"Haunted?" All the haunted house designers turned to look at Zuo Han, and Teacher Wang's brow furrowed. He truly hadn't expected to hear something like that come out of Zuo Han's mouth.
"Some things simply have no explanation—at least none that my knowledge can provide. The only way to make sense of them is through ghosts." Zuo Han's tone was deadly serious. The Nether Embryo scenario was opening for the first time, and based on past experience, the first opening of any scenario was always the most difficult. Zuo Han was genuinely afraid, which was why he'd finally spoken the guess he'd kept buried at the bottom of his heart.
He wanted to find the truth, but relying on these useless teammates made it impossible. Staying alive was going to be a problem on its own.
"Before we've even gone in and you're already bringing up ghosts?" Fu Bole, the sunglasses-wearing man, laughed out loud. "Brother, what you said at first actually made a lot of sense. You almost had me fooled. Too bad you jumped the gun—the moment the word 'haunted' came out of your mouth, you exposed yourself as a haunted house actor. Let me give you a piece of advice: haste makes waste."
In such a terrifying environment, when Zuo Han had said the haunted house was truly haunted, everyone's hearts had clenched. But after hearing Fu Bole's analysis, they gradually calmed down.
Where in the world would there be real ghosts? Someone saying that inside a haunted house was almost certainly someone arranged by the haunted house itself.
The haunted house designers all wore expressions of understanding, and Ma Feng gave Zuo Han a few extra glances.
For someone who'd never believed in ghosts, being told the haunted house was actually haunted would naturally seem like a prank.
Wei Chaochao, dressed fashionably, also spoke up. "First you say there are haunted house actors among us, then you list a bunch of precautions, and finally you ramp up the scary atmosphere. Honestly, as a haunted house employee, you're quite competent."
The designers chatted back and forth, and the more they talked, the more convinced they became that Zuo Han was a haunted house employee. They rattled off example after example until even Xiao Sun began to waver, wondering if Zuo Han had been sent by the boss to shadow him.
"I know you're all very capable, which is exactly why I wanted to cooperate with you. Unfortunately, arrogance and jealousy have blinded your eyes. All you can see right now is the illusion you've created for yourselves—you're unwilling to think about the facts." Zuo Han shook his head and turned to Heshan and Teacher Wang beside him. "We can't count on anyone else this time. The three of us absolutely must not get separated."
Heshan and Teacher Wang both understood the gravity of the situation and nodded.
Seeing the three visitors from Hanjiang Forensic Medical School looking so serious, Fu Bole laughed again. "You've been exposed and you're still putting on a show. Aren't you embarrassed?"
"The fact that this haunted house thought of using this method to build atmosphere and introduce the rules is actually pretty creative. Worth learning from." Liang Er, the heavyset man, waved his hand at Fu Bole. "Let's get ready to enter the scenario. I'm really looking forward to the scare points inside."
Though each harbored their own hidden agendas, all fifteen people gathered together and officially entered the Nether Embryo scenario along the dilapidated street.
The black iron gate behind them grew farther and farther away, and after turning a corner, the first fork in the road appeared before them.
A faint, odd smell drifted through the air. Shadows of varying heights swayed in the corners of the walls, as if someone were crouching in the darkness, silently watching them.
"Which way do we go?"
Fu Bole turned to ask Ma Feng's opinion, but Ma Feng looked toward Shangguan Qinghong.
"We won't learn anything just by standing here staring. Why not pick one at random, mark our path, and switch routes if we run into trouble?" After speaking, Shangguan Qinghong headed down the left path with Ma Feng.
"Wait!" Zuo Han tried to say something, but those people gave him no chance and entered the left corridor directly.
The old-fashioned streetlamp at the corner flickered on and off, illuminating strange human-shaped patterns on the walls. From the buildings on both sides came occasional whispers, and they could faintly make out someone speaking.
They seemed to be hiding from something, yet also searching for something. Occasionally, they caught fragments like "bodies" and "unkillable dolls."
"Our mission is to find the remains of the cloth doll. The haunted house owner only gave us one photo but never told us how many pieces the doll was divided into. I don't think we should skip a single building." Wei Chaochao stopped and pressed his body against the door of a dilapidated bungalow beside him. "There's someone talking in here. There should be a scare point behind this door."
"I'd advise you not to go opening doors randomly. In this haunted house, less trouble is better than more." Heshan offered a warning, but the designers had already written him off as a haunted house actor and couldn't be bothered to pay him any mind.
"When designing a haunted house normally, the first scare point is very important. You can gauge the whole style of the house from that one moment." Wei Chaochao grabbed the doorknob and said with some anticipation, "Are you all ready?"
The designers had spent the whole time badmouthing Chen Ge's haunted house, but when it actually came time to trigger a scare point, every single one of them became cautious.
"Go ahead and open it. I want to see just how scary a haunted house with over ninety percent positive reviews online really is." Fu Bole stood at the very front, looking for all the world like someone who'd seen it all.
Zuo Han, who'd opposed this earlier, said nothing now. His cold gaze settled on Wei Chaochao and Fu Bole, like a coroner studying corpses awaiting autopsy.
He'd wanted to cooperate with the haunted house designers, but they weren't interested. So he'd changed his mind and decided to let them take the fall instead.
They were all going to "die" anyway—might as well make it worth something. Zuo Han's thinking was just that simple.
Everyone held their breath, their eyes following Wei Chaochao's arm.
Wei Chaochao's five fingers tightened around the doorknob, and he yanked the door open a quarter of the way—then immediately stopped, using his body to block the door from opening any further.
"Bang!" The haunted house actor hiding inside saw the door open and immediately tried to come out and scare the visitors as rehearsed. But he hadn't expected them to only open the door a quarter of the way—let alone that the visitor would deliberately jam his body against it, preventing it from opening fully.
Caught completely off guard, the actor slammed straight into the door. He'd never anticipated something like this happening. After his head hit the door panel, he sat right down on the floor.
"That's it?"
The designers watched the actor sitting dazed in the doorway and felt their hearts settle back into their chests. Disdainful expressions appeared on every face.
"A scare tactic so cliché it couldn't get any cliché-er. Very rusty performance, no adaptability whatsoever, and absolutely terrible on-the-spot instincts." Wei Chaochao swung the door the rest of the way open and offered his critique casually. "For set design, I'd give it an eight point five. For the actor, a three at best."
"Dead! How are you supposed to scare visitors looking like that? Are you here to do comedy?"