Bam! The door slammed shut again!
Chen Mo reacted swiftly, rushing over and yanking open the door that Duan Xue had just closed, while raising Old Zhang's flashlight to aim outside. But as the door swung open, the scene revealed the internet cafe's lobby—deep in the night, only a few scattered patrons dozed in their seats, utterly oblivious to what had happened behind the door.
Had the supernatural force vanished? Yet along with it, Duan Xue had also disappeared...
In the world of horror stories, going missing essentially meant death, especially since, in the instant the door opened, Chen Mo hadn't seen what was inside, but he had caught a glimpse of a pale arm grabbing Duan Xue and pulling her into the door in a flash!
Sure enough, the earlier calm was merely an illusion the story had created. Once they touched the main plot and core clues, within a single short night, two out of seven participants had already died.
Under normal circumstances, a participant's death would trigger a relatively quiet buffer period in the supernatural attacks. But to be safe, the group quickly fled the eerie internet cafe and returned to the street.
At the empty crossroads, four wide branching roads stretched out in all directions, but there were no cars on the roads and no pedestrians in sight. This bizarre phenomenon made it unmistakably clear that this was indeed just a strange area, a stage for a story, not the real world. For anything outside the plot, the controller who designed this world was always so careless and irresponsible.
At that moment, Chen Mo's thoughts turned more to the string of characters that had appeared on the computer screen at the end: r-i-n-z.
After pondering with no leads, he habitually pulled out his phone and typed those four characters into the search engine. The page immediately filled with numerous English entries.
Not this...
Chen Mo thought for a moment, then added four more characters, turning the string into a phrase: rinz-game.
He hit enter and searched. This time, many English entries appeared again, but among them were a few Chinese search results. The top one was an encyclopedia entry introducing a game company called Rinz!
Rinz turned out to be a game company!
Opening the encyclopedia entry, details about the Rinz company emerged one by one. Despite its English name, it was actually a domestic game development company that had once employed hundreds of people, suggesting it had seen some glory days.
Continuing to search with "Rinz company" as the keyword, Chen Mo discovered that this once-thriving company had suddenly shut down and disbanded seven years ago for unknown reasons.
Founded ten years ago, why would it close abruptly three years later, at the peak of its business success? There had to be an unusual reason behind it, but no trace of that reason could be found online.
"Could this cursed game have been developed by Rinz? But why would a legitimate game company create a cursed game that manipulates vengeful spirits to kill people?"
Li Kai's question was clearly on everyone's mind, but no one could answer it at that moment.
"What's the real reason? You're all just guessing and getting nowhere. I say, why not just go investigate the company directly and find out?"
Hearing Lin Tianheng's reckless suggestion, Li Kai's mouth twitched. "Lin Tianheng, are you kidding? And wasn't that company long gone? Where are we supposed to investigate?"
"Even though the company closed, the building from back then seems to still exist... and I've already found its address!" At that moment, Ye Sheng opened his phone and showed the screen to the group. "But that building is now abandoned—are you sure you want to go?"
A defunct game company, an abandoned building...
When a company goes under, wouldn't the vacant building normally be leased to other companies? Yet this game company's closure had left the entire building deserted, practically telling the participants that something unusual—maybe even an evil spirit—had happened there back then!
But no further clues about Rinz could be found online; it was clearly a limitation of the story. In other words, unless they personally took the risk, they couldn't obtain more leads.
"Do you think we have any other choice?" Dai Minghan finally spread his hands helplessly, then looked at Chen Mo.
"Then it's settled." Chen Mo nodded, making the decision. "Let's all get a good rest tonight. I won't hide it from you—tomorrow, we might face new dangers."
Although Ye Sheng and Li Kai were students in this story, by the next day, both unhesitatingly made up excuses to skip school and left the campus.
Initially, Chen Mo hadn't planned to involve the two newcomers in this dangerous investigation. But for one, Li Kai was already cursed by the game, and Ye Sheng was a defenseless novice. Leaving them at school wouldn't guarantee safety either, so it was better to stick together and share the risks—if something happened, there might be a chance to turn things around.
Why did veterans have to help newcomers as much as possible? After experiencing the horror journey, Chen Mo had once felt a bit puzzled, until he learned from Li Yan that every so often, the Bizarre Radio Station would release a large-scale story "co-broadcast" by multiple program groups. These large-scale story missions included cooperation, competition, and confrontation modes. The strength of a program group often directly determined whether its members survived in such stories, so most groups chose to preserve and nurture newcomers to bolster their power.
Of course, "most" didn't mean absolute. It was said that within the station, there were special program groups that used plunder to concentrate a large number of items in the hands of a few members. Such groups had few members, but entering a story mission with them—even a cooperative large-scale one—was extremely dangerous!
Pulling his thoughts back, Chen Mo's gaze returned to Ye Sheng and Li Kai. Newcomers who had just finished their beginner script and hadn't obtained any items usually had the highest mortality rate in stories. Yet some among them could transcend the fear of death, survive ghost attacks, and then, step by step, tread this path strewn with thorns and death.
"We're here. This is it."
After signaling the driver to stop, Chen Mo pulled out his phone to scan and pay, then pushed open the car door and jumped out of the taxi with Ye Sheng and Li Kai. Amid the bustling traffic, a dilapidated building stood incongruously before them.