My House of Horrors

Chen Ge was there to create trouble, so the more chaotic the School of the Afterlife, the happier he would be.

I have my student ID in the left pocket and teacher’s ID in my right. With all the preparation done, I’m ready to rearrange the structure at this school.

Pressing the start button on the recorder, Chen Ge held his two bags and reached the end of the corridor. As if worried about him, Lee Bing followed Chen Ge after he left. He hesitated, like he wanted to tell Chen Ge something but was afraid of being seen by the bullies. Chen Ge strode down the corridor. He did not know his way about and was just wandering about. The number of students in the corridor decreased; the remaining ones appeared to know him. They averted their eyes from him and pointed behind him like they were planning something.

Why haven’t they made their move? I’ve already reached some real secluded parts of the school.

Chen Ge tried his best to cooperate with the bullies. The darker the corridor, the better it was. To lure the bullies to attack him, he was controlling his expression to make himself appear to be confident on the outside but actually shaking like a leaf inside. At that moment, the bullies were perhaps enjoying the thrill of the hunt, playing the game of cat and mouse.

The few buildings at the school seem to be connected. The office and the teacher’s dormitory are the eastern part of the school, and in contrast, the western part is the part with the least amount of management. It is filled with empty labs and storerooms. It’s rarely visited by teachers and students.

Chen Ge looked more agitated, and he wandered around the school like a headless chicken. Finally, he ‘accidentally’ entered the most ‘secluded’ storage area in the School of the Afterlife. When he walked into the corridor of the western side of the school, Lee Bing left. In the end, he did not have the courage to tell Chen Ge. There was no one else in the corridor. The thin blood fog surrounded Chen Ge.

It’s time for them to make their move, right? I’ve already voluntarily walked to such an isolated place.

Listening to the static from the recorder, Chen Ge looked out the window. Blood fog enveloped the whole world. Through the fog, one could catch a blurry glimpse of a blood red sun. The thing appeared to be entirely made up of negative emotion.

I’ve not seen this thing in other places behind the door before.

The sun blinked in and out of the fog. This scene loosened Chen Ge’s memory, and it reminded him of something that had happened a long time ago. When he was doing the tunnel nightmare mission, Chen Ge had once entered a hallucination and seen the self that was killed many years ago inside the tunnel. He had been unable to shake loose, and it was Zhang Ya who had reached out to save him. When he saw the death illusion, Zhang Ya’s appearance had been like a blood red sun.

It’s too similar. It’s just like how I saw Zhang Ya when I was lost. Could the sun here be represented by a Specter as well?

Sudden footsteps interrupted Chen Ge’s thought. He turned back to look and realized that the doors that were on the two sides of the corridor were all opened, and the fog around him thickened. The footsteps came closer, and the air became more suffocating. There was the sound of metal hitting the ground.

“It’s understandable that the new student did not know the rules, but openly breaking the rules and not respecting us, that needs some serious education.” One of the room doors was pushed open, and a muscular man walked out. Three students followed behind him. They were all students from Chen Ge’s class, and they sat on the back row.

“Just four of you?” Chen Ge was not satisfied. He had made such a large ruckus, but only four had taken the bait.

“Don’t worry, we’re all students here, so we won’t punish you too much.” The leading and largest student blocked the corridor with a smile. He scanned Chen Ge up and down like he was studying him.

“You dare touch me at the school?” Chen Ge warned the man darkly, but the students did not seem to mind.

“You’d better turn back to look you. There are no cameras here. Normally, no one comes here. Even if they do, they will not tell on us.” The few students had probably done this more than once already, and they were fearless.

“Turn back?” Chen Ge turned behind him, and the storeroom door that was not far away was pushed open. A stench drifted out from it.

This smell is very familiar. I smelled it in the painter’s reconstructed school before. It’s released by those inverted monsters.

The stench thickened, and the students from Chen Ge’s class moved backward to block the only exit on the other side. If Chen Ge wished to escape, he could only run deeper into the corridor.

“You can only blame yourself for having run into our territory. Even the teachers don’t dare come here often.” A middle-aged man walked out from the storeroom. He was wearing a bloody shirt, and his face appeared to have been seared by a fire brand as a scary-looking scar was left there. “Brother Ba, this is the kid. He hit my friend on his first day of school.”

“How did he hit him?” The middle-aged man dragged out a new wooden chair from the storeroom. He did not even pay any attention to Chen Ge.

“He used a chair to hit my friend’s head.”

“That’s quite ruthless.” The middle-aged man held his chin. “Let me think about this. Even though he doesn’t follow the rules, after all, he’s new here. How about this? Come over here and take this chair. Then, hit him back like how he hit your friend. Each of you will get to hit him once. If he dares resist, I will call my people. Go ahead.”

“We’ll do it? That’s not that good, right?”

“Stop wasting time.” While the middle-aged man was communicating with the students, Chen Ge was observing him. The man was not a student there; he was probably a wandering spirit who had been dragged into the school when the school was expanding, and listening to his words, there appeared to be more people like him.

Consuming the students at the school might earn the school’s ire, but these outsiders should not be under the school’s protection. If my workers consume them, the school might even appreciate my effort to clean this place out.

The way Chen Ge looked at the middle-aged man changed. He prepared to teach a lesson to all the bullies until they surrendered, but now the plan had changed.

“What is all this noise? If they don’t dare to, we’ll do it. How troublesome is that?” More people walked out from inside the storeroom. They were dressed differently from the students. Each of them had a scar on their bodies and had retained the look during their death. The fight would soon be over. Brother Ba dragged the chair to walk toward Chen Ge. He looked at Chen Ge’s legs, which were shivering, and the scar on his face contorted. “Now you know how to be afraid?”

“No, I’m just curious. Why would all of you listen to those students’ orders? Is it because one of them has something on you, and you are forced to cooperate with them?” Chen Ge had a few guesses in mind.