Horror Game Designer

The insomniac and Da Bo sat on Xuan Wen’s sides. The kid with the gaming helmet stomped his feet angrily, but he couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t figure out why his best friend would suddenly be so estranged from him and was willing to follow a ‘witch’.

Xuan Wen took out some threads and needles. She told the kid, “Come here.”

The kid was unwilling, but his body moved on its own. He slowly nudged towards Xuan Wen. The boy turned his head to the side when Xuan Wen bandaged his wrists. He was thinking about something cruel in his mind.

“Do you plan to cut off my hands and attach them to your wrists?” Xuan Wen’s voice entered the boy’s ears and startled him.

“D-did I say that out loud?” The boy turned back with shock. He realised his wrists had been tied by bandages. “What are you doing? You’re on the same side as those humans!”

“I’m a doctor! I’m doing this to help you.” The scalpel Xuan Wen hid in her hands cut through the back of the boy’s neck. The wires of the helmet were connected to the boy’s spine and joined with his blood capillaries. If they were forcibly cut off, the boy would lose his mind.

“Gaming is not a bad thing, but being obsessed with it will make you lose yourself and become a puppet controlled by it.” Xuan Wen reached her hand into the boy’s mutated neck. “I will not have you stay away from the game directly. I’m merely going to find you a more interesting game so that your brain wouldn’t just be thinking about murders.”

She activated the game Gao Ming had made for her and shoved it along with the console into the boy’s brain. She gently attached the wires to the boy’s vessels. The boy’s cruel eyes slowly dulled. The world in his eyes seemed to have changed. Su Mo was stunned. The way Xuan Wen healed the patients was rather extreme.

“Wh-what game is this?” The boy’s voice became calmer, but fear appeared in his eyes. Under the influence of the shadow world, the gore he witnessed in the game became real and common. After he got used to that, when he saw normal situations, he felt fearful and uncomfortable.

“You’re a very typical patient. In the future, when the whole city is a giant horror game, more patients like you will appear. They will treat the abnormal as normal and slowly lose the most precious thing in their humanity before eventually becoming feed for the ghosts.” Xuan Wen patted the boy’s gaming helmet. Her gentle gesture caused the boy to shiver.

“What did you do to me? Why is my world like this?”

“Other than the ridiculous love story, the game I gave you is more akin to real life.” Xuan Wen picked up the boy with one hand. The gaming helmet could only be removed by the boy.

“Let me go!” The boy struggled, and Xuan Wen didn’t cut him any slack. With her fingers on his wound, she slowly tied back his broken wires and vessels. Standing among the three patients, Xuan Wen had never felt more at home.

Su Mo looked at this with complicated emotions. He was still holding the pair of heels. When he passed a mirror earlier, he noticed that the owner of the heels had moved to his back and stared at his neck darkly.

“Is she a real doctor here? No! She’s more of an expert than the doctors here!”

Just as Su Mo wondered if Xuan Wen was a living human, her phone rang. It was a special ringtone.

“She didn’t turn her phone to silent mode inside the game instance?! How brave is she?” Even a newbie like Su Mo knew to turn his phone off. Xuan Wen knew who the caller was from the ringtone alone. She let go, and the boy landed with a splat on the ground.

Xuan Wen took out her phone, and she revealed hesitation for the first time. Su Mo became serious as well. Xuan Wen, who faced three patients with serenity, was nervous when facing this phone call.

After some internal conflicts, Xuan Wen answered the call, “What is it?” Her tone was light, but everyone could hear that there was something hidden under the calmness.

“It’s almost dark. I’m heading to Li San Hospital now. How’s your situation over there?” A man’s voice came through. Su Mo frowned when he heard it. He thought the voice was very familiar.

“I’m at the hospital. The people from the investigation centre are here. You have to be careful.” Xuan Wen frowned as her heart raced. She hated situations where she couldn’t control everything.

Seeing this, Su Mo couldn’t help but wonder about the nature of the relationship between the two.

“How many of them are there?” The man asked.

“Two security teams from Xin Lu. At most twenty of them.” Xuan Wen knew this by asking the boy.

“What about you?”

“Don’t worry about me. I have three mutated patients and a university student with great potential. He seems to be liked by the shadow world and has the presence of shadow.” Xuan Wen had her reasons to bring Su Mo with her.

“Be careful. Don’t fight them. I’ll be there soon.”

The voice on the phone soon disappeared, but Xuan Wen was still staring at the phone. Her lips curled, and she was rather annoyed even though she didn’t know why. Was it because the man didn’t talk to her about anything else other than work? Or was it because she was being influenced by her emotions?

“I’m a bad person. Why does he believe me?” Xuan Wen gripped her phone. Gao Ming made a game specifically for her and even had her handle the Dead Water Forum. It felt like she was special to him for him to do that. However, in Xuan Wen’s memory, she merely went to the tunnel entrance to fetch him once. “Is he simple-minded? No way. He has died so many times.”

Xuan Wen leaned against the wall and grumbled to herself. The three patients noticed this, but no one dared to say anything. Su Mo was the bravest and commented in a small voice, “Was it your husband who called you? I seem to have heard his voice somewhere else before.” Su Mo really wanted to know. However, after he asked the question, Xuan Wen stared at him directly, “What… What is it?”

“I have nothing to do with him. And he will not fall in love with me. That is what he promises me.”