Ghostly silhouettes flickered across the screen inside the tiny screening room, and the weeping had migrated from inside the screen to the outside, as if hidden somewhere among the group.
The already dim lights began to flicker, the seats were rocking, the ground seemed to be spinning, and a little girl's laughter now echoed from the loudspeakers on the walls.
A woman's sobbing, a little girl's terrifying laughter, and a staff member hiding behind the seats — in what was theoretically the simplest scenario, there turned out to be three "ghosts."
"Let's leave. Now."
"No way." The man who had obtained the Police profession rejected Chen Ge's suggestion again. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and it was obvious he was scared too.
"The ghosts are coming any second. Do you want to stay and die?" Chen Ge wasn't being kind — he just thought it would be more fun to have these people around during the livestream, and he could also use them as scouts to speed up his progress.
"I — I came here on the day the park first opened and played through it once, on the medium difficulty." The man dressed in trendy clothes ignored the warning glances from the others and spoke up directly. "This screening room is the first checkpoint. On medium difficulty, the screening room is just where they introduce the rules and lay out the story background. There are two scare points — a seat that shakes by itself, and a 'teacher' who's secretly hiding among us."
"Go on." Chen Ge could tell from the man's expression that he wasn't lying. He wanted to know what the man was really getting at.
"But this time, not only did we not get a background intro or rules, we didn't even get the most basic safety briefing or any hints at all. And the last time I came through here, I didn't run into those seven ghost figures that just appeared out of nowhere, or the crying and laughing. So my suggestion is that we stay here first, figure everything out thoroughly, and then move on to the next checkpoint. After all, the first scenario is supposed to be the simplest of them all." This man had actually visited before — more precisely, among the group of "visitors," his role was supposed to be that of a "tour guide," familiar with the locations of every scare point and all the setups. But the situation they were encountering now had absolutely nothing to do with what he had known in advance.
"This is all his fault! Merging forty scenarios at once! The danger level has basically multiplied by forty." A petite-looking girl pointed at Chen Ge and said.
"I was planning to solo this. You lot were the ones who insisted on tagging along, weren't you?" Chen Ge didn't even turn his head. He had already found the way out — beside the screening room screen were two pieces of black cloth, and through the gap between them, a door handle was faintly visible.
"This isn't the time for arguing." The youngest-looking guy walked over and positioned himself between Chen Ge and the other visitors. "Let's take a vote."
While the visitors were chatting away, the female office worker with long black hair had quietly taken out her phone and seemed to be contacting someone.
Forty scenarios merged together — the difficulty had skyrocketed to an unbelievable level. Even they were starting to panic.
The visitors were deep in heated discussion. Chen Ge couldn't be bothered with them. He walked alone toward the black cloth beside the screen.
"The haunted house actor hiding behind the seats wants to get over here, but the visitors are in the way first. Those visitors aren't much use, but they can still serve as meat shields." Chen Ge completely ignored the corpse projection hanging in front of the screen and pulled aside the black cloth. "The door is here."
The instant he grabbed the door handle, a burst of static erupted from the loudspeaker. The little girl's laughter turned piercingly shrill, and the entire scene seemed to be shifting.
"Is there a second phase?" Chen Ge pressed down hard on the door handle. The moment he pulled the door open, five pale fingers suddenly shot out from the gap and seized his hand.
An icy sensation spread across the back of his hand. Before the owner of that hand could react, Chen Ge grabbed the fingers in return.
"It looks like a girl's hand — the fingers are slender…" Before he could make out anything more, the five fingers wriggled free from his palm. The girl behind the door seemed to have been startled.
He threw the door wide open. Outside the screening room was a narrow path just wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Both sides of the path were sealed off with wooden boards, studded with dismembered limbs and splattered with blood.
"No!" The policeman knew something. The moment he saw Chen Ge open the door, he shouted, "Once the door to the next scenario is opened, every ghost in this scenario will go berserk! Get out of here! They're coming!"