Please, Let Me Go!

Chen Ge's expression turned strange as he recalled Zhang Peng's stubborn gaze and vicious look on the surveillance footage. "This guy's a real 'godlike' opponent!"

The sound of something being cut apart in the Midnight Escape scene didn't stop when Zhang Peng entered. The Mirror Monster probably hadn't expected anyone to charge straight in so recklessly.

"I can't keep waiting. I need to see the Mirror Monster enter Zhang Peng's body with my own eyes. Then I'll be able to relax."

After checking the surveillance cameras and confirming Zhang Peng's location, Chen Ge took the iron chain from inside the Skull-Crushing Doctor's coat and tossed it on the ground. He put on the bloodstained coat and donned the Human Skin Mask.

He tried swinging the hammer a couple of times. A savage, evil feeling radiated from him.

"Why do I feel like I'm the biggest villain here?"

Taking the keys and his phone, he tucked the Rag Doll into his coat and left the Monitoring Room with the grotesquely bloodied hammer in hand.

Inside the Midnight Escape scene, Zhang Peng felt the knife in his hand growing heavier and heavier. He'd prepared for this day for a long time, but no matter how carefully he'd planned, things could still go wrong. Something unexpected had happened as soon as he entered.

It was past one in the morning. Even if ordinary people weren't asleep by then, they'd surely be in their bedrooms. He'd gotten excited when he saw the sign for the Staff Break Room, and it had taken a great deal of effort to calm himself down.

He kept egging himself on, stoking the hatred in his heart, until he finally steeled himself and kicked the door open.

He charged into the break room and wildly slashed at the bed. He'd swung too hard and even injured himself.

The blade was stained with blood, but when he saw that no one was on the bed and the only blood on the sheets was his own, all he felt was resentment and frustration. His murderous intent only grew stronger, and his anger burned away the last of his reason.

"You ruined Ping An Apartment and got Juan thrown in prison. You meddling bastard—I'm going to kill you!" The more Zhang Peng thought about it, the angrier he got. The sound of cutting from somewhere in the building buzzed in his ears like a fly, making him increasingly irritable.

He tightened his grip on the knife and edged toward the source of the sound, creeping along carefully so he wouldn't be spotted.

"I'm close. It's on this floor!" Zhang Peng peered out from the stairwell. He had no source of light and kept close to the wall as he entered the third-floor corridor.

"This haunted house is full of dark energy, and the layout's as complicated as a maze. Once I kill him, I can hide the body anywhere. Outsiders probably won't find it for ten days or half a month." He smirked, sure his smile must look absolutely vicious.

"The sound's right up ahead! But I'm curious—why's this guy up in a haunted house in the middle of the night instead of sleeping? Fixing props all night?" Zhang Peng bent low and relaxed his body. He wrapped his long sleeve around his wound and crept forward with the knife.

At the end of the third-floor corridor, right by the main entrance to the Midnight Escape scene, Zhang Peng spotted a blurry Dark Shadow.

The figure stood in the middle of the doorway, holding something and scraping it back and forth across the door.

"Strange. Why hasn't he turned on the lights either?" It was only when he reached the figure that Zhang Peng realized something was off, but he didn't think much about it. His mind was consumed by the thrill of revenge.

The air grew heavier than ever. He slowly raised the knife over his shoulder, his body like a bow drawn taut, the blade aimed at the Dark Shadow ahead.

"Die!"

Zhang Peng charged at full speed, face twisted, and plunged the knife in his hand into the Dark Shadow!

An excited smile had already appeared on his face, but within a fraction of a second, it vanished completely.

The knife passed straight through the Dark Shadow's body. He'd missed!

The momentum sent Zhang Peng crashing headfirst into the door. He nearly threw his back out.

"What the hell?!"

Zhang Peng couldn't accept what had happened.

He scrambled up and slashed wildly at the air. "Where is he? Where is he?!"

After unleashing all his anger, a feeling unlike any he'd known before began to creep into Zhang Peng's heart.

"I saw a Dark Shadow standing here with its back to me! There's no way I got it wrong!" Zhang Peng no longer cared about being discovered. He pulled out his phone to light up the area. The Wooden Door was covered in a crisscross of fine scratches, and several mirror shards with sharp edges lay on the ground. "The Dark Shadow left all this behind. I'm one hundred percent sure someone was standing here just now!"

If someone had been standing there, why had they disappeared in the blink of an eye?

Zhang Peng shivered for no apparent reason. The anger in his heart had been extinguished, and he stared uncertainly at the silent stairwell.

"People can't just disappear out of nowhere. Unless... that wasn't a person." His throat bobbed. The light from his phone brought him no comfort; it only made him more anxious. It was as if monsters were lurking anywhere the light couldn't reach.

"The Haunted House Owner isn't human! There really are ghosts in this haunted house!" Cold sweat covered Zhang Peng's forehead, and his knife hand was slick with it. He'd completely forgotten about revenge and murder. He hurried back, thinking only of getting out of this place as fast as he could.

Phone in hand, he ran faster and faster, completely unaware that the safety door at the stairwell entrance was open at a different angle than before.

"I'll deal with revenge later. I can't stay here." Clutching his arm, Zhang Peng had just stepped into the stairwell when a Dark Shadow swung out from behind the door and smashed into him.

"Crack!"

The sound of breaking bones rang out clearly. Zhang Peng stared at his limp, numb right hand, his mind seeming to shut down.

"Sorry, I missed." Chen Ge emerged from behind the door with the hammer in hand. As he spoke, his gruesome, terrifying Human Skin Mask twisted into all sorts of horrific expressions. "I was aiming to smash your shoulder blade."

His calm tone made it sound like he was talking about something trivial. Looking at Chen Ge behind the door, Zhang Peng felt like he was suffocating!

Why are you so vicious?! I'm the one who's supposed to be the murderer!

Zhang Peng wanted to try fighting back, but the moment his gaze landed on the hammer in Chen Ge's hand—with a blood groove and a head over forty centimeters long—his knife hand stopped obeying him.

The hammer's got a blood groove, and its handle looks like a spine! Are you trying to make sure everyone knows you're a Murderous Maniac?

Without giving him any more time, Chen Ge swung the hammer again and brought it down on Zhang Peng's thigh. He needed someone who'd lost the ability to fight back to serve as a vessel for the Mirror Monster.

"Thud!"

The stair railing bent under the blow. Zhang Peng narrowly dodged it. One of his hands was bleeding, the other had been broken by the blow, and he didn't dare fight back. He threw away his knife and fled downstairs as fast as he could.

"You're that scared? Who gave you the nerve to come visit my Haunted House alone?"

Gripping the hammer, Chen Ge pursued him. One chased, the other fled, and they made it back to the first floor of the Haunted House.