Dong Guo studied dance since she was young. Her dream stage was Carnegie Hall, but her real stage was under the sick room bed at a haunted house.
After graduation, she became an NPC at Shanghai Mental Asylum with her superhuman flexibility. She played a patient who was twisted both mentally and physically. After two weeks of training, this was Dong Guo’s first time taking her post alone. She stayed her post nervously, waiting for orders through her Bluetooth earpiece. However, to her surprise, a guest suddenly knelt beside the bed and looked at her quietly.
It was dark under the bed. Normally, people shouldn’t be able to see anything from the outside. However, Dong Guo felt uncomfortable. The guest’s gaze was too strange. It was like people looking at mermaids at the aquarium. Everyone knew the mermaids were fake. However, this guest silently took out various condiments as if attempting to try the mermaid’s taste.
This was very abnormal!
Dong Guo didn’t dare to move, but then she noticed something strange. She saw disappointment in the guest’s eyes.
“Why is he disappointed? Does he wish to see a real ghost under the bed?”
Dong Guo was angry. Her dancer dream was already dashed. Who gave this person the right to look down on her?
With orders from the earpiece, Dong Guo instantly changed her expression. She purposely made some noises to attract the attention of the people in the room.
“Is there a clue?” When An Yuan came the last time, he was trapped in another room, so he didn’t know what was there in this room. He carefully approached the bed. When he wanted to bend down to look under the bed, Dong Guo’s face suddenly shot out!
Dong Guo was strangely excited. She ignored An Yuan and Ol Cao. With her limbs on the ground, she climbed towards Gao Ming. With the inverted face, the shrill scream and the twisted limbs, Dong Guo didn’t follow the rules that forbade the actors from touching the guests and chased after Gao Ming.
“Is she possessed?” Gao Ming turned and ran. From Dong Guo’s perspective, Gao Ming made mistakes that any newbie would make. He ran without checking the directions. He’d only corner himself until he was entrapped by the ‘ghosts’.
Dong Guo crawled as fast as she could, but she couldn’t catch up to him no matter what.
“I’ve been here for two weeks and have familiarised myself with every path. However, why is this guy more familiar with this place than I am? Does he have night vision?” Dong Guo was tired after crawling for three minutes. She stood up to stretch. Based on the orders, she was told that Gao Ming had escaped from the outer layer. She was required to trigger her side quest to lead Gao Ming into a single-player plot.
The haunted house featured a high level of freedom. There were a lot of NPCs. There was no fixed script to follow. This was why An Yuan and Zhe Zhi’s groups were willing to attempt this so many times.
“I’m really finding troubles for myself.” Dong Guo adjusted her emotions as she crawled back on the ground. She crawled for another minute. As Gao Ming ran further away from her, she had to shout, “Wait!”
“Did she speak?” Gao Ming turned the corner and squatted down to observe Dong Guo curiously.
Being stared at by Gao Ming, Dong Guo lost the joy of scaring people. She felt weirdly awkward. However, due to her professionalism, she had to keep acting. “I was saving you. The nurse was working with the director. They wanted to feed you to the monsters!”
“Okay.” Gao Ming nodded. “Have you encountered anything strange since you work… I mean… Since you are hospitalised here? Like a stranger joining the ranks of your colleagues.”
“Huh?” Dong Guo was confused.
“Never mind. Let’s skip to the next step.” From An Yuan and Zhe Zhi, Gao Ming knew that this haunted house was huge. There were many hidden zones that were tied to the progression of the plot. He wanted to explore the whole place, so he had no time to waste.
“This hospital hides a scary secret. Our director has died a long time ago. According to the rumours, our current director is actually a patient. He has been conducting experiments on us. The scariest project of his is…” Dong Guo said with a dark face, “The sad life project.”
“The sad life project?”
“The director needs the most despairing soul to sustain something. There is no suitable candidate in real life, so he tries to manufacture it. He trapped us in the nightmare to make us go insane and lose our memory! Our souls will become twisted!” Dong Guo howled madly. Her words resonated with Gao Ming. Naturally, Dong Guo didn’t know that.
“Am I supposed to kill the director then?” His words were even. Gao Ming seemed to relate the truth after considering everything.
The dust on Dong Guo’s face fell. Gao Ming made her forget her words. As a newbie, the guest before her posed a great challenge.
“We need to find the thing the director has hidden before he completes the ritual!” Dong Guo continued to twist her body to make herself look scarier.
“Aren’t you tired of maintaining that pose? Don’t be worried about being exposed. There’s no camera in this spot. You can take a rest.” Gao Ming said gently. Dong Guo’s heart warmed. Then, she felt her back chill.
The haunted house was covered in cameras. While Gao Ming was being chased, he managed to find a blind spot.
Dong Guo took in a deep breath. She put down the legs over her neck to change into a comfortable posture. “Don’t interrupt me. I’m going to tell you something important. You have to memorise it.”
“I once overheard the conversation between the director and the lead nurse outside the director’s office. Everything they did revolved around a black box. Only the person in the most despair can open that box.”
“So, what I need to do is to find the thing hidden inside that box?” Gao Ming remembered the term, black box.
“I can bring you to the director’s office, but before that, you have to prove three things to me.” Dong Guo extended three fingers as cunningness crossed her eyes. “You have to have sufficient courage, innocence and despair.”
Dong Guo was given the most difficult plotline at the mental asylum. Since no one was expected to trigger it, it was given to a newbie like her.