Chapter 0014: The Search for a Human
At four thirty in the afternoon, Chen Ge stood alone in the haunted house props room, he looked at the table full of things a little indecisive.
”What things do I need to prepare to stay in a murder house?”
”ID card, cell phone, rechargeable treasure, lighter, fruit knife, multi-tool hammer …… Right, this muppet should also be brought.”
Chen Ge stuffed the muppet that appeared in front of the mirror last night into his backpack, and after making sure that he didn’t miss anything, he zipped up his backpack and walked out of the room.
”Xiaowan, you’re getting off work early today. In a moment, you come and lock the door, I have to leave beforehand.”
”Boss, it’s not even five o’clock yet, are you going on a trip?”
”The key is on the prop room table, see you tomorrow.”
Seeing Chen Ge’s appearance of wanting to let herself go, Xu Wan gave a helpless oh, threw down the haunted house flyer, and ran into the props room in a puff of smoke.
”This girl.” The evening breeze messed up the flyer, Chen Ge shook his head and picked up a stone to press it down, “I hope she doesn’t see me on the morning news tomorrow.”
Unlike the relaxed and cozy demeanor he showed, Chen Ge was actually very nervous, and he had been restless all afternoon.
Last night’s nightmare-level mission had opened the door to another world for him, and it had also made it clear to him that the missions released by the black phone did have a certain level of danger.
”Trial missions are definitely more difficult than daily missions, so we must be more careful this night.” In order to spend the night peacefully, Chen Ge rode a shared bicycle to Ping An Apartment before it was even dark.
The quest information only provided a place name, and in order to find the Peaceful Apartment, Chen Ge combined it with that complaint message from nine months ago and asked questions as he walked, taking more than two hours to reach his destination.
”The apartment building was built in such a remote place, will anyone move in?”
The dirt road full of weeds stretched crookedly into the depths of the woods, no streetlights were installed around it, and a dark gray building could be vaguely seen in the distance through the sparse branches of the trees.
On the way here Chen Ge asked many people, but most of them have not heard of the Peaceful Apartment, and finally a sixty-something old man gave him a road, and kindly discouraged him a few words, said that the place has died before, very unlucky, the neighborhood people will go around during the day.
Chen Ge was also bitter, if it wasn’t for the sake of completing the mission in the black phone, who would have nothing to do but go to that kind of place to stay.
”It’s now six fifty, the mission requires arrival before eleven p.m. I still have enough time to figure out what’s going on in the murder house.”
Along the winding dirt road, Chen Ge entered the depths of the woods, and after walking a few dozen meters, he finally saw the legendary murderous mansion.
The mansion was surrounded by dark gray high walls, with only one entrance and exit, the rusty iron gates were open towards both sides, and there was a brand new large lock hanging on the gate.
”The gate is so broken, but the lock is quite new, wait, what is this?” There was a piece of white paper stuck next to the iron door, Chen Ge originally thought it was a small advertisement or something like that, and only after looking carefully with the help of the bright light of his cell phone did he realize that it was a missing person notice.
”Zhang Qing, female, 27 years old, height 157, thin, right eye against the bridge of the nose with a black mole, prefer to wear red clothes and pants …… Informed please contact Mr. Wang, there will be heavy thanks!”
The end of the search notice left the contact information and address of the contact person, what caught Chen Ge’s attention was that Mr. Wang’s address was filled in with this murder house.
”It’s a bit strange.” He instinctively felt that something wasn’t quite right and took out his cell phone to take a picture of the missing person notice before entering the courtyard.
The building was much larger than he expected, with three floors on the main floor, and a warehouse and a water room-like building next to it.
”The siding is peeling off like this, it looks like it’s at least twenty or thirty years old.” The building as a whole was severely deteriorated, but it was cleaned up fairly well, with little trash to be seen on the ground, and the weeds all removed.
Parking his bike in the yard, Chen Ge entered the main building with his bag on his back, “Anyone there?”
The long corridor was dark, and after ten seconds or so, the door to the room near the entrance of the building opened a crack.
”Hello.” Chen Ge walked towards that room, but the owner of the house didn’t seem to be willing to face Chen Ge, and the door of the room only opened half a finger width before stopping.
There were no lights on inside the room, so Chen Ge could only see a woman standing behind the doorway, her eyes were covered with bloodshot eyes, and she seemed to have stayed up late a lot, her mental state was very poor.
”I would like to ask how much does it cost to stay in this apartment of ours for one night?” Chen Ge’s voice was very soft, trying his best to look kind, however, what he didn’t expect was that the other party’s reaction was very odd, smiling at him and immediately closing the door.
”What do you mean?” Before he could figure out why, footsteps sounded on the second floor of the apartment, and the only sound-activated light at the corner of the corridor lit up as a limping middle-aged man walked down.
The man seemed to have heard what Chen Ge had said earlier and opened his mouth to inquire, “You’re staying at my place? How long are you going to rent it?”
”You’re the landlord?” Chen Ge took the initiative and walked over, “I’m only staying for one night.”
”Staying for one night?” The crippled man looked Chen Ge up and down, as if his eyes wanted to see through him completely, “OK, let me see your ID card, and come to the second floor to pay.”
Chen Ge was about to follow the man to the second floor, the iron gate at the entrance of the courtyard suddenly rattled, hearing this sound, the lame man wrinkled his eyebrows, and his face instantly became very bad.
He stopped where he was, and Chen Ge had to wait dryly.
Not a moment later, a haggard middle-aged man came in from outside, his clothes were tattered, and he was holding a thick stack of leaflets.
”Wang Qi, I told you that your girlfriend is not here, if you continue to stalk me, don’t blame me for being rude!” The lame man stood in the middle of the stairs, blocking the way.
The middle-aged man ignored the crippled man and stifled his head towards the stairs.
”I’m talking to you!” The crippled man pushed hard, and the defenseless middle-aged man slammed directly into the wall, the leaflets in his hand scattered all over the place, and one of them happened to land at Chen Ge’s feet.
”It’s a missing person notice, exactly the same as the one posted on the apartment building’s front door.” Chen Ge’s eyes narrowed as he didn’t move and picked up the missing person notice on the ground, secretly focusing on the top of the stairs.
The middle-aged man did not have a big fight with the lame man, he got up from the ground and silently picked up the missing person notice, just like a walking corpse.
”You don’t need to care about him, this person is a lunatic.” The crippled man waved at Chen Ge, signaling him to go to the second floor first.
”Crazy person?” Chen Ge quietly glanced at the middle-aged man as he passed by, “The introduction of the Midnight Escape scenario mentioned that a mentally ill person was mixed up in the apartment building, if this person is a lunatic, is it possible that he is the murderer I’m looking for?”