After trying it three more times and failing three more times, Chen Ge decided to give up. He would continue the research when he was back at his Haunted House. To his surprise, when he exited Zhang Ya’s personal page, there was another unread alert on the black phone.
Haven’t I finished the Bloody Heart Mission already?
Chen Ge opened the second message without much thought.
“The Specter’s Favored, congratulations for completing Rare Level Ghost, Red Specter’s Bloody Heart Mission. This mission is part of a side mission for a four-star scenario—School of the Afterlife!
“Note: When the Bloody Heart Mission’s completion rate reaches one hundred percent, it’ll unlock the Trial Mission for School of the Afterlife (Mission effective time is three months). Completing all the Trial Missions will unlock said scenario!
“School of the Afterlife—Scream Factor 4 Stars!
“Side Mission 1: Red Dancing Shoes (The school after midnight is the Red Swan’s stage. She is a wicked specter as well as a red ballet dancer). Mission Venue: Western Jiujiang’s Private Academy.
“Side Mission 2: The Hanging Man (I never kid, not in life nor in death). Mission Venue: Western Jiujiang’s Private Academy.
“Side Mission 3: The Stink (He collects all the trash in his bedroom just to hide an unspeakable secret). Mission Venue: Western Jiujiang’s Private Academy.
“Side Mission 4: The Pen Spirit Who Refused to Leave (Pen Spirit, Pen Spirit, can you tell me who will die next?) Mission Venue: Mu Yang High School.
“Side Mission 5: The Fifth Cubicle in the Toilet (Every day at midnight, people swore they could see a red shadow appear inside the toilet. To catch her, I hid inside the fifth cubicle of the toilet). Mission Venue: Mu Yang High School.
“Side Mission 6: Deep Well (One brother and one sister went to school, but how come no one returned?) Mission Venue: Mu Yang High School.
“Side Mission 7: The Sealed Classroom (There’s a classroom at the end of the corridor that’s always sealed. No one ever enters it, but every night, the classroom comes alive with activity). Mission Venue: Mu Yang High School.
“Side Mission 8: Eternal Life (In an undisclosed underground morgue, there’s a group who seek eternal life). Mission Venue: Western Jiujiang’s Medical University.
“Last Mission: Currently Locked.”
Reading the series of message on the black phone, Chen Ge was baffled. Four-star scenario‽ Even a one-star scenario manages to cause forensic science students to faint, so just how scary will a four-star scenario be?
Everyone has a threshold with regards to horror; once that threshold is overshot, it might be harmful to the person’s health. Chen Ge read the various Side Missions again, and just the mission description alone made his skin crawl. Most importantly, these were just Side Missions; the finale was still locked. Logically speaking, Chen Ge had to finish the eight Side Missions first before he could unlock the final mission.
A four-star scenario is probably too hard for the current me. Perhaps I’ll be able to challenge later but definitely not now.
Chen Ge closed the message and clicked into the unlockable scenario tab. Other than The Third Sick Hall and The Haunted Hearse, there was now an additional School of the Afterlife, but different from the previous two, this scenario’s name was written in blood-red ink.
So, this one scenario practically collects all the haunted school stories into one. In that case, even after this scenario is unlocked, it probably can’t be released to every member of the public.
Looking at the Scream Factor delineation of the various scenarios, a thought bubbled up in Chen Ge’s mind. One-star scenario should be open to anyone, but entrance to scenarios that were three stars or above should be limited to those who had survived one- and two-star scenarios. In other words, this could be considered a type of visitor protection.
The playability of the Haunted House will be increased in this manner as well. Those who have visited once may return to challenge a scarier scenario until they perfect every scenario. This means that they will have a different experience every time they visit, and this will definitely boost the popularity of my Haunted House.
Suddenly, He San’s image appeared in Chen Ge’s mind. He was technically the only visitor who had challenged more than one of the Haunted House’s scenarios. That kid is somewhat of a good luck charm of the Haunted House. Perhaps I should invite him again when the new scenario is unlocked…
There were many fresh ideas in his mind, like giving additional rewards and certificates after the visitors survived certain levels. This way it would encourage the visitors to breakthrough to challenge scarier scenarios.
This makes me feel like some kind of dungeon master.
Chen Ge couldn’t help but smile. In the future, there would probably be professional teams who came to his Haunted House to understand the true meaning of fear.
“Why are you smiling dumbly to yourself? Looks like you up to some kind of no good.” Inspector Lee came out from the room. He had completed the initial survey. “I’ve communicated with Team 1 and Team 2; they couldn’t find any trace of Zhang Peng. The atmosphere of this school weirds me out, and the environment is too complicated to navigate at night. We’ll retreat for now and set up a plan when the investigation team gets here.”
“Okay.” Chen Ge had prepared to leave for a long time already. All his reasons for being there had been accomplished.
Everyone thus retreated from the school grounds. The police sealed the gate, waiting for aid to arrive. The investigation team finally arrived when dawn came, and they looked as exhausted as Inspector Lee’s group.
After a simple greeting, Inspector Lee drove Chen Ge home in his car.
“Yet another sleepless night.” Chen Ge finally relaxed when he was sitting in the backseat of the police car. He stretched lazily before lying down on the cushion.
“You’re the first person that I’ve come across who can be so comfortable inside a police car,” Inspector Lee commented with a degree of dissatisfaction. “By the way, I have a few questions that I haven’t had the chance to ask you until now.”
“Then, don’t ask.” Chen Ge could already guess the questions. He used his backpack to smother his face and pretend to fall asleep.
“Why would you go to Western Jiujiang’s Private Academy at midnight? And how did you know the exact time of death of the girl? This was four years ago, and even the forensic doctor wouldn’t be able to tell me the time of death without referring to the case file, but you managed to do that. That’s just too abnormal.” Inspector Lee crawled into the driver’s seat and started the engine.
“Lucky guesses.” Chen Ge turned his body about. “Uncle San Bao, can you turn the air-conditioning on?”
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“You’ve dropped all formalities around me, haven’t you?” Inspector Lee grumbled as he turned on the air-conditioning. It was then that his phone suddenly rang.
“Uncle, it’s your phone.”
“Talk some more and see if I’ll toss you out of the car or not?” Inspector Lee looked at the ID before answering it. He did not say a word, and there was no sound coming from the other end either. The call was ended three seconds later.
“Who is so brave to make prank calls to the police?” Chen Ge turned to look but was surprise to find Inspector Lee’s facial expression had softened.
“That’s my wife. Every time I’m on a special mission, she’ll give me a call to check on my safety. Due to the sensitive nature of certain missions, we’ve come up with our own style of communication. Instead of verbal communication, as long as I pick up the phone, that means that I’m still okay.”