January 6th, Thursday.
In the study room, Pei Qian looked at Ma Yang, who was seriously reviewing his studies and couldn’t help but sigh.
Why could Ma Yang, a slacker, focus so intently on his studies while I can’t concentrate at all…
The exam period was approaching, and this semester was about to end.
Pei Qian had set himself a goal to pass his exams through his own efforts, but when putting it into practice, he found it somewhat difficult.
He had originally planned to invite Ma Yang to the study room to create a bit of a study atmosphere.
However, while Ma Yang had indeed found his study rhythm and was reviewing energetically, Pei Qian felt completely uninspired.
Sitting in the study room felt like an eternity.
Suddenly, Pei Qian’s phone vibrated with a message.
“Mr. Pei, we’ve developed preliminary plans for the haunted house. When would be convenient for you? I’d like to report our progress.”
Pei Qian looked at the message from Chen Kangtuo and sighed.
Ah, it’s not that I don’t want to study.
Work is just so demanding.
What should this be called?
The tree wants to be still, but the wind keeps blowing; Mr. Pei wants to study, but his employees won’t let him.
There’s no choice.
He checked the time—it was 10:30 AM—and replied: “Come to my office at 11.”
…
…
At this moment, Chen Kangtuo had already arrived at Shenhua Luxury Apartments.
He had already gone to the 16th floor, found that Mr. Pei wasn’t there, and thus sent the message.
Since he had arranged to meet Mr. Pei at 11, with nothing to do in the meantime, Chen Kangtuo decided to visit the 17th floor to see how Li Yada, Bao Xu, and the others were doing.
Arriving on the 17th floor, Chen Kangtuo found the work atmosphere highly energetic, with everyone busy.
When people saw Chen Kangtuo, many greeted him.
After exchanging pleasantries with Li Yada, Chen Kangtuo asked about GOG’s development progress.
After all, Chen Kangtuo had previously been one of the team members responsible for this game.
Li Yada said, “The progress is going quite smoothly.”
Earlier, the Dream Fulfillment Investment team offered many revision suggestions. We only implemented a small portion, but the effects were surprisingly good.”
“Based on player feedback from Slackin’ Internet Café, most players welcome this more accessible ‘simplified’ game mode.”
“So recently, we’ve been busy gradually implementing all the remaining changes.”
“Unfortunately, Dream Fulfillment Investment will soon have new assignments, so they won’t be able to playtest the game and provide more modification suggestions.”
“However, He Desheng said he’s pretty much shared all the suggestions he could think of.”
“In the coming period, our main task is to continue modifying the game’s basic mechanics according to these suggestions, create more characters, and adjust game balance.”
“The newly recruited staff are quite talented, learning game development quickly, and the overall project development efficiency has noticeably improved.”
Chen Kangtuo chatted with the Tenda Games department staff for a while, then checked the time and headed downstairs to report to Mr. Pei.
…
…
In the office, Pei Qian was reviewing the preliminary haunted house plan Chen Kangtuo had just submitted.
The haunted house was named “Anxiety Lodge.”
According to Chen Kangtuo, this name was chosen based on three considerations.
First, the haunted house contained no ghosts and didn’t promote superstition, so words like “ghost” wouldn’t appear.
Second, they hoped visitors would come multiple times for the experience, with “lodge” essentially meaning a hotel.
Finally, the haunted house’s basic setting was hotel-themed. While there would be more frightening scenes later, they would all derive from the hotel theme.
Seeing just the name, Pei Qian didn’t have any particular thoughts.
Although hotels were common in horror themes, compared to cemeteries, mental hospitals, or underworld settings, they were relatively less common.
The theme could be considered somewhat novel, or perhaps not scary enough. In any case, it would depend on the implementation.
Pei Qian continued reading.
Anxiety Lodge had three major attractions. The first was a multiplayer interactive project, and the third was a very frightening traditional haunted house experience. For both of these, there were only rough ideas without specific plans.
The second attraction, serving as a transition, did have some concrete plans.
Currently, six small projects were planned, all very simple, requiring only a few to a dozen square meters of space, limiting each experience to one person at a time.
These small spaces were set up inside shipping containers with wheels underneath, allowing them to be moved and rearranged periodically, ensuring players would enter a random project each time.
Pei Qian reviewed each small project.
The first small project: Bathroom.
The setting was a very narrow bathroom with mirrors, sink, toilet, bathtub, etc., similar to a regular bathroom layout.
However, the entire scene would be aged, with dim yellow lighting. The sink, mirror, and bathtub would all be dirty, apparently unwashed for a long time, with what appeared to be dark red coagulated bloodstains in the shadowy corners of the bathroom.
Visitors would enter the bathroom alone and must complete a series of steps as instructed beforehand.
Complete all steps to successfully pass the challenge; fail to complete any step, and the challenge will fail.
First, visitors must lock the bathroom door from inside, take a red candle from nearby, and then turn off the bathroom light.
Next, light the candle and approach the sink mirror, placing the candle on the platform for toiletries in front of the mirror, between themselves and the mirror.
Cover their eyes with both hands for at least three seconds, then look at the mirror.
Afterward, turn on the faucet and wash your hands.
Then, lie in the bathtub, cover eyes with both hands, and no matter what happens, don’t move hands for three minutes.
A rusty timer beside the bathtub would make a “tick-tock” sound when pressed, and the sound would stop after three minutes.
At that point, stand up from the bathtub, leave the room, and the challenge is complete.
Seemingly simple, but during this process, a series of random unexpected events would occur.
For instance, when turning off the lights, the dim lights would flicker violently a few times, then make a “pop” sound as if the bulb had broken.
When covering eyes for three seconds and then looking at the mirror, a face with torn flesh might suddenly appear, or red eyes, or the mirror might develop cracks and ooze blood.
While washing hands, the clear water might suddenly turn black or blood-red, possibly mixed with some bloody, mushy prop fragments.
After the visitor lies in the bathtub, a series of events might occur in the bathroom—the previously broken light might suddenly turn on again; the faucet might automatically open with water sound; the toilet might flush; the door might open with someone dragging heavy footsteps into the bathroom; or even pulling back the shower curtain, approaching the visitor…
In short, these would all be randomly decided and uniformly controlled by staff, providing visitors with different experiences each time.
Additionally, there would be many hidden cameras to monitor visitors’ status at all times. The mirror would be specially made, appearing to be a mirror but a display screen, capable of showing red eyes or bleeding effects, as well as creating effects like “your reflection suddenly disappearing.”
The second small project: Window Side.
The setting would be a narrow lodge corridor, and upon entering, visitors would similarly need to lock the door from inside.
The corridor would have four windows, each in slightly different conditions.
The first window would be completely damaged and open. Under the night breeze, the frameless window would occasionally hit the wall, making noises, and the curtains would often flutter chaotically.
The wind sounds would occasionally be interspersed with unknown monster howls.
Of course, this scene would be a setup inside the container, with the outside part still within the container but pitch black. The breeze effects and monster howls would be artificially created.
The second window would appear to have some cracks with several clear bloody handprints, as if someone with blood-covered hands had repeatedly slapped it.
The third window would have its curtain slightly drawn.
The fourth window would have no curtain, with nothing visible outside in the darkness.
Visitors would need to stand with their backs to the fourth window and, regardless of what happens, not move, not look back, not make a sound, persevering for five minutes to complete the challenge.
During this period, random events might occur at any of these windows.
For example, the monster howls from the first window might suddenly intensify, as if it might jump in at any moment.
Someone might suddenly bang hard on the glass of the second window while crying for help, with a miserable voice, but after a few seconds, their screams would grow more distant, as if dragged away by some terrifying monster.
The third window might suddenly be smashed open, with a monster’s large hand reaching in to grab wildly, snatching away some dummy prop in the corridor.
The fourth window, the one the visitor would be standing with their back to, might also have rhythmic knocking sounds, the sound of nails scratching glass, and so on.
Additionally, huge shadows might pass by outside the windows, with vague sounds of heavy footsteps, chains dragging on the ground, monsters growling, etc.
After the timer stopped, visitors could leave the window side and exit through the door they had locked.
But at this moment, the fourth window where the visitor had been standing would suddenly open, and a giant monster would poke its head in, opening its stinking, bloody jaws, constantly snapping while roaring.
Of course, the passing standard would be that the visitor didn’t move, look back, or make noise during the timer’s three minutes—this final scene would purely be for show and wouldn’t affect the passing criteria.
Subsequent small projects would include the TV, stairs, ceiling, and under the bed.
These small projects all shared a common point: they weren’t traditional horror setups, unlike cemeteries, the underworld, or morgues, which were highly stimulating scenes.
Moreover, these scenes wouldn’t contain exaggerated horror elements like carefully disguised staff members, very complicated mechanisms, or very elaborate and terrifying props.
Instead, they would achieve a horror effect more through psychological impact.
Moving on, there was the pricing policy for Anxiety Lodge, but clearly Chen Kangtuo hadn’t fully figured out the specific amounts, merely writing simply: allow visitors to purchase one ticket for multiple plays.
Pei Qian looked at this plan, deep in thought.
Logically, the first and third major projects should be more outstanding, but Chen Kangtuo hadn’t yet devised specific plans for them, only having a general idea.
How could he “guide” him?
The second major project did have specific plans, but it always gave Pei Qian a feeling of being neither here nor there.
Looking solely at the second major project, for those with great courage seeking stimulation, it might not be enough; while for those with little courage, it would still be very frightening and they wouldn’t dare try it.
Moreover, the process was relatively short, the gameplay relatively monotonous, and limited to one person at a time.
It seemed like the probability of failure was high, with no real room for modification.
Pei Qian considered for a moment. Since there wasn’t much room to modify the specific plans, he might as well make some adjustments to the pricing!