Nightmare Assault

“In other words, Sister Nuan’s body was still in the bedroom when I was there yesterday.”

“Yes. She was just behind the door.” At that point, Chen Xiaomeng paused to smile at Jiang Cheng, “If you had taken a few more steps inwards, your body might have ended up here too.”

Jiang Cheng ignored her and continued asking, “Where is Sister Nuan’s body?”

Chen Xiaocheng stood up and headed to the door. Jiang Cheng immediately followed, keeping a metre away from her.

“I can’t run. The door is not open yet.” Chen Xiaomeng scoffed.

Jiang Cheng followed her and shook her head. “Don’t misunderstand me. I just feel much happier when I’m close to you.”

Chen Xiaomeng pouted and ignored him. She walked to the wall and searched for a switch. Then, the room lit up. The light above them came on. At the same time, Fatty’s eyes almost jumped out of their sockets. The room was designed like a church. A huge cross hung on the wall. Sister Nuan was hanged on the cross upside down. It was clear that she was dead. The place was stuffed with various kinds of torture devices. They looked medieval and creepy. Most of them were stained with blood. This was a torture room.

“The cross represents God, and the inverse cross represents the devil.” Jiang Cheng looked at the devices emotionlessly. “It looks like this was a family of Satanists.”

Fatty was shocked by the scene. Chen Xiaomeng looked at Jiang Cheng with interest. “Sounds like you’ve already guessed that already.” This kind of preparation couldn’t be done in a short amount of time. Therefore, the owners of these torture devices could only be the bungalow owners and not the two poor intruders.

When Fatty recovered, he looked at Jiang Cheng, “In other words… the real killers are the family and two men…”

Jiang Cheng nodded. “Haven’t you already met them?”

Fatty seemed to realise something, and he stuttered, “It was the bus that ferried us here! The driver, the mother with the kid, the tomboyish female operator, the girl in the couple… They are the family living here!”

“That’s right.” Chen Xiaomeng shrugged, “The man in the couple and the big boy the mother was taking care of, they were the victims tormented by this family.”

Fatty thought back to the strange actions of the mother and son, as well as the couple did. For example, the man of the couple always had an eye mask on, and he remained motionless. The boy with his mother looked so scared even though he was with his mother…

It was hell on earth.

The ghost wasn’t back for revenge. She was merely continuing her sins in life. These habits couldn’t be changed no matter what.

“When did you know the truth?” Jiang Cheng looked at Chen Xiaomeng.

“After the ghost killed Sister Nuan, the picture we found on the wall suddenly became clear.” She took out a picture. The wooden frame was gone. She probably tossed it away already. Jiang Cheng accepted the picture. It was a portrait of the family. Jiang Cheng remembered every face in the picture. The background was this torture room. In the corner of the picture, there were two men. They were both chained. Since their heads were lowered, their faces couldn’t be seen. However, they were dressed similarly to the two men on the bus.

The door started to glow weakly, and the whole space trembled.

The mission was ending. The door was opening.

“Why lie to us? How does that benefit you?” Jiang Cheng steadied himself and asked one last question.

Chen Xiaomeng was already used to the door shaking when it was about to open. While Fatty was holding the wall to stop himself from falling, she was already standing before the iron door. The iron door fully opened, and it revealed a world of fog.

Jiang Cheng turned to look at Fatty behind him before walking into the fog.

After a temporary phase of vertigo, Jiang Cheng’s body paused. He stepped on firm ground again. He looked down and saw the wooden floor. Everything became familiar.

He took a deep breath. He had returned to his office.

The sky outside the window was still dark. A bit of moonlight shone in. It was how he left it. He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. It was made of rough material. Through the moonlight, it was revealed to be a folded piece of paper. He slowly opened it, but suddenly, his body froze. A hand silently fell on his right shoulder. The person had been waiting for him.

Jiang Cheng slowly raised his hands. “There are 200,000 inside the hidden compartment in the third drawer of the office table. The drawer is locked. The key is inside the second to last cup in the kitchen.”

There was no sound. He paused and then continued, “I only have so much money. If you want to rob me of something else, I suggest we go upstairs first. There’s only a mattress, so I hope you don’t mind.”

The hand that held his shoulder shook, and then a loud voice said, “Brother, this is a nice place!”

Jiang Cheng turned around and grabbed the hand on his shoulder. At the same time, he twisted it behind the person’s back and pinned the person’s rotund body against the wall.

“Brother! Brother!” Fatty hissed in pain.

Jiang Cheng recognised the man and asked chilly, “Why are you here?”

He glanced at the location where the door was. Only a normal wall remained.

Based on what Man Li said, if one survived the mission, the survivors would return to where they started in the real world or their own homes.

But… this was clearly not Fatty’s home.

Fatty’s right shoulder almost snapped. He quickly explained, “I was thinking about how good it’d be if I could stay with brother when I crossed the door. Then, I ended up here. Probably we are fated…”

Before Fatty could finish, Jiang Cheng cut him off, “Stop joking. You just wanted me to bring you across the nightmare barrier.”