Giving Interstellar Players a Horror Ghost Game Shock - Chapter 78
The moment that [Yes/No] option popped up in front of her, An Zhi didn’t hesitate at all—she slammed “No” so fast her hand nearly left an afterimage.
It wasn’t because she was scared. She just needed a moment to calm down.
This bad ending didn’t physically harm her, but the psychological impact was intense. The thought of a ghost taking her form, sneaking into the NPC team, and possibly waiting for the right moment to harm others the same way it hurt her… it sent chills down her spine.
Even after she left the virtual space and returned to her real-world room, An Zhi had no energy to do anything else for a while.
Only after sitting still for a long time did she realize—her hand had been trembling slightly this whole time.
Noticing that surprised her. Was this… fear?
She couldn’t even remember the last time she had felt truly afraid. But today, in a game of all things, she had experienced that long-lost sensation of terror.
It wasn’t the kind of fear she was used to. This one was deeper, colder—like something hardwired into her bones, a shiver that felt fundamentally opposed to life itself.
But that trembling didn’t dampen her excitement—in fact, it did the opposite. It ignited a new fire in her.
This game… was amazing! It was even more thrilling than a live arena match!
Were those ghost creatures real? How did they pull off their tricks? Was there a way to fight back against them? She wanted to try everything!
If Lu Xiaofeng could see the look on her face right now, he’d definitely call her a maniac.
Her expression was something beyond what normal humans could make—an intense mix of fear, thrill, and excitement, all twisted together.
Compared to that, Wang Yuze’s little “death-seeking” hobbies were child’s play.
It took her a while to cool down. Once she did, she pulled out her personal terminal and checked for updates on Campus Nightmare 2 and anything from Miss Ye. Then she messaged customer support to ask why the system didn’t notify her about triggering a story event when the willow ghost showed up.
The reply came quickly:
[Customer Support ZY]:
Hi dear~ So sorry for the unpleasant experience, but the system didn’t actually bug out~
Your mission is to witness at least three forbidden campus games. The “Feeding the Spirits Game” counts as one of them. But the “Willow Tree Senior” is just an urban legend that circulates on campus—it’s not an actual playable event, so it doesn’t count as part of the game.
That’s why, even if players trigger it by accident, the system doesn’t issue a prompt~
“…” An Zhi was speechless.
So in the end, the thing that killed her… wasn’t even part of the main storyline?
She had just been unlucky, accidentally wandered into the ghost girl’s turf under the willow tree, and got killed for it?
That’s like getting wiped out by a random mini-boss before even facing the real one… How ridiculous is that?
And seriously, for a game that lets players stumble into a terrifying side story like that without any warning—was the developer trying to dig traps on purpose?
She suddenly remembered that NPC Ah Yuan had said, “Wenhe University has tons of ghost stories!” At the time, An Zhi didn’t think much of it—but now, everything went dark before her eyes.
The map isn’t even that big, and yet it’s full of deadly traps. One wrong step, and you die before even starting the main quest…
Is this how hard games are these days?!
She was a top student from a military academy, for crying out loud—and yet she couldn’t even clear the demo version? How embarrassing…
After sulking for a while, An Zhi wiped her face and pulled herself together.
No, she couldn’t just get discouraged over one little setback. If she wanted to graduate as the top of her class, she had to do better than that.
And besides working hard to overcome failure, there was one more thing she needed to do—
Drag more people into it and share the pain!
Meanwhile, on another planet, another beta tester playing the same demo was already losing her mind.
“Seriously?! What kind of game is this? You get killed the moment you’re alone?!”
Liu Yuling tore off her headset, still feeling like there was ghostly grime on her neck where that thing had choked her.
Next to her, Meng Zhiyao quickly poured a cup of calming tea for her boss’s senior—who was also her mentor at work.
“I’m really sorry, Miss Liu. It’s all because I logged out without warning earlier…”
The two of them were the only employees at Miss Ye’s studio, which meant they were automatically assigned as official beta testers. Just enough to form a two-player team.
But the game had barely started when Meng Zhiyao got a customer support request directed to their studio account. She didn’t want to leave a bad impression about their service, so she rushed to respond—without even having time to explain to Liu Yuling.
Liu Yuling already knew what had happened, so she wasn’t about to hold a grudge over it.
Still, the terrifying near-death experience she’d just gone through in the game made her want to shake the shoulders of the game designer and scream.
“Yuxi, Yuxi, what kind of dark stuff have you been going through lately? Why is this game so damn hard?!”
Before playing, she’d been full of confidence. After all, she was the first player to clear the original game. How hard could the sequel demo be? She’d thought it would be a walk in the park.
But reality had hit her hard.
She, the proud elite horror gamer, had just stepped onto the “Yin-Yang Road” when her SAN value dropped too low—and boom! Bad ending.
She didn’t even make it to the part of the game where players were supposed to use the dual-view system!
In other words, her death in the game wasn’t even because her teammate logged out.
Okay, fine, her SAN value had taken a hit because her only teammate had suddenly vanished… but still!
Either way, it didn’t change the fact that Campus Nightmare 2 was ridiculously difficult! The devs had stuffed so many traps into the game—what kind of superhuman reflexes and mental strength did you need to survive this?!
Just then, the front door of the studio flew open.
“Yuling, Zhiyao, I’m back!” Ye Yuxi called out energetically. She was clearly excited to share some good news—until she saw Liu Yuling sprawled on the couch, giving her the most pitiful, betrayed look.
“…What’s wrong?” Yuxi asked, feeling a little uneasy.
Liu Yuling let out a long sigh and gave her a look that said I don’t even know where to begin.
“Yuxi, just be honest with me—did you ever intend for players to actually clear your new game?”