Caught Off Guard

There was a saying that when people experienced the utmost terror, they were unable to scream. Being able to scream meant that the pressure could be released, allowing them to divert their attention to some extent and ease their fear.

That was why many horror and thriller movies featured scenes where the protagonist hid while suppressing their voice. Under those circumstances, the pressure could not be released, deepening the terror they felt.

Qin Tiantian was just like that.

When she saw Lu Ban in the mirror, grinning eerily at her, her entire body suddenly froze in place. She could not even tremble. Only a wave of goosebumps crawled from her lower back up her spine, and she felt as if something were stuck in her throat, making it impossible to utter a sound.

Qin Tiantian had met Lu Ban in person before. Although they were not very familiar, she knew perfectly well that Lu Ban himself would never wear such a smile.

Or rather, no living person would wear a smile like that.

The viewers in the livestream were also startled. The bullet comments, which had originally occupied two-thirds of the screen, suddenly froze as if the system had malfunctioned.

Clang--

Crash--

It was not until Lu Ban smashed the glass with a crowbar in the video that Qin Tiantian and the viewers were jolted back to their senses by the noise.

People used to say someone had been scared silly. Qin Tiantian felt that she really had been like that just now. Under extreme stimulation, the human brain sometimes entered a state of stagnation or kept repeating instinctive actions.

If Lu Ban had not smashed the mirror and diverted Qin Tiantian's attention, it might have taken her quite a while to recover.

"There seemed to be something in the mirror just now, but I can't see it anymore. Let's keep moving."

The sound of Lu Ban's voice gave Qin Tiantian an inexplicable sense of security.

Fuck, that was definitely the UP laughing himself just now. What a cheap trick!

Damn, how can someone laugh in such a hellish way?

I remember now. Isn't this the UP who counted heartbeats last time? Sure enough, he loves pulling this kind of hellish crap.

No normal person could come up with a scare like that!

Fuck, fuck, fuck, that almost scared me to death. I'm definitely going to go curse this UP out.

Is Chuanbao all right? Why isn't she saying anything?

Qin Tiantian saw Lu Ban walking toward an even deeper, darker corridor. Wanting to ease her fear a little, she glanced at the bullet comments.

"I-I'm still here. W-what? It's not scary at all. Surely there are actually people who find this video scary?"

She put on a brave front, unaware that her voice was already trembling.

By the time Qin Tiantian finished speaking, Lu Ban had reached the control room at the end of the corridor.

After giving a brief introduction, Lu Ban did not waste any more words. He entered the control room and saw the dilapidated stage.

The camera zoomed in slightly, capturing the piano on the stage.

Just then, a piano note rang out, striking a chord in Qin Tiantian's heart.

Her entire body suddenly shuddered, and her scalp went numb. It was like the tremor that came when the pent-up urge to pee from sitting through an entire Once Upon a Time in America was finally released after ten anxious minutes of waiting outside the restroom.

Qin Tiantian realized that her hands were trembling nonstop, completely beyond her control.

She could only grab the shark plush pillow beside her. Clutching it, Qin Tiantian seemed to feel a little safer and began to think.

There was no one beside the piano, and Lu Ban had only just arrived. Where had that sound come from?

"Maybe it was a small animal?"

Qin Tiantian forced herself to come up with an explanation, even though the camera had clearly shown that there was no small animal on the piano.

She could not possibly admit that it was some kind of entity, could she?

The viewers who had been frightened by the piano music had not even had time to send bullet comments cursing Lu Ban when the image suddenly shook, accompanied by a cracking sound.

"Holy crap. I almost fell through."

From Lu Ban's perspective, the camera showed the floor. There was a hole where he had just stepped.

Compared with what they had seen before, this danger encountered during an ordinary exploration actually seemed rather mundane.

Just as everyone let out a sigh of relief, the flashlight swung around with the camera, pointing behind Lu Ban.

A mannequin with eerie eyes abruptly appeared in the very center of the screen.

"!!!"

This time, Qin Tiantian managed to scream, but only for a moment. As she desperately leaned backward to get away from the screen, she fell out of her gaming chair.

Thump--

A muffled sound came from the mat. Fortunately, the bed was right beside Qin Tiantian's chair, so she had not hit anything.

In the video, Lu Ban even carefully observed the mannequin before leaving the control room.

Qin Tiantian simply did not sit back down. She hugged the pillow on her bed and continued watching from a little farther away, as if that would make it less frightening.

Later in the video, Lu Ban edited things slightly, cutting out the footage of himself returning from the corridor to the main hall.

"It's completely dark now."

Lu Ban shone his flashlight at the hole in the ceiling, then swept it across the other parts of the theater hall.

Qin Tiantian peeked through the gaps between her fingers at Lu Ban's movements. Then she saw that, in the control room on the other side of the stage, the mannequins with eerie eyes were standing by the window, staring at the person watching the video.

"Waaah!"

She did not dare look anymore and hurriedly buried her face in her knees.

Lu Ban was still explaining things beside her ears, saying that the control room across from them was empty, but Qin Tiantian did not care in the slightest.

Yet after a dozen seconds, a strange sound came from the video, making her raise her head again.

Qin Tiantian saw that Lu Ban was actually eating self-heating rice in the eerie, gloomy, terrifying Jiangcheng Grand Theater.

"???"

Wasn't this supposed to be an exciting forbidden-zone exploration video full of danger at every turn?

How had it suddenly turned into a wilderness food stream?

And it even looked pretty tasty.

It was late at night, and she had just been frightened several times. As Qin Tiantian watched Lu Ban scoop saucy tomato beef brisket mixed with rice into his mouth and devour it with relish, she unconsciously swallowed.

What a socially destructive UP!

If I did something wrong, let the police punish me instead of making me watch this kind of food stream late at night.

I get it now. This is actually a sponsored food video. Caught off guard, caught off guard.

Wait, what happened to the thing in the mirror? Those mannequins had something wrong with them too, right? How did he suddenly start eating?

Not gonna lie, it looks pretty good. I'm already searching for takeout.

That's it, everyone go home. The next nine minutes are all food-stream content. This is a food video!

"It does look pretty tasty."

Qin Tiantian had recovered by now and leaned slightly closer, still hugging a huge shark plush.

The eating scene lasted about a minute and a half. Lu Ban packed everything away, then picked up his flashlight and shone it around again.

The oval beam of light fell on the abandoned second floor, then on the stage, and finally on the control room opposite the stage.

The control room, which had originally contained no mannequins, now had several eerie-eyed figures standing inside.

"!!!"

Qin Tiantian covered her head and crouched defensively.

Unable to resist her curiosity, she peeked at the computer screen.

"There is definitely something strange here."

Lu Ban's camera also lingered on the mannequins for a moment before turning elsewhere.

In that fleeting instant, Qin Tiantian clearly saw a woman in red standing at the entrance to the emergency passage on one side of the stage!

"Damn it, this is terrifying!"

Qin Tiantian could not help swearing.

*

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