At 11:55 in the middle of the night, there were still figures moving around the Core Fire Guild.
Three people were sitting side by side on the sofa in the guild hall. The room remained unlit, with only the faint glow from the clock on the wall providing a dim illumination.
The man seated on the far right appeared to be around twenty years old. He wore frameless glasses, giving him a shrewd and smart look.
Sitting on his right was a sturdy young man, looking younger than the man in the middle, exuding a strong presence.
Seated on the far left was a quiet-looking young man. He appeared to be around twenty-two or twenty-three years old, with a pair of beautiful eyes shining brightly in the darkness.
The young man played with the card in his hand and glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s 11:56, there are four minutes left.”
Zhou Guang: “I have been secretly investigating this card in the past two days. I found a book in the library with an unknown author, titled ‘Book of Supernatural Events in The Horror Game’. It records supernatural events that occurred in the game lobby, and in one chapter, it mentions a cursed invitation.”
“It says that in the game mall, there exists a lottery ticket visible only to the cursed. The ticket attracts ignorant buyers to press the purchase button. At the moment of successful purchase, they will receive an invitation carrying a curse.”
“Anyone who touches the invitation will be cursed. They will be taken to a cursed trial game, and only by clearing all the games can they leave that world and return to the game lobby.”
“However, in reality, few people can return to the game lobby. So, this ‘Dare Challenge Game’ is also known as the ‘Death Game.’”
“Now the question is, who bought the lottery ticket?”
“…” Bai Lixin blinked, trying to appear innocent, “It was me.”
Zhou Guang: “Alright, it’s just as I suspected.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
‘I feel a bit offended.’
Li Cangshan: “Does the book say how to clear the Dare Challenge Game? Is this considered a copy?”
In the darkness, Zhou Guang shook his head. “No, the book only talks about this cursed card. It also mentions that this card appeared due to the lingering resentment of a player in the system. Supposedly, this player died in the trial copy, and his lingering resentment turned into the cursed card, intending to spread the horror of the Dare Challenge Game to others.”
“As for whether it counts as a copy, I don’t think so, at least it’s not a copy visible to players through live broadcasts. I asked around, and no one has heard of a ‘Dare Challenge Game’ copy. I speculate that a new game space has been opened, visible only to the cursed.”
Li Cangshan: “Oh, I see.”
While they were chatting, the clock on the wall suddenly struck twelve, and both of them instinctively fell silent, vigilantly surveying their surroundings.
Zhou Guang shivered a bit and couldn’t help rubbing his arms. “Have you guys felt the temperature drop?”
Before his words dissipated in the air, Li Cangshan had already flashed to his side. In the darkness, there was a flicker of a cold light. Zhou Guang couldn’t even see the other person’s movements clearly, and Li Cangshan was already holding a dagger in his hand.
Li Cangshan stared fixedly at a certain spot in the darkness. “Who’s there?! Come out!”
Zhou Guang looked in the direction Li Cangshan faced, only seeing pitch darkness, unable to see anything.
“Heeheehee.”
Suddenly, an eerie childlike laughter reached their ears, followed by a chubby figure walking out from the shadows.
Zhou Guang squinted his eyes to get a better look. It was an unidentified furry creature that looked like a pinecone, about the size of an adult man’s head. Its head and body were seamlessly integrated, with no visible neck. Inside the round body, its limbs appeared extremely slender and small.
The little monster was pitch black, and if it hadn’t moved just now, it would be impossible to distinguish it from the surrounding darkness.
It didn’t walk but floated, and with a creepy smile, it drifted in front of Bai Lixin.
The little monster hovered in front of the three of them, extending its tiny arms to perform a gentlemanly bow in mid-air. “Greetings to the 999th lucky viewer and his friends. Hello!”
Bai Lixin: “…”
Little Monster: “Welcome to the world of the Dare Challenge Game!”
“I am your exclusive guide in this game. You must be full of expectations for this Dare Challenge Game! Let’s embark on this extraordinary journey together!”
As soon as the little monster finished speaking, a bright light suddenly flashed in front of the three of them.
When Bai Lixin opened his eyes again, the surroundings were already an unfamiliar environment.
His shoulder was tapped, and Bai Lixin instinctively turned around, only to see a completely unfamiliar boy looking at him. “Bai Lixin, you coward, what are you still standing there for? Hurry up, if you don’t move, be careful of being grabbed by ghosts and eaten.”
Bai Lixin surveyed the surroundings. At this moment, it was pitch black, with only the flashlights of the two people still shining. They were currently inside an abandoned building. Calling it an abandoned building might be more accurate to describe this structure.
It seemed to be an abandoned construction site. The air carried a mix of cement and dust, and the surrounding walls exposed a mix of red solid bricks and gray facing bricks. Numerous steel bars protruded from the walls, standing proudly outside.
The ground beneath their feet was neither polished nor cleaned, uneven and scattered with construction debris in the corners.
The boy who patted Bai Lixin’s shoulder held a flashlight, waving it impatiently towards the distance. He spoke irritably, “Hurry up, everyone is already gone! A lazy person will find many excuses to delay working. You even need to go take care of business before playing this Dare Challenge Game.”
Bai Lixin remained silent, looking into the distance. The flashlight continued to circle around a staircase.
From what the boy said, they were already in the Dare Challenge Game, and besides the boy beside him, there were a few others here. However, Bai Lixin didn’t know how many, and whether Zhou Guang and Li Cangshan were among them.
Moreover, this boy just called him “Bai Lixin,” so his in-game code might be his real name.
He calmly surveyed the desolate unfinished building and quickened his pace to catch up with the boy ahead.
While walking, Bai Lixin opened the taskbar.
The taskbar was empty, showing no task prompts.
Then he opened the chat window, whether it was his or Zhou Guang and Li Cangshan’s profile pictures, they were all in the safe white color.
Obviously, this world wasn’t a typical copy.
But if it wasn’t, what kind of existence was this world?
[Has Sister System back?] Bai Lixin asked in his mind.
S419M: [Not yet, Lord Host. I haven’t been able to contact Sister System recently, and I’m worried about it.]
Bai Lixin: [What do you think of this game?]
S419M: [Lord Host, when that pinecone monster appeared, there was a moment of distortion in space during the flash of light. If my speculation is correct, this should be a special space located in the cracks of time and space. Currently, I haven’t found a way to leave here. Perhaps, as the pinecone monster said, we need to clear the game to leave.]
[But how can we clear the game? Do you think we’ve started the game, or are we just going through the plot?]
Bai Lixin: [I don’t know. It seems like we’re going through the plot. What about Zhou Guang and Li Cangshan? Can you find them?]
S419M: [They are also in this area, just temporarily separated from you. Currently, both of their health points appear normal.]
Bai Lixin nodded slowly: [I understand, thank you.]
S419M: [I suddenly fell a bit nostalgic.]
Bai Lixin: [Huh?]
S419M: [In these days without Sister System, coupled with you suddenly entering this copy, I suddenly remembered the carefree time when we roamed through various quick-travel realms. I miss it so much.]
Bai Lixin smiled: [How about giving you a chance to experience it again when we leave this game and return to the Lord God world?]
S419M: [No need for that. I was just reminiscing, there’s no other meaning.]
During their conversation, Bai Lixin had already followed the boy up the stairs.
There were two people standing in the middle of the higher floor, one holding a flashlight, the other holding a selfie stick.
“Dear viewers in the live broadcast, I’m your good friend Big Zhuang. Can you guess where we are right now?”
“That’s right! We are currently inside the Midnight Tower, which is highly popular in the recent supernatural forums!”
“Some friends may know the story of this Midnight Tower, while others may not. I’m here to tell you all about it.”
Bai Lixin stood near the steps, looking towards the two in the middle from a distance.
It was a boy and a girl. The girl had dyed her hair a bright red, and when the light hit her head, her hair appeared blood-red.
Beside the girl was a young man who seemed quite bold. He winked and made funny faces into the phone, deliberately lowering his voice to a slightly eerie tone as he spoke.
As Bai Lixin approached, he realized the young man holding the phone was currently live streaming.
The time in this place appeared in the top right corner of the phone, 12:15 AM.
The anchor’s name was “Big Zhuang Takes You to Brave the Supernatural Haunted House.” The number of people watching wasn’t small, even at this hour, there were several thousand people still online.
The barrage scrolled continuously.
[Hurry up, stop the suspense. What’s wrong with this unfinished building?]
[Yeah, what’s wrong? I want to know too. This unfinished building has been here for more than ten years, and no one has demolished it or built on it. It’s just left there, a negative buff to the city beautification.]
[Huh, Big Zhuang, why do you have so many reinforcements today? Wow, handsome guy, who are you? Big Zhuang’s live broadcast is instantly elevated by several levels. Quickly introduce him, who is this handsome guy!]
Bai Lixin moved himself away from the camera, silently standing in a corner beyond the reach of the phone: “…”
“These are specially invited participants for today’s supernatural game. You’ll soon know why I brought them here.” Big Zhuang said, smiling mysteriously. “The handsome guy in the shot just now is a special guest. If you want to see him later, everyone stay tuned in the livestream. Stay tuned! I’ll send a red envelope to everyone. Family, move your hands to give Big Zhuang a light signal, thank you!”
“Thanks to Brother K for the deep sea torpedo! Thank you, thank you!”
Big Zhuang continued interacting with the audience in the livestream. Bai Lixin stood quietly on the side, his eyes calmly scanning the building.
The architectural style on this floor was no different from the previous one. It seemed like either a residential building or intended to be converted into office space.
It was a very long floor, and the division between rooms was not yet completed, making them appear small standing there.
The others remained silent. The only sound in the air was the anchor’s continuous voice. Due to the reflection of surrounding sounds, as the anchor spoke from their side, they could hear the echo around them.
Perhaps Big Zhuang was naturally courageous, or the thousands of people in the livestream boosted his confidence, there was no expression of fear on Big Zhuang’s face. Instead, there was excitement and a barely noticeable disdain.
Although he called himself a supernatural anchor, from his performance, it seemed he didn’t truly believe that supernatural events could occur here.
Moving forward seven or eight meters from where they stood was a huge square hollow space. This was the edge zone of the building, and the empty space that hadn’t been built up was likely reserved for floor-to-ceiling windows.
A gust of cold wind blew in through the windows, causing the boy who brought him here to tighten his clothes instinctively. A trace of fear appeared on his face.
The wind howled, and Big Zhuang finally began to get to the point.
“Alright, time is almost up. Next, let me first give you all an introduction to the origin of the Midnight Building. After that, we’ll start the game.”
“This area used to be a well-known real estate development in our city. Originally, it was intended for a set of luxury apartments to be built, but later something happened here, and the developer had to stop construction.”
“To build on the ground, you first have to remove the existing houses. In order to secure this piece of land, the developer offered a sky-high compensation to the residents originally living here.”
“But there was one household that refused to move. However, they eventually moved. Some say that the developer privately offered them an even higher compensation, while others say that the developer hired thugs to scare them away.”
“Anyway, that family moved, and the construction project started as scheduled.”
“At first, everything was normal. Just as this upscale apartment was about to be capped, a young man suddenly exposed it to the media that the developer killed his family.”
“He claimed to be a member of that stubborn family. There were only two elderly people in that household, and this young man was their grandson. The two elderly people didn’t move, they disappeared.”
“Seeing is believing, but for death, you need to see the corpse. The young man searched for the two elderly for over a year but couldn’t find any trace of them.”
“He suspected that the developer, in order to proceed with the project on schedule, killed the elderly couple. He even boldly claimed that the bodies of the elderly couple were buried in the foundation concrete of this luxury apartment.”
“But only a small number of people paid attention to this. The developer had power and influence, and soon monopolized the online public opinion, deleting all the young man’s videos and texts. The young man originally wanted to pressure the developer with public opinion to force them to dig up the foundation, but he underestimated the power of capital.”
“His demands were not met, the hype didn’t catch on, and he didn’t find his grandparents.”
“Originally, the developer thought the matter had passed, but not long after, something happened inside this building that was about to be capped.”
Big Zhuang’s voice suddenly paused, and he approached the camera with a solemn expression: “The young man hanged himself inside.”
The barrage in the livestream suddenly exploded.
[Damn it, I was not scared by Big Zhuang’s story but I was almost scared away by Big Zhuang’s big face. Scared me.]
[Hanged himself? Hiss, this family is so miserable.]
[And then? Just because someone hanged himself, this place became an unfinished building?]
The interaction ranking in the upper left corner showed it had reached the third place and Big Zhuang was satisfied. He showed a content smile and continued: “Originally, after the developer reported to the police and removed the body, an investigation determined it was a suicide rather than a murder. After that, the developer invited a Taoist priest to perform a ritual here, and the matter was suppressed, and the capping continued.”
“But, even more bizarre things happened afterward.”
“Not long after, a construction worker suddenly saw a pale-faced ghost during a nighttime livestream.”
“From then on, that ghost frequently roamed inside this building.”
“And it was after the appearance of this ghost that frequent deaths began to occur inside this building.”
“At first, a worker doing high-altitude work accidentally slipped and fell.”
“He fell from the eighteenth floor and died on the spot.”
“Anyone doing high-altitude work knows to tie a safety rope around their waist to save their lives in critical situations. However, strangely, this worker’s safety rope, although tied around his waist, unexpectedly came loose at the other end. According to the recollection of the nearby workers at that time, he was working fine, then he suddenly screamed with a terrified expression on his face. It seemed he saw something terrifying, then he lost his footing and hit the ground.”
“This was just the beginning. Later, more and more accidents occurred frequently.”
“Well-bound steel bars suddenly fell from the sky, piercing the chest of a ground worker and impaling him on the ground like barbecue meat.”
“The draftsman was drawing plans on the ground when suddenly, an invisible force pushed him out of the window.”
“The worker handling concrete accidentally fell into the wet concrete. By the time someone discovered him, the worker had already been thrown into the concrete, suffocated to death…”
“Strange incidents continued to happen, and even after several attempts by the developer to invite Taoist priests, nothing improved.”
“Finally, even the developer faced calamity. The haunting of this upscale apartment finally spread online, causing an uproar. People speculated it was the developer’s fault and faced retribution. The workers died because of the developer. Rumors of this ominous luxury apartment with a deadly ghost inside caused the developer’s company’s stocks to plummet. For the sake of one apartment, the developer suffered a severe setback.”
“The developer eventually deemed the place cursed, and finally abandoned the upscale apartment. The building became a complete ghost town, and now, more than a decade later, many people have forgotten the stories about this building. No information can be found online. I know these things but they were not easy to dig up.”
“Ah, thank you Brother K for the ten torpedoes! Thank you Sister for the rocket launcher!”
Comments kept flashing on the screen.
[So creepy, why am I scaring myself to death? I’m scared but still sitting in this livestream. Am I sick?]
[ “If you can’t brush during the day, you can’t escape late at night” series.]
[What does this story have to do with the four of you?]
[Maybe Big Zhuang is scared this time, so he specifically found people to accompany him but felt embarrassed to say it, so he came up with such a twisted excuse?]
[Exactly, Big Zhuang, did you get scared? From now on, change your name to Big Scared.]
Seeing the continuously increasing gifts, Big Zhuang smiled happily, “I invited them for a purpose. This story has a sequel. Do you want to hear it?”
“If you want to hear it, light up the fan sign, type ‘want’ in the chat. If there are many people who want it, I’ll continue telling you.”
Guided by Big Zhuang, the barrage of comments transformed into obedient puppets, dutifully light up fan lights and typing ‘want’ in the barrage.
Seeing the desired effect, Big Zhuang smiled again, “Since everyone wants to know, I’ll tell you… Oh, it seems the time for the red envelope lottery has come. Let’s first check the results of this red envelope lottery. Get ready to grab it, everyone!”
The red envelope in the upper left corner started a count down. As it hit zero, a name appeared on the screen.
“Congratulations to the lucky viewer named ‘I’m Right Behind You’ for winning Big Zhuang’s red envelope this time.” After reading the winner’s name, Big Zhuang laughed, “This viewer’s name really suits the atmosphere of our livestream, ‘I’m Right Behind You,’ hiss, so spooky.”
He even turned around to look behind him, the space behind him empty and pitch-black.
Da Zhuang then turned back, expressing regret, “It seems this viewer is not behind me. If he were, I could personally give him the prize. Too bad.”
Bai Lixin focused on the scrolling barrage.
In the midst of the dense comments, a very inconspicuous one quickly scrolled by.
I’m Right Behind You: [I’m really behind you.]
Bai Lixin’s eyes fell thoughtfully behind the anchor. In his eyes, the place behind the anchor was also empty, with no one except for the dark area.
Was it just a prank?
“The red envelope has been given out. Congratulations to the lucky viewer who won the prize. I will give out the next red envelope. Don’t go away. You will see the handsome guy from earlier!” Big Zhuang returned to work. He rubbed his eyes and continued. “Let’s go on and talk about what happened.”
Bai Lixin silently observed Big Zhuang. Big Zhuang continued to rub his eyes as if something had gotten into them.
After rubbing for a while, Big Zhuang took off the back of his hand. Bai Lixin looked at his eyes and found that his eyes had become slightly red and swollen.
Perhaps a normal bodily reaction after rubbing the eyes, nothing out of the ordinary.
“A few years after this building became deserted, paranormal explorers came here. They played a supernatural game, and it’s said this ceremony summoned the vengeful spirit of that young man. Today, we’ll recreate this ceremony and see if we can summon this malevolent ghost.”
The barrage in the livestream exploded once again.
[Fuck, so brave? I’m scared to watch, but I want to see because of my damn curiosity.]
[Curiosity killed the cat, I can’t handle it anymore, everyone, I’m scared so I’m leaving first.]
[I’ll smash ten Porsches for you to do the ceremony. I want to see if there are really ghosts in the world.]
Bai Lixin: “…”
Indeed, curiosity killed the cat.
Since he’s in a horror game, there’s no doubt this space must have ghosts.
But the game rules still haven’t been announced. Could it be they want him to cooperate with the anchor to complete the ceremony?
