Kindness

Chen Ge sat alone in a dark room, talking to the four dolls in front of him. The scene was a little eerie, but fortunately, no one else had seen it.

"I don't know why you appeared in my Haunted House, and I don't know what to call you. But I can promise you one thing: I mean you no harm."

Only Chen Ge's voice echoed through the room. As he looked at the four ragdolls before him, a deeply conflicted thought came to mind.

He hoped they would react and agree with what he was saying, yet he was also afraid the dolls might suddenly move on their own and do something dangerous.

A few seconds later, Chen Ge decided he was overthinking it. He tried a different approach. "The Midnight Escape scenario recreates Ping An Apartment as it was five years ago. You four must be the victims of the Massacre Case..."

Perhaps he had touched a sore spot. Chen Ge clearly felt the room grow several degrees colder. At some point, the door lock had clicked shut by itself, and all the furniture around them was gently shaking.

"The case has been solved! The lunatic who hurt you and destroyed your happy lives is being punished to the full extent of the law!" Chen Ge was a little flustered. He took out his phone and opened a news video he'd found online. "Look, the murderer's been caught, and I'm the one who caught him!"

Chen Ge knew that the four ragdolls' Obsession was connected to Wang Qi, so he wanted to prove through the video that he was the one who'd caught the killer. But it had little effect.

The atmosphere in the room grew increasingly tense. The air felt heavy, and Chen Ge was at a loss. Their inability to communicate was the biggest problem.

Something was wrong, but Chen Ge had no intention of backing down. The Haunted House was everything to him. If he let the four ragdolls run wild inside, there were too many unknowns. They might cause a serious accident one day.

"Calm down! I'm here to help you!" The ragdolls couldn't understand a word Chen Ge said. No matter how much he talked, it was useless.

"Looks like I can only try this." Chen Ge took Wang Qi's Missing Person Notice out of his pocket. The yellowed sheet of thin paper was stained with blood, but otherwise there was nothing unusual about it.

Strangely enough, as soon as Chen Ge took out the notice, the commotion in the room died down. The atmosphere grew less oppressive, as if the hand gripping his throat had slowly loosened.

"Is this what you want?" The Missing Person Notice worked even better than Chen Ge had expected. He placed it between the four ragdolls. As their bodies touched the yellowed paper, the notice began to "struggle" wildly, as if buffeted by a gale.

The sight was bizarre. Four ragdolls surrounded a sheet of paper. There was no wind in the room, yet they were all trembling.

Chen Ge watched closely. A few minutes later, the vague outline of a Human Face appeared on the Missing Person Notice. It looked somewhat like Wang Qi.

Before Chen Ge could get a closer look, the face was torn apart. Its pieces slipped into the bodies of the four dolls, and then the room fell completely still.

"That's it?"

The Black Phone vibrated in his pocket. Chen Ge took it out, and a new message appeared on the screen.

"Unique hidden mission for the Midnight Escape scenario complete! Vengeful Spirit favorability +1. Gained the goodwill of the Ping An Apartment Victim Remnants. They will clean up all your trash every day and keep the Midnight Escape scenario in its original state."

Staring at the message on the screen, Chen Ge stood there in silence for a long time. "I completed the unique hidden mission just like that?"

His thoughts were a mess. "Only when a trial mission is more than ninety percent complete do you get a hidden item, and hidden items are the key to completing a scenario's hidden mission! That means if I want to fully control a newly unlocked horror scenario in the Haunted House, I have to complete its corresponding trial mission to at least ninety percent."

Thinking back on what he'd gone through at Ping An Apartment, he might have survived the night safely without investigating the truth. But then his mission completion rate would have been extremely low, and there was no way he would have obtained the hidden item.

"Devious. This setup is clearly encouraging players to get themselves killed." Chen Ge scrolled through the Black Phone, looking for more information. He first opened the Ghost Team tab, but to his disappointment, the number of team members still showed zero.

"The mission says I gained the goodwill of the Ping An Apartment Victim Remnants, but the Ghost Team tab shows nothing. Is it because they haven't fully submitted to me? Or are the Victim Remnants not considered ghosts, and therefore not eligible to appear in the Black Phone?"

Chen Ge couldn't figure it out. He opened the item inventory and found that Wang Qi's Missing Person Notice was still there, but its resentment value had dropped to zero.

"What exactly is resentment value? Why did the Victim Remnants tear it apart and devour it?"

The door to an unknown world was slowly opening. Chen Ge didn't know whether any of this would be useful, but he committed it all to memory.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and stood up. "The Victim Remnants can't communicate, but they can help me keep the scenario in its original state. All things considered, that's more of a benefit than a drawback."

Maintaining the Haunted House's scenery and props was a tedious job. The arrival of the Victim Remnants would save Chen Ge a great deal of time.

Looking at the four ragdolls on the floor, the last trace of fear in Chen Ge's heart slowly faded. "Maybe one day I really will be able to hire ghosts to work in my Haunted House."

He walked to the door, then glanced back just to be safe. The dolls representing his parents and older sister were lying where they'd been. Only the smallest doll was off by itself, sprawled to one side and acting suspicious, as if it were planning to sneak out again.

Seeing this, Chen Ge smiled. Not all ghosts were evil and savage. The smallest doll in front of him was like a cat curious about everything: mischievous, yet timid.

"Little one, don't wander off. Someone might step on you." With that, Chen Ge went outside. After helping the Ping An Apartment Victim Remnants fulfill their wish, he had a deeper understanding of the Black Phone. "The unlocked horror scenarios in the phone aren't just there to scare people. Every scenario has a story behind it, tangled up in cause and effect. They also give those homeless souls somewhere to stay."

Chen Ge switched off his flashlight and walked down the pitch-black corridor. Once he'd gone far enough to make sure no one could hear him, the corners of his mouth lifted into a sly, foxlike grin. "They don't need wages or benefits, they never complain about being tired, and they don't get moody. They're born experts at scaring people. These guys are the perfect employees!"

Good things put Chen Ge in high spirits, and he felt even more enthusiastic about scaring people.

"I've put this off long enough. It's time to wrap things up. There are still three people left in the Haunted House. Let's see... who should I start with?"

Thanks to Funny Little Fairy for the alliance leader support!