Chapter 738 - Come, Repeat After Me [2 in 1] (1/2)

Translator: Lonelytree  Editor: Millman97

The diary that was placed on the podium to scare the visitors became the guidebook for Chen Ge to explore the Haunted House. He placed the diary inside his backpack and rushed toward the second set described in the diary.

As the most famous Haunted House in Xin Hai, the size of Nightmare Academy was larger than Chen Ge had anticipated. The theme of a haunted school was maintained from beginning to end, and it covered almost all the school-themed ghost stories. “There are six floors in total. It’s going to be fun today.”

The large location, no matter from which angle, was a good thing for Chen Ge. He could explore to his heart’s content, and if there was a chance in the future, he could assimilate the whole building into his own Haunted House.

The Pen Spirit scenario was not far from the classroom where the new student welcoming ceremony was held. Looking at the paint on the wall, which was peeling, Chen Ge walked down the corridor until he came to an old, battered door. There was a sign above the door that read ‘Storage Room’.

“In the diary, the girl by the name of Die is said to play the Pen Spirit game inside the storage room.”

Pushing open the door, before Chen Ge even stepped in, he could hear the sound of a girl crying. The crying came and went quickly—it was too fast for Chen Ge to discern where it came from.

“Is anyone in here?” There was a big difference between Chen Ge’s Haunted House and Nightmare Academy. Chen Ge’s Haunted House allowed its visitors to explore it freely. There was no guide or help along the way while most of the Haunted Houses on the market had a set route that one had to follow during visitation.

Now that he had wandered onto the set for the Pen Spirit without warning, he was very worried that the actors were not ready yet, and it might influence his overall experience. After he spoke out loud, the sound of crying weakened, and Chen Ge stopped to observe his surroundings.

The walls in the storage room were purposely made to look older than they were. The racks in the room were filled with a layer of dust, and the corner was piled high with various items. The lights inside the room were dim, and occasionally, one could hear the sound of mice scurrying about.

“The diary only said that Die played the Pen Spirit game here, but it did not mention a single detail about the storage room itself. So, assuming there was some kind of accident when Die was playing the Pen Spirit game, I could run into one of the two ghosts here; one is Die, and the other will be the Pen Spirit.”

When Chen Ge walked past the first row of shelves, the squeak of a mouse came from a spot around his left leg, and he felt something running past his left ankle. When something like this happened to a normal person, they would jump or yelp in shock, but Chen Ge was unaffected. Instead, like a little boy who was curious about everything, he squatted down to take a better look.

“There is a rope placed between these two rows of racks. Once the visitor’s legs step on it, the fake mouse trap attached to the knot will slither out.” Chen Ge scratched his chin. “Indeed, some might be scared by things like this. This is quite interesting. A Haunted House might not need to rely on ghosts and monsters completely. Anything can be made into something that can bring fear and terror. This is able to fulfill the various needs of the visitors, and it matches my goal of designing a multi-faceted Haunted House.”

Chen Ge memorized these little tricks. He planned to research them in more detail when he returned and use them as the basis to come up with something exciting and fun. Standing up, Chen Ge continued to move forward, proceeding to the space between the first row and the second row.

The corridor was very narrow. Chen Ge saw that there was a glass jar on the second row that was almost falling. He extended his hand to push the jar slightly deeper to prevent an accident. When he was pushing it, he saw a pale face hiding behind the glass jar.

“Is he on the other side of the rack? No, it should be squeezed between the racks.” Chen Ge stared at the face for a while before grabbing the glass jar and placing it on the ground. He reached over. His finger poked the face’s cheeks, and he squeezed for a while. “Synthetic rubber? A mask?”

Chen Ge moved all the stuff on that row away and finally saw what it was. It was a human mask that was stuck to a basketball. “It’s a fake skull? If there was a real person hiding here, it would be that much scarier, but I can see the problem; the place is too small for a living person to squeeze inside.”

Skipping the second row, Chen Ge headed to the third row. This time, he was greeted by a falling glass jar again, but this time, instead of one, there were five of them.

“Aren’t they afraid of shattering the glass and accidentally harming the visitors? Or are they using reinforced glass, which does not break that easily?”

When Chen Ge walked past the jars, he noticed that each of them was filled with something different. The liquid inside was dark, and the objects reminded him of human organs. “Do the five jars correspond to five human organs?”

Chen Ge picked up the jars one by one to study before replacing them. When he reached the fourth one, a slender arm suddenly shot out from behind the rack and wrapped itself around his wrist!

This happened so suddenly and without warning that Chen Ge was stunned for zero point something seconds before he snapped into being. He tightened his fingers and twisted his wrist around to grab the arm instead. He pulled on the arm and refused to let it go as he leaned over to look behind the rack. A girl in Nightmare Academy’s school uniform was stuck to the rack. She was gritting her teeth in pain.

“Let—let go!” That was most likely not what the girl was supposed to say.

“I’m so sorry. I was too scared. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Chen Ge slowly let the girl go. When he looked behind the rack again, the girl had already disappeared. “Where did she go?”

The sound of crying returned. Chen Ge walked around the shelf and came to the deepest part of the storage room. Amid a mess of unused items, a slender girl was heaving with tears, collapsed on the table.

“I apologize for what happened earlier. I accidentally pulled too hard because I was too afraid.” Chen Ge squatted down next to the table. He was afraid that the girl was crying because he had injured her.

“I don’t feel good. My heart has been cut into pieces by a sharp knife.”

“I only touched your wrist a bit harder than usual. You’re not going to use that against me, are you?” Chen Ge grumbled under his breath.

The girl looked at the reddening fingerprints around her wrist. Even though this visitor’s reaction was slightly different from what she had expected, at the end of the day, she was a professional Haunted House actor, and she got back into her role easily. “I was deeply in love with a person, but after consulting the Pen Spirit, I found out that he did not care for me at all. I used the method taught to me by the Pen Spirit to make him change his mind, but I accidentally caused his death. I regret it deeply, so I came back here to consult the Pen Spirit again and see if there is a way to turn things around.”

“How are you going to turn things around when the person is already dead?”

“The Pen Spirit will definitely know a way!” The girl suddenly exclaimed loudly, and her eyes were red with tears.

“Sure, sure, but let’s be real. Among all the Specters, the Pen Spirit is definitely not the most powerful, so I suggest you don’t hold too much hope.”

“In any case, we have to give it a try.” The girl lifted her head, and the make-up on her face was thick and gaudy. It looked rather strange inside this abandoned storage room. “Can you lend me a hand? You need at least two people to complete the Pen Spirit game. Normally, people don’t come to this storage room. I need another person’s help to begin the game.”

“No problem.” After a moment’s hesitation, Chen Ge opened his lips to ask, “You said you need two people to start the Pen Spirit game, then who was the second person that you played with the first time you consulted the Pen Spirit?”

The girl chose to ignore the question, and her voice turned shriller. “Sit across from me, and the two of us will hold the body of the pen like this. Then you can leave the rest to me.”

“Okay.” Chen Ge saw himself as a gentleman, so he did not press and followed the girl’s instructions. He moved to the other side of the table and picked up the pen. It was a silvery white fountain pen. It was about twice the size of a normal ballpoint pen, and there were some decorative swirls on the casing.