Immersive Horror Game - Chapter 2

“Liu Lei” walked strangely. With each step his centre of gravity shifted forward and his arms outstretched like a staggering zombie.

Mo Shouchun was nearly terrified by the sight. He frantically turned the doorknob, but like in horror movies, the door wouldn’t open.

While he struggled with the door, “Liu Lei” had already reached the bathroom door.

In the bathroom light, Mo Shouchun saw that though this person looked exactly like Liu Lei, his face was devoid of any sign of life. It further convinced him this wasn’t his friend.

As he drew closer, Mo Shouchun’s fear tripled, and he began ramming the door. Despite the pain in his shoulder, the door remained undamaged. However, the pain had calmed him somewhat.

He suddenly remembered he’d been so focused on turning the doorknob that he forgot to check if the door was locked from inside. He quickly turned the deadbolt, pressed the handle, and the door opened.

What an idiot! Mo Shouchen cursed himself inwardly. He couldn’t be entirely blamed, however. Anyone would experience a mental block when faced with fear.

Just as “Liu Lei’s” hand reached for him, Mo Shouchen sidestepped through the half-open door and quickly closed it behind him.

Finally escaped!

The corridor light gave Mo Shouchen a slight sense of security. He ran to a nearby corner and peered out from behind the wall.

He stared fearfully at the door he had just escaped through, but even after waiting for a long time, no one from inside chased after him.

What’s going on? Could the monster that looked so much like Liu Lei really be a zombie? What else was dumb enough to not be able to open the door?!

Mo Shouchen mustered his courage, tiptoed back along the wall a few steps, and stopped four or five metres away from the door.

He looked like he was prepared to run the opposite way anytime.

Mo Shouchen held his breath and listened carefully, but there was no sound behind the door. It was as if the person inside had vanished.

Mo Shouchun, of course, didn’t have the courage to open the door to see if anyone was still inside. He decided to find the real Liu Lei first and then figure out what was going on.

Liu Lei had said on WeChat that he was hiding in the public restroom on the 10th floor. Coincidentally, they happened to have their room on the 10th floor, and the public restroom was at the other end of the corridor.

Perhaps because he was too frightened, Mo Shouchun could clearly hear his heartbeat in the quiet corridor. It made his already shaken heart even more tense.

He cautiously made his way to the entrance to the public restroom. The men’s room was on the left.

He pushed open the door and went inside. It wasn’t very big. Besides the urinals, there were only three stalls. But the doors to all three stalls were slightly ajar, suggesting they were empty.

Mo Shouchun cautiously walked to the first stall and gently pushed the door open—no one was inside. He then pushed open the remaining two stalls; still no one was there.

Liu Lei wasn’t there at all.

Could he be on the other side?

Mo Shouchen walked out of the men’s restroom, and his gaze fell on the door of the women’s restroom across the hall. Although he felt something was amiss, he couldn’t worry about it too much because he was in a hurry to find Liu Lei.

He walked to the women’s restroom door, looked around to make sure no one was there, and then gently knocked on the door, asking, “Is anyone in there?”

The door opened as soon as he finished speaking, startling Mo Shouchen so much that he quickly took two steps back. However, it wasn’t a ghost or Liu Lei who came out, but a female cleaning lady in a uniform.

“Sir, is there anything I can help you with?” The cleaning lady looked at Mo Shouchen warily, but her words were still polite.

“Is anyone in there?” Mo Shouchen asked.

“I just finished cleaning. There’s no one in there.”

Mo Shouchen was a little unwilling to let it go so easily. “Then… are there any other public restrooms on this floor?”

The cleaning lady shook her head. “No, there’s only one public restroom on each floor. What’s wrong?”

“Ah…nothing. You can go back to your work.’’

It seems Liu Lei wasn’t here, but the message clearly said he was hiding in the restroom of the 10th floor. Could he have already left?

Mo Shouchen took out his phone and sent Liu Lei a text asking where he was. Unexpectedly, he received a reply almost immediately.

[I’m still here. Have you arrived?]

Mo Shouchen: “I’m right outside the public restroom on the 10th floor, but I don’t see you!”

He waited for a while for a response, and just as Mo Shouchen was about to ask what was going on, Liu Lei sent another message.

[Someone is calling me from outside. Is that you?

Seeing the message, Mo Shouchen was stunned. He hadn’t called Liu Lei, nor had he heard anyone else calling, but Liu Lei heard someone calling him?

Clearly, they weren’t in the same place at all!

Mo Shouchen: I didn’t call you, and I didn’t hear anyone else calling you either. Where are you?

[You didn’t? But why do I hear someone calling my name outside. The voice sounds exactly like yours?]

Exactly like mine? Mo Shouchen suddenly recalled the terrifying experience in the room earlier. Could the same thing have happened to Liu Lei?!

He quickly warned that the person outside wasn’t him and not to reply. But this time, he didn’t get a reply from Liu Lei.

Mo Shouchen leaned against the wall with his phone in hand, lost in thought. A deep fear had gripped him.

If Liu Lei was still hiding inside, why couldn’t they see each other?

Why was there another version of himself and another Liu Lei?

Where did they come from?

What did they want?

Were they… even human?

Mo Shouchen suddenly remembered Liu Lei’s first WeChat message; it said that the game was real. Could all this strangeness be caused by that supernatural game?

There were a total of four people on this trip: Mo Shouchen, Liu Lei, Zou Qianqian, and Zou Qianqian’s roommate, Qin Xiaolan.

After dinner earlier, Zou Qianqian had suggested playing a popular online game called the elevator game.

Qin Xiaolan wasn’t interested in these kinds of things, and Mo Shouchen knew Liu Lei wanted to use this trip to confess his feelings to Zou Qianqian, so he wasn’t foolish enough to be a third wheel.

In the end, only Liu Lei and Zou Qianqian remained to participate.

But no one expected that this supernatural game circulating online was actually real…