Every employee at the Horror House was busy — some were tampering with memories, some were draining curses, and some had begun setting up scenes in preparation for today's operations.
"The living people we brought out of the Cursed Hospital are a huge problem. Whether we call the police or send them to a hospital, any misstep could put us under investigation." Chen Ge thought it over for a moment, personally devised a storyline, and wove new memories for each of them one by one.
Among all the living people, only two were exceptions.
One was Horror House employee Zhang Jingjiu, and the other was Zuo Han.
When faced with the crisis of life and death, Zhang Jingjiu had resolutely chosen to warn Chen Ge — that was a bond forged in the face of death.
Zuo Han had gone even further, helping Chen Ge immensely inside the Cursed Hospital. The two of them had worked together to obtain critical information.
Chen Ge didn't make things difficult for either of them. He let them decide for themselves.
In the end, both Zuo Han and Zhang Jingjiu chose to keep their memories. Zuo Han even expressed a desire to join the Horror House.
Practice was the best interview. Zuo Han was absolutely a rare genius, but precisely because he was a genius, Chen Ge didn't want to waste his talent.
The two struck a deal: Zuo Han would serve as a part-time employee of the Horror House, and going forward his primary occupation would remain forensic medicine.
Speak for the dead, defend the rights of the living — his extraordinary experience would make Zuo Han the finest forensic pathologist.
Chen Ge had Zhang Jingjiu and Zuo Han organize the other living people while he went to borrow the shuttle bus New Century Paradise used to transport visitors, preparing to send them all back to Xinhai City.
People who had been missing for years were returning to the surface world. Whether their families were still around, whether their past lives could continue — that remained to be seen.
But those were no longer things Chen Ge needed to worry about. Pulling them out of hell had already been remarkable enough.
While the living people were being loaded onto the bus, Chen Ge took the opportunity to pull the black phone from his pocket. Since returning to reality, the restored phone had been vibrating nonstop.
He swiped the screen and read through the unread messages on the black phone: "This scene feels so familiar."
Now that he knew the truth, Chen Ge's mindset while reading those messages had changed. He reached out and tapped the screen.
"Favored by the Red Robes! Congratulations on completing the four-star trial mission — the Cursed Hospital!"
"You have successfully survived until dawn. A brand-new four-star scene has been unlocked — the Cursed Hospital!"
"Mission completion rate reached ninety-five percent. Hidden mission reward obtained — the Nineteenth Subterranean Level of the Cursed Hospital."
"The Nineteenth Subterranean Level of the Cursed Hospital (Special Building): Curses, vengeful spirits, nightmares — the deeper you go, the more dangerous it becomes. By the time you think to turn back, you'll realize you can never return."
Seeing the first mission reward, Chen Ge drew a sharp breath: "Could those nineteen underground levels of the hospital lead straight to the depths of Blood City? Though I doubt anyone could actually make it through all nineteen."
"Successfully located your parents. Optional Mission One complete. One soul-healing opportunity granted (already used)."
"Successfully redeemed Patient No. 1. Optional Mission Two complete. A complete body and soul granted (already used)."
"Successfully killed the Director. Optional Mission Three complete. The Cursed Hospital scene beyond the Door granted (already used)."
"Favored by the Red Robes! Congratulations on simultaneously possessing three four-star horror scenes! Once the Cursed Hospital expansion is complete, the Horror House will officially be upgraded to Nightmare City!"
"Nightmare City: A city built on the edge of nightmare, bridging the human heart and reality, concealing despair and redemption."
After reading through the mission rewards, Chen Ge didn't close the black phone. Instead, he kept scrolling.
The Horror House employee roster had gained a great number of vengeful spirit names. After the Cursed Hospital ordeal, the majority of the spirits had come to regard the Horror House as their home.
Beyond that, Chen Ge also checked the mission tab. All low-level missions had been cleared. Only a single blood-red mission remained in the entire list.
He reached out and touched it. The black phone's screen turned blood-red without any warning whatsoever.
"The final five-star mission — Nightmare City has been forcibly triggered. This mission has no deadline and will yield incremental rewards at each stage, continuing until the Black Fog dissipates and the mission is considered complete."
His eyes swept across the screen. Chen Ge noticed that the final mission he'd triggered no longer carried the word "trial" as a prefix. This mission was the true purpose of the Positive Will.
As for missions, Chen Ge no longer cared much about those. He scrolled through the entire phone and finally found what he wanted in the contacts list.
The black phone's contacts had always been inaccessible before, but after the Positive Will restored it, a single number had appeared in the directory. This must have been the number most special to the Positive Will.
"You redeemed so many despairing souls in Blood City. I'm not as noble as you — I can only redeem you." Chen Ge memorized the number. "I will hold fast to your attachment to home. As long as I'm alive, your attachment will never fade."
He put the phone away and went to check on his parents. They still hadn't woken up, but their condition had improved considerably.
He asked Luo Ruoyu to look after his parents temporarily, gave the employees some instructions, then picked up his backpack and boarded the bus.
On the surface Zhang Jingjiu was driving, but in reality it was Tang Jun — with his extensive driving experience — behind the wheel.
Carrying a bus full of missing persons, they couldn't take the highway. By the time Chen Ge and the others arrived in Xinhai, it was already afternoon.
He summoned Zhang Yi once more to modify parts of the passengers' memories, then had the employees personally escort them on their way.
"I've helped them as much as I can. That's about as far as duty goes." Chen Ge patted Zhang Jingjiu on the shoulder. "Jingjiu, you've suffered a lot this time. From now on, you're the manager of the Xinhai Horror House. It's your call here."
Chen Ge drove the bus directly to Nightmare Academy, left a few ghosts behind as Zhang Jingjiu's assistants, then hurried off to the Xinhai City police sub-bureau. He provided the police with some leads about the Cursed Hospital and took the opportunity to ask about the progress of their investigations.
Learning that the police's line of inquiry had nothing to do with him, Chen Ge had actually been considering helping out further — but when he plugged in his own long-dead phone at the station, he discovered he had received a staggering number of messages during his absence.
There were messages from Director Luo, from Li Zheng, and from Horror House employees like Xu Wan and others.
After opening the messages, Chen Ge's heart shot up into his throat.
That morning, Xu Wan and the others had arrived at the Horror House and found Chen Ge's parents unconscious in the employee break room. The staff immediately contacted Director Luo, and the couple was rushed to Hanjiang's best hospital.
The news that people missing for so long had suddenly resurfaced had also reached Li Sanbao, who had handled the missing persons case, and Captain Yan of the city sub-bureau.
Several police cars had been parked at the entrance of the Paradise first thing in the morning, scaring the daylights out of the visitors.
The situation itself wasn't really a big deal — the problem was that the couple were Chen Ge's parents.
The Hanjiang police, recalling how Chen Ge had single-handedly opened up two case-file storage rooms just to search for his parents, immediately panicked on a subconscious level, convinced that something major was about to happen. A criminal psychologist in the precinct had coined this stress response the "Chen Ge Effect."
Police cars escorting the way, criminal investigators standing guard — anyone who didn't know better would have assumed the ambulance was transporting some Class A fugitive.
From morning treatments all the way through the evening, Chen Ge's parents finally regained consciousness. Everyone had been trying to call Chen Ge, but his phone had long since powered off from a dead battery. He was only learning about this now.