**Chapter 3: Nightmare-Level Task**
"You must still be curious whether ghosts really exist in this world. Let's play a little game—the truth will be revealed the moment you open your eyes."
The description of the nightmare-level task was very vague, with no clear idea of what exactly needed to be done, only giving off an eerie feeling.
"Judging by the task introduction, it seems like I need to play a game. But can just playing a game really qualify as nightmare-level?" He had spent several hours without rest just to barely complete a normal-difficulty task, managing to repair all the mannequins within the time limit.
Flipping through his phone, Chen Ge grew more curious the more he read. "How about giving it a try?"
As soon as this thought appeared, it spread uncontrollably through his mind like a vine.
"Nightmare-level tasks offer the highest rewards. Besides, among the three tasks that refreshed today, I don't even have confidence in completing the easy and normal ones. I might as well take a gamble."
If he couldn't survive the off-season, the Horror House would have to be transferred or shut down. Chen Ge was well aware of his current situation. Having finally seen a glimmer of hope for change, he naturally didn't want to let any opportunity slip by.
"That's settled. I'll have to experience a nightmare-level task sooner or later anyway."
Sitting up from the bed, Chen Ge tapped on the last task.
"Are you sure you want to accept the nightmare-difficulty daily task? Accepting it may trigger unknown situations."
"Confirm."
The phone screen flickered, and the real task information appeared.
"To see the other world, you need extraordinary courage, exceptional luck, and a little bit of help."
"Anything can happen in the darkness. Perhaps a stranger's face will emerge in the mirror, a pair of scarlet eyes might lurk in the corner, or blood could seep from the walls and door cracks. All you have to do is remain unmoved and stand quietly in front of the mirror."
"The task will automatically succeed after half an hour, provided that no matter what happens during this time, you do not open your eyes."
After reading the task description, Chen Ge felt a chill run down his spine. "Could there really be another world that ordinary people can't see?"
It was still early before 2:04 AM, so he didn't rush to act. Instead, he searched online for information related to this game.
Before long, he actually found some. Some people claimed to have been plagued by bad luck after playing this game, others gave vague accounts that repeatedly mentioned disfigured faces, and a few even went missing in their own homes, suspected of being dragged into the world inside the mirror.
"Every single one of them tells it so vividly and convincingly, like a ghost story." The more Chen Ge read, the more curious he became. As someone who ran a haunted house, he spent every day figuring out how to scare people and how to deliver the most thrilling experience to visitors within safe limits. After reading all kinds of introductions to this game, he felt like a new door was opening.
"Playing a horror game alone in a haunted house late at night—just thinking about it is exciting!"
He checked his phone's battery level, feeling that this historic moment needed to be recorded.
"I'll film the whole thing later. If it's really that terrifying, maybe my haunted house can add a new attraction." He rummaged through drawers and cabinets for candles and a lighter, and when it was close to 2 AM, he took his prepared items to the bathroom on the first floor of the haunted house.
Chen Ge had thought carefully about why he chose to play this game in the first-floor bathroom. If something truly terrifying appeared during the game, he could simply jump out the window and escape.
The haunted house was dead silent in the dead of night. A young man who would sacrifice even his own life to save on electricity held a flashlight and a candle, and without much hesitation, locked himself inside the cramped, narrow bathroom.
"A pitch-black, enclosed environment is the best way to trigger a person's inner fear. The bathroom is also the place with the heaviest yin energy in the entire house. Mirrors, partition doors, sinks—these props seem ordinary and mundane, but they are actually the things in daily life that give people the strongest psychological cues. The person who designed this game is clever. He knows how to exploit the weaknesses deep in people's hearts, using a simple environment to create the deepest terror." Chen Ge had a profound understanding of horror and terror that set him apart from ordinary people. He analyzed and learned as he went along.
"True fear doesn't require too many expensive props. You just need to amplify the unease deep inside the visitor, and he will defeat himself." Chen Ge took a deep breath, turned on his phone's video recording function, and spoke to the camera. "I don't know what consequences this game will bring. If something happens to me, please, whoever finds this phone, make sure to keep this video. It will be a key—a key to unlocking the lock of lies."
After saying that, Chen Ge fixed his phone next to the sink. From this angle, it could capture both Chen Ge and the mirror in front of him.
"2:01 AM. Three more minutes."
Waiting for death is more terrifying than death itself. In the silent bathroom, every sound, no matter how small, was amplified. As time ticked by, Chen Ge's heartbeat quickened.
He looked at the time on his phone screen. When the minute hand pointed to four, he turned off the flashlight and lit the candle, placing it between himself and the mirror.
The flickering flame became the only source of light in the darkness, standing between the mirror and reality like a guiding soul lamp, as if trying to lure something out from within the mirror.
Chen Ge glanced at his reflection in the mirror and felt a faint sense of strangeness. "Has the game started?"
He slowly lowered his head, closed his eyes, and whispered his own name.
"Chen Ge, Chen Ge, Chen Ge..."
Repeating his own name over and over would gradually make him feel a sense of unfamiliarity with it. It was like writing the same Chinese character repeatedly—eventually, even you wouldn't recognize it. To avoid this, Chen Ge silently counted to three after each time he said his name. This also helped him keep track of time.
After all, the prerequisite for successfully completing the task was that no matter what happened within half an hour, he could not open his eyes.
"At two in the morning, alone in a haunted house, lighting a candle, closing my eyes, and standing in front of a mirror playing a game. If I weren't experiencing this myself, I would never believe anyone would do something like this." Chen Ge silently recited his own name, trying his best to stop his mind from wandering.
"This game is full of psychological cues. The hardest part isn't dealing with so-called ghosts or various legends, but controlling yourself. As long as I don't open my eyes, there should be no danger."
Easier said than done. After the first ten minutes passed, something unexpected happened.