Hypnosis

"Did this thing go off the last few times you came here?" 0401 asked.

"You can tell from the looks on their faces." Sun Hang shrugged.

"So, while the Public Security Bureau had the amusement park sealed off, someone still snuck in." 0401 put on a thoughtful expression. "Or perhaps the culprit has been hiding in the amusement park all along, and you simply never found where he was hiding."

"Sounds like you analyzed a lot, but it was all useless nonsense." 0398 rolled her eyes at him. "By the way, can you take these handcuffs off me? Being cuffed to an idiot like this, I'm honestly worried he'll get me killed."

"Enough arguing. Keep moving." Captain Huang said in a deep voice. "The primary objective of this operation is to search for the missing trainee Peacekeeper. Alive, we find the person; dead..."

The word "dead" lingered in his throat for a long while before he finally swallowed the rest of the sentence: dead, we find the body.

There was only one corridor at the entrance to the Haunted House, though it was fairly spacious—wide enough for three burly men to walk abreast. Locked doors lined both sides of the corridor. The keys to these doors had long since vanished, so force was the only way to open them.

Whenever they passed a door, Sun Hang carefully examined its keyhole, checking whether the rust around it showed signs of being worn away. Unfortunately, the rust and dust on every lock were evenly distributed, directly ruling out the possibility that the other party had a key or had picked the locks.

"What's inside these rooms?" 0401 could not help asking.

"All kinds of themed escape rooms," the young Peacekeeper replied.

"Have you gone in to inspect them?" 0401 asked again.

"During the previous two inspections, we used a fiber-optic inspection camera to check inside. We didn't find any clues." The young Peacekeeper shook his head.

The fiber-optic inspection camera he mentioned was a special device issued by the Public Security Bureau. Its tiny probe, no larger than a grain of rice, could slip through a crack in the door and capture images of the other side.

"So you never went in and inspected them directly?" Sun Hang frowned. "There have to be secret passages inside themed escape rooms... The door in the corridor might not be their only entrance."

"Captain Huang said that if this inspection turns up nothing again, we'll pry open these doors and inspect everything thoroughly," the Peacekeeper said.

"By the way, do you hear anything strange?" 0401 suddenly shuddered and lowered his voice. "Why do I... seem to hear something like a child crying...?"

"I hear it too." The young Peacekeeper nodded slightly. "Now that you mention it... it does sound a little like that."

"It's the wind," Sun Hang said. "The walls on this floor are unfinished brick, with plenty of gaps that haven't been filled. The Haunted House's front doors are open too, directly facing this corridor, which creates something like a cross-draft. When the draft passes through gaps in the brickwork, it makes a wailing sound."

"But what I heard wasn't a child crying." 0398 shook her head. "If I had to describe it... it sounded more like a young girl singing."

"Singing?" Sun Hang's eyelid twitched. "Are you sure?"

"I... Now that you put it that way, I'm not so sure anymore." 0398's expression turned unpleasant as well. "The sound comes and goes, faint and indistinct..."

"What about you? What did you hear?" Sun Hang turned to ask the other Peacekeepers.

"Just the wind. Don't scare yourselves." Captain Huang sounded impatient.

"Then why did 0398... Hey, what are you doing?" 0401's words were abruptly cut off. He felt an enormous force seize his wrist and drag him forward.

At some point, 0398 seemed to have become a different person. Her eyes were unfocused, and her movements were extremely stiff as she blankly dragged 0401 deeper into the corridor.

"A dissociative state? Has she... been controlled?" Sun Hang froze for a moment, instinctively stepping aside for the two of them.

"Wh-what is going on?" 0401 shouted in shock and panic as he was dragged along. "Wh-what kind of crazy fit is this woman having now? Why is she so strong? Fuck, I think she's going to tear my wrist off!"

"Quick, restrain her!" Captain Huang had just reached out to grab 0398 when Sun Hang stopped him.

"0401, don't resist," Sun Hang said. "Follow her. Let's see where she takes us."

At Sun Hang's words, Captain Huang immediately understood. He said to the other Peacekeepers, "Everyone stay alert. Report anything unusual to me immediately!"

"What the hell is wrong with 0398?" 0401 staggered forward as 0398 dragged him along. "Sh-she isn't putting on an act, is she?"

"It doesn't look like an act." Sun Hang shook his head. "The handcuffs have already cut her wrists until they're bleeding, but she hasn't even frowned... And don't you think her strength is absurd?"

0398 was a slender woman just over five feet three, and the muscle definition in her limbs did not suggest that she worked out regularly. 0401, meanwhile, was a man five feet nine and weighed over 160 pounds... In a pure contest of strength, 0398 could not possibly have beaten 0401.

Yet now, she dragged him forward the entire way, and he could not stop her at all.

"She hasn't been possessed by some paranormal object, has she?" 0401 looked terrified. "Captain Huang, can you at least take these handcuffs off me first...?"

"No. What if we take them off and she runs?" Captain Huang immediately rejected the suggestion. "Just be a human counterweight... Don't worry, we can guarantee your safety."

0398 dragged 0401 through the entire corridor, up to the second floor, then around several turns, until a faint glow appeared in the distance.

It was a robed figure. The faint light came from something cradled in its hands, but before the Peacekeepers could rush over, the figure suddenly turned and vanished down a side passage.

The layout of the Haunted House's second floor was far more complicated than the first. Crisscrossing corridors and all manner of hidden passages turned it into a true maze. With the building plans long lost, no one knew where the half-open doors led.

The figure merely covered the glowing object in its hands, and it instantly vanished from everyone's sight.

Only then did 0398 stop as though waking from a dream. She bent over and began dry-heaving violently.

"Cough, cough... Cough... Wh-what happened?" 0398 asked between coughs. "Just now... what was that thing?"

"What did you see just now? What did you hear?" Sun Hang walked over, gently patting 0398's back as he asked.

"Cough... You asked me about that singing just now... so I strained my ears, trying to hear it more clearly... The singing had been far away from me, but all at once it came so close that it seemed to be right beside my ear..." 0398 said haltingly. "It startled me, but the next second, I realized everyone around me was gone... It was pitch-black everywhere, and I couldn't see anything... I could only see a little flame in the darkness... I don't know why, but that flame seemed to have a powerful pull on me. Before I knew it, I followed it..."

"Sounds like you fell under hypnosis." Captain Huang rubbed the stubble on his chin. "But you were right in the middle of the group, surrounded by our people. The other side shouldn't have had a chance to hypnotize you... Wait, could it have been that singing?! We all heard the wind, but only you heard singing!"

"Most likely." Another Peacekeeper wearing glasses said, "Certain special audio frequencies can also induce a hypnotic state."