Chapter 681: Your Role Is a Murderer

Chen Ge was busy running around by himself. He had been up the entire night before, and without proper rest during the day, by noon he was struggling to keep going.

He opened his backpack and released Old Zhou and the others, selecting a few employees who were still in decent condition to enter the underground scenes and handle basic operations.

Aside from Xu Yin, the other employees hadn't been cursed. Most of them had actually been nourished by the blood fog and gained certain benefits — once their injuries healed, their strength would improve noticeably.

"Scaring tourists is secondary today. Focus on resting and recovering as quickly as possible." Chen Ge spoke up personally, instructing the employees to go easy on the visitors. Though none of them understood the reason, they did as they were told.

At twelve thirty, Xiao Gu and Xu Wan took turns on a half-hour break. Most of the tourists had gone to eat as well, so the line outside the haunted house had thinned considerably.

Seeing the reduced crowd outside, two men walked over.

One had bandages wrapped around half his face. The other stood ramrod straight in a suit, his expression somewhat nervous.

"Excuse me, is Chen Ge — Boss Chen — inside?" The man in the suit found Uncle Xu at the ticket booth.

"Are you tourists? Or family members of tourists?" Uncle Xu's heart lurched when he noticed the bandages, fearing Chen Ge had gotten into some kind of trouble.

"We're here to work. Boss Chen should have told you about us, right?"

"New employees? All right, wait here. I'll give him a call."

A few minutes later, Chen Ge came out of the building. He was somewhat surprised to see the two men in front of him — they looked nothing like what he had expected.

Scissors had bandages covering half his face. Tall and gaunt, his skin was a disturbing shade of white. He seemed like someone who hadn't spent time outdoors in a very long time. He didn't come across as a pervert so much as a seriously ill person.

Drunkard Zhang Jingjiu was Scissors's complete opposite. Having showered and put on a suit, he looked sunny and brimming with positive energy — the picture of a successful man.

"You arrived at just the right time. Not many tourists right now, so I'll give you two a tour of the place first." Chen Ge enthusiastically ushered them inside the haunted house. "Oh, what about the Doctor? Didn't you come together?"

"After you left, we exchanged phone numbers, but the Doctor's line kept going straight to voicemail." Zhang Jingjiu's expression shifted slightly at the mention of the Doctor. "I don't know if something happened to him or if there's another reason. I actually went by his place to check. After talking to the neighbors, I found out that wasn't even his home."

"So the Doctor is missing?" Chen Ge thought for a moment, then gave a slight nod. "It's fine. I trust him. We've been through life and death together. If he didn't come, he probably has his own reasons."

In truth, it wasn't so much that he had confidence in the Doctor — he simply trusted the Black Phone's judgment more. The Doctor was no ordinary person, but he had no intention of harming anyone.

Leading the two employees into the haunted house, Chen Ge gave them a brief overview of each scene.

Scissors and Drunkard were nothing like Xiao Gu. Chen Ge intended to train them comprehensively rather than assigning them to a single scene the way he had with Xiao Gu and Xu Wan.

"Once we open for the afternoon, you two will follow the tourists and go through every scene, starting from the one-star level. Experience all the scenes in my haunted house from start to finish." With the friendliest expression on his face, Chen Ge said something whose cruelty Scissors and Drunkard wouldn't understand until much later: "You'll be working here, so you absolutely cannot scare yourselves."

"Don't worry. We'll do our very best." Scissors and Drunkard agreed readily. Perhaps in their minds, having survived Liwan Town, there was nothing left in this world to fear.

"Good. This afternoon, just think of yourselves as tourists and enjoy the experience." Chen Ge didn't assign them any specific tasks — simply having them tour everything was itself a method of rapid growth.

The lunch break passed quickly, and Scissors and Drunkard welcomed the most unforgettable day of their lives.

Listening to the screams echoing from scene to scene, Chen Ge stroked his chin. "If their nerves are too weak, they can't work as haunted house actors. They'd end up getting scared by their own colleagues before they scare any tourists. The Liwan Town scene is about to go into service. I need to train them both as fast as possible."

While Chen Ge was mulling things over, Uncle Xu's voice came from outside. Chen Ge hurried out.

Uncle Xu and Director Luo were standing behind the door, seemingly looking for Chen Ge about something.

"Director Luo, what brings you here personally?" Chen Ge was somewhat surprised. "Did Virtual Future Park drop some new bombshell?"

"They're still building hype and running promotions over there. I came today to talk to you about something else." Director Luo beckoned Chen Ge, and the two of them moved to a less crowded corner. "Chen Ge, I was just looking at the mini-program we built. A lot of tourists have already cleared the three-star scenes, and some are even close to achieving the full clearance milestone. At this rate, your haunted house might be completely solved before Virtual Future Park even opens. When that happens, its appeal to tourists will drop significantly — and with Virtual Future Park playing dirty behind the scenes, the situation will become very unfavorable."

Director Luo had been a veteran of the business world for years — outwardly refined, but in reality an old fox. "Our park's biggest draw is your haunted house, which to this day no one has fully cleared. So I'd like you to increase the difficulty of every scene. I know it's a challenge for you, but we have no way out now. We have to bite the bullet."

"So that's what this is about." Chen Ge hadn't expected Director Luo to be so perfectly in sync with his own thinking. "Don't worry — I was going easy on them today on purpose."

"Going easy? But increasing the number of clearances isn't good for us, is it?" Director Luo trusted Chen Ge, but he truly couldn't fathom why he would do something like that.

"Exactly. The more people who clear the three-star scenes, the more tourists will be willing to try even higher-rated horror scenes. When new scenes open, if nobody challenges them and the place isn't buzzing, that won't help our marketing either." Chen Ge's tone was calm.

"New scenes?" Director Luo immediately caught the key point in Chen Ge's words. "You've finished building new ones?"

"The basic designs and equipment were mostly prepared by my parents before. I just assembled and put them together. But don't worry — this scene will be more terrifying than anything before." Chen Ge looked at Director Luo. No more words were needed. The two exchanged a knowing smile.

"All right, then we'll do it your way. Whatever you need, just say the word, and I'll give you my full support." Director Luo's mood had improved considerably. He left with the documents in hand.

"With a boss who devotes himself so wholeheartedly to the park, why would tourists ever have trouble finding fun?" Chen Ge returned to the haunted house, running between the aboveground and underground levels — supervising Scissors and Zhang Jingjiu's tour of the haunted house while also keeping an eye on the safety of the tourists inside each scene.