Chapter 21 The Office is Strange

Back at the studio, Gao Ming memorized most of the data on the haunted house at Hanhai. He and everyone else were working hard in different directions.

The ticking of the clock on the wall filled the air as he immersed himself in the matter at hand, when suddenly the office lights flickered and a thin shadow quietly emerged.

"What is this..."

Gao Ming's breathing became somewhat difficult as he saw shadows converging from all directions, seemingly intent on pouring into the storeroom.

"Damn, what game has been triggered now?"

This time Gao Ming didn't summon spirits or repeat the actions of the dead. It seemed as though he had been dragged into the game passively.

The flickering of the lights grew more rapid, and without warning, they all went out!

Wrapped in that familiar cold sensation, Gao Ming took a deep breath. He was about to remind his colleagues in the studio to be careful when he suddenly saw Wei Dayou hopping onto a desk with his backpack on.

"Everybody stay calm!" Wei Dayou unzipped his backpack. "I have an emergency light!"

With a click of the switch, light appeared in Wei Dayou's hand.

"Brothers and sisters, to tell you the truth, I felt like I couldn't continue the game development and went to work in the night market. I bought this light for my stall," Wei Dayou placed the light on top of a stack of books. "Our Night Lamp Studio has been at the bottom at Motu Technology for seven months. Nobody believes in horror games. I've been scolded by the boss and players for half a year; honestly, I've also been holding back my frustration."

Wei Dayou raised his voice, "I know we had a hard time before, but now we have a chance! After combining this romance game with a horror game, the number of downloads of our beta version surpassed our last official game release. Our Night Lamp Studio is about to make a comeback against the odds!"

The few colleagues working overtime were deeply moved by Wei Dayou's words. The veteran employees of Night Lamp, the programmer Li Jie and the operations manager Zhang Wang, even stood up, with strong feelings for the place.

"I know everyone is tired, but the tough times are just these few days. We need to take advantage of the game's popularity and quickly deliver a finished product! We owe it to the players, our clients, and to ourselves!" Wei Dayou spoke with passion. "I'll go check the electrical room. Everyone, continue with your work!"

Seeing Wei Dayou head out without even taking his phone, Gao Ming hurriedly stopped him, "You, listen to me."

"I know what you're going to say," Wei Dayou grasped Gao Ming's hand firmly. "Brother, we won't let you down this time, we'll perfectly present the game you designed!"

"It's not..."

"Don't be too polite now; that would be uncalled for!" You released his hand just as Gao Ming's phone vibrated. It wasn't just him; everyone in the Night Lamp office looked at their phones.

Swiping the screen, it seemed everyone received a new message.

"Among you, there's someone possessed by a ghost."

"Only by killing the one possessed can you leave."

"Be aware, your range of movement is limited to the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th floors. In one hour, the ghost will awaken and start killing. Anyone killed by the ghost will also become a ghost."

The message was short, just three sentences. The staff at Night Lamp Studio didn't take it seriously, as they were used to horror games. The messages from players after each game release were ten times more frightening than this.

"Why did this very game become a reality?" Gao Ming recognized it immediately. A few years ago, a client found work too dull and wanted some excitement, so they had created this office death game for him.

This game had to be resolved within an hour; the later it gets, the more ghosts there would be. And for players to clear the game, they had to accurately kill the person possessed by the ghost. To put it bluntly, it meant taking a life.

Gao Ming ran out to chase after Wei Dayou, but the elevator doors were closing at that moment.

"You!" Gao Ming pressed the elevator button, suddenly feeling breathing behind him.

"This prank is pretty boring, you don't actually believe it, do you?" Xia Yang's voice appeared suddenly beside Gao Ming, startling him.

"How come you make no sound when you walk?" Gao Ming, using the light inside the room, observed Xia Yang carefully.

"Do you really think I'm a ghost?" Xia Yang laughed.

"Teacher Xia, if this game became real, what would you do?" Gao Ming asked with a probing tone.

"I'd commit suicide, I dare not commit murder, and I'm afraid of pain."

"But suicide means you've killed yourself, your hands would still be stained with blood." Before Gao Ming could finish, another elevator in the building suddenly stopped on the 13th floor, where Night Lamp Studio was located.

The silver-grey elevator doors slowly opened, and the delivery man Su Mo and the unicorn game's Manager Ma ran out of the elevator in a panic, their expressions filled with terror as they desperately tried to distance themselves from each other.

Apart from the two men, there was also a male corpse in the elevator, its eye corners torn, with both hands clutching tightly onto a laptop bag.

"He's the ghost! The ghost has killed!" Su Mo shouted loudly, as if he had gone mad.

"He's the one! The ghost is in his body!" Manager Ma, keeping his distance from Su Mo, shouted towards Gao Ming and the others.

"Turns out men can also produce such grating noises." Xia Yang covered his ears, squinting at the two men in front of him, and muttered in a low voice, "Someone's dead, it seems the text message was telling the truth."

Whether Xia Yang was courageous or had other reasons, he seemed as though he had experienced similar games before, showing not fear but a smile on his face.

Walking past Su Mo and Manager Ma, Gao Ming approached the corpse.

Unbuttoning the corpse's collar, he saw the distinctive livor mortis: "The death of the victim probably happened more than 24 hours ago, it's highly unlikely that these two men in the elevator are the killers."

"If not them, why were they staying in the elevator with the corpse?" Xia Yang glanced at the message on his phone, "Is it possible that the ghost is hiding inside one of them?"

Gao Ming nodded, "The ghost might have been trapped in the body at first, and they became key suspects after touching the corpse. But we can't rule out other scenarios, maybe the ghost deliberately wants us to focus on these two, using them as scapegoats."

"This ghost is quite cunning."

"The game designer understands human psychology well, isolating these two, causing a conflict between the safety of the group and the lives of individuals. When everyone is driven to a corner, someone will definitely lash out at them, and perhaps they will even be forced to kill each other." Gao Ming hadn't designed the game to be that complex initially; it was later improved by Wei Dayou according to client requests, "Human nature is fragile, once the first step is taken, the bottom line keeps being breached until humanity is completely lost."

"Some unscrupulous companies squeeze their employees like that too." Xia Yang was quite optimistic, "Anyway, the ghost definitely isn't in our studio, everyone is working overtime, not a single person has been to other floors."

"We're safe for now, but according to the message, the ghost will awaken in an hour and start killing, and by then, we might not be able to trust anyone."

"Right, so we must find the person possessed by the ghost within an hour."

Su Mo and Manager Ma were still arguing, each claiming the other was the ghost, both nearing the edge of losing control.

"You two stop arguing, take it slow." Xia Yang showed a calmness completely different from his usual demeanor.

"After delivering the food, I went downstairs and ended up encountering that corpse in the elevator! The ghost was initially in the corpse, it told me a lot of things, and with every sentence, the elevator would be covered by a layer of shadows!" Su Mo wiped the tears from his eyes, "Then we ran into Manager Ma getting on the elevator, that corpse had a grudge against Manager Ma, it was waiting for him! As soon as Manager Ma got on, it strangled him, and then entered Manager Ma's body!"

"Nonsense! He's lying! He's the ghost!" Manager Ma tore open his own collar, "Look! There's no mark on my neck, I was making a phone call in the underground parking lot when I suddenly heard strange sounds from the elevator, so I went to check. Who knew that as soon as the elevator door opened, I was dragged in by this delivery guy, who said someone was trying to kill him! But apart from him, there was only a corpse in the elevator!"