The entrance door to Midnight Escape slowly creaked shut, the sound of the panels turning like a chain tightening around the hearts of the medical students.
"He Shan, based on your experience last time, what should we do now?"
"Find the exit, as fast as you can!"
After locking the scene's entrance, Chen Ge immediately called Xiao Wan, and the two of them went to the prop room together.
"Boss, why are you in such a rush? Haven't the tourists already entered?" Xu Wan was wearing corpse makeup and the costume from the Ghost Marriage scene, running back and forth, looking quite frightening.
"I've created a new horror scene on the third floor called Midnight Escape. These Forensic Medical College students are quite bold, so it's the perfect time to test the effects on them." Chen Ge pushed open the door to the prop room and began searching according to the prompts on his black phone.
"Doesn't a new scene need to be inspected by the park before it can be put into use?" Xu Wan walked over, lifting the hem of her ancient-style dress. "Boss, what are you looking for?"
"A custom-made uniform for you."
"A uniform?"
Entering the deepest part of the room, Chen Ge spotted a familiar wooden crate in the corner. He hadn't expected this box, which was originally used to store the black phone and the ragdoll, to appear here.
Walking over to the wooden crate, Chen Ge looked inside. At the bottom lay a bizarre-looking hammer, a robe soaked in blood, and a yellowed missing person notice next to it.
"Found it." Chen Ge picked up the clothes. To his surprise, the seemingly ordinary doctor's uniform was incredibly heavy, lined with iron chains engraved with human faces.
"Boss, this is the uniform you had made for me?" Xu Wan took a step back. Even from several paces away, she felt she could smell the stench of blood radiating from it. "Can I not wear it?"
"Haunted house actors are actors too, Xiao Wan. Think about what your teachers at the drama academy said—you have to hold yourself to a strict standard." Chen Ge shook out the clothes in his hand, and a fake human skin mask fell out.
Chen Ge hadn't known this was hidden in the clothes either. After picking it up and taking just one look, he felt a chill run down his spine.
The mask was stitched together from different male faces, the technique crude and hysterical in a way that was deeply unsettling.
"Boss, don't tell me I have to wear this thing too." Xu Wan had already retreated to the doorway.
"It's just a trial; I want to see the overall effect of the new scene. I'll play the ghost next time, alright?" Chen Ge's tone was like a devil in a fairy tale luring someone toward their downfall.
"Fine... I'll give it a try." Xu Wan finally softened and agreed. She took the mask and the doctor's coat, and without minding Chen Ge, she shed her ancient-style costume and changed directly. "Boss, to be honest, your definition of a uniform really opened my eyes."
After wrapping the chains from the coat around her and donning the blood-soaked outer garment, the moment Xu Wan put on the mask, her entire demeanor seemed to shift. She radiated an aura of madness, viciousness, and extreme cruelty.
"Very good." Chen Ge didn't dare let Xu Wan look in a mirror; he was afraid she would scare herself. "Come, take this too."
Chen Ge pulled the strangely shaped hammer from the crate. It was about forty centimeters long, with a handle shaped like a human spine. The end connected to the chains inside the coat, and the hammerhead featured sharp, blood-letting spikes on both sides. "It's hollow, so it's not too heavy. If you find it cumbersome while moving quickly, you can just drag it along."
Xu Wan had already given up on resisting and nodded, taking the hammer.
"Keep your phone in your outer pocket, check your earpiece, and stay in contact at all times. If there are no issues, it's time for us to go on stage."
"Us? Boss, are you going into the scene too?" Xu Wan turned to look at Chen Ge, her crisp, pleasant voice clashing with the stitched-together man's face, giving Chen Ge a stomachache.
"Of course. Let's go, the tourists are probably getting impatient."
Chen Ge sent Xu Wan into the Midnight Escape scene and returned to the main control room.
Though it felt like a long time, only a few minutes had actually passed. He found the seven medical students on the monitors. These seven were far more cowardly than Gao Ruxue; the expressions on their faces made it clear that everyone was extremely nervous.
"They've been walking for ages and are still hovering around the first few rooms on the third floor. It looks like I need to give them a sense of urgency." Chen Ge first changed the background music to Gloomy Sunday, then dialed Xu Wan's phone. "Xiao Wan, this new horror scene is huge. It covers not just the entire third floor of the haunted house, but also parts of the second and first floors. There are staircases on both the left and right; don't run around, just follow my instructions."
"Received."
After communicating with Xu Wan, Chen Ge applied some simple makeup on himself and entered the Midnight Escape scene through the staff passage.
Possessing the black phone, he could control dozens of mechanisms within the scene at any time. For this reason alone, the replayability of the Midnight Escape scene far exceeded that of Ghost Marriage and Zombie Resurrection Night.
In the cold, dark corridor, a bathtub in one of the rooms was pushed aside. Chen Ge climbed out and then restored everything to its original state.
"Xiao Wan, they might be near room 207 on the third floor now. Go guard the left staircase first and wait for my next instruction." After saying this, Chen Ge let his eyes adjust to the darkness of the scene before heading up the right staircase to the third floor.
At this very moment, the students from Han Jiang Forensic Medical College had no idea that "danger" was approaching. They were still busy rummaging through various debris in the room, hoping to find something.
"Aside from being a bit gloomy and the temperature being a bit low, this haunted house doesn't seem that scary. Are we being too sensitive?" Monkey, the shortest of the group and also the most talkative, spoke up. "Feng Ge, I think we should split into two teams; it'll be faster to search that way. Everyone huddling together is just a waste of time."
The tallest person was the Feng Ge that Monkey referred to. Having just entered the Midnight Escape scene and finding that all his preparations were useless, he was a bit panicked. But as time passed, he slowly began to feel that this scene wasn't actually that scary. "Splitting up is fine. Monkey, Lao Song, you two take the two girls and search the rooms on the left. The three of us will search the rooms on the right."
"We should have done this ages ago. I really don't know what's so scary about this place; it's nothing compared to our school's morgue." The speaker was a girl, the only one in the group with dyed hair. She had a completely different temperament from Gao Ruxue; with her makeup, she looked mature and sexy, not much like a student.
"Hui Jie, Feng Ge, don't be careless. It's better if we stay together." He Shan hid in the crowd, his face twisted in a grimace. "This haunted house boss never plays by the rules. You haven't seen his livestreams—that guy is a suicidal maniac!"