Chapter 26

Chapter 26

But that wasn’t even the worst of it for Qingqing.

The hidden door from earlier was actually a trigger mechanism; anyone who passed through it would be sent back to the starting point of a completely different path.

In other words, Qingqing now had to start her progress all over again from a new route.

Time ticked away. After half an hour of fumbling through the dark, most people had made it halfway through the Maze.

Qingqing did not disappoint her audience. Although she was crying so hard that tears were flying, she had also managed to cover half the distance.

Backing out of yet another passage, Qingqing looked toward the final path with a shudder.

Of the three passages, two had turned out to be dead ends, which meant only the last one could be the correct way forward.

Taking a deep breath, she summoned her courage and stepped inside.

This passage was eerily silent. The faint music that had been echoing in her ears had vanished at some point without her noticing.

After walking for only ten seconds, Qingqing began to quicken her pace.

Inside the passage, the only sounds were her own footsteps and the heavy rasp of her breathing.

The oppressive atmosphere forced her to move faster and faster.

Thirty-five minutes into the Underground Maze, the first major shift finally occurred.

At that moment, the stone slabs on the ground began to shift.

They rearranged themselves like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

From this point on, everything the visitors had scouted in the first thirty minutes would change. What was once a dead end might now be the way out, while previously clear paths could now be riddled with traps.

Qingqing, still inside her passage, had no idea this was happening. She was busy being jump-scared by yet another skeleton that popped out.

She jogged along the passage until she reached the deeper sections.

Here, her field of vision suddenly opened up, only for a familiar stone door to block her path.

Qingqing’s face froze. She looked back at the long, narrow path she had just traversed.

“I have to go back?”

Changkong: [Holy crap, maybe you should just sit there.]

March Squid: [I can feel the fear right through the screen.]

Snow Flower: [You can’t stop! I bet something bad happens if you stay still!]

While Qingqing didn’t know the specific mechanics of the Maze, she knew the owner’s antisocial tendencies well enough to know she couldn’t stop.

She was right. Stopping was the ultimate taboo in the Maze.

As long as the glasses detected a lack of movement for an extended period, every doll in the vicinity would come to life.

The glasses would overlay images onto the dolls, turning them into terrifying, malevolent spirits.

Zhang Bei called this mechanic the “Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.”

Out of the hundred people who had entered the Underground Maze, eleven were currently experiencing the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.

Five of them had already fainted completely and were being wheeled out through the Employee Passage by doctors.

With the Maze’s layout shifting, it was no longer possible to explore at a leisurely pace.

Qingqing stood before the passage, trying to decide which way to go.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a shadow moving around the corner behind her.

The first thing she saw were two blood-stained feet.

Under the flickering lights, the thing behind her finally revealed its full form.

It had two feet in front and two feet in back. The creature was a monstrosity stitched together from the lower halves of two different people.

Qingqing broke into a cold sweat. Before she could even run, an eye suddenly appeared right in front of her face. She jerked her head to the side.

A shadow was pushing a small cart filled with severed limbs and fresh blood.

Between the psychological pressure and this sudden jump-scare, Qingqing’s mind snapped, and she blacked out on the spot.

The doctor’s face darkened the moment he saw Qingqing collapse.

He turned to look at the spider-doll inside the passage.

“Just what kind of things did the Boss program into those glasses to scare people this badly?”
Despite his grumbling, the doctor quickly flipped open Qingqing’s eyelids to check on her.

After confirming there was no serious harm, he hoisted her onto a gurney with one hand.

The doctor had only appeared because the Employee Passage was right next door; he had come out to see who it was after hearing a familiar voice.

What he hadn’t expected was that his mere appearance would scare Qingqing into a dead faint.

Looking at the glasses that had fallen to the ground, he couldn’t suppress his curiosity.

He put the glasses on for barely two seconds before taking them off again.

Clutching the glasses in his hand, he pushed the gurney back into the Employee Passage.

After delivering this batch of people to the Morgue, the doctor found Zhang Bei, his heart full of resentment.

“Boss, I think we need to talk.”

Zhang Bei shifted his gaze from the monitors to the doctor.

“A five-hundred-yuan raise. You’ll have to work hard for a while.”

Zhang Bei’s words left the doctor stunned.

Eh?

A raise?

Five hundred isn’t a small amount!

Wait a minute, what did I come here for again?

“That’s not what I wanted to talk about!”

Zhang Bei stared at the doctor. “Then no raise?”

“Don’t! No!”

“If there’s nothing else, get back to work. Someone just fainted in C3.”

Hearing Zhang Bei’s words, the doctor sighed silently, his gaze becoming even more resentful.

He now suspected the boss was doing this on purpose, using a raise to shut him up.

Before leaving, he turned to glance at Zhang Bei one last time, mentally running through the list of psychiatrists he knew.

He was a surgeon!

And he suspected his boss had antisocial tendencies!

An hour in the Underground Maze passed quickly. Zhang Bei pressed a button, and the Maze underwent its final transformation.

This time, all traps were deactivated, and paths were cleared as the previously sealed stone doors swung open.

Every doll on the ground came to a halt.

“Your experience time has concluded. Everyone, please follow the signs to exit the Maze.”

Simultaneously, a directional arrow appeared in the glasses to guide the way.

Within five minutes, all the tourists had emerged.

Zhang Bei took a rough count; the results were fruitful.

Of the hundred people who had entered, fewer than seventy remained.

Furthermore, every single one of them was pale, and more than half were still shivering uncontrollably.

[Playtest mission complete. Reward obtained: “The Thirteenth Pair of Eyes”]

Zhang Bei was momentarily stunned when he heard the reward.

This was a forbidden song. Anyone familiar with the name would know its history.

The piece had been written by a perennially depressed singer.

In the mental asylum where it originated, over five hundred and eighty people had committed suicide because of this song.

According to one legend, “The Thirteenth Pair of Eyes” referred to a pair of resentful eyes.

Anyone who made eye contact with them would willingly surrender themselves to the embrace of the Grim Reaper.

Taking a deep breath, he set the reward aside for the moment and looked toward You Bai.

You Bai was currently followed by one man and two women. Judging by their clothes, the two standing in front were clearly a couple.

“Boss, these are my friends.”

Zhang Bei nodded and invited the three of them into the Monitoring Room to sit down.

After reviewing their resumes, he practiced his routine by asking a few questions.

Although none of them had experience working in an amusement park, their personalities and attitudes were quite good.

Zhang Bei made the decision on the spot to hire all three.

By the time they finished discussing their start date for tomorrow, it was nearly noon.

Zhang Bei uploaded “The Thirteenth Pair of Eyes” into the background music library and headed toward the Cafeteria.

The three new employees followed closely behind him.