Chapter 2: Daily Tasks
The app on his phone, with its icon of a haunted house gate, looked a lot like those popular simulation management mobile games on the market—except instead of running a restaurant, aquarium, or pet park, it was managing a haunted house.
Chen Ge stared at the screen, utterly baffled as to why such a strange little game would be on the phone his parents had left behind.
He carefully scrolled through the app interface, and all the information matched his haunted house perfectly, including the daily visitor count and the facility setups inside. The game gave Chen Ge an odd feeling, as if the haunted house it needed to manage was the very same one he owned in real life.
The same dire situation, the same brink of closure—there were too many similarities between the two.
"Could this game be modeled after my haunted house? If I change things in the game, would it benefit me in reality too?"
Chen Ge continued reading. The existing facility scenario in the haunted house, "Zombie Resurrection Night," was criticized as utterly worthless, and even the terror project that had once made the newspapers and caused a stir only received a half-star rating in the game's evaluation.
"Even the terror project only got half a star. I can't imagine how terrifying those unlockable horror scenarios further down must be." He tried tapping to unlock more scenarios, and when he touched that option, a line of text appeared on the screen, prompting him to complete a certain number of daily tasks before he could unlock them.
"So daily tasks are the foundation of everything. Only by consistently completing daily tasks can I unlock horror scenarios. More horror scenarios will attract a large number of visitors, and with increased foot traffic, I can expand the haunted house and enlarge the venue, creating a positive cycle."
Chen Ge had played many mobile games in his spare time, and he quickly grasped the game's rules—the completion rate of daily tasks would affect the entire development of the haunted house.
He opened the daily tasks, and three options appeared on the screen:
Easy Difficulty: The three key elements of haunted house design—story, setting, and emotion. A haunted house without a story has no soul. Please complete the background stories for the two horror scenarios, "Zombie Resurrection Night" and the "Terror Project."
Normal Difficulty: Before midnight, repair all the mannequin models inside the haunted house.
Nightmare Difficulty: You must still be curious whether ghosts really exist in this world. Come play a little game—the truth will be there the moment you open your eyes.
Daily tasks refresh at midnight every day, and only one task can be claimed per day. Different difficulties yield different rewards.
(Note! Some tasks are extremely dangerous! Choose carefully!)
After reading the daily tasks, Chen Ge was a bit surprised. "The tasks in the game actually need to be completed in real life. Does this indirectly mean the game can affect reality?"
To test his hypothesis, he decided to claim a task and try it out.
The daily tasks were graded by difficulty, and only one could be claimed each day. If he wanted to maximize the benefits, he would naturally choose the hardest one, but the warning about some tasks being extremely dangerous made Chen Ge a bit wary.
"It's hard to decide. The description for the Nightmare difficulty task is very vague, and it looks like a huge trap. Maybe I should start with Normal difficulty. Fixing all the mannequin models before midnight is a bit tight, but it's not impossible."
Chen Ge was a very decisive person. Once he made a decision, he acted on it immediately. Without wasting any time, he grabbed a toolbox and a bucket of unopened artificial blood and began inspecting all the mannequin props throughout the haunted house.
The night was deep, and Chen Ge walked alone through the vast haunted house. To save electricity, he didn't even turn on the hallway lights. With a flashlight tucked under his arm, he dragged the mannequins that needed maintenance back and forth.
If an outsider who didn't know the situation saw this scene, they'd probably be scared enough to call the police.
"I'm exhausted! I didn't realize so many mannequins had problems. Looks like the maintenance has been really lacking!"
At 11:45 PM, Chen Ge received a notification on his phone that the task was complete: "You have completed the Normal difficulty daily task. Paying attention to details is the only way to create the perfect terrifying atmosphere. Congratulations on receiving your task reward—the background track 'Black Friday.'"
"'Black Friday' isn't that banned foreign song? Rumor has it that listening to it too much can make people want to commit suicide, and the original version has long since disappeared." Chen Ge found a CD icon in the phone's item library. "What kind of reward is this? Could it be a prank?"
He casually tapped the CD icon, and a melody he had never heard before rang in his ears.
The sound seemed to be born from darkness itself—lonely, sorrowful. Chen Ge felt like everything was slipping away from him. He seemed to sink into the depths of the ocean, or walk down a tunnel with no end.
When the song ended, Chen Ge's back was soaked through. He was very glad he hadn't chosen to loop it, because he really didn't know if he could have made it out of that piece.
"This is for real! It must be the original version!"
Completing tasks in the game yielded real-world rewards, and this showed Chen Ge a shortcut to change the current state of the haunted house.
He turned off the music and carefully saved it. After handling everything, Chen Ge slipped into the staff break room.
Lying in bed, his body was exhausted, but he didn't feel the slightest bit sleepy.
What he had experienced today would take any normal person time to process.
Before he knew it, midnight had passed, and Chen Ge was still staring blankly at the ceiling.
"I can't sleep at all!" Bored, he took out the black phone again. "Midnight has passed, so the daily tasks should have refreshed, right?"
He opened the app, and sure enough, the daily tasks column had changed.
Easy Difficulty: To provide visitors with a truly terrifying experience, you must first pay attention to the pacing of the tour. Actors and mechanisms appearing too early or too late will cause visitors to lose interest. So I suggest you install sound detectors and surveillance cameras in the haunted house to keep track of the visitors' progress at all times.
Normal Difficulty: One tree does not make a forest. A good haunted house needs an excellent team to operate. Recruit more talent, and they will help you get through this tough time.
Nightmare Difficulty: You must still be curious whether ghosts really exist in this world. Come play a little game—the truth will be there the moment you open your eyes.
Daily tasks refresh at midnight every day, and only one task can be claimed per day. Different difficulties yield different rewards.
(Note! Some tasks are extremely dangerous! Choose carefully!)
The three new daily tasks left Chen Ge feeling conflicted.
The Easy task was to install sound detectors and surveillance cameras in the haunted house. This task could be completed as long as he had money, but the problem was that Chen Ge's budget was limited, and he simply couldn't afford it.
The Normal difficulty task was also unfriendly to Chen Ge. The veteran employee who had weathered the storms with him had just resigned yesterday, and now he was supposed to hire new people. Not to mention whether he could even find anyone, even if someone was willing to come, training them from scratch would take a huge amount of time. By the time the new hires could stand on their own, the haunted house would probably be done for.
Having ruled out the Easy and Normal difficulty tasks, Chen Ge turned his attention to the last daily task.
"The higher the difficulty, the richer the reward. Should I give the Nightmare-level task a try?"