Giving Interstellar Players a Horror Ghost Game Shock - Chapter 75
Actually, there was a reason why Lu Xiaofeng was the first to be targeted.
As everyone knew, the core of a full-dive game was to project a player’s mental energy directly into a virtual space.
Because of that, the game could monitor players’ mental states in real time. That’s how it could measure things like SAN1 value and other psychological stats.
In this game, Ye Yuxi had added a particularly devious mechanic: all supernatural events would first target the most timid player. The braver ones—and even the NPCs—wouldn’t notice anything strange at all in the beginning.
Just imagine it—you’re the only one seeing lights flicker off by themselves, the only one hearing ghostly whispers, the only one spiraling into panic while your teammates act totally normal and don’t believe a word you say…
That feeling of psychological isolation and helplessness would slowly chip away at your sanity.
—At least, that was the intended design: to wear the player down little by little with repeated scares.
But clearly, Lu Xiaofeng didn’t play by the book. The moment he got spooked, he just bailed—quick and clean. No chance for the ghost to keep scaring him.
An Zhi stood there stunned, temporarily at a loss from losing a teammate so suddenly.
Ahead, Ah Yuan turned back and loudly complained, “Seriously, what’s with Xiaofeng? He just ran away after saying he couldn’t do it? After all the prep we did?”
An Zhi: …Actually, that’s kind of nice. The NPCs even auto-generate excuses for quitters. Saves us some trouble.
Then she saw Ah Yuan pick up the camera Lu Xiaofeng had dropped on the ground and hand it to her.
“We’re already short on hands. Would you mind filming, Sister An? Or should I call Liu Tian and the others—”
“I got it,” An Zhi replied. She’d pretty much finished scrolling on her phone anyway, and now there was a new toy to play with, so of course she didn’t hesitate.
She stuffed her phone into her pocket and took the camera. What she didn’t notice was that, at the exact moment she locked her screen, a golden, sparkling message flashed across the live chat:
【Brother Feng isn’t here this time? Hope the juniors stay alert.】
…
Now then, how did one play a story-based game with NPCs?
The first step had to be gathering information, right?
An Zhi thought it over for a few seconds. Since they hadn’t arrived at the main game area yet, she strolled over to Ah Yuan and casually asked:
“Your backpack looks super full. What did you pack in there?”
Ah Yuan didn’t question why her teammate, who’d supposedly prepped together with them, was asking that.
She just smiled mysteriously and said, “Stuff we’re gonna use later. You’ll see.”
An Zhi blinked. These people were braver than she thought. They were heading into a creepy, haunted area and still brought toys with them? They really didn’t take danger seriously at all, huh?
As they passed the library, the game immediately locked onto An Zhi—the last remaining scaredy-cat candidate.
She paused mid-step. From the pitch-black, sealed-up library came the faint sound of students reading aloud.
[An eerie scene with echoing voices would be shown here.]
She frowned slightly and commented to Ah Yuan, “Guess the library’s soundproofing isn’t very good.”
Ah Yuan: ?
Library ghosts: …
That’s your takeaway??
Unwilling to give up, the library upped the intensity.
BANG. BANG. BANG!
Heavy thuds echoed from behind the tightly shut doors.
An Zhi frowned even more, finally realizing her earlier line of thinking might’ve been off.
“Is someone trapped inside? Could this be a side quest? Maybe the system’s trying to send an extra NPC to balance the numbers now that someone left. What happens if I don’t help them?”
Library: …
No one’s trapped! There’s no side quest! Can you please just be scared like a normal person?!
Ye Yuxi, offscreen: I swear I’m trying my best here… sobs…
Ah Yuan stood frozen for a few seconds before finally reacting.
“I didn’t hear anything just now. Sister An Zhi, maybe you’re tired too?”
An Zhi blinked again, now convinced she’d missed a hidden quest.
Oh well. She was in the mood for something more exciting anyway.
And just like that, nothing else strange happened. They reached Wenhe University’s most infamous haunted spot, Yin-Yang Road, without any more creepy encounters.
Zhang Wen, who’d been chatting away with viewers in the livestream, suddenly looked at the time and gasped in mock panic, covering her mouth dramatically.
“Oh no! The legend of Yin-Yang Road only works at exactly 11 PM—and it’s only a bit past 9! We’re way too early!”
Ah Yuan, right on cue, smoothly suggested, “Then why don’t we warm up a bit before the main course? Let’s play a quick mini-game first?”
Liu Tian and the quiet guy in the baseball cap both agreed. An Zhi realized this was probably a required part of the game flow, so she nodded along too.
And just like that, she triggered her first official story mission.
“Congratulations! You’ve triggered a storyline quest: Witness at least three of Wenhe University’s taboo campus games. Current progress: 0/3.”
“Congratulations! You’ve triggered the first campus taboo game: ‘Feeding the Spirits.’ Please cooperate with the NPCs to safely complete the game. You may refuse, but you’ll bear the consequences.”
Of course An Zhi wouldn’t say no—she came here exactly to see just how scary this so-called terrifying game actually was.
A Yuan deliberately dragged out her words, adding to the creepy vibe with the night wind. It was a little spooky.
“This is a really old summoning game, kind of like that ‘Pen Fairy’ thing. But barely anyone knows about it these days—it’s called Feeding the Spirits.”
“If you have less than ten people, with an even number of men and women, here’s how it goes: steam a bowl of white rice, kill a rooster, and pour its bl00d over the rice. Everyone stands in a circle and walks around the bowl while chanting: ‘Spirits of the past, come eat our rice. If you eat, please help us.’”
“If bl00d starts to spill from the bowl, it means a wandering soul has arrived. You must immediately spread white paper on the ground, everyone turns their back to it, and one person is chosen to ask a question—anything is allowed.”
“When you hear the sound of the bowl breaking, everyone turns around to read the answer written on the paper—usually written in bl00d. After reading it, burn the paper at a crossroads and bury the bowl and rice on the spot. If you follow all the steps, the game will end safely.”
The moment they mentioned summoning spirits, the viewers in the live chat perked up. Just when things had been calming down, the chat burst to life again:
【You guys are way too brave! Playing a summoning game before heading to Yin-Yang Road? I’m crying for you already!】
【Yin-Yang Road is already a hotspot for paranormal activity, and now it’s nighttime too? This is seriously dangerous. You guys should think twice.】
【If they were scared, they wouldn’t be doing ghost-hunting livestreams! Streamer, ignore those cowards—if you play this game, I’ll send you a villa as a tip!】
Of course the four NPCs were all grinning at the thought of a villa. They promised the big spender in the chat they’d definitely make it happen.
But An Zhi frowned—not because she was scared, but because…
“Wait, we have five people. That’s not an even number of men and women, right?”
Also… what exactly is a ‘rooster’? Judging by the next part about bleeding it—was it some kind of male animal?
An Zhi, who had eaten nothing but lab-grown meat since birth, racked her brain. No matter how hard she thought, she just couldn’t figure out what kind of animal this could be that people actually used for food.
A Yuan blinked at her and smiled.
“Well, nothing we can do about that. An Zhi, could you stand over there for a bit? Just turn your back and don’t peek while we’re playing. If the game fails, we’re in big trouble.”
Wait, that’s allowed? An Zhi was about to say something, but then remembered the system said to “cooperate with the NPCs to safely complete the game.” It didn’t say she had to join in herself.
So she obediently walked over to a nearby tree and started analyzing the situation.
She noticed something strange—Ah Yuan didn’t seem scared at all about the game going wrong. In fact, she acted like nothing bad could possibly happen. Even if someone didn’t value their life, this was too relaxed, right?
An Zhi felt like she was close to figuring something out. Could it be… these NPCs didn’t actually believe the legends either?
As for An Zhi herself, she definitely didn’t believe in these kinds of ghost stories. Summoning spirits? Talking to the dead? That stuff was ridiculous. Science had already proven that even the strongest psychic powers didn’t leave behind brainwaves or energy after death.
The living world is already chaotic enough—if dead people could just show up and start causing problems, it’d be pure madness.
With that in mind, she quietly watched from afar as Ah Yuan told Liu Tian to drop his backpack and pull something out…
A live chicken?!
Then, Ah Yuan carefully unwrapped a knife from plastic and skillfully slaughtered the bird on the spot. The scene was… very bloody.
An Zhi: …
Wait—they’re actually killing a chicken?! And how did that huge thing fit in the backpack? From the outside, it didn’t look like it could even hold a lunchbox!
The terrifying ghosts hadn’t even shown up yet, but in An Zhi’s eyes, these NPCs who could kill a chicken without blinking were already scarier than any wandering soul.
(*Note from the original author: An Zhi is a genius-level character who’s smart, sharp, and completely unfamiliar with the concept of ghosts. She’s also incredibly brave, so most of the usual scare tactics don’t work on her. Writing her is like playing chess with a player who doesn’t know fear—I can’t wait for the moment I finally manage to spook her! ^ω^
All the supernatural games in this story are adapted from various real versions I researched, so if they’re a little different from what you’ve heard before, that’s totally normal~*)