My House of Horrors

The chance of running into special visitors will multiply at night? The black phone is encouraging me to open for business at night?

In the morning, Specters could only hide in the Haunted House. Even ghosts like Ol’ Zhou and Duan Yue were afraid of the sun. They could only appear for a few minutes in the morning and could not be hit directly by the sunlight. If it was night, there would not be such limit, and thus, the Haunted House would be several times scarier than daytime. Not only because the environment had changed but also because most of the employees were actual ghosts, and the closer it was to midnight, the more active they were.

The problem with the door hasn’t been resolved, so the visitors might be accidentally injured if a Specter sneaks through the door.

Chen Ge was not ready for a night opening yet. He rejected this idea after giving it some thought. Taking a box of cat food down from the cupboard, Chen Ge tricked the white cat over and held it in his arms. “Come, follow me to go and take a look at the new scenario.”

The white cat was very sensitive to spirits and Specters. Bringing it was like bringing an alarm, and it could help detect the uncertain elements of the new scenario. The white cat was too busy munching on the food and rubbing its head on Chen Ge’s chest to realize the danger it was in. When it realized that Chen Ge was taking it downstairs, it was already too late to run.

“Looks at how fat you are now. If you don’t start moving around, you should change your name from White Tiger to White Pig.”

Carrying the backpack, Chen Ge opened the door that led underground. A chill howled at him. With the unlocking of the School of the Afterlife, the underground scenario seemed to have become eerier. The sound of wind could be heard, and in the darkened surrounding, it was hard to tell where the wind came from. The yellowed test papers fluttered in the air, and occasionally, he would catch glimpse of mannequin heads rolling away.

“Still run about so late at night. In the future, I’ll have to invite the old headmaster back and have him watch over you people every day.”

Chen Ge carried the white cat with one hand and held the black phone in the other. He followed the instructions on the phone and walked behind the stairs. The entrance to the school was between the entrance to Mu Yang High School and the Underground Morgue. To enter this scenario, one had to pass through three iron doors. Just pushing them open was pressure enough.

The school looked normal on the surface, but with a closer examination, one would discover several extremely scary details. For example, with the thick curtains that were hung along the sides of the corridor, behind some of them was the cement wall, but some were hiding doors to other rooms. Even with the map on the black phone, Chen Ge was lost. The school was too big—it filled up the entire underground parking lot and even dug down several levels.

“Who would have thought such a school existed down here?” Chen Ge looked at the path that he just had just taken. “Or rather, it’s more appropriate to call it a small town.”

Chen Ge’s four-star scenario perfectly replicated the School of the Afterlife from behind the door. The overlapping of reality and nightmare, many scary memories appeared in Chen Ge’s mind, turning into his inspiration.

“Dormitory walls that are filled with nails, the canteen that only operates at midnight, the little girl that lies to people in the staff dormitory, the skull buried in the tree hole, the elevator that moves on its own, the blinking statue, the blackboard with bloody words, the inverted people that follow you around, the students who return after death, Mr. Bai who is not in the teacher’s record…”

Chen Ge touched his pocket. Mr. Bai’s staff ID and his own student ID were still there, but after leaving the door, those two documents had gained many blood splatters that could not be removed. It looked like they had been soaked in blood for a long time before being removed.

“I have a lot of material but not enough employees. This place is too big.” Chen Ge took out the comic to summon Yan Danian and had him release all the ghosts and spirits who had been ‘educated’.

When Chen Ge visited Li Wan City and the Coffin Village, he had helped many ghosts before—now was the time for them to repay his kindness. After Bai Qiulin became a red Specter, his words carried more weight. Many ghosts decided to put down their hatred after having a talk with Ol’ Bai and decided to embrace a new future. Chen Ge felt glad upon hearing that. He promised to help them fulfil their dying wish after this busy holiday was over. He was not just saying that; if the employees treated the Haunted House as their home, it was only natural for him to help them complete their wish.

Chen Ge registered all the spirits’ names, and only when the names could be searched in the worker’s tab of the black phone, he arranged their roles in the school. In total, Chen Ge designed more than forty ghost stories in the school and more than one hundred scare points, but most of them required employees to control them, and that meant his manpower was stretched thin. Often, a single employee had to handle multiple scare points.

“Temporarily, this will have to do. After this, I must design the story background so that the visitors can see themselves in the story more easily. What kind of identity should I give them, youngsters who came to the abandoned school to test their bravery at night? Students who have lost their memory trapped at the school? Just let them try to find the escape?” Chen Ge rubbed his head. “I have to use this scenario well. A simple escape is such a waste—I need to make this more exciting.”

Chen Ge walked around the school with the white cat. “Nurse’s office, lab room, music club, sports club… Wait a minute, I don’t think I’ve seen the art club.”

He walked for an hour but failed to find the art club. “I also haven’t found the unique buildings, the Red Specter Painting Room and the Ghost Story Classroom that were attached to the school. Is there a trigger condition to these two special buildings?”

Opening the black phone, Chen Ge studied the school’s control page carefully and realized where the problem was; he had been walking around the two campuses but had not been to the deepest red campus. To enter this hidden campus, one had to go through a hidden tunnel. There were three known paths—the water well near the western campus’ field, the movable mirror inside the eastern campus’ library, and the last cubicle inside the toilet of the eastern campus.

“The scares are a hidden surprise, and whoever can find the hidden area will be so lucky.” Chen Ge came to the last cubicle of the education block. He pushed open the door, and it revealed a set of stairs that led downward. There was a blinking red light at the bottom, and his ears were filled with crying and laughter.

“Deep red campus?” This was the first time that Chen Ge’s Haunted House had contained a four-star scenario. He hugged the white cat tighter and walked down the stairs. Bloody handprints and scary words started to appear on the walls, and more and more blood surfaced until the whole corridor was red.

“This looks perfectly like the world behind the door, very suffocating and scary. Many people probably haven’t even seen a place like this in their dreams.” Chen Ge nodded with satisfaction. He covered the white cat’s eyes and continued to move forward. The deep red campus was underneath the two campuses. This was the lowest level of the haunted house. This place was empty, with not even a ghost. The cries and laughter appeared to be the visitor’s own imagination.

He walked for ten minutes, and Chen Ge finally founded the plaque for the art club. After entering it, he felt like he had returned to the oil painting room.

There were thirteen easels before thirteen chairs, and the thirteen easels had thirteen inverted bloody oil painting.

“The Red Specters’ Painting Room?” When Chen Ge discovered this place, his black phone vibrated; a new message had come in.

“Red Specter’s Painting Room (Inverted World): Once you enter the room, you will see the Red Specters’ past. If you can face the terror, the Red Specters will consume part of your misfortune, but if you can’t, fainting is not a bad option.”

“It can help the visitors improve their luck?” When Chen Ge saw the message, he tried to stand before one of the paintings, but nothing happened. “A normal person would have a hard time suffering a Red Specter’s past, but if they can discover the hidden path and charge all the way here, then the visitors wouldn’t be a normal person.”

Chen Ge thought about it, took out his phone, and wrote this on his planner. “For now, the mission with the highest difficulty will be to find all thirteen oil paintings in the School of the Afterlife and place them all back into the art club’s painting room.”

From the words alone, the mission sounded normal and even boring, but in reality, one would faint at least thirteen times before completing it.