My House of Horrors

After adjusting his position, Chen Ge finally managed to discern the blood message that was left on the mirror, it was another Arabic number—2.

There was nothing scary about the number itself, but the fact that it was written in blood did up the scary factor slightly.

What does this number mean? After the black shadow left last night, I saw a 3 on the shattered mirror and now it has become 2 ; is there some kind of relationship between them? Why is the number decreasing? Chen Ge was at a loss. Could they represent some kind of countdown?

Looking at the drying blood stain, Chen Ge leaned against the door and started to contemplate.

The mirror monster has already entered Zhang Peng’s body, so there was no reason for it to leave this message behind unless it plans to come back for revenge.

Chen Ge considered this possibility, but he couldn’t confirm it; he knew too little about the other world and the mirror monster.

Suppose the number continues to drop, what will happen when it reaches zero?

A bad feeling rose within Chen Ge’s heart as he paced around the entrance of the bathroom. Could the number be related to my life? When it reaches zero, my life will be over like those tropes in scary movies?

Chen Ge stopped himself from overthinking. I suppose there’s nothing else for me to do for now but wait for tomorrow night to arrive. If there’s another number that appears around or within the Haunted House, then I’ll decide what to do.

Chen Ge sighed deeply. All he ever wanted was to keep the Haunted House his parents left for him alive, and if it was within his means, he hoped to improve it, but there just had to be these accidents that screwed with his plan.

When he returned to the staff breakroom, several police cars had arrived outside the Haunted House. The main city’s investigation team had come to ask Chen Ge some questions and snap a few pictures of the crime scene before joining the others to pursue and capture Zhang Peng.

Inspector Lee accompanied Chen Ge, but even when the sun climbed up over the horizon, there was still no news of Zhang Peng being captured. However, Inspector Lee promised Chen Ge multiple times that with the condition Zhang Peng was in, he would not be able to avoid capture for long; he would be caught within the next 24 hours.

Honestly, Chen Ge was not that worried about Zhang Peng. He was feeling down because he was concerned about the number that had been left behind by the mirror monster. Inspector Lee thought that Chen Ge was reeling from trauma, so he consoled him as best he could before leaving with the other officers after daylight.

Chen Ge was left alone in the Haunted House. He opened the window to allow the morning draft to caress his face.

I’m the owner of a Haunted House, the lord of ghosts and spirits so to speak, but how come I feel I am so pitiful?

The morning rays filtered into the room. The ragdoll left on the bed turned as if carried by the wind and fell underneath the bed.

Chen Ge picked it up and poked it on its tummy. “The only specter who listens to me only knows how to act cute. In a real combat situation, I’ll probably need to protect you.”

The ragdoll seemed to be unhappy with Chen Ge’s evaluation of her. She tried to resist but could not do anything.

The rewards from both Nightmare Missions were support skills; they are useful for the development of the Haunted House but don’t really help me personally much.

Even though Chen Ge had no idea what the numbers meant, he refused to let himself be toyed with by some mysterious forces like that.

Taking out the black phone, Chen Ge clicked through the app for a long time and realized his only trump card was the scary-looking Red Specter—Zhang Ya. When he was at the wooden hut behind Ping An Apartments, Zhang Ya had helped him once, tipping him to Wang Qi’s presence. Technically, she had saved his life.

However, during the Nightmare Mission, when the mirror monster tried to drown him in the bathtub, she had not appeared. This went to show how cavalier she was with Chen Ge’s life.

Completing her Bloody Heart Mission will enable me to get her to do something that is not against her will. Maybe I’ll be able to get her to help me deal with the imminent danger.

Chen Ge clicked on Zhang Ya’s name, and even his courage that had been cultivated from a young age started to waver as he looked at the bloody red interface. But this lady likes a dead Chen Ge, what if the affection level rises too fast and she can’t wait for me to join her in the afterlife?

Not everyone could accept a specter’s admiration that easily. After exiting the app, even the air around Chen Ge felt fresher. The Bloody Heart Mission will be my final resort. If the mysterious number appears one more time tonight, I’ll have to complete the Bloody Heart Mission.

After making that decision, with a plan forming in his mind, Chen Ge fell back to sleep.

Xu Wan came to work at around 8 am. Chen Ge left the Haunted House in her capable hands while he went to purchase the surveillance cameras with Uncle Xu’s money. He was in such a hurry because there were too many blind spots around the Haunted House; it was too dangerous. On top of that, one of the black phone’s Daily Missions was for him to install surveillance cameras and security devices.

After the purchase was made, Chen Ge had the workers come to the Haunted House that afternoon to install the devices. With him personally watching, the few workers installed the cameras in most corners of the Haunted House with their hearts shaking, forming a surveillance web that had few blind spots. Even though Chen Ge planned to purchase listening device as well, due to limited funds, he only got the cheapest one and had it installed inside the Minghun scenario.

At 7 pm, after the final testing was done, Chen Ge received the mission success alert on the black phone.

“Congratulation for completing the Easy Mission, reward earned—Background Music, Wedding Dress!

“Note: Wedding Dress is the perfect accompaniment to Minghun! The Minghun scenario’s Scream Factor has been upgraded to 1 Star!”

Chen Ge was surprised when he saw the phone alert. The original Scream Factor for Minghun was only 0.5 Stars, but with this new music, it was upgraded to 1 Star.

Looks like this music is even more disturbing than Black Friday.

Wanting to immediately try it out, Chen Ge played the music. It was a completely different style from Black Friday. One was a slow insidious burn, like a force slowly dragging the listener into the dark abyss; the other was weirder in nature, a mix of wedding music and funeral music. The new track caused Chen Ge’s skin to crawl from the first note alone.

It does fit the Minghun scenario perfectly, but constant exposure to it will probably cause unwanted psychological trauma. Unless someone comes to challenge the Haunted House, I’d better keep it to myself for now.

Chen Ge saved Wedding Dress to his own phone before returning to the third floor alone to clean up the place.

He did not have enough funds to hire cleaners, so with the dolls snuggled in his pockets, he cleared out all the mirror pieces he could find on the third floor. When he was done, it was almost midnight. Chen Ge held his phone as he wandered between the bathroom and the staff breakroom.

He looked at the mirrors carefully as he waited for midnight to arrive.