Horror Game Designer Chapter 22: What is Scarier?

“It’s not like that! He’s lying!” Su Mo shook his head. “The ghost kills without leaving behind any trace!”

“Since you don’t work here, how would you know his surname is Ma? Why did you call him Manager Ma?” Xia Yang turned to Su Mo.

“The ghost told me that! The ghost knew Manager Ma! The ghost died from too many overtimes! I really didn’t do anything!” Su Mo was about to cry. He just wanted to live, but fate kept pushing him down the wrong path.

“We better detain them first.” Gao Ming looked around for a rope.

“You have to believe me! He is the ghost. This young man stayed inside the elevator with the dead body, and he even wanted to kill me!” Manager Ma was anxious when he heard Gao Ming wanted to tie him up. He shouted as he ran to the safety passage. “You’ll be killed by him! The ghost is on him!”

Manager Ma ran down the stairs where Unicorn Gaming Studio was.

“Who do you think is the good guy?” Xia Yang didn’t care but turned to look at Gao Ming.

“You keep an eye on the delivery man while I explain the situation to everyone.” Gao Ming ran down the corridor to the Nightlight Gaming Studio. The employees still hadn’t taken the message seriously. “Is Wei Dayou still not back yet?” Gao Ming looked around, and more people were missing. There was only one young intern inside the office. “Li Jie, Zhang Wang have gone out too?!”

“I believe they went to the toilet.”

“Stay here. When they come back, tell them not to leave again!” Gao Ming took out his phone, but none of his colleagues was answering. “The game includes four floors. Other than the employees of Nightlight, the other studios’ workers are here too. We need to gather everyone within an hour!”

Gao Ming had no idea how many living humans were still there in the building. Even though the game had given them one hour to prepare, it was still very hard. Gao Ming ran back to the storage room since he couldn’t contact his colleagues. Xuan Wen was a psycho murderer. She was very good at reading humans. She would be a huge help.

Gao Ming pushed open the storage room door, and Gao Ming saw something special.

Since Xuan Wen didn’t belong to this game, the shadows rejected her as they tried to push her deeper into the darkness. Xuan Wen’s body was bound by shadow. The black vessels on her skin cut into her flesh, making her unapproachable.

“If I didn’t get the emotions from the 10,000 people, I might not be able to play games with you anymore.” The bloodshot eyes turned to Gao Ming. Xuan Wen seemed to have survived the hardest period. She started to get used to the voices and extreme emotions in her mind.

“You’re awake at the right time. A new game has been triggered.” Gao Ming helped Xuan Wen up. He was not used to it because it felt like he was touching a dead person. “How come it feels like you’ve changed after you enter a game?”

“Don’t you like it?” The shadow still gathered around Xuan Wen. “Didn’t you say room temperature stuff doesn’t taste good?”

“I was talking about milk tea.”

Gao Ming wanted to pull Xuan Wen out of the shadows, but as his hand reached over, the shadow swarmed Gao Ming like piranhas. At the last moment, the chains with Zhao Xi’s memories appeared and helped Gao Ming block the attack.

“You have already bound yourself to someone else.” Xuan Wen said to herself.

After the previous game, Gao Ming carried Zhao Xi’s memory and pain. This chain was not a weapon but more like a burden.

“Can I use Zhao Xi’s memory this way?”

Gao Ming and Xuan Wen worked for a long time before managing to disperse the shadow around them, giving Xuan Wen temporary freedom. “Why are those things after you?”

“I’ve strayed from the fate trajectory designed by that world for me. The shadows are correcting the mistake. This should be why I was unable to join you in that earlier game as well.” Xuan Wen seemed to understand something. “I wanted to become someone like you, but that is not allowed by the shadow world. It wanted to drag the whole city into darkness.”

“Let’s talk about that later.” Gao Ming took out his phone. “Have you received this message?”

Xuan Wen opened her phone. Her inbox was empty. She was not one of the players.

“Were you assigned the role of ghost?” Gao Ming worried that the killer was Xuan Wen and she would lose control.

“Why are you so prejudiced against the character you’ve designed?” Xuan Wen slowly approached. “You always view me from the worst perspective. Do I represent your darkest side? You have me do the things that you normally don’t dare to do? Is that why I’m a heartless killer?”

“I only asked you one question, and you bombarded me with so many?!” Gao Ming opened the door. “If it’s not you, then we need to find the real ghost. We only have one hour.” Gao Ming had used a lot of time to help Xuan Wen escape. “The ghosts in the games appeared to have been given some kind of power by the unknown world. For example, Zhao Xi won’t die from fall damage. What is your power?”

“It’s something related to the human heart. I can see and hear…” Xuan Wen suddenly lowered her head and lay down on the ground.

“What’s wrong?”

“Someone is screaming.” Xuan Wen showed a strange smile. “Sometimes… Humans are not that different from ghosts.”

Gao Ming immediately ran back to Nightlight Gaming Studio. Only the intern, Wang Yaoyao, was there. “Where are the others?”

“I have no idea.” Gao Ming dragged Xuan Wen to the elevator. Su Mo was curled in the corner alone with a pale face.

“Why are you the only one here?” Gao Ming dragged Su Mo up by his collars. “Where are the others?”

“Someone screamed earlier, and the brother who watched over me went downstairs to look after someone.” Su Mo grabbed Gao Ming’s arms. “Brother, I’m really not the ghost! But I did run into a ghost! The ghost wants us to kill each other. It’s crazy!”

“Stay here.” Gao Ming and Xuan Wen opened the safety door. They were hit by the heady smell of blood. The one-hour limit wasn’t over yet, but someone had already been killed! Gao Ming ran to the 12th floor, and the place was silent. Then, they came to the 11th floor. Blood and signs of struggle appeared on the ground.

“Someone is using this chance to hunt down the other employees!”

Humans were scarier and more dangerous than ghosts.

There were no living humans around. Only blood. They went to the 10th floor. Blood stained the wall. Gao Ming followed the bloody footprints and came to the prop room near Unicorn Gaming Studio.

“This is where the blood came from.” Gao Ming grabbed the prop room door. As he was about to open the door, the shadow that enveloped the floor slowly receded.

The smell and blood retreated with the shadow like they were consumed by the other world.

“Is the game over? Someone killed the possessed person?” Gao Ming looked at his phone. It had only been 36 minutes since the game started. He hadn’t done anything. “This is crazy and cruel!” Xuan Wen reached into the shadow. “Clearly, someone planned to kill everyone else to escape the game. He hunted down the employees one after another until the unlucky bastard who was possessed was killed.”

Gao Ming was silent. He was worried about the ghost in the game, but humans were actually more dangerous than ghosts.

“First, we can confirm four things. The killer should have experienced other games. It was why he took action immediately after seeing the message; Second, the killer is among the survivors; Third, the killer has some ghostly power, or he can’t kill so many people in such a short among of time.” Xuan Wen walked to Gao Ming. “Fourth, I can’t be the killer because I was with you when this happened.”

“I know it’s not you.” Gao Ming shoved the door open. The door and figurines fell to the ground. The dead bodies and blood were gone. He looked around the room and found a death portrait. It was a group picture of the first batch of workers at Unicorn Gaming Studio. They were extremely hardworking and contributed a lot to the studio.

“There are seven people here… Seven living humans.” Gao Ming’s hands that held the picture shook. Xuan Wen grabbed his wrist. “Do you feel guilty? But what does this have to do with you? You’re also a victim. If you atone with your death, other horrors will still appear.”

“If I die, will the games I designed disappear?”

“No.” Xuan Wen shook her head. “They will all lose control and this city will lose its own savior.”

“You sure know how to comfort someone.”