Chapter 0687 – Really Puzzling
A faint mist floated up at some point in the abandoned town, and there were dark shadows flickering among the eerie buildings on both sides.
The temperature lowered once again, and the voices of women and children could be vaguely heard in her ears, but when the female assistant tried to listen carefully, she realized that the surroundings were dead silent, and the only thing she could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat.
”Teacher, you’re not kidding me, right?” The scene was dimly lit, coupled with the light mist, the female assistant did not see the handprint on Wei Jinyuan’s neck, “Could it be done by the haunted house staff? When Wei Jinyuan stuck his head through the window just now, the staff applied some kind of special dye to his neck? We’ve seen similar dyes abroad, the color itself is very light, but as long as a person sweats and gets slightly soaked, the color will intensify.”
”I also can’t understand the whole thing now, I always feel that domestic haunted houses are not quite the same as abroad, when I used to play haunted houses abroad, I didn’t have this kind of panicky feeling at all.” Kurosaki covered his heart, “This place also does not have plasma and limbs and other relatively heavy things, but walking in it, there will be a kind of inexplicable sense of depression, as if right now, there are countless pairs of eyes staring at us.”
”Anyway, I wouldn’t believe such a thing as riding a man on the neck, but it’s a good material for you to draw into your own works.” The female assistant thought that Kurosaki might have been under too much stress lately, coupled with being an artist himself, which led to such horrifying associations.
At the mention of his own manga, Kurosaki’s eyes brightened up a lot, “Whether it’s true or not, it’s really a good material. Alright, let’s follow them forward first, with them scouting ahead, we’ll be much safer as well.”
Doing whatever comes to mind, Kurosaki was such a character, he was obsessed with what he did and devoted himself to it, this was also the reason why he was able to grow up step by step from Li Satomi, who was wandering on the streets, to the top-notch Benji artist Kurosaki Orochi.
The underground was dark, with only some faint light emanating from the surrounding buildings, but when people approached, those lights would suddenly go out again, and would not come back on until the tourists left.
”It’s a bit interesting, it seems that the haunted house utilizes a lot of new technology inside, induction lights, fog-making machines ……” Wei Jinyuan tried to interpret this haunted house with his own knowledge and analyzed it.
When he was ready to continue walking, his cell phone suddenly rang, he looked down and found that it was Li Xu calling.
Answering the call, he just wanted to ask Li Xu about the situation on his side: “How is it going on your side? Have you found any clues?”
”It feels like this haunted house is more boring than imagined, we’ve already searched for a few rooms, but they’re all empty, there are neither organs nor actors.” Li Xu’s voice came from the other side of the phone.
”I’ve already inquired when I came here, this haunted house has opened several scenes continuously in a very short period of time, it’s definitely not possible to do each and every one of them perfectly. And did you notice that this scene has a difficulty of three and a half stars, it sounds like a half-finished product, maybe the one surnamed Chen was also forced by the pressure given by the Virtual Future Paradise, that’s why he directly opened the scene before it was fully constructed.” Wei Jinyuan walked down the street, with more and more rooms on both sides.
”I’m not going to talk to you anymore, we’ll talk again in ten minutes, we’re continuing to look for clues.” Li Xu hung up the phone after saying that.
”Sick ah? Just separated for less than a minute, making a gross phone call?” Wei Jinyuan put away his cell phone and scratched his neck, he always felt that the back of his neck was itchy, it felt like he was bitten by a mosquito.
The passage in front of him was getting narrower and narrower, after walking out another dozen meters away, Li Changyin saw a wooden board hanging on the wall next to him, with a line of blood characters written on it – I am among you.
”Starting to play with psychological hints? Boring trick.” Wei Jinyuan took out his cell phone and took a shot at the wooden board, keeping this photo: “This is considered the first scare point I met when I entered the haunted house, unbelievable that a haunted house with such an unreasonable arrangement of scare points can be on fire.”
”Don’t be careless, what this sign says could also be true.” Li Changyin still had a cold face, “I’ve read the analysis on the internet, some people suspect that the haunted house owner had mixed actors into the tourists’ team and then disturbed the tourists’ judgment, of course this is just speculation, no one has any evidence now.”
”Doesn’t matter.” Wei Jinyuan flipped the sign, the back of the wooden board read Dong Li neighborhood, “This place should be the residential area, the second clue provided by the haunted house owner is in the residential area, we should encounter something here.”
Li Changyin nodded, and the two of them directly entered the middle of the small courtyard where the wooden boards were hung.
”Teacher, don’t dawdle, come over quickly.” The female assistant urged, while Kurosaki stood outside the courtyard, he looked at the wooden boards on the wall and seemed to be thinking carefully about the sentence on the boards.
”Do you think …… there could really be something mixed among us?” Kurosaki’s voice was hoarse as he looked around, “Maybe it’s because the atmosphere of this haunted house is rendered more on point, I always feel weird now.”
Kurosaki and the female assistant followed behind into the neighborhood, and almost as soon as they stepped into the neighborhood with their front feet, a few shadows flashed behind them.
There were three side-by-side building holes in the neighborhood, each labeled one to three, and from time to time, strange sounds came out from the holes, like a child gently tapping on the glass with something.
”Besides looking rather shabby, it feels similar to our old city center.” Wei Jinyuan looked at the mottled wall skin and stopped in front of the first building hole, “Together, or separately? The things hidden in these three building holes must be different.”
”I’ll be alone, you take the two of them.” Li Changyin entered the middle of the third building cave alone, his figure quickly disappeared and only his footsteps could be heard.
”What a hothead, I hope he doesn’t scare the actors in the haunted house.” Wei Jinyuan looked back and found Kurosaki and his female assistant still standing in the center of the block, “What are you guys doing? Stop inking!”
”Sorry, come over right away.” The female assistant tugged on Kurosaki’s sleeve, “Teacher, it’s time to go.”
”Good.” Kurosaki stared at the grass half a person high at the edge of the neighborhood, it was clear that no wind could be felt to exist, but the grass in the corner was shaking as if there was a person lying inside.
Without approaching the grass, Kurosaki, the female assistant, and Wei Jinyuan entered the first building hole together.
Water stains remained on the floor, and the wall skin was cracked like a gaping mouth.
The floor was extended downwards, and the light was so dim that one could only see a half-open door of a room.
”How many floors are there down here?” Wei Jinyuan took out his cell phone and turned on the flashlight function that came with it, the light pierced through the darkness, but it couldn’t bring a sense of security, instead, there was a feeling that the more you saw, the more terrifying it became.
From time to time, white powder will fall from the top of the head, rusty iron railing remains a handprint, that depressing feeling is getting heavier and heavier, as if the heart is pressed with a big stone.
Scratching his neck, Wei Jinyuan pushed open the door of the first room, which was just casually arranged with some old furniture and looked very ordinary.
He said on his lips that he wasn’t scared at all, but after entering the room, he obviously became cautious.
Carefully, he checked every place where there might be a mechanism, but after half a day of checking, he didn’t get anything, it was just a very ordinary room.
”Is the haunted house owner trying to interfere with me in this way?” Wei Jinyuan checked a few other rooms on the first floor, and inside, not to mention the haunted house actors, he couldn’t even see a single scary prop.
”Is this haunted house owner sick? Fixing a few empty houses out as decoration?”
If they were not built in a haunted house, Wei Jinyuan even felt that these houses could be rented out as cheap apartments.
He followed the stairs and came to the second basement level, the same building layout, the difference was that the second basement level had an extra long dark corridor, which connected the three unit buildings.
Wei Jinyuan headed towards the other side of the corridor and softly shouted, “Leng Nan? Are you over there?”
Footsteps could be heard in his ears, but he just couldn’t see anyone.
”Leng Nan went to the third basement floor? It doesn’t make sense! It’s so close, if he heard my voice, he would definitely call back.”
Sweat broke out on Wei Jinyuan’s forehead, all the buildings on the ground were probably camouflage, the truly terrifying things were underground.
”These buildings are connected to each other underground, it’s like an underground maze.”
He looked down the corridor, chilly aura coming from everywhere, this place was clearly different from the outside.
Casually pushing open the door closest to him, Wei Jinyuan stood outside with the help of his cell phone’s bright light and took a rough look, “The layout of all the rooms on the second underground floor is also the same as the first floor, what exactly is the haunted house owner’s purpose in designing it this way? I can’t figure out his intentions at all!”
Wei Jinyuan had been trying to figure out what was so scary about Chen Ge’s haunted house and why it attracted so many tourists, but he still hadn’t gotten anywhere from the time he came in until now.
Pushing open one door after another, just when Wei Jinyuan was about to give up, he suddenly realized that one door was different from the others.
The doorway of this door was covered with tape, and the cat’s eye was also taped.
”There’s a problem.” Wei Jinyuan tore the tape off the door and slowly pushed the door open.
The room behind this door was indeed different from the other rooms, all the furniture was covered in tape.
”It looks like the clues are hidden here.” Wei Jinyuan tore off the tape on the shoe cabinet and glanced inside, there were five pairs of shoes inside, a pair of lady’s high-heeled sandals, a pair of cloth shoes worn by an old lady, and the remaining three pairs were all men’s shoes, and all in different sizes.
”Are these shoes a puzzle?” Wei Jinyuan took the shoes and scrutinized them carefully, looking at them for half a day before finally giving up, “Is the haunted house owner a psychopath? He made a bunch of completely useless things! Does he know how to design a haunted house or not?”
The more he looked, the more angry he got, Wei Jinyuan realized that there were many other pieces of furniture in the house that were covered with duct tape, and he couldn’t get them all by himself, “Hey! You two come and help!”
”Any luck?” The female assistant and Kurosaki ran to that room, and they were shocked when they saw the room full of duct tape.
”Tear up all this duct tape, the clues should be hidden inside.” Under Wei Jinyuan’s command, several people tore off all those tapes that were stuck on the cabinets, drawers, under the beds, and on the doors, and rummaged through the cabinets, but they didn’t find anything.
”Is this haunted house owner playing with me on purpose?” Wei Jin Yuan was getting more and more annoyed, he scratched his neck fiercely, the sides of the back of his neck were getting itchy, “You two stay in this room, tear off all the tapes, don’t miss anything, I’m going to take a look on the floor below.”
Wei Jinyuan left Kurosaki and the female assistant behind and left alone.
The light on the bottom layer was even dimmer, if you didn’t turn on the flashlight you wouldn’t be able to see clearly at all, this layer was still different from the one above it, there were a total of two corridors on the left and right.
One corridor connects the other two units, and there is another one that does not know where it leads to.
Wei Jinyuan took a deep breath, he clenched his hands tightly, his palms were already wet with sweat without realizing it.
He looked to the left side of the corridor, and there was a blurry humanoid silhouette standing against the wall.
”Li Changyin?”
Without calling out a nickname, Wei Jinyuan directly called out Li Changyin’s full name as he raised his flashlight to shine it at the place where the silhouette stood.
There was no response, the silhouette was not Li Changyin.
”How come it feels like the cold man entered this building and then directly disappeared? It was clearly only a few meters apart!” If it wasn’t Leng Nan, then it must be a haunted house employee, Wei Jinyuan held up his cell phone and walked forward quickly.
”Normally, actors in a haunted house would hide around corners or hide somewhere, waiting for tourists to pass by before suddenly popping out to scare people, but what’s this guy’s situation, standing stupidly in the corridor, afraid that other people won’t know about his existence?”
Let Wei Jinyuan shout, that black shadow is not moving.
After he got closer, he gradually realized that the humanoid silhouette seemed a bit off, the other person’s body shape was slowly changing, becoming more and more similar to his own body.
It was a very bizarre experience, as if he was standing behind himself and looking at his own body.
Wei Jinyuan’s throat twitched as he finally came within three meters of the man.
Adjusting his breathing, Wei Jin Yuan was about to open his mouth when the cell phone he held up to his chest suddenly vibrated!
”Groove!”
Bursting out in foul language, Wei Jin Yuan lowered his head and pressed the answer button, he didn’t have time to see whose name was written on the caller ID, but when he looked up again, he realized that the dark shadow in front of him had disappeared.
”Where did it run off to?”
”Hey, Jin Yuan, I found a map of the town on my side, and there’s an area with a red cross on your side ……”
”Talk to you later!” Wei Jinyuan directly hung up the phone and re-shined his cell phone around, “I just called and now I’m calling again, what a problem.”
”Where did that guy go?” It was the effort of looking down and then looking up again, the person in front of him was gone, and he didn’t hear any ringing, just like disappearing.
”I didn’t hear any footsteps, the doors of the rooms on both sides of this are open, he should have hid in the room.” Wei Jinyuan walked to the place where the black shadow stood just now, “The closest room to it is a meter away, how many times has he practiced this to be able to hide in it in the blink of an eye.”
Wei Jinyuan looked inside the room, the structure of this room was no different from the other rooms, except that there were many bloodstains left on the ground.
Most of the artificial plasma colors used in haunted houses for the purpose of visual impact were very bright, but the bloodstains in this room took on a weird dark brown color, as if a murder had really happened here, and all that blood had been left behind many years ago, soaked into the building, and couldn’t be cleaned up.
”Did he run into this house?” Some houses had a lot of people living in them, and were so hot and bustling that one could feel the popularity once they went in, but there were also houses that made one feel uncomfortable and sweaty as soon as they went in, and no one had been able to give a reasonable explanation so far.
Wei Jinyuan was feeling this way now, there was not a trace of popularity in this room, it was like an ice cellar where corpses were parked.
”Come out! I see you!” Wei Jinyuan shouted at the inside of the room, but only his own echo could be heard as he took a few more steps inside, the blood was getting more and more.
”The blood is all solidified inside the building, not just coated on the surface, how did he do that?”
Walking through the living room, Wei Jin Yuan stopped at the bedroom door.
”This place has the most blood, the secret of the room should be hidden inside.” Pushing open the bedroom door, Wei Jinyuan gripped his cell phone tightly as cold sweat bristled.
The room was filled with blinding bloodstains, and at the end of these bloodstains stood a woman dressed in red.
She had her back to Wei Jinyuan, and her head gently touched the wall, emitting an odd sound.