Chapter 1120 - I Did Not Mean to Do It on Purpose! 2 in 1 (1/2)

The missing person’s article provided a picture of the child, but Ma Feng had no recollection of this child at all. Once all the people had ventured into the building, the child on the missing person notice suddenly winked. He appeared to be making signal at another ‘person’ who was far away. A small shadow appeared from the corner of the wall. A light scent lingered in the air. He followed the group into the apartment and kindly helped close the front door behind them.

“This place is too quiet, isn’t it‽” At a location that was absolutely silent, people would sometimes be frightened by their own voice. Liang Er and Liang San were incredibly interested in how the haunted house boss had managed to do something like this. They were all professionals. They inspected the scenario inch by inch and noticed with surprise that not only were the corridors not fitted with speakers and microphones, they did not even have any surveillance cameras. Other than a few old-looking light bulbs that appeared like they could go out at any moment, there was no trace of any high-tech equipment in this sub-scenario at all.

“Didn’t the people on the internet say that the special effect at this haunted house are Hollywood level? Are you telling me that these few lightbulbs are everything they are talking about? This has to be a joke.” This time, not only Fu Bole, even Ma Feng also thought that Chen Ge’s haunted house was more hyped up than it actually was.

“You cannot find any high-tech equipment, but the place can pull off a Hollywood standard horror effects. That in itself is a very scary thing.” Zuo Han was telling the truth, but in the other people’s ears, he was merely making excuses for Chen Ge’s haunted house.

However, there was a small number among the haunted house designers who took his words seriously. Liang Er and Liang San stood inside the corridor and looked around with confusion. “The walls, and the banisters are everyday objects. The walls are not painted with acoustic insulating material, and there is no trace of any high-tech equipment. How did he manage to create this kind of strange and eerie atmosphere? There is not even an echo to our voices. It feels like once the sound leaves our lips, it is immediately swallowed up by something.”

“Stop trying to scare yourself. The concept behind this is probably something like magic. It might look magical, but you will realize it is just a normal trick once you find out the truth.” Fu Bole clapped his hands. “Okay, we will follow Brother Ma’s earlier suggestion. We will split into three groups and start to search for the broken parts of the rag doll. One group will be responsible for the search of an individual floor. We will do the same thing in the other buildings that we encounter in the future.”

After he said that, he wandered purposely to Ma Feng’s side. The meaning was clear; he wanted to be in the same group as Ma Feng.

“You have not even found the insider, and you are already that desperate to split into groups. Death is going to come for you, and you will not even know what happened.” Zuo Han shook his head at Mr. Wang. “The three of us will continue to stick together. Let’s just ignore the rest of them.”

Since the people from Jiujiang Medical University had refused to join the rest, the remaining twelve were split into three groups.

Ma Feng, Shang Guan Qing Hong, Fu Bole, and Wei Chaochao were one group; Xiao Sun, Liang Er, Liang San, and the middle-aged woman from the Castle of Lost Memories were the second group; and the third group consisted of Qin Guang, Sister Snake, and the couple from Xin Hai. The twelve of them would still be inside the same building, but they would split up to search the different floors. This meant that the distance between the three groups would not be so far. They could get another group’s help if they needed it.

Fu Bole, who thought that Chen Ge’s haunted house was just a product of pure sensationalism, led Ma Feng and the rest to the second floor. Sister Snake’s group ventured further down to the underground third floor. Liang Er and Liang San continued to search the first floor. The Liang siblings were hulking leviathans. They were muscular and strong. It felt safe being assigned the same group as them.

Liang Er gave Zuo Han a side eye and warned, “You will go to the rooms on the left, and we will check the rooms on the right. That way, we will not interrupt each other. Do not cross that line and come to disrupt our work.”

“That was my intention too.” Zuo Han led He San and Mr. Wang down the long corridor. They started to search for clues closely from inside and out.

“Big brother, do you really think they are the haunted house’s actors? I personally do not think so. The presence that they give off is very unique and unlike normal haunted house workers,” Liang San whispered.

“We are here to clear this haunted house. Who cares what their real identities are? We only need to complete the assignment given to us by Director Ma.” Liang Er stopped at the door of the first room at the corner of the stairs.

There was a wooden sign hanging next to the door. The sign read, ‘If you need anything, please pull on the string connected to the light repeatedly.’

“It warns us against knocking on the door but wants us to pull on this string. Is it because they are afraid that the sound of knocking might attract the ghosts?” Liang Er grabbed the string. “The actor called Wu Jinpeng appeared to have said earlier that if you make any sound, you will attract the attention of ghosts. But along the way, we have been chatting quite loudly, and we have not seen any ghosts, have we?”

“This place is so quiet. Is it possible that the ghosts have already shown up? It is just that because they do not make any sound, temporarily, we haven’t been able to find them.” Liang San’s brain was very active as well.

“Oh well, it does not matter. We will take a look inside this room first. All of the haunted house’s first sub scenarios should be the simplest. Nothing too scary will appear here, or else it will not give an accumulative sense of fear to the visitors in the latter parts of the scenario,” Liang Er said as he pulled on the string. Once he yanked on the string, the lights inside the room switched on. He repeated it several times, and the lights flickered on and off, but nothing happened.

“Were we tricked?” Liang Er frowned heavily. He grabbed the doorknob and pushed heavily. The old door was pushed open easily, but before he could observe the environment inside the room closely, a change suddenly happened inside the corridor. A strange stench drifted around them. It smelled like the decay of dead bodies mixed together with the copper smell of fresh blood. They had a feeling that something or someone was slowly approaching them.

“Be careful. The ghost probably is coming. You’d better not wander off on your own. Just stay close to me.” Liang Er was a kind and responsible person. Those words were meant for Xiao Sun.

“The first actor at this haunted house has disappointed me greatly. I wonder if what happens next will change my mind.” Liang San entered the room. The first thing that he saw were the broken beer bottles that littered the floor. But all the sharp edges of the glass had been grounded smooth, probably out of concern for the visitors’ safety. Among the broken pieces lay a woman. She was covered in wounds. Other than her face and both her arms, her body was covered with cloth patches. The patches appeared to grow directly out of her skin, and it looked quite scary.

“Is that an actor or a prop?” Liang San reached out to grab the woman’s arm. The sensation that came from his fingertips was very different from that of human skin. He was about to sigh in relief when he suddenly saw the mirror that was hanging in the bathroom. The mirror was facing the door, and inside the mirror, there was a pair of strange eyes staring at him.

“Someone’s there!” Liang San dropped the woman’s arm and whipped his head around to look. Being warned by Liang San, the others also turned back to look. Everyone saw a man’s face that had poked out from the door frame of the door that they just came through!

His features were twisted, and his mud-like body was plastered onto the door frame. His black eyes were filled with curses and venom. Xiao Sun was standing at the back of the group, so he was the one that was currently closest to the entrance. He was originally trying to think about the scare points that were hidden in this scenario when he suddenly heard Liang San’s warning. He turned subconsciously around and almost bumped right into that scary face. His face paled even further. Xiao Sun staggered back several steps and almost knocked into Liang Er’s stomach.

“When did this thing show up‽” Xiao Sun’s voice was shuddering. He was given quite a fright.

“I have no idea. I did not hear any movement at all. It’s as if it appeared from thin air.” Liang San scratched his double chin. “So, there is something about this haunted house after all!”

“Should we inform the others about this development?”

“We should wait until we have more concrete evidence first.”

Liang Er and Liang San started to move to study the monster outside the room. They discovered the man that was shaped like a pile of mud was just a mannequin. There was no high-tech equipment installed in the mannequin either.

“Someone probably moved this thing here. I suspect that the culprits are the people from the so-called Jiujiang Medical University. They are on the same floor as us, and they are very close to us.” Liang San looked down the corridor. Currently, Zuo Han’s group was inside the room at the other end of the corridor. For all intent and purposes, it did not appear that they had left that room.

“They are highly suspicious, but if it was not them, this is worth considering. We are operators of a haunted house as well. These are things and techniques that we can pick up and learn.” The Liang Brothers had a more neutral attitude. They did not view Chen Ge’s haunted house with absolute hostility.

Just as the two were speaking, the middle-aged woman suddenly opened her lips. “Did you guys notice something?”

“What is it?” Liang Er and Liang San turned to look inside the room. They saw the middle-aged woman was pointing at the woman lying on the ground.