"But I don't have any experience! I'm terrible at lying—I'll blow my cover in no time." Xiao Sun wore a helpless smile on his face. This was the first time anyone had ever put so much stock in him.
"You don't need to lie. Just be yourself." Chen Ge thought highly of Xiao Sun and planned to groom him for bigger things. "Once Old Zhou finishes filming, you should talk to him more. He's one of our most experienced actors, with multiple assignments impersonating tourists under his belt."
"Sure."
"Good luck." Chen Ge sent Xiao Sun off to familiarize himself with the venue while he cradled the white cat and continued inspecting the Prenatal Cursed Realm scenes. "Old Zhou and Duan Yue have too much exposure now. A lot of tourists get spooked the moment they see anyone who even looks like them. Some seasoned veterans even ask their teammates' surnames before entering a scene—once they hear someone named Zhou, they bolt in the opposite direction. It makes things incredibly difficult for Old Zhou, Duan Yue, and the rest of the crew."
"With fresh blood joining the roster, things are looking up. I'm confident Xiao Sun will make his mark in the haunted house and put his unique abilities to good use."
The curse seed that the Prenatal Cursed One had abandoned had found new "employment" in Chen Ge's hands.
After assigning positions to all the vengeful spirits, Chen Ge personally coached them on how to terrify people, all while continuing to familiarize himself with the Prenatal Cursed Realm layout.
The Prenatal Cursed Realm was even larger than the Spirit-School of the Dead. Those nine sub-scenes were already horrifying enough, not to mention the most terrifying hidden scene of all—the Black Fog World.
Chen Ge had noticed that the biggest difference between a four-star scene and a three-star scene was that every four-star scene contained a hidden sub-scene.
The hidden scene within the Spirit-School of the Dead was the Red Dress Studio. The entire campus where the studio sat was bathed in blood-red, a perfect recreation of the world beyond the door.
The hidden scene within the Prenatal Cursed Realm—Jiuhong Community—was a complete, faithful reproduction of the Black Fog World.
Yin spirits and vengeful ghosts born from negative emotions drifted through the fog. The only difference between this place and Xiang Nuan's world beyond the door was that the black fog here held no man-eating monsters.
Wandering through the fog, Chen Ge closed his eyes and focused on the terror the black mist exuded.
"What exactly is this black fog? Why does it make my heart race even though I know for a fact I'm completely safe? It feels like I've slipped out of reality and into someone else's nightmare."
"Everything is unknown. Everything is alien."
The Black Fog World was filled with abandoned memories. Hidden within the fog lay pain, despair, and fear. Walking through the mist, one began to feel an unsettling sense of being absorbed into it.
Before long, you'd realize you had become part of the fog itself—had become despair and suffering incarnate.
"If any tourist can walk out of this black fog under their own willpower, they must be one heck of a person." Chen Ge spoke, then stepped out of the fog and into Jiuhong Community.
The layout of these buildings was nearly identical to the Jiuhong Community beyond Xiang Nuan's door. The Prenatal Cursed One's most important memories and most tragic past were all housed here.
Chen Ge also found the remains of the rag doll. Just like in the Jiuhong Community beyond Xiang Nuan's door, the rag doll's body had been split into several parts, each hidden among the various structures.
"We could have tourists come in to search for the rag doll's remains. Gather every piece and successfully carry them out—that would count as clearing the stage." Chen Ge set about collecting the rag doll's body parts first. He had originally intended to take photographs for use as mission instructions, but then something unexpected happened.
Once the rag doll's remains were reassembled, the entire Prenatal Cursed Realm transformed!
Children's wailing echoed through the black fog. Countless spirits flickered in and out of visibility. Every variety of curse crawled across the walls and buildings of Jiuhong Community.
"Whoa—what the hell is going on?!" Chen Ge immediately summoned the Red High Heels, worried he had triggered some contingency the Prenatal Cursed One had left behind.
The Red High Heels inspected the situation and gave Chen Ge a definitive answer: the Prenatal Cursed One's soul had already been scattered to the winds, its consciousness completely shattered. There was no chance of it ever returning.
The upheaval in this scene was caused entirely by the sheer volume of killing intent left behind by a Fierce God. Even though the Prenatal Cursed One's soul had been obliterated and it had absorbed all the sins, traces still lingered. That was the difference between a Fierce God and a top-tier Red Dress.
The Prenatal Cursed Realm had recorded everything about the Prenatal Cursed One. For tourists, this place was the closest thing to hell. But for the Red High Heels, it was paradise.
She had walked the same path as the Prenatal Cursed One, possessed the same specialties, and had already consumed most of the curses it had left behind. Now, studying the Prenatal Cursed One's past in detail—the methods and breakthroughs along the way—would be immensely helpful in her own journey toward becoming a Fierce God.
"You stay here in the Prenatal Cursed Realm. With a top-tier Red Dress like you holding down the fort, I'm at ease." No sooner had Chen Ge finished speaking than the bandage-wrapped Red High Heels glided to his side.
Her hands swept through the air, weaving countless black threads into grotesque figures—monsters forged entirely from curses, terrifying in appearance and nearly equal in strength to half-dressed Red Dress spirits.
"You were planning to use these to scare tourists?" Chen Ge wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "That won't be necessary—calm down! You just need to guard the scene. Please don't let any curses harm the tourists."
Chen Ge didn't adopt the Red High Heels' idea, but it did give him a spark of inspiration. "I've memorized the appearances of countless creatures from the Black Fog World. When I have time, I'll craft all of them. Mannequins and vengeful spirits working together—that's what makes the perfect haunted house scene."
He left Zhang Yi behind to assist the Red High Heels, then slipped out of the hidden scene through a secret passage.
Unlike the Spirit-School of the Dead, every sub-scene within the Prenatal Cursed Realm concealed a hidden passage to the secret area. Whether tourists could find it depended entirely on their own abilities.
The employees went about their business—some filming, some studying—gradually settling into their new roles. Chen Ge wasn't idle either. He retreated to the workshop and began sketching designs for Black Fog monsters, planning to visit the mannequin workshop the next day to commission a new batch of props.
When dawn approached, Chen Ge returned to the staff break room. He lay down on the bed but found himself utterly unable to sleep.
He had grown accustomed to prowling through the darkness, risking his life every night. The sudden relaxation left him restless and out of sorts.
In a dazed haze, Chen Ge couldn't tell when he had finally drifted off. When he opened his eyes again, a new day had already arrived.
The group Director Luo had warned him about still hadn't appeared. However, the number of tourists challenging the four-star Spirit-School of the Dead scene had surged dramatically.
People had traveled from far and wide, all for the chance to experience the Spirit-School of the Dead.
They didn't seem like troublemakers at all—absurdly polite, even. To clear the stage, they treated the ghosts like visiting elders, leaving some employees too embarrassed to scare them properly.
And yet, not a single one of them managed to clear the scene.
"Something unusual is always a sign of trouble. Most of today's four-star tourists bought their tickets through group deals online—they all seem to know each other." Chen Ge checked Director Luo's haunted house app and discovered that someone had been frantically gathering intelligence on the Spirit-School of the Dead over the past few days. On major platforms, people were even offering high prices for any information related to the scene.
Chen Ge reported the matter to Director Luo. By noon, Director Luo informed him that Ma Feng had made his move.
A true undefeated general never fought an unprepared battle. Ma Feng had been collecting intelligence for one purpose—to re-challenge the very scene that had made Virtual Future Paradise lose face. He intended to reclaim the dignity Jiang Jiu had lost, rising from the very spot where he had fallen.
In every sense, Ma Feng's approach was beyond reproach. The only catch was that Chen Ge now had brand-new scenes. At this rate of unlocking, forget Ma Feng—nobody in the entire haunted house industry could have imagined it.
"Go ahead and investigate at your leisure. Once you've made every possible preparation, I'll announce the new Prenatal Cursed Realm scene." Watching the waves of "tourists" fling themselves at the Spirit-School of the Dead, only to be wheeled out on carts moments later, Chen Ge felt a quiet kind of amusement. "Who'd have thought running a haunted house could generate revenue for the hospital."
Peaceful days passed without incident. Chen Ge slung his bag over his shoulder and left the park, continuing his mission to help the deceased fulfill their final wishes.
Along the way, he gradually came to understand certain things. Life and death were separated by eternity. The rules of the world were never gentle, but someone gentle still had to do certain things.
By the time night fell, Zhang Wenyu had accumulated over a dozen favors owed to Chen Ge. His attitude toward Chen Ge had improved steadily—his tone had lost its stiffness, and occasionally he even showed a more genuine side. His phone calls with Chen Ge had slowly begun to feel like conversations between friends.
The more Chen Ge learned about Zhang Wenyu, the more he realized just how terrifying this Red Dress truly was. The southern and northern suburbs had once housed many fearsome entities, but in the end, only Zhang Wenyu remained in both.
Past six in the evening, Chen Ge returned to New Century Paradise. He had just finished asking Old Zhou about the day's operations when Chang Gu came charging out from the underground scene.
"Director Chang? Did you need me for something?"