My House of Horrors

“Is there anything that we can help with?” The police officer looked at the frowning Chen Ge and leaned over with the eagerness. The visitors all depended on Chen Ge to lead them out. The mission that had been given to them by theme park had long been forgotten. After all, in this situation, their own lives were more important than the order from their superiors.

“The twelve zodiacs could be some kind of code. This scenario does not depend on luck but the ability to think analytically and solve puzzles. As long as we can resolve the mystery of the twelve zodiacs, we should be able to tell which room is safe and which room is hiding the murderer.”

After Chen Ge said that, his tone changed. “Unfortunately, the Haunted House’s central computer possesses an immense amount of data. The puzzles that it can come up with will be impossible for a single person to solve.”

“So, we still need to depend on luck after all?”

“The information that I can confirm at the moment is very little.” Chen Ge showed the group the detective novels that he had found. There were pages on them that contained the information about the time of death and the name of the victim circled in red ink.

“Assuming that the details on the pages are real, it means that at these specific times, a murder will occur, and the crime scene will be inside this dormitory. Originally, there should’ve been nothing to be afraid of regarding murders that have already occurred in the past, but as I pointed out earlier, the clock on the wall is moving backward, so there is a high chance that the murders will be reconstructed inside the dormitory.” Chen Ge raised one finger. “This is a new cycle of reincarnation. The reversing time is like a blade that dangles over our heads. The murders that have already happened are a kind of advance notice, warning about our imminent deaths.”

Opening his arms, Chen Ge placed the pages on the bar counter. “There are seven pages that I have found, and there are seven of us. Each of us possibly corresponds to one time of death. When the time arrives, the executor will appear, and that person will die.”

Hearing Chen Ge’s analysis, the few visitors started to panic.

“When we arrived, it was 3 am. It is now 2:52 am. The latest murder recorded by the pages happens at 2.50 am, and the cause of death is being cut into pieces by a saw.” Chen Ge put the pages away. “Now, we have two options. First, we will kill off one of our teammates ourselves, so only six people remain. That way, the executioner of the seventh person will not appear.”

“How could you even possibly come up with an idea like that?” The man with the glasses was obviously not happy with this suggestion.

“The other option is for all of you to listen to my orders.” Chen Ge did not give the other visitors any time to think as he put away the seven pages. “There is one more minute left to 2.52 am. Time is literally ticking away. Other than the guest rooms, there are no places in this dormitory that we are able to hide in. Therefore, our only choice is to pick a room to hide in.

“Now, I need all of you to move to the staircase on the left, and I will open the first door from the staircase on the right. After I open the door, only two things can happen. If there is a murderer inside it, I will run over to meet up with you. If we maintain a safe distance from the murderer, he won’t be able to do anything to us.

“Assuming that there is no murderer inside the door, you will all run over to me, and we will hide inside the room and wait for the first time of execution to blow over before we decide what to do next.”

“Okay, I agree.” The man with the glasses and the young man both agreed easily. After all, Chen Ge had volunteered to take on all the risk, and he would be the closest to the danger, so they had no reason to say no. With limited time, both parties started to move. The six visitors stood at the left stairwell, watching Chen Ge as he opened the door by the right stairwell alone.

2

“There’s no one?” Chen Ge waved at the group, and all the visitors ran over to him. When all of them entered the guest room, a door opening suddenly sounded in the quiet corridor.

“The murderer has appeared!” All six visitors held their breath, and only Chen Ge walked to the door. With his Ghost Ear, he could tell which door was open, and from that, he could confirm the room where the murderer was hiding. As if trying to scare the visitors, a string of heavy footsteps and the sound of a electric saw slowly approached from the end of the corridor. The murderer did not seem to know where the visitors were hiding. He wandered aimlessly around the dormitory before the sound disappeared into one of the guest rooms.

He did not return to his own room?

When the door slammed shut, the visitors all sighed in relief, but Chen Ge thought that this was weird.

Could the police officer be right? This scenario is just a trial of luck? Whenever the murderer opens the door, the thing to check is whether the visitors have found the unlocked hidden path? No, that’s impossible. A hellish scenario should not be that simple.

Chen Ge studied the room they were in. There were many things lying inside the room. There was a mannequin of a dead body that was missing a limb. The floor underneath the body could be moved, but it was sealed by a large lock. The table next to the path was splayed with poker cards, and each of the cards had English words written on them. This looked like a puzzle. Inside the table’s wooden drawer, there was a document, a will.

Upon opening it, they found that the will only had one sentence—’If I die, it is definitely not from suicide.’

The room was not that big, but it had been turned into an actual puzzle.

“Do we need to stay here to find out the truth?” The police officer looked at things inside the room and had a feeling that everything had to do with solving the puzzle.

“Looking for the truth is the job of the police officer; I am just a volunteer worker.” Chen Ge looked at the time. This scenario needed to do a lot of puzzle-solving, and that would exhaust plenty of time. However, he did not plan to waste any more time. This visitation indeed made him learn many things, and it gave him a glimpse into the true power of the futuristic theme park. They were valid competition because they did such a good job in a territory that they were not supposed to be that familiar with. Only by admitting that and facing the competition head on would he have the chance to overcome the competition. That was one good thing about Chen Ge—he would never underestimate his opponent.

“The time for relaxation is over. It’s time to get working.”

The few visitors did not notice the change in Chen Ge. They still followed naturally behind him.

“This room has already been confirmed as safe, so we can go and open another door. We will repeat what we did earlier.” Chen Ge had all the visitors run to the corridor on the left while he stayed on the right side of the corridor. After everyone assumed their position, he reached into his backpack to flip through the comic.

“Finally, there is no more need to hide.” The reason Chen Ge had directed all the visitors to the left right was because the stairwell on the right side was closest to the dormitory door, and the visitors who were cornered at the left side staircase would not be able to see what was happening there. This meant that Chen Ge was able to gesture freely with the Stench Red Specter in the other visitors’ blind spot. “The way out of here has been sealed. It is time for him to feel the real sting of despair.”

The door of the dormitory was pulled open, and Chen Ge nodded at the boy with the Stench with a smile. A stinging stench permeated the air, and everyone could hear the sound of ‘water’ dripping on the ground. It was the sound of blood dropping against the door, leaving behind a horrifying and shocking trail. The stench did not hold back and unleashed the horrible air that surrounded him. Soon, the rest of the visitors noticed that something was out of place. They all turned to look at the bar counter.

Several seconds later, a fat monster wearing a bloody clothes crawled out from behind the counter!

“What… what is that?” With the scream from Xiao Ling, every visitor’s heart jumped to their throat.

“Chen Ge! Behind you! Look behind you!”

Chen Ge, who just walked out from the visitors’ blind spot, lifted his head and saw the monster. His face paled, and he gritted his teeth and started to run.

“Run!” His legs carried him away very quickly, but he was still caught by the monster behind him. Without anywhere else to run, he made the decision to push open one of the rooms and run into it before the eyes of the other visitors. Something even more startling happened then. The scary monster followed Chen Ge and entered the room. Two harrowing screams then came out from the room! One was made by Chen Ge, and the other belonged to a stranger.

Before the visitors understood what had happened, the scary monster charged out from the room. He looked around, spotted the visitors, and went after them!

“What is this? What is going on!” The visitors split up in panic, and no one noticed that the door that Chen Ge had run into earlier had slowly been closed from the inside.

“Things went far more successful than I thought.” Chen Ge looked at the actor that played the ‘murderer’ who had fainted on the ground, and a childish smile appeared on his face. He had memorized the room that the murderer had retreated into and led the boy with the stench into the it. The actor who wanted to scare Chen Ge had been so excited when he heard the doorknob being jiggled. He had rushed over to stand behind the door with excitement. But before he could assume his position, he had seen the Red Specter following behind Chen Ge.

The heart chilling scream was made by this poor actor. To trick the other visitors, Chen Ge also screamed once to show solidarity with the poor actor. The two collapsed after the scream, but the ‘murderer’ really was knocked unconscious. While he was supposed to be ‘unconscious’, Chen Ge was studying the room. After ensuring that there were no surveillance cameras, he stood up and went to close the door.

“The security cameras at the futuristic theme park are so numerous like they are free. I don’t have the freedom to do anything, but now, things will change.” Chen Ge removed his jacket and took out the comic from the backpack. He then removed the actor’s jacket, hoodie, and so on and put them on himself.

“Let me show you how to play a real murderer.”

1

Putting away the comic and recorder, Chen Ge covered the fainted actor with his own jacket and then placed his empty backpack next to the actor. He then removed his wrist band and strapped it around the actor’s wrist. After all the preparation was done, Chen Ge picked up the electric saw and kicked the door open.

His eyes scanned the surveillance cameras in the corner. Chen Ge stood under the camera holding the electric saw. “After the visitors realize that their exit has been cut off, they might select to give up, so I need to move fast.”

The saw sliced against the wall. This saw had been specifically modified. It was twice as large as a normal saw, and thus, it was very heavy. The sound that it made when it was running was very loud, but the chains had been dulled, probably for the visitors’ safety. The jacket covered with blood hid Chen Ge’s body, and the hoodie made from metal and bones shrouded his head. From the outside, others could only see a pair of dull, icy eyes.

“The visitors have been split up after being chased by the stench. I hinted at them earlier that the first room that I opened is safe. I wonder if some lucky visitor has chosen to hide in there?” The metal bounced against the wall. The emotionless eyes scanned the small room. The dead body that was missing an arm was hanging above the hidden path. Poker cards littered the room. The will had been trampled on, but there was no one in the room. Chen Ge switched on the recording function on his phone and started to walk out.

When he walked to the door, he closed the door loudly before sneaking back to the side of the closet. Holding his breath, he raised the saw above his head. Several seconds later, a woman’s voice came from inside the closet.

“Has he left?”

“I think so. Let me go take a look. This space is too small to fit two people.”

Creak…

The doors of the closet slowly opened, and the shadow loomed over them. The screeching sound of saw boomed above their heads, and a pair of cold eyes stared at his prey.

“Ah!” Xiao Ling shrank back out of instinct, and her body knocked into the table and chair.

“What’s wrong with you!” the other woman inside the closet screamed out loud. Then she heard the closet being rammed into by a heavy object. Unable to grab a purchase, she fell to the ground. She did not expect the murderer to be waiting for them outside the closet. Her eyes were filled with terror.