"This is the first time I've seen such a non-scary haunted house. "
"The props were so fake, I walked around and not only wasn't scared, I even wanted to laugh. "
"Materialists are fearless! "
"I told you it was boring. I might as well play games in the dormitory. My Kyle is already level 80. "
At the entrance of the Horror House in the western suburbs of Riverton, several students rode shared bicycles and left without any hesitation.
Seeing this scene, Ethan Gray, who was holding the haunted house flyer, felt a little helpless.
Scaring is a technical job, but modern people have experienced various thrillers and have strong psychological qualities. Entering a haunted house is like being in your own backyard.
"Boss! "
A clear female voice came from behind. Ethan Gray turned his head and looked, but saw a petite "zombie" wearing a nurse's uniform, running out of the haunted house in anger.
"What's wrong, Em." The girl is called Emily Warren and is one of the extras in the haunted house.
"Those little punks just now, trying to take advantage of me! " She clenched her fangs and clenched her fists.
It turns out I'm here to file a complaint..
"It's too much, they don't even let go of zombies. " As the boss, Ethan Gray naturally helped Em talk: "I'll go to the park administrator to react to the situation and adjust the monitoring."
"It didn't take that much trouble. When I realized the other party was trying, I took the initiative and beat him up. " Emily Warren shook the blood on the corner of the nurse's uniform: "This is not makeup."
"Forehead, if there is nothing wrong, girls should learn to protect themselves. " Ethan Gray wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and glanced at the sunset: "Then let's get here today. I guess there won't be many tourists left. Let others know and leave work early."
When he finished speaking, the girl in front of him, who was wearing zombie makeup, did not move.
"Anything else? "
"Boss... "Emily Warren wanted to stop talking, but slowly a letter came out of her pocket: "This is Tyler Mason and Evan Wells's resignation letter. You treated them well. They were embarrassed to tell you to your face, so they asked me to pass it on to you."
"Are they leaving? " Ethan Gray was stunned for a moment and accepted the envelope: "Everyone has their own aspirations. You should get off work early too."
"Eun-eun, I'll take off my makeup."
Watching this cute little "zombie" leave, Ethan Gray silently lit a cigarette.
Six months ago, his parents mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind only this house of horrors.
In order to keep thinking about it, Ethan Gray quit his job and devoted himself to running the haunted house, hoping to do better.
Unfortunately, times have changed too quickly, and the haunted house industry has great competitive pressure, is relatively unpopular, and has many limitations.
The same horror scenes that become boring after one viewing, and constant renovations require a lot of money.
Haunted house operations have been struggling to make ends meet since a few weeks ago, with a day's ticket not even enough to cover a fraction of utility bills.
"I don't know how much longer I can hold out."
After extinguishing the cigarette, Ethan Gray was about to return to the haunted house when a middle-aged man in New Century Amusement Park work clothes came over.
Seeing him, Ethan Gray was like a mouse meeting a cat, so he quickly quickened his pace.
"Pretending to be invisible? " The middle-aged man grabbed Ethan Gray's shoulder:"Today we will make things clear. You have been owed water, electricity and venue rent for two months. It's been urging me to do this, and it's really stressing me out!"
"Mr. Davis, it's not that I won't give it. Funding has been a bit difficult recently. Please give me another month. "
"You said the same thing last month."
"I promise you, this is definitely the last month! " Ethan Gray patted his chest, looking sincere.
"The haunted house business is in a slump right now and it's not attracting tourists. If you ask me, don't stick with it anymore. " The middle-aged man named Mr. Davis looked at the envelope in Singer Ethan's mouth and his strength gradually decreased: "You are so young, so if you can't do anything well, why are you so tired?"
"Mr. Davis, I know you're doing it for my own good, but this house of horrors means something different to me. It's just a thought my parents left me. " Ethan Gray's voice was deep and he didn't seem to want more people to hear it.
The middle-aged man, as the park manager, knew everything about Ethan Gray's parents. He didn't respond. After a few seconds, he sighed softly and softened his heart: "I can understand your thoughts to some extent, okay, I'll try to help you delay for a few more weeks."
"Thanks, Mr. Davis! "
"Don't thank me, you should still use snacks and sell more tickets to the haunted house. "
After sending the park manager away, Ethan Gray returned directly to the haunted house and began to repeat his daily work, checking equipment wear and tear, maintaining props, and cleaning.
"The artificial plasma in the repair room is almost gone, so I need to buy another batch; if this channel is tilted inwards, it may be better to trap the blind spot of the tourist's perspective; if the puppet is scratched, I need to patch it; wipe it! Where's my craft lamp? Stolen by someone!"
In the eyes of outsiders, he is the owner of the Horror House and a promising young man who has started his own business. In fact, only he knows the sadness behind this.
Haunted houses are considered a form of "horror" consumption. In a scary environment, people's muscles and spirits will be highly tense. Once released, it is like a massage. This method can produce a sense of satisfaction in a short period of time.
At the same time, haunted houses are also a one-time consumption. Many haunted houses on the market use the method of moving around cities to continuously attract new tourists. A haunted house like Ethan Gray's that is fixed in a certain place cannot last long unless it has a particularly great reputation and can attract people to come.
It's not easy for him to hold on alone for so long.
Dragging the scratched puppets, Ethan Gray entered the repair room. He studied toy design and manufacturing in college, and many of the puppets and mechanisms in the haunted house were designed by him.
The repair process is complex and monotonous, requiring the doll's skin to be sutured, repainted, and aged.
"Almost plasma, I remember there was still stock in the attic. " The haunted house is divided into three floors. The first and second floors are used to arrange horror scenes, and the third floor is a utility room.
Pushing open the dusty wooden door, the attic was filled with a variety of discarded equipment, most of which was left behind by his parents when they ran the haunted house.
Seeing things makes you think of people, so Ethan Gray rarely comes here.
"Half a year has passed in a flash."
Looking at the familiar equipment, Ethan Gray remembered his childhood.
At that time, they still ran a mobile haunted house. His parents took him to various cities to run around. Sometimes when the couple was busy, they would throw Ethan Gray alone backstage and keep him company with various ghost props. They began to train him from a young age, which also led to Ethan Gray's great courage.
After all, while his peers were playing with alphabet puzzles, he had already started running around with the head model in his arms.
"They are all memories."
Before he knew it, Ethan Gray walked to the wooden box where his parents' relics were stored, where a crude puppet and a pitch-black mobile phone were placed.
The puppet was the first toy Ethan Gray made when he was a child, but he had no memory of the mobile phone.
The two items were found by police in an abandoned hospital in the suburbs. As for why Ethan Gray's parents went there late at night, no one knows why.
"It's been so long, where are you? " Ethan Gray picked up the puppet, squeezed its face, and sighed softly: "I'd better quickly find artificial plasma. If I can't survive this off-season, the Horror House may really have to close down and be transferred."
Ethan Gray was just talking to himself, but when he said that the business would be closed for transfer, the black mobile phone in the wooden box, which had not been moving, suddenly flashed on the screen and emitted a faint cold light.
"What situation? Black tech? Paranormal phenomena?"
If someone else came, his heart might beat faster, he would look around, and his palms would sweat. In comparison, Ethan Gray's reaction was very direct. He picked up his mobile phone, put it in front of him, and began to confirm it twice.
"I tried this phone a hundred times before but it didn't turn on. Why did it suddenly start on its own today? I found this from where my parents disappeared. Did they know I was having a hard time and contact me?"
Pressing to contain the excitement in his heart, Ethan Gray swiped the screen, and there was only one application on the dark mobile phone desktop, and it used a haunted house as an icon.
"It's not what I expected, but the icon looks familiar. It looks like the door to my own horror house! "
Ethan Gray frowned and clicked on the app, and a line of bloody words appeared on the screen ——Do you believe there are ghosts in this world?
Whether there are ghosts in the world is a surreal philosophical question, and for a science and engineering man like Ethan Gray, the difficulty coefficient is very high.
"There should be..."
Ethan Gray made his choice, and after a few seconds, new writing appeared on the phone screen.
"What you think in your heart is the answer. From this moment on, you will officially succeed me as the new owner of the House of Horrors. Of course, this is not something to celebrate, and at the end of the beginner's tutorial, I want to give you a piece of advice: suicide is the most cowardly act, please try your best to survive!"
"The amount of information is a bit large! But why does his middle school second tone sound a bit like my dad's?"
Ethan Gray clicked on the Haunted House app again, and a brand new interface appeared:
Horror House in the Western Suburbs of Riverton
Status: On the verge of collapse
Positive reviews: None
Number of visitors today: Four
Number of visitors in the month: ten
My Ghost Team Members: None
My prop library: None
Unlock achievements: None
Existing facility scenes: Zombie Resurrection Night (bad props, poor actors, no story or logic, no scream index);
Unlockable horror scenes: Midnight Escape (a dangerous psychopath living in a dilapidated apartment building, armed with scissors and a hammer, is wandering outside your door, screaming one star); Ward 3 (this abandoned hospital makes strange noises every night, and you, as a newspaper reporter, will enter to find out Scream Index 3 stars); Deadly Hearse (The hearse carrying the dead is already on the road. If you can't leave within an hour, you will be left in the car forever. Scream Index 2 stars)
Daily Quests: Completing the daily quests in the Horror House will give you corresponding rewards and unlock more horror scenes.
Haunted House Expansion Conditions: Over 100 visitors that month, with a positive rating of over 60% (after three expansions, the Haunted House will be upgraded to a Thriller Maze)
Horror Wheel (consumes the scare value generated by tourists in the haunted house and can rotate the wheel): Life and death are life, wealth is in heaven, there are spiritual fruits that increase life expectancy, and there are also evil ghosts full of hatred!
Other features: Unlocked