The Haunted Game Designer

Cold, terrifying, damp—the air was filled with a faint stench of decay, and the entire room seemed to be shrouded in shadows.

The familiar suffocating sensation returned. Gao Ming knew that he had once again arrived at the place where the two worlds overlapped.

"Xuan Wen's method is correct. Doing this indeed allows me to actively trigger the Strange Tale Game."

Avoiding the gaze of the corpse downstairs, Gao Ming turned to look at the living room. The four candles placed in the corners had already extinguished, and the environment inside the house seemed forever frozen at the moment the deceased committed suicide.

"Where is Xuan Wen?"

The dilapidated room had only Gao Ming inside. The psychological criminal and serial killer who wanted to enter the game with him had not appeared.

"Did she leave this room already? Or did she never come in at all?"

The viscous shadows engulfed his body like black seawater. Gao Ming stood still, calming himself down. He needed to quickly determine which game had become reality.

"The corpse appeared downstairs. Judging from the range of influence, this game is much larger than the ones I've cleared before—at least covering the entire Building No. 2."

"Brother Zhao talked to me many times when he was alive, and I planned to create a small game to help ease his emotions. Back then, I came up with several game design ideas..."

The vibrating sound of a phone interrupted Gao Ming's thoughts. He slowly pushed open the bedroom door and found a cheap-brand phone on the bedside table.

The casing was yellowed, the charging port stained with grime and hair. The phone had no lock screen password, and several new messages popped up on the screen.

"I saw Zhao Xi using this phone when we chatted."

Touching the screen, Gao Ming saw the group chat Zhao Xi had joined—A Distant Relative Is Not As Good As A Close Neighbor—the owners' group chat of Lijing Apartment Building No. 2.

Just moments ago, Mr. Wang from the first floor had tagged everyone and sent three video clips.

He stood on his balcony, capturing a close-up of Zhao Xi's corpse.

The suicide victim had landed headfirst, his face completely deformed, neck broken and elongated, limbs twisted, with shattered bones piercing through the skin.

2101 Wang Kuisheng: "I saw Zhao Xi being taken away with my own eyes! How did his corpse come back? What's going on???"

The group chat exploded. Some tried calling the police, others wanted to go out and check, but soon everyone fell silent.

2203 Xiao Qiu: "Brother Wang, there's something wrong with your three videos! Zhao Xi's position in the first video is different from the third! He seems... to be moving!"

The owners, including Gao Ming, rewatched the videos. Zhao Xi's position indeed changed across the clips.

2101 Wang Kuisheng: "How can a corpse move? How can a dead person move?! It must be the camera angle. I'll go to the balcony and take another video!"

The first-floor resident was clearly flustered, seemingly preparing to shoot another video.

Sensing something wrong, Gao Ming grabbed the phone and ran to the balcony, looking downstairs.

The heavy rain washed away the bloodstains. The corpse that had been placed at the entrance of the stairway was gone.

"Did he crawl back into the building?"

Wang Kuisheng, who had gone to shoot a new video, never sent another message—he had disappeared as if he'd vanished into thin air.

Lijing Apartment was a typical old residential complex in the outskirts of the city. Many rooms were vacant, and Building No. 2 barely had any residents. Now that Wang Kuisheng was missing, the remaining tenants grew even more frightened. Those who had boasted about going out to check earlier now shrank back into their rooms.

2203 Xiao Qiu: "We're doomed! What do we do? None of the phone lines are working, and besides this group chat, we can't send any other messages! Why is this happening?!"

2304 Li Li: "Is it because Zhao Xi is in this group chat, so the chat can still function?"

Li Li was Zhao Xi's sister-in-law, living on the third floor with Zhao Xi's adoptive mother, Zhao Yuanyuan.

2409 Fang Shuqi: "Why did Zhao Xi's corpse come back? Did your family do something bad? I always hear you arguing and fighting upstairs! Your family has been leeching off him while thinking it's only right—this must be karma!"

2304 Li Li: "Bullshit! His death has nothing to do with me!"

2203 Xiao Qiu: "Stop arguing! I heard it! I heard something in the hallway! Something is climbing up!"

Overwhelmed with fear and urgency, Xiao Qiu sent a voice message directly: "Something is really climbing up! It's right outside my door."

2409 Fang Shuqi: "Let's turn on the group video call. That way, we can all see each other, get a clearer understanding of the situation, and mentally prepare ourselves."

A resident on the fourth floor seemed intent on verifying something. After speaking, he added everyone in the group, including Zhao Xi, into the video call.

The moment Zhao Xi's video was turned on, everyone gasped sharply. But before they could react further, they saw Gao Ming appear inside Zhao Xi's home.

2304 Li Li: "Who are you? Why do you have Zhao Xi's phone? Why are you in his house? Did you bring his body back?!"

Before Gao Ming could respond, knocking sounds came through Xiao Qiu's video. The knocks were spaced about two seconds apart, as if someone was repeatedly hitting the door with their head.

Xiao Qiu's face had turned pale with fear. She kept her video on while pushing the sofa against the living room door.

The knocking didn't weaken in the slightest; instead, it grew louder and more forceful, causing the door to tremble slightly.

Holding her phone tightly, Xiao Qiu's expression was filled with terror—she was trapped inside her room.

"What should I do? Please, help me! We're all neighbors! He'll come for you too!"

Curled up on her bed, Xiao Qiu pleaded through the video, but no one in the building responded.

Her eyes welled up with tears, on the verge of breaking down, when suddenly, the lights flickered and then went out completely.

Without warning, darkness engulfed Room 2203, leaving only the dim glow of her phone screen illuminating her face.

Her body seemed frozen in place. She clutched her phone tightly, staring fixedly at the living room.

From within the pitch-black living room came a strange creaking sound. She held her breath and covered her mouth and nose with her hands.

A heavy object dragged across the floor, the door slowly creaked open, and jagged, broken fingernails scraped against the tiles. In the darkness, a shifting silhouette gradually became clearer.

Her heart pounded violently, as if it would burst from her chest. Trembling, Xiao Qiu turned on her phone's flashlight.

For a fleeting moment, the bedroom was illuminated—and then, a piercing scream echoed through the air.

In a frenzy, she rushed to the window, pried it open, and desperately kicked at the security grille, trying to escape.

The torrential rain drenched her nightgown. Her phone slipped from her grasp onto the windowsill, but she had already forgotten about the video call. In a panic, she kept kicking at the security grille, trying to break free.

Through the camera feed, the others could see the ceiling and the window in her room. However, Xiao Qiu, too focused on escaping, failed to notice—a pale, ghastly face was slowly rising from the lower left side of the window.

Her neighbors in the group chat shouted warnings, but Xiao Qiu only trembled as she turned around.

Her face was contorted with terror. It was as if she had seen something unimaginably horrifying. Her mouth opened wide, but before she could make a sound, she was dragged into the darkness.

Room 2203 fell into a deathly silence. The group video call also went completely still.

Holding his phone, Gao Ming silently observed each neighbor in the video, memorizing their every subtle expression. Then, he quickly walked toward his living room door.

The corpses were climbing up the stairs, but that wasn't the worst part.

Earlier, in the video, Gao Ming had seen the face outside the window.

That face didn't belong to Zhao Xi.

It looked a lot like Wang Kuisheng from Room 2101.

Shifting his gaze away from the "Close Neighbors Are Better Than Distant Relatives" group chat, Gao Ming realized he hadn't actually witnessed the neighbors being killed.

Recalling the time when his "parents" had been replaced, he now feared the worst—what if all the neighbors had already been replaced?

What if, apart from him, everyone else in the building was already a ghost?

(End of Chapter)

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