Horror Game Designer

“Do not succumb to the sound of the clocks! Any sound here can accelerate the speed by which you lose your memories!” The leader of Team Two clapped her hands. “Find Wan Jie. His eyes will help us find the exit!”

The security members from Xin Lu started to mobilise. Zuo Jun was still chasing after the painter Gao Ming. The other tenants were plotting as well.

…

In Room 0715, Gao Ming stood at the door, looking at the hanging clock inside the room silently. The strange sound from the clock had ceased. He felt like he had forgotten something as if something had been forcibly dug out of his mind.

“Did my home have this clock? Who gave it to me?”

Gao Ming’s stomach grumbled. Gao Ming sat at the dining table. He heard the commotion outside, his grandmother’s heart-wrenching screams and a lot of running footsteps.

“Is this place really haunted?” The words on the paper note stood out to him. Gao Ming felt afraid just by looking at the message. “If my neighbour’s place is really haunted, this whole floor is unsafe. I need to escape while I still can.” Gao Ming took out his phone to call his parents. However, there was only a busy tone. “Why are they not picking up today?”

After giving it some thought, Gao Ming sent his parents a message, telling them about the situation at home. Out of concern for his parents, Gao Ming told them in the message that he was about to leave the apartment and warned them from coming home that night. There was no calculative idea or absolute brilliance. The thought of this most common Gao Ming was simple. He didn’t want to put his parents in danger.

“All the calls can’t be connected. I can’t request aid from outside. Staying here makes me a sitting duck.” The running sound made Gao Ming worried. “Some have already left. I should go when people are moving around. If I’m the last one left behind…” Gao Ming didn’t even dare to imagine how scary that would be. It would be despairing.

“I still have no idea who the gifter is. It looks scary. Could it be from the ghost?” After some hesitation, Gao Ming undid the ribbons. A strange picture was placed in the middle of the box. Gao Ming picked up the picture. After he had a closer look, goosebumps rose on the back of his neck. The picture was taken at this dining table. He sat before a birthday cake, making a wish. He was surrounded by so many versions of his parents! His parents looked at him from different angles with absurd expressions. His hand shook, and the picture fluttered to the ground. Most of the picture was in black-and-white. Only Gao Ming was in colour.

“What kind of prank is this?”

He was afraid of the picture and wanted to move away from it. However, as he readied to leave, his eyes turned back to the picture. In the picture, all his fathers and mothers were looking at him as if trying to tell him something.

“Even though it’s scary, they are still my parents. They won’t hurt me. They gave me life…” Gao Ming gritted his teeth and picked up the death portrait before shoving it into his uniform pocket.

“The outside is so much quieter now.” He eased the door open a gap. The chilling breeze crawled into his sleeves. He didn’t spot the monster that was hiding in the shadow earlier. He tried to leave his room, but the lights in the corridor suddenly came on. Gao Ming was frightened and almost crawled back into his room.

“What sound is that?” Gao Ming realised the room next door was open. He gathered his courage and took the first step to look into his neighbour’s room. A different Gao Ming, in a school uniform, was sitting on the ground, gasping for air. Beside him was Gao Ming’s corpse. The corpse’s face was purple. There was a deep strangulation mark around his neck. His limbs were stiff and frozen. He was dead for a long time already.

Gao Ming sucked in a cold breath involuntarily. He hadn’t seen a dead body before, much less his own dead body.

His brain shut down. His body tumbled back involuntarily. He was too normal. He couldn’t think of anything but a statement, ‘Someone has been killed!’

“This is not what it seems!” Gao Ming, who was resting on the ground, was startled when he saw the other Gao Ming at the door. He quickly got up. “I didn’t kill him! I saw him lying in the cold corridor. Even if he is dead, he deserves the least modicum of respect. That is why I dragged him back into my room.”

The Gao Ming beside the corpse spoke in a gentle tone. He had a bandage around his hand. His clothes were dirty from hauling the corpse around.

“There’s a Gao Ming living in each room?! The note is not lying?!” The normal Gao Ming panicked. If the note was not lying, it meant that the place was really haunted.

“Did you receive the note too?” The Gao Ming beside the corpse took out a note from his school bag. “It’s not safe here. I was trying to escape when I came across this dead body. We look the same, so I didn’t have the heart to leave him out in the open.”

“But he’s already dead. Aren’t you scared?” The normal Gao Ming looked into the room. The room was decorated almost the same as his room was. However, there were a lot more accolades. His parents’ wedding picture hung on the wall. Fresh flowers were planted beside the window.

“I was scared, but I didn’t want to leave him behind.” Gao Ming rummaged through his bag to pull out his diary. “Based on the note, we’re all Gao Ming, but we’ve made different choices. Can we exchange our diaries? So we can get to know each other better.”

“Okay.”

Looking through the other Gao Ming’s diary, the normal Gao Ming’s eyes flashed with a trace of envy. This Gao Ming’s parents were very loving. He lived in a home filled with love and care. He was also very kind and often helped others. Compared to the other Gao Mings, this Gao Ming didn’t face any challenges in his life. He was clever, fit, handsome, and hardworking. He was the Gao Ming with the best physique and the best examination results.

Looking into the young man’s clear eyes, the normal Gao Ming felt like a pool of dirty water. He was so much worse than his counterpart.

“If I can choose my life’s script, I’ll definitely choose yours.” The normal Gao Ming said enviously, “Every choice you’ve made is the best.”

The kind Gao Ming handed his bag to the normal Gao Ming as he carried the dead Gao Ming, “How can you know that since you don’t know how your own life script will end? Perhaps you are the perfect Gao Ming.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om