Horror Game Designer

The first rule of the pet company. Do not stay when you hear the dog bark.

“Run!” Yu Ruolong remembered what Xiao Wu said. He basically jumped up from the couch and raced to the office door.

“Wait!” Someone called from behind him, but Yu Ruolong ignored it.

“Wait? Only an idiot will wait!”

The few horror game players were already frightened by the monsters earlier. They followed Xiao Wu out of the office.

“Close the door!”

After everyone ran out, Xiao Wu slammed the office door close. Then, the barking stopped. However, there was a new scent of meat rotting in the air.

“How did the thing inside the toilet wake up?” Xiao Wu looked pale. “Thankfully, you ran fast or else all of us would be done for.” The heart-pounding sound was clear in everyone’s ears. The corridor was eerily quiet.

“Wear your tags well. Find Manager Nian at the food lab. She’ll help you adjust to life here. Remember. You have to run when you hear the barking.” Xiao Wu still looked fazed from the scare.

Yu Ruolong didn’t suspect Xiao Wu, but he was still careful. He didn’t leave immediately but turned to Luo Dong’s son, “Kid, are there many ghosts here?”

Luo Dong’s son nodded. His face was whiter than a ghost’s.

“You said Manager Nian would help us adjust to life here, but you didn’t mention any ways to leave…” Luo Dong noticed Xiao Wu’s choice of words. “Why? Is it because you want us to stay here forever?” Luo Dong could sense his son’s fear. The fourth floor was far more dangerous than where they were.

“I’m helping you.” Xiao Wu was about to explain when a weak light source came from the dark third-floor corridor.

“Is someone coming? Is it the other players?”

Everyone held their breath as they looked at the light in the dark that was slowly approaching.

“No. It’s moving faster! It’s moving!”

The heavy iron cage cut against the wall. The blade-like antlers appeared in their sight. A heavily-mutated monster stomped down the corridor.

“Fuck!”

The few horror game players turned and ran. Any thinking was pointless at this point. They just needed to run faster than the others.

They were chased to the fourth floor. They ran for a whole three minutes and only stopped when they couldn’t see the light anymore.

Yu Ruohu leaned against the wall and knelt on the ground. Luo Dong’s family was at their limits as well. The person with the best condition was the hostess. Even at that moment, she had the mood to record everything around her.

“Where are we? When did that thing disappear?” Yu Ruolong covered his mouth due to the horrid smell. It smelled of decay. With the light on his phone, he saw many large cages. There were machines used to make pet feed inside the cages. Most of the machines were still running. Their lights turning on and off. There was a large pool at the end of all the machines. The horrible smell came from there.

“Shouldn’t this floor be the food lab? How can they feed these things to animals? This food looks rotten.” Yu Ruohu crawled up from the ground. His fingers were red with a layer of meat paste. However, it was unclear what kind of meat it was. “How disgusting.”

“Should we go find Manager Nian next?” Yu Ruolong stood at the back of the group. He didn’t dare to get too close to the cages.

“Can you two be quiet?” Luo Dong looked severe. After a few moments, he told them, “I have a few things to tell you.” Luo Dong seemed to have sensed something special.

“My son can sense the existence of ghosts, but he didn’t sense a ghost inside that office.”

“That’s right. Doesn’t that prove Xiao Wu is a human?” Yu Ruohu had no idea what Luo Dong was getting at.

“There is no ghost inside the office, so the thing that barked inside the toilet isn’t a ghost either.” Luo Dong looked around, but he couldn’t see Xiao Wu. “That’s why I told you to wait earlier.”

“Strange rules will appear inside the anomalies. Many times, ghosts have to follow the rules even if they want to kill. Since your son said that Xiao Wu is a human, then he must follow the rules to survive…” Before the hostess could continue, Luo Dong interrupted her with a glare. “Xiao Wu’s third rule is that some pets can mimic human speech, and we can’t trust them! What if Xiao Wu is a pet? The rules didn’t mention only ghosts can become pets, right? If Xiao Wu is a pet, all the rules we know are fake!” Luo Dong’s voice was chilly. “Why would a human help us in a place like this? The humans who help the ghosts are scarier than ghosts!”

“But Xiao Wu told us to stay away from the dogs. If the dog barking doesn’t represent danger, what does it represent?” Yu Ruolong scratched his chin.

“Could it be a plea for help?” Gao Ming’s voice pulled everyone’s attention. “It’s normal for an office to have an attached toilet, but people who kill often will know that the toilet is the easiest location to deal with a corpse. It’s easily cleaned with the water and drainage system.”

No one was used to murders, so everyone became more anxious.

“Do the monsters here want to turn all the humans into dogs? Take, for example, the monsters we saw on the second floor. Even though they had animalistic properties, they still maintained a human shape.” Luo Dong took out his phone. “Surviving player number count 25…”

Earlier, it was 29. That was not that long ago. Four players had died.

“This map has special cursed items that can fight against ghosts. Horror game players will keep on coming here. However, the number of surviving players doesn’t increase. This can only mean that the monsters are killing the players faster than the number of players coming here.”

“Some of them might have been turned into pets. We need to move.” Luo Dong stood up. “As more pets join the ghosts, we’ll be in more danger. We better split up to find the mud figurine. We have the chance to leave only by following the goal of the Dead Water Forum.” Luo Dong didn’t want to stay with them anymore. He wanted to move alone with his family. However, the rest didn’t want to separate from him.

Luo Dong felt a headache seeing this. He was someone who relied fully on his family. He was the weakest among his family.

Suddenly, there was the sound of cogs moving. Something was moving inside the giant pool.