Chapter 5: 25 Minutes and 14 Seconds!
"Talent skill? The rewards for nightmare difficulty missions are different from other tasks—they seem to act directly on me, capable of transforming me!"
Chen Ge noted this down, a spark of anticipation igniting within him. He had already glimpsed the existence of another world, one hidden in the shadows—dangerous, terrifying, and fraught with deadly intent. With his current strength alone, he could barely protect himself, let alone find his parents.
But luckily, he had the black phone, and the future wasn't without a chance for a comeback.
"Thinking about this now is still too far off. First, I need to stabilize the horror house's business and solve the immediate problems." He pulled out his own phone: "Last night was nerve-wracking—I almost had an accident. It's clear that nightmare difficulty missions aren't easy to complete. My strength alone is limited; maybe I should get more people involved to help me brainstorm."
He logged onto several well-known paranormal forums in China and uploaded the original video.
Minutes later, the video he had titled "Who's in the Mirror" was widely viewed and shared. Perhaps people were tired of entertainment gossip and wanted a change of pace, as the video's attention snowballed, growing rapidly. Every time he refreshed the comments, dozens more appeared.
"Front-row warning! High energy at 25:14!"
"The person who posted this video is either a lunatic or a psycho! Who the hell does something like this in the middle of the night?"
"Why did the mirror crack on its own? And what was that thing crashing out from inside the mirror at the end?!"
"The mirror broke because of thermal expansion and contraction, right? The temperature inside the room wasn't uniform."
"You guys don't know shit. In feng shui, mirrors are yin and easily attract evil spirits. I think this video shouldn't be called 'Who's in the Mirror' but 'There's a Ghost in the Mirror'!"
"Holy crap, it's the middle of the night, and this gave me chills. I really admire the OP's courage."
"This video is definitely fake. If it's not, I, Zhang Dazhu, will put my real name on it and do a 360-degree spiral eating shit upside down!"
"Am I the only one who noticed? The video uploader's avatar is the storefront of a haunted house in the western suburbs. Don't get too excited yet—this is probably their promotional ad."
Chen Ge's forum account was also flooded with private messages—some out of curiosity, others questioning him. He ignored them all.
His video was completely real. Those who understood would get it without needing to curse, and those who didn't weren't worth wasting time explaining to.
Watching the steadily rising attention, Chen Ge keenly realized this was an opportunity. He split the original video, cutting out the last fourteen seconds, and posted it on the country's largest short-video app.
Amid the flood of songs, skits, and food clips, his paranormal video stood out like a sore thumb!
Just over ten seconds later, unsuspecting viewers fell victim. Unlike the tougher crowd on paranormal forums and boards, these innocent bystanders, scared shitless by Chen Ge's heavy dose, started cursing in the comments.
There's no love without reason, and no hate without cause. The inexplicable outrage drew even more onlookers, and the result was that Chen Ge's short-video comment section was completely overrun.
Looking at the comments, Chen Ge could feel the anger of the viewers through his phone screen. But his mental fortitude was far stronger than theirs—he didn't care at all and even found it amusing.
In truth, he understood those viewers well. At three in the morning, huddled under the covers, they wanted to watch a pretty girl to unwind, hear a little cooing, and then sleep soundly.
But then they clicked on this video, and instead, they got a grown man lighting candles and playing games with a mirror—completely off the rails!
To make it worse, the video was only fourteen seconds long. Before they could react, the biggest scare hit.
The mirror shattered, and the reflection inside lunged outward, as if trying to break through the screen!
*Excuse me?* This move was downright suffocating!
"The comment section is so lively, and the attention won't die down anytime soon. Looks like everyone really enjoys my video." The man grinned unkindly. "My follower count has gone up by over a hundred too. If I don't plug my horror house now, I'd be letting down all these enthusiastic bystanders."
With that, he edited the title and added the horror house's full address in the most prominent spot of his bio, finishing with a parenthetical note—"A horror house that's not scary at all."
Chen Ge was quite pleased with his profile. He watched the comments a bit longer, then sat under the windowsill and fell asleep like that.
...
Sunlight hit his face. Chen Ge stretched his sore body and got up from the corner of the bathroom.
"Eight-thirty." He tidied up quickly, stuffed the doll into his pocket, grabbed his phone, and pulled open the bathroom door.
The edge of the wooden door was marked with obvious scratch marks, as if gnawed by rats.
"What the hell was that thing outside the door last night?" Seeing this, he couldn't help feeling lucky that he hadn't gone out all night.
"Nightmare-level missions trigger unknown variables. I'll need to be even more careful in the future." The other props in the horror house hadn't changed much, so Chen Ge didn't dwell on it. He pushed open the horror house's front door, and a new day officially began.
New Century Park opened for business at nine. At eight forty-five, a petite, cute girl ran over from a distance with a backpack.
"Boss!"
The girl radiated youthful energy. Her delicate features, bathed in the morning sun, looked like a ripe peach, making you want to take a bite.
"Xiao Wan, perfect timing. I added a new background track to the playlist. Let's go listen together." Before Chen Ge could finish, Xu Wan grabbed his arm excitedly. "What's up with you, girl?"
"I heard a lot of people talking about the horror house at the park entrance just now! Some are even lining up at the gate just to experience it!" Xu Wan's voice was brimming with excitement. "Boss, we've got visitors!"
"Is it that strange to have visitors? Don't act like you've never seen this before." Chen Ge forced calm, casually pulling out his phone to check his short-video profile. His follower count had already broken five hundred, and the comment section's heat had shot into the top ten for newbies. But unlike others' lively comment sections, his was a battlefield of smoke and fire. Someone had even commented that they'd wet the bed from fright last night and were now on their way with a sharpened blade.
"Yeah, looks like I might have gone a bit overboard..." Chen Ge cleared his throat and dragged Xu Wan into the horror house. "The park opens in fifteen minutes. Right now, we're the only two employees here. Get ready for a tough day!"