absorb light. Once they entered it, they would slowly lose their power of sight, and they would experience despair in the deepest depths of darkness. Even Chen Ge had almost died in this scenario, much less these hapless visitors.

It was because he knew this sub scenario was more dangerous that the kind and careful Boss Chen had purposely filled the Spire of Darkness with an exorbitant number of lingering spirits and baleful Specters to protect the safety of the visitors. Most of the baleful Specters and lingering spirits that he had obtained during his ghost fetus mission were placed in the Spire of Darkness. That way, even after the visitors lost their sight and could not see anything, they would not trip and fall, accidentally injuring themselves. When they sank into darkness, every visitor would have several lingering spirits following closely behind them.

“This was your choice. It has nothing to do with me at all,” Sun Xiaojun grumbled under his breath and was the first to enter the Spire of Darkness sub-scenario. The dark corridor appeared to have no ending. A strange moldy substance came off from the corners of the walls, and occasionally, one could even hear the calls of cats. The voice-activated lights above them flickered on and off, and the entrance behind them blurred out of view.

“Did you guys notice that the light inside this building is slowly weakening?” Sister Snake looked at the light that came out from her own telephone screen, and she noticed something weird about it.

“Perhaps it is your mind playing tricks on you. Stop wasting time on that. We need to hurry to find the hidden pathways.” Ma Feng and Shang Guan Qing Hong opened all the doors that they passed. They put their entire focus into the search for the hidden pathways, such that they did not notice that the calls of the cat beside their ears were getting louder and louder as if warning them that ‘something’ extremely dangerous was approaching them.

The iron door that led to the staircase was locked without anyone noticing. The voice-controlled lights in the corridor flickered a few times before they suddenly went off completely.