Giving Interstellar Players a Horror Ghost Game Shock - Chapter 97

Beep, beep, beep…

Outside the entrance of West Dormitory Building 13, a shrill ringtone suddenly pierced the air.

The five girls looked at each other, and eventually all their gazes landed on An Zhi’s phone.

An Zhi frowned, finally realizing just how unpleasant this ringtone was. In such an eerie environment, with everyone’s nerves on edge, a sound like this blaring out was like dancing directly on the string of one’s fear.

Though she didn’t want to admit it, her SAN value had definitely just dropped by one.

She glanced at the caller ID: “Xiao Ji Zi.” 

She had been about to answer instinctively, but then remembered the strange atmosphere within the group. Her hand paused mid-motion, and she decided to be cautious.

She murmured an apology to the others, stepped a few paces aside, then turned the volume down to the lowest setting before finally answering the call.

The moment the call connected, there was no voice—only the sound of someone’s ragged breathing.

An Zhi cautiously called out, “Xiao Ji Zi?”

Several seconds passed before a trembling, pain-filled voice came through.

“A-An Jie…”

“What do I do, An Jie? I don’t think I’m going to make it… Aaaagh!”

An Zhi heard Ji Yu’s scream on the other end, along with a horrifying chewing sound. Her hand clenched into a tight fist.

“Where are you?!” she demanded.

Ji Yu’s voice was full of pain and helplessness, barely audible through the phone.

“That doesn’t matter… I can’t come back anymore. I called to tell you something really important—”

“There was a ghost among us from the very beginning! The ghost is the missing guy with the black baseball cap! And now, there are more ghosts hiding in the team, working together from inside and out… Huff… In any case, if you see that guy with the cap again, whatever you do, don’t believe him. Don’t agree to anything he says! Brother Feng is the real expert, he’ll soon—AAAGHHH!”

It sounded like Ji Yu still had more to say, but his words were abruptly cut off by a sharp, bone-grinding noise and a bl00d-curdling scream. After that, there was only silence.

“Xiao Ji Zi?! Xiao Ji Zi?!” An Zhi’s breathing grew erratic.

Her clenched fist creaked with strain, as if she were barely holding back an outburst of fury.

She continued to call out for a few more seconds until finally, a new sound came through the receiver—

Not Ji Yu, but a satisfied burp, followed by a high-pitched, inhuman giggle.

“Hee hee hee…”

Realizing that Ji Yu would no longer answer—and that she could do nothing to harm whatever was on the other end of the line—An Zhi decisively hung up.

She took a deep breath, calmed herself, then walked back toward the group with heavy steps.

Sheng Qingye looked at her with concern. Other than the time their team lost in the league, she hadn’t seen An Zhi this angry in a long time.

Ah Yuan seemed a bit worried too.

“I think I heard Xiao Ji Zi’s name just now… Did something happen to him?”

An Zhi didn’t go into full detail. She only said, “He was calling for help just now, and after a scream, the line went dead… I suspect something’s happened to him.”

“What?!” The girls’ faces all changed slightly.

But Ah Yuan quickly returned to her usual self, forcing a few awkward chuckles.

“He’s joking, right? I didn’t know he had such a sense of humor—wasn’t he with Liu Tian and the others? How could anything happen? Liu Tian just messaged me saying everything’s fine.”

An Zhi glanced at the NPCs around her, silently repeating to herself: Don’t trust anyone.

She said nothing more.

But she knew—no matter how much these “normal” NPCs kept lying to themselves, it wouldn’t last. Very soon, real fear would creep in, turning them against each other in suspicion and betrayal… until the whole group fell apart.

Right now, she only hoped to make one final contribution before this team completely fell apart—hurry and complete the third story mission: Pen Fairy.

As she thought about this, she casually reached out to pat Sheng Qingye’s back in a gesture of comfort—but in reality, she subtly traced a few symbols on it.

These were tactical symbols pre-agreed upon by their Central Military Academy—meant for conveying information silently. In this team, it wasn’t safe to talk out loud. Any spoken message might be overheard… by something that wasn’t human.

The symbols she had just written meant: “The team is in danger” and “The missing person cannot be trusted.”

Right now, the only person officially “missing” was the guy with the black baseball cap. Sheng Qingye quickly caught on and nodded slightly, without changing her expression.

The group stayed close together as they entered the dormitory building.

As soon as they stepped onto the first floor, An Zhi subtly scanned their surroundings. She quickly noticed that just inside the entrance was a relatively open area, and off to the side stood a full-length mirror. Opposite the mirror was a small window—

Clearly, the first floor had been partitioned off into an independent room.

She guessed this was probably the dorm manager’s quarters. It seemed that no matter how different cultures might be, some things were always the same.

With that thought, her gaze fell on the tightly shut door to the manager’s room. She was just considering whether to knock and see if there were any clues inside when—her pupils suddenly contracted.

Just a second ago, she had clearly seen the door was completely shut. But now—it was silently ajar.

Behind the crack in the door, a pair of cloudy eyes were staring straight at them.

An Zhi didn’t allow herself the luxury of being the only one scared. She immediately raised her voice:

“Ah Yuan! That person over there is watching us!”

In that instant, five pairs of eyes all turned to look.

The pair of murky eyes shifted and then quickly disappeared behind the door. With a soft click, the door slammed shut again.

It was clear the room inside was very dark, but just now, Zhang Wen’s flashlight had caught the figure for a brief second—long enough for them to see—

Those cloudy eyes belonged to an old woman’s deeply wrinkled face.

The one who had just been spying on them through the crack in the door… was her.

An Zhi and Sheng Qingye couldn’t hide the change in their expressions anymore. Their faces were a mix of unease and disbelief.

Ah Yuan grumbled a few complaints:

“Crazy old lady scared us half to death!”

Then she turned to the others and explained:

“Don’t mind her. She’s just a scavenger who wanders around. Technically, she’s not even allowed on campus, but somehow, she always manages to sneak in.”

“She always chooses school breaks—when no one’s around—to show up. And with the dorm manager on holiday, she takes over the room like she owns it. I’ve reported it to the school a bunch of times, but nothing ever gets done. Maybe she’s some official’s relative or something.”

She kept rambling on about safety concerns as she led the group upstairs, but An Zhi and Sheng Qingye were no longer listening.

Because the so-called “scavenger old lady” looked exactly like the granny in the game trailer!

What the hell?

In the preview, she had greeted the players warmly with a “young one,” even warned them about danger ahead—and now that they were actually here in person, this same “granny” had done nothing but spy on them and slam the door in their faces!

Was she really that unwilling to deal with them?!