Giving Interstellar Players a Horror Ghost Game Shock - Chapter 91

The embroidered shoe dangled in the air, gently swaying back and forth.

Liu Mang trembled like a leaf in a storm, his whole body shaking uncontrollably.

He didn’t even dare to lift his head. He scrambled to his feet in a panic, ready to bolt.

But in that split second of movement, he couldn’t help but catch a glimpse.

From his low, upturned angle, he saw the full horror of the body hanging from the tree.

It was a woman with braided pigtails and a red cotton dress.

A bl00d-red rope strangled her neck, hoisting her up from a thick branch. Bl00d had poured from her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. Her lips were black with decay, and where the rope bit into her skin, the flesh had rotted into a dried, blackened mess.

Her eyes—on the verge of bursting from their sockets—were wide open. Staring straight at him.

Staring right at him!

“Nggh—!”

Liu Mang opened his mouth, but no sound came out. The terror had choked off even his voice.

He staggered, stumbled, and blindly fled back toward the Yin-Yang Road.

But when he got there, he nearly collapsed.

Not only was Liu Tian gone now… Even the guy with the baseball cap had vanished.

There was no one left on the entire Yin-Yang Road.

Only him.

And the corpses.

His SAN value in the upper right corner of his vision began to plummet—quietly and rapidly, until it dipped into crimson at 15 and triggered an alert.

But Liu Mang had no time to care.

All he could do was run.

Run as fast as he could. Run until he saw someone—anyone. Even an NPC would do!

He bolted forward like a desperate animal cornered in a cage, sprinting for his life.

As he passed one of the streetlights, it flickered.

And then went out.

What the—?!

He gasped and kept running, even more frantic now.

But every streetlamp he passed did the same.

Each one flickered… and died.

By the time he realized what was happening, the entire stretch of Yin-Yang Road within his field of vision had plunged into pitch blackness.

Complete darkness.

Only the dim, bone-white moonlight remained.

Under it, the shadows of the hanging corpses on the branches gently swayed.

Back and forth…

Back and forth…

“AaAAAAHHHH—!”

With a final scream, Liu Mang’s SAN value hit zero.

He successfully triggered the bad ending, “Died halfway through his attempt at courting death,” and was forcibly logged out by the protection system.

From beginning to end, not a single enemy target appeared.

Not one.

He never even got the chance to throw a punch. The fists he’d always prided himself on never once came into play. He was defeated not by combat, but by fear.

In the tournament’s live broadcast room, the audience who had stayed to watch Liu Mang could only sigh in disappointment.

【I thought we had a dark horse, but turns out we got a scared little pony…】

【Alright, that’s enough of that. Glad I didn’t place a bet. Would’ve been a waste of credits.】

【Actually, this is my first time watching a horror game stream. I didn’t expect Miss Ye’s games to be this terrifying. There weren’t even any enemy NPCs or gore, but my skin was crawling the whole time…】

【Guess Miss Ye isn’t famous enough yet. Some people haven’t even heard of her games. But… what the hell?! Why are the viewer numbers suddenly shooting up to almost 20 billion?!】

On the interstellar net, reaching a viewer count of 10 billion was already incredibly rare.
But this live stream pool, completely unofficial had somehow surged to nearly 20 billion viewers!

It was a traffic miracle.

For reference, even the wildly popular, officially promoted Falling Star tournament, which held the current record, only averaged a little over 20 billion viewers despite peaking at 50 billion during its finals.

Now, across the entire star network, everyone watching this event had a shared feeling:

They might be witnessing the birth of a legend.

At that moment, Ye Yuxi and Liu Yuling also noticed the skyrocketing viewer count.

They assumed it was the platform’s algorithm pushing the stream due to its performance.

They were only half right.

Yes, the stream’s retention rate had helped boost its visibility—

But the real reason?

Viewers who had tuned in were so thoroughly shaken that they immediately shared the stream with friends and family, even posting it across StarGame circles with bold claims:

“Watch at your own risk. Scared me half to death.”

Naturally, the people of the interstellar era weren’t lacking in curiosity or in their tendency to flirt with death for fun. As soon as they saw the warning, they got excited:

“Is it really that scary?”

Without hesitation, hordes of friends and family clicked into the stream, ready to leave a few scathing comments if it turned out to be a letdown.

And then…

They all promptly dove under their blankets, trembling like leaves. And were instantly converted into loyal viewers.

The more afraid they were, the more they wanted to keep watching.

That, perhaps, was the true allure of horror games.

The platform’s algorithm automatically prioritized high-performing streams in the live stream pool. Rooms that performed well and showed strong audience engagement were bumped to the top and shown to new viewers first.

For example, at this very moment, the stream featuring An Zhi and her group was dominating all others, firmly planted at the very top of the live stream rankings. Every new viewer saw their room first.

【My sister said this game they’re playing is something special?】

【Gotta admit, the atmosphere is creepy… but is it really scary enough to make you pee yourself? Also, why is the holographic projection split in half? Don’t tell me the players are separated?】

【Let me see… According to the rules, they’re students from the Red Team’s Central Military Academy. Looks like their progress is way ahead of the First Military Academy’s team. Guess the Central students really are sharper.】

Of course, none of this barrage of commentary reached the players.

The bullet screen for the tournament stream was already blocked off from them.

Back on the northern path of the Yin-Yang Road, where An Zhi and Sheng Qingye were.

Liu Tian, ever the enthusiastic streamer, hadn’t stopped waving his phone around and talking nonstop, which only made the other three fall deeper into silence.

An Zhi remained on alert, scanning her surroundings.

Sheng Qingye, on the other hand, was quietly sorting through everything that had happened since they entered the game.

She soon recalled something the NPC had said when their group split up.

Ah Yuan had said:

“First team to reach the stele wins and the winnning team has to buy everyone midnight snacks…”

Wait a minute—

Something felt off.

Sheng Qingye suddenly frowned.

Wasn’t it usually the losers who paid for the meal? Why would the winners be the ones treating everyone?

Who the hell would want to win then?

Had she misheard? She double-checked with An Zhi, but no—the line had been exactly that.

“That’s not actually that strange. Ah Yuan was probably hinting that we should slow down,” said an unfamiliar male voice.

Immediately, Sheng Qingye raised her arms defensively and looked up.

An Zhi stepped in front of her like a beast ready to pounce, eyes sharp, muscles taut with tension.

Liu Tian was still chatting away with his viewers, oblivious to what was happening behind him.

The one who had just spoken was the baseball cap guy.

He adjusted his hat and gave them a stiff smile.

“I mean, she was probably hinting that we should slow down. No one wants to watch a live stream that’s just a footrace, right? If nothing happens on the way, it’ll be boring as hell. We gotta spice things up.”

Without realizing it, the guy in the baseball cap had stopped walking.

An Zhi and Sheng Qingye also came to an unconscious halt.

He licked his lips, a flicker of excitement flashing in his eyes.

“I’ve got an idea—” he said.

“How about we hide behind the locust trees and pretend to go missing?”

“I already talked it over with Liu Tian. He’ll purposely shift the camera away at the right moment. That’s when we duck behind the trees. He’ll act all panicked and freaked out, and the news that something went wrong in our stream will spread like wildfire online, pulling in a flood of new viewers!”

“And then we show back up later and say we ended up on some strange path and barely made it back. After this stunt, we’ll be the most famous paranormal streamers out there!”