Horror Game Designer

"Is this a test for the night gentlemen? Do you have to experience all the joy in the world and then become the vessel for the Xi God?" Gao Ming didn't fit in the cellar. The despair in his heart was too deep. Many corpses lost their smiles after they touched him. Human emotions were not connected. After the corpses were contaminated by Gao Ming, their last happiness entered Gao Ming's heart. They were compelled by a higher force to assimilate Gao Ming but they only managed to share some of pain so Gao Ming could adapt to greater despair.

"Xi God's power is very useable to me. It can lessen the seal in my heart and share the pain I have. Xi God is truly a kind God." Gao Ming looked at the bodies around him and sighed. The murders committed by the Xi God were not lesser than those of Elder Tang and the butcher. "The joy is an illusion. All of you are dead in real life. Your corpses are being eaten by bugs."

The joyful trap that was highly alluring to others barely left an effect on Gao Ming. He reached the end of the cellar without any trouble. There were many urns sealed with red tape. These urns had been there for a long time already. Each urn was decorated with a large Xi character. "Is there a person marinated in each of these urns?" Gao Ming mumbled to himself, but a deep male voice answered him. "It's memories. They contain Xi God's precious memories."

"Who is it?" Gao Ming pulled out the knife. He lowered the centre of his gravity and readied to pounce.

"Hasn't this month's night gentleman been selected? Why are you here? Aren't you afraid of being caught by the Minor Xi Gods? They will skin you alive and turn you into dried mummies and puppets." The man sounded very tired. However, he appreciated having someone there to talk to.

In the deepest darkness, the black hair spread around the urn. A human head was pressed to the edge of the rim. The eyes stared darkly at Gao Ming. Gao Ming slowly let go of the knife. He looked at the head, and his pupils narrowed. The man had Zhang Mingli's face!

"Zhang Mingli?"

The man was taken aback before he smiled. "You mentioned the taboo at Dream Break Town so casually. I have to admit it is quite refreshing."

"Why do you have his face? What is your relationship with Madam Xi?" There were many urns between Gao Ming and the head.

"I met a monster soaked in an urn upstairs. He was much larger than you are. That thing said, I radiate a taboo's presence like Zhang Mingli. Do you think I'll be scared?" Gao Ming was always direct.

"Are you a taboo too?" The man took a deep breath, but he couldn't sense anything. "They took away all my access rights and shut down my senses."

"What are you talking about?"

"I saw the band around your wrist. We come from the same place." The man rolled his head and looked pleadingly at Gao Ming. "My limbs have been chopped. Can you help me find one thing? It can verify my identity." With the man's guidance, Gao Ming moved through the urns. He came to the man and reached his hand into the urn. The viscous liquid was like wine and blood. It smelled horrendous. Gao Ming found something that didn't belong there: a pure white communication band.

"Other than its colour, doesn't it resemble your own band?" The man raised his head with difficulty. "I am one of the designers of this nightmare. I was the youngest among the Brain Realm game's organisers. I made Dream Break Town."

Gao Ming looked at the man with distrust. He couldn't tell if the man had lost his mind.

The man's eyes shone with sincerity, "During the Xin Lu Chaos many years ago, Perfect Life opened the hidden door in the brain realm game. It connected to a scary place called the deep-level world. Dream Break Town is a flawed product I created using a model taken from the deep-level world. My grandfather, Fu Tian, created Perfect Life. It is now known as the taboo game." The man seemed to know many secrets. He leaned his head on the rim. His eyes flushed with memories and regrets.

"Your grandfather made the taboo game?!" Gao Ming memorised everything.

"My grandfather is the founder of Immortal Pharma and a legend in Xin Lu. He was the pioneer that spearheaded the arrival of the new century."

"So… you mean that it was Immortal Pharma who designed the taboo game?! Then, why would they label it as a taboo game later on? What happened?" Gao Ming asked.

"Be patient. I'll explain it." The man's chin soaked into the water. "Perfect Life was sealed because the initial players released a scary existence from the deep-level world."

"What was it?"

"It was an Unmentionable. The files refer to it as the Butterfly and Dream." The man's eyes flashed with fear. "When the players and company explored the deep-level world's secrets, that world's Unmentionables was studying us. They used different methods to influence reality. They wanted to pull reality into their world and drown the real world with despair."

"And then?"

"At the last moment, a man showed up." The man wanted to scratch his head, but he had no arms. He looked troubled, "For some reason, I slowly forget about that man. I can't remember his name. I can barely remember him dying with the Butterfly and submerging into the sea of blood.

"The humans and ghosts rescued by that man stayed to rebuild the world. After everything returned to normal, they entered the deep-level world. They planned to rescue the world's saviour.

"A few months after they left, Immortal Pharma's files showed that an unknown Unmentionable had appeared at the perimeter of the taboo game. The higher-ups did a vote and decided to destroy the passage for the sake of self-preservation…"

At this point, the man hesitated. "I conducted many investigations after that. I realised the threat of the Unmentionable was most likely a show put up by the company and the city admin. Their goal was to destroy the path between the two worlds. They wanted to isolate the forces left behind by the saviour outside the real world."