Horror Game Designer Chapter 33: Life

“Wan Qiu?”

Hearing that name, Gao Ming told Zhu Suisui to let go. He came to the corner of the floor. There were four boys standing at the entrance to the girl’s bathroom. Some of them were smoking, and others had their uniforms tied around their waists. One of them was flicking a lighter expertly. Gao Ming didn’t make any sounds and slowly approached them.

The student with the cigarette raised his phone high to record a video. There was a drenched young man inside the girl’s bathroom. The boy seemed a bit dull. He wanted to escape but was pushed back into the bathroom by the other boys every time.

“This newly transferred dummy is quite fun to play with.” The student with the cigarette spat on the ground and turned to the only normally dressed male student among the group of bullies. “Ah Zhun, should we bring him to Back 19th Street to see the world tonight?”

Ah Zhun laughed. “Do you want him to die?”

As if sensing something, Wan Qiu ran to the door again. He used all his might to knock the student with the phone away, but just as he was about to escape, the other students yanked him back.

“Fuck! That was my new phone!” The student pressed Wan Qiu to the ground. “Bitch!”

He covered Wan Qiu’s mouth. The other three students came over to kick Wan Qiu!

The phone flew away. The student with the phone landed on the wall. Then, he realised he had been kicked away. The pain came from the back of his waist. He tried to get up but couldn’t.

“The school is a place for education. Why are you fighting?” Gao Ming stood before the students.

The bullies were stunned. They saw how Gao Ming sent their friend flying. He didn’t hold back.
“Brother, we’re at school!” Zhu Suisui was shocked too. It was fine if Gao Ming was harsh against ghosts, but they were in real life!

“They were bullying the kid.” Gao Ming picked up the student’s phone. The student tried to grab it back, and Gao Ming kicked him in the chest again. “I’m just collecting evidence.”

“Fine. We should all calm down.” Zhu Suisui was worried that things might get worse.

“How dare you attack people on school grounds?” Ah Zhun stood up and stared at Gao Ming. He was calm and probably came from a powerful family.

“Did I attack someone? He fell down on his own. You were the ones who selected a place which had no surveillance cameras.” Gao Ming walked towards Ah Zhun. After being trapped at home for three days, his presence shifted too.

“Are you Wan Qiu’s family? But I remember the teacher saying that he’s an orphan. He was sent here on an emergency.” Ah Zhun took a step back. “My mother is a committee member of Han Hai Charity, and my father…” Before Ah Zhun could finish, he was kneed in the stomach and collapsed to the ground.

“Are you really concerned about that when the tragedy is coming?” Gao Ming walked towards the last student. He wanted to escape but was captured by Gao Ming.

“Gao Ming, calm down!” Zhu Suisui finally managed to hold Gao Ming back. She had no idea why Gao Ming suddenly lost control. “If you continue like this, we’ll be punished!”

“Punished?” Gao Ming let go and tossed the last student aside. He turned to look at Zhu Suisui. “Investigators use their lives to protect this city. Do we do that to protect this trash? Do we do that to be punished?”

Zhu Suisui opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say.

“Yesterday night, we survived a Level 2 anomaly and prevented the tragedy from spreading. We’ve saved many people, right?”

“Yes.”

“But our team lost eight people. Is that not a heavy price? Do we not suffer pain?”

“We did. It was a heavy price.”

“So I was a little heavy-handed when preventing bullying. Is there a problem with that?”

“No.” Zhu Suisui suddenly agreed with Gao Ming. Gao Ming was a human too. He was under a lot of pain and pressure. If the centre couldn’t even protect him during this small incident, then it was truly useless.

Gao Ming patted Zhu Suisui’s shoulders. He walked past her to the young man.

He didn’t say any comforting words or ask about his injuries. He only extended his hand. “My name is Gao Ming, a psychiatrist at Hen Shan Heavy Crimes Penitentiary. I now work for Li San Investigation Centre. If you’re not satisfied with your current life, I can provide you with a job that has dignity and freedom.”

Gao Ming had considered the words he said carefully. Only he and Wei Dayou, who had helped him design the game, knew how scary this child was. The young man looked dumb, but he had such beautiful eyes. It was those eyes that Gao Ming needed.

“I can help you sharpen your jaws and fangs so that no one will bully you again. If you want to bully others, I can pretend not to see it. I have no sense of morality and is biased to my own people.”

In Wan Qiu’s eyes, Gao Ming’s hand was like a rope extending from heaven to hell. But it was also a ladder into the abyss. He looked at it and then slowly raised his arm to grab Gao Ming’s hand. Gao Ming didn’t even waste time to inform the school and led Wan Qiu out.

“Gao Ming, don’t we explain this to his teacher?”

“Then, help me with it. Tell them that the centre needs to question Wan Qiu about certain things.” Gao Ming suddenly realised power and influence were quite useful.

After leaving school, Gao Ming bought Wan Qiu a lot of food. Seeing Wan Qiu scarf down the food, he smiled, “Take it slow. In the future, you won’t have to worry about being hungry anymore.”

Gao Ming didn’t say anything wrong. He valued Wan Qiu a lot and wanted to correct the tragedy he had written.

When he first collaborated with Nightlight, he made a crime game called Born Criminal.

The main character was an abandoned baby with a brain defect. With the players’ guidance, he would become the city’s best detective. However, at that moment, the main character would notice a lot of dead bodies and blood around his house. Those things looked so fake but so real.

He tried everything to cure himself, but the more he sought treatment, the scarier things became. In the end, he collapsed and finally opened his eyes to the truth.

Wan Qiu was the most dangerous supercriminal in Han Hai history. He experienced all the tragedies in his childhood. He was adopted by a murderer and was exposed to many horrible things. This cultivated a very resilient mind in him. Under the murderer’s tutelage, Wan Qiu became the most dangerous person at Han Hai.

As technology advanced, Wan Qiu was finally caught. He was turned into a lab rat.

The players controlled the whole process. It was a brain simulation for people to see if Wan Qiu hadn’t encountered the murderer, would he be able to rewrite his life?

The lab result proved that Wan Qiu’s life could have been very different. However, he was already a brain in a glass by then.