Chapter 428 - Gathering Firewood
TL: Lifeisajourney
Liu Gan started delegating tasks to the two group leaders after learning their names. “There are eleven of us. Let’s split into three groups. Five of you in one group with Cai Hao Chen in charge; your task is to gather firewood from nearby trees, the more firewood the better. Ana Lucia will be in charge of another group that will search the haunted house; your task is to search the place for any potential dangers lurking here. Once both teams are finished with their task, they will focus on cooking dinner. I will scout the immediate area and expand outward to ensure our safety in this theme park.”
“I will personally see to it that my group finishes the task!” Cai Hao Chen was happy that he had been personally named to head up a group.
“Leave me with the haunted house!” Ana Lucia’s face twisted into a grimace, as she was trying to imitate a ghost. This was part of her personality, showing that she was quite happy with her assigned task. As a mixed-blood foreigner, she had a tough-girl persona. She loved to play pretend in the village, as if she had the role of being a big sister. Being upgraded to a group leader, she felt as if she really became a big sister.
After assignments were distributed, Cai Hao Chen led his group of four others toward the nearby trees to gather wood. In the theme park, there were plenty of trees. Although, majority of the trees were dried-up. It wasn’t a huge problem for the group to gather firewood. With enhanced strength, carrying bundles of firewood was easy. Other members were using axes to chop down the trees and bringing them back. Without spending too much time, there was a small hill of chopped wood right by the haunted house.
In the meantime, Ana Lucia and three other members were investigating the haunted house. They were checking the corners at every turn to see if it was just a haunted house attraction, or a real haunted house.
The design of the haunted house was very special. Aside from the foundation of the building, all the other props were cast from concrete molds. Even the window frames were narrow, with steel bars barricading them, making them good vantage points. If the front entrance was guarded, then nothing could slip in behind them.
The front entrance of the haunted house took on the form of a demon’s wide mouth. With the gates as teeth, it was locked by chains. Ana used her axe to cut away the chains and walked deeper into the throat of the demon.
The first room was almost an exact copy of the living room from the movie The Ring. In the middle of the room was a TV. If this attraction was still operational, then when the tourists ventured into the dark room they would be blinded by the bright light of the TV. Following up the temporary blindness will be an actor playing the role of Sadako, crawling out from the TV.
Presently, the TV was still there, but Sadako was not.
Leaving the set of ‘The Ring’, the next set was a prison holding cell. As for which movie it belonged to, it was hard to pinpoint. It might have been a scene from an American film since there was a poster with a chainsaw cutting through zombies.
Going deeper in, the group saw Sadako Yamamura’s old house and the ancient village. Once they moved deeper inside the haunted house, they discovered that it was quite vast. The amount of effort that went into designing the place could be seen in the details. There were stairs leading up that had holes in them, forcing the tourists to be on their toes.
“I'm not afraid nor gutless. When I was younger, back in the real world, I slept overnight in a haunted house. It was a horrifying and strange encounter. That's why I had strong adverse reaction to camping in the haunted house,” Star Yu continued to explain himself to Ana.
“A coward will always be a coward, trying to explain yourself proves that you are afraid,” Ana continued to voice her opinion of Star Yu.
“My friend had to undertake a security job that included a haunted house in the theme park. The night prior to the release of new attractions, he asked for help and I went over to assist. That night I slept in the haunted house…” Star Yu continued to tell his story as he used the flashlight to light up his path. Everything he had told them was a real life experience.
“Then what happened?” Ana looked at Star Yu with interest. Her favorite hobby was listening to storytelling.
“During that time, there was only supposed to be the two of us. We were the only security on site so we checked extensively. We were laying on the sleeping bags when it was close to midnight. Halfway into the night, I heard noise like movement inside the haunted house. It was like someone was running inside…
“At first, I thought it was strange. I thought I had dreamt of it happening… Tell me, what can there possibly be in a haunted house that you can steal from? Reluctant to wake up, I tried to shove my friend awake. I wanted him to take a look at it with me. But, he remained sleeping soundly. I couldn't wake him, so I went alone to patrol.
“I was very brave. If you were in my shoes, I don't think you would've done the same,” Star Yu continued.
Ana interrupted the story. “Pause! If it was big sister me, I would've went! If there was a ghost, I would kick it back to the spirit realm!”
“I continued to move toward the source. The footstep sound as if it was somewhere deeper inside. It was at a set from Grudge. When I got there, I caught sight of a person slipping into a wardrobe, and it was wearing all white!” Star Yu stopped in his tracks as he recalled the events.
“Hey hey hey! I don't feel like we should continue this topic. Is that okay?” A player started protesting. Overhearing the conversation between Ana and Star was sending chilling, tingling sensations down this player’s back.
Everyone who signed up was quite brave, but in this eerie and dark place, anyone would become vulnerable. The tipping point was the ghost story; even if it was just a story, the idea of a ghost had been planted in his head and would manifest later.
“There’s so many people here, why are you afraid? It is just a story. It’s not like it actually happened! Another coward!” Ana stared at the complaining player.
“Forget it, I don’t think I should continue,” Star Yu shook his head.
“What? How can you stop just like that? You have big sister’s attention, so you must continue telling the story! Tell me what happened!” Ana with a disappointed look at Star Yu. It’s been a long time since she experienced a thrilling sensation, and this type of location was the most ideal setting for listening to these types of stories.
“That night my experience was too terrifying. If I continued, I don’t think we would be able to sleep here. Then, Lord Liu will think that I am disrupting troop morale,” Star Yu shook his head in refusal.
“Continue! Even if you tell us a hundred more ghost stories, big sister will still be courageous enough to sleep here. So tell me now! Stop stalling!” Ana extended her hand out to smack Star Yu’s head as punishment for stalling.
“Yes! Continue the story,” another person ushered Star Yu.
“I’m not stalling. Fine… If you want to hear it, then I will tell you. Even if I had all the courage in the world. I wasn’t going to walk up to the wardrobe to find out what it was! I wanted to rush back to wake my friend up. Only if he accompanied me would I check out the wardrobe,” Star Yu finally continued with his tale.