1 Do You Want To Escape?
This is the story of how Wei Lan died...
This is the story of how Wei Lan died and was transmigrated into an Escape Game.
The morning of his death was routine to him. Until it wasn't.
Writing a few chapters for his dead friend's novel and presenting the awards for the graduating class of the Academy of Film and Art, his alma mater and going to his latest film set to shoot the weary Supporting Character who died in a tragic and horrific way.
Perhaps the water that his assistant handed him was too hot for a warm day and he did not drink enough even though they were in the desert and scolded her for giving him warm water in the desert but that did not explain why his assistant pushed him off by a cliff.
And when did cliffs even exist in deserts? Were those a thing?
He really should have listened to classes when he was in high school.
So that was how Wei Lan, the three times award winning supporting male lead, fell to his death.
But that wasn't the end of it.
He watched his body be carried away and the funeral wake start.
Fans from all over the country came to bid him farewell.
That surprised him the most!
And he thought that was the end of the surprises.
It wasn't.
He watched his killer cry in front of his coffin and then faint. She was taken away from there on a stretcher.
He really wanted to know why she killed him if his death effected her so much. He could tell from her body language that she was not that great of an actor.
But that should be the end of funeral surprises for him right?
Wrong!
No, he had to watch as his big brother and his younger brother fought with each other for his property and then killed each other over it even before his funeral Wake was not over and the guests had not left.
All Wei Lan had to say to that was, it was a good thing that their parents died at a young age and he hoped they were not seeing the way that his brothers were behaving.
After watching a few more school girls coming to cry over his body, Wei Lan turned to the side, where a lonely figure stood staring at the name of his tomb.
Wei Lan was shocked to see the man.
It was himself!
The man looked up towards him, like he had sensed Wei Lan's gaze.
The eyes that looked back at Wei Lan was confused and hopeful.
"You are the me of this world," the man breathed out.
Wei Lan wanted to refute.
The man in front of him could not even be considered a man yet.
He was a boy. Maybe 18 or at most 20. It was always difficult to guess that age range.
The fact was that, they might seem similar at a glance, but there was an innate difference between them.
Though he was not able to say what that difference was.
The man took out a red stone from his pocket.
Wei Lan frowned as it was offered to him.
He looked up.
"What is this?" he asked.
The man smiled. "You will take my place. And you will fulfil my wish, and in exchange, I give you my chance to live."
The stone glowed brightly and disappeared.
And so did the man.
Wei Lan only had enough time to wonder what that meant before he lost consciousness.
He thought he heard a [Ding] sound like the sound of an elevator reaching a floor but he was too far gone to know if it was in his head or if it really did happen.
The bodies of the two dead brothers was found by a young maid who screamed and ran to call the officials.
The two bleeding corpses were the only witnesses to the things that transpired in the graveyard.
***
The sound of a scream woke Wei Lan up.
He laid on a flat surface that was very harsh and cold.
Wei Lan was confused and disoriented.
The colour behind his eyelids were red and a strange mouldy smell drilled into his nose.
Blinking his eyes at the harsh light that was pointed towards his eyes, he wrinkled his nose and sat up.
The light that hit his face was from a flashlight that was on the floor.
Though it was not clear what happened, the few drops of red liquid on the floor illuminated by the light and the four faded red streaks on the metallic body of the torch was a hint that whatever had happened, it was not a good thing.
Wei Lan sat up and clutched at his throbbing head and groaned as the pain became more obvious in that area.
Wei Lan sighed and got up.
He looked around, but other than the white tiled floor illuminated by the torch, everything else was pitch black.
Wei Lan felt a sense of foreboding in his heart.
Shaking off the unending questions raised by his heart and the fear of the unknown that the darkness brought, he walked forwards to the torch.
He his eyes darted to the darkness that surrounded him after he reached right in front of the torch.
He looked around, the beam of light elongating his shadow, creating a sense of eeriness in his heart even towards his own shadow.
There was a feeling like something was watching him from the darkness, waiting for him to step into the dark abyss to devour him. And most of that feeling was coming right from above his head.
He looked at the torch at his feet.
His back broke into a cold sweat.
If he bent down then he would be exposing his back to that something watching him on the ceiling.
Almost as a response to his thoughts, blood dripped down next to his white shoes drop by drop.
The white shoes illuminated by the flashlight slowly had spots of red on it.
Wei Lan gulped. There was no use standing there in fear. If he was in hell, he would still fight tooth and nail before they would be able to drag his soul to the burning flames in it!
Gathering the courage in his heart, Wei Lan started to bend down.
As soon as his fingers touched the cold surface of the torch, there was a thud behind him.
His nerves stood on end, the hairs on his body rose up and he felt his mind go numb.
Wei Lan snatched the torch from the floor and ran for his life forwards, never looking back.
He did not know if the thing behind him was a demon from hell or even if it was just a box of some sort. He did not dare to look back to confirm.
He did not know how far he ran. He just knew that he ran until his legs became numb. And he needed to keep running. That thing might be behind him.
Everything around him was dark. There was only darkness around him.
The flashlight only seemed to show the white tiled floor and there did not seemed to be any walls.
Not that he had the courage to illuminate the sides to see if there were any walls.
There was only one thought in his mind.
To run forwards.
Don't look away from the lighted path.
Don't turn back.
Don't look to the side.
Don't look up.
Only look at the light.
Blood started to drip from his forehead to his brows, making one eyes of his seeing through a red haze. The pain on his forehead was stronger.
But his steps did not falter and he kept running.
Suddenly the white floor changed. It became more stopped with yellow.
And then that yellow turned into red.
Wei Lan understood.
More blood drops had fallen here, were falling here.
He did not know how it happened but that feeling of the darkness seemed to suffocate him even more.
Was it getting closer?
The flashlight seemed to lose its life at that thought and dimmed a bit.
"No," he whispered through huffs as his body exerted even more force to get out of the darkness. "Don't give up on me now!"
The flashlight was becoming dimmer with each step that he took. Not like it was losing power but that the darkness was overwhelming even the little bit of light left in the world and finally, the torch seemed to give up on him completely.
The world plunged into darkness.
He stood still.
His instincts told him to run. To keep running.
But his legs did not move.
Should he move forwards? Should he stay put to wait for a light source that was might never come?
Wei Lan felt the coldness against his skin that told him that the torch was still in his hand.
The dripping sound had stopped.
The oppressive darkness seemed to die as well.
Though the darkness still permeated around him, it was not the same darkness.
This one seemed less "Lively." It seemed more of simple darkness.
Wei Lan slowly took a step forward.
The darkness seemed to sense his movements.
It was back.
Wei Lan gulped as sweat dripped down the side of his ears.
Should he take the next step?
What if it lead to his death?
But, aren't you already dead? A part of him asked.
That was right, Wei Lan thought, he was dead. He had died. And it was a simple accident. Walking on a glass bridge only for one of the glasses to actually be missing.
Very embarrassing.
He hoped whoever the person to remove the glass and allowed people to walk on it before a new one was placed will live a very fulfilling life of being haunted by the ghosts of his vices.
Wei Lan shook his head. He was dead. Did that make him a ghost?
If that was the case, then why was the ghost in the darkness targeting him? Weren't they of the same kind?!
This was the mentality that he tried to create for himself.
Wei Lan had the bad habit of making jokes when he shouldn't because it helped him to calm down his nerves.
Wei Lan then remembered the old saying that larger ghosts ate smaller ghosts to get more Yin power.
Wei Lan gulped again.
That was a scary thought.
He was not safe even as a ghost?!
Wei Lan then felt the hunger of the darkness as it got closer to him.
Wei Lan shivered in fright as the hairs on his stood on their end.
Drip.
Something warm and thick fell on his cheeks.
He dashed.
He did not know where he was going. All he knew was that he had to get away.
Finally, there was light in front of him.
A revolving door.
The darkness seemed to realise that its prey was about to escape and tried to grab him.
Wei Lan ran faster than the fastest man in the world, which probably had to do with the fact that he was a ghost.
He dashed out of the door and into the busy street.
He fell face first to the concrete ground as there were flashes of light around him.
"Is that guy dead?" a person asked above him, the voice carrying a drunken overtone.
"Don't know. Maybe," another answered.
His brows wrinkled as the pain on his forehead started to hurt more.
Wei Lan struggled to his feet, panting.
He looked around and found himself in front of a hotel lobby.
A stout man stood straight, with his hands behind his back, behind a wooden desk that stood between Wei Lan and what looked like the reception of the hotel.
The man was unnaturally still, giving others the feeling that he was not alive at all.
The two men Wei Lan had heard talking before were pinching the man and hitting him, but the stout man did not react at all.
Wei Lan frowned.
Where did these rude men come from?
He looked around more to find the darkness that wanted to consume him before but there was no dark corner to the lobby at all.
He looked behind him and saw that there was a revolving door there and beyond that was a deep darkness.
Did he come from there? Was that the darkness?
Suddenly, there was a mechanical ring in his ear.
[Ding!]
[Horror Points (HP) System activated.]
[You can gain HP by clearing instances.]
[You can develop skills by investing the acquired HP or you can gain items from the system mall.]
[Your Current HP: 0]
Wei Lan looked on in confusion towards the darkness as the words of the mechanical voice became clear to him.
He had a system?
And Horror Points?
Instances?
Was he in some kind of a VR game?
[Ding!]
[Players are incoming!]
[All NPCs in Position!]
The two drunken men who were poking the statue like man went and sat down on a sofa and took out a newspaper talk about something.
Wei Lan stared in shock as people started to appear out of thin air in front of him.
There was a total of five people who suddenly appeared.
A bearded man in his 30s who held a scalpel and looked around in confusion, wearing scrubs. He looked like someone who was just in an operation theatre when he was teleported into the Lobby.
The man sighed and took off his scrub cap, revealing highlighted brown hair.
A lady with long legs, and a longer face blinked. She seemed have been biting into a burger of some sort when she got there.
Two girls in scantly clad clothes looked around in horror, shivering. The two looked at each other and then huddled together, tears falling down their cheeks.
Wei Lan looked away from them respectfully.
Finally, the last person was a young boy of 16 or 17. He looked around in wonder.
Wei Lan was only a year or two older than the boy but he felt like he was a grandpa in comparison. After all, he had never looked so…naïve.
Then a voice entered his ears.
[Welcome, Players, to the Novice Instance World: Unknown Number.]
[Prompt: You are all interns of the company who must do extra hours for the next four days so that one of you can be selected for a permanent job.]
[Goal: Stay Alive for 3 nights.]
[Reward: 1 novice gift pack that contains goodies and 5 gold coins.]
[Hint: Hello...who is this?]
Wei Lan was surprised when he heard the voice. Wasn't this the Horror Points system? It was the same voice?
The system was not done yet.
It gave him a private message.
[The system has detected that the new host is a Spirit in possession of a player body. Detecting intent of the Spirit.]
Wei Lan's heart thumped.
The others were not aware of the situation that he was in, and just thought that the sudden displacement that they all experienced was the reason for his confusion.
The stout statue man had started to move.
The doctor and the long-faced girl walked towards him. The boy walked to the two nearly naked girls and was trying to comfort them.
[Host intent detected.] the system said.
Wei Lan stiffened at the words.
[Do you want to leave the instance?]
[Yes or No.]
Wei Lan frowned. What did that mean?
Like it had heard Wei Lan's thoughts, the system answered.
[If you chose 'No', you will be treated as an NPC and after the Instance clearance or failure, you will be assimilated into the Instance World.]
[If you chose 'Yes', then you will have to act as a Player, and will be able to leave the Instance if the Instance is cleared.]
Wei Lan frowned. That meant there was still a possibility that he would not be able to escape! What would happen if the Instance is not cleared! That was a pit!
[If the Instance is not cleared, then the Player data will be stored in the System space as it is at that moment and be left into the world when a similar world is activated. You can try it then.]
Wei Lan knew what that meant. He only had a chance to live if the players were able to complete this Instance. Otherwise, he would be 'stored'. He was not dumb enough to believe that the system would not harm him!
He chose 'Yes.'
[Thank You player.]
There was a second announcement for the entire player group at that moment.
[Attention Players!
Side Quest: A Ghost wants to Leave.
Goal: Help or hinder the Ghost until the end of the instance.
Reward: Helping will give you (-4) points and Hindering will give you (+5) points.]
[Happy gaming!]
Wei Lan felt like he was pitted against by the system.
***
My first try in the Horror genre. Please be merciful.
