Chapter 1 A Winding Path Ahead

Ahead lay another long corridor, even more mottled, dilapidated, and terrifying than the last, with more twists and turns.

Each turn was a shock for Qiao Liang.

The corridor was quiet, seemingly devoid of monsters ready to leap out, but the oppressive environment still caused Qiao Liang immense mental stress.

It was at this point that Qiao Liang finally realized what was happening.

He'd been tricked!

The receptionist had used a zombie look at the beginning, a scary getup, but not truly frightening. It was a relatively gentle way to elevate Qiao Liang's psychological pressure and put him on high alert.

But then, at the psychologist's office, a series of setups had misled Qiao Liang into thinking that the journey of "Ultimate Horror" hadn't officially started, that this was just a routine physical and psychological examination.

This up-and-down approach made Qiao Liang lower his guard.

Of course, the electrocardiograph was probably real, and the psychological tests were genuine as well. The test results could indeed reveal a visitor's state of health, and if they were truly unsuited for the experience ahead, they would probably be turned away on the spot.

However, once a visitor's test results showed no problems, the horror game would begin the instant the psychologist announced it!

Qiao Liang was now 100% certain that there must be some hidden mechanism under the desk controlling everything, but he was too terrified to have the courage to investigate.

Qiao Liang could only grip the golden lantern tightly and walk forward cautiously.

He had to admit, the initial setups were excessive, especially the way the amiable doctor had suddenly started scaring him. It was a real test of Qiao Liang's psychological defenses.

But fleeing in terror, followed by a seemingly safe stretch, allowed Qiao Liang's mentality to recover quickly. Although still frightened, he wasn't so terrified that he immediately wanted to give up.

Of course, Qiao Liang already wanted to quit, but the level of terror was kept perfectly balanced: it seemed like an overreaction to shout for the staff and abandon the challenge, and he felt like he could persevere. But continuing felt like that sense of dread was always lurking around him, devouring him bit by bit.

He looked around, certain that there were microphones, cameras, and hidden doors everywhere. If he screamed for help and wanted to quit at any time, the staff would come to his rescue.

But that was precisely what made him feel like he could persevere a little longer.

"I heard there's a safe house in here. I should at least make it to the first save point, right?"

If he had known he would suffer for another half an hour, Qiao Liang might have honorably typed out "gg" already. But looking at the golden lantern in his hand and thinking about the safe house, he overcame himself and decided to continue.

…

Some time later, inside the safe house.

The "Ultimate Horror" project was a ring-shaped structure, with the safe house in the very center. It had many doors leading to various areas of the "Ultimate Horror" project.

A staff member stood behind each door, recording the progress of the current visitor. Whether they entered or left the safe house, there was a corresponding record.

The number of times a visitor entered the safe house, as well as the items they carried, would affect the amount of their ticket refund at the end.

In simple terms, if you wore the Little Devil Headband and completed the game without entering the safe house, your ticket would be fully refunded, and you'd even get a certificate.

This could also be considered a save point. For people like Ruan Guangjian who challenged the game in two parts, they could directly enter the safe house through a special passage during their second attempt and start again from a specific area.

Lin Wan, Ruan Guangjian, Chen Kangtuo, and others had already arrived at the safe house, waiting for Teacher Qiao's arrival.

The safe house was decorated much more normally than the horror scenes, but it still had a sense of age. This was to prevent visitors from becoming too comfortable in the safe house, which would affect their subsequent tour.

In other words, entering the safe house would allow visitors to relax, but the safe house's scenery would constantly remind them that they were still in the "Ultimate Horror" project, and that this was just a temporary resting point and foothold, not the end of the adventure.

Ruan Guangjian looked at his watch. More than ten minutes had passed.

The duration of each person's tour of "Ultimate Horror" varied, because some of the projects inside required exploration.

People like Ruan Guangjian, who were brave and quick, would have a shorter overall time. But if you were cautious and hesitant, the overall time would be longer.

At the same time, the staff would monitor the situation closely.

One reason was to ensure that the flow of visitors didn't become congested, because some projects could only be experienced by one person at a time. After one person finished, another could be allowed in. The other reason was to ensure that if a visitor wanted to quit, the staff could rescue them as soon as possible.

"Could he have just given up halfway through?" Ruan Guangjian asked worriedly.

The others had come to the safe house to welcome the exhausted Teacher Qiao, to cheer him on so that he could complete the game as soon as possible.

But if Teacher Qiao hadn't even made it to the safe house... that would be awkward.

Chen Kangtuo thought for a moment: "That shouldn't be the case. I've repeatedly adjusted the 'Ultimate Horror' experience, and I've also limited the actions of the staff inside. The early stages aren't that scary, and Teacher Qiao has the golden lantern. There's no reason he wouldn't make it to the first save point."

"But this is taking too long, isn't it?"

As they were discussing this, the door to the safe house's second save point was pushed open.

Qiao Liang was pale, clutching the golden lantern in his hand. Seeing the scene inside the safe house, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He was saved!

The others were all stunned. They hadn't expected Qiao Liang to skip the first save point and make it all the way to the second!

In fact, Qiao Liang had originally intended to enter the safe house at the first save point to rest.

However, the first two projects had been a little too weak, which had made him overconfident. He felt like he could persevere a little longer and enter the safe house at the next save point.

So, he chose to skip the first save point.

But this decision made him regret it so much that he wanted to slap himself in the face during the next two projects.

After escaping from the psychologist's office, Qiao Liang first arrived at a place that resembled a laboratory.

There were tall shelves all around, and on the shelves were all sorts of terrifying things soaking in amber liquids: eyeballs, tongues, teeth, other organs, and so on. Although he knew that these were all fake, he still found them quite scary.

The shelves were arranged in a maze-like structure, and after wandering around, he found a workbench covered with various medicine bottles and reagents, as if a perverted scientist had just been doing experiments here and had only temporarily left.

Qiao Liang didn't dare to linger. He left in a state of high alert, trying not to make any noise and constantly observing his surroundings, afraid that the perverted scientist would suddenly jump out from somewhere.

Fortunately, no monster appeared, and he made it through safely.

The second mini-project involved two rows of shoe cabinets. After cautiously probing, he found nothing unusual. But when he reached about one-third of the way into the room, a cleaner-like zombie would suddenly appear behind him, roaring as it followed him.

Qiao Liang instinctively ran, but the shoe cabinets beside him began to open automatically and randomly, the metal doors banging against each other, even ejecting many items.

The cabinets were obviously equipped with sensors. When someone walked past, they would open automatically, and the mechanisms inside would eject scary things. When the visitor left, they would automatically reset.

The cleaner zombie behind him was actually walking very slowly, only meant to scare people, while the shoe cabinets were the truly frightening part, because they were all automatic and sensor-activated. The faster the visitor ran, the faster these things reacted.

When visitors ran past quickly, large numbers of shoe cabinets would open together, making it even more terrifying.

The third mini-project was a classroom with several students taking an exam and a proctor.

The proctor told Qiao Liang to sit in the back row and answer the questions. But as he was looking at the questions, the student in the front left raised his hand and said that his pen was broken, so the proctor handed him something that looked like an animal trap, a delicate mechanism with a pen inside.

The student began to carefully disassemble it, but failed halfway through, and both of his hands were trapped, the bones visible and bleeding profusely. He began to howl in pain, but the more he struggled, the tighter the trap became. Finally, his right hand was severed at the wrist, and four fingers on his left hand were lost. He fell to the ground, unconscious.

While all of this was happening, the other students and the proctor continued to answer the questions as if nothing had happened, ignoring the scene.

Although Qiao Liang knew that this was all fake, props, the actor's performance was so realistic, and the screams carried so far, that he was still quite frightened.

After waiting for a while, Qiao Liang realized that he could leave, because the student had fallen to the ground unconscious, clearing the way. But he had to step over the "corpse" to do so.

The fourth mini-project took place in a very large space, much larger than all the previous mini-projects. It was a super-sized kitchen, and the structure was very complex. The visibility all around was very low, and the sound of a cleaver chopping on a cutting board could be heard continuously from ahead. The light was brightest there, and he could see a door.

However, upon getting closer, he discovered that the figure was a burly pig-headed man wielding a butcher knife, constantly chopping up severed limbs, and the buckets around him were filled with all sorts of disgusting, bloody chunks of meat.

Qiao Liang didn't dare to approach. He wandered around the surrounding shadows with his lantern for two or three laps, finally determining that although the place was large, there seemed to be only one exit, and all the scary props in the surrounding shadows were probably aimed at timid people like him.

After approaching the pig-headed butcher, the butcher would ladle out a bowl of meat soup from a large pot that was constantly bubbling next to him and hand it to Qiao Liang.

Fortunately, it was just a bowl of ordinary chicken soup.

After leaving the butcher's room, Qiao Liang finally saw the second save point, the second entrance to the safe house. He immediately pushed the door open without hesitation.

Seeing the scene inside the safe house, Qiao Liang finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the hand that had been tightly gripping the golden lantern finally relaxed.

He was alive!

He had to admit that this process was arranged very insidiously.

There were corridors between each project, allowing visitors to relax briefly, so that they wouldn't be constantly tense, but the scenery of the later corridors was more terrifying, and the routes were more tortuous.

The degree of terror of these mini-projects also increased gradually.

The first project only involved placing some scary props to create the illusion that "a monster might come at any time," making visitors feel uneasy.

The second project involved a slow-approaching zombie, forcing visitors to quickly pass through the shoe cabinets, with the truly scary things hidden inside the shoe cabinets.

The third project involved live performances. Although it was just watching, this kind of real terror took it to another level.

The fourth project was even more excessive, making visitors drink something in this environment.

All the projects didn't simply involve a monster suddenly popping out to scare people, but rather created a subtle atmosphere of terror, slowly and gradually pushing up the visitors' psychological threshold.

When they were about to reach their limit, they could enter the safe house for a brief rest and adjustment.

Qiao Liang realized that he seemed to have been tricked.

This haunted house wasn't particularly excessive in terms of terror.

But what made it magical was that it could always control the level of terror at the critical point, allowing you to be frightened while somehow managing to persevere, and thus be frightened even more!