The cutting sounds inside the Midnight Chase scene hadn't stopped just because Zhang Peng had entered. The mirror monster probably hadn't expected anyone to charge in so blindly either.
"I can't keep waiting. I need to see the mirror monster enter Zhang Peng's body with my own eyes before I can rest easy."
After a quick glance at the monitors to confirm Zhang Peng's position, Chen Ge pulled the chains out of the Skull-Breaking Doctor's coat and tossed them on the ground. He draped the bloodstained coat over his shoulders, then put on the human skin mask. He tested the hammer with a couple of swings, and a violent, evil aura radiated from him.
"Why do I feel like I'm the biggest villain here?"
He secured the keys and phone, tucked the stuffed doll into his shirt, grabbed the gore-encrusted hammer, and strode out of the surveillance room.
……
In the Midnight Chase scene, Zhang Peng felt the knife growing heavier in his hand. He'd been preparing for this day for a long time, but who could have predicted fate had other plans? An accident had occurred the moment he stepped inside.
It was already past one in the morning. Even a normal person who wasn't sleeping would certainly be in their bedroom at this hour. He'd gotten worked up just moments ago when he saw the sign for the employee rest room, and it had taken considerable effort to calm himself down.
He kept reminding himself, stoking the hatred in his heart, until he finally steeled his courage and broke down the door.
After rushing into the rest room, he slashed wildly at the bed. He swung so hard he even hurt himself. The blade was stained with blood—but once he could see clearly that no one was on the bed and the only bloodstain on the sheets was his own, his heart held nothing but resentment and frustration. His desire to kill surged even stronger, his reason consumed entirely by rage.
"You destroyed Ping'an Apartments, got Juan'er thrown in prison—busybody, I swear I'll kill you!" The more Zhang Peng thought about it, the angrier he became. The cutting sounds inside the building were like flies buzzing around his ears, and his mood grew increasingly irritable.
He gripped the knife tighter and drew steadily closer to the source of the sound. To avoid being detected, he crept along with extreme caution.
"I'm getting close. It's on this floor!" Zhang Peng peered out from the stairwell. He had no lighting equipment. Pressing his body flat against the wall, he entered the third-floor corridor.
"This haunted house is crawling with yin energy, and the layout is as complex as a maze. Once I've killed him, I'll just hide the body somewhere. It'll probably take outsiders ten days to half a month to find it." The corner of his mouth curled upward. He imagined his current smile must look truly cruel.
"The sound is right ahead! But I'm curious—why would this guy be wandering around a haunted house in the middle of the night instead of sleeping? Pulling an all-nighter to repair props?" Zhang Peng bent low and relaxed his body. He wrapped his wound with a long sleeve and crept forward, knife in hand.
At the end of the third-floor corridor, right at the main entrance to the Midnight Chase scene, Zhang Peng spotted a blurry dark figure. The figure stood in the center of the main door, holding something in its hand and scratching back and forth across it.
"Strange—why isn't he turning on the lights either?" It was only after getting close that Zhang Peng realized something was off. But he didn't dwell on it. His brain was flooded with the pleasure of impending revenge.
The air grew heavier than it had ever been. Slowly, he raised the knife above his shoulder. His body was like a bow drawn taut, the blade aimed squarely at the dark figure ahead.
"Die!"
Full-speed assault. Zhang Peng's face contorted as he drove the knife in his hand deep into the dark figure!
An excited smile had already surfaced on his face—but in mere fractions of a second, that smile vanished completely.