The woman's high heels struck the floor, sending dull echoes through the empty space. She was all alone; her temporary partner had vanished without a trace.
This was the left side of the factory, the largest section of the building. A short corridor connected the hall to the changing room, the restroom, and two small break rooms.
Facing the camera, Zhang Shuya no longer looked as relaxed as she had at first. She walked forward, glancing around cautiously. "How has Fang Rui been in the restroom for almost ten minutes..."
She waited a little longer, then started to get restless.
The area around her was deserted. Almost forty-five minutes had passed since the test began, but there were so many scattered objects in the hall—and so many places to hide batteries—that she and Fang Rui still hadn't finished searching it.
She remembered the head she'd seen inside a broken machine while picking up a battery earlier, and felt a little uneasy.
The Deduction Company's props were so realistic. They even blinked and stuck out their tongues.
That tongue had been so long, it reminded her of the owner who had hanged himself at Qingyuan Pharmaceutical Factory.
It was strange. She'd been to plenty of haunted houses before, some of them genuinely scary, and she'd never had a problem. So why did this one make her feel so uncomfortable?
Zhang Shuya took a deep breath, pulled out a sweet to give herself a sugar boost, and tried to cheer herself up.
She raised the camera to film the path ahead and began explaining things like a streamer doing a live broadcast. "The test is harder than I expected. The batteries are really well hidden, and I've only found one so far."
"Fang Rui went to the restroom and still hasn't come back. The other four are far away from me, so I'm alone in the hall right now... Wait, did you hear that?"
She lowered her voice and listened intently to the sudden thump, thump.
The sound was faint, as if it were coming from the restroom.
"Is that... Fang Rui? Did he run out of toilet paper?" Zhang Shuya guessed hesitantly. She took a step toward the restroom, then stopped.
"Could he be messing with me? He's been in there so long. Maybe he's trapped and can't get out?"
She waited in place for a while, listening as the sound grew more and more urgent. Then, gritting her teeth, she headed for the restroom.
She crossed the corridor connecting it to the hall. The closer she got, the more grating the thumping became.
She couldn't help wondering if this was another scare the company had set up.
"Fang Rui, are you there? Are you inside? It's Zhang Shuya."
She stood outside the restroom, hesitated, then leaned in to look.
The abandoned factory's restroom had stalls. Since the other person was still knocking, the stall door must be shut, so she didn't need to worry that she'd barge in on anything embarrassing.
But after her voice bounced around the empty space and faded away, no one inside answered.
She peered in again. Judging by how the stall door shook, the knocking was coming from the last stall.
That made things even stranger.
Given their situation, Fang Rui shouldn't have chosen the last stall.
He wasn't the type to seek thrills, so that made no sense. Besides, Fang Rui wouldn't just ignore her question, would he?
If it wasn't Fang Rui in there, then who was knocking?
"...Hmph. You really think I'm that easy to scare?" Imagining the haunted house's designers congratulating themselves, she strode forward in her high heels and tugged at the last stall door.
It wouldn't open.
She deliberately called out, "Is someone in there? Are you out of toilet paper, or did you fall in and get stuck? Want big sis to bring you some?"
The only response was an even more urgent thump, thump, thump.
There was a gap beneath the restroom stall doors.
Zhang Shuya pulled out her flashlight, planning to use it to see inside. It flickered twice and made a faint zzzt sound, then went out as she watched in surprise.
Seriously?
The props could be rigged to scare people, but she'd brought this flashlight from home. What were the odds that it would break right now?
She felt a nagging unease. An old saying her elders often used came to mind: if you spend enough time by the river, you'll get your shoes wet eventually. Could this place really be haunted...?
"No. No way. It's all in my head." She liked haunted houses and horror movies because she knew ghosts weren't real. That was what made her want to uncover the truth.
If someone told her ghosts really existed, she wouldn't believe it!
She put away the broken flashlight, still a little defiant. Then she dropped to one knee and bent down, propping her cheek on one hand so it wouldn't get covered in dust. Holding the camera in her other hand, she switched on night vision and squinted at the gap beneath the door through its screen.
Strangely enough, the knocking stopped the moment she lowered her head.
On the camera screen, the gap beneath the door was clear. She could only see the bottom of the toilet and the trash can.
There was nothing there.
But the fact that there was nothing made no sense. If nobody was there, who had been knocking?
"So it's not someone from the company pulling a trick. It's a mechanism!" Zhang Shuya murmured to herself, then stood up.
Just then, footsteps sounded outside the restroom.
Zhang Shuya jumped and whipped around. A piece of clothing peeked out from behind the wall. It lingered there for a moment. She ventured, "Fang Rui?"
As if deliberately avoiding her, the clothing shifted and vanished behind the wall.
Zhang Shuya didn't want to admit it, but she now had a good reason to get away from the creepy restroom. She spoke softly to the camera. "That might be Fang Rui by the entrance. I'll go look for him."
Hurrying out of the restroom, she followed the direction the clothing had gone and entered the changing room nearby.
As soon as she left, the sound of a toilet flushing came from inside the stall. The door that wouldn't open eased open, and a ghastly pale hand suddenly reached through the gap. Its fingers spread and felt around in the air. When it found no one, it seemed to grow angry.
After a long while, it finally slipped back inside and quietly closed the door.
Zhang Shuya had no idea what she'd escaped. She looked at the rows of lockers with labels, and the four long benches in the center of the room where people could sit to change, baffled.
Where was everyone?
They'd started out as a team running a dungeon. How had it turned into a solo run?
She silently muttered, Fang Rui really can't be relied on... I should've picked Zhao Yijiu as my partner instead. At least he wouldn't leave a girl behind and walk off, would he?
Bang!
In reply, the changing room door slammed shut. This time, Zhang Shuya was genuinely frightened. The room was so quiet that even the sound of the storm outside was muffled. The sudden bang nearly made her heart leap out of her chest.
She let out a short scream and ran to the door, pounding on it. "Who's out there? Damn it, you even locked the door..."
They remained deadlocked for more than five minutes before she finally stopped, unwillingly accepting that whoever was outside wasn't going to let her out, even if they hadn't left.
Then she'd search the changing room for batteries first. Maybe she could leave once she found one.
She took out her phone to check the time. She'd wasted ages, and it was already 12:57 a.m.
She really had to hurry and find a battery. It would be awful if her camera ran out of power and she got eliminated.
For now, she had no time to dwell on it. She immediately opened every locker she could and felt around inside using the night-vision camera.
"Nothing..."
"Nothing here either..."
"This makes no sense. A place this big should have at least three or four batteries. Did Fang Rui search it already!?"
She felt through even the lockers in the farthest corner, but still found no batteries.
1:01 a.m.
The camera ran out of power and shut down automatically.
"Five more minutes..." A bead of cold sweat ran down her face. She pressed her lips together.
She began to suspect that someone in the company's human resources department had rigged things in favor of a new hire, making everyone else come along just to lose.
Had they deliberately told the favored candidate where the batteries were, then suggested splitting up so the others would get eliminated?
The first person to suggest splitting into pairs had been... Fang Rui.
And conveniently, he'd gone missing under the excuse of using the restroom!
"Damn it." With no hope of finding a battery and herself locked in the changing room, she couldn't be bothered to maintain a lady's composure. She cursed aloud.
Once this was all over, she'd expose this rigged test!
Five minutes passed in a flash, and the atmosphere in the dark changing room grew even more oppressive.
Zhang Shuya sat on a bench. Since she'd already been eliminated, she planned to sleep for a while.
Suddenly, something cold touched her ankle, raising goose bumps all over her body.
"Who's there!?"
Her flashlight was broken, and her camera had shut down. All she could do was use her phone's built-in flashlight.
But after she cried out, the thing touching her ankle didn't move away. Instead, it grabbed her!
It was a hand!
Zhang Shuya's hair stood on end. When she felt the smooth skin, she finally screamed, realizing it wasn't a prop.
A violent tug came from her ankle, and she was dragged to the floor. Her phone flew out of her hand and hit the wall, lighting up a small corner of the room.
Something crawled up her leg. At last, a chilling pressure settled over her eyes.
"No, please..." Zhang Shuya panicked. She struggled desperately, but was pinned in place. A finger pried her eyelid open, exposing her eyeball.
She saw what was right in front of her.
"No!!!"
Pfft—
Two black orbs dropped to the floor with a wet smack, accompanied by sticky blood.
Twenty minutes earlier.
Yu Xing and Zhao Yijiu didn't stay long in the Exhibition Room. Besides making a rough assessment of the situation, they also searched Offices 02 and 03 for batteries. Since they didn't want to run into a ghost, they left the batteries where they were after finding them, simply remembering their locations in case they needed them later.
After that, the two of them retraced their steps toward the entrance of Qingyuan Pharmaceutical Factory.
It was worth mentioning that although their phones seemed to be working normally and had a signal, every call they made failed to connect. Anything they posted on social media just got a red exclamation mark.
As Yu Xing went through the options on his phone one by one, he'd already expected this after learning there were real ghosts here. Still, when Zhao Yijiu gave him a look of disdain, he pulled a long face.
He grumbled, "Why can ghosts interfere with electronic devices? Does this prove some people's theories about magnetic fields? During finals, there'd be no need for signal jammers. Just put a ghost in the hallway and the effect would be amazing."
"If students could still write their exams after that, I'd be impressed." Zhao Yijiu didn't know why he'd bothered entertaining this pointless hypothetical. As soon as he finished speaking, he regretted it. How had Yu Xing managed to infect him with his nonsense?
When they crossed the hall and reached the entrance, Yu Xing's frustration hit its peak.
"I knew it! Just as I expected!"
The entrance wouldn't open. After fiddling with the lock for ages using a piece of wire, Yu Xing came to a conclusion. "It's not locked. There's another reason it won't open."
"It's probably sealed by some abnormal power from a ghost." Zhao Yijiu kicked the door with practiced ease. It didn't budge at all.
He stopped trying. Instead, he lowered his head and frowned.
Two seconds later, a glint appeared in his eyes. "You said Assistant Hao didn't leave any footprints. You figured that out here by the entrance?"
"Hm? Yeah, Assistant Hao only moved around near here." Yu Xing was still trying to work out the lock, and answered offhandedly.
Zhao Yijiu narrowed his eyes. He felt a bizarre sense of disbelief as a far-fetched hunch was confirmed.
He knew where that feeling of wrongness had come from.
Yu Xing had acted scared of ghosts the whole time, but in reality, none of his actions had been aimed at avoiding them. It was like someone complaining, "I'm going to fail again," only to get the highest score in the class.
This was ridiculous—Yu Xing had never told him that Assistant Hao didn't leave footprints.
Zhao Yijiu had only just noticed that the footprints leading to the entrance belonged to him and Yu Xing alone. That reminded him of how, at midnight, Yu Xing had asked Assistant Hao if he was cold, then watched him leave. He'd decided to test Yu Xing.
He hadn't expected the trick to work.
Yu Xing's instinctive answer showed that he'd noticed Assistant Hao had no footprints right then and there!
Which raised the question: who didn't leave footprints? The applicants' footprints were scattered everywhere. The only thing that could move through all that dust without leaving a trace... was a ghost, right? Yu Xing had known from the start that Assistant Hao was a ghost, yet hadn't shown any sign that anything was wrong.
That made it impossible to explain his earlier display of cowardice.
And his decision to go home after learning there were ghosts here contradicted it too.
Taking into account how Yu Xing kept swinging between calmness and panic, as well as his ability to identify and analyze the key issues...
The thoughts in Zhao Yijiu's head suddenly fell into place. All in all, there was a good chance... Yu Xing was putting on an act for him!
Was he playing dumb to catch him off guard!?
His gloomy gaze fixed on Yu Xing's back as he weighed the other man's intentions.
Before you continue