Chapter 187: Solo Challenge at the Haunted House (3)
Gathering his belongings, Chen Ge walked out of the city bureau with the white cat.
"That Captain Yan feels quite unusual." Chen Ge glanced back and decided to lie low for a while.
This incident served as a warning. The city bureau was different from the West City Police Station. The reason he hadn't been grilled during his previous visits was mainly because Officer Li had been speaking up for him.
"With the three-star trial mission complete, I don't need to unlock higher-level scenes for now. I just need to develop the Third Psychiatric Ward well." In truth, even if a four-star horror scene were placed before him, Chen Ge wouldn't choose it. Starting from the three-star trial missions, the danger index multiplied exponentially, accompanied by all sorts of unknowns and surprises.
Hopping into a taxi, Chen Ge set the white cat and rooster aside, pulled out his black phone, and tapped on the unread messages on the screen.
"Player arrived at the mission site within the time limit and survived until dawn. Third Psychiatric Ward trial mission complete! Three-star horror scene Third Psychiatric Ward unlocked. Player can freely control all mechanisms within this scene via the scene interface!"
"Trial mission completion rate: 60%. Not exceeding 90%, unable to obtain the hidden item for this mission."
"Completing the scene's hidden side mission can increase the trial mission completion rate. When the completion rate reaches 90%, the hidden item for this scene will be awarded."
After reading the info on the black phone, Chen Ge was a bit surprised. "Only 60% completion? Where did I go wrong? Did the main personality of Men Nan hide something from me, or is it related to those escaped mental patients?"
Chen Ge was quite looking forward to the hidden item rewarded after the trial mission, and he had also noticed a pattern.
The higher the star rating of the trial mission, the better the hidden item rewarded. For instance, the one-star Peaceful Apartments only gave a resentment-filled missing person notice, while the two-star Twilight Middle School rewarded him with a rare ghost—the Spirit Medium.
"Could the hidden reward for the three-star trial mission be that little boy?" Chen Ge thought it over and found it plausible. After all, Men Nan's main personality had said his will had merged with the Third Psychiatric Ward. "It feels like the relationship between Men Nan's main personality and the Third Psychiatric Ward is similar to that between Director Luo's daughter and New Century Amusement Park—one guards from inside the door, the other from outside."
What exactly the hidden mission within the Third Psychiatric Ward scene was would only be triggered by entering the scene.
Under the driver's odd stare, Chen Ge grabbed his things and got out of the car. As soon as he entered New Century Amusement Park, he noticed some tourists looking at him strangely.
"It's not a holiday today, so why does it feel like there are more visitors in the park?" The usually deserted park seemed to have regained a bit of life. Embarrassed by their stares, Chen Ge slung his backpack over his shoulder and ran toward the Horror House as if fleeing.
After running just a few meters, Chen Ge stopped again. He stared at the long lines in front of his haunted house, feeling like he was dreaming.
"So many people came to visit?"
"Boss!" Xu Wan stood on the steps at the entrance of the haunted house, spotting Chen Ge as soon as he entered the park. "You're finally back!"
The tourists turned their heads in unison at the sound, and Chen Ge felt their gazes prickling his skin.
He squeezed through the crowd and listened to Xu Wan explain for a while before understanding. Most of these tourists had come specifically to see Chen Ge.
The impact of last night's livestream was bigger than Chen Ge had imagined. His stream had been clipped into segments and shared across various forums. "Fake livestream meets real killer"—a similar headline had already trended on the hot search.
The key point was that during the livestream, Chen Ge noticed his popularity skyrocketing and decisively plastered his haunted house's address on the screen, using the largest font size possible. For those sharing the video, covering up the address with a mosaic would require obscuring at least a quarter of the entire screen.
Rather than ruin the viewing experience, it was better to go with the flow and appear magnanimous.
As a result, many platforms and forums indirectly helped Chen Ge promote his haunted house. Some tourists from nearby cities had watched the video and made a special trip to Hanjiang.
After last night's livestream, his short video page's follower count kept climbing, with tens of thousands of comments. Despite the livestream room being shut down, he still topped the newcomer livestream popularity chart.
Chen Ge gained a huge wave of attention and traffic, but Qin Guang suffered. He had poured who knows how much money into full-platform promotion, only to have frequent livestream accidents after attracting viewers, culminating in a black screen.
Rumor had it that Qin Guang was scared into the hospital. Even worse, while God closed one door for him, He also sealed the windows. When Qin Guang woke up and found his paranormal livestream room caught in the crossfire and banned, he probably spat blood.
With too many tourists, Chen Ge couldn't afford to rest. He had dozed off briefly in the interrogation room that morning and could still manage.
After briefly explaining the rules for horror scene tiers, Chen Ge asked Uncle Xu to maintain order while he and Xu Wan touched up their makeup and entered their respective scenes to play ghosts.
The afternoon passed without a break. As dusk approached, there were still tourists queuing at the haunted house entrance.
The park delayed closing by half an hour, and it wasn't until after six o'clock that Chen Ge and Xu Wan emerged from the haunted house.
Pale-faced, Xu Wan was exhausted. "I never thought our haunted house would have to work overtime one day."
"There are plenty of things you haven't thought of. Stick with me and work hard—there's a bright future ahead." Chen Ge looked at Xu Wan with a smile. Ever since he learned he could hire ghosts as employees, his interest in recruiting new staff had faded. Maybe Xu Wan would be the only living employee in his Horror House from now on.
"Boss, there's something else I need to tell you." Xu Wan pulled a flyer from her pocket. "A famous traveling haunted house from across the country is coming to Hanjiang. They've rented a venue on the downtown commercial street and will officially open tomorrow."
"Competition is a good thing. Don't worry about it." Chen Ge glanced at the flyer. The haunted house was called Tian Teng Hospital, combining hospital and school themes—a Japanese-style large-scale traveling haunted house.
"I didn't pay much attention during their early promotion, but this morning, after our haunted house blew up, they directly changed their homepage ad. They claimed their haunted house was designed by foreign professionals and was far scarier than any other in Hanjiang, saying the two weren't even on the same level." Xu Wan pulled out her phone and opened the Tian Teng Hospital website.
Chen Ge looked it over. Tian Teng Hospital was indeed engaging in malicious slander. Though they didn't name names, the only well-known haunted house in Hanjiang was Chen Ge's.
"Looks like they're here to cause trouble." Chen Ge pocketed the Tian Teng Hospital flyer. "No worries. When they open tomorrow, I'll go over and 'show my support.'"
Good night~