Horror Game Designer Chapter 46: Shapes

What are humans, and what are ghosts?

At that moment, Gao Ming couldn’t tell. They were afraid of each other but not for the common reasons.

In the past, Gao Ming thought the invasion of the shadow world was a tragedy, but he had a different perspective now.

Zhao Xi came back and scared the whole building; Gong Xi came back, but his grandmother had been waiting for him. Even though she couldn’t recognise him anymore, she was waiting for him.

“Who is wrong in this case?”

Gong Xi let go of his grandmother’s hand and started to arrange the pictures in the room. “We need to move fast. The building manager might come back at any time.”

“Are we moving to another floor?”

“No. We’ll go hide in the rooms with the white lanterns. The building managers don’t dare to enter those rooms.” Gong Xi dragged out a big bag. He put away all the stuff and pictures. “Do you want to come with us? You had a conflict with the building manager. He might go after you too.”

“Okay.” Gao Ming had seen many rooms with red lanterns but not white lanterns. After packing everything, Gong Xi carried his grandmother, dragged the big luggage and left. He looked left and right. After ensuring the corridor was empty, he waved at Gao Ming, “Quick! We can’t let anyone see us enter the white room.” They ran down the corridor. Gong Xi pulled out paper money from the bag and burned it. Then, he led Gao Ming back up the corridor. The paper money’s ash disappeared into the shadow. When they ran back the fourth time, one of the units had a white lantern above its door.

“Get in!”

He pushed the door open, and the chill air blasted out. Gao Ming shivered involuntarily.

“This is the room where the two families got murdered!” Zhu Suisui grabbed the axe, and her body shook.

“That’s right.” Gong Xi’s expression darkened. After he entered the room, his vitality disappeared, and his face paled. He placed the luggage on the ground and took out various objects. He placed them before the bedroom door and knelt down to pray. “This room is owned. Those who should come will come. Those who should leave will leave.” Gong Xi kowtowed took out a wooden board and placed it in the middle of all the objects.

“Why are you standing there? Come and pray!” Gong Xi lit a few candles. “Every family here has a different faith, but in the end, we can only worship the God of Flesh and Blood. If your faith differs, tragedy will befall you.”

“But it doesn’t seem like you’re praying to the God of Flesh and Blood.” Zhu Suisui saw that the wooden sign had the name God of Home.

“The haunted units with the white lanterns are the exceptions. They are the people who have been vanquished for not worshipping the God of Flesh and Blood. Therefore, we worship other Gods here.” At that moment, the wooden sign shattered before them. The candles went out, and the wind blew. The black curtain between the living room and bedroom slowly opened. The head of a girl's paper mannequin peeked out. Gong Xi saw this and continued to kowtow.

The curtain fell. There was a table inside the bedroom. Seven paper mannequins of various ages sat around the table. Each of them had a bowl or red rice placed before them. In the dark room, the paper mannequins slowly turned around. Many paper mannequin makers would poke holes to represent the mannequin’s eyes. However, these mannequins all had human eyes.

“Did we disturb a family reunion?” Gao Ming moved back. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him.

The girl waddled out of the bedroom. She came to Gao Ming’s side and reached into his pocket to take out Bai Xiao’s black band and Uncle Wu’s talisman. Gao Ming didn’t stop her. The girl opened the talisman and shook the shredded picture out. The picture seemed to come from a family portrait. It was because of these pictures that this normal talisman gained some power.

“Is this a picture of you?” Gao Ming lifted his head to see the seven mannequins had surrounded him. They all had bloody red rice on their lips and strange expressions on their faces.

Gao Ming felt uncomfortable. The girl tossed the picture into the fire basin and led Gao Ming into the bedroom. An old man wearing a tattered coat was hiding in the corner.

“Uncle Wu?” Gao Ming recognised the man immediately. “Uncle, you sure are amazing to be able to survive in this world.”
Uncle Wu wanted to pretend not to know Gao Ming, but Gao Ming had the talisman that he gave him. “You people sure like to seek death.”

“We’re only doing this to save more people.” Gao Ming picked Uncle Wu up. “You didn’t tell me the truth earlier.”
“Everything I said was the truth. These paper mannequins are the victims of the case many years ago. I have been burning stuff for them every year, and they have been protecting me.” Uncle Wu pushed Gao Ming aside. “I kept telling them, but the people from your crazy centre refuse to listen to me.”

“Have you met others from the centre?”

“He has eaten the meat, so he’s probably dead now.” Uncle Wu moved to the door. There was a small altar behind him. He could come here to pay his respect to the victims every year. At first, he was doing this out of respect, but it had saved his life.

“What is going on here? Why are some of the tenants mutated beyond recognition? Why are some of them ghosts? Some of the investigators have been captured and treated as animals.” Uncle Wu was the first person he could communicate with, so Gao Ming wouldn’t let him go so easily.

“I’m so unlucky to run into you.” Uncle Wu wrapped the coat around him tighter. “Look at this video.”

He took out an old DV from under the altar. A family of four was celebrating a birthday. The father held the DV. They just lit the candles when someone knocked on the door. The mother went to open the door. Then, there was shouting and running. The father’s DV fell to the ground. Blood flowed. The family of four lay in the pool of blood. The neighbour heard the commotion and opened their door. The killer charged into the neighbour’s home and slaughtered them. Two families of eight died just like that. After doing that, the killer didn’t escape. Instead, he painted some strange symbols in the rooms and killed himself.

“Wait. Why would you have this video?” Even though Gao Ming worked in a high-security prison, he was uncomfortable after watching the video.

“I… patrolling that night. When the killer got up the stairs, he brushed past me.” Uncle Wu said with guilt. “If I had noticed something, the tragedy wouldn’t have happened.”

“Then, why didn’t you hand this recording to the police?” Gao Ming asked.

“Keep on watching.” The video was still playing. The first people to arrive on the scene were not the police but people from the charity. They seemed to know this would happen. They entered the room and took something from the killer’s body.

“This is connected to the charity, but there is no direct evidence.” Uncle Wu was scared. “The killer died, and the case reached a dead end. If I hadn’t taken the video, this DV might have mysteriously disappeared. Do not understand the influence of Han Hai Charity. They have built many schools and hospitals. They are the hope for the poor.”

“That might be true in the past, but it is not true now.” Gao Ming was talking more about Situ An.

“Ever since Si Sui Apartments was built, the charity kept moving things here, but most of those things were for the dead.” Uncle Wu was not dumb. He remembered many things. He placed two red candles and four white candles before him. “The people from the charity are raising ghosts, and they have succeeded. There are two dangerous ghosts here. The first is the killer from back then. It is highly hostile and has a heart of blood and flesh; The other is the figurine of the God of Flesh and Blood worshipped by the tenants here. The figurine has gained consciousness and formed a heart pieced together with spirit.

“Other than the two, the tenants here can basically be split into four kinds.” Uncle Wu showed Gao Ming the four white candles. “The hearts manifest the shape. Under the influence of the God of Flesh and Blood, the tenants are the Life Shape, Death Shape, Desire Shape and Sin Shape.

“Life Shapes are people like you and me, outsiders who have humanity. Desire Shapes are people like the agent. Their desires are manifested. They can’t leave this place and can only worship the God of Flesh and Blood. Death Shapes are dying humans. They are surrounded by shadows and covered in black characters. They have to feast on the meat offered by the God of Flesh and Blood to survive. The last is the Sin Shapes. The spirits of many victims are trapped here. They have nowhere else and are viewed as misfortunes.” Uncle Wu carefully moved away the four white candles. “The tenants are not that scary. I believe once you kill the two ghosts, we can escape.”

“Uncle, you forgot about a new force.” Gao Ming took over another red candle. “The vice president of Han Hai Charity, Situ An, is here too.”