Horror Game Designer-Chapter 678: Xuan Wen’s Secret

“From the analysis of the scene, Xuan Wen disappeared after leaving you this package. Her action might have triggered some kind of taboo.” The leader of Team One had no idea Gao Ming had met Xuan Wen in real life.

“Bring me to the station.” Gao Ming told Fan Li to stay and share selected information with the other horror game players. After all, they had gathered for a reason. Fan Li felt wronged. When he received Gao Ming’s message, he only told a few important players. He didn’t know how the news spread so fast.

Wearing a black robe, Gao Ming and the leader of Team One, left the mall from the back exit. They went into the car and drove through the sick zone. One hour later, they reached the old city. Seeing Li Jing Apartments, the softest part of Gao Ming’s heart loosened. This was his home at Han Hai. It was where he restarted whenever he died.

“I know this is your home, but our goal today is not there.” The leader led Gao Ming into the neighbourhood. They arrived at the building across from Gao Ming’s home. They walked up the deserted stairs and reached the fourth floor. The leader of Team One bowed at a standard door and put three joss sticks on the door frame.

“I don’t remember you believing in such things. Are these for Xuan Wen?”

“No. I’ve murdered many ghosts and humans here. These are for them.” The man opened the old door. The cold wind surged into his collar. Standing on the balcony, one could look right into Gao Ming’s rental home. “Xuan Wen appears to be watching you, or rather… researching you.”

The living room was decorated simply. There was nothing out of place. However, when the leader of team one opened the bedroom door, Gao Ming narrowed his eyes. The bedroom windows were sealed with bricks. A lot of numbers were carved on the walls. There were senses at the beginning, but they soon spiralled out of control.

“Do you know what they represent?” The man sneaked a look at Gao Ming. “At first, we thought they were dates, but then, we understood they couldn’t be. They were more like instances, like the repetitions of specific actions. Or maybe how many times an anomaly has occurred?”

Gao Ming didn’t answer. He caressed the numbers with his fingers as an answer appeared in his heart. These were the number of times he died. Xuan Wen was the only one who knew the truth. She knew it earlier than he did and tried to leave the clues behind. A lot of analysis papers were hidden under the thin mattress. The handwriting was hard to read. There were some graphs. It was clear that the recorder’s mental state was not stable.

“These things are like chicken scrawls. We cannot understand them.” The leader of Team One lowered his head. He looked serious. To be frank, even if he understood the material, he would not admit it because it might contain Gao Ming’s secrets. Gao Ming picked a random report. There was a sentence scrawled on it: “The uncertain environments cause the test subject to develop emotional bonds.” Love was circled in red and then crossed out. Seven rather ugly small characters were drawn to the side. Behind the paper was the simple portrait of a long-haired woman. Everyone was marked with a number.

Gao Ming stood up to touch the carvings on the wall. He had a rough understanding of the painting. He had made a game about love. The game had many female characters, and all of them were based on real people. These were seven women who had close interactions with Gao Ming in his many lives.

Through his deaths, these women left the most profound impression on Gao Ming. Of course, the impression had nothing to do with beauty and gentleness. Sexiness and cuteness were nothing compared to lethality.

It was not Gao Ming’s game that turned into reality, but these people existed in real life. Gao Ming interacted with them in different futures. Gao Ming believed his appearance was why these women became twisted, but the reality was that they were mentally unhinged from the start.

Gao Ming picked up another report. It had the same portrait of the long-haired woman. The space underneath her body was covered in numbers. Next to them were outfits in different styles and character traits.

After many revisions, the long-haired woman was given labels like intellectual, forceful, and rational, and she would only lose her rationality around him. These different traits made up the ‘persona’ of a beautiful serial killer.

“It looks like this long-haired woman is Xuan Wen. She draws herself to be quite pretty.” Gao Ming thought Xuan Wen was a woman who walked out of his game. In truth, she had done so much homework to facilitate that illusion. “She knew the truth from the start. Why didn’t she tell me? Is something stopping her?”

“Gao Ming, we’re about to enter the station.” The leader walked to the dresser and opened it. Inside, it was a painted door.

“Is this not the station?”

“Immortal Pharma’s sentry stations are all built in the shadow world. They can only be activated through special methods.” The man touched the blood band around his wrist and cut his palm. Then, he used his blood to draw something on the door. Moments later, the temperature in the room plummeted. The painted door slowly became real. The leader of team one opened it.

The thick scent of blood entered their noses. There was the shadow world’s Li Jing Apartments behind the door. There were a lot of corpses.

“Be careful.” Gao Ming entered the door and saw many complicated devices. “I can confirm that Xuan Wen is from Immortal Pharma, and she has a higher clearance than I do because she has her individual station.”

Gao Ming frowned. All the coincidences that he thought were calculated. However, he had broken the despairing death loop to escape.

“The package for you was left on the table. You two lived so close, so I suspected she did it on purpose.” The leader glanced at Gao Ming. “She had been waiting for you to uncover the truth and for you to suspect her. Unfortunately, you trusted her almost blindly.”

“If I cannot trust here, there’s no one I can trust.” Gao Ming switched on the devices and saw a busy Xuan Wen on the monitor.

At first, he only felt sad. However, Gao Ming’s eyes changed. Xuan Wen had been quietly studying Gao Ming. After a while, she achieved a momentous breakthrough.