Chapter 132: I Know What I'm Doing
The puppets created using the Living Puppet talent were incredibly eerie. At this moment, twenty-four puppets stood in the last classroom, some sitting, some standing—even Chen Ge found the scene hard to handle.
"Mu Yang High School absolutely cannot be casually opened to the public. If these twenty-four lingering thoughts really go berserk, they’d probably scare people to death."
He had made every puppet with his own hands, and he could genuinely feel the changes in them since they donned the school uniforms. It seemed as if each puppet had gained a soul, as though what stood before him weren’t props but real people.
Due to limitations in manpower and budget, few haunted houses could deploy more than ten actors in a single scene. The lack of staff had always been a headache for Chen Ge, but now that problem was solved.
Deploying twenty-four professional actors in one themed scene—that was the kind of setup only the top-tier haunted houses had!
"I’m already looking forward to it. This two-star horror scene might just put the Haunted House on the map for good."
After setting up the classroom, Chen Ge packed the scattered student ID badges from the podium into a cardboard box.
"Mu Yang High School has no exit, only an entrance. The old escape rules won’t work anymore; I need to come up with new game rules." He squinted, hiding the twenty-four badges from the podium in various corners of Mu Yang High School. "Find twenty badges within twenty minutes to clear the level. Find all of them, and I’ll refund the ticket price and give a cash reward. That’ll not only encourage visitors to come in but also add gameplay and interaction."
Chen Ge’s haunted house was growing fast, and he was always thinking about how to make it more fun. This badge-hunting idea was, for him, a great experiment.
"I need to incorporate more elements. My goal isn’t just to build a scary haunted house—it’s to create the world’s first horror-themed amusement park."
While hiding the badges, Chen Ge noticed that the Mu Yang High School scene had expanded a bit. A new fork appeared at the end of the corridor, leading to three adjacent, dilapidated rooms with door numbers—302, 303, and 304.
The one-star horror scene, Three People’s Room, had unlocked right next to Mu Yang High School, blending perfectly with it. The only downside was that the internal paths of the haunted house had become a bit more complicated.
"All the horror scenes are adjacent. At this rate, the entire underground parking lot will be filled with my horror scenes, with roads crisscrossing everywhere. It really could be called a Maze of Terror."
Retracing his steps, Chen Ge returned to the first floor of the haunted house. He straightened his clothes, walked to the entrance, and pushed open the guardrail.
The sunlight hit him—it was a perfect day for a park visit.
Around nine o’clock, Xu Wan arrived at the haunted house. Chen Ge told her to go get made up and stand by in the ** scene.
As the number of visitors grew, Chen Ge’s haunted house became the only attraction in the entire New Century Amusement Park that required a queue. To let more people experience it, Chen Ge called Uncle Xu to arrange for someone to handle ticket sales. Unexpectedly, Uncle Xu came running over himself after a while.
"None of the other attractions have many people, so I’ve got nothing to do. Need me to squeeze into that ticket booth and sell tickets?"
"No need. Just do whatever’s comfortable for you."
Leaving the outside to Uncle Xu, Chen Ge went back to the staff break room, lifted the bed board, and used artificial blood plasma to write the introduction and rules for Mu Yang High School on the back.
When he carried the bed board out, the crowd stirred.
"A brand-new horror scene!"
"That description is terrifying."
"A school horror story—I love it!"
The onlookers were instantly hooked. Since the ticket price was the same, the people at the front of the line clamored to try the new scene.
"Everyone, let me say something." Chen Ge propped the bed board against the haunted house entrance. "This newly built horror scene is extremely scary! It features professional actors and top-tier domestic props. During its trial run, a paranormal investigation team came to check it out. They tried to sneak photos of the details, but none of them expected to capture something utterly horrifying! The two who went in are still lying in the hospital!"
Uncle Xu, watching Chen Ge boast about something that should have been shameful, had no idea what to say. He simply couldn’t understand why Chen Ge would brag about nearly scaring people senseless.
"What did they capture? Spit it out!"
"Ten thousand cows flying in the sky—I don’t believe it could scare anyone into the hospital."
"Stop rambling! I’m playing this scene!"
"Like I’ve never been in a school before. If I back down today, I’ll write my name backward!"
Chen Ge waited for the visitors to finish before continuing. "The reason I’m saying all this is to tell you that this horror scene isn’t open to everyone. Only those who’ve cleared the previous horror scenes can enter this one."
His meaning was clear: to get into Mu Yang High School, you had to first play either ** or Midnight Escape. Horror tiering—that was his plan from the start.
"You’re just trying to rip us off!" As soon as Chen Ge finished, someone immediately objected. "Every time we enter a scene in your haunted house, we have to pay again. Isn’t that forced consumption?"
"The shop’s getting too big for its britches! Are you getting cocky?"
"I only came because of all the good reviews! This is just shady!"
"So many rules just to visit a haunted house? Fine, I won’t play! I don’t believe this place is that scary!"
Chen Ge had anticipated this reaction. After they finished, he patted the bed board. "I’m not trying to cheat anyone. The twenty-yuan ticket is proof of that. To show my sincerity, how about we make a bet?"
He pulled out the remaining reward money from his pocket and placed it next to the bed board. "This is twenty thousand yuan in cash! I’ve hidden twenty-four student ID badges in the new Mu Yang High School scene. If anyone can find all twenty-four badges alone within twenty minutes, this twenty thousand is theirs!"
"Twenty-yuan ticket? Twenty-thousand prize? A thousand times!"
"How do we know how many badges are in there? What if you only put in twenty-three? Then we’d never find them all!"
A visitor raised a doubt, but Chen Ge couldn’t be bothered to argue. "Wait until someone can walk out of the new scene normally, then come ask me that question."
He had hidden those twenty-four badges very cleverly, with a few stashed in places no one would think to look.
"So arrogant!"
"Why do I feel like trying even though I know it might be a scam?"
"I’m in!"
The atmosphere was fully charged. Chen Ge handed the twenty thousand in cash to Uncle Xu for safekeeping. "Today is the first day of the new rules and new scene! Since the promotion hasn’t reached everyone, just for today, you can directly choose the new scene! As for the cash reward rules, I’ve made them clear. Only one person can enter, and each person gets one chance per day. The badge positions reset the next day. Alright, who wants to take this twenty thousand home?"
Everyone had been shouting loudly, but when it came to actually going in alone, the visitors exchanged glances, and no one stepped forward.
Chen Ge scanned the crowd and noticed six people huddled together at the back of the line, apparently discussing something.
After a moment, five of them walked over.
"Boss, we don’t want to take the challenge. We just want to visit. Can the five of us go in together?" the young man leading them asked Chen Ge.
These six were clearly together. The five would go in first to scope things out, then come out and tell the last person, who would enter alone to find the badges and complete the challenge.
Chen Ge knew they were trying to game the system, but he didn’t mind. "Sure! The five of you can go in together. But let me warn you—don’t use your phones to take pictures or videos inside. You might capture something strange."
"Five people, that’s a hundred." The young man smiled, completely ignoring Chen Ge’s advice.
After taking the money, Chen Ge looked at the five clever visitors and flashed a "professional" smile. "Follow me."
His smile was disarming, and the five visitors didn’t notice anything off. But Uncle Xu, standing nearby, shuddered. He hesitated, then stopped Chen Ge.
Lowering his voice, Uncle Xu said, "These are just ordinary tourists. We’ve got no grudge against them. Keep it under control!"
"Yeah, I know what I’m doing."
Chen Ge gently pushed Uncle Xu aside, but Uncle Xu, hearing that, immediately panicked. "You don’t know a damn thing! Last time you said that, and those two are still in the hospital! That guy Fei Youliang was screaming in his hospital room in the middle of the night, asking who his wife was! Now the whole hospital knows about him!"
More visitors were about to enter Chen Ge’s Demon King Castle!
Promoting the horror house’s VIP group: 2000 follower points, group number 855501308, show screenshot to admin for entry.