My House of Horrors

“Mission Requirement: Find the Pen Spirit’s best friend and fulfil its wish.

“Mission Reward: The Pen Spirit’s affection level will increase tremendously, and you will have a chance to recruit it as the Haunted House’s employee!”

Chen Ge’s eyes studied the last sentence closely. Hiring an actual ghost to be his worker was his dream, and he had not expected that the day would arrive so soon!

When he first received the black phone, he had been paying extra attention to the My Team of Ghouls and Ghosts tab, but after completing so many missions, the tab had remained empty. Both Xiaoxiao and Zhang Ya could not be hired due to specific reasons. Chen Ge had already given up on that thought; after all, human and ghosts were different. However, it was not as good as he had hoped, since the black phone had now issued this mission.

The perks of employing the Pen Spirit were endless; she could predict the future and could scare the visitors without the use of make-up. In Chen Ge’s eyes, she was the perfect employee.

I shall help the Pen Spirit fulfil her wish.

After slipping the black phone back into his pocked, Chen Ge squeezed through the crowd. The few from Qin Guang’s studio were packing up the equipment and laptop; they looked like they were ready to leave. “Who said you people can go?”

Chen Ge walked toward Fei Youliang and pulled out the nametag from his pocket. The dirtied name tag had a woman’s name written on it—Chen Yalin.

“Why would you steal a prop from the Haunted House?” Chen Ge waved the nametag in the air. “Don’t tell me, this old nametag belongs to Fei Youliang?”

The people from Qin Guang’s studio looked at each other. They did not know what had possessed Fei Youliang to go to the classroom to steal this nametag either.

“Xiao Chen, let me handle this.” Uncle Xu was afraid of conflict, so he quickly came out to block Chen Ge.”

“First thing’s first, I need them to delete all the videos from their laptop, or else they are not leaving this place. Every set inside the Haunted House took painstaking effort to build, and I will not allow my effort to go to waste just like that.”

Uncle Xu also understood the damage that the Haunted House would suffer if the video was released to the public. He kept a close eye on the people from Qin Guang’s studio as they deleted the video from the laptop, then he led them to the park management. These people’s behavior had created a negative influence on the park, and they would be punished according to the park rules.

After the few were led away, Chen Ge pushed them out of his mind. In a way, he pitied them from accidentally angering the Pen Spirit.

After they left, Xu Wan walked out from the Haunted House. “Boss, are we still going to continue for the rest of the day?”

“Of course.” Chen Ge returned to the ticket booth, and the originally orderly crowd suddenly swamped him.

“Brother, how come there is no mention of the school scenario on the public forum? It looks f*cking interesting!”

“Is the ticket to visit the school the same price?”

“Can we go in four at a time‽ I haven’t been so excited and scared at the same time! Someone hold me!”

Chen Ge did not expect that the crowd’s reaction to the new scenario would be so positive after witnessing what had happened to Fei Youliang and Zhu Jianing. He glanced at the crowd and realized that most of them were students.

“I’m sorry, but due to some accidents, the scenario is temporarily closed for a two-day maintenance period.” Fei Youliang and Zhu Jianing were the beta testers. From their experience, Chen Ge realized that even without his intervention, the scenario was independent enough to scare the visitors on its own, but there were still too many uncertainties and, thus, a certain risk.

It was the same with the Murder by Midnight scenario initially. The mischievous Xiaoxiao followed behind Monkey and gave the man the scare of his life. It was only after Chen Ge solved the hidden mission in the Murder by Midnight scenario that the situation improved.

To have the lingering spirits inside Mu Yang High School listen to me, the simplest solution is to complete the scenario’s hidden mission. Chen Ge stuck his hand into his pocket, and with his fingers curled around the black phone, he came to a decision.

The Haunted House continued to operate, the incident with Qin Guang’s studio’s people an interlude that was soon forgotten. Chen Ge was busy until 4 pm, when the number of park visitors decreased. Chen Ge called Xu Wan over and had her get off work early. After Xu Wan left, he entered the Mu Yang High School scenario alone.

This was the first 2-star scenario unlocked by Chen Ge. Its scenario was placed at the stairs that led down into the underground carpark. In the future, no matter how Chen Ge expanded the underground carpark, the entrance would not be changed, so the first scary scenario his visitors saw would be this one.

He turned on his flashlight and headed toward the sealed classroom. The toppled chairs, tables, and the nametags on the lectern had been replaced, but one of the nametags was missing.

“Can you hear me?” Chen Ge stood at the door and shouted into the room. The uniforms sat on their chairs, and there was no answer.

After shaking his head, Chen Ge went to the female dormitory. He picked up the broken ballpoint pen and fixed it before putting it inside his pocket. After that, he wandered to the well at the other end of the junction.

In the video, Fei Youliang had been talking to himself beside this well.

At the time, he should have been possessed by several lingering spirits at the same time, and that was why he was rambling what sounded like nonsense. Chen Ge looked down into the well. It was two or three meters deep. Even if someone fell into it, they would not be injured. Why would they say that then? Is there another secret to this well?

Chen Ge was reminded of the door inside the bathroom mirror, the door that would only appear for one minute after midnight. He could find no answer. After inspecting everything again, Chen Ge exited the underground carpark and sealed the wooden boards.

He took out 5,000 from the staff breakroom before locking the door and heading toward the park management office. When he saw Uncle Xu, he returned his money and asked about the update regarding the people from Qin Guang’s studio. Uncle Xu told him that things had been taken care of, and he should not worry about it.

After handling all those miscellaneous tasks, Chen Ge walked out of the park and gave Inspector Lee a call. It was answered after three rings, but the line was quiet except for an extremely tense breathing sound.

“Uncle San Bao?”

“What have you discovered this time?”

“It’s nothing—I just need your help to find a person.”

“Not a murder suspect?”

“No, just a normal student.”

After receiving the confirmed answer, the silence on the other end was broken, and footsteps could be heard in the background. People flipped through the documents while other talked on the phone; everyone resumed their work.

Inspector Lee sighed in relief. “I told them that four times in one week is too much. The stress you give my men…”

“Uncle San Bao, the person I’m looking for is Chen Yalin. She should be one of the victims from Mu Yang High School three years ago.”

“Victim? You’re looking for a dead person?”