Chapter 38: Game Start

*Disclaimer: This chapter has strong themes that may trigger you when you read it. Please read with caution.*

“50 yen per person sounds like a good deal.” Wang Ziwen said as if she was rather satisfied with the price, “But, we don’t know if the haunted house is truly scary or not. If we were going to base it off of the online reviews, we won’t go in and play.”

“Pretty lady, I guarantee you that it is indeed terrifying. Those online reviews were all a month ago, so you shouldn’t take them into consideration.”

The boss of the haunted house’s words seemed to have a deeper meaning to them, as a result, Bai Yan inquired, “Why shouldn’t we consider the comments about your haunted house that were made a month ago?”

“Ay, at that time, I still haven’t taken over the management of this haunted house. It was still being operated by its former owner. After I took over, the second escape room as well as the haunted house were completely remodeled, making it better than the original.” Seeing the four’s rising interests, the boss added with a hint of mysteriousness in his voice, “The first escape room was left behind by the old boss, and I didn’t change a single thing in it, but as for the second one, I personally took the time to put everything in order. The room’s theme is based on a real event.”

“Real event?” Wang Ziwen perked up in curiosity.

“Correct! Furthermore, this real-life event has something to do with the haunted house’s old boss.” The new boss was nervous that the people in front of him wouldn’t buy tickets, so he quickly lowered his voice, “Did you know? The previous boss was a woman that committed suicide. Hearsay, her personality was already eccentric from the start, but before she died, all of her family and friends cut off ties with her. She was a person who rented out a single room and hanged herself in it. Moreover, as she was dying, her mouth was distorted to an eerie smile, looking exceedingly frightening. Later, her younger brother was dropping in for a surprise visit and that was when everyone heard the news of her death. At that moment, she had already been dead for quite a while, so her corpse was rotting and full of crawling house flies and maggots, making anybody run away from fear.”

The boss heaved a sigh, “After the death of the former boss, this Haunted House Escape has been under my care. In order to enhance the marketability of this escape room, I moved all the things from the room where the old boss died into the escape room. While you guys are playing the second room, you can personally experience the gruesome scene of her suicide since everything in there was previously used by a deceased person!”

For a brief period, the mountains of horror novels she read before came rushing into her mind, leading her to want to run out of this haunted house place and avoid getting cursed.

However, she saw Wang Ziwen’s exhilarated face, and inexplicably felt embarrassed to request for them to leave. How could she do that when she was one who asked about playing in the haunted house in the first place. If she didn’t accompany Wang Ziwen to play, then she won’t be considered a good friend.

Thus, Xu Xiaojing forced herself not to think of these scary thoughts, and besides, she entered the haunted house to play because she had never played one before and wanted to experience getting scared.

She shook her head wildly to cast off any bad premonitions she got and whispered, “Boss, give me two 50 yen tickets. We’re both going to play.”

Since the two female NPCs were done discussing, Bai Yan also followed suit, “Boss, this is a hundred. We also want two 50 yen tickets.”

The boss’s heart grew elated from the two groups buying tickets, believing that what he had eloquently said was convincing. When the next group of guests came in, he’ll also tell this story.

The boss went to the counter and processed their payments, handing over two tickets each to the two. Seeing that there was another booking alert on his phone, the next set of customers would be entering shortly, and to earn more money, he craftily suggested, “Handsome brothers and pretty ladies(1), do you want to enter together? With an even boy and girl pairing, it won’t feel too tiring.”

“Okay, I’m fine with it,” Xu Xiaojing answered. If there were only the two of them playing, it would be flat out scarier. By having more people with her, she would feel safer.

“We don’t have any objections either.” The two players were thrilled to have the NPCs there, so they naturally wouldn’t refuse.

“Okay. This is the guide to the haunted house, and she will lead you to the haunted house. If you have any questions, you can ask help from her. Happy playing!”

The boss revealed a cheerful smile to them and sent them on their way with the guide.

He watched as the group went away before mumbling to himself, “Those four fools. The haunted house business is tough and doesn’t make a lot of money.”

The boss opened the haunted house’s website and saw a lot of poor reviews, issuing a frown upon his face, “That’s odd. This month’s guests didn’t leave a comment nor did they go in again, so the guests who are interested in playing the haunted house can only read the old ones, driving them away. I’ll just buy some good reviews to make the attraction’s reputation better. I could also swindle the people who go in here.”

He turned off his phone and sat down on his chair to wait for his next customers.

Ever since his sister killed herself, he took over her haunted house and made the last down payment before the lease expired.

At first, his sister promised that she would subsidize 500 thousand yen for him to buy a house and take on a wife, but after a month, his sister had suddenly gone off the grid. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find her.

But at long last, a friend finally helped him track down his sister’s current address, causing him to find out that she had already committed suicide. There was a will placed on the table at the time of her death that said all of her possessions would be donated to charity, not even leaving a single cent to him.

To get her sister’s inheritance, he quietly tore the will to shreds, to not lose a single cent.

He wasn’t without resentment towards his sister’s unexpected death. With that fateful event happening, the 500 thousand yen had puffed away like smoke. Their parents spent money for her to go to a good school, and after she grew up, she couldn’t even repay her debt to her parents and show filial piety. When she died, she didn’t want them to take advantage of her death and receive her things, so she deliberately donated her possessions away. Just thinking of this made his blood boil, not even feeling a bit of remorse for her death.

In his point of view, with parents paying for schooling and having a good educational background, it wouldn’t be long before she started a successful business, opening a haunted house to make a profit. This woman had nothing to be depressed over. With such a good life, she still ended up committing suicide. She only needed to eat her fill and push forward.

The boss was playing with his phone but looked up to the female ghost hanging from the beam, his face looking troubled.

This particular female ghost was given by a doll maker to his sister, someone that he wasn’t acquainted with.

This female ghost looked alarmingly life-like. He begrudgingly accepted that this haunted house was a dud, and this information was spread far and wide, so he strategically used this life-like female ghost to attract some more clients, deceiving the people who come in to sneakily fish out their money.

In any case, when the money’s in his pocket, there was no way that he would refund it. That was how he ran the haunted house, and although he truly did move his sister’s things inside the escape room, he doesn’t have the brains to successfully set up a haunted house, so it didn’t look scary at all.

The four received a blindfold when they walked out the big door with the tour guide lady.

“Handsome brothers and pretty ladies, please put these over your eyes and stand in a straight vertical line. I will now lead you to the escape room, please do not take off your blindfolds midway.”

The guide smiled as she distributed eye masks to them. The two girls stood at the front, while Bai Yan and Su Yize stood at the third and fourth place, respectively.

The quality of the eye masks was good because the four people completely didn’t see any light pass through them. What showed them before their sight was just a black void.

The guide pulled on the four’s hands as she walked forward, leading everyone to turn left, to turn right, and to walk into a quiet and long pathway. When they were walking, she used her sweet-sounding voice to introduce to everyone their goals inside the escape room.

“Everybody, the next step in the game is like this, after opening your eyes, you will all be standing inside the escape room. You have to find a mechanism and input the proper code to solve it, only then will you be allowed to enter the second escape room. In the second one, there is a key hidden away inside it. Once you find the key, then you will be able to escape the room. Altogether, the two escape rooms can be played for a maximum of 20 minutes. If 20 minutes have passed and you still haven’t left, I will come in and help you guys finish it.”

“One escape room only takes ten minutes… Isn’t this fun?” Wang Ziwen muttered, “It seems that this escape room’s challenge is just an ordinary one.”

After her explanation, the guide had closed her mouth and concentrated on guiding the players on their path.

With the sheer darkness they were experiencing right now, there weren’t any traces of the bright and blinding lights they previously saw in the mall, making the two players feel a bit sad.

Bai Yan wanted to take a small peek at his surroundings, but with Wang Ziwen pulling at him at the front and him leading along Su Yize, who was behind, he couldn’t use his hands.

And with the guide flashing a professional smile, he had no other choice but to banish the thought of him putting on the eye mask crookedly and just behave. Up until now, the guide and the boss’s expressions were normal, but if he courted disaster and strayed towards a dead end, a ferocious ghost might give him first-hand experience on what was known as despair.

In the deadly silence, the sharp echoes of everyone’s footsteps hitting the ceramic tiles could be heard. At this moment, Su Yize’s throat slightly tightened as he heard the sound of their footsteps circling about.

Amid the darkness, everyone was deprived of their sight, making their other senses stronger. So much so, that his skin felt a slight chill in the air, leading him to get goosebumps all over his body.

In this seemingly empty pathway, was there an evil spirit silently staring at them?

How could he be so sure that the air he felt streaking across his skin was not a ghost, that he could not see, putting its hand on top of his arm?

After walking until the end, Su Yize couldn’t help but regret a bit. If he had known how terrified he would be at the start, he would have asked Bai Yan to stay at the back instead of him. Standing at the front and the very end in a haunted house was the most frightening and the most dangerous. Fortunately, they only needed to solve the escape room right now. When the time comes for them to play in the haunted house, he can ask Bai Yan to switch with him.

Su Yize’s heart was determined to stay alert.

After another turn, they entered a door, and the guide finally let everyone stop to a halt.

She first quickly told everyone to not take off their masks yet, saying with a smile, “This is a pager. If you guys can’t find the clue, you can use this to request for my help. I’ll be outside the escape room waiting for you. Good luck and I hope you enjoy the game.”

The guide left the escape room after talking, and when everyone heard her leave, they then took off their masks.

Together with the guide’s unclear voice, a burst of terrifying music that could lead souls to fly away and scatter had suddenly blared on top of their heads.

T/N: Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I hope you guys are spending time with the people you love. But, if you’re feeling horn- I mean lonely ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), feel free to check out the other Chinese novel I’m translating called Young Masters’ Little Maid! It’s filled with super steamy smexs scene if you know what I mean ????

Also, I’m currently doing some research on pay-per-chapter platforms hehe If you would like a chance to win 4 advanced chapters of Hell App and Young Masters’ Little Maid, please answer this survey! ｡◕‿◕｡ This survey closes on April 20, 2021, 11:59 PM (GMT +8), so be sure to answer it by then!