"The door was opened?"
He pulled down the black cloth, walked over to the toilet stall, glanced at the mirror, and then reached out to yank the stall door wide open.
In reality, there was nothing inside the toilet stall. But the image reflected in the mirror was entirely different — the narrow stall was bathed in blood-red, and the walls and floor seemed to be oozing fresh blood. It was as though another world existed on the other side.
Chen Ge still lacked the courage to step inside and investigate the truth. He gripped the edge of the door, debating whether he should just tear the whole thing out.
After about ten seconds, he heard a strange sound — drawing closer from afar, as if someone in wet clothes were crawling along the ground.
"Where's that coming from?" The sound grew clearer and closer.
He glanced out into the hallway, then looked back at the mirror. At last he was certain: the sound was coming from inside the toilet stall.
"Something's coming?" This was no time for curiosity. Chen Ge slammed the stall door shut, jammed the lock with a mop handle, and turned back to face the mirror.
That sound — like a corpse being dragged — entered the stall. Soon, a wash of blood-red seeped through the gap at the bottom of the door. The thing inside seemed to be searching for something. A thick, rancid stench saturated the air.
After lingering for a few seconds, the sound gradually retreated, and the foul smell slowly dissipated.
A full minute passed before the stall door in the mirror returned to normal and the room brightened considerably.
With his back pressed against the stall door, sweat beaded in Chen Ge's palms. If he hadn't woken up, that thing crawling across the floor could very well have burst out into the real world, just like the creature in the mirror.
"Cover the mirror with black cloth, and the blood-red door still appears right on schedule."
He knew absolutely nothing about the world behind that stall door, and for now he had no good solution. All he could do was lock the offending stall for the time being.
After splashing his face with cold water, Chen Ge returned to the employee break room. When he opened the door, he found that Xiao Xiao had once again vanished to parts unknown.
"Did she come over just now specifically to warn me?" He sat down on the edge of the bed. Sleep wasn't going to come any time soon, so he pulled out the black phone.
Swiping the screen, he tapped into the Daily Tasks tab.
"Easy difficulty: A thrilling experience should not leave the participant with lasting psychological trauma. Improve your haunted house's safety protocols and eliminate hidden hazards within the premises."
"Normal difficulty: One man cannot hold up the roof alone. A great haunted house requires a great team to run it. Recruit more talent — they will help you weather the storm."
"Nightmare difficulty: Another person has been living in your room all along. Don't you want to know who they are?"
"Warning! Certain tasks are extremely dangerous — choose carefully!"
The three daily tasks that refreshed were all ones Chen Ge had seen before. He had encountered them numerous times.
"The easy and normal tasks are things I should be doing right now anyway — expanding the workforce, tightening up safety protocols. But comparatively speaking, the Nightmare-difficulty reward is far more tempting."
Danger and opportunity went hand in hand. More importantly, after he'd contracted the Pen Spirit, he now had one precognition opportunity per day. In his view, using that kind of opportunity on a Nightmare-level daily task was well worth the cost.