My House of Horrors

If the threshold of terror that a human being could support was to be split into ten levels, Liu Gang felt like he was in a level one hundred scare. He did not know when he fainted; he just knew that there was a sense of bliss that he did not expect when he fainted. “If possible, I just want to sleep forever and not open my eyes again…”

Bang!

The room door was pushed open, and numerous ghosts rushed into the room. Then they separated and stood on both sides of the room. Footsteps came from afar, and Chen Ge, still wearing Mr. Bai’s ID card, walked over. He had left the camera outside the red campus, and now he was only holding a phone in his hand.

“One minute and three seconds, you guys have to try harder to reduce the time you need to cause people to faint to under one minute.” Chen Ge walked to stand before Liu Gang. “The red campus is very similar to the world behind the door. It is best used as the last trump card, so it is for the best that the visitors do not stay here for too long.”

Even though they were from different camps, even though they were supposed to be competitors, Chen Ge still cared about Liu Gang. “The visitation time is sixty minutes. There is still time left. Help me bring them to the nurse’s office, and let Dr. Wei take a look at them.”

Moving his broken arm, Ol’ Bai dragged Liu Gang out of the classroom. After giving some more advice to his new employees, Chen Ge turned to the red high heels. “The resentment and hatred in the visitors’ hearts are the nutrients that you need. This is the most efficient method to drain the negative emotions from their hearts, and it can be repeated many times. I am not advising you to stay—I am just telling you these things so that even if you do not wish to stay here any longer, you will be able to take good care of yourself.”

Seeing the lack of response from the red high heels, Chen Ge turned and left.

When he reached the nurse’s office, Chen Ge heard the complaint from Dr. Wei before he even entered the door. He astutely stood outside the door and waited awhile before entering it.

“Dr. Wei, how are they doing?”

“I have been wondering, are you the owner of a Haunted House or a hospital? The visitors came to play, and you have to send them for a full physical checkup before allowing them to leave?”

“I can’t help it if they are that unlucky,” Chen Ge said.

“Never mind that. The guy called Big Ghost could hear our voices because there was a shred of lingering spirit that was hiding inside his ear. When the spirit came to our Haunted House to visit, he was almost scared out of his wits. Under the persuasion of our group of doctors, the lingering spirit has finally departed to a better place.”

“I knew I could count on you to make things right, Dr. Wei. You only need to talk to him to cure him of his illness.”

“Move it and get them out of here as fast as you can!”

With the help from the employees, all twelve visitors were sent to the entrance to the School of Afterlife. Then Chen Ge mobilized a few carts from the underground morgue and carted them out from the underground scenario. Seeing the row of fainted visitors, Chen Ge felt a bit headache as well. If this scene was witnessed by the other visitors, it would probably give them quite a scare. Taking out his phone, Chen Ge called Zhang Jingjiu. “Ol’ Zhang, have you recorded Liu Gang’s livestream?”

“Don’t worry, boss. From the beginning to the end, I have all of it recorded.” Zhang Jingjiu was very professional.

“Okay, send me the part where Liu Gang dropped the camera to save his own life, and by the way, I also want the part where they had the argument with the students from the medical university and later chased after them angrily. I need that part as well.”

“No problem.”

Ten seconds later, Zhang Jingjiu sent all the clipped videos to Chen Ge. After confirming them, Chen Ge put the phone away, hauled the visitors onto the carts, hummed a tune, pushed the carts, and headed out of the Haunted House. The wheels of the body carts rolled across the floor, making this creaking sound. Chen Ge pulled open the thick back curtains of the Haunted House. The sun shone down, and the sunlight gilded the rims of the carts. They were like pairs of hands that caressed the sleeping faces gently and warmly.

“They’re out! Boss Chen is out!”

“He’s out! He’s out! He’s pushing the carts out of the Haunted House!”

“He’s carrying the visitors who visited the four-star scenario earlier? My God! Three of them have fainted!”

The visitors who were still lining up exploded. The visitors who had bought their tickets and were ready to enter the Haunted House abandoned their queue and all rushed over to look.

“Move aside please! Please do not block the path! Give them some air!”

When he heard the sound of wheels, Uncle Xu felt a bad feeling growing in his heart. He rushed over through the crowd as fast as he could, but he was too late. The reporters who were waiting had already gotten to their news before he did.

“Is the four-star scenario so scary?”

“What happened to three visitors when they were inside your Haunted House?”

“Boss Chen, please stay for an interview!”

Chen Ge ignored them and waved at Uncle Xu. “Uncle, help me find some workers to carry these three to the resting hall.”

“Can’t you just hand me the whole cart?”

“I still have the use for the cart.”

Three visitors were moved by the theme park workers to the resting hall. The commotion around Chen Ge’s Haunted House only grew bigger. There were layers upon layers of visitors trying to see what was up. This scene had certainly satisfied the curiosity of countless visitors. The creaking sound returned as Chen Ge pushed the cart back into the Haunted House. Half a minute later, he returned with another cart of visitors.

“There are three more of them‽”

“The four-star scenario wouldn’t have wiped them all out, right‽ More than ten people visited the scenario at the same time!”

Seeing Chen Ge walk out, the corner of Uncle Xu’s eyes were twitching. He whispered, “Now… you still can’t give me the use of the cart, can you?”

“Indeed.” Chen Ge nodded. “I need to use it two more times.”

Chen Ge answered calmly like he was talking about the weather, but the visitors who heard him had shock travel through them like ripples.

“All the visitors that entered the four-star scenario have been knocked unconscious! This is madness!”

“When I heard that the boss split the difficulty into levels, I thought that was just for him to scam more money out of us, but now I realize how ignorant I was. Er… Can I exchange this ticket for Mu Yang High School? I think I will just visit a one-star scenario today.”

The visitors were happily discussing among themselves while Chen Ge silently pushed the cart back into the Haunted House. With the creaking and cracking of the wheels, he took two more trips to remove the rest of the visitors from the haunted house. Other than Chen Ge, the other party who was busiest at the scene were the doctors. Initially, many visitors did not understand why a first aid corner was stationed next to the Haunted House, but they all got it now. Handing the cart over to the doctors, Chen Ge held Liu Gang’s camera and stood before the Haunted House. Until that moment, the camera was still operating.

“Would everyone please quiet down for a moment!” Chen Ge aimed the camera right at himself and then connected his phone to the large screen that was playing the promotional video for the Haunted House outside at the resting hall.

“Yesterday, a famous streamer called Liu Gang did everything he could to slander my Haunted House.” Chen Ge pressed the play button on his phone, and the big screen started to show the short video that had been uploaded by Liu Gang yesterday on the internet. Liu Gang, who held the folding fan, showed pictures of Night of the Living Dead on the screen and berated the Haunted House with a face filled with condescension. “A backward scenario like this can be called a Haunted House? Really?”

“He used the pictures of this Haunted House taken from years ago to mislead his audience, and then I reached out to him on the internet to make a bet, challenging him to come visit my Haunted House. If, after his visit, he still manages to say that my Haunted House is not scary, then I will livestream my personal apology to him through the internet. However, if he thinks the visit is scary, then he will need to officially apologize to New Century Park for his defamation and place the apology statement at the front page of his account.”

After saying that, Chen Ge stopped the doctors, who were moving past him, and turned the camera to Liu Gang, who was lying on the stretcher. The man’s pale face appeared on the big screen.

“Action speaks louder than words. In Liu Gang’s current condition, I doubt he will be able to give an official apology. Actually, I did not expect him to be so fragile. Hearing what he had to say about my Haunted House on the internet, I increased the difficulty slightly because I thought he was going to be someone hard to scare.” Chen Ge moved the camera angle backward so that Liu Gang on the video from yesterday and Liu Gang who was unconscious on the stretcher could both fit in the same frame.

Right at that moment, the video on the screen was reaching its end. Liu Gang was excitedly showing the camera the tickets that he had purchased for his viewers, and his voice came out from the speakers at the New Century Park. “If certain people are too foolish to see the truth, I will go and help them understand the level that they are at.”

After saying that on the big screen, Liu Gang handsome flipped open the folding fan, and the front of it had ‘Such buffoonery!’ written on it.

“We’ll see you tomorrow at 9 am. Good night.”

The video ended there. Chen Ge took the camera and walked to Liu Gang, who was unconscious with white foam around his mouth. He took out his phone to take a look.

“It is about 10:10 am. Brother Gang is about to be sent to the hospital. If there is anything you guys from the livestream wish to tell him, I will be the first to help you relay your messages.”

Seeing the comments that filled up the screen, Chen Ge’s lips was turning up. He stood under the sun and felt the warmth on his skin. After Liu Gang was carried away by the doctor, Chen Ge did not switch off the camera. He turned the camera to the big screen outside the haunted House.

“Now that the issue with Liu Gang is over, it is time to talk about another person.” He clicked on his phone and clicked open the video that Zhang Jingjiu had sent him. “I was curious why Liu Gang would suddenly come after New Century Park while promoting the futuristic theme park so much in his video. Honestly, I was confused until I saw this person.” Chen Ge pointed at Bai Buhui on the screen. “This gentleman here is the designer for the Haunted House at the futuristic theme park. He even carries the employee ID from the futuristic theme park with him. He came alongside Liu Gang, so they should be sent to the same hospital.”

The video continued to play, and it soon reached the part where Bai Buhui’s group was cornering the student couple. Small Ghost was agitated and grabbed the male student by his collar, and the students looked so afraid.

“I do not care how they slander or mock my Haunted House on the internet, but I will not allow them to injure my visitors at my Haunted House.” Chen Ge pointed at the pair of students on the screen. “Thanks to the support from everyone, my Haunted House has survived to this day. The fact that they have purposely gone after other visitors has crossed the line. Tomorrow, I will personally go to the futuristic theme park to demand an explanation. It just so happens to that I heard they have also built a Haunted House. Tomorrow, I will go and visit it alone and livestream the whole process. Those who wish to know what happens, please follow my account.”

Liu Gang’s livestream’s popularity went through the roof. After all, this was the streamer being face-slapped by himself, and it was extremely rare that one would livestream until the stream ended up at the hospital. Chen Ge was going to ride this wave to help build hype for his visit tomorrow. His real target was the futuristic theme park. The Haunted House was the specialty of New Century Park. If this specialty was taken away, New Century Park had no chance of surviving. Therefore, Chen Ge decided to nip it at the bud, not giving the enemy any chance. New Century Park had been in business for more than a decade; not many were in favor of it. To save this theme park, Chen Ge had to give it his all.

Liu Gang’s livestream ended then. Chen Ge looked around, but everyone had already fainted, so he did not know who to hand the camera to. In the end, he decided to place it inside the staff breakroom. After Chang Gu woke up, perhaps he could use it in his movie making. All the visitors were scared unconscious; the Haunted House’s four-star scenario turned into an urban legend. Everyone was curious about what the inside of a four-star scenario looked like, but the problem was that everyone who visited it had fainted, so there was no one to ask. The main problem was, for other Haunted Houses on the market, one could send people inside it to know their secrets, but no one dared challenge Chen Ge’s four-star scenario. Even those who had survived three-star scenarios had second thoughts. They were old fans of the Haunted House, and they did not believe Chen Ge when he said that the difficulty had only been hiked up a little bit.