Tape recorders were incredibly popular in the eighties and nineties, but with the rapid development of the internet and the times, they had long since become obsolete.
Tian Teng Hospital had probably placed all these old objects in the room to evoke the atmosphere of that era — among them, the most eye-catching were a tape recorder and an old-fashioned flashlight.
The scene reminded Chen Ge of some horror movie he had watched ages ago. The plot involved a tape recorder that started playing by itself at midnight, and everyone who heard it ended up dying in an accident.
"Is it a prop?" Chen Ge completely ignored the "corpse" lying motionless on the table. He walked past it and headed toward the bookcase.
When he was only a meter away from the bookcase, the buttons on the tape recorder suddenly pressed themselves down.
"Thermal sensors? No, it must be a staff member controlling it remotely." Chen Ge glanced back. The corpse was still draped over the table, its head buried deep in its arms.
More than the corpse, Chen Ge was curious about the tape recorder in front of him. After the button was pressed, the indicator light turned on, and with a burst of static, a middle-aged man's voice emerged.
"Spare me! I'm begging you! Please, I'm begging you!"
The man was crying and screaming. Death had become a luxury he could only wish for.
Along with his pleas, the tape kept producing sounds of cutting and tearing — extremely graphic and visceral. The moment Chen Ge heard it, he almost instantly conjured the scene in his mind.
Bones being shattered, skin being sliced open — it was the cruelest form of torture imaginable.
"Tian Teng Hospital must have hidden the contents of this tape when it passed inspection."
The corpse on the table shifted slightly when it heard Chen Ge say this. Sure enough, the facts aligned closely with his guess — the tape's contents had been swapped out. This was the highest-difficulty experience, prepared specifically for Chen Ge.
Chen Ge was accustomed to fear and thrills, but sheer gore and cruelty made him a little uneasy. It was the kind of reaction any normal person would have.
"Why isn't it over yet? Are they planning to use this recording as background music?" The reason Chen Ge was patiently listening to the end was that he suspected the recording contained a clue to clearing the room. But after nearly a minute, all he could hear were sounds of abuse and pleas for mercy.
"With blood loss like that, the guy would've gone into shock within a minute — there's no way he'd still have that much energy. But their voice actor is pretty impressive. He really nails the atmosphere of despair."
Toward the end, the man's voice grew weaker and weaker. Under the demands of something, he began to confess his sins.
Only then did Chen Ge learn that the victim was none other than the director of Tian Teng Hospital — a man who would do absolutely anything for money.
"Didn't expect it to be a story where good deeds are rewarded and evil deeds are punished." Chen Ge patiently listened until the very end. The director confessed to every sin he had committed, and before he died, he desperately begged those monsters not to hurt his daughter.
The story took a turn. Just after the director pleaded for his daughter's safety, the sound of a door opening came through the tape, followed by a woman's scream. Then they heard the director shout — "Zhenzhen, run!"
The recording ended there. Chen Ge didn't quite know how to evaluate the story.
The director was guilty. The daughter might have been innocent, or she might have been an accomplice. But none of that mattered anymore.