Chapter 38: Game Start (1/2)

*Disclaimer: This chapter has strong themes that may trigger you when you read it. Please read with caution.*

“50 yen per person sounds like a good deal.” Wang Ziwen said as if she was rather satisfied with the price, “But, we don’t know if the haunted house is truly scary or not. If we were going to base it off of the online reviews, we won’t go in and play.”

“Pretty lady, I guarantee you that it is indeed terrifying. Those online reviews were all a month ago, so you shouldn’t take them into consideration.”

The boss of the haunted house’s words seemed to have a deeper meaning to them, as a result, Bai Yan inquired, “Why shouldn’t we consider the comments about your haunted house that were made a month ago?”

“Ay, at that time, I still haven’t taken over the management of this haunted house. It was still being operated by its former owner. After I took over, the second escape room as well as the haunted house were completely remodeled, making it better than the original.” Seeing the four’s rising interests, the boss added with a hint of mysteriousness in his voice, “The first escape room was left behind by the old boss, and I didn’t change a single thing in it, but as for the second one, I personally took the time to put everything in order. The room’s theme is based on a real event.”

“Real event?” Wang Ziwen perked up in curiosity.

“Correct! Furthermore, this real-life event has something to do with the haunted house’s old boss.” The new boss was nervous that the people in front of him wouldn’t buy tickets, so he quickly lowered his voice, “Did you know? The previous boss was a woman that committed suicide. Hearsay, her personality was already eccentric from the start, but before she died, all of her family and friends cut off ties with her. She was a person who rented out a single room and hanged herself in it. Moreover, as she was dying, her mouth was distorted to an eerie smile, looking exceedingly frightening. Later, her younger brother was dropping in for a surprise visit and that was when everyone heard the news of her death. At that moment, she had already been dead for quite a while, so her corpse was rotting and full of crawling house flies and maggots, making anybody run away from fear.”

The boss heaved a sigh, “After the death of the former boss, this Haunted House Escape has been under my care. In order to enhance the marketability of this escape room, I moved all the things from the room where the old boss died into the escape room. While you guys are playing the second room, you can personally experience the gruesome scene of her suicide since everything in there was previously used by a deceased person!”

For a brief period, the mountains of horror novels she read before came rushing into her mind, leading her to want to run out of this haunted house place and avoid getting cursed.

However, she saw Wang Ziwen’s exhilarated face, and inexplicably felt embarrassed to request for them to leave. How could she do that when she was one who asked about playing in the haunted house in the first place. If she didn’t accompany Wang Ziwen to play, then she won’t be considered a good friend.

Thus, Xu Xiaojing forced herself not to think of these scary thoughts, and besides, she entered the haunted house to play because she had never played one before and wanted to experience getting scared.

She shook her head wildly to cast off any bad premonitions she got and whispered, “Boss, give me two 50 yen tickets. We’re both going to play.”

Since the two female NPCs were done discussing, Bai Yan also followed suit, “Boss, this is a hundred. We also want two 50 yen tickets.”

The boss’s heart grew elated from the two groups buying tickets, believing that what he had eloquently said was convincing. When the next group of guests came in, he’ll also tell this story.

The boss went to the counter and processed their payments, handing over two tickets each to the two. Seeing that there was another booking alert on his phone, the next set of customers would be entering shortly, and to earn more money, he craftily suggested, “Handsome brothers and pretty ladies(1), do you want to enter together? With an even boy and girl pairing, it won’t feel too tiring.”

“Okay, I’m fine with it,” Xu Xiaojing answered. If there were only the two of them playing, it would be flat out scarier. By having more people with her, she would feel safer.

“We don’t have any objections either.” The two players were thrilled to have the NPCs there, so they naturally wouldn’t refuse.

“Okay. This is the guide to the haunted house, and she will lead you to the haunted house. If you have any questions, you can ask help from her. Happy playing!”

The boss revealed a cheerful smile to them and sent them on their way with the guide.

He watched as the group went away before mumbling to himself, “Those four fools. The haunted house business is tough and doesn’t make a lot of money.”

The boss opened the haunted house’s website and saw a lot of poor reviews, issuing a frown upon his face, “That’s odd. This month’s guests didn’t leave a comment nor did they go in again, so the guests who are interested in playing the haunted house can only read the old ones, driving them away. I’ll just buy some good reviews to make the attraction’s reputation better. I could also swindle the people who go in here.”

He turned off his phone and sat down on his chair to wait for his next customers.

Ever since his sister killed herself, he took over her haunted house and made the last down payment before the lease expired.

At first, his sister promised that she would subsidize 500 thousand yen for him to buy a house and take on a wife, but after a month, his sister had suddenly gone off the grid. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find her.

But at long last, a friend finally helped him track down his sister’s current address, causing him to find out that she had already committed suicide. There was a will placed on the table at the time of her death that said all of her possessions would be donated to charity, not even leaving a single cent to him.

To get her sister’s inheritance, he quietly tore the will to shreds, to not lose a single cent.

He wasn’t without resentment towards his sister’s unexpected death. With that fateful event happening, the 500 thousand yen had puffed away like smoke. Their parents spent money for her to go to a good school, and after she grew up, she couldn’t even repay her debt to her parents and show filial piety. When she died, she didn’t want them to take advantage of her death and receive her things, so she deliberately donated her possessions away. Just thinking of this made his blood boil, not even feeling a bit of remorse for her death.

In his point of view, with parents paying for schooling and having a good educational background, it wouldn’t be long before she started a successful business, opening a haunted house to make a profit. This woman had nothing to be depressed over. With such a good life, she still ended up committing suicide. She only needed to eat her fill and push forward.