Glorious God Throne

After a simple breakfast, Andre and the others began exploring Worsey Castle according to their original plan, or rather, began their well-prepared performance.

Only uninformed viewers would think this was truly a program about exploring the unknown. For the four people who knew the truth, this was merely a show they were putting on in collaboration with the production team.

The production team would get their desired viewership, while these performers would gain either fame or profit.

Since it was all just an act to deceive viewers from start to finish, they naturally came prepared.

Considering that Andre, their best actor among the four, was only a third-rate performer, they had never visited the site in person before the show to avoid being exposed. In other words, this abandoned castle was genuinely unfamiliar territory to them, eliminating any risk of viewers noticing signs of familiarity.

However, the production team had already set everything up in the castle beforehand – artificially aged props, hidden special mechanisms – essentially turning it into a prepared haunted house.

To ensure their reactions on camera appeared genuine, they were only given partial scripts and knew about only some of the prop placements.

Regardless, they all felt quite calm inside.

“What’s the big deal about live-streaming a haunted house exploration?” they thought. “We already know there aren’t real ghosts, so no matter how scary the production team’s setups are, how frightened could we really get? We might even need to act scared!”

With these thoughts, the four began their first day of exploration, all broadcast live on screen.

“Oh, is this the lady’s bedroom? cough cough There’s even a vanity and mirror preserved from the past?”

As the first door opened, they were genuinely choked by the dust that rushed out. Ella carefully followed the others inside, taking in everything in the room.

The yellowed ceiling, the dark carpet with its original color obscured by black and red stains, a four-poster bed with classical carvings in the center of the room, and near the door, an old vanity table with a box of lipstick still sitting on top. Except for the floor, there wasn’t much dust, making it hard to believe no one had lived here for decades.

While the others examined the room collecting clues, Ella’s gaze fixed on the vanity, or more specifically, the mirror mounted on it. The mirror’s surface was clear as water, reflecting her sun-like golden hair and eyes sparkling with curiosity. The person in the mirror stared back at her silently, seeming to invite her closer.

Her eyes met those of her reflection, and she walked over unconsciously, completely ignoring her surroundings.

Only after sitting at the vanity did she notice the lipstick. Ella instinctively opened it, revealing half a box of melted gel-like substance, red as blood.

“Ah, I was in such a rush this morning, I forgot to put on makeup,” Ella belatedly realized, talking to herself as she looked at her reflection. “My lips look too pale.”

Saying this, she reached for the lipstick.

“Ella, what are you doing?” Suddenly, someone tapped her shoulder, causing her hand to jerk and drop the lipstick onto the vanity. She snapped out of it, immediately meeting her reflection’s eyes – the sun-golden hair, the enchanting eyes praised by countless fans, and the reddened lips…

Wait!

She frantically touched her lips, her expression changing dramatically.

“I…” What had she just done?

The recent events flashed through her mind like a replay – approaching the vanity out of curiosity, sitting down, casually picking up the lipstick, carefully applying it while looking in the mirror… Ella’s hands trembled violently as she backed away several steps from the vanity like she’d seen a snake. Only after putting distance between herself and the vanity did her heartbeat begin to steady.

Something was wrong, very wrong.

She felt like she had been possessed just moments ago.

“Ella, are you really okay?” Seeing their companion suddenly turn pale, bend over and struggle to breathe, Steele, who had come to call her, was startled.

“Could she be having some unknown illness? This better not involve me, hopefully she’s just acting…” Steele thought worriedly, while saying with concern. “I called you several times, but you didn’t seem to hear me at all. You just kept applying lipstick while looking in the mirror, not responding no matter how I called. Are you alright?”

Ella raised her head in a daze, about to speak when her eyes met her reflection’s – the mirror person was staring back at her.

Suddenly, two deep red streaks flowed down from the reflection’s eyes. Then from its mouth, nose, and other orifices, fresh blood gushed out, instantly staining the entire mirror surface red.

“Ah!” She let out a scream and instinctively grabbed onto Steele, who was closest to her, her body trembling.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Steele was startled by her scream but automatically held her, patting her back soothingly. “Calm down, Ella!”

Andre and West were also drawn over by the scream, immediately surrounding Ella. “What’s going on? Did you find something?”

“I-I…” Ella clung tightly to Steele, not daring to lift her head, her voice shaking, “I saw someone in the mirror, bleeding so much, the mirror was covered in blood…”

Though her words were jumbled, everyone caught the main point and looked toward the vanity mirror, but only saw their own reflections.

“There’s no blood,” West walked forward, examining the mirror carefully before glancing at the open lipstick on the vanity. “Though it’s strange how clean this mirror is, no dust, and the vanity’s clean too. This proves my theory – there are no evil spirits, just criminals who’ve been staying in this castle. All these traces show someone’s been living here recently.”

As he spoke, his hand searched the vanity’s surface, fingers suddenly finding a gap. He pulled gently, and a drawer opened. West looked inside and froze.

“How is this possible?” He exclaimed in brief surprise.

“What’s impossible?” Steele, having passed the trembling girl to her boyfriend, came forward curiously to look and also froze.

“Are these… sapphires?” She pointed at the objects in the drawer, her tone changing. “No way, right?”

“No, I can tell you with certainty, they’re real.”

West’s expression turned serious, his gaze puzzled.

“I know a thing or two about gem appraisal,” he carefully took out the box containing the gems from the drawer, lifted one up against the dim light, and squinted. “I can confirm these are genuine.”

“What? You’re joking, right?” Has the production team gone mad?

Steele swallowed the words that almost escaped her lips, her face full of questions. Though she knew the props were arranged by the production team, using real gems seemed too extravagant. Was this really just a regular show?

Or… she cast a suspicious glance at West. Were the gems fake, and this was just part of West’s script?

Just like that vase weakling beside them who was still trembling and hiccupping, face pale while cuddling with her boyfriend and feeding dog food to viewers, constantly talking about blood in the mirror – that must have been part of her script, right?

…That vase turned out to be quite the actress.

Everyone was putting in such effort, she couldn’t fall behind.

After processing all this, Steele thought she understood. Seeing West still examining the gems with a puzzled and grave expression, she immediately matched his demeanor.

While maintaining a serious expression, she picked up a gem to examine it like West, hearing him mutter. “Could this place really be criminals’ hideout? Criminals deliberately hiding stolen goods in this remote location, easy to conceal but accessible when needed?”

From the beginning, questioning the existence of evil spirits and guiding everything toward human causes was his assigned role and script. Who would have thought that the script might actually turn out to be real?!

In his mind, he quickly recalled the robbery case he had heard about a few days ago. Wasn’t it a jewelry store that had been robbed?

When West realized this place might actually be a criminals’ hideout, and that the perpetrators might have just temporarily left when the show crew took advantage of their absence – possibly to return at any time – he broke out in a cold sweat.

Although he had practiced martial arts, he didn’t believe four unarmed people could match up against desperate criminals, especially in the Green Autonomous Region where even children knew how to handle guns.

“No, it’s too dangerous here…” He suddenly grabbed Steele, intending to notify the others to retreat.

“Indeed, the appearance of this jewel is too suspicious,” Steele grabbed him back. “Be careful, the rumors might be true. I suspect this is the room where the evil spirit resides. The most precious thing in this room is the jewel in the dressing table. It must be important to the evil spirit, possibly connected to Sir Worsey. Now that we’ve found the jewel, we’re sure to attract the evil spirit’s attention!”

“…???” West’s unfinished words got stuck in his throat. He suddenly realized what was happening when he met Steele’s overly vigilant eyes, who winked at him where the cameras couldn’t see, as if saying: I’m playing along, okay?

West: “…”

He suddenly remembered that this show was being livestreamed, and viewers must be watching them right now.

Therefore, even if this was a criminals’ hideout, they wouldn’t be foolish enough to burst in while everyone was watching, meaning they were absolutely safe under the viewers’ gaze.

They could safely act their parts and report to the police after the show. Holding up the jewel in front of everyone and revealing his deductions, catching the real criminals… just imagining that scene made him excited. He’d surely gain quite a lot of admiration then.

West completely relaxed.

He even cheerfully weighed the blue sapphire in his hand.

However, the viewers watching their screens clearly couldn’t share his mood.

[Ahhhhh let go quickly! That’s not a jewel!]

[Do they really not know what they’re holding? It’s an eyeball! A bleeding eyeball! And it’s a moving, living eyeball! My sanity is plummeting!]

[Help, what kind of horror story is this! Why do they all seem so normal while I’m going crazy just watching through the screen?!]

[??? Walking through a blood-covered house, their own skin peeling off, playing with an eyeball, you really think this is normal?]

[This is clearly an extremely dangerous mysterious incident! Whether it’s the Management Bureau or other extraordinaries, someone needs to save them!]

…

Meanwhile, at the Chenxing Empire Special Case Investigation Bureau.

Director Chandler, who was in charge of the Bureau, had already heard about the strange incidents occurring in the Green Autonomous Region, as it had spread online, and the Bureau had sent people to Worsey Castle at the first opportunity. Listening to the voice on the other end of the phone, his brows furrowed tightly. “What do you mean you haven’t found them yet?”

“Re-report, Director, there’s nothing here,” came the subordinate’s incredulous voice from the other end of the line.

“We can’t see anything…not just the people, but even the castle itself has completely vanished.”

“It’s as if….they’ve been swallowed into another dimension?”

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