"This is the first time I've seen a Haunted House that isn't scary at all."
"The props are too fake. If anything, I feel like laughing."
"Materialists are fearless!"
"I've told you. Why don't you just stay in the dormitory and play games? My Kun is already level 80."
At the entrance of Western Jiujiang City's Haunted House, a few students left on public bicycles without any hesitation.
Seeing this, Chen Ge, who was holding the Haunted House flyer, felt quite helpless.
Scaring people was a skill, but modern people had experienced many horror movies, so they had a strong mentality. Entering a Haunted House was like entering their own backyard.
"Boss!"
A clear female voice came from behind him. Chen Ge turned to look and saw a 'zombie' in a nurse's outfit. She had a petite body and an impressive bust. She stormed out of the Haunted House angrily.
"What's wrong, Xiao Wan?" The girl's name was Xu Wan, one of the temporary actors at the Haunted House.
"Those b * stards from earlier wanted to take advantage of me!" She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.
So, they're here to complain …
"That's too much, they even went after zombies." As the boss, Chen Ge would naturally speak up for Xiao Wan. "I'll go find the park manager and ask him to check the surveillance."
"There's no need for that. When I realized their intention, I beat them up first." Xu Wan shook off the blood stain on the corner of the nurse outfit. "This is not makeup."
"Erm, you're right. Girls should learn to protect themselves." Chen Ge wiped the cold sweat off his forehead and glanced at the sunset. "Then we'll call it a day. There probably won't be many visitors left. Inform the others to leave early."
After he finished speaking, the girl with zombie makeup in front of him didn't move.
"Is there anything else?"
"Boss …" Xu Wan hesitated before slowly taking out a letter from her pocket. "This is Tao Ming and Xiao Wei's resignation letter. You've treated them well, and they were too embarrassed to tell you in person, so they asked me to pass this to you."
"They're leaving?" Chen Ge was startled and accepted the letter. "To each his own. You should leave early."
"Okay, I'll go remove my makeup."
Watching the adorable little "zombie" leave, Chen Ge silently lit a cigarette.
Half a year ago, his parents had mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind this Haunted house.
To keep the memory alive, Chen Ge quit his job to focus on managing the Haunted House. He wanted to do better.
Unfortunately, the times were changing too fast. The Haunted House industry was very competitive, and it was relatively unpopular, so there were many limitations.
After watching the same horror scene once, it would become boring to watch it again, and constantly revising it would require a lot of money.
Since a few weeks ago, the Haunted House had been struggling to make ends meet. The entrance fee for a day was not even enough to cover the utility bills.
"I don't know how much longer I can last."
After putting out the cigarette, Chen Ge was about to return to the Haunted House when a middle-aged man wearing the staff uniform from New Century Park walked over.
Seeing him, Chen Ge was like a mouse seeing a cat, and he hurriedly quickened his pace.
"Are you pretending not to see it?" The middle-aged man grabbed Chen Ge's shoulders. "Let's get this straight today. Your utility bills and the venue's rent have been in arrears for two months already. The higher-ups have been pressuring me, and I'm under a lot of pressure! "
"Xu Shu, it's not that I don't want to pay, but the funds have been a bit tight recently. Give me one more month."
"That's what you said last month."
"I promise you, this is definitely the last month!" Chen Ge patted his chest and said with sincerity.
"The Haunted House industry is not doing well, and it can't attract any visitors. If it's up to you, you should give up." The middle-aged man called Xu Shu looked at the envelope in Chen Ge's hand, and the strength in his grip slowly decreased. "You're so young, why do you have to work so hard?"
"Xu Shu, I know you're doing this for my own good, but this Haunted House has a different meaning to me. It's something that my parents have left for me." Chen Ge's voice was low like he did not want more people to hear him.
As the park manager, the middle-aged man knew about Chen Ge's parents. He did not reply, and after a few seconds, he sighed and softened. "I can understand what you're thinking. Fine, I'll try my best to buy you a few more weeks."
"Thank you, Xu Shu!"
"There's no need to thank me. You'd better work harder and sell more tickets to the Haunted House."
After sending the park manager away, Chen Ge returned to the Haunted House and started his daily routine, inspecting the equipment, maintaining the props, and cleaning.
"The fake blood in the maintenance room is running out; I'll need to buy another batch. This corridor is slightly slanted, so it might be able to block the visitors' blind spots. The mannequins were scratched, so I need to fix them. F * ck! Where are the crafting lights I installed? Who stole them? "
In other people's eyes, he was the boss of the Haunted House and a successful young man, but in reality, only he knew the bitterness behind that.
The Haunted House was a kind of 'scary' consumption. In a scary environment, one's muscles and mind would be on high alert, and once they were released, it would be like a massage. This kind of method could give people a sense of satisfaction in a short period of time.
At the same time, the Haunted House was a one-time consumption. Many Haunted Houses on the market moved from city to city to attract new visitors. For a Haunted House like Chen Ge's, unless it was very famous and could attract people, it would not last long.
It was already not easy for him to hold on for so long.
Dragging the mannequins that had been scratched, Chen Ge entered the maintenance room. He had studied toy design and manufacturing in university, and most of the mannequins and mechanisms were designed by him.
The repair process was complicated and monotonous. He needed to sew the mannequins back together, repaint them, and make them look old.
"I still need some blood. I remember there's stock in the attic." The Haunted House was divided into three floors. The first and second floors were used to decorate scary scenarios, and the third floor was a storeroom.
Pushing open the dusty wooden door, the attic was filled with various discarded equipment, most of which were left behind by his parents when they were running the Haunted House.
Seeing these things reminded him of his parents, so Chen Ge rarely came here.
"Half a year has passed."
Looking at the familiar equipment, Chen Ge was reminded of his childhood.
At the time, they were still running a mobile Haunted House. His parents would bring him to different cities, and when the couple was busy, they would toss Chen Ge backstage alone to accompany the various monsters. That was the reason why Chen Ge was so brave.
After all, when his peers were playing alphabet puzzles, he was already hugging a mannequin head and running around.
"These are all my memories."
Without realizing it, Chen Ge walked to the wooden box that stored his parents' belongings. Inside it was a crude doll and a black phone.
The doll was the first toy that Chen Ge had made when he was young, and he had no recollection of the phone.
The police had found these two items at an abandoned hospital in the countryside. As for why Chen Ge's parents had gone there at night, no one knew.
"It's been so long. Where are you?" Chen Ge picked up the doll and pinched its cheeks. He sighed. "I'd better go find the fake blood. If I can't survive this off-season, Haunted House might really have to close for sale."
Chen Ge was talking to himself, but when he mentioned the closing of the business, the black phone, which had been quiet inside the wooden box, suddenly flickered, and it emitted a cold light.
"What's going on? Black technology? A supernatural phenomenon? "
If it was someone else, their heart would have raced, and their palms would have been sweating. In comparison, Chen Ge's reaction was more direct. He picked up the phone and placed it before his eyes to confirm it.
"I've tried this phone more than a hundred times, but it didn't work. Why did it suddenly start on its own today? I found this at the place where my parents disappeared. Could it be that they know I'm in trouble, so they're contacting me? "
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Chen Ge swiped the screen. There was only one app on the darkened screen, and it was using the haunted house as the icon.
"It's different from what I expected, but the icon looks familiar. It's the front door of my Haunted House!"
Chen Ge opened the app with a frown, and a line of bloody words appeared on the screen — Do you believe in ghosts?
Whether there were ghosts or not was a surreal philosophical question. For a man like Chen Ge, it was a difficult question.
"There should be …"
Chen Ge made his choice, and several seconds later, new words appeared on the screen.
"What you're thinking is the answer. From this moment onward, you'll officially replace me as the new owner of Haunted House. Of course, this is not something worth celebrating. At the end of the tutorial, I wish to give you a piece of advice. Suicide is the most cowardly act, so try your best to survive! "
"That's quite a lot of information! But how come his tone is so similar to my dad's? "
Chen Ge clicked open the Haunted House app again, and a new interface appeared.
Western Jiujiang Haunted House
Status: Closing
Reputation: None
Daily Visitors: 4
Monthly Visitors: 10
My Team of Ghosts: None
My Inventory: None
Unlocked Achievement: None
Existing Scenarios: Night of the Living Dead (Horrible props, horrible actors, no story or logic to speak of, scream rating: none); Minghun (Not husband and wife, the dead are buried in the same grave, the ghost wife chases after the soul, scream rating: half a star)
Unlockable Scenarios: Murder by Midnight (A dangerous mental patient has moved into this old apartment. He is wandering outside your door with a pair of scissors and a hammer, scream rating: one star); The Third Sick Hall (This abandoned hospital makes weird noises every night. As a newspaper reporter, you will enter to investigate, scream rating: three stars); The Hearse (The hearse carrying the dead is on its way. If you do not leave in one hour, you will be left on it forever, scream rating: two stars)
Daily Mission: Complete the Haunted House's Daily Mission. Reward will be given and more scenarios will be unlocked.
Haunted House Expansion Requirement: Monthly Visitors over one hundred, Reputation rating over sixty percent (After three expansions, the Haunted House will be upgraded to Maze of Terror)
Wheel of Misfortune (Consume the Terror Points generated by the visitors to spin the wheel): Life and death are ruled by fate. There are spirit fruits that can increase one's lifespan, but there are also vengeful ghosts!
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