Chapter 35: Something Happened?
"Why has it gone quiet outside?" Crane Mountain glanced at Old Zhao. "Should we go out and take a look?"
"If the enemy doesn't move, I don't move. When the screams start, we'll go out and search in the opposite direction. That way, we're sure to avoid whatever's scary." Old Zhao said confidently.
"Isn't this selling out our teammates?"
"Selling out, my ass. We're using our teammates' sacrifice to buy time for victory." Old Zhao was as round as a ball. He stood behind Crane Mountain, but Crane's small frame couldn't even cover half of his body.
"Then how much longer do we have to hide? What if we're the only two left in the haunted house now?" Crane Mountain was honest and simple. Looking at the senior hiding behind him, he felt like he was being set up.
"We've already searched all the rooms on the second floor, and most of the third floor. I suspect the exit is on the first floor. In other words, we're very close to the exit now." Old Zhao patted Crane Mountain on the shoulder. "Cheer up. Don't give up just outside the door of success."
"At a time like this, you're still in the mood to feed me motivational crap?" Crane Mountain looked helpless, his heart full of unspoken bitterness. He had only come here to guide the seniors; he never wanted to go inside.
"Don't be so pessimistic." Old Zhao started counting on his fingers. "I heard Monkey and Xiao Hui scream earlier. They've probably been sent out already. Add the eighth person who snuck in among us, that means there should be five people from our school left in the haunted house now. The killer's chance of chasing someone else is three-fifths. We don't need to rush. Just wait."
"Fine, I'll listen to you." Crouching by the door, Crane Mountain pressed his eye to the crack and looked outside. In the blink of an eye, something seemed to have appeared in the dim hallway.
He rubbed his eyes and looked again. On the floor, a tattered doll had appeared out of nowhere.
"Am I seeing things? Was there a doll on the floor before? No way. I've been hiding here for over ten minutes, watching the whole time." Crane Mountain lightly slapped his face and looked again. The doll was still there, and it had moved closer to the door.
"Is it moving on its own? Or am I so nervous I'm starting to hallucinate?" He shook his head. When he looked again, the doll had vanished from the crack in the door.
"Weird. Did I really see it wrong?"
...
At the staff passage on the first floor, Chen Ge had put on the Skull Crusher Doctor costume. He told Xu Wan to go outside and look after the medical students while he personally entered the haunted house to catch people.
Donning the bloodstained doctor's uniform, wrapping chains engraved with human faces around his body one by one, gripping the skull-crushing iron hammer, and putting on the imitation human-skin mask, Chen Ge's portrayal of the Skull Crusher Doctor was far more intimidating than Xiao Wan's, whether in height or presence.
"These brats are trying to play a war of attrition with me?" With every step, the chains clinked. The sound was oppressive but gave away his position. Chen Ge wandered through the scene for five minutes without spotting anyone.
"Boss, the cameras aren't showing anyone. They must be hiding in the rooms. You'll have to check them one by one." Xu Wan's voice came through the earpiece. "I suggest we install cameras in every corner of the haunted house in the future. Only having them at corridor junctions leaves too many blind spots."
"We'll talk about that when we have money." Chen Ge, hammer in hand, pushed open doors one by one. When he reached the corner of the second floor, he suddenly noticed a doll lying in front of a certain door.
"How did this little guy get out again? And it's lying right at the door." Chen Ge, hammer in hand, thought for a moment and understood. "There must be someone hiding in that room. The little guy is helping me."
He pretended not to notice and walked past the door casually.
After going about ten meters, Chen Ge gathered the chains dragging on the floor, pressed close to the wall on one side of the corridor, and crept back toward the door.
Staying in the blind spot, he crouched down and peered through the crack in the door.
...
Inside the room, Crane Mountain and Old Zhao were huddled behind the door, covering their mouths.
"The chain sounds have stopped. The killer must have moved on." Old Zhao's face was pale with fear, but he still forced calm to maintain his senior's dignity. "Honestly, I'm not scared at all. Based on my reasoning, the killer just came up from the first floor and won't go back anytime soon. This is our chance!"
He struggled to get up from the floor. "Let's move to the first floor now. We can perfectly avoid the killer and outsmart him. Xiao Shan, check the door again. If you're sure the killer is gone, we'll move immediately."
Crane Mountain thought Old Zhao had a point. Without overthinking, he pressed his face to the door and looked through the crack.
A faint warmth hit his face. This time, what Crane Mountain saw was different from before. No dark hallway, no creepy doll—just a bloodshot eyeball staring back at him from the other side of the door!
"What the hell!"
Crane Mountain felt like his scalp was about to explode. He fell backward, scrambling away in panic.
The sight scared Old Zhao half to death too. "What did you see?"
The answer came in the sound of the door lock turning. The old door creaked open, and a figure drenched in blood, radiating evil and horror, appeared at the entrance.
Seeing this, Old Zhao kept backing up, as if trying to press himself into the wall.
"Standing so close to the wall isn't a good idea. What if someone's inside it?" Chen Ge reached into his pocket and quietly pressed the option on his black phone to trigger the scene's mechanism.
Old Zhao's fat trembled with fear. Before he could understand what Chen Ge meant, his back hit something.
He instinctively turned his head. The smooth wall panels slid open, revealing a woman with a blank expression embedded inside!
His mind went blank. Old Zhao, drained of all strength, collapsed to the floor. The world spun around him, and his eyes lost focus.
"Gentlemen, your experience is over. I'll see you out."
Just as Chen Ge finished speaking, the sound of glass shattering came from the third floor, followed by Brother Feng's scream.
"Something happened?" Chen Ge quickly contacted Xiao Wan to come in. Abandoning Crane Mountain and Old Zhao, he rushed upstairs in a panic.
Following the sound, Chen Ge found Brother Feng in a room on the third floor, gripping a wooden chair as if fighting something.
He took off his mask and waited until Brother Feng, exhausted, collapsed on the floor before entering.
"What's going on?" Chen Ge grabbed the chair and tossed it aside. Brother Feng was in a very unstable state, his eyes almost overflowing with fear. "Did you see something strange?"