"In the first ending, Xiao Bu is taken away by the Red Raincoat and becomes her daughter. In the second ending, Xiao Bu is turned into a sculpture and becomes the artist's work. Both are unmistakably bad endings." There was a note of helplessness in Fan Cong's voice. "I loaded a save and started over. Xiao Bu wakes up in her room again, and I control her to begin the third attempt."
Fan Cong was an avid gamer, and this particular game held an inexplicable pull on him — he was afraid, yet curious.
"Unlike last time, when given the choice between the East Street and the West Street, I went with the more run-down East Street."
"The buildings on both sides were gray and black, their facades peeling, wiring tangled everywhere."
"This game is an open world with an incredibly high degree of freedom and death traps at every turn. As a player, you never know what horrifying thing you might run into, or what manner of death awaits you."
"After playing for a while, I realized something: in this game, people are more terrifying than ghosts. When you see a ghost, you still have a chance to escape. But when you run into a person, it's almost always a guaranteed death." Fan Cong laid out everything on his mind without reservation.
"The game creator has a rather extreme view of people — it probably has something to do with his own experiences." Chen Ge gestured for Fan Cong to continue. "What's Xiao Bu's third ending?"
"I controlled Xiao Bu as she wandered aimlessly through the streets. When she passed an apartment building, a gaunt man came rushing out of the stairwell. It looked like he was trying to get out of the town as fast as possible."
"In any other game, this would just be a run-of-the-mill NPC, but in this game, anyone who's still alive is more or less up to no good."
"The man ran past Xiao Bu, and a line of text popped up at the bottom of the screen — 'Why do they need so many kids? Damn it, the cops are coming. I never should have taken this job.'"
"After the man left, two options appeared on the screen: enter the stairwell or continue forward."
"Out of curiosity, I chose to enter the stairwell."
"The apartment building was filled with trash, looking thoroughly decrepit. I controlled Xiao Bu to the top floor and found that the door to the roof was open."
"Going inside, I saw a small vegetable garden on the roof, but all the vegetables and flowers planted in it had withered. Beside the garden sat several large water vats in a row — probably used by the residents to pickle things — each one weighed down by a large stone."
"At first I didn't think much of it. The roof was windy, so the stones kept the lids from blowing off. But when I walked past one of the vats, another dialogue box popped up at the bottom of the screen — Xiao Bu heard a phone ringing from inside the vat."
"Realizing I'd probably triggered a story event, I looked around for a tool and moved the stone off the vat's lid." Fan Cong's expression grew heavy as he reached this point. "You can't even imagine what was inside that vat."
"A child?" Chen Ge's expression shifted as well. The third story Fan Cong was describing was precisely the Phone Ghost's story! That poor little boy hidden inside a vat on the rooftop — he was the Phone Ghost.
Fan Cong looked at Chen Ge in surprise, then nodded. "There was a little boy crammed inside, his limbs twisted at unnatural angles. He was clutching a phone to his chest."
"His face was blue-purple, his skin an ashen white, his limbs contorted. By the time I controlled Xiao Bu and found him, he was already gone." Fan Cong's face was grim. "I had Xiao Bu take the phone from the boy's body. The caller ID showed it was his mother calling. I answered the phone at the time — maybe that action triggered something."
"Footsteps echoed in the stairwell. The man who had run downstairs earlier poked his head through the rooftop door. His expression was terrifying. He wrapped his hands around Xiao Bu's neck and stuffed her into the second vat."
"Xiao Bu sealed inside the vat — that's the third bad ending." Fan Cong didn't want to go on. He felt like this game existed to torture the human spirit, to interrogate what it meant to be 'human' through the most ruthlessly detached means.
After listening carefully to the third ending, Chen Ge thought for a long time, set his water aside, and spoke in a serious tone. "Fan Cong, I think you should report this to the police. I'll go with you."
The child Fan Cong had found in the vat was the Phone Ghost — every detail matched. And throughout his account, Chen Ge had paid special attention to one detail.
When the murderer who killed the Phone Ghost first encountered Xiao Bu, he said something — "Why do they need so many kids?"
That sentence revealed a crucial piece of information: behind the child abduction case stood another culprit! And that culprit was very likely the one responsible for transforming the entire Liwan Town into a ghost domain!
"That animal who killed the Phone Ghost is probably still in prison. Looks like I'll need to pay a visit to the district branch today." To get to that killer, Chen Ge couldn't do it alone — he would need Captain Yan's help.
"So many cases hidden inside one small game. The Eastern Suburbs are far more dangerous than the Western Suburbs."
Comparing the two areas, Chen Ge found that all the strange and horrifying scenes in the Western Suburbs had been confined to a specific range — which probably had something to do with his parents. The Eastern Suburbs were completely different. The various horror scenes blended into one another, silently expanding under the cover of darkness, as though some terrifying presence was secretly fanning the flames. The end result was that the Eastern Suburbs looked perfectly normal during the day, but once night fell, the boundary between the living and the dead began to blur.
"All I want is to run my haunted house in peace, but if I let them keep expanding like this, sooner or later it's going to affect me." Chen Ge found himself a reason to take the initiative. "People come in all shades — good and evil — and so do ghosts. Once the haunted house upgrades to the Thrill Maze, it'll be able to house even more Red-cloths and vengeful ghosts. After I've dealt with the evil ones, I can provide a home for those displaced benevolent ghosts."
Chen Ge and Fan Cong both sank into deep thought, though what occupied their minds was entirely different.
After a few minutes, Fan Cong spoke first. "Boss Chen, about reporting this to the police — let me think it over a bit more."
"Why think it over? Homicide cases hidden inside a game — this is serious." Chen Ge was confused.
"Just let me reconsider." Fan Cong seemed to have something weighing on him — that was probably why he had come to Chen Ge first instead of going straight to the police.
Sunlight fell on him, but Fan Cong felt no warmth at all.
"Take your time. Just give me an answer within three days — any longer and something bad might happen." Chen Ge was genuinely worried that Fan Cong had been marked by certain things. After all, this game contained too many things that were brutally, terrifyingly real.
"Mm." Fan Cong bit at his fingers. The last time he visited the haunted house, Chen Ge had noticed this habit of his — whenever he got nervous, he bit his hands.