Horror Game Designer Chapter 39: Strangeness Everywhere

“I hope you find the thing you’re looking for.” The woman turned to close the door. Before the red door closed, the doll crawled to the chair and gorged down the cold noodles. There appeared to be someone hidden inside the giant doll.

“Gao Ming, don’t turn your head around.” Xuan Wen warned in a whisper. She stopped when they were more than 10 metres away.

“Is someone watching us?” Gao Ming was glad that he called Xuan Wen to come with him. This apartment was too abnormal.

“The anomaly here might have already spread. It is growing too rapidly.” Xuan Wen said seriously, “That woman is living with a ghost! The ghosts here can move around in the daylight like me.”

“Was the ghost hiding inside the doll?” Gao Ming shivered, “It hid inside the doll to hide from sunlight.”

“I can’t be sure, but I definitely sense something.” Xuan Wen turned to Wan Qiu, “He was the first to notice a problem.”

“Wan Qiu, what did you see?”

“There’s a pair of eyes in the doll. There are three kids in the bed. One was tied up. There are joss sticks ashes, and rice on the ground. Talismans are pasted behind the door. The hair that clogged up the drain was yellow, but the mother and children have black hair…” Wan Qiu counted on his fingers. “The plastic bags in the cupboard contain IDs of strangers. The rim of the rice cooker is bloody. It’s not cooking rice.”

Wan Qiu then pointed to the corridor that led to Building A. “That place is… very dangerous!” Wan Qiu stammered out everything that scared him.

“It’s still daylight, and there’s no shadow, but this place is already so scary. The horror stories have shaken loose the shadow world and become part of the reality.” Xuan Wen suggested, “Why don’t we leave for now? And find some unformed stories?”

“Someone is feeding the stories in the east city. If they manage to create a fully out-of-control horror story at this stage, we’ll lose all agency.” Gao Ming was the designer. He knew how scary things would get if things went out of control.

“It’s hard to trigger an anomaly beforehand. It’s even harder to feed it. This person has something wrong with their brain.” Xuan Wen walked to Gao Ming, “If we interfere, we’re dealing with not only ghost stories but also people feeding the stories. He can mobilise resources to feed the stories. He might even be a person of power at your investigation centre.”

“I’ve considered that.”

“The anomaly first started at Xin Lu. The centre has more than enough info. They have to know that strange things will happen in the morning once the anomaly spreads. However, take a look at this place. After the anomaly happened in Building A, living humans were still allowed to stay in Building B.” Xuan Wen analysed. “Do you think this is to prevent panic from spreading or to suck more people into the anomaly?”

Normally, once a horror story had expanded to this stage, the entire street should have been cleared. However, only Building A was sealed. There was no one patrolling this place, and the whole incident was just abnormal.

“Then, what do you think we should do?” Gao Ming wanted to hear Xuan Wen’s opinions.

“If I work for the centre, I’ll find the person who is feeding the horror stories. I will kill him in real life to pause the feeding of the stories. Then, I’ll select the most elite investigators to enter the anomaly. After gathering all the info, I’ll gather all the resources to control the anomaly.” Xuan Wen then added, “If I were you, the best method was to release hidden news that games that had mutated into reality would have a hidden boss section. Those who cleared it would get a massive prize. And the hidden section this time is at Si Sui Street’s Block A.

“It’s a good idea to get the other players to help me take down the anomaly. However, this anomaly is too dangerous. Even Death hiding at Nightlight won’t be coming here.” Xuan Wen’s idea expanded Gao Ming’s thoughts. However, this was easier said than done.

“The last solution is for us to do this ourselves.” Xuan Wen lowered her voice. “Who knew how many people this anomaly has eaten? There are definitely ‘treasures’ inside. If we can take all of them, we’ll gain control of this power!”

“How big is our chance of winning?”
“3 percent.” Xuan Wen raised three fingers. “We have almost zero chance of winning. We have three percent of escaping alive. However, as long as we can survive, we’ll get a higher chance of winning next time.”

“You are very careful.” Gao Ming gripped his left hand as he walked to the corridor connecting Buildings A and B. The corridors on the other floors were sealed off with cement. Only the ones on Floors 5 and 9 were cordoned off with tape. The tapes even had strange talismans on them. Looking through the tapes, Building A seemed darker.

“Stay away from the fence.” Xuan Wen stood beside Gao Ming. Wan Qiu didn’t even want to get close.

“It hasn’t been that long since the Hungry Ghost Festival. But this is already happening. We’ve greatly underestimated human greed and madness.” The horror spread at a crazy speed. Gao Ming grabbed the fence. The shadows in the corner were attracted. Footsteps echoed.

“Is someone running?”

The sound became clearer. Gao Ming’s group looked down the corridor. The boxes were pushed over. A heavily-injured investigator was running madly. His body was carved with strange words. Even though he was injured, his movement was not affected. The broken bones joined each other.

“Bai Xiao!” Gao Ming’s pupils shook, and he jumped over the fence. “Get in!”

Bai Xiao seemed to have lost his mind. He didn’t see Gao Ming. When someone called his name, he slowed down a little. Gao Ming and Xuan Wen chased after the footsteps, but when they entered Building A, the footsteps disappeared completely.

“Did you see that investigator earlier?” Gao Ming asked in a whisper.

“Yes. He should be trapped inside the anomaly.” Xuan Wen nodded. “The man is quite strong mentally to survive until now. If this were a normal anomaly, he would have been able to escape when dawn came, but this was not a normal anomaly.”

“T-this way!” Wan Qiu suddenly shouted. Before he could say anything else, the door beside him opened. A wounded arm dragged him into the room. A shrill shout came from behind the door. Gao Ming and Xuan Wen hurried over. Blood leaked out. They broke down the door. Wan Qiu sat alone at a large round table. The table was set with eight sets of utensils. Eight bowls were filled with cold rice. The wooden chopsticks were stuck vertically in the middle of the rice.

“Wan Qiu! Get out here!” Wen Xuan waved, but Wan Qiu didn’t respond. Several seconds later, Wan Qiu slowly raised his head. His beautiful eyes became murky, and he smiled. Suddenly, he grabbed the bowls on the table and shoved the rice into his mouth.

At first the rice was white in colour. But they slowly turned red. Wan Qiu looked like his mouth was bleeding.