My House of Horrors

After hearing the woman’s story, Chen Ge’s interest in the boy in the stairwell only grew.

“He dares to wander out in daylight, so he can’t be a normal lingering spirit. At the very least, he is at the level of a baleful Specter. But why would he stay here so long? Is it because he has unfinished business here? Could it be that the object of his possession is buried deep in the building’s foundation?”

Chen Ge felt uncomfortable knowing that a boy’s soul was unable to find peace. He decided to help the boy fulfil his last wish. Chen Ge rushed down the stairs. He did not know how to encounter the boy, so he found a blind spot from the camera and summoned Ol’ Zhou.

“Just now, a woman told me a little boy is wandering in this stairwell, can you sense his location?” Chen Ge asked Ol’ Zhou. He was hoping for a positive answer.

“I can’t feel anything. Perhaps he’s in hiding.” Ol’ Zhou looked around. “But this place is rather strange.”

“Strange? What do you mean?”

“A normal lingering spirit wouldn’t be able to appear in daylight. Even for baleful Specter, the period of appearance is only very short. If they wander too far away from their object of possession, it would cause irreparable damage, or at least, that should be the case. However, our Haunted House is an exemption. I do not know exactly why. Even in broad daylight, we can appear anywhere we wish inside the Haunted House. There is no limitation of time, and in fact, the place feels very comfortable to us.”

After describing Western Jiujiang’s Haunted House, Ol’ Zhou turned to study the stairwell that they were in. “Even though this place is not as comfortable as the Haunted House, I can stay here for a very long time. This building appears to have shielded itself fully from the sunlight, and the Yin energy gathered here is very thick.”

“You can stay in Nightmare Academy for a very long time?” For a moment, Chen Ge thought of having Ol’ Zhou stay behind to act as his spy.

“Not only me, even normal spirits like the students from Mu Yang High School should be able to do it. This kind of location is too rare,” Ol’ Zhou said meaningfully.

“Nightmare Academy has been in operation for many years already. This is probably due to its unique geographical location and mode of operation.” Chen Ge leaned against the wall.

“The negative emotions vented by the visitors pooled around this place, and combined with the natural Yin energy inside the building, if this is allowed to continue, this place will only attract more and more ghosts and monsters.” Ol’ Zhou’s brows were heavily creased, and he looked severe. “Just like how our Haunted House occasionally has special visitors, if the people here cannot deal with them, something very dangerous might happen, and it might lead to unimaginable results.”

“You have a point.” Chen Ge thought silently. “So, what do you think we should do?”

“We should take over such a dangerous location. After all, we have already gotten used to the danger.” Ol’ Zhou sighed and offered his advice.

After a moment’s silence, Chen Ge finally said, “With great power comes great responsibility. Even though I don’t live in Xin Hai, I can’t just let bad things happen to Xin Hai. After we deal with everything at our place, we should contact Director Luo, and with his help, hopefully, we can take over this building and snip the danger at the bud.”

“It is lucky that they ran into someone like you, boss.” Ol’ Zhou’s brows relaxed, and he sighed.

Chen Ge and Ol’ Zhou were a dream team and formed a great contrast to the boss of Nightmare Academy and his employees. This was probably due to Chen Ge’s natural personal charm.

With Ol’ Zhou in tow, Chen Ge ran to the first floor. The end of the stairwell was not the exit but a large door painted on the wall. “The door is drawn on the wall. According to the game rules, if the visitors found out the large door was merely a painting, they would definitely panic.”

After spending so much time inside the building, Chen Ge had familiarized himself with Nightmare Academy’s layout. Both left and right sides of the building had a ‘not so safe’ safety corridor leading to dead ends. The real path was the elevator in the middle, the elevator used by the visitors when they started the tour.

There were pros and cons to this arrangement. On one hand, it could elicit the darkest fear in the visitor’s heart, but on the other hand, should they encounter a special visitor, the employees themselves had no place to run.

“Ol’ Zhou, after we find the boy, you stay near the elevator. Keep the elevator on your floor.”

“Understood.”

With Ol’ Zhou’s help, Chen Ge felt much more relaxed. However, the man in the surveillance room was in for a surprise because he was about to witness something inexplicable.

After Chen Ge and Ol’ Zhou arrived at the first floor, they soon realized that the building not only went up, it also had a staircase that led down into the basement. Staring at the basement first floor that was specially painted using red paint, Chen Ge paused. The atmosphere there was completely different to the scenarios above. The staircase was filled with dust and littered with dusty newspapers. Some of the copies even had dark brown stains on them.

Picking up a random one, Chen Ge scanned through it. “Carelessness of the father, the violation of building rules by the contractor, who is responsible for the boy’s disappearance?”

It was unclear whether the copies were the Haunted House’s doing or real articles. In any case, they were all articles about the missing boy, and they made the readers feel rather uncomfortable.

“The expert’s final analysis was that the boy should be hiding inside the incomplete underground basement.”

Chen Ge tossed the copy aside and bent down to glance at the basement corridor. There was no light, and the Haunted House seemed to have left this place untouched.

“If this is not a scenario, there should be a no-entry sign near the entrance, but there isn’t one, so this means that even though it might not be related to theme of phantom school, it is a part of Nightmare Academy. Technically, it should be a hidden scenario.”

To prevent being discovered by the camera, Ol’ Zhou maintained a distance from Chen Ge. The latter walked down the stairs alone. His shoes stepped on the newspaper, and they rustled noisily. When he was halfway down the stairs, Chen Ge suddenly stopped. He turned back to look before turning back forward. His eyes landed on the last step. “This staircase has thirteen steps?”

Chen Ge was sure that he was not wrong; the staircase that led underground indeed had thirteen steps. “Is it a mistake by the builder, or did Nightmare Academy do this on purpose? Why would there be an extra step?”

Carrying the backpack, he moved downward. His left feet landed on the thirteenth step. Looking around, Chen Ge did not see anything special. However, when he tried to move forward, standing only on his left leg with his right leg moving in midair, the ground before him suddenly ‘opened up’!

A man about the height of a seven-year-old child jumped out, screaming. Red paint covered his face, and he attempted to grab Chen Ge. Chen Ge’s full attention was on the thirteenth step, so he did not expect there would be a hidden compartment on the ground just beyond the last step.

The man surprised him, but Chen Ge’s reaction when he was surprised was different from all the other visitors. Before confirming the man’s identity, Chen Ge’s swung his backpack at his attacker and yelled out a name subconsciously. “Xu Yin!”