Horror Game Designer Chapter 21: Find the Ghost

Gao Ming memorised most of the info about the haunted houses in Han Hai. He was working hard too. The clock on the wall ticked. When he was fully focused, the lights in the office suddenly flickered, and a thin layer of shadow appeared.

“This is…”

Gao Ming’s breathing became difficult. He saw the shadow come from all sides and surge towards the storage room.

“This is bad. What game has been triggered this time?”

Gao Ming did not do anything specific. He seemed to be dragged into a game passively this time. The lights flicked on and off faster. Suddenly, they went out without warning!

The familiar chill curled around Gao Ming’s heart. He was about to remind his colleagues to be safe when he saw Wei Dayou jump on the table with his backpack.

“Don’t panic!” Wei Dayou opened his bag. “I have an emergency light!”

Then, the light appeared in Wei Dayou’s hand.

“Brothers and sisters, I’ll be honest. In the past, I really thought this wouldn’t work, so I opened a stall in the night market. This light was one of the things I sold.” Wei Dayou placed the light on a stack of books. “Our studio has been in the last place in Magic Map Tech for the last seven months. No one has hope in horror games. I was scolded by the superior and players for half a year. Honestly, I was pissed.” Wei Dayou raised his voice. “I know how hard it was in the past, but we have a chance now! After combining this dating sim and horror game, the demo download speed is faster than our last game’s actual download. We will be able to turn things around soon!” The other employees resonated with Wei Dayou’s words. The programmer, Li Jie, and logistics, Zhang Wang, even stood up. They were old workers at Nightlight.

“I know everyone is tired, but it’s only for a few days. We need to complete the game while the focus is still on us! We’ll impress the clients and players! We’ll prove it to ourselves!” Wei Dayou gave a speech. “I’ll go to the electrical to take a look. Everyone should continue with their work!”

Seeing as Dayou was about to leave with nothing but his passion, Gao Ming immediately stopped him. “Dayou, listen to me.”

“I know what you want to say.” Wei Dayou grabbed Gao Ming’s hand tightly, “Brother, we will not let you down this time. We’ll present your game perfectly!”

“It’s not that…”

“We’re friends. There’s no need for words!” Dayou let go. Gao Ming’s phone suddenly vibrated. Not only him but everyone else in the office also looked at their phone. Everyone received a new message.

“One of you is currently possessed.

“You can only leave after killing the possessed.

“Warning! You can only move between floors 10, 11, 12 and 13. One hour later, the ghost will awaken and start to kill. Those killed by the ghost will become ghosts too.”

The message was short. The other workers didn’t care about it. They worked on horror games. After the game was released, the comments were scarier than this.

“How come it’s this game?” Gao Ming recognised the game immediately. A few years ago, a client got too bored at work, so they made this office escape game for the client. The game had to be solved within an hour, or else there’d be more ghosts. If the player wanted to beat the game, they had to accurately murder the possessed human. In other words, someone had to die. Gao Ming ran to chase after Wei Dayou, but the elevator doors closed.

“Dayou!” Gao Ming pressed the elevator button when he felt breathing coming from behind him.

“This prank is quite boring. Don’t tell me you believe it?” Xia Yang’s voice suddenly appeared behind Gao Ming and spooked him.

“How did you walk with no sound?” Gao Ming used the light to study Xia Yang.

“Do you think I’m the ghost?” Xia Yang smiled.

“Master Yang, if this game is real, what will you do?” Gao Ming probed.

“Probably suicide. I don’t dare to kill, and I’m afraid of pain.”

“But that means killing yourself. Your hands are bloody too.” Before Gao Ming could say anything else, another elevator paused on their floor, Floor 13.

The doors opened. Su Mo and Manager Ma from Unicorn Gaming Studio ran out. They looked so frightened as they ran from each other. Other than the two, there was a male dead body inside the elevator body. Its eyes were torn open, and he was hugging a laptop bag.

“He’s a ghost! He killed that man!” Su Mo shouted like crazy.

“He’s the ghost! The ghost is in him!” Manager Ma shouted back.

“I have no idea men could shout in such a high pitch.” Xia Yang covered his ears and narrowed his eyes at the two men. Then, he whispered, “Someone is dead, so it looks like the message is real.”

For some strange reason, Xia Yang smiled when he said this.

Gao Ming walked past Su Mo and Manager Ma to study the dead body.

He unbuttoned the man’s shirt and noticed that rigour mortis had settled in. “The victim died more than 24 hours ago. The killer is most likely not these two.”

“Then, why were they with the dead body inside the elevator?” Xia Yang looked at his phone. “Could the ghost be hiding in them?”

Gao Ming nodded. “The ghost might have been possessing the dead man. These two are highly specious. Of course, there’s a possibility that the ghost is purposely doing this to get us to suspect them.”

“This ghost is quite cunning.”

“The game designer knows human psychology. They isolated these two so that the group and the individuals would have conflict. When the time is right, someone will go after these two. Perhaps the group might even get them to kill each other.” Gao Ming didn’t design the game to be so complicated. “Humanity is very complex. Once the first step is taken, the bottom line can be easily broken until humanity is lost.”

“Some moralless companies do this to their employees.” Xia Yang was optimistic. “In any case, the ghost is on in our studio. Everyone has been working overtime, and no one has been to the other floors.”

“We are temporarily safe, but as the message said, the ghost will start killing after an hour. Then, we can trust no one.”

“Yes. We need to find the possessed person within an hour.”

Su Mo and Manager Ma were still arguing. They kept calling the other the ghost.

“Stop arguing. Slow down and talk.” Xia Yang was incredibly calm.

“I was about to leave when I finished my order. Then, I ran into that dead body! The ghost was originally on the body. He told me many things. Whenever he said something, the elevator would be consumed by more darkness!” Su Mo wiped his tears. “Then, this Manager Ma got into the elevator. The dead man had it out for Manager Ma. It had been waiting for him. The ghost strangled Manager Ma as he got on the elevator, and then the ghost took over his body!”

“Ridiculous! He’s lying!” Manager Ma opened his collar. “Look. There’s no sign around my neck. I was talking on the phone in the underground parking lot. Then, I heard strange sounds from the elevator. I went to check. However, as the doors opened, I was dragged in. This deliveryman said that someone wanted to kill him. But, there was no one else but this dead body with him inside the elevator!”