Don't Look Back

It was the middle of the night.

Chen Feng finished his workout, ate a bowl of instant noodles with a sausage, and cracked open a bottle of Guojiao—ice-cold Iced Black Tea. He had planned to take a nice shower and go to bed.

Then a system notification appeared:

[Ding! Incarnation Liu Xiaohu is hungry. Please eat as soon as possible.]

Damn it.

His Incarnation needed to eat too?

The moment Chen Feng switched to his alternate body, his stomach growled in protest. He was so hungry that his heart raced and his hands shook.

"I need food. Now!"

Following the map on the back of the flyer, Chen Feng jogged to Paradise's Dining Hall.

He pushed open the glass door, and the smell of food greeted him. There were stir-fried dishes under heat lamps, ingredients for hot pot and barbecue in refrigerated cases, desserts, fruit, fried snacks, sushi, an ice cream machine, a chocolate fountain, and drinks at the bar. Anything he might find at a buffet, he could find here.

"Damn, my Incarnation eats better than my real body."

Chen Feng had thought instant noodles with a sausage was a luxury tonight. Compared to this, it was garbage!

Best of all, everything was free.

As the saying went, people cared more about money than their lives. For an anomaly, it was the opposite: it wanted lives, not money.

All food, attractions, and lodging at Horror Amusement Park were free.

"If nothing else works out, I might as well move my real body in."

Chen Feng picked out some food and was about to dig in when a middle-aged man sidled up to him and asked mysteriously, "Brother, selling?"

"What?"

Chen Feng eyed him warily. Selling what? His ass?

Let's get one thing straight: I'm not into guys!

When Chen Feng said nothing, the man clicked his tongue. "Guess you don't know how things work."

Afraid he might miss something important, Chen Feng hurriedly called after him. "Hey, brother, what are you buying? Fill me in."

The man turned back. "Information. Get it?"

"Selling information? Aren't you afraid they'll deduct your Game Coins..."

Chen Feng paused, then caught on.

Of course! Selling information would cost them Game Coins, leaving them unable to redeem souvenirs. But the other visitors didn't know what the souvenirs did. They just wanted to finish five attractions and leave this godforsaken place as soon as possible. Trading information was their best option!

"My surname's Wang. Everyone eating here came to trade information."

Mr. Wang told Chen Feng that everyone now knew something bad would happen if they lost their last Game Coin.

They had also found loopholes in the rules:

1. Disclosing information about one attraction cost one Game Coin.

2. If you disclosed information about an attraction to several people at once, you lost one Game Coin for each person you told.

3. The deduction depended on your own belief. If you believed you had disclosed information, a Game Coin would be deducted.

4. Anyone who learned an attraction's secret would not receive a Game Coin for completing it.

5. Two people who had not tried an attraction could share what they had observed without losing any Game Coins.

"Impressive."

Chen Feng saw them in a new light. Sure enough, put people under enough pressure and they could get clever.

Looking around, Chen Feng even spotted the two brothers who had survived the second attraction discussing it with others.

People had been doing this for a while.

Chen Feng said, "I have information on Goldfish Catching and the Air Rifle attraction. Which one do you want?"

Mr. Wang smiled. "Brother, information on Goldfish Catching isn't worth much. It's a group attraction. Once one person figures out how to clear it, everyone else can tell just by watching."

"By the way, the rules on disclosure are strict. If you hadn't tried Goldfish Catching, that one sentence I just said would already have cost me a Game Coin."

Chen Feng's mouth fell open. "That strict? What did you even reveal?"

Mr. Wang explained, "Saying no one wants information on Goldfish Catching is enough to judge how difficult it is. That counts as revealing a secret."

Chen Feng felt the man was being rather careless. "Isn't it risky to talk to me about this?"

Mr. Wang pulled up a chair and sat down. "It's fine. I know a little about feng shui and face reading. Judging by your face, you seem pretty guileless."

"Me?"

Chen Feng answered honestly, "I don't just lack guile. I lack a heartbeat."

"Young people do have a sense of humor." Mr. Wang asked, "I have information on the Haunted House. Want it?"

"Sure."

Chen Feng decided to deal in good faith. "I'll tell you mine first, but don't record what I say and play it for someone else just to hurt me."

"Come on, why would I do that?"

Mr. Wang took out his phone and turned it off to show his sincerity. "I've got nothing against you. Besides, I told you: disclosure is judged by what you believe. It only counts if you think you've disclosed something."

But what if that's a lie too?

Chen Feng thought it, but for once, he did not call the man out. Instead, he said frankly, "The Air Rifle attraction requires you to kill ten monsters. The trap is the owner—he counts as one of them."

Cold sweat ran down Mr. Wang's face. "Good lord, that's nasty. If I hadn't bought that information, I'd have been dead for sure."

Chen Feng looked at him without a word.

Mr. Wang knew it was his turn. He began explaining the Haunted House. "The Haunted House has five rules too, but only one thing will get you killed: looking back."

"Looking back?"

"The rules say that no matter what happens inside the Haunted House, you mustn't look back."

"Or you die?"

"Exactly. Once you enter, the Haunted House reads your most frightening memory and makes it real. If you can't swim, you'll fall into the sea. If you're afraid of insects, a swarm of cockroaches will crawl out."

"That sounds creepy."

"You bet. All you have to do is keep walking. Whatever happens, don't look back."

"That's the information?"

"Of course not. What I'm going to tell you about are two deadly traps inside the Haunted House."

"What traps?"

"The first is that the Haunted House takes the form of someone you know and calls your name from behind, trying to make you turn around."

"That sounds easy enough to see through."

"Not as easy as you'd think. I saw plenty of people fall for it. The illusions are incredibly convincing."

"And the second?"

"The second is even nastier. The Haunted House creates a space that looks like the outside. The owner—a fellow dressed like a corpse—waits there, making you think you've left. You let your guard down, turn around, and die!"

"A trap within a trap. A dream within a dream. A classic. How did you see through it?"

"The Game Coin! You get one when you clear an attraction. I checked my pocket, found no Game Coin, and immediately saw through the trick!"

Chen Feng could not help saying, "You're pretty smart, mister."

Mr. Wang laughed, clearly pleased with himself. "Of course. You haven't really made it out until you get the Game Coin."

Chen Feng's expression darkened. "But you also said anyone who's told the secret can't earn a Game Coin. You've told me how to clear it, but now I can't use your method."

"Well..."

Mr. Wang's face stiffened. That was precisely why he had started approaching people to trade information.

"Sorry about that, brother."

But Chen Feng waved it off. "We're brothers, aren't we? No need to apologize. There is one thing I'd like to ask, though."

Mr. Wang blinked. "What?"

Chen Feng looked at him seriously. "You said the Haunted House creates illusions. How can you be sure the Game Coin is real?"

Mr. Wang froze. "Well..."

Chen Feng smiled. "Maybe you never got out. Maybe you're still inside the Haunted House."

At Chen Feng's words, Mr. Wang grew agitated. "Impossible! The hotel is absolutely safe! The rules said so!"

What if the hotel is an illusion too?

Boom.

It was as though thunder had exploded inside Mr. Wang's head. He suddenly remembered that when he had greeted Chen Feng, Chen Feng had asked him to turn around. "Don't tell me you're..."

The next instant, Chen Feng's face twisted into something hideous.

"You're... the owner!!!"

All color drained from Mr. Wang's face. He remembered the wooden sign the owner had held before he entered the Haunted House: "3. No matter what happens inside the Haunted House, do not look back!!!"

"Aaaah!!!!!"

At that moment, in the Dining Hall.

Chen Feng really was trading information with someone, and that person really was a survivor of the Haunted House. "The Haunted House conjures up all kinds of things to fool you. I fell for a trap within a trap at least five times. Even now, I still feel like none of this is real."

"Wouldn't that make it impossible to ever clear?"

"No. The secret is in the visitor's guide."

"The guide? You mean the hours?" Chen Feng immediately realized the amusement park was open from seven in the evening until seven in the morning!

"Exactly. I spent a full twelve hours inside the Haunted House. It only let me out when the attraction closed at seven in the morning." The survivor gave a bitter smile. "I'd advise you not to choose that attraction. Even if you make it out, you'll be a lunatic."

"Thanks for the warning."

A system notification suddenly sounded in Chen Feng's ear.

[Ding! The Horror Amusement Park—Haunted House Check-In is no longer valid because you cannot obtain a Game Coin.]