Daily Tasks

The app on the phone, with its icon of a Haunted House entrance, looked a lot like the popular business simulation games on the market. The difference was that instead of running a restaurant, an aquarium, or a pet park, you ran a haunted house.

Chen Ge stared at the screen, unable to figure out why the phone his parents had left behind contained such a strange little game.

He carefully browsed the app. All the information in it matched his Haunted House, including the number of visitors each day and the attractions inside. The game gave Chen Ge a strange feeling, as if the Haunted House he had to manage in the game was the very same one he owned in real life.

They were in the same dire straits, both on the verge of closing down. There were far too many similarities between them.

"Could this game have been made based on my Haunted House? If I change the Haunted House in the game, could that benefit the real one too?"

Chen Ge kept looking. The existing attraction in the Haunted House, Zombie Resurrection Night, had been rated as completely worthless. Even the Horror Project, which had once made the papers and caused a sensation, had received a rating of only half a star.

"They gave even the Horror Project just half a star. I can't imagine how terrifying those other locked attractions must be." He tried tapping to unlock more attractions. When he touched the option, a line of text appeared on the screen, telling him he had to complete a certain number of daily tasks before he could unlock them.

"Looks like daily tasks are the foundation of everything. Only by completing them over and over can I unlock new horror attractions. More attractions will draw in lots of visitors, and with more visitors, I can expand the Haunted House and increase its size, creating a virtuous cycle."

Chen Ge had played plenty of mobile games in his spare time, and he quickly grasped the rules: completing daily tasks would affect the development of the entire Haunted House.

He opened the daily tasks, and three options appeared on the screen:

Easy: The three key elements of a haunted house are story, setting, and emotion. A haunted house without a story has no soul. Please create backstories for the two horror attractions, Zombie Resurrection Night and the Horror Project.

Normal: Before midnight, repair all the mannequin models in the Haunted House.

Nightmare: You must still be wondering whether ghosts really exist in this world. Let's play a little game. The truth will be revealed the moment you open your eyes.

Daily tasks refresh at midnight. You may accept only one task per day. Different difficulties offer different rewards.

(Warning! Some tasks are extremely dangerous. Choose carefully!)

After reading the daily tasks, Chen Ge was a little surprised. "The tasks in the game actually have to be completed in real life. Does that indirectly mean this game can affect reality?"

To test his theory, he decided to accept a task.

Daily tasks were divided by difficulty, and he could only choose one each day. If he wanted to maximize his gains, he should obviously choose the hardest one. But the warning that some tasks were extremely dangerous made him hesitate.

"This is a tough choice. The Nightmare task is worded so vaguely that it's obviously a trap. Maybe I should start with Normal. Repairing all the mannequin models before midnight will be tight, but it's not impossible."

Chen Ge was decisive. Once he made up his mind, he acted immediately. Without wasting a moment, he grabbed his toolbox and an unopened bucket of fake blood, then began inspecting all the mannequin props in the Haunted House.

Night had fallen. Chen Ge made his way alone through the vast House of Horrors. To save electricity, he hadn't even turned on the corridor lights. He tucked a flashlight under his arm and dragged the mannequins that needed repairs from one place to another.

If some unsuspecting outsider had seen this scene, they probably would have been scared enough to call the police.

"I'm exhausted! I didn't realize so many mannequins were broken. Looks like they weren't maintained properly before!"

At 11:45 p.m., Chen Ge received a notification on his phone that he had completed the task. "You have completed a Normal daily task. Pay attention to the details to create the perfect atmosphere of horror. Congratulations, you have received a task reward: the background track 'Gloomy Sunday.'"

"Isn't 'Gloomy Sunday' a banned song overseas? They say listening to it too much can make people suicidal, and the original recording disappeared long ago." Chen Ge found a CD icon in the Black Phone's item inventory. "Who gives something like that as a task reward? Could this be a prank?"

He tapped the CD icon, and a melody he had never heard before rang in his ears.

The sound seemed to have been born in darkness, loneliness, and sorrow. Chen Ge felt as if everything were drifting away from him. He seemed to sink into the depths of the ocean, or perhaps walk down an endless tunnel.

By the time the song ended, Chen Ge's back was soaked. He was glad he hadn't chosen to play it on repeat. Otherwise, he didn't know if he would have been able to pull himself out of the song.

"So it's real! This has to be the original recording!"

Completing tasks in the game could earn him rewards in real life. Chen Ge saw it as a shortcut to turning the Haunted House around.

He turned off the music and carefully put it away. After taking care of everything, Chen Ge headed into the Staff Break Room.

Lying in bed, his body was exhausted, but he wasn't the least bit sleepy.

What he had experienced that day would take any normal person a while to process.

Before he knew it, midnight had passed. Chen Ge was still staring blankly at the ceiling.

"I can't sleep at all!" With nothing better to do, he took out the Black Phone again. "It's past midnight. The daily tasks should have refreshed, right?"

He opened the app, and sure enough, the daily tasks had changed.

Easy: To give visitors a truly terrifying experience, you first need to pay attention to the pace of the tour. If the actors or mechanisms appear too early or too late, visitors will lose interest. So I suggest installing sound detectors and surveillance cameras in the Haunted House to keep track of their progress at all times.

Normal: You can't do it all alone. A good haunted house needs a great team. Hire more people, and they'll help you through this difficult time.

Nightmare: You must still be wondering whether ghosts really exist in this world. Let's play a little game. The truth will be revealed the moment you open your eyes.

Daily tasks refresh at midnight. You may accept only one task per day. Different difficulties offer different rewards.

(Warning! Some tasks are extremely dangerous. Choose carefully!)

The three new daily tasks left Chen Ge feeling conflicted.

The Easy task was to install sound detectors and surveillance cameras in the Haunted House. He could complete it as long as he had the money, but the problem was that he was short on funds. He couldn't afford that much.

The Normal task wasn't any friendlier to Chen Ge. The old employee who had weathered the storms with him had only handed in his resignation yesterday, and today he was supposed to hire someone new. Never mind whether he could find anyone; even if someone was willing to come, training them from scratch would take a lot of time. By the time they were ready to work independently, the House of Horrors would probably have gone under.

After ruling out the Easy and Normal tasks, Chen Ge turned his attention to the last daily task.

"The higher the difficulty, the better the reward. Should I try the Nightmare-level task?"