To ascend, I had no choice but to create games

Chapter 285: Chapter 184 Satisfaction (Part 2)_2

Fang Cheng nodded, feeling he had learned something new.

Contrast is a common tactic in games, I can try using it in the future.

But a haunted house…

The tour car stopped right in front of the haunted house. Sharp screams erupted instantaneously, turning the complexion of the couple beside it pale. The man, being tightly embraced by his girlfriend, gritted his teeth but still tried to act brave and said, “Don’t worry, it’s just a small scene.”

After getting off the tour car, Fang Cheng discovered that including himself and Xu Qingling, only four people got off at this stop, and the couple was one of them.

The haunted house in front of them appeared to be a reasonably sized elementary school.

The school seemed to have been recently renovated, with everything looking shiny and new, very much in the style of the 1990s.

On the wall at the entrance, the words “Yuchai Elementary School” were written in black paint, with numerous visiting instructions beside them, warning players with heart conditions not to enter. From the moment they entered through the main gate, it would be a horror-filled Different World, and those not mentally prepared should not proceed.

If you wanted to take the tour, you’d need to wait two minutes apart, and go only when the indicator light came on.

The small gate was left open, revealing the interior to be a security room. The sound of a broadcast could be heard from inside, but no one could be seen; perhaps you’d have to walk in to find out.

Perhaps not wanting to appear cowardly in front of his girlfriend, the young man went through the iron gate first, noticing the decor inside also resembled that of the 1990s.

A grandfather covered with a blanket lay on a bed, humming along to an opera broadcast on the radio, looking quite relaxed.

Feeling relieved it was just an old man, the young man asked through the window, “Grandpa, is this the haunted house? Do we need to buy tickets?”

The old man on the chair woke up from his dream-like state, turned his head with a smile and said, “No need, just go right in. I suggest you put on a diaper, or it’ll be troublesome to wash later.”

“It can’t be that exaggerated…”

The old man’s kind smile made the young man feel much more at ease, even jocular.

But then, he saw the old man turning his head.

His neck made cracking sounds as it twisted to its limit, yet his kind smile remained while he continued turning his head until, amidst the chilling sound of snap, his head had turned a full one hundred and eighty degrees to face the young man behind him.

“You should really change it,” the old man kindly suggested.

Watching the old man like this, the young man felt a tingling sensation on his scalp, his jaw shook involuntarily, and he began making “crack crack crack” sounds without thinking.

He wanted to run, but his legs wouldn’t obey, and he was so scared stiff he couldn’t even move.

“Young man, aren’t you going to change? Shall I help you?”

“Augh!”

Only then did the young man scream miserably, dashing out the door to grab his girlfriend and leave without looking back, leaving behind only the kind laughter of the old man.

After chasing away the young man, the actor turned his head back to its original position.

The trick wasn’t difficult.

The bed had a headless dummy covered with a blanket, while he himself was hidden in a compartment in the recliner. The compartment was quite spacious and outfitted with a mechanism that, when the time was right, rotated him into view.

If the other party wanted to take a closer look, then by turning off the light, dropping the blinds of the window, and hiding himself in the compartment, he could scare the person on the other side when the light came back on.

The door to the guard room was locked, and visitors couldn’t enter – the only options were to flee in terror or to boldly enter the next level.

The haunted house had many more mechanical tricks set up, creating genuinely terrifying effects that even scared the staff.

Having scared off the young man, the old man returned to his spot before peering through a corner monitor to see more people approaching.

Ready to repeat his act, he noticed they didn’t stop but instead bypassed the security room, preparing to move further inside.

Although they didn’t follow the script, the old man was a professional.

He coughed politely and then asked, “Young man, what are you here for, please sign in.”

“Oh.”

Fang Cheng nodded and began to sign his name in the register at the entrance. After he finished, he noticed the old man’s head had already rotated 180 degrees and was now looking at him amiably.

After they made eye contact for a while, Fang Cheng said, “You have a bit of a problem with your neck. After work, you should go to the hospital to check it out. Three days of physical therapy should do the trick.”

“Uh… thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“That… put on the wristband next to you. And draw your identity card while you’re at it.”

The wristbands here monitor one’s heartbeat and also have a distress signal function. If the wearer’s heartbeat is too fast for too long, or if the tourist presses the distress signal, it can send out an alarm, thereby getting assistance from the staff to leave this place.

The next part of the path requires two people together. From an overall environmental perspective, this path has a very spooky atmosphere. The locust trees block out the sunlight here, and one cannot see the end of the twisted path at a glance. The obscured field of vision easily gives the illusion of being attacked, thus increasing psychological pressure.

However, Fang Cheng took one look around and knew there was no one nearby, so he wasn’t scared at all.

After putting on the wristband and drawing a card, Fang Cheng waited in the waiting area for a while before he saw Xu Qingling walk in.

With her expression as usual, she walked in and frowned, asking, “Fang Cheng, how do you feel?”

“What feeling?”

“The somewhat scary old man at the entrance?”

“Is that old man scary?”

“Now that you mention it, he doesn’t really seem that scary. By the way, what’s your identity?”

Unfolding his own identity slip, Fang Cheng said, “A student couple that wandered into the haunted school… the female side?”

“What a coincidence, I’m the male side. According to the hints on the strip, next we need to put our hands together and walk the following path. It’s okay not to hold hands, there’s another way to play. I must say, the arrangement of paths here is pretty diverse. It makes one quite interested in walking them several times.”

Fang Cheng nodded in agreement, while he began to wonder if setting up multiple routes for a game similar to a haunted house would be interesting.

In front of him, Xu Qingling held out her hand with a smile and asked, “So, Fang Cheng, would you like to experience the couple’s route with me?”

“Sure.”

They held each other’s hands and walked towards the chilling path ahead, heading deeper into the school.

Two hours later, both of them walked out of the haunted house, followed by a completely dumbfounded staff member.

They had seen visitors screaming as they entered the haunted house, seen those who fought the ghosts they encountered, seen those who could do nothing but cry, but they had never seen a couple that held hands the whole time and chatted merrily.

And that girl, what do you normally do that allows you to carry objects weighing tens of kilograms upstairs like a guy?!

We’re putting so much effort into our performance, could you not ignore us, please?!

Those of us in this line of work love to hear the visitors scream and shout!

Could you show us some respect?!

Just as the staff were full of sorrow, feeling that their acting was unsatisfactory, they noticed the two visitors had returned.

Facing the puzzled staff, Fang Cheng explained, “We just took the couple’s route and started with full favorability. But this time, we’re taking the strangers’ route and will start from zero favorability. Oh, I’m playing the female role, so don’t get the identities mixed up.”

Looking at the two who were unfazed by anything and played the haunted house as if it were a dating sim, the staff thought they were really weird.

Especially when they noticed that the duo didn’t seem to care about the ghosts at all, only the story, the staff realized scaring these two didn’t give them any sense of achievement whatsoever.

After spending a day exploring every part of the haunted house, Fang Cheng and Xu Qingling finished most of the side stories and then remarked that the place wasn’t scary, but the story and plot were well-written.

Agreeing to come and play together again next time, Xu Qingling watched Fang Cheng walk into the world of bright lights, while she got into her private car, then began smiling at her crystal bracelet.

The bracelet was a souvenir for those who successfully completed the haunted house and was also a key prop within it. Only those visitors who managed to hold hands throughout the couple’s line received this reward, and there weren’t many who had managed to do so.

Glancing at the bracelet and then at the palm of her hand, Xu Qingling gently kissed her palm once she was sure the driver was focused on driving, and a shy yet content smile spread across her face.