For
It wasn't even a question of fear — it was a matter of expectations.
Living actors needed to be won over gradually, taking time to earn their trust and coax them along.
With vengeful spirits, there was no need for all that. Just bring them back first, then work things out later.
Staring down the empty corridor, Chen Ge was about to continue heading downstairs when — whether by coincidence or because someone backstage was deliberately guiding him — one of the doors along the hallway happened to swing open at that very moment.
"Found the exit! Damn, it was right behind us!" A man's voice rang out from the corridor, and Chen Ge found it vaguely familiar.
A moment later, one man and two women ran out of the room. They were the same tourists who had entered the haunted house alongside Chen Ge.
The man was named Li Yuan, his girlfriend was called Xueli, and the third woman was quiet and gave off an eerily lifeless vibe — Chen Ge didn't know her name.
"Huh?! What are you doing here all alone?" Li Yuan spotted Chen Ge too and noticed his odd expression, standing by himself in the stairwell. He waved enthusiastically. "Brother! There's a ghost in the stairwell! Get out quick, don't stay there too long."
"It's fine. That ghost just passed through — it probably won't come out again."
"You can never be sure about that. Oh, by the way, what happened to the three students you were with?" Li Yuan and Xueli were huddled close together, their hair disheveled, looking quite a mess.
"The four of us got chased by ghosts and got separated," Chen Ge said casually, making something up on the spot.
"We could hear the screaming from far away. We're really sorry for asking you guys to stay behind and hold them off earlier." Li Yuan looked genuinely apologetic — he felt partly responsible for the three students getting lost. "Let's stick together from here on out. We've already checked out the art room and the music classroom. Next we're heading to the abandoned warehouse. What about you?"
"I've already been to the abandoned warehouse. The actor inside wasn't feeling too well. I'm planning to head down to the very bottom of the stairwell next." Chen Ge pulled out the photograph he had found beneath the incense burner. "I'm going to do the Thirteen Steps mission."
"The Thirteen Steps?" Li Yuan took the photo and glanced at it. "Brother, let me give you some advice — just stay out of the stairwell. Before I came here, I joined this Nightmare Academy visitor group, and some people in there said the stairwell in this haunted house might actually be haunted."
"Really haunted?"
"Apparently, before the building was fully finished, some kid came here to play and accidentally got trapped somewhere inside. They were never found." Xueli added the details. "A small number of visitors have reported seeing that child in the stairwell. They say the incense burners set up in there aren't just props to scare tourists — they're actually there to keep the kid from wandering around."
"Can you give me more details about the child? Like his life story, whether he had any personality issues, whether he was from a single-parent family, that kind of thing?" Chen Ge fired off a string of questions that Li Yuan had never even thought to consider.
"Is... is any of that really necessary?"
"By the way, what's the group number for that chat group you mentioned? Can you add me too?" Chen Ge put on the kind of eager expression only a newbie would wear. "I'd really love to chat with those people."
"Sure." Li Yuan added Chen Ge to the group. "Those three students are pretty young, and they got separated from us. They must be terrified right now. Why don't we go find them first?"
"You guys go look for them. I'm going to stick with my original plan." Chen Ge tucked the photo back and turned to leave.