Chapter 35 - Secret

A long time later, Su Min opened his eyes.

He removed the helmet and briefly glanced at the movie theatre. It was completely empty. He was the only one in the dark.

Su Min: “……….”

This feels a little like a horror movie. How could everyone be gone?

On the big screen, the ending clip appeared. The list of casts that appeared was the same as what he had found online, and Chen Su’s name naturally didn’t appear.

For a moment Su Mn was wondered what his identity was.

At the end of a movie, they would usually include some behind the scene cuts. This movie was no exception. They included interesting behind the scenes after the credits rolled.

After the movie was finished, the lights in the theatre turned on.

The staff and cleaners came in from outside at the same time.

This time the staff is still Xiao He.

Thinking of his surname, Su Min felt a little shadow in his heart. Uncle He in this horror movie had left him with a huge psychological shadow.

Xiao He had no idea he was thinking this and came over with a big smile on his face: “Mr. Su, you have once again survived until the end.”

So amazing. It’s his first time seeing such a powerful audience.

Su Min pointed at his surroundings and asked: “I remember there were people when I came in. Why is it just me left?”

The staff received the helmet and said: “Sigh, they have already left in advance. They weren’t able to survive until the end.”

The outcome was absolutely terrible.

Of them, one was a couple who came to improve their relationship, but they argued while going out and even broke up before the left through the door.

Another managed to live for a half a day and the last one only lived for a few minutes before jumped into the sea himself.

Su Min who heard this was shocked.

The purpose of the holographic experience was to explore the contents of the movie on their own. Some small details would not necessarily be revealed to the audience until the very end.

For example, this time Su Min still isn’t very clear about how the skinning procedure worked.

Su Min left his seat and asked: “If you don’t mind me asking, what was the contents of their script?”

The staff answered: “Of course. The couple chose a couple watching experience so one is set as a victim destined to be drowned in the sea and the other would die in a pit. “

Su Min: “Seems similar to mine.”

Their characters were destined to be killed by those people. His character also should have died in the bathroom though he still didn’t know who that ghost in the bathroom was.

A cannon fodder in a horror movie is different to a cannon fodder in a romance movie.

In a movie like this, a death would be needed to progress the plot but since the protagonist cannot die, the first one to die would be the cannon fodder.

The role of a cannon fodder in a romance movie is more of a bystander watching over the proceedings between the male and female protagonist. In general, there are very few successful insertions and even fewer manage to target the protagonist.

But there are many of them, so everyone is willing to enter it.

The staff said: “Mr. Su, you can go back and wait for the score. I believe the result will be similar to the last one.”

Su Min smiled: “I humbly accept your blessing.”

The exit was just ahead. The staff suddenly said: “In fact, I also watched your last movie. It was really good. Both sweet and scary!”

Su Min paused and said quietly: “Thank you.”

The staff wanted to say something else but he held himself back.

Su Min suddenly remembered something. He asked: “I chose to watch my movie alone. Will there be a chance of another person watching it too?”

The staff shook his head: “No, after selecting solo viewing we will not add anyone else in. You can rest assured about that Mr. Su.”

He said that with confidence and certainty.

Su Min remembered this, but he recalled the dialogue in the movie. He guessed that even if he asked the staff, he probably wouldn’t get his answer.

The smart holographic technology had only been released for about a month or two so maybe there’s a hacker or maybe there’s some sort of artificial intelligence like those in the novels.

But the cinema seemed to have no reaction to this.

Su Min felt that they wouldn’t let something like that go so easily. After all, a hacker or artificial intelligence rebellion will need to be stopped.

But the movie not only was rereleased, they didn’t take any additional measures to stop it in future movies.

Su Min felt that his mind was about to explode. He finally reached the bustling cinema lobby.

There was a long queue at the ticketing area. The sounds from the crowds returned him from his thoughts.

The newly released movie posters were displayed here.

Su Min found the poster for “Murder Island”. On the poster was Chen Xingzhou, Zhao Mingya and the others as they just reached the island. They darkened the island, making the island look even more terrifying.

It was undeniable that this poster was pretty good.

As someone who had finished watching it, Su Min who saw the introduction to the movie on the poster afterwards believed that this was another classic horror movie.

He had heard of the actor’s name but the the character in the movie naturally isn’t the actor himself.

As he thought this, two men come over and stood behind him.

The short man asked: “It looks okay. Do you want to watch?”

The tall one said: “Watch it if you want to. I was the one who lost the bet.”

The short man said: “That’s true. Let’s go in. If you die, I’ll die together with you.”

Su Min who was standing in front of them heard them discuss each other’s death,

He silently left the poster.

A movie’s popularity cools off very quickly, not to mention for a horror movie. There was just be a bit of discussion after it was released and soon no one remembered him.

This time Su Min wasn’t wearing a mask, and no one recognised him.

He had experienced the temporary popularity that some celebrities go through but fortunately he is not interested in becoming a celebrity.

The story for the horror movie this time was different to the last one and a bit complicated. From Su Min’s perspective, he couldn’t figure out some of the information. so he decided to watch it again the normal way.

Su Min checked the information as he walked. The next broadcast for “Murder Island” is about ten minutes later but they had already closed off the ticketing system.

He decided to buy the session after that and got ready to eat something, browse through some movie reviews and then go back to watch it.

Before leaving, the cinema even gifted him with a bucket of popcorn.

Su Min felt that this cinema is pretty good. The first time they gifted him a flower basket and now they gave him a bucket of popcorn.

Horror movies weren’t unpopular for no reason. In the session he was in earlier, there were only a few people in the theatre. If he was running the cinema, he also wouldn’t want it to be so wasteful.

Su Min went directly to the milk tea shop outside.

He checked his friend circle and saw someone asking why people would enter a movie only to exit later because they had received a cannon fodder role. If they did that, why don’t they watch the movie first to avoid their own death.

For a question like this, Su Min didn’t even have the mood to reply.

The whole purpose of holographic viewing was the experience. This was especially the case for horror movies. Despite knowing that something can happen, you would go experience it for the thrill.

If you watched the movie first and then went to experience it, it would be on par to having a cheat. The interest level would also lower significantly.

Su Min himself would check out news about the plot but he wouldn’t watch the normal movie first because he felt that it would make things boring.

This was would be the same as reading a suspenseful comic or watching a suspenseful drama. If you already know who the murderer is and pinpoint them early on, the rest of the plot would be pointless, and the degree of suspense is great reduced.

Su Min shook his head and exited his friend circle.

The duration of holographic viewing is the same as ordinary viewing.

“Murder Island” goes for about 140 minutes and during that time Su Min experienced about two or three days of island life.

The audience in the same session as his had long left.

Su Min first went to the movie website and read through the comments. The scores were all about three stars and very few gave them five stars. For a horror movie, this is considered acceptable.

“The group of protagonists are quite standard but the final ending where everyone died was something that is completely different to the current horror movies. That ending was very reasonable.”

“Why did the director choose toads? Can’t it be frogs? It’s disgusting seeing the screen filled with toads and there was even someone who ate it……Vomit. The actor didn’t really eat it did he?”

“There’s a bug in the movie. They have a phone so were they so poor that they couldn’t even rent another boat? With an IQ like that, no wonder they all died on the island.”

“After watching I no longer wanted to eat. I guess it’s a chance for me to lose weight….”

“The director is really daring. I was terrified until the very end. The plot was tightly packed, and I didn’t know what was happening while watching people die one after another. It couldn’t be described with words. The ending was quite unexpected, and I didn’t expect the male and female protagonist to also die.”

“…………”

Su Min didn’t find the information he wanted and had already managed find out about the ending.

It was no different from his guesses. In the end, no one was able to return alive. It was quite in line with the plot development.

After sitting there for about ten minutes, Su Min once again went back into the cinema.

As the theatre lights went out, the movie started to play.

Because ordinary viewing is 2D, the horror factor compared to holographic viewing is practically zero. While the rest of the viewers screamed, he calmly ate his popcorn.

What surprised Su Min was that the first casualty was actually Jiang Yunhuo.

But when he thought about it, it also seemed normal. Jiang Yunhuo died directly in the sea and even his body didn’t float up.

After that was Chen Yixin. Like this, the small pair of lovers passed away.

This left Chen Xingzhou and Zhao Mingya as they fearfully began to unravel the islands secrets. Each time a little is revealed, the sense of terror built up.

Some of the plots in there was similar to the ones Su Min had already experienced.

This included Hong Rui’s family’s bodies that were found in the wall, the pit and the lantern dress. Their daughter was skinned and that resulted in the appearance of the lantern dress.

In the movie, Zhao Mingya was almost possessed by the lantern dress.

Although Chen Xingzhou managed to save her at that time, she later died in the hands of Uncle He and the others and he himself was also tortured and skinned.

Before he was skinned, he found out about some things regarding the island.

Uncle He and the others were not people from this island. The one that Chen Xingzhou had contacted was Hong Rui but he was killed before they reached the island. That was the reason why something was a little off when they met on the first day.

The place Uncle He stayed at used to be occupied by a mother and son. They were both killed by him and he later took over the house. The same was done by his partners in crime.

They were able to come to this island because they met Hong Rui out at sea when they were escaping. While concealing the truth, they followed him over.

They were a group of murderers. An isolated island like this was a perfect place for them

As for women, they would naturally imprison them for their own use.

When the movie played until the final scene, Uncle He picked up the knife that he used for skinning and grinned hideously: “You should be glad only one of us needed to change our skin.”

Chen Xingzhou struggled in horror and asked: “You all have to change skins?”

Uncle He licked the blade and revealed the truth of this matter. The skin on our bodies were from the original islanders.

The reason why they gathered together was because they had the same hobby which is to eat their victims after killing them. After coming to the island, they discovered the secret that would allow their skin to no longer fester.

And so, they killed everyone, and proceeded to occupy the island.

Su Min already knew that you would get sick if you eat humans and there was even an official term for it. It’s not surprising that they would develop the desire to eat something worse than a dead body.

Originally Uncle He thought that it was enough like this, but he didn’t think that one of them would start to secretly eat the toads. This time the illness that resulted was even worse than before.

And so, Chen Xingzhou and the others became their targets.

The final ending was still quite open. After Uncle He skinned Chen Xingzhou, the scene was extreme bloody and gruesome. In the darkness behind him however were large shadows and countless ghosts.

As someone who had experienced it, Su Ming naturally knew what this implied. Although the protagonist is gone, Uncle He and the others would soon also meet their doom as the ghosts enacted revenge.

The movie ended and the theatre brightened up.

Su Min left together with the rest of the audience while still curious about the secrets of the island. If the island really did have a secret yet they allowed Uncle He and the others to come, was this island really isolated?

He searched for the directors Weibo and was surprised to see that the director really did post some relevant information about this onto his Weibo.