Horror Game Designer

“A strange room number?” Both the kind Gao Ming and the leader of Team One were intrigued. They headed down the centre corridor. There were many people hiding on the first floor. However, they didn’t wish to show themselves.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Be careful. There was a riot here not too long ago.” Ou Yang Susu avoided the blood on the ground, “Half an hour ago, a security member from the investigation centre suddenly went insane and lured over a monster.”

“Is the monster covered in human limbs?” The kind Gao Ming had only seen one kind of monster inside the building.

“No. Its body is made from tiny threads. We can’t touch it, but it can attack us freely.” Ou Yang Susu led the kind Gao Ming to the centre of the corridor. This place was also the centre of Everlasting Life Apartments.

The door looked normal, like the other units. If one didn’t look closely, one would easily miss this room. When they entered the room, the kind Gao Ming was taken aback. The small room didn’t have a normal layout like bedrooms or bathrooms. It only consisted of a grey wall. There were three doors along that wall. They had no room numbers, but they were named past, present and future.

“Most of the units here have numbers, but these three doors have specific names.” Doctor Lee walked to the doors. He wiped away the blood to reveal the black lines of ghost tattoos. The strange lines converged to form three monsters corresponding to three different doors.

The kind Gao Ming and the leader of Team One had seen the monster on the Door of Past. It was the ugly ghost who could easily consume humans and digest their flesh.

The monster on the Door of Future had a human silhouette. It was made from flimsy threads of fate. It looked like a humanoid jellyfish.

As for the Door of Present, the image couldn’t be seen clearly due to the wounds on the monster.

“Yes.” Doctor Lee gestured at the bottom of the door. Every door had a hole at the bottom. “When we entered this apartment building, we received a present box. The boxes contain something very important to each of us. Pay attention to the size of the holes. The boxes can fit through perfectly. Someone hypothesised that we had to push our boxes through the doors to get the doors to pen.”

“Ol’ Lee and I saw some people do that earlier. They managed to get the doors open. However, after they got in, there had been no sound. They hadn’t come out either.” Ou Yang Susu looked at the holes with alertness.

“They probably won’t be coming out ever.” The leader of Team One uttered coolly. “The mud figurines at this building possess very scary powers. They can take away the powers given to us by the ghosts and forcibly edit our memories. At their prime, they should be very scary. However, they just escaped not too long ago. They are still too weak to claim everyone’s memory.”

“I think I understand. The presents are the memories that even the Gods find hard to take away from us.” The kind Gao Ming reacted quickly.

“That’s right. The strongest humans at Han Hai are currently gathered in this anomaly.” The leader of Team One glanced at the doors. “The Gods have no methods to claim everyone’s most precious memory rapidly. Therefore, I suspect they are using this trick to have us volunteer our memories.

“The exits are three different doors. If we want to leave, we need to sacrifice our most precious memories. However, once we lose that, are we still our most authentic selves?”

The leader of Team One didn’t lower his voice so that the others in hiding could hear him.

“It looks like the real exit is not here.” The normal Gao Ming didn’t enter the room. He studied the broken windows in the corridor. The glass shards were scattered everywhere. Blood dripped on the windowsill. The unknown darkness outside the window seemed to be summoning him.

Staring at the darkness, his eyes seemed to unite with the night. The time flowed slower. He moved closer to the window until someone pulled him from behind. Then, he snapped awake!

There was a crimson tongue licking the blood outside the window. That thing disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The normal Gao Ming stumbled to the ground. He then realised he somehow had moved to the window. If someone hadn’t pulled him back earlier, his upper body would have leaned out the window already.

“Thank you…” The normal Gao Ming turned back to look and found no one around him. However, he did feel someone pulling him earlier. “Some pulled on my schoolbag and dragged me back…”

With confusion, the normal Gao Ming opened his schoolbag to check. Other than his diary and food, there was only that scary picture.

“Present, the most important memory… Perhaps there are other uses to this picture…” Gao Ming caressed the picture silently. There was one Gao Ming in the picture, but countless parents. “Every Room 0715 has a Gao Ming but how come there are no parents in any of them? They are featured in everyone’s dairies…”

“Hey!” The kind Gao Ming rushed over, “Do not move away on your own!”

“Okay.” The normal Gao Ming put away the picture and took out a piece of bread to eat.

Seeing this, the kind Gao Ming was hungry. “We need presents to enter the three doors. I’ve asked around. There is supposed to be a bloodred present in each room, but I didn’t see one in mine.” The kind Gao Ming approached the normal Gao Ming, “I suspect only the real Gao Ming has received the present. Don’t tell anyone about it. We’ll go look for him.”

“Okay.” The normal Gao Ming lowered his head.

The kind Gao Ming thought the normal Gao Ming was frightened by the thing he saw outside the window. He walked over to hug the man’s shoulders. “Chin up. We have so many people on our side. We can definitely leave this place.”

Before the kind Gao Ming could continue, the aged wires of Everlasting Life Apartments crackled. The dust around the speakers inside the building fluttered. There was a static.

“Outsiders at Prosperity Neighbourhood and Everlasting Life Apartments, congratulations for being alive.” A high-schooler’s voice came from the speakers. Everyone ran out into the corridor to hear the broadcast clearer.

“My name is Gao Ming. I’m the student council president of the Level Four Anomaly, Han De Private School. I’m the 51st student in Class 13. I’m the actual admin who took over Situ An’s hidden forces in the east city.

“If you don’t want to stay here forever and lose your mind, I hope you can listen seriously to what I have to say.”