Chapter 42: Ghost Hands (Catching Insects)

“Pretty lady, don’t give up. You can do it. We’ve already walked through half of the path, if we walk for five minutes more, then you can leave.” The kind-hearted guide tried to convince her, “Wouldn’t it be such a waste to give up in the middle of it? Don’t be scared, I’ll always be in front of you, so nothing’s going to happen.”

Due to the guide’s and Wang Ziwen’s continuous coaxing, Xu Xiaojing cried on the ground for half a minute before finally mustering the strength to nod and pull forward. Bai Yan glanced at the time. As of now, the countdown was already down by 30 minutes, while it has been five and a half minutes since they entered the haunted house.

Not considering the time it took for Xu Xiaojing to cry her eyes out, the half of the haunted house’s path roughly took about five minutes of walking to get through. Bai Yan reevaluated the length of this haunted house and committed it to memory, not telling his co-player Su Yize, who appeared to harbor a grudge.

After Xu Xiaojing stood up, the group kept moving forward.

And amid Xu Xiaojing’s frightened cries, all kinds of ghosts came out. 10 minutes passed by in a flash, and it was still a long way to go before everyone could get out of the haunted house.

It was unusual. Why was it this simple to clear the game?

Bai Yan wasn’t the only one who thought of this. Su Yize was also confused.

The game was about to end with only using up 36 minutes of the initial hour and a half allotted to them. After experiencing countless dangerous situations in the game, this extremely suspicious yet simple checkpoint made the two’s bodies turn ice-cold. There was seriously something fishy going on.

The ghost has finally shown itself, so the guide should expose her real identity as well!

He didn’t believe that in this haunted house filled with ghosts, this guide was only a regular person.

However, it’s been a long time since he’s had such a face-off.

After a short pause, the guide acted as if she didn’t see the terrifying female ghost in front of her and continued to pull on the pale-faced Xu Xiaojing, who was repeatedly shaking her head, to walk forward.

At this moment, Bai Yan and Su Yize had already stopped moving, wanting to see what happens as the NPCs walk ahead.

Yet, the anticipated atrocity didn’t take place. When the guide steadily approached the female ghost, the translucent female ghost faded away into nothingness from out of the blue.

Wang Ziwen followed the two from behind and also walked past where the female ghost was standing. Seeing that nothing bad happened to them, Bai Yan hesitated for a moment but followed suit, continuing to walk until he reached the exit.

“Okay. We have reached the exit. Pretty lady, there’s no need to be afraid anymore.” The guide smiled as she said, “All we need to do is leave through this narrow exit. I will go out first and will be waiting for you outside.”

After talking, the guide crossed over the door with Xu Xiaojing and Wang Ziwen following closely behind.

When he was walking to the door, Bai Yan’s heart was dumbfounded. He didn’t dare believe that this haunted house was finished just yet. Could it be that passing through the door was the turning point of it all, and the game would then lock the door and kill them?

Bai Yan was hesitant when passing through the door, but after he crossed over, a familiar dusky setting greeted his eyes.

He didn’t walk out of the haunted house. Instead, they were back to the place where they first started in the haunted house.

This was what he was talking about!

As the strangeness took place, Bai Yan, contrary to how one might usually react, relaxed his breath and felt his anxiety flying away.

That’s right! This was the distinct sour feeling that the game had always drawn.

Due to him experiencing numerous weird situations, Bai Yan wasn’t the least bit flustered when this scene entered his eyes. He turned to the side and looked at the person behind him. Su Yize’s calm and collected face met his. Their faces showed disappointment when they realized that they hadn’t cleared the game.

“What’s going on? Didn’t we clear the game already?”

Standing in the middle of the dark pathway, Wang Ziwen was in a complete daze, “The guide was just playing with us. The haunted house hasn’t ended yet.”

Unlike the fearless Wang Ziwen, Xu Xiaojing collapsed when she noticed her surroundings, “I said I didn’t want to play anymore. How could this be? When we get out of here, I’m going to file a complaint about this haunted house. They’re mental!”

The two girls still haven’t fully comprehended their current situation yet. Fearing that the two girls would unknowingly trigger a dead end and inadvertently lead them to death, Su Yize called everyone’s attention in a serious tone, “I’m not joking around. We really saw a ghost back there. If you don’t believe me, look over there, and you’ll see that the entrance has disappeared!”

“What kind of joke is this?” Wang Ziwen was unconvinced. She dashed to where the entrance was and immediately turned pale from dread, “How could the door not be here anymore? It’s not possible! This is just some sort of mechanism that allowed them to close the door, right?”

Her hands moved around the wall in confusion, hoping to feel any unevenness that possibly could be the slit of the door. Unfortunately, it was a only sturdy wall, lacking of any slits.

“Impossible! This doesn’t make any sense!”

Wang Ziwen didn’t dare believe what was happening in front of her eyes. She held onto the pager in her hands tightly as if it were her last sliver of hope, “That’s right! We still have this pager. I’ll ask the guide. She’ll for sure know what the hell is going on here!”

“Di. Di. Di.”

“Di. Di. Di.”

The pager produced an echoing sound, and after a couple of rings, it finally connected.

The guide, wherever she may be, seemed to have a terrible signal. In the face of Wang Ziwen’s repeated questioning, she didn’t utter a reply.

The other end of the pager only produced muffled and whooshing sounds.

Just when Wang Ziwen thought that the pager was busted, the guide’s voice finally came through the pager.

Her voice was different from when she was consoling Xu Xiaojing. Her voice changed into an incomparably sharp pitch. So much so that it made everyone uncomfortable and left them with a chilly feeling.

“Hehehe.”

“Before, there were numerous guests asking me that since our haunted house was undoubtedly frightening, why were there only bad reviews.”

“It was because, those who truly experienced this terrifying haunted house were unable to get out!”

A chuckle escaped the pager’s speakers, and when she heard the guide’s ominous prophecy, Wang Ziwen grew angrier and more afraid, “Is this how you treat your guests? By cursing them?! Could you honestly tell me this is still part of the haunted house and that the game isn’t over yet? I’m telling you now, I am going to file a complaint if you don’t start answering my questions! I also want a refund!”

As though she didn’t hear Wang Ziwen’s threats, the guide on the other end of the pager continued to talk to herself.

However, what happened next was scarier than before. The stammering speaker let out a sinister fit of laughter!

“You will all stay here.”

“You will all die here!”

The nasty laugh that could make anyone’s hair stand on end grew louder and louder, passing through the pager and piercing through everyone’s ears. In a blink of an eye, it overshadowed the music that resounded above the haunted house as if the laughter wasn’t coming from the pager but their dark surroundings.

“Whackjob! You!” Right now, Wang Ziwen was extremely frightened. She quickly turned off the pager and threw it as far away as she could.

Staring at Xu Xiaojing’s face fully covered in tears, Wang Ziwen, herself, appeared as if she were about to faint, but she showed a rigid smile, “This must be fake. Xiaojing, everything must all be fake! All of this is just the haunted house’s tactics, and the guide deliberately left us here to give us a good scare!”

“This isn’t an act, nor is it part of the haunted house’s normal experience.” Bai Yan apathetically burst their bubble, “Do you still remember what happened before, about the hangman’s noose? That room was a bit strange, but I didn’t dare say anything about it. Actually, there was no mechanism situated at the base of the rope. It suddenly dropped down all on its own!

“Seeing is believing. Do you still want to fool yourselves?”

Wang Ziwen turned paper-white after hearing what Bai Yan had said, just like her cowardly friend.

She simply believed that there was a cleverly hidden mechanism there, so she didn’t think that there was anything odd with it. But now that she looked at it, maybe there were simply no mechanisms there, rather, it was truly haunted!

“Woo… Woo… Wenwen, what should we do now?” Xu Xiaojing already being scared of the fake ghosts, but when she heard that this haunted house was really haunted, she couldn’t take it anymore and started crying non-stop and sniffling her nose.

Suddenly realizing that the haunted house had real ghosts in it, Wang Ziwen also lost her head. She was initially brave, but after encountering these supernatural events, she absolutely didn’t know what to do.

The two girls, who had never seen a ghost before, were in a panicked state, while Bai Yan met Su Yize’s gaze without saying a word. He then came forward and said, “Running into this situation left us out of luck, but no matter what, we need to first think of a way out of the haunted house. This place is painted in pitch black, and it’s also hard to see from a few steps away. In this situation, anything could happen, so let’s first discuss how we’re going to get out of here. Does anyone have any objections?”

“Right! Let’s get out of here first. After we escape, then we can find the boss and settle our complaints!” Hearing Bai Yan’s words, Wang Ziwen appeared to have regained her backbone and told herself through gritted teeth, “Wenwen, don’t cry. Crying won’t solve your problem right now! Toughen up a bit! We will get out of here!”

Xu Xiaojing’s legs turned to jelly from distress. With a lack of a better option, Wang Ziwen could only grab her tightly and drag her off.

The haunted house’s path was extremely narrow. If two people walked side by side, they would inevitably bump into the walls and look crowded.

After walking a short distance, Xu Xiaojing wailed, “Wenwen, I’m scared!”

“Xiaojing, stay strong.” In this kind of environment, the thought of comforting her close friend didn’t cross Wang Ziwen’s mind.

Due to the two girls walking beside each other, the group was moving at a glacial pace.

A third of the way in the haunted house, Bai Yan passed the two girls and saw a familiar-looking human skeleton up ahead.

The skeleton prop looked miserable. The first time they came in here, Wang Ziwen had even touched it, but this time, their circumstances were eerie, so she couldn’t risk doing that again.

The skeleton stuck closely against the foot of the wall. Wang Ziwen hesitated for a second, leading Xu Xiaojing to stand behind her. Wang Ziwen then gently tugged on her friend’s hand, prepared to avoid the skeleton, and continue their way.

However, the original skeleton prop abruptly moved. It’s two eye cavities burned with two inhumane ghostly fires in them. The body, which was on the verge of falling apart, began to violently shake, and to their surprise, it slowly stood up!

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! It moved!!! It moved!!!”

The horrified Xu Xiaojing took a few steps back, causing Wang Ziwen to stumble.

Xu Xiaojing cried so much that she couldn’t see what was in front of her and only saw two balls of light. Amid her terrified state, she felt her shoulder turn ice-cold as if there was someone who placed their hand on her shoulder.

“You guys… Who’s hand is on my shoulder?! Don’t mess with me. Please, I’m begging you!”

“It’s not us. Look behind you!”

Because the haunted house’s music was too much, Bai Yan, who was only a few steps ahead, had to shout these words.

“If it’s not you guys, then who is it?”

Xu Xiaojing stiffly turned her head around and saw a ghost’s pale hand firmly situated on her left shoulder. Its fingernails were icy and were drilling into her skin!