Horror Game Designer Chapter 80: Four Hands

The hand had no temperature of the living. It was covered with callouses and scabs. Dirt lingered inside the nails. The nails were bitten. The edges were uneven. In complete darkness, the hand was the only thing that could provide Gao Ming with information.

“With hearing and sight gone, the madman used his hands to feel the world even though his world might just be an abandoned cellar.” The five fingers suddenly moved to grab Gao Ming. It was like a beast dragging Gao Ming deeper into the cellar. Gao Ming covered his head. He couldn’t tell the direction. Several minutes later, he fell in the mud. There was still absolute darkness around him. There was no sound. Gao Ming climbed up and moved down in a random direction. He moved for some time but still hadn’t found the wall.

“Where am I?”

Gao Ming retraced his steps and knelt on the ground. After he got used to using his sight and ears to understand the world, being deprived of them instilled fear in his heart. This was human nature.

“The hand’s owner didn’t kill me. He probably wanted me to do something for me.” Gao Ming didn’t give up. He grabbed a handful of dirt, rubbed it and put it to his nose. He smelled the smell of dirt after rain. At the same time, he touched a blade of grass.”

“The cellar is hidden underground and filled with mud. The soil here shouldn’t have this smell.”

He couldn’t see or hear, but Gao Ming could still smell and touch.

“The madman killed by the villagers in the dog cellar case was a deaf and blind man. I’m experiencing his life.”

Eventually, Gao Ming detected the fragrance of tea olive flowers. The fragrance could alleviate depression and was used in treatment for patients with anger issues.

Gao Ming stood up and moved towards the fragrance. But before he could get close, he was kicked down. Belt, chairs, and punches fell on him. He couldn’t see anything, but he could feel the pain. Gao Ming escaped until he couldn’t smell the tea olives anymore. Then, the beating stopped.

“Why would the tea olive smell represent beating? Does it represent the memory of pain?”

To verify this hypothesis, Gao Ming walked towards the smell of tea olives again. After being punched, he quickly retreated.

“The smell of tea olives is related to the memory of being beaten. This is probably the blind man’s memory.”

As a psychiatrist, Gao Ming knew how smells could aid memory. For example, many people would think about the hospital when they smelled disinfectants. Compared to sight and hearing, the memory corresponding to the smell was more authentic and emotional. This was because the smell stimuli bypassed the thalamus when registering the memory.

“Do I have to find a way out based on smells?”
Gao Ming had never played such a crazy game before. He thought about it and became spirited. “I have to survive to introduce this good game to Situ An.”

After determining each smell, the fresh smell of grass disappeared. The smell of car exhaust and dust came at him. He was bumped into as he was lost in the crowd. He couldn’t see anything. Different smells assaulted his nostrils. Gao Ming couldn’t tell what they were. A few minutes later, the smell of mothballs appeared. Then, someone held his hand again. Gao Ming followed the person until he discovered that underneath the smell of mothballs was the sting of blood.

Gao Ming bit the arm. After he escaped, he ran towards the smell of tea olives.

He wanted to get the bullies connected to the tea olives to fight with the ‘mothballs’.

Even though he couldn’t see or hear, Gao Ming could feel the smell of mothballs chasing after him.

Soon, the smell of tea olives appeared. Gao Ming covered his head and charged at it. The belt whipped on his body. The smell of mothballs followed. The two smells didn’t conflict.

“The two are of the same gang?!”

Gao Ming gritted his teeth and barged at the people before him. He started to fight back. He grabbed the person’s body and tried to use his touch to sense the world.

The tea olives represented a large, middle-aged man and a woman in a dress. One of them held a belt and the other a chair. They didn’t hold back when beating him. The smell of mothballs came from a man in a jacket. They seemed to have a deal. The middle-aged couple handed Gao Ming to the man in the jacket.

“The smells represent the memories. Was the blind man sold by his parents? Was the jacket man the person who bought him?”

After many beatings, Gao Ming tried to escape, but without two senses, it was too hard. The man in the jacket grabbed his collar. Gao Ming was dragged somewhere. The smell of blood thickened. It was followed by the smell of disinfectant. At that moment, a horrible stench suddenly approached. Gao Ming felt himself being led away.

The owner of the stench argued with the jacket man. Gao Ming gained freedom. Many people would choose to run, but at that moment, Gao Ming remembered something important. When he entered the black cellar, he smelled this stench. It didn’t disgust him. It even felt comforting. When he was a psychiatrist, he encountered many people with strange obsessions. A stench for one might be a fragrance for another. There could be many reasons behind this. The person’s internal mindset was very important.

With that in mind, Gao Ming made a special decision. He grabbed the dirt and waved his fist at ‘mothballs’.

After being beaten so many times, he wanted revenge. With the aid of the stench, they managed to defeat ‘mothballs’. Gao Ming’s hand was held for the third time. Different from the first two times, the hand that held Gao Ming this time was very warm. It was not large, and the palm was calloused. The owner used to make many handcrafted items.

The cigarette smell, the sweat smell, the car exhaust smell were slowly replaced by the wind, the smell of grains and simple food.

“It feels like I’ve left the busy city to return to the countryside home.”

The woods burned. The smell of woodstove spread around. Gao Ming followed the hand honestly. Soon, he smelled braised tofu, red potatoes and fried meat. A bowl of hot rice was delivered to Gao Ming’s hand. The hand gave him a pair of chopsticks.

The taste buds urged Gao Ming. He wolfed down the food. It was the best meal he had ever had. The fragrance was very hard to describe. It was like he was transported back to his childhood. It smelled of home.

After he was done, Gao Ming sat there. The hand gave him a small knife. When he first got the knife, Gao Ming was shocked too. However, the hand soon handed him sliced bamboo. The hand taught him how to weave bamboo.

“The hand not only gave me food but also wanted to teach me how to survive on my own.”

His body leaned closer to the hand. Gao Ming forgot that he needed to clear the game. He just wanted to stay with the hand. In this silent and dark world, this hand could bring him security.