There was no display screen in the elevator, so none of the visitors knew exactly which floor they were on.
Under the sickly green lighting, the terrified faces of the visitors looked downright horrifying — each one resembled the vengeful spirit of the dead returned on the seventh day.
"Is there not a single staff member with us? Can someone explain what's going on — has the visit started yet?" The man at the front spoke up. He had come with his girlfriend, so naturally he couldn't back down now.
"Cui Ming has played through it before. If you've got questions, you can ask him." The shortest of the three kids tugged at Cui Ming's arm. His face wore a fearless expression, but his body told a very different story.
The elevator continued its slow ascent, and all the visitors fixed their gaze on Cui Ming.
The boy was tall for his age, with very fair skin. Being stared at by so many people made him a little self-conscious. "We haven't entered the attraction yet. The elevator will take us directly into the scenario. The Nightmare Academy has six floors, each with its own independent storyline. Which floor visitors end up on is completely random."
"Which floor did you go to last time?" the man in black pressed.
"I don't know. The floor numbers are written in the hallways. I didn't dare go into the hallway that day, so I just quit." Cui Ming looked like an honest kid — when someone asked him something, he answered straightforwardly.
"You didn't dare enter the hallway? Were there haunted house actors hiding in there?"
Cui Ming nodded. "This haunted house has a ton of actors, and they're all really good. The hallways are their main hunting ground. Unless you've got no other way out, you'd best avoid them."
"Got it." Chen Ge glanced at the three kids. As time passed, the atmosphere inside the elevator grew increasingly oppressive. The three children huddled together, yet ironically it was Cui Ming — the most timid of the bunch — who now appeared the calmest.
"As far as I know, a full walkthrough of the Nightmare Academy takes about two hours. We're going to need to work together once we're inside." Chen Ge looked at his companions. "My name is Chen Ge. What should I call you?"
"The three of us are classmates. That's Cui Ming, this is Li Po, and my surname is Gou — they always call me Little Gou."
Three students: Cui Ming was the tallest, with the most introverted personality; Li Po was a little chubby, looking quite cute; Little Gou was thin, the shortest of the three, not particularly brave, but he talked a lot.
"I'm Li Yuan, and this is my girlfriend, Xueli." The couple finished their introductions as well. In the end, everyone's eyes turned to the woman standing silently in the corner.
She seemed to have just gone through a painful breakup and hadn't yet recovered. Her eyes were slightly swollen. She had come to a haunted house purely to vent.
"Unstable emotions — this girl better not have a breakdown inside the haunted house." Chen Ge studied the woman with his Yin Eye for a moment. After he had shown his ID, he had already been recognized by the Nightmare Academy staff. From the moment they handed out the lighting props, they had been deliberately targeting him — and Chen Ge had noticed all of it. But he was a magnanimous person by nature and didn't trouble himself over such things.
Now that such a peculiar visitor had appeared among the group, Chen Ge immediately began to suspect whether this woman might be a staff member in disguise.
After observing for a good while, Chen Ge found no traces of special-effects makeup residue on her face. Even if she was an actor, she was probably the kind who didn't need any makeup at all.
Having filed that thought away, Chen Ge stopped paying her any attention.
"Boom!"
The sickly green elevator suddenly shuddered. Several visitors cried out in fright and grabbed the handrails beside them. Moments later, the elevator doors slowly slid open, and a strange odor drifted into their nostrils.
Compared to the purely natural scent inside Chen Ge's haunted house, this strange smell was clearly artificial — faintly acrid.