The Eternal Underworld Ghost School was a semi-free exploration scenario that could accommodate ten players at a time. Each group had forty minutes to complete seven tasks on their access cards, gather enough clues, and ultimately pass the level.
Chen Shu sipped his cola through a straw while staring at the screen. The people on the monitor had already entered a long corridor, where a boy wearing AJ sneakers stopped to address the group, seemingly assigning tasks.
This team of ten consisted of five males and five females. There was a couple, a pair of high school best friends, and the remaining four males and two females who seemed to know each other, likely students from a nearby university. Chen Shu glanced over them briefly, intending to observe the interior layout of the haunted house, but his gaze was involuntarily drawn to one person.
He was one of the six university students, dressed in long clothes, with black hair and peach blossom eyes, strikingly handsome and well-built. Chen Shu stared at him for a long time, feeling an inexplicable sense of unease, like a boiling pot of Chinese medicine bubbling over.
The person on the screen didn’t participate in the heated discussion but always wore a smile, watching his friends. Chen Shu’s unease grew heavier, and a deeper sense of foreboding began to wash over him. He leaned forward, zooming in on the window to get a clearer view—
The moment the image enlarged, a pair of utterly cold, pitch-black eyes abruptly looked directly at Chen Shu!
Chen Shu was startled, and the mouse fell onto the table with a clatter. When he looked back at the screen, the person had already turned around and followed his four teammates toward the teaching building of St. Maria Charity Institute.
He rubbed his thigh where it had been hit and sat back down, thinking that after all these years in the horror business, he had been spooked by his own creation. It was probably just a coincidence that the person had looked in his direction, not that he had noticed being observed.
“What’s wrong?” Zhou Ming, sitting beside him, asked.
Zhou Ming was the manager of Dreamland Valley and the only son of the president of Star Dream Culture and Entertainment Company. They had met during the development of the Midnight Zone, ended up in bed after a drunken night, and had since developed a relationship that was more than friends but not quite lovers.
Chen Shu frowned and didn’t answer. He rewound the footage to the beginning and repeatedly played the segment where the person entered the haunted house and looked at the camera. Zhou Ming watched him replay the scene over and over and asked, “What’s wrong? Did you take a liking to him?”
“No,” Chen Shu finally spoke. “This person… seems a bit strange.”
But he couldn’t quite pinpoint what was strange. The person in the video, from his walking posture to his smiling expression, was flawlessly perfect. Zhou Ming, used to his lover’s eccentric personality, didn’t pay much attention and simply chalked it up to another one of his whims.
Chen Shu played the video over a dozen times, his unease growing heavier, but he still couldn’t figure it out. Eventually, he gave up and switched to the live feed.
Staring at one person for so long had made Chen Shu’s eyes sore. He rubbed them, and as soon as he lowered his hand, he froze in place.
‘I’ve found it! Could it be…’
He rewound the video to the beginning and watched it again. The young man in the video followed behind everyone, always wearing a polite smile that never changed. The smile remained constant from start to finish, without a single muscle twitching.
He was like a mannequin carried out of a shopping mall, not even blinking once.
Inside the haunted house.
Shao Wei, acting on his own bias, divided the group into two teams. He, Lin Dangdang, Lin Huai, and the couple formed one group, while the others made up the second group. On the way to the teaching area, he nudged Lin Huai’s hand, signaling his trust.
The Eternal Underworld Ghost School occupied a large space, almost a miniature version of a school. Upon reaching the teaching area, he said to the couple, “You and Lin Huai search the classrooms. Dangdang and I will check the music room.”
St. Maria Charity Institute was located indoors, with extremely dim lighting. The staff handed out three electronic oil lamps for illumination. Shao Wei gave one to the other team and kept two for his group. The male in the couple carried the lamp, walking ahead with his girlfriend, while Lin Huai followed closely behind.
The air was filled with a musty smell, and a faint autumn breeze echoed through the space, creating ghostly wails. The girlfriend clung to her boyfriend’s sleeve, trembling, “Ah Jie, I’m scared…”
The boyfriend was also scared but didn’t want to lose face in front of his girlfriend, so he forced a laugh, “You were the one who insisted on coming here, and now you’re scared? You asked for it.”
“But…” the girlfriend said, “I’m really scared…” She looked around in the dim light of the lamp, seeing shadows moving as if a hundred ghosts were parading. Faintly, she also heard some agonizing cries mixed with strange screams.
The couple lingered, too scared to move forward. Lin Huai glanced at them, checked his watch, and decided to head to the classroom first, planning to find an opportunity to slip away later.
The boyfriend stayed in place, comforting his girlfriend, when someone tapped his shoulder. He screamed in terror, only to hear a gentle voice, “You’re running out of time.”
The girlfriend also screamed, and both turned around to see Lin Huai looking at them innocently. Lin Huai pointed at his watch, “We have twenty minutes left before we regroup. Let’s hurry.”
The boyfriend opened his mouth but didn’t respond, so Lin Huai said, “I’ll go ahead. Follow me.”
With that, he walked ahead. The couple followed, and the group reached the classroom three minutes later. The outer wall was charred black, covered in dark green ivy, and the iron door of the classroom was also blackened and deformed. Lin Huai tried to open the door but couldn’t.
The boyfriend came over, shining the lamp on the door, “There’s a lock here. We need to find the key. It should be nearby.”
At that moment, a loud “thud!” echoed from the darkness. The girlfriend screamed again, feeling something brush past her head. Before the boyfriend could react, Lin Huai had already run toward the source of the sound. He picked up a notebook from the ground, which contained a duty log.
June 5th, Sunny, Duty Student: Xiao Ai
I locked the door and hid the key in the ivy. No one can get out, no one can open it.
There were no new duty logs after June 5th. Lin Huai turned to them, “The key is in the ivy.”
The boyfriend didn’t doubt him and walked toward the ivy. The ivy was extremely dense, with dark green leaves stained with black and red blood, clinging to the wall. He reached into the ivy, feeling deep inside, and touched the uneven surface of the wall.
Just as he was about to ask Lin Huai how to find the key, he saw Lin Huai squatting beside him, reaching both hands into the ivy to search.
The boyfriend: …
He followed Lin Huai’s actions, also searching inside. The girlfriend stood beside them, holding the lamp with her left hand to provide light while her right hand also felt around in the ivy. The dark, dense ivy rubbed against her hands, and she had no idea what she might grab. The boyfriend gritted his teeth, mustering the courage to reach deeper, and touched something cold and metallic.
Just as he was about to cheer “I found it!” the girlfriend let out a blood-curdling scream.
“Ahhh—!” The girlfriend screamed, falling backward. She wasn’t the only one—the entire section of ivy and Lin Huai also fell. Lin Huai rubbed his tailbone, which was a bit sore from the fall.
“Ahhh! The ivy! There’s a hand in the ivy!” The girlfriend was so terrified she couldn’t speak coherently, “There’s a hand!”
At that moment, the lights in the classroom flickered. Countless charred, blackened shadows were pressed against the windows, staring coldly at the three outside.
“Ahhhhh!!” The girlfriend began screaming like she was about to die. She threw down the lamp and ran. The boyfriend stumbled to his feet, trying to follow her, but something cold grabbed his arm.
“Let go! Let go of me!” The boyfriend screamed. Lin Huai watched his panicked antics with some exasperation, “Don’t leave.”
“Ahhh—”
Lin Huai, annoyed by his screaming, pressed the boyfriend’s mouth against the door, “I’ll count to three. Three… one.”
The boyfriend: …
Seeing that the other had stopped screaming, Lin Huai said, “Give me the key.”
He took the key, picked up the lamp, and began unlocking the door. The boyfriend sniffled behind him, “I need to find Tongtong…”
Lin Huai said without emotion, “Go ahead.”
The boyfriend said, “But the lamp is with you…”
Lin Huai glanced back at him, coldly replying, “Then hold it in.”
He opened the door and tilted his head as something fell from above. The boyfriend screamed again. After they entered the classroom, Lin Huai shone the lamp on the window and called to the boyfriend, “Come here.”
He pointed at the window glass, “These are just charcoal drawings of human figures. What’s there to be scared of?”
With that, he wiped the glass with his finger, indeed smudging it with charcoal. The boyfriend, still sniffling, looked at Lin Huai’s fearless demeanor, “Then… what do we do next?”
Lin Huai propped himself up on the teacher’s desk, tossing the lamp to him, “You, look for clues.”
The boyfriend caught the lamp with both hands and mustered the courage to search the classroom. When he reached the last row of metal cabinets, he looked back at Lin Huai, “Then… what about you?”
Lin Huai swung his legs, twirling a piece of chalk in his fingers, “Chat with the staff.”
With that, he looked down under the desk, “Stop grabbing my ankle, or I’ll report you for harassment.”
The staff: …
The girlfriend ran a long distance, terrified by several more horror scenes along the way. Finally, she hid in a corner, gasping for breath.
Without the lamp, her world was plunged into darkness. In her panic, she had lost her sense of direction.
There were ghosts in this haunted house! Real ghosts!
She was certain that the wall she had touched was made of ordinary material, with no secret passages for anyone to hide in. There was definitely no room for a model to be placed, yet when she felt a cold, moving hand, she was completely stunned.
That hand was freezing cold, unlike a human hand, yet it had the texture of human skin. Even more terrifying, the hand had no pulse! And it even slapped her!
She was in a panic when a faint light appeared before her.
The lamp was held by someone, but it had appeared silently, with no footsteps to be heard. The girlfriend looked up and saw a pale-faced young man holding the lamp, looking down at her from above.
It was Lin Huai, who had been searching for clues with them. In the flickering light, half of his face was hidden in darkness, while the other half wore a sinister smile. He looked at her and said, “You’re running out of time.”
His voice was eerie, like a ghostly flame flickering in the void. The girlfriend trembled as she asked, “What… what time?”
“Survival time.”
She looked at Lin Huai and suddenly remembered that when she and her boyfriend were walking earlier, Lin Huai had been following behind them but hadn’t made any footsteps. Now, looking at Lin Huai, she noticed that he didn’t blink at all, his eyes fixed on her, his lips curled in a cold, sinister smile.
Lin Huai leaned down, and the girlfriend shrank back. He handed her the lamp, “Your stuff.”
The girlfriend, under his gaze, took the lamp, her fingers accidentally brushing against his hand. His skin was as cold as ice.
That wasn’t the temperature of a living person!
“Let’s go,” Lin Huai said to her, “I’ll take you to reunite with your boyfriend.”
After saying this, he courteously let the girlfriend walk ahead with the lamp, following behind her.
The girlfriend walked in front of Lin Huai, listening carefully for footsteps behind her. She slowed down at times, then sped up.
In the entire haunted house, she could only hear her own footsteps!
The “person” behind her made no sound at all!
“Ah… Ah Jie?” she asked in a trembling voice.
“He went down below,” Lin Huai replied.
Below? What did “below” mean?
“Be… below where?”
“Of course, below here.”
The girlfriend walked slower and slower. She didn’t know where she was, only hearing the howling wind and Lin Huai’s cold reply.
Below here… could it mean… the underworld!
She suddenly remembered a rumor she had read online. Some said that Chen Shu, as a designer, had achieved so much success because his haunted house actually had real ghosts.
The person behind her… could he really be a ghost!
The hand holding the lamp began to tremble. Lin Huai noticed the shaking light and wanted to ask if she was okay. But before he could speak, he worried his tone might sound too harsh, so he first chuckled, “Heh, why are you shaking so much?”
The eerie, terrifying laughter echoed behind her. The girlfriend trembled even more, “You… why are you following me?”
She suddenly remembered that ghosts don’t have shadows. This “person” walking behind her might be avoiding letting her see that he had no shadow!
The person behind her chuckled again, “It’s convenient to send you on your way.”
“Ah—!!”
The girlfriend couldn’t take it anymore. She threw the lamp behind her and ran, screaming. After running for a while, a dark figure rushed toward her, arms outstretched as if to grab her. She screamed again, kicked the figure hard, and ran in the other direction.
Meanwhile, Lin Huai, who had been hit by the lamp, was completely confused. The boyfriend, holding his head where he had been hit, called out the girlfriend’s name and chased after her. The girlfriend, in extreme panic, didn’t recognize the boyfriend’s voice and only screamed louder, running wildly.
“Tongtong! Tongtong!” the boyfriend shouted, “Wait for me!”
“Ahhh! Don’t chase me!! I don’t want to die!!”
Lin Huai watched the two chasing each other, utterly baffled. He had wanted to ask the boyfriend if he had found anything new in the classroom’s basement, but now it seemed that wasn’t possible.
He picked up the lamp and headed toward Shao Wei. He figured the two had had enough time alone and their relationship must have progressed. He would now turn into a ghost to scare them, helping them bond even more.
As for the couple, they would have to fend for themselves.
Meanwhile, Chen Shu, watching the three on the surveillance footage, stood up again.
Zhou Ming, seeing his excitement, asked, “What’s wrong?”
Chen Shu’s chest heaved, his beautiful phoenix eyes glowing with inspiration. In his excitement, his words became even harder to understand, “I… I found a genius!”
Yes, he had found his muse! Over the years, he had spent so much time on mechanical designs that he had gradually forgotten the essence of a haunted house.
The essence of a haunted house wasn’t to increase difficulty but to provide visitors with a better horror experience!
And today, that person… without lifting a finger or doing anything extra, had managed to scare two people into running for their lives, all while remaining completely unnoticed.
This… was exactly what he had been missing!
He looked at Zhou Ming and said, “I need that person’s number.”
After a moment’s thought, he added, “I want to work with him.”
Perhaps with that person, he could create a work that would surpass that guy surnamed Chu!
Author’s Note:
Today I realized I need to write at least 3,000 words daily to get a little red flower, so I wrote a bit more.
I hope my collection can surpass 1,000 by August 7th when I drop off the rankings, 1551
Translating the designer’s words:
Designer: I found a genius. I need that person’s number. I want to work with him.
*Use of the censored trope:
H*rassment: An inappropriate intimate act between two or more people.
