Chapter 1115 - Why Is Your Comedy Breaking the Records of the Horror Shorts and Movies Ranking? 3 in 1 (1/2)
“but i have no experience! i am not that good a liar. i will be so easily exposed.” xiao sun had a helpless smile on his face. this was the first time he had been so valued greatly in his ‘life’.
“there is no need for you to act. you only need to be yourself.” chen ge had great expectations for xiao sun. he planned to train this young man well. “after ol’ zhou is done with the shoot, you should go and ask him for some pointers. he is one of the most experienced employees here, and he has a lot of experience acting as part of the visitors.”
“okay.”
“good luck, i believe in you.” chen ge had xiao sun familiarize himself with the scenarios while he carried the white cat to continue inspecting the ghost fetus’ scenario. “ol’ zhou and duan yue have become far too popular for their own good. many visitors become alert once they see someone similar to them in their midst.
“in fact, i was told that some of the more experienced visitors purposely ask for the names of their teammates before entering the haunted house. if there’s a member with the surname zhou in their team, they stay far away from them. this has greatly increased the difficulty of ol’ zhou and duan yue’s work. a new employee joining the big family is a good thing. i believe that xiao sun will be given his chance to shine in the haunted house and greatly showcase his unique talent.”
the cursed seed that was abandoned by the ghost fetus found a new ‘job’ at chen ge’s place. after assigning the posts for all the ghosts, chen ge personally taught him the tactics to scare people, and at the same time, chen ge himself was getting more familiar with the ghost fetus’ scenarios. the ghost fetus’ scenarios were slightly bigger than the scenario for the school of the afterlife. the nine sub-scenarios were already extremely scary, and that was not counting the hidden scenario that was the scariest—the world of the black fog.
chen ge realized that the biggest difference between a three-star scenario and a four-star scenario was that all four-star scenarios appeared to have a hidden scenario embedded within them. the hidden scenario at the school of the afterlife was the red specter’s art room. the school compound where the art room was located was dyed completely red, and it was a perfect replica of the world behind the door. the hidden scenario at the ghost fetus’ scenario—jiu hong apartments—was a perfect replica of the world of the black fog.
wandering souls and negative emotions that morphed into the black fog shrouded the scenario. the only difference here compared to the world behind xiang nuan’s door was the lack of man-eating monster fleeting through the black fog. wading through the black fog, chen ge closed his eyes. he tried to seriously sense the terror that was brought on by the black fog around him.
“what exactly is this black fog? why is my heart still palpitating even though i know that i am in a perfectly safe state? it feels like i have been brought out of the real world and deposited into someone else’s nightmare. everything is an unknown, and nothing is familiar.”
the world of the black fog was filled with abandoned memories. the black fog was brimming with pain, despair, and terror. walking through it, one would have the sense of being assimilated by the atmosphere within it. as one continued to walk, one would subconsciously be sucked into being a part of the black fog and become a walking vessel for pain and despair.
“if a visitor is able to walk out from the world of the black fog with their own determination, then they must be someone incredibly powerful and impressive,” chen ge commented as he walked through the black fog and entered jiu hong apartments. the few buildings there were located in similar positions to the world behind xiang nuan’s door. the ghost fetus’ most important memory and most painful past were all buried there. chen ge even found the rag doll’s broken body. similar to the jiu hong apartments behind xiang nuan’s door, the rag doll’s body was cut into many different parts and hidden within different buildings.
“i could have the mission be the collection of the rag doll’s body. after the visitors have found all of the body parts and successfully bring them all out from the scenario, they will have cleared the scenario.” with that in mind, chen ge started to find the body parts of the rag doll himself. the original intention was to take a picture of the compiled rag doll to use as part of the mission explanation, but who knew an accident would happen.
when the rag doll was fully collected, the whole ghost fetus’ scenario started to change!
crying children appeared from inside the black fog, numerous haunted spirit flickered in and out of the darkness, and various curses climbed over all the buildings at jiu hong apartments like some kind of dark vines.
“what the… what the hell is happening now‽” chen ge quickly summoned the red high heels. he was worried that he had triggered some kind of trap left behind by the ghost fetus. after the red high heels examined the situation, she gave chen ge a clear answer. the ghost fetus’ soul had already been destroyed. his consciousness was no longer of this world, and he would not return anymore. the reason the scenario had changed was because the malice of a demon god was so heavy that even though the ghost fetus had been destroyed, because he had suffered and carried all the sin behind the door, something of the ghost fetus would be left behind. that was the difference between a demon god and a top red specter.
the ghost fetus’ scenario had recorded everything there was about the ghost fetus. this place would be a location that was closest to hell for any unsuspecting visitors, but it was heaven for the red high heels. she was treading the same path as the ghost fetus. her expertise was also similar to the ghost fetus. furthermore, she had consumed most of the curses left behind by the ghost fetus. this scenario that recorded the process of how the ghost fetus became a demon god would be incredibly helpful for the red high heels in her journey to become a demon god herself.
“then, you shall stay at this scenario. with a top red specter like yourself watching over this place, i will not need to be worried.” after chen ge said that, the red high heels who was covered in bandage walked over to him. waving her hands, the woman used multiple black threads to weave out an army of ghosts and monsters. these monsters that were formed from pure curses were extremely scary. they were about as powerful as half red specter.
“you plan to use them to scare the visitors?” chen ge wiped away the cold sweat that slid down his forehead. “that won’t be necessary. that’s too much overkill. calm down! you only need to guard this scenario so that nothing goes wrong. please do not use the curses to harm the visitors.”
chen ge did not make use of the red high heels’ idea, but it had given him a reminder. “i have memorized the features of many monsters from inside the black fog. when i have time, i should go and make mannequins for all of them. a perfect haunted house scenario needs to have a mixture of mannequins and actual ghosts.”
leaving behind zhang yi to aid the red high heels, chen ge followed a hidden path and left the hidden scenario. this was another difference between the ghost fetus’ scenario and the scenario for the school of the afterlife. at the ghost fetus’ scenario, every sub-scenario had a hidden path that could lead to the hidden scenario. whether they could be found depended fully on the visitors’ capability.
the employees busied themselves with their chores. those who were involved in the movies were busy with their scripts, and those who had just joined the haunted house were studying to get familiarized with their new identities. chen ge did not sit idle either. he entered the prop room and started to draft the blueprints for the monsters in the black fog and planned to the go to the mannequin workshop to customize yet another set of equipment.
when dawn had almost arrived, chen ge returned to the staff breakroom. he lay in bed, but no matter what, sleep eluded him. after spending almost every night the past week working through the night and risking his life, he was rather unused to the fact that he was suddenly given a chance to take a breather. with his mind wandering about, chen ge could not tell when the drowsiness overwhelmed him, but when he opened his eyes again, a new day had begun.
the group of people that director luo had cautioned him about still had not appeared, but the amount of visitors who decided to challenge the four-star scenario, the school of the afterlife, had a drastic increase. many of them came from very far away, and their sole purpose was entering the school of the afterlife to experience it. these people did not appear like they were there to create trouble for chen ge. they were so polite that some of the employees felt too embarrassed to scare them. when they encountered a ghost, it was like they had met their seniors. they were so obedient and reserved. but even so, none of them were able to clear the scenario.
“this is too strange. something must be behind this. most of the visitors that came to visit the four-star scenario today bought their ticket in a group via the internet, and they appeared to know each other fairly well.” chen ge took a glance at the haunted house app that was designed by director luo. he noticed that in the past few days, someone had madly been collecting all the information about the school of the afterlife. in fact, there were threads on other forums and platforms where people had given out hard cash to purchase information related to the school of the afterlife. chen ge reflected this to director luo. around noon, director luo confirmed that this was probably ma feng’s doing.
a real general would never fight an unprepared war; that was from the art of war. the heavy collection of information conducted by ma feng was probably to rechallenge the scenario that had made the people from the futuristic theme park greatly lose face.
as the idiom goes, pick yourself up where you fell down.
the plan was to regain the face that jiang jiu had lost. in a way, there was nothing wrong with what ma feng was doing. if he was up against a normal foe, he probably would have succeeded, but the key problem was that chen ge already had a new scenario. this kind of speed where a new scenario was unlocked surprised everyone in the haunted house industry, including ma feng.
“have you finished your scouting? when you are all prepared, i will then announce the opening of a new scenario, the ghost fetus.” chen ge watched from the sidelines as the batches of ‘visitors’ entered to challenge to the school of the afterlife and were eventually wheeled out in the carts. he was feeling quite proud with himself. “i am surprised that a mere haunted house operator like myself could help raise the income of the nearby medical facilities. i am truly a stand-up citizen.”
it was a peaceful day, and it passed without much fanfare. chen ge carried his backpack and left theme park to continue to help the suicide victims complete their dying wishes. actually, during this process, chen ge had gained some small epiphanies. the bridge between life and death was uncrossable. the rules of the world were that harsh, but sometimes, a gentle person would be able to ease the harshness a little.
he busied himself until sundown. by now, zhang wenyu owed chen ge more than ten favors. his attitude toward chen ge was turning better, his tone was no longer that stiff, and occasionally, he would let his real self peak out. when he called chen ge on the phone, it began to feel more like two old friends catching up on the phone. the more chen ge got to know zhang wenyu, the more he realized how scary this red specter was. northern jiujiang and southern jiujiang used to have the presence of many scary specters, but in the end, only zhang wenyu was left watching over these two locales.
chen ge returned to new century park at around 6 pm. he had just finished getting an update from ol’ zhou about the daily operation when chang gu rushed out from the underground scenario. “director chang, are you looking for me? how can i help you?”
“the film has been finished. do you want to take a look at it?” chang gu’s eyes were bloodshot, and his face was as pale as a sheet of white paper. even his body had turned more transparent compared to a few days ago. it felt like the man had just been through a harrowing battle.
“you finished the movie in just a few days? that is incredible!” chen ge could not hide the shock on his face.
“be it tv series or movies, making one is not as simple as you think. based on the rules, we first have to get affiliated to a management unit who possess a movie-making permit and then apply for a movie-making request form from the local film industry unit with their name. after the request form is approved, it will be passed above. the government will issue the permit after they have gone through the request and found no problem with it. but all of that is just getting project approval. in other words, that’s just the first step.” chang gu’s tirade had successfully confused chen ge.
“so, what did you mean earlier when you said that the film has been finished?”
“the film i am talking about is a concept film. i suppose you can see it as an online short film that contains the main points of the main plot. as long as this concept film can get enough traction on the internet, it will naturally grab the attention of related companies. we have a lot of wiggle room then. after all, all of our actors are very special.” chang gu was a member of the industry, so naturally, he understood the ins and outs better than chen ge. “but i do not wish to raise your hopes too high. this might not end up as anything. but at least everyone has enjoyed the shooting process, and they are eager to see the final result.”
“there is no living audience, but there is a bunch of eager dead viewers. i wonder if the author will accept this kind of result or not.” chen ge followed chang gu underground. they entered the temporary theater. when they arrived, the theater was already bustling with the employees.