"I think I understand why the chairperson wants to deal with him now. This man has probably entered the world behind the door, and he might even own a 'door' himself."
Kong Xiangming kept his voice low, afraid that a third person might overhear him.
"It doesn't matter. So what if he has been to the world behind the door? At the end of the day, he is just one person. " When Wei Wu said that, he sounded like he was trying to console himself. "This mission is so important. The chairperson wouldn't have sent just the two of us. The other members should have arrived already."
"Don't place your hope on others. What if the chairperson just wants to sacrifice us to scout the path ahead?" Kong Xiangming closed the door. "The members might change at any time, but the number remains the same. Each number represents a monster behind the door. With this number, you will be able to live in a symbiotic relationship with the monster that corresponds to that number. Therefore, in the chairperson's eyes, the thing he really cares about is the monster on us and not us. "
He narrowed his eyes and suddenly brought up something that was not that related. "The Society of Strange Tales forbids us from revealing our own identity and investigating other people's identity. These two rules can indeed protect our own safety. After all, the members of the society are either insane or bloody butchers, but have you considered another problem?"
"What problem?"
"If we don't interact with the other members, we will never know who the chairperson is." Kong Xiangming was deep in thought. "Everyone knows that the chairperson is hiding among the ten people at the table, but no one knows who the chairperson really is. Now I suspect that the chairperson himself is a monster behind the door, and in his eyes, we are nothing more than a container to contain the monster. "
"Why are you telling me this?" Wei Wu pulled away from Kong Xiangming. "No one has ever betrayed the Society of Strange Tales, and that is the scariest thing. Do you understand what I mean?"
Kong Xiangming waved his hands. "You and I joined the society at the same time, so I can confirm that you are not the chairperson. That is why I approached you during the last mission and told you my identity. In the society, you are the only one I can trust."
Wei Wu always felt that Kong Xiangming had other plans, and he had unknowingly boarded the pirate ship.
"All the monsters escaped from the world behind the door. There's no doubt that the guild leader is in control of a door!" Kong Xiangming paused and revealed a faint smile. "Owning the door means that you have the right to set the rules. Don't you want to be the president?"
"You're crazy."
"I'm not crazy, but I don't have any more ghost stories to tell you. If I don't change the rules, perhaps at the next gathering, I'll be placed on your plate, turning from a customer to food."
Kong Xiangming's words woke Wei Wu up like a bucket of cold water. The Society of Strange Tales was not a place for charity. Even its members were afraid of it.
"Tell me your plan."
"If it was in the past, I wouldn't have done such a risky thing, but recently I found an opportunity. The Guild Master is contacting us more and more frequently. He's in big trouble, and at the same time, he's revealed a flaw. "
"What flaw?"
"The Guild Master communicates with us through the ghosts that reside in our bodies, and the ghosts can only communicate with each other within fifty meters. I've tested this with you before." Kong Xiangming got to the key point. "In other words, when the Guild Master sent the message, he was within fifty meters of me."
"That's right."
"During the gathering, I was very close to No. 10. Whenever I sat next to him, the ghost on my body would show a strange emotion. There was a trace of desire hidden in the fear. I could feel its thoughts — it wanted to eat No. 10."
"But that doesn't mean No. 10 is the Guild Master. The ghosts on the ten of us are different."
"I know, but several seconds before my ghost received the Guild Master's message, it also showed this strange emotion." Kong Xiangming's voice slowly changed. "When the message was sent, No. 10 and the Guild Master appeared near my home at the same time. Isn't that enough to prove their relationship?"
"Could it be a coincidence?"
"The Guild Master should be the one who gave us the flyers, and he's the only one who knows the identity of all the members. Two consecutive messages, and both No. 10 and the Guild Master appeared near my home. I don't believe there's such a coincidence in the world. "
After Kong Xiangming said that, Wei Wu was completely silent. The mysterious Guild Master was like a sharp sword hanging above all the members' heads.
"No. 10 is the Guild Master? Then how do you want to cooperate with me? " Wei Wu and Kong Xiangming were working together because they shared a common goal. If not for the common goal, they would have fought to the death because they knew each other's identity.
"The Guild Master wants to target the Haunted House's boss, and this Haunted House's boss is obviously a vicious character. Let them fight until both of them are injured, and then we'll look for an opportunity."
Kong Xiangming entered the bathroom and pulled down the woman's body from the ceiling. He found a nametag in her pocket. "We're just visitors. Just be careful not to be discovered by the Haunted House's boss."
The two left the room with the nametag. One or two minutes later, there was a grumbling sound inside the room, and a mannequin's head rolled out from under the bed.
…
The three medical students huddled together. Without the map, they finally experienced the 'joy' of visiting a Haunted House.
"Lee Xue, slow down!"
The chubby girl with a baby face walked ahead, and the two male students followed closely behind. They leaned against each other, and the only thing missing was their arms.
"When we were outside, you two were so good at bragging. How come you've become so cowardly after losing the seniors' guide?" Lee Xue turned back to look at her two friends, and she sighed. "Are you two men or not?"
"What does that have to do with being a man or not?" Even though Wang Yan was hiding at the back, he did not hide his temper. "We're just being cautious. Can't you see that we're covering for you?"
"Haha."
Yang Chen felt rather awkward as well. "It's not that I'm afraid, it's just that this place is too similar to my high school. It's obvious that the setting earlier was purposely set up, but this new setting feels like I'm back at my old school."
"What's so scary about returning to your old school?" Lee Xue did not quite understand.
"It's different from real life. I can keep telling myself in my heart that everything is fake, but this place is almost exactly the same as the school in real life. No matter how I try to tell myself, I can't help but be immersed in it." Yang Chen's phone was still holding onto a notebook and a pen. He was trembling as he drew the route map.
Due to some reason, Western Jiujiang's Private Academy had most of its scenarios cut down, so the overall size was not that big.
The three students soon reached the end of the corridor, and before them was a normal glass door.
"Wait a minute!"
Yang Cheng stopped Lee Xue, who was about to open the door. He leaned against the door and pressed his face against the glass to look inside. "This looks like one of the floors of the dormitory, and there's a number on the door."
"Could this be the female dormitory on the map?" Lee Xue urged Yang Cheng to open the map, and she realized that the location was very different.
"It should be a hidden scenario." Yang Cheng seemed to have the answer. "When I first got the map, I was wondering why there was only a female dormitory on the map and not a male dormitory. Now it looks like the male dormitory has been made into a hidden scenario. But I'm curious, how did we trigger this hidden scenario? No one seems to have done anything special. "
"It's probably because we were too fast, and it gave the boss a sense of danger." Wang Yan laughed drily and leaned against the glass door to look. "It's similar to our school's dormitory. Let's go in and take a look."
He said that, but his body did not move. In the end, it was Lee Xue who pushed the glass door open.
The rusted chains slid to the ground, and as the glass door opened, a strange smell drifted out from behind it.
"How come it smells like a corpse?"
"Should we go in or not?"
"To be honest, the fact that we've come this far and discovered the hidden scenario already means that we've broken the seniors' record." Wang Yan raised his hand. "I suggest we retreat."
"I wonder if we'll be able to trigger the hidden scenario next time. Furthermore, we've already come this far. If we don't go in to take a look, will you?" Yang Cheng and Lee Xue carried Wang Yan down the corridor.
The dark corridor had half-open doors on both sides, and it was unclear which room the stench was coming from.
"Isn't this place a little too depressing?" Wang Yan's voice lowered like he might wake up some hidden monsters if he spoke too loudly.
"There's still enough time. Don't miss the rooms on both sides. This place will definitely hide many nametags." Yang Cheng walked at the front with Lee Xue. Wang Yan followed behind them unwillingly. He was panicking, and he did not dare leave alone, so he moved forward with the rest.
"Don't be too afraid. The scariest scenario will be at the back. The first few rooms should be safe." Yang Cheng tried to use his own experience to console Wang Yan. "What kind of Haunted House would show us the scariest scenario at the start?"
Then he pushed open the door to the first bedroom on the left side of the corridor.
The wooden door was covered in dust, as if it hadn't been opened for a long time. Accompanied by the ear-piercing sound of the hinges turning, Yang Chen walked in. However, he only took one step before he abruptly stopped, his upper body still maintaining a forward posture.
"Ol 'Yang? What's wrong? "
The door opened fully, and Lee Xue and Wang Yan sucked in a cold breath.
There was a person hanging in the middle of the room.
"A mannequin?" Yang Cheng was the first to recover. He wiped his hands on his shirt to wipe away the cold sweat on his palms.
"Don't go there yet." Wang Yan pointed at the man's feet. "It doesn't look like he's hanging. Look, his feet are still on the ground. I suspect he's a Haunted House worker."
"It shouldn't be a living person." Lee Xue was braver and walked over directly. "The rope is pulled taut. If he's kept in this position for too long, he'll be strangled to death."
She carefully walked to the other side of the room. The man hanging in the middle of the room was wearing a black coat. His head was lowered, and his face could not be seen clearly.
Lee Xue raised her hand and slowly moved closer. Her fingertip touched the dead man's skin.
"It's not human skin. Come in, it's fine."
There was a long sigh of relief. All three of them had been given quite a fright.
"What's the meaning of hanging a mannequin in the middle of the room? And purposely making it stand on the ground? " Wang Yan touched the dead man's hand. He was a forensic student, so he knew that the feeling was different from human skin. It was colder and stiffer.
"Don't move. This dead man might be the answer to a puzzle." Lee Xue held the dead man's chin with both of her hands and slowly lifted its head up.
When they saw the dead man's face, the three new students panicked.
It was too real!
It was because they had seen a real dead body before that the three of them felt a sense of fear that was stronger than a normal person.
"The rope is pressing on the front of the neck, forcing the tongue to move upward and back. It's stuck to the pharyngeal wall, blocking the pharyngeal cavity. The cause of death is probably asphyxiation." When Lee Xue said that, even she was shocked. She really did not expect that her first time using knowledge from the textbook would be inside a Haunted House.
"Pay attention to the mannequin's face. There are irregular blood spots. That's different from death caused by asphyxiation." Yang Cheng walked around the mannequin. "The carotid artery is blocked, and the blood flow is blocked. The cause of death should be cerebral anemia."
"Guys, no matter what the cause of death is, we need to leave!" Wang Yan urged. "Aren't you two afraid? There's a mannequin inside a Haunted House that not only looks exactly like a dead person, but even the cause of death has been perfectly replicated! "
"The boss of a Haunted House also knows forensic science?" Lee Xue glanced at Yang Cheng.
Yang Cheng's expression was not so good. "An outsider wouldn't be able to recreate the characteristics of a dead body in such detail, unless he did it bit by bit on a real dead body."
A scary picture appeared in the three's mind. They did not say anything else and walked out of the bedroom.
"We're already very deep. How about we stop now?"
"Let's search a few more rooms. By the way, was there a nametag in the room earlier?"
Yang Cheng asked. Lee Xue and Wang Yan both shook their heads. "We didn't notice."
"Oh well, let's search the other rooms first before entering this room."
The three students were conversing outside the door. They did not know that the dead body inside the room that was facing away from them had slowly opened its eyes.
There was a fork in the corridor, and the deeper they went, the heavier the stench became.
Stains started to appear on the walls and the floor. The three students reached the end of the corridor, and the rooms near the end were all locked.
"The stench seems to be coming from here."
Lee Xue walked ahead and pushed open the door to the room at the end of the corridor.
There were four beds in this bedroom, but only one of them was covered in a mattress. The other three were covered in various kinds of trash.
"That's it? I thought something scary was hidden inside this room, but it's not as scary as the first bedroom. "
"It's almost time. We need to find the nametag first. Wang Yan, stop spacing out and come help!"
Yang Cheng and Lee Xue entered the room, but Wang Yan stared down the long corridor. Something was bouncing up and down in the darkness!
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