Min Jingchao drew a sharp breath: “So… you’re planning to create a large-scale survival-type haunted house that includes elements like a cafeteria, bedrooms, and bathrooms? The kind where people can live for a week or even a month?”
Chen Kangtuo nodded: “Exactly! How else could we achieve the same effect as the Suffering Journey?”
“One is constant physical torture, the other is constant mental torture—that’s how they match up.”
“Otherwise, when people talk about this, they’ll all be in awe of the Suffering Journey while completely disregarding the Terrifying Lodge. Where would that leave my face?”
“How could the Terrifying Lodge, as one of Mr. Pei’s key projects, lose to the Suffering Journey? Absolutely not!”
“Moreover, I’m also considering drawing inspiration from Tenda’s various departments.”
“For example, creating an office area scene completely based on Tenda’s office layout, but with all the scenes renovated and aged to give people a very eerie feeling, creating a psychological sense of horror.”
“And it can include various different scenes, such as Slackin’ Delivery, Slackin’ Internet Café, Tuoguan Fitness, and so on.”
“Eating, sleeping, living in this area… doing everything while constantly feeling this mental pressure!”
“And they must also randomly visit certain areas for interaction as required. For instance, a task might require going to the Terrifying Lodge version of Tuoguan Fitness to work out, or else the time will be extended. Conversely, successfully completing tasks could slightly shorten the time.”
“After coming out a month later, their spirit will definitely be tempered, and from then on, they won’t be afraid or retreat from any problems in life!”
Chen Kangtuo spoke with increasing enthusiasm, feeling inspiration gushing like a spring.
Who said a haunted house could only be walked through once?
Who said people couldn’t live in a haunted house permanently?
To deal with Bao, Chen Kangtuo didn’t mind setting a more flexible moral bottom line for himself.
Min Jingchao was silent for a moment, then said very firmly: “Old Chen, my previous indifference was completely because I was worn out and exhausted from Bao’s training, not because I had any issues with you. From now on, I will absolutely follow your lead and firmly stand by your side. We must establish an unbreakable alliance!”
Chen Kangtuo said with satisfaction: “No problem!”
Min Jingchao had been somewhat resentful about Chen Kangtuo dragging him into trouble, but after hearing Chen Kangtuo’s introduction, he suddenly realized his behavior was dangerous.
Would there be any good outcomes from offending such a person?
He needed to quickly curry favor!
As long as he maintained a good relationship with Chen Kangtuo, when others lined up to stay in the Terrifying Lodge’s haunted house for a month in the future, it would be best if his name wasn’t on that list.
Obviously, Bao Xu’s previous dominance within Tenda no longer existed, and now it was time to choose sides!
If Min Jingchao hadn’t been suffering before, he might have considered whether to choose physical torture or mental torture.
Now, there was no need to consider.
He would definitely stand firmly with Chen Kangtuo!
Min Jingchao even wanted to offer some strategies to Chen Kangtuo, to make Bao Xu’s experience more enjoyable.
After some thought, Min Jingchao said: “I think we should include more interactive elements in this project, and create rich randomness so that people inside can never guess what will happen next.”
“We can also incorporate elements from the Suffering Journey. For example, there could be a very terrifying abyss of evil spirits where you need to rock climb from the bottom to the top, or swimming across a small lake where the lighting makes the water surface appear strangely colored, and you can see ghosts underwater…”
“Didn’t Bao arrange us quite comfortably in the Suffering Journey? Let him experience a horrifying version of the Suffering Journey!”
Chen Kangtuo nodded frequently as he listened, quickly recording on his phone.
He still had more than a month before he could escape from this prison, but the new project at the Terrifying Lodge couldn’t wait a month.
Chen Kangtuo scanned the key points he’d noted in his memo, and then immediately created a new group chat.
This group had one notable characteristic—Bao Xu wasn’t in it. It consisted entirely of department heads who had suffered.
Obviously, one person’s wisdom was limited—they needed collective intelligence!
Now was the time for revenge, to settle old scores.
After a short while, the department heads in this new group became active and began enthusiastically commenting.
“Why are you sending work proposals on a big weekend? Do you think your overtime quota is too high?”
“Hey, Chen Kangtuo, aren’t you at the Suffering Journey?”
“Damn, what is this! A new Terrifying Lodge project specially prepared for Bao! Now I’m wide awake—I’ll apply for overtime quota right away!”
The group quickly became lively, with everyone expressing that even though it was the weekend, they would exhaust their overtime quotas if necessary to help Chen Kangtuo design this project through collective wisdom!
As the saying goes, those who do too much evil will destroy themselves!
How many batches of department heads has Bao arranged for? And he still hasn’t received any punishment—is that fair? It’s not!
In such a large organization as Tenda, is there really no one who can deal with him?
Now, the opportunity has come!
Just imagining Bao Xu suffering in the new Terrifying Lodge project gave the department heads a sense of satisfaction from getting revenge, and they eagerly contributed ideas.
“Can we have real people playing NPCs? I want to dress up as a ghost and scare him in the middle of the night, is that okay?”
“I suggest setting up an unbreakable wireless phone. I want to call him at 2 AM!”
“Could we add a game element? We all dress up as ghosts and chase Bao around in there. If we touch him just once, he has to stay an extra hour.”
“You’re all too cruel! Be human, please! Despite all his faults, didn’t Bao still leave you a way out during the Suffering Journey? I think we should be more lenient with Bao, like including an escape room type of gameplay. If Bao solves puzzles in some really scary scenes, he can leave early without having to stay the full month. Of course, considering Bao’s intelligence and cleverness, these clues should be hidden very deeply, making him search continuously…”
“Wait, that’s not leaving him a way out. You’re clearly afraid he’ll just hide away, so you’re tempting him to explore various terrifying places, right? I think… this idea is brilliant! Strongly support it!”
Everyone contributed their ideas, and Chen Kangtuo nodded frequently as he read.
Good, with collective wisdom, the design plan for this new project was becoming clearer!
“Strange, why isn’t Hao Qiong participating in the discussion?”
Chen Kangtuo sent a private message to Hao Qiong.
Logically, since Chen Kangtuo had been taken to the Suffering Journey, Hao Qiong should now be the head of the Terrifying Lodge, responsible for this project.
However, after sending the plan over, Hao Qiong replied: “Brother Chen, I’m no longer the head of the Terrifying Lodge. I’m going to the grassroots level to be a network administrator at Slackin’ Internet Café…”
Chen Kangtuo: “???”
Hao Qiong responded again: “It’s complicated to explain, but basically, Ruan Guangjian is now the acting head of the Terrifying Lodge. He’s responsible for both the original artwork of ‘The Future You Choose’ and the affairs of the Terrifying Lodge…”
“Hold on, let me add him to this group, and then have Ma Yiqun work with him to finalize the details of the plan.”
Chen Kangtuo was stunned: “Wait, what does this have to do with Ma Yiqun?”
Hao Qiong: “Oh, Ma Yiqun went to the Terrifying Lodge for his grassroots experience. He’s now playing a ghost in the haunted house. But since he’s a department head, he’s quite capable in terms of planning. Having him assist Ruan Guangjian should help implement this plan.”
“Let them arrange all the preliminary work. After two months, when both of us are out of prison, we can continue to push it forward…”
Chen Kangtuo fell silent.
Why did he suddenly feel like “a day in heaven, a thousand years on earth”…
I’ve been at the Suffering Journey for less than a month, right? How have I already completely lost track of the changes at Tenda…
This is just ridiculous!