A few years ago, Bao Guangyuan was a rookie UP account owner who had just learned how to make and upload videos.
He first entered the circle with great enthusiasm. Bao Guangyuan made countless friends as he learned how to produce and surfed around major websites.
It was during this period that he met Song Yuelin, Lu Liang and others.
There were eight of them in total and they gathered in a small group even though they were of different genders, different ages, different professions, and even had different directions and audiences for their videos.
But the eight people got along harmoniously and became friends after a while. Not only did they exchange information, but they also gradually moved on from the internet to real life.
Although they had never met in person, the eight of them had a very close relationship.
Ji Mingxia listened to Bao Guangyuan recount the past and he couldn’t help but inquire, “Eight people?”
“Song Yuelin, Lu Liang, Shi Wei, Zhou Li, Meng Xinyi, me, Li Youzi…,” Bao Guangyuan whispered, “and Lin Siyun.”
Sure enough!
The pair of blood-red rings and the people trapped in the forest after Lin Siyun’s death, everything was connected to each other.
What kind of past could have brought these eight good friends to this point. Five people have died so far.
A whole five lives.
Bao Guangyuan said slowly, “Although our development direction and professional level were different, our popularity online was about the same. Each of us had about two to three thousand fans, and because of that, we usually had topics to talk about all the time.”
“The situation gradually improved for the eight of us. First, Lu Liang got some popularity, pushing the remaining few of us up with him. Song Yuelin also unexpectedly leapt to popularity, attracting tens of thousands of fans, and this brought everyone’s career to the next level.”
“It was at that time that the platform held an anniversary party. Because we had potential, we were invited to participate. Although we weren’t eligible to walk the red carpet, we could go to the scene to participate, which was considered as the platform’s affirmation to our future potential…”
Bao Guangyuan’s face was not very good as he talked, and it was obvious that the past was not pleasant for him.
Bao Guangyuan continued, “We didn’t expect to be invited and were so excited because although the eight of us had known each other for some time and were familiar with each other, we had never met. This invitation from the platform represented an affirmation of us, and we were all full of anticipation.”
“In the end, we didn’t expect to be sidelined and have some very unpleasant things happen just after arriving on the scene.”
It turned out that Bao Guangyuan and the others were originally not qualified to participate. They got a chance invitation when the platform head saw Li Youzi’s work and decided to invite her.
Li Yuozi’s account was jointly managed by her and Lin Siyun. Li Yuozi was responsible for the beauty and Lin Siyun was responsible for the operation. Li Youzi was invited and Lin Siyun naturally had to go too.
Since they both had to go, they naturally wanted to bring Bao Guangyuan and the rest.
The platform saw that the other six had potential, so it invited them along.
However, there was a limited number of invitations to the annual conference each year. With eight people coming in all at once, so many other anchors were squeezed out.
They were all internet celebrities, so who didn’t have some ambition?
Bao Guangyuan and the others had squeezed out others, so they had to be prepared for retaliation.
None of them were full-time video makers, so they were caught off guard when someone hacked them from the internet to reality, and they were all confused.
They were all already at the hotel where they were supposed to stay for the anniversary party. Because they had the smallest number of fans and the least visibility in the room, the staff told them not to go downstairs when trouble came. They were to stay in the hotel for three days, and when the anniversary party was over, go straight home and not show up to cause trouble for everyone.
It was fine if they were at home, and told not to attend the anniversary party.
But they were already there, and they were not allowed to come out? It was simply bullying.
Let alone the young and impulsive ones like Bao Guangyuan, even the older ones like Song Yuelin and Lu Liang could not stand it.
Unfortunately, they had contractual restrictions with the platform, and they had never dealt with black material on the internet so everyone didn’t know what to do.
They were sitting in the room staring in disbelief when someone sent them a special invitation.
An invitation to a horror gaming experience.
“Although the platform wouldn’t let us participate in the event, it said then that compensation would be given afterwards.” Bao Guangyuan rubbed his face and said in a muffled voice, “We all thought that the invitation was sent by the platform to prevent us from being bored in the room, an invitation to go out to play the game and relax ……”
It coincided with those years when live horror games were very popular, and since everyone was idle, they decided to go out and take a break and do some live streaming on the way. The new videos would be used to top off those messy messages on Weibo.
“There were a total of eight invitations, one for each person. Originally, it was intended that everyone would go, but Lin Siyun was in a bad mood that day. She hadn’t slept all night and the anger made her unwell so she couldn’t go out. Li Youzi stayed behind in order to look after her, so only us six people left the hotel with the invitations.” Bao Guangyuan said.
The invitation was black in colour, with the words “Hide and Seek” written in red on the inside. Underneath was a small line of characters stating the address of the game.
The scarlet font, like a blood-red worm, was printed on paper, but it looked like a living thing.
It looked a little scary at first glance and they took photos of the invitation and posted them online. Shortly after it was posted, it aroused the interest of netizens.
The fans were so enthusiastic that the six were instantly piqued. They went downstairs and immediately got a car to get to their destination.
“The address led to an abandoned residential building in the suburbs. Like the escape rooms that are very popular nowadays, it was particularly secretive.” Bao Guangyuan described the general appearance of that area.
An abandoned area that was deserted, dirty and messy, a place that the average person would want to stay away from at first glance.
However, the more spooky the place, the more exhilarating for the audience.
If Bao Guangyuan had come alone, he probably wouldn’t have had the guts to go in, but there were six of them.
There were many of them, so even if they encountered the most vicious people, six people would be able to go in in one swarm and solve the problem.
While the sun shone brightly in the city centre, it was cloudy in the area of the abandoned building.
Under the bleak light of the sky, the abandoned buildings were dead silent. Let alone the human population, not even the chirping of insects and birds could be heard.
The ground was covered in mud, and it was easy to see that no one had set foot there for a long time.
Their group did not fit in with the whole abandoned area.
The mountains, the trees, the rusty old iron gates and even the abandoned buildings were all watching them ……
The abandoned neighbourhood was completely devoid of signs of life, but it seemed to be hiding countless beings that couldn’t be seen by the naked eye. As if they were hiding in the shadows, taking a closer look at this group of uninvited guests who have suddenly appeared.
The invisible gazes, like the slow crawling insects, creeped along their bodies and it brought a slippery fear all over.
The driver dropped them off and immediately drove off after collecting the money.
Bao Guangyuan and the others wanted the driver to come and pick them up in a few hours, but they didn’t expect him to run so fast before they could say anything.
The place was so deserted and remote that no taxi would normally pass by, so it would be a problem for the six to make the return trip.
At this point, the live stream was getting hotter and hotter.
It turned out that the driver’s performance amused a lot of viewers and instantly increased the live video’s popularity. Within a short while, the live stream had shot up to second spot, second only to the annual meeting live video.
The great gods were gathered at the annual meeting and the stars were shining, but so what, the six of them who sat on the sidelines were no less popular than the annual meeting.
Even if they were evenly divided, the traffic of the six of them could kill anyone at the annual meeting.
In this way, Bao Guangyuan and the others were like they had been injected with chicken blood.
So what if they couldn’t go back, they’ll rank higher than the annual meeting!
Although they were very scared inside, under the encouragement of the live viewers and the onslaught of the live heat, the group of people, with their heads in the clouds, eventually walked up. They pushed the rusty iron gates open and stepped into the restricted area.
They entered the building and within the courtyard, a mysterious man in a mask stood waiting for them under a grapevine.
“The man was wearing an ill-fitting suit, a mask on his head, and when he spoke, he used a voice changer. So there was no way to guess who he was other than knowing that he was male. However, he was tall, stood up straight and was well-groomed.”
Bao Guangyuan’s voice trembled a little, “We thought he was someone specially arranged by the platform. He gave each of us a card to fill out and then we could go in. The card was the same as the invitation, with red letters on a black background and only one sentence on it –“
[Who are the ten most important people in your life?]
Ji Mingxia raised his eyebrows slightly.
He expected the card to contain a background introduction to a horror story or something really creepy that needed to be filled in, but it turned out to be such a neutral question?
Seeing that Bai Guangyuan was completely immersed in his memories, Ji Mingxia did not speak up and disturb him although he was puzzled.
Bao Guangyuan murmured, “Each of us filled in ten names. This question was very easy to answer. The ten most important people are obviously family, lovers and friends ……”
He spoke with ease, but his face was pale. It was obvious that the follow up after filling in these ten names brought him extremely horrible memories.
After filling out the card, Bao Guangyuan and the others walked into the building.
The house looked like an ordinary residential building, with doors, windows and balconies, but only after entering did they realise that the house was sealed off from the inside and not a single bit of light could penetrate.
The door closed and the inside of the building became pitch black. No one could even see their hands.
Bao Guangyuan was stunned for a moment and he hurriedly picked up his mobile phone, only to discover that it had automatically switched off at some point!
The phone was switched off and could not be go back on, which meant that not only had he lost contact with the outside world, but he had also lost his only source of light.
Seeing this, Bao Guangyuan’s heart went cold and he reflexively felt for his side, calling out for Song Yuelin, Zhou Li and the others.
But the people he had just walked in with had disappeared, and his side was empty. He couldn’t feel anyone no matter where he went.
His voice echoed in the darkness, creating a burst of echoes, but still, no one answered him.
Bao Guangyuan was trapped in the darkness for six hours.
Speaking of this, Bao Guangyuan smiled mockingly: “I got to know the duration after I got out safely based on the time on my mobile phone. In fact, I didn’t have a mobile phone, or a watch during the time I was trapped, I didn’t know how to time myself with my heartbeat, I had no idea of the passage of time and everything was entirely based on my feelings. It was so cold and scary that I thought I was locked up for a whole day ……”
During that period, Bao Guangyuan tried everything he could think of to find a companion and a way out.
But no matter how much he struggled, he remained in the darkness and was unable to leave that area at all.
The yelling and screaming, walking back and forth and smashing things, didn’t bring him any results and he only managed to use up a lot of his energy.
The temperature was low, and the abandoned residential building had no air conditioning or heating.
He was in despair and he thought he would die there, but he never imagined that the game had only just begun, and that there was an even more terrible follow-up waiting for him.
