Horror Game Designer

The endless hospital corridors and the missing person’s broadcast muddled Gao Ming’s mind. ‘Has someone gone missing at the hospital?’

The glass on the door of Ward 7003 reflected Gao Ming’s face. The two seemed to lock onto each other at the same time. Gao Ming pushed the door open. He heard the sound of the pen tip scratching against the wall. A bespectacled young man stood beside the wall with absolute focus. He seemed to be calculating something. He was so thin, but his lower body was bound to the bed, so he couldn’t stray too far from it. His wrists were chained, and his neck was roped. There was a bloodred danger symbol on his patient’s outfit.

The young man was shocked to see someone enter his room. He turned to study Gao Ming. He seemed to be asking Gao Ming and also himself, “A doctor? A patient? Or a fish who has swam into the net?”

The patient was placed under heavy surveillance, but he didn’t look like he was ill. After a quick observation, Gao Ming followed his blurry shadow into the room.

“Do not touch anything on the wall or step on the words on the ground.” The young man’s pen had already run out of ink. He used the sharp tip to carve strange symbols into the wall.

“What are you calculating?”

“This dream is too fake, like an absurd dream. I’m calculating how to way to wake up.” The young man said without turning his head. “You won’t believe me if I tell you. You won’t comprehend it.”

The walls near the bed were covered in symbols and characters. Gao Ming did not comprehend them. However, he did feel like he was trapped in a dream, “Then, have you reached any solution? I also need to wake up as soon as possible.” Gao Ming’s tone was serious and devoid of mockery.

Hearing Gao Ming’s agreement, the young man paused. “The dream has devoid us of our control of our bodies and consciousnesses. It won’t be easy to wake up. Everything we do now is within the creator’s calculation. We need to triangulate the creator’s loopholes to wake up.”

“I might be the loophole.” Gao Ming had died multiple times on the bus. He was the blind spot fate couldn’t see. “Actually, I come from half a year later. I am not the current me.”

“Oh?” The young man slowly turned around. He frowned. He wanted to confirm if Gao Ming was mentally ill or not. “You come from half a year in the future?”

“Yes.”

“Then, what is the current version of yourself doing now?” The young man was curious.

“He is right here.” Gao Ming pointed at his reflection in the tiles. The two Gao Mings were different.

The young man seemed to have discovered a giant secret. He knelt on the ground to get a closer look. He asked Gao Ming a few questions. He realised Gao Ming’s answer matched his prediction of the future.

“I know this hospital is collecting special patients. I came here willingly for research. I didn’t expect to really find something.” The young man looked at Gao Ming with a burning passion. “I’ve used many names. However, my current name on my patient’s details is…” The man took out the document, but the name box was left with only a question mark.

“I guess you can call me Question.”

“What a good name.” Gao Ming said insouciantly, “I can cooperate with your calculation, but I need to wake up as soon as possible.”

“Since you come from half a year later, you don’t have to worry. If you die now, you won’t exist half a year later. That is the inviolable truth.” The young man held the pen. “Normally, when we dream, we’ll wake up if we fall from a high spot or approach death.”

“Do you want me to die?”

“That is the key. The creator of this dream has assigned you a fate where you won’t die. You have lived at least for another half a year. If you die, you will have escaped fate’s control; if you don’t die, what is there for you to worry about?” Question walked back to the bed. “The seventh floor has many different kinds of patients. New patients are sent here every day, but no one ever leaves. In the end, all the patients are led deep down into the corridor.” He bent down to take out a hand-drawn map from under the mattress, “I don’t know how to wake up from the dream, but I did overhear the doctor saying that you need a kind of pill to leave the hospital. The pill is hidden in the room at the end of the corridor. If you can bring the pills back for us, I swear to dedicate the rest of my life to help you wake up.”

The young man wanted to leave the hospital. That was his goal. Gao Ming hesitated. After all, he had just met the man. Gao Ming couldn’t come to a decision after ten seconds, but his shadow had already started to walk deeper into the corridor. His past version wanted to give it a try, so he had to follow suit.

“I was just a normal person half a year ago. If the room at the end of the corridor is as dangerous as the patient in Ward 7003 says, I wouldn’t have survived.”

Gao Ming knew how scary the anomalies could be. The danger rating of Li San Hospital was higher than that of Han De Private School. The speakers were still broadcasting the search for a missing person. Gao Ming and his shadow took slow steps into the dark.

“I should have conversed with the patient in Room 7003 half a year ago as well. How did he convince me back then?”

The current situation was not important. The important thing was the choice Gao Ming made half a year ago. There was no monster in sight, but the God of Flesh and Blood kept yelling. The eight arms yanked the chains in the torture room. Situ An and the Red Raincoat felt ill at ease.

“Gong Xi has never been so excited. This is not a sign of danger.”

The patients in the wards on both sides of the corridors were woken up by Gao Ming’s footsteps. They leaned on the windows to stare at Gao Ming.

Gao Ming held his breath and ran down the corridor. He saw someone ahead of him. The person wore the hospital’s white coat and appeared to be showing him the way. The key entered the locks. The gears turned. Pairs of hands reached out through the ward windows.

“Has the doctor opened the locked doors?”

The closer the wards were to the end of the corridor, the more dangerous the patients inside them were. The doctor appeared to have released all the patients to welcome Gao Ming. The crazy patients howled and roared. The seventh floor was the corridor forgotten by the creator. The path didn’t leave to the exit but a place scarier than death.

“Have I experienced this half a year ago?”