Something's Wrong?

"Why is it so quiet outside?" He Shan turned his head to glance at Lao Zhao. "Should we go out and take a look?"

"If the enemy doesn't move, we don't move. We'll wait until we hear a scream, then head out and search in the opposite direction. That way, we're bound to avoid whatever is doing the scaring," Lao Zhao said with absolute conviction.

"Does this count as selling out our teammates?"

"Selling out? Don't be ridiculous. We're just utilizing the sacrifice of our teammates to buy time for victory." Lao Zhao was as round as a beach ball, standing behind He Shan, though He Shan's small frame couldn't even cover half of him.

"Then how much longer are we going to hide? What if we're the only two people left in the Haunted House?" He Shan was a simple, honest guy; looking at the senior hiding behind him, he couldn't help but feel he was being played.

"We've already searched all the rooms on the second floor, and we covered most of the third floor earlier. I suspect the exit is on the first floor. In other words, we're already very close to the exit." Lao Zhao patted He Shan on the shoulder. "Buck up. Don't give up right outside the door of success."

"What time do you think it is? You still have the heart to feed me chicken soup for the soul?" He Shan looked helpless, his heart full of unspoken grievances. He had only come here to guide the seniors; he never wanted to step inside in the first place.

"Don't be so pessimistic." Lao Zhao began counting on his fingers. "I heard Monkey and Xiao Hui scream earlier, so they've probably already been sent out. Subtract the eighth person who snuck in with us, and that means there should still be five people from our school left in the Haunted House. The probability of the killer chasing someone else is three-fifths. We don't need to rush at all; just wait."

"Fine, I'll listen to you." Crouching at the doorway, He Shan pressed his face against the crack in the door to look out. In the blink of an eye, it seemed as if something had appeared in the dim corridor.

He rubbed his eyes and continued to stare in that direction. A tattered doll had appeared on the floor, though he didn't know when.

"Am I seeing things? Was there a doll on the floor before? That's impossible. I've been hiding here for over ten minutes, staring outside the whole time." He Shan tapped his face lightly and looked again. Not only was the doll still there, but the distance between it and the door had shortened.

"Can it move on its own? Or am I just too nervous and starting to hallucinate?" He shook his head, but when he looked again, the doll had vanished from the crack in the door.

"Strange, did I really see it wrong?"

At the first-floor staff passage, Chen Ge changed into the Skull-Crushing Doctor's coat. He sent Xu Wan outside to look after the medical students while he personally entered the Haunted House to catch the intruders.

Donning the blood-stained doctor's uniform, wrapping the chains engraved with human faces around his body, holding the skull-crushing hammer, and putting on the imitation human-skin mask, Chen Ge's portrayal of the Skull-Crushing Doctor was far more intimidating than Xiao Wan's, both in height and presence.

"Are these brats trying to wear me down with a war of attrition?" Every step he took caused the chains to clatter. While it sounded oppressive, it also gave away his position. Chen Ge wandered the scene for five minutes without catching a glimpse of anyone.

"Boss, I can't see anyone on the monitors. They must be hiding inside the rooms. You'll have to check them one by one." Xu Wan's voice came through the earpiece. "I suggest we install cameras in every corner of the Haunted House in the future. Only having them at the intersections leaves too many blind spots."

"We'll talk about that when we have the money." Chen Ge carried his hammer and pushed open door after door. When he reached the corner of the second floor, he suddenly saw a ragdoll lying in front of a certain door.

"How did this little guy get out again? And it's specifically lying in front of this door." Chen Ge held his hammer, thought for a moment, and understood. "Someone is probably hiding inside. The little guy is helping me."

He pretended not to notice anything and walked past the door as if nothing were amiss.

After walking about ten meters away, Chen Ge picked up the chains that had been dragging on the floor, pressed himself against the wall of the corridor, and crept back toward the door.

Staying in the blind spot, he crouched halfway down and peered through the crack in the door.

Inside the room, He Shan and Lao Zhao were huddled behind the door, hands over their mouths.

"The sound of the chains has stopped. The killer must have moved on." Lao Zhao's face was pale with fear, yet he forced a look of composure to maintain his dignity as a senior. "Actually, I'm not scared at all. According to my deduction, the killer just came up from the first floor and definitely won't go back down in the short term. This is our chance!"

He struggled to his feet. "We'll move to the first floor right now and perfectly avoid the killer, playing him like a fiddle. Xiao Shan, go check the door again. If you're sure the killer has left, we'll move immediately."

He Shan also felt that Lao Zhao made sense. Without another thought, he pressed himself against the door panel and looked out through the crack.

A faint, warm breath sprayed against his face. This time, what He Shan saw was unlike anything before—no dark corridor, no scary doll, just a bloodshot eyeball pressed against the other side of the door, peering in!

"Holy shit!"

He Shan felt his scalp explode. He tumbled backward, scrambling away in a frenzy.

The scene scared the life out of Lao Zhao. "What did you see?"

The response to Lao Zhao was the sound of the door lock turning. The tattered door was pushed open, and a figure drenched in blood, radiating evil and horror, appeared in the doorway.

Seeing this, Lao Zhao retreated continuously, as if trying to merge himself into the wall.

"Being that close to the wall isn't good. What if there's someone inside the wall?" Chen Ge reached into his pocket and quietly pressed the option on the Black Phone to trigger the scene's mechanism.

Lao Zhao was so terrified his fat trembled. Before he could understand what Chen Ge meant, his back suddenly hit something.

He instinctively turned his head to look. The smooth wall surface split open to both sides, and a woman with an expressionless face was embedded inside!

His mind went blank. It was as if all his strength had been drained away; Lao Zhao collapsed onto the floor, the world spinning around him, his eyes losing all focus.

"You two, the experience is over. I'll see you out."

No sooner had Chen Ge finished speaking than the sound of shattering glass erupted from the third floor, followed immediately by Feng Ge's scream.

"Something happened?" Chen Ge quickly contacted Xiao Wan to come in. He abandoned He Shan and Lao Zhao and rushed upstairs in a panic.

Following the sound, Chen Ge found Feng Ge in a room on the third floor, clutching a wooden chair as if fighting something.

He took off his mask and waited until Feng Ge was exhausted from his struggle and slumped on the floor before walking in.

"What's going on?" Chen Ge snatched the chair away and tossed it aside. Feng Ge was in a highly unstable state, the fear in his eyes practically overflowing. "Did you see something strange?"