A Little Escape Room Shock

"The forest outside Creekwood Town was already in full bloom, reds like fire and pinks like clouds..."

Crossed out.

It felt a little awkward. Forests were everywhere, and Creekwood Town's forest was nothing special. What was there to write about?

"Creekwood Town's quarry is a renowned quarry in the Iris Kingdom, where marble is extracted..."

Crossed out.

He had already written about the quarry last year. In fact, he had written about it three times in the past decade. Writing about it again this year would be far too half-hearted.

"Creekwood Town's..."

Reed could not take it anymore. He waved his fountain pen and violently scratched out the words he had just written, then crumpled the already utterly defaced draft into a ball and threw it into the trash.

He irritably ruffled his curly hair, only to find his hand full of loose strands afterward, which made him even more irritable.

"Another beer!"

With absolutely no inspiration, he could only order another drink.

Creekwood Town's beer was actually pretty good, but he had written about beer the year before last.

"Glug, glug, ah—"

After downing more than half the glass, inspiration still had not come, but his mood improved a little.

He was a reporter for Folen Weekly, mainly responsible for writing about the customs, local life, and travel recommendations within Folen Territory.

It was not a good job.

No, to be precise, it was a good job from an income perspective. He got to travel around with expenses reimbursed, and each article earned him at least fifty Hel.

But in terms of the content itself, it was a job that drove him crazy.

His father was a famous bard in Folen Territory, and the poems and stories he created were widely known.

So Reed had dreams of creating as well. Unfortunately, at the newspaper, he could not write whatever he wanted. He first had to complete the assignments given by the editor-in-chief.

The most troublesome one was having to come to Creekwood Town every year to write a tourism advertisement for the place.

After all, it was one of the few places in Folen Territory that could attract visitors from elsewhere.

But the town was so tiny. What was there to write about year after year?

Reed drained the last mouthful of beer and decided to ride Larven's coattails.

People from Larven had recently become obsessed with hiking in the wilderness.

He could not understand what was so fun about that. City people occasionally liked turning the life country folk had long grown used to into entertainment.

Still, since they liked it, he would make up a hiking route through Creekwood Town's forest.

Just as he made up his mind and prepared to start writing, Peggy, the owner of this tavern as well as the inn upstairs, came over carrying a small blackboard covered in fancy lettering.

"The only one of its kind in the entire kingdom! A super thrilling, incredibly exciting, absolutely realistic Secret Cult Escape experience, available only in Creekwood Town! Here, you can experience a tense atmosphere, ingenious puzzles..."

Hearing the innkeeper's advertisement, Reed's heart stirred.

One of a kind, and something he had never heard of before—it was exactly what he needed right now.

As for the somewhat strange name, Cult Escape, and the owner's frightening description, he did not care in the slightest.

All he cared about was not having to painfully force out another article.

"Grand opening special! Tickets are twenty percent off, only sixteen Hel per person..."

Before the owner could finish, Reed raised his hand high.

"I'm going!"

It was not his money anyway, so he did not feel the slightest bit of heartache.

Before long, Reed was sitting in an ox cart with several other tourists brimming with curiosity, all headed over for the experience.

The ox cart was not particularly fast. It took over an hour to travel from Peggy's inn to the cave.

Fortunately, life moved slowly in this era. Taking several hours to get somewhere was nothing unusual.

Now that he had material for an article, Reed was in an excellent mood. Sitting around in silence was boring, so he began chatting with the other tourists.

Though he called it chatting, his attention was really focused on the young woman seated across from him.

"My name is Reed. I'm a reporter for Folen Weekly."

The moment he introduced himself, several cries of surprise rang out from the cart.

That was quite the ego boost.

In an age where literacy itself was a rare skill, being a newspaper reporter was naturally a profession with considerable prestige.

Reed's grin was nearly splitting his face.

"I've been to many places, seen many sights, and encountered many dangers. So don't worry. No matter how exciting or terrifying this Cult Escape is, I'll protect you."

As he spoke, he gave what he believed was a handsome wink.

Perhaps it was a talent inherited from his bard father, but along the way, he vividly recounted several "personal adventures" that he had never experienced at all.

He made the pretty young woman across from him laugh so brightly that she did not want to get out of the cart even when they reached their destination.

He still had so much charm left to show off.

After reluctantly hopping down from the ox cart, Reed finally saw the legendary Cult Escape.

It did not look like much.

It was an ordinary-looking cave with nothing special about it from the outside.

The person selling tickets at the cave entrance did not look like someone who had come out to work for a living. He wore the robes of the Caster Association, and there were what looked like test papers spread across the table. He appeared to have completed quite a few already, and beside them was a thick stack of densely written scratch paper.

What fit the attraction's name even less was the Church of Light Cleric standing beside the ticket booth, with a statue representing Holy Light placed beside him.

Was this not supposed to be a cult-themed tourist attraction?

"Please purchase tickets in an orderly manner. Visitors under sixteen and high-level professionals are not permitted to participate," Jia Xiu said.

Reed asked, "I understand not letting children play, but why not high-level professionals?"

"Because we are afraid that if high-level professionals are frightened, they may instinctively injure the staff, or even collapse the entire cave."

Jia Xiu did not particularly care about staff getting hurt. He was mainly worried about the latter, and also about people who knew too much recognizing that the altar of the God of Deceit and Curses inside was real.

He continued, "If you are carrying any weapons, please store them outside the cave temporarily. With a Cleric of the Church of Light as witness, your weapons will not be stolen."

This little place sure had a lot of rules.

Reed handed over the short sword he carried with him. These days, it was impossible to travel without a weapon for protection.

The other tourists also handed over all kinds of weapons.

Jia Xiu then gave each visitor a cane enchanted with a Light Spell to serve as illumination.

"Have fun."

Jia Xiu sincerely wished them well.

Reed, who had earlier declared that he would "protect you," confidently took the lead.

It was just a tourist attraction. What could possibly be scary about it?

Once everyone entered the cave, the felt curtain at the entrance suddenly dropped, blocking out the sunlight.

Darkness flooded in like a tide. The Light Spell on the cane was extremely weak, illuminating only a small area in front of them.

Reed regretted it.

He regretted boasting so boldly in the cart.

Whispering rustled around them, like the delirious mutterings of people completely bewitched by an evil god—clammy and strange.

Several ghostly green candle flames flickered in the darkness, revealing blood-red hexagrams and pale bone fragments.

He was scared.

In truth, he was nowhere near as brave as he had bragged, and he had never gone on any adventures.

Now, standing in this cave, he did not dare take another step forward.

In his panic, he vaguely saw a dark shape move within the green light.

"Ah! It moved! I'm not playing anymore!"

There was already a sob in his voice.

"It's just a piece of cloth."

Among the tourists, the bravest was actually that young woman. Without a trace of fear, she walked straight toward the firelight.

"Hey! I found a book. It says that to escape, we have to complete a ritual..."

During the following main quest, Reed could not exactly be called useless—he was completely useless.

He did not participate at all in the task of finding the ritual items.

He hid in front of the ritual altar they had discovered early on, trembling all over.

The more he looked at it, the more real the altar seemed. If this was also a prop, then this attraction was taking things far too seriously.

All the other players had now scattered to search for ritual items.

Only he remained before the eerie altar.

Terrified, weak, and helpless.

Then, footsteps suddenly sounded in the distance.

It was the other players.

They were running at full speed, each clutching something that looked like a shriveled heart.

"Quick, pray and complete the ritual! It's about to catch up!"

"What's about to catch up?"

Before Reed could react, a ghastly pale face—the most grotesquely lecherous face he had ever seen in his life—dropped down upside down before him, nearly touching his nose.

"Ah—"

When Reed woke up again, he saw the Cleric's kindly, radiant face.

This was the most excited he had ever been to see a Cleric in his life.

"May Holy Light drive away your fear."

Reed hurriedly got up and prayed to Holy Light with extraordinary devotion.

The young woman traveling with him was still complaining, "If we hadn't had to drag him out, it probably would have gone even more smoothly. That was so fun! Boss, where did you find those cultist actors? They looked just like the real thing..."

Reed knew his attempt to strike up a conversation had completely failed, but none of that mattered now.

He felt something damp.

Was it sweat?

No, it was pee!

He had wanted to cover it up, but then he realized everyone had definitely already seen it, so he gave up.

There was only one thing on his mind now.

Not only would he write an article, he would write a good one.

Otherwise, all that terror would have been for nothing.

"Boss, where's the boss? I'm a reporter for Folen Weekly. I'd like to conduct an interview for promotional purposes..."