My House of Horrors

The world behind the door is weaved based on the memory of the door-pusher. In a way, it could be understood as a nightmare that the door-pusher cannot escape from. In the underground morgue, Doctor Gao suffered all the despair and negative emotions in the world alone, causing the underground morgue to implode upon itself in the end.

After the morgue collapsed, I caught a glimpse of the outside world, a blood red city. If this singular building was the nightmare of a single despairing soul, then that blood red city could be the amalgamation of many nightmares.

Accumulation caused transformation. After the sedimentation and festering of endless nightmares, what kind of monsters would be birthed from that sea of negative emotions?

Chen Ge stood in the corridor, and he had never been so conscious before.

The main opponents in one-star missions are living humans; two-star missions have half Red Specters like the middle-aged woman who kidnapped children on the hearse or Wen Wen’s big sister; three-star missions are like a threshold because each three-star mission will contain one or more Red Specters, but more than that, every venue for a three-star mission will come with a door! Whether it is the Third Sick Hall, Coffin Village or the underground morgue, the ‘existence’ of the door is the hallmark of a three-star mission.

If that is how things are arranged, then what will a four-star mission be like? More than one door at a single mission location? Or will the world behind the door no longer be closed in but a connection of multiple buildings and thus multiple nightmares?

Chen Ge personally thought that the chance of the second possibility was larger.

The Trial Mission at Li Wan City was marked as 3.5 stars. If the world behind the door is similar to the game world inside Xiao Bu’s game, then in a way, it could be a validation of my speculation. After the door goes out of control, the world behind it will no longer be limited within a singular building but will continue to spread. If one is not careful about it, perhaps it will eventually turn into a four-star scenario.

The mastermind in Eastern Jiujiang used to the hearse to continually feed negative emotions into Li Wan City and used the despairing passengers to spread the despair like seeds. Chen Ge still remembered the conversations that he had with the passengers on the bus. There was a ghost building in Li Wan City. To fulfil a wish, one had to sacrifice or bear something of equal value.

The mastermind seemed to be using these people’s determination to turn them into the carriers of fear and misfortune to use them to create more despair to lure in more passengers. The core purpose behind his action was probably to turn Li Wan City into a four-star scenario.

“To use these poor souls as chess pieces, this monster in Eastern Jiujiang is worse than the ghost stories society,” Chen Ge muttered calmly.

Eastern Jiujiang already has a four-star scenario—Ghost Fetus—could the culprit have originated from this scenario?

The more Chen Ge thought about it, the more convinced he became. After all, the mastermind had only appeared in the form of a shadow so far, but the scariest thing was that it was able to exchange blows with Zhang Ya in just a shadow form.

A three-star scenario wouldn’t contain this kind of monster. Zhang Ya was already the most threatening presence a three-star scenario could breed. In that case, that monster had to be related to a four-star scenario. Its physical form should be trapped somewhere, or its physical form is immobile, and this is the only way it can move.

Standing in the corridor, Chen Ge was lost in thought until the door of the family on the rightmost side suddenly opened, and a fat middle-aged man stood at the door holding his phone.

“Why are you screaming so late at night?”

“Hmm?”

After the brief exchange, their eyes met. Through the open door, Chen Ge saw that the pipe in the house was not screwed shut, and strands of black hair were climbing up the water into the pipe. The man’s gaze instead fell on Chen Ge’s hand, attracted by the scary hammer that Chen Ge was holding. It was hard to imagine that one could come across such bloody and primal thing in modern society.

The blood grooves, the skeleton-like handle, every detail of this hammer seemed to announce its difference from the tool hammer that was used by construction workers.

“You…”

“Move!” Chen Ge ordered the man—not harming the innocent was part of his creed. He dragged the hammer as he charged into the room and swung it at the pipe!

Bang!

A loud crash echoed from inside the room. The pipe burst, and the water spurted several meters, falling on the man’s face. He was stunned speechless. His lips were wide open, and he was unable to close them for a long time.

“Xu Yin!” After dealing with the water ghost once, this time, Chen Ge had learned his lesson. He predicted the water ghost’s movement and bent the pipe that she was going to escape from. He kicked the door of the bathroom open, and Chen Ge summoned both Bai Qiulin and Xu Yin, having them block both ends of the pipe.

“Let’s see where you’re going to run this time?”

Wet, raven-black hair oozed out of the pipe and covered the entire bathroom. This was the water ghost’s final struggle. The mirror cracked, and pipes burst—the sound of intense fighting came out from inside the bathroom.

“What… what is he doing inside?” The man saw the water seep out from underneath the door, and after a long time, he finally recovered and called the police on his phone. “Hello, is this the police? A madman just rushed into my home. You have to come help me!

“Is he dangerous? Of course, he is! He’s extremely dangerous! He carries a long ass hammer with him!

“I don’t know him! He just appeared at my door, rushed in, and started ruining my water pipes! I swear, I didn’t say anything. I just shared a look with him!

“Okay, I understand! I will stop provoking him and will stay as far as I can, but you have to hurry!”

…

Half an hour later, Chen Ge finally gained control over the water ghost. The limited space made it difficult for him to fight. Both Bai Qiulin and Chen Ge blocked the water pipe and underground sewer—the main fighting force was still Xu Yin.

“She’s so hard to deal with even on the surface. If the fight really happened at the dam, it might have been me who lost.”

After fighting with the water ghost, Chen Ge noticed something. The girl’s attack style would become extremely strange when she was near water, and her fighting power would almost triple.

“Thankfully, we cornered her on the ground, or else this mission would have been as difficult as a normal three-star mission.” Chen Ge placed the twisting black hair in Xu Yin’s grasp into a shampoo bottle. Behind the curtain of black hair hid a girl’s faded shadow. She was wearing a blood-stained dress, and she looked just like Wen Wen, probably slightly older than Wen Wen.

“She is just a child and needs adult supervision.” Chen Ge placed both the bottle and the recorder together inside the bag.

“Before the two-star mission has even started, I’ve already captured the boss. After the water ghost assimilates into the family at the Haunted House, I should go back to visit the dam—perhaps I can recruit her underlings then.”

Satisfied, Chen Ge shoved the hammer into his backpack and opened the door.

“Stop right there! Do not move!” A scream came from outside the door, and it startled Chen Ge. However, his expression soon turned curious because the voice was very familiar. With his hands in the air, Chen Ge slowly walked out from the bathroom.

When they saw his face, both of the officers were equally shocked.

“Officer Xiao Qing, I told you at the fishing aficionado’s home that we would meet again soon.” Chen Ge smiled embarrassedly. “I didn’t lie, did I?”