"I've been a bother tonight. You two should get some rest early." Chen Ge had been completely absorbed while playing and hadn't realized how late it had gotten.
"You're heading back? Just stay the night here — my bed's plenty big." Fan Cong tossed the rumpled clothes and pants off to the side of the bed.
"No need, I still have to open the haunted house tomorrow." Chen Ge politely waved his hand off, planning to wrap everything up and head out. "I remember you two mentioned some anomalies while playing the game before — like things from the game had seeped out?"
Fan Cong and Fan Dade exchanged a glance. They'd been wondering about it themselves. When they played, they always turned off the background music, pushed the monitor as far away as possible, and operated the controls from over a meter back. Even so, they still sometimes got scared.
But watching Chen Ge play, the object of their fear had unconsciously shifted from the game itself to the person playing it — it was a first for both of them.
The brothers didn't know how to bring it up. In the end, it was Fan Dade who changed the subject: "It's probably just a psychological thing. Think about it — how could things from the game possibly come out?"
"Don't let your guard down. This game really does have issues. You'd better only play during the daytime from now on." Chen Ge gave Fan Cong a few more reminders, then, confirming everything was settled, walked out of the bedroom.
"Boss Chen, it's hard to get a taxi around here. Let me take you back." Fan Cong chased after him — perhaps Chen Ge's gameplay had truly impressed him, and now he had a lot he wanted to discuss.
"Stay put, no need to see me off." Through playing this game, Chen Ge had actually grown much closer to Fan Cong and Fan Dade. The brothers were both incredibly hospitable.
"There are no taxis that come through Liwan Town at night. You'd have to walk over to the Eastern Suburb Trade City to find one." Fan Cong pulled a key from a drawer. "Take my electric scooter. I'm planning to visit your amusement park tomorrow anyway — you can just give it back to me then."
At this point, Chen Ge didn't refuse. He took the scooter key from Fan Cong. "Thanks."
He pushed open the living room door. Fan Dade and Fan Cong both walked him downstairs. The entire residential compound was pitch black — only the lights in Fan Dade's apartment were still on.
"Why does it feel like there aren't many residents in this complex?" Chen Ge recalled the apartment across from Fan Dade's — there had even been a mirror specifically hung on the front door to ward off evil.
"It's too remote here. Transportation is really inconvenient. Over time, everyone who could move out did." Fan Dade led Chen Ge to the electric scooter. "Watch yourself on the road. See you tomorrow."
Chen Ge checked the battery level, thanked Fan Dade and Fan Cong once more, and rode off on the electric scooter.
After a while, the light in Fan Cong's apartment went dark too, and the entirety of Liwan Town sank into total blackness.
"There really is something off about the Eastern Suburb." Chen Ge glanced back over his shoulder. "Maybe I should go check out the real-life location corresponding to the game tonight?"
After a moment's thought, he dismissed the idea. "Better to play it safe. I'll wait until Fan Cong has mapped out all the dangerous areas, then go looking for that out-of-control door."
It took over an hour after leaving Liwan Town for Chen Ge to finally reach New Century Paradise.
Stepping into the haunted house, the tension that had been wound tight in his nerves finally loosened.
Fighting back his drowsiness, Chen Ge found his backpack in the employee break room, then opened the iron door leading to the underground scene and stepped inside.
Sitting down in the last classroom, Chen Ge switched on the tape recorder, then opened the comic book and let Men Nan out.
Men Nan, who stood only a little taller than Chen Ge's knee, emerged from Yan Danian's comic book and gazed at Chen Ge with a hint of grievance.
Chen Ge coughed dryly, feeling a touch sheepish. "Are you getting used to staying in there?"
"When are you going to send me back?! If nobody's watching that broken window behind the door of the Third Ward, something terrible is going to happen!" Men Nan looked like a miniature adult, his adorable face dead serious as he stared at Chen Ge.
"What kind of terrible thing?"
"The door to the Third Ward is already showing signs of losing control. During the time I was unconscious, the world behind the door was slowly overlapping with the world outside! They're influencing each other. If left unchecked, the door will never be able to close again, and the negative emotions inside the door will spill out into the world beyond." Men Nan wanted to impress upon Chen Ge the severity of the situation.
"The negative emotions inside the door will spill out into the world beyond?" Chen Ge thought of the scenes he'd witnessed in the game — the entire town overrun with psychopathic killers and vengeful ghosts, everyone acting as though they'd gone mad.
"That's right. If the door stays open for too long, it will gradually affect everything around it." Men Nan climbed up onto a chair — he hated having to crane his neck to talk to people. "Everyone within the door's sphere of influence will start to have problems. At first, it's subtle psychological shifts — suddenly becoming introverted and withdrawn, losing interest in everything, that sort of thing. Over time, even physical habits change. Like eating steak: before, they'd prefer medium-well; now they want rare. Eventually, they might even start craving raw beef still streaked with blood."
Men Nan described the gradual process by which a normal person became a "deviant."
"Is this process irreversible?" Chen Ge understood in his heart that the door in Liwan Town had already lost control. The enemies he would face this time were not just vengeful ghosts, but also people with malicious intent — and monsters that had escaped from behind the door.
"The best solution I can think of right now is to prevent the door from losing control in the first place. Of course, you could also find a psychiatrist and counsel each of them individually — if you don't mind the trouble." Men Nan was hinting at something; he was desperate to go back, but he couldn't defeat the vengeful ghosts attached to Chen Ge. It left him in a wretched bind — the feeling of having boarded a pirate ship with no way to get off.
"Can a door that's lost control be shut?" Chen Ge had his own ideas. He remained calm no matter the situation.
"Get the logic straight first. A 'door' is only called out of control because it can no longer be closed." Men Nan's answer was rather bleak.
"Even the Door Pusher can't close it?" Chen Ge leaned back in his seat, unwilling to accept it. His original plan had been to find the door in Liwan Town, step through into the world beyond to locate Xiao Bu, then use reasonable means to have Xiao Bu shut it.
"The Door Pusher might have a way to close it, but it varies from person to person. Different Door Pushers differ in strength, and their abilities are completely different." When Men Nan said this, his gaze grew even more reproachful. The only reason he hadn't snuck away was that he was no fighter — even within the world behind the Third Ward's door, he was no match for Zhang Ya. That was why he'd stayed put inside the comic book like an obedient child.
"Everything I can tell you, I've told you. Asking me more won't help." Before Chen Ge could press further, Men Nan looked at him pleadingly and continued, "A door losing control is truly terrifying. I have to go back. Without me guarding the gate, the Western Suburb will eventually end up just like the Eastern Suburb."
"The Western Suburb will end up like the Eastern Suburb? You know what's going on in the Eastern Suburb?" Chen Ge froze. In their conversation just now, he hadn't once mentioned the words "Eastern Suburb."