The four of them had just stepped through the door, yet they were already stunned by the sheer scale of the Painted Skin scenario.
Niu Gu had traveled far and wide, visiting many haunted houses and escape rooms, but the Painted Skin scenario was the largest dungeon he had ever seen.
Leaving the plot aside, just this setting, this layout, was worth the ticket price alone.
“Huh?” Wang Jian scratched his head, his gaze constantly scanning the surroundings.
“What’s wrong?” Niu Gu looked at him.
“It’s different from when I came last time. The boss seems to have upgraded it,” Wang Jian said. “Last time, there was no sun or clouds, and no three-story building. Just a row of ancient structures.
“It felt big last time, but this time, it feels like a self-contained world, an independent ancient world.”
Hearing Wang Jian’s words, Niu Gu looked around and nodded. It did indeed feel like a real ancient world.
“Let’s go, let’s head inside,” Niu Gu walked forward.
They had only taken a few steps when they saw a group of people huddled in a corner, shivering.
Several girls were crying so hard their makeup had run, leaving dark streaks on their faces.
The men were also pale, their lips trembling.
Clearly, they had been badly frightened.
Wang Jian stepped forward, intending to ask if they needed help. But before he could get close, a tall man in the front screamed, “Ah! Don’t come over! Don’t come over!”
“Help!”
“Four ghosts! Run!”
They had mistaken the four of them for ghosts.
Niu Gu found it amusing. So timid, yet they dare to play in a haunted house.
Being scared by this level of horror showed poor psychological resilience.
Unlike him. He had been bold since childhood, afraid of nothing.
Even if there were real ghosts in this world, Niu Gu would dare to arm-wrestle them.
“I can’t run anymore,” a timid boy actually knelt down to beg Wang Jian for mercy.
Wang Jian was startled and hurriedly stepped forward to support him. “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. I’m human. We’re players too.”
“Really?” The group was skeptical.
“Really,” Wang Jian tried his best to explain. “We just came in.”
After explaining for a long time, the group finally reluctantly believed them.
Although not as terrified as before, they were still skittish, jumping at the slightest disturbance.
Finally, someone couldn’t take it anymore, broke down emotionally, squatted on the ground, and wailed, “Boohoo, I don’t want to play anymore. I want to go home.”
Once one started, the others couldn’t hold back either and began to cry.
Seriously? Is it that scary? Isn’t this an exaggeration?
Niu Gu couldn’t help asking, “How long have you been in here?”
A girl opposite him hiccupped through her tears. “A day. A whole day. We’ve been trapped here, unable to get out, unable to find the Daoist priest. We’re tired and hungry. We really can’t take it anymore.”
A whole day?
Niu Gu frowned. They had entered at 10 AM. The place opened at 8 AM.
It had only been two hours since opening; how could it be a whole day? Did this group enter last night?
Impossible. They don’t stay open overnight.
Just as he was thinking, the main door opened, and Li Miao arrived.
Seeing that familiar creepy smiling mask, the group felt like they had returned to the human world from hell and hugged each other, crying.
Boohoo, the boss is here. We finally survived.
It was too hard, really too hard. We were scared to death.
Li Miao led the group out. They were truly traumatized.
Back on the first floor, they collapsed onto the chairs in the lounge, unable to recover for a long time.
The leader of the group looked up at the time and found it was only 10:10 AM.
“Impossible!” he screamed.
How has it only been half an hour? We were in there for a day! The sun was about to set!
The others couldn’t believe it either. They had clearly been there for a long time.
“It’s too terrifying. We were scared, confused; even our sense of time is messed up.”
Everyone lamented that Painted Skin was truly too scary.
They wouldn’t play anymore. Never again. Absolutely not.
After changing clothes and walking out the main gate, passing through the cleansing of the Yang Energy Hut…
The group suddenly stopped in their tracks.
Huh! It feels a bit different.
The cold yin energy on their bodies was swept away, and their bodies were filled with vitality. They felt particularly energetic.
I really, really want to go back and play again!
Everyone started to regret leaving early. They should have played through the whole thing.
So much regret. I wonder what the plot is later on.
The tall, thin man, having recovered his color, suggested, “Why don’t we buy tickets again and go back in?”
“No, no.” The timid girl shook her head. “Next time.”
“Next time then.”
Everyone nodded. “Next time we’ll bring more friends. It won’t be scary with more people.”
After this group left, there were no customers for the time being.
Li Miao turned to the computer to tinker with the Taobao store.
She had wanted to open a Taobao store earlier but delayed it because of time constraints.
Now, with a free moment, she decided to finally start her store.
She quickly went through the process and opened the store.
Name: [Fengdu Haunted House] Taobao Store.
Next was selecting products to sell. Li Miao took stock of what she had and found that only the Wealth Summoning Talisman and Exorcism Talisman were sellable.
So she would sell these two first. When she had money and more products later, she would list them gradually.
Li Miao took two photos of the talismans, uploaded them, wrote the product descriptions, and finally got stuck on pricing.
How much is appropriate?
Too high, and no one would buy. Too low, and it felt like a bad deal since her talismans actually worked.
Thinking about it, Li Miao decided to set the price at 1000 yuan.
Both the Wealth Summoning Talisman and Exorcism Talisman were 1000 yuan each. However, during the new store opening period, there was a 90% discount, selling for only 100 yuan.
Just as she finished setting everything up, one of each talisman was bought.
“So fast!”
Li Miao was surprised. She checked the order and found it was the same person buying both.
Good taste!
Li Miao packed the two talismans, deciding to mail them at a nearby courier point during her lunch break.
On the other side, Wei Qi bought these two talismans purely for fun.
He was a senior in college this year, interning in the industrial zone of Quecheng.
Since the internship location was far from the school, he rented a place in the industrial zone with three roommates.
The apartment they rented was large—four bedrooms and one living room—just enough for the four of them, and it was very cheap.
Normally, the rent for such a large apartment would be 4000 yuan a month, but they got it for 2000. Split four ways, it was only 500 yuan per person.
It was a steal.
Just starting his internship, Wei Qi was passionate about work, dreaming of promotion and a raise all day.
By chance, he found Li Miao’s Taobao store’s Wealth Summoning Talisman. Thinking it was a good omen, he placed an order.
Right after buying it, he discovered the Exorcism Talisman.
This talisman is interesting too. It looks a lot like the ones Daoist priests use to freeze zombies in movies.
Wei Qi thought about how he hadn’t been sleeping well since moving into the new apartment two days ago. He always felt a chill on his back, like someone was blowing cold air onto his neck.
Wei Qi knew it was an illusion—there were no ghosts in the world—but when he saw the Exorcism Talisman, he couldn’t take his eyes off it. Like he was possessed, he placed an order.
Buy it. Treat it as psychological comfort.