Horror Game Designer

The footsteps came from a distance until they entered his neighbour’s home and then moved to the wall. When Gao Ming leaned on the wall to listen, there was also a face leaning against his neighbour’s wall. A few seconds later, the footsteps began again. They rushed out of the house and stopped before Liu Yi’s front door.

There was no knocking in the dark. Gao Ming trained his focus on listening. The footsteps became weaker. The last time he heard them, they seemed to have entered Liu Yi’s home.

“Meow!” Fa Cai rolled out of bed like a furball. Liu Yi woke up. She switched on the lamp on the bedside table. “Gao Ming, did you have another nightmare?”

“It’s nothing.” Gao Ming stared into the living room. Fa Cai did the same thing. “Go back to sleep. You have to go to work tomorrow.” Gao Ming coaxed Liu Yi back to sleep. Gao Ming took out his phone again. He couldn’t find the livestream anymore. “Was I targeted because I saw that livestream? The streamer said someone would enter the dark night if he couldn’t survive until dawn. Is this a scapegoat situation? Or a harmless prank?”

Gao Ming couldn’t sleep. He decided to crawl out of bed and prepare breakfast for Liu Yi and Fa Cai.

After Liu Yi got to work, Gao Ming took out the black band. Immortal Pharma didn’t send him any missions. After giving it some thought, Gao Ming contacted Tang Qing.

After the video call connected, Gao Ming was greeted by a face filled with resentment.

“Brother, it’s not even working hours.” Tang Qing looked so tired. “I worked overtime just to fill up the reports on your batch of testers. If you have anything, contact me three days later.”

“Three days of rest are too long for me. I need to enter another middle-layer nightmare as soon as possible. Or you can directly send me into a deep-layer nightmare.” After Gao Ming lived with Liu Yi, his life was uneventful and peaceful. He loved that kind of life, but the problem was he could feel his memory of the nightmare fading. Once he was fully immersed in everyday life, he might forget everything about his nightmare. He’d never know what had happened to him.

Gao Ming frowned after the call was disconnected. At the end of the day, Tang Qing worked for Immortal Pharma. To enter the level 5 confidential lab, Gao Ming had to gain higher access. “That Director Lee is not simple…” Just as Gao Ming was considering how to reach out to Director Lee, his phone suddenly vibrated. A red unknown number was calling him. The phone number had been marked by 527 people as a dangerous contact.

“I’ve only heard of the scammer’s number. What is this dangerous number?” Gao Ming hesitated before answering it, “Hello?”

The static was shrill to the ears. The person who called Gao Ming didn’t appear to be in the country. The signal was very bad. Gao Ming couldn’t understand anything. He was ready to hang up when the other party dropped him an address.

“Xin Lu Ninth Sense Exploration Centre?” This shop was situated in Xin Lu Intelligent City. It was one of the branches set up by Jiujiang New Century Theme Park. Apparently, it used the latest technology to bring the players new experiences. “The interviewer at the theme park, Ol Zhou, said their boss would call me. Was that their boss? Where was he calling from that the signal was so bad?

“This feels very shady.” Gao Ming turned to the living room, where the footsteps had disappeared. “However, it feels like it’d match me perfectly.”

Afraid that Fa Cai would be alone at home, Gao Ming carried it in the bag. He took the train with Fa Cai to the intelligent city.

The difference between Xin Lu Intelligent City and the old city was bigger than the difference between humans and ghosts. There were not many people using phones on the road. Most of them had chips implanted in them that allowed them to communicate with the city’s superphoton computer directly.

In a way, the intelligent city was a wonder.

No one knew how it was created. No one had a clear answer. There was a lot of information about the supercomputer on the internet and it refreshed quickly. It was so fast that the city manager could barely manage it. Therefore, a limitation was placed on it about ten years ago. Most of the supercomputer’s access level was taken away. The current supercomputer of the intelligent city was an incomplete product.

Gao Ming found the centre at 10.30 am. It was built in the most bustling part of the city. It was hidden among the many skyscrapers.

The traffic was very busy. It was the busiest place in Xin Lu. However, as Gao Ming followed the navigation system, he slowly noticed something was wrong. When there was light, there would be darkness. Among all the tall buildings, there was one that was built in a bad Feng Shui area. It was basically hidden from the sunlight. The place was filled with people, but these few floors were eerie and abandoned. Even people hurried by.

“It’s not easy to find a location like this in a busy city.” Gao Ming took the elevator to the seventh floor. He entered the stairwell and went two floors down before he saw the sign for the Ninth Sense Exploration Centre.

This place, strangely enough, didn’t have any promotion. The centre was built in the darkest part of the building. All the windows were covered by thick black curtains. Gao Ming tried to pull back one of the curtains to confirm his location. However, he didn’t see the cityscape outside the window but a thick cement wall. It was very oppressive.

“Hey, are you here for the sensory experience?” A female voice came from behind him. Gao Ming turned and saw a ‘special’ woman.

She was very pretty with long legs and fair skin. Each part of her body was beautiful, but when placed together, it felt off.

Gao Ming noticed that the woman’s mouth didn’t move when she spoke. It sounded like her voice came from her stomach. There was a trail of sewing marks around the woman’s neck. This contemporary fashion sense eluded Gao Ming.

“I did an interview with Jiujiang New Century Theme Park. I got a strange call this morning. They told me to come here.” Gao Ming showed the lady the dangerous number he had on his phone.