Faint mist had drifted into the abandoned town at some unknown point, and dark shadows flickered between the eerie buildings on either side.
The temperature dropped again, and the faint sound of women and children's voices could be heard at the edges of perception. But when the female assistant tried to listen more carefully, she found only dead silence around her—all she could hear was her own heartbeat.
"Teacher, you're not joking with me, are you?" In the dim lighting of the scene, combined with the faint mist, the female assistant hadn't noticed the handprints on Wei Jinyuan's neck. "Could it be something the haunted house staff did? When Wei Jinyuan stuck his head through the window just now, maybe a staff member took the chance to apply some kind of special dye to his neck? We've seen similar dyes abroad—barely visible at first, but the color deepens as soon as someone sweats and it gets slightly damp."
"I can't figure it out either. I just get the feeling that domestic haunted houses are different from foreign ones. When I visited haunted houses abroad before, I never had this kind of panicky feeling." Kuroki pressed his hand against his chest. "There's nothing gory here—no blood, no severed limbs, nothing heavy like that. But walking through here, I feel this inexplicable sense of oppression, as though at this very moment, countless pairs of eyes are watching us."
"Well, I'm not going to believe something like having a person ride on your neck, but this is definitely good material. You could draw it into your work." The female assistant figured Kuroki was probably just under too much pressure lately, and being an artist on top of that, he'd come up with such terrifying notions.
At the mention of his manga, Kuroki's eyes brightened noticeably. "Whether it's real or not, it's genuinely good material. Fine, let's follow them forward for now. With them scouting ahead, we'll be much safer."
Whenever an idea struck, Kuroki acted on it—that was just his personality. He was consumed by his work, throwing himself in body and soul. That was how he'd gone from being Li Baofu, a homeless drifter on the streets, to becoming the top-tier doujin artist Heiqi Daishe, one step at a time.
The underground was dark, with only faint glows emanating from the surrounding buildings. But whenever someone drew near, the lights would suddenly go out, only reigniting after the visitors had moved on.
"Interesting. Looks like the haunted house is using a lot of new technology—sensor lights, fog machines..." Wei Jinyuan tried to interpret the haunted house through the lens of his own knowledge, offering a methodical analysis.
Just as he was about to continue forward, his phone suddenly rang. He looked down and saw it was Li Xu calling.
He picked up, wanting to ask Li Xu about the situation on his end. "How's it going over there? Found any clues?"
"Feeling like this haunted house is more boring than expected. We've already checked several rooms, but they're all empty—no traps, no actors." Li Xu's voice came through the phone.
"I already asked around when I got here. This haunted house has opened several scenes in quick succession—it's impossible for every single one to be fully polished. And did you notice, this scene is rated three and a half stars? Sounds like a half-finished product. Maybe Chen was pressured by Virtual Future Park into opening scenes before they were completely built." Wei Jinyuan walked along the street, with more and more rooms lining both sides.
"I'm not going to keep chatting. Call back in ten minutes—we're going to keep looking for clues." Li Xu hung up after speaking.
"Are you crazy? We've barely been apart for a minute—what the hell are you calling for?" Wei Jinyuan put his phone away and scratched his neck. He kept feeling an itch at the back of it, like he'd been bitten by a mosquito.
The passage ahead grew narrower. After walking another dozen meters or so, Li Changyin spotted a wooden board hanging on the nearby wall, with a line of bloody text written across it: "I'm among you."
"Starting with psychological suggestions? What a tired trick." Wei Jinyuan took out his phone and snapped a photo of the board, saving the image. "This is the first scare I've encountered since entering the haunted house. Unbelievable—a haunted house with such nonsensical scare placement actually managed to become a hit."
"Don't let your guard down. What the sign says could actually be true." Li Changyin kept his cold expression. "I've seen analyses online. Some people suspect the haunted house owner has mixed actors into the visitor groups to throw them off. Of course, that's just speculation—no one has proof right now."
"Whatever." Wei Jinyuan flipped the board over. On the back was written "Dongli Residential Complex." "This should be the residential area. The second clue the haunted house owner gave us is somewhere in the residential district—we're probably going to encounter something in here."
Li Changyin nodded, and the two of them entered the small courtyard where the wooden board hung.
"Teacher, stop spacing out—hurry up and come over." The female assistant urged him. Kuroki stood outside the courtyard, staring at the board on the wall, seemingly pondering the words written on it.
"Do you think... there might really be something mixed in among us?" Kuroki's voice was hoarse. He glanced around. "Maybe it's just the atmosphere of this haunted house hitting the mark. I'm starting to feel really unsettled."
Kuroki and his female assistant followed behind and entered the residential complex. Almost the moment they set foot inside, several shadows flickered past behind them.
There were three adjacent building entrances inside the complex, labeled one through three. Strange sounds drifted out of the stairwells from time to time—like children tapping something lightly against glass.
"Other than looking a bit run-down, it feels just like our old downtown." Wei Jinyuan studied the mottled wall plaster and stopped in front of the first building entrance. "Together, or split up? Whatever's hidden in these three buildings is definitely different from one another."
"I'll go alone. You take those two." Li Changyin entered building number three by himself, his figure quickly vanishing from sight. Only the sound of his footsteps remained.
"What an impatient one. I hope he doesn't scare the haunted house actors." Wei Jinyuan turned around and noticed Kuroki and his female assistant still standing in the middle of the complex. "What are you two doing? Stop dawdling!"
"Sorry, we're coming right away." The female assistant tugged at Kuroki's sleeve. "Teacher, it's time to go."
"Okay." Kuroki was staring at the waist-high grass at the edge of the complex. Though there was no wind to be felt, the grass at the corner of the wall was swaying, as if someone were crouching inside it.
Without approaching the grass, Kuroki, his female assistant, and Wei Jinyuan entered building number one together.
Water stains marked the floor, and the wall plaster was cracked in places, like rows of mouths pulled wide open.
The stairwell descended downward into dim lighting, with only half-open apartment doors visible along the way.
"How many floors are down there?" Wei Jinyuan took out his phone and switched on the flashlight function. The beam cut through the darkness but brought no sense of security—instead, it only amplified the fear, as though the more you saw, the more terrifying everything became.
White chunks of plaster occasionally fell from the ceiling above. Rusty iron railings bore the imprint of hand after hand, and that oppressive feeling grew heavier with each step, like a boulder pressing down on one's heart.
Wei Jinyuan scratched his neck and pushed open the door to the first room. Inside were just some old pieces of furniture haphazardly arranged—nothing unusual at all.
He'd said he wasn't scared in the slightest, but once inside the room, he had clearly become more cautious.
He carefully checked every spot where a trap might be hidden, but after a thorough inspection, he found nothing. This was simply an ordinary room.
"Is the haunted house owner trying to mess with me this way?" Wei Jinyuan checked the other rooms on the same floor. Forget haunted house actors—there wasn't even a single scary prop to be seen.
"Is this haunted house owner out of his mind? Building a bunch of empty rooms just for show?"
If this place weren't built inside a haunted house, Wei Jinyuan could almost imagine these rooms being rented out as budget apartments.
He followed the stairs down to the second underground level. The building layout was the same as above, except the second level had one addition: a pitch-black corridor that connected all three buildings together.
Wei Jinyuan called softly toward the other end of the corridor: "Cold Guy? Are you over there?"
He could hear footsteps, but no person was visible.
"Cold Guy went down to the third underground level? That doesn't make sense! We're this close—if he heard me, he'd definitely call back."
Sweat appeared on Wei Jinyuan's forehead. All the buildings on the surface might just be disguises—the truly terrifying things were all underground.
"These underground buildings are all connected, like some kind of underground maze."