ASPDDW Chapter 60: Thrills and Chills
After leading Wen Xia to the designated spot, the staff member quietly left, and soon the sound of the controller’s voice came through the earpiece: “You may now remove your blindfolds.”
Wen Xia took off his blindfold and found himself in a small, dilapidated room. The only light source was a flickering neon sign on the wall, displaying the face of a clown with alternating red and blue hues, casting an eerie glow throughout the room.
The room was silent, isolated from any outside noise, and each of them wore a decibel meter.
They had chosen the highest difficulty level, which came with a specific rule: avoid loud noises. If any sound exceeded the set decibel limit, the meter would trigger an alarm, attracting “unwelcome visitors.” These “visitors” were actually actors playing the roles of monsters or ghosts.
However, this didn’t mean that quieter players would avoid encounters entirely; it just meant that louder noises would inevitably summon the “visitors.”
Once confronted by these NPCs, players had two options: run and avoid getting caught or find a place to hide. Safe hiding spots were enclosed spaces, such as cabinets or wardrobes—places with doors that could be closed. Rooms were also an option but had the risk of being broken into. Cabinets and wardrobes, on the other hand, were considered blind spots for the “monsters.”
If caught, a player wouldn’t be eliminated immediately but would be locked in a circus cage. The remaining players would then have to find the key to the cage and rescue their teammate. However, there was a time limit for rescues. If the time ran out, the captured player would be deemed “eaten by the wild beasts” and thus eliminated.
Using the faint light, Wen Xia surveyed the room. The door was naturally locked, and he assumed that Lin Fengqi and the others were in a similar situation—each trapped in a separate room. So this was the first challenge of the escape room.
He approached the lock, noticing that it was a simple combination lock, likely due to this being the first puzzle. The necessary numbers had to be found within the room.
Given the repeated emphasis on the no-loud-noises rule, Wen Xia assumed that everyone would be keeping quiet at this point. As he wandered around the room, he didn’t hear a sound. But that was a mistake.
At least for now, the environment he was in was completely safe—the door was locked, and there were no windows.
So Wen Xia called out a bit louder than normal, “Is anyone else trapped in a room nearby?”
The decibel meter remained silent.
Someone responded from the adjacent room, “I am… Uh, hello.”
It was one of the two high school girls.
They hadn’t exchanged names since they were just teaming up for the escape room. Wen Xia leaned closer to the wall and asked, “Is your place safe? No windows?”
“No windows, and the door’s locked too.”
“Good.”
Wen Xia didn’t bother lowering his voice. If there were anyone else nearby, they should’ve heard him too, but only this girl responded.
Since no one else seemed to be nearby, he felt safe enough to shout, “If you’re in a safe spot and can hear me, give a shout to confirm your location!”
As soon as he finished speaking, his decibel meter went off, signaling an alarm.
Footsteps quickly approached his door, followed by someone frantically pounding on it.
At the same time, different noises could be heard in the distance. Wen Xia calmly listened to the sounds, noting that none of them seemed to be Lin Fengqi.
Because of the alarms triggered by the others who responded, the NPCs’ footsteps soon left his door and headed elsewhere.
Once the coast was clear, Wen Xia quickly searched the room for clues. It didn’t take him long to figure out the combination, and he even found a small, weak flashlight in the process.
After unlocking the door, he cautiously opened it a crack, using the flashlight to check the hallway outside. It was a narrow corridor, with no rooms on the opposite side—only a wall adorned with various eerie paintings and photographs. To the left was a dead end, while to the right was a T-junction.
Wen Xia recalled the path the staff had taken to lead him here, feeling a bit more confident about the layout.
Satisfied that the coast was clear, he slipped out of the room. The girl was in the room next to his, but it wasn’t directly adjacent; he had to turn right at the end of the corridor to find her door.
He followed the path he remembered, eventually finding the door to her room. With a bit of teamwork, he managed to get her out.
The girl, though lively and brave on the outside, seemed a bit intimidated in the dim and unsettling atmosphere of the escape room. Her mind wasn’t fully in the game yet, and without Wen Xia’s help, she might’ve been stuck in her room for quite a while.
There was no flashlight in her room, suggesting that it wasn’t a guaranteed item for everyone and was instead a scarce resource.
Wen Xia looked around before deciding to continue down the path he had been led through. Since he was the last to be locked up, retracing his steps might help him find the rooms where the others were being held.
The surroundings were pitch-black, the atmosphere eerie and dilapidated, with unsettling clown portraits and blood-stained old photos lining the walls.
The girl followed closely behind Wen Xia, clearly nervous.
Surprisingly, they didn’t encounter any NPCs on their way. After navigating through several twists and turns, they nearly ran into someone at a corner.
The flashlight’s beam caught the figure, and the girl behind Wen Xia, thinking it was an NPC, let out a short scream and tried to run. Fortunately, her scream was just under the decibel limit, so her meter didn’t go off. Wen Xia quickly grabbed her, motioning for her to be quiet and pressing his hand down to calm her.
The girl, still shaken, nodded and instinctively grabbed onto his shirt, looking at the person who had startled her.
The person they almost bumped into was Lin Fengqi.
Lin Fengqi didn’t have a flashlight either, so he had been groping his way in the dark. The sudden beam of light made him squint, but he soon recognized Wen Xia and… his gaze lingered on the girl’s hand clutching Wen Xia’s shirt.
He quickly regained his composure, observing the girl’s reaction. So this is what fear looks like?
“Where did you come from?” Wen Xia asked Lin Fengqi in a low voice after calming the girl down. “I asked everyone to shout their location earlier. Why didn’t you respond?”
Lin Fengqi pointed in the direction he had come from. “I was in a semi-open area.”
Lin Fengqi had been led to the men’s restroom, where he had his first encounter with an NPC. During the chase, Wen Xia’s shout had triggered an alarm, drawing the NPC away from him.
Once the NPC left, Lin Fengqi had followed the direction of the shout to find his way over. Without a flashlight, it had taken him quite a while to navigate.
After they met up, all three of them received a simultaneous message through their earpieces: “Please proceed to the dressing room within ten minutes.”
“Do you know where the dressing room is?” Wen Xia asked Lin Fengqi. “Did you see it on your way here?”
Lin Fengqi shook his head, moving closer to Wen Xia as he did so.
“Then we’ll have to split up and search,” Wen Xia sighed, looking at the other fork in the path they hadn’t explored yet. But with only three people, one of them would inevitably end up alone.
What should they do?
Of course, they couldn’t leave the girl on her own. Wen Xia remembered that he had planned to pretend to be scared, so while he really wanted to stick with Lin Fengqi, they had to split up for now. They could reunite in the dressing room later.
Wen Xia said, “I’ll go with this young lady. You… go alone for now.”
But Lin Fengqi hesitated for a moment, then moved even closer and said, “No.”
Wen Xia: “?”
“I…” The man bit his lip, speaking in a low voice. “There’s only one flashlight.” He still couldn’t bring himself to say the word “scared.”
“… That’s true.”
The girl couldn’t help but speak up, “If we don’t hurry, we might run out of time. And it won’t be easy for the one without the flashlight to move around.”
“Then we’ll stick together,” Wen Xia sighed. “We’ll have to pick one path and clear it as quickly as possible.”
At that moment, Xiao Ma’s voice rang out loudly from somewhere nearby: “Everyone, come to me! I’m in the dressing room—”
No sooner had he spoken than an alarm blared.
Footsteps began to approach from another direction, and the three exchanged glances before taking off running. There were no rooms or cabinets nearby to hide in, so they had no choice but to flee from the approaching NPC while heading toward Xiao Ma’s voice. If he dared to speak so loudly, it must mean the dressing room was safe.
Their footsteps echoed chaotically through the corridor.
Finally, they rounded a corner and saw a beam of light coming from a crack in a door up ahead. The light bobbed up and down, followed by Xiao Ma’s excited shout: “They’re here! Wen Ge, hurry, hurry!”
The three of them rushed inside, and Xiao Ma quickly slammed the door shut. But before he could lock it, the NPC began banging on the door from outside, accompanied by a piercing laugh that sent shivers down their spines.
There were two NPCs this time, and they were strong. It took all six of them working together to hold the door closed. As soon as the door was shut, Xiao Ma locked it. Now, no matter how much noise the NPCs made, they couldn’t get in. The dressing room had no windows, so after about ten seconds, the noise outside finally subsided.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the group was finally back together.
In addition to the flashlight Wen Xia had, Xiao Ma and the others had found two more, bringing their total to three small but dim flashlights.
With a few minutes left before the ten-minute mark, they took the opportunity to exchange information, mostly about the layout. The dressing room had paper and pens, so Wen Xia sketched a rough map based on what they knew. They realized that none of them had been to the center of the map yet.
“The center might be where the circus performance takes place,” Wen Xia suggested, pointing to the only blank area on the map with his pen. “That could be an important location for the final stage.”
As Xiao Ma had guessed, once the ten-minute mark passed, the controller began assigning tasks.
“Now, Charles and John, please proceed to the circus manager’s office, retrieve his notes, and destroy them.”
Wen Xia and Lin Fengqi exchanged glances.
Wen Xia remembered that his character’s name was Charles, and if he wasn’t mistaken, Lin Fengqi’s was John.
“Whew, at least they didn’t start with solo missions,” Xiao Ma sighed with relief. “Two people working together is much better.”
With one flashlight between them, Wen Xia and Lin Fengqi left the dressing room and headed toward the manager’s office.
The hallway was silent, with no sound of NPCs nearby. Lin Fengqi held the flashlight, and with no third person in tow, Wen Xia started thinking about how to convincingly fake fear.
But the path was so straightforward that he didn’t even get a chance to pretend. They quickly reached the office, where the door was slightly ajar, not locked, and opened with a gentle push.
However, as soon as the door opened, a dummy corpse suddenly dropped down from above, its mutilated face almost meeting Wen Xia’s in a grotesque kiss.
Wen Xia calmly stepped back two paces, avoiding it, and then realized this might be his chance.
He let out a small, controlled gasp of shock, trying to act like he was startled. He planned to use the opportunity to hide behind Lin Fengqi, maybe even sneak an arm around his waist or something. But before he could make his move, the person beside him also let out a sharp intake of breath and grabbed… his sleeve.
Wen Xia: “?”
Lin Fengqi: “…?”
The two of them stared at each other, both momentarily blank.
Just then, the dangling, swaying dummy let out a sharp, ear-piercing laugh, its clown makeup distorting into a grotesque grin. The sound was so loud and unsettling that it made their heads spin, and it triggered their decibel meters.
The laugh didn’t last long, quickly bursting like a balloon into silence, but the alarm on their decibel meters immediately went off.
NPCs’ footsteps could be heard rushing toward them.
Reacting quickly, the two of them pushed the dummy aside and entered the office. But the door’s lock was broken; they could only close it without actually securing it.
Within seconds, the NPCs reached the corridor, their creepy laughter eerily similar to that of the dummy.
Lin Fengqi swept the flashlight around the room and pulled Wen Xia along. “Over here, a cabinet.”
Wen Xia barely had time to register what was happening before Lin Fengqi dragged him into a wardrobe.
At almost the exact same moment, the office door was slammed open.
The NPCs stopped running and began to pace around the office, as if they were police officers searching for criminals. One of them seemed to be holding a knife, the blade dragging along the walls with a raspy, grating sound as they slowly approached the wardrobe.
Even though they knew that, according to the rules, NPCs wouldn’t check wardrobes, the tension was still palpable.
The wardrobe was not particularly spacious. With two adult men, both over six feet tall, squeezed inside, it was a tight fit.
Wen Xia and Lin Fengqi were pressed close together, so close that they could hear each other’s breathing—and heartbeats. It felt like they would end up kissing if either of them so much as turned their head.
To make things even more awkward… Wen Xia’s thigh seemed to be pressing against a rather delicate area.
Wen Xia wasn’t really scared, but for some reason, between hearing Lin Fengqi’s slightly labored breathing and the NPC approaching outside, he started to feel a little nervous.
He was feeling hot—maybe from the adrenaline rush, or maybe from something else. He could feel sweat starting to form on his back. He tried to shift his leg to move away from the awkward contact, but as soon as he did, Lin Fengqi’s breathing hitched.
Wen Xia immediately froze.
Finally, the NPC dragged their knife along the wardrobe.
The sound was muffled and rough, and then, suddenly, the knife was pulled back, and the NPC slapped their hands loudly against the wardrobe door. The impact sent tiny wood chips scattering, and a faint “creak” followed as the wardrobe door was slowly pried open a crack. The NPC’s clown-painted face appeared in the gap, grinning in a way that made their eyes seem to bulge.
They let out a low, sinister chuckle, the sound grotesquely cheerful: “Found you…”
Someone with a weaker constitution might have started crying at this point.
But two seconds later, Lin Fengqi did something unexpected. He turned off the flashlight, plunging them into complete darkness.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Almost immediately, Wen Xia felt Lin Fengqi grip his sleeve even tighter.
The warmth radiating from the man’s body inched closer to Wen Xia’s.
In that moment, Wen Xia’s heart pounded in his chest like a drum.
“… Scared,” Lin Fengqi murmured in the dark.
“…”
The NPC probably hadn’t expected to stumble into a couple’s moment of intimacy. After a few seconds of silence, there was another “creak” as the wardrobe door was closed again.
The NPC’s footsteps receded, leaving the office eerily quiet once more.
But Lin Fengqi didn’t turn the flashlight back on.
He was still holding onto Wen Xia’s sleeve, their breaths mingling in the confined space. Wen Xia felt like the man’s breath was practically brushing against his earlobe.
Wen Xia finally couldn’t hold back. “The ghost is gone.”
Lin Fengqi responded, “Mm.”
His voice was low and rough, like it was rubbing against Wen Xia’s nerves. Wen Xia suddenly felt parched. “We can leave now.”
“Let’s wait a bit longer,” Lin Fengqi replied.
“…Wait for what?”
In the tight, enclosed space, the air felt increasingly stifling.
The man’s voice carried a hint of hoarseness. “Wait until… I’m not scared anymore.”
“…”
Too close.
Wen Xia turned his head slightly in the darkness, looking in Lin Fengqi’s direction.
The grip on his sleeve tightened slightly.
Wen Xia licked his dry lips, asking, “How much longer until you’re not scared?”
Lin Fengqi didn’t answer. It seemed like he didn’t know either.
As a man, Wen Xia could somewhat understand the feeling.
He turned his head away again, inhaling and exhaling deeply, trying to calm himself down. He didn’t want to be the one who got “scared” once Lin Fengqi finally wasn’t.
After what felt like an eternity, though it had probably only been a few minutes, Lin Fengqi finally turned the flashlight back on, filling the cramped wardrobe with light.
Wen Xia squinted at the sudden brightness, glancing over at Lin Fengqi.
The man’s expression was calm, but his eyes still held a hint of something dark and unfathomable, making Wen Xia’s heart skip a beat.
“Let’s go,” Lin Fengqi said, quickly turning his face away in what seemed like an attempt to hide his flushed ears.
His ears, it seemed, always betrayed his true feelings.
But why hadn’t he been like this before?
Wen Xia carefully moved his leg away, and the two of them finally escaped from the strange little prison of the wardrobe.
The NPC’s visit had delayed their task somewhat. After taking a moment to regain their composure, they focused on completing their mission.
The circus manager’s notes weren’t easy to find. At first, they thought they would be on the desk, but after searching through all the papers, they came up empty. So they split up—one checking the bookshelf, the other searching the desk drawers.
Wen Xia quickly discovered that one of the drawers was locked, and he guessed that this was where the notes were hidden. “Look for the key.”
Lin Fengqi eventually found the key inside the pages of a book, just as the controller’s voice came through their earpieces: “You don’t have much time left. Please complete your task as soon as possible.”
The controller didn’t specify how much time was left, and even if they had, Wen Xia and Lin Fengqi had no way of keeping track. Their phones had been taken at the start of the game.
Unlocking the drawer, they found the notes inside.
Wen Xia quickly skimmed through them and found a piece of paper tucked near the end that seemed to be a clue for a puzzle. It was likely the key piece of information they needed from the notes.
The notes also contained some background story about the circus—how it had gone from thriving to declining, and what horrifying events had led to the hauntings. Once they had the information, they followed the instructions and destroyed the notes—by simply tearing them to shreds.
“Now beginning the final thirty-second countdown,” the controller announced, their voice cold and indifferent. “30, 29, 28—”
Wen Xia and Lin Fengqi made it back to the dressing room just in time, arriving at the last second.
Xiao Ma let out a huge sigh of relief. “I was so scared you two wouldn’t make it back. Did you find anything?”
Wen Xia handed over the piece of paper that seemed like a puzzle clue.
The controller’s voice came through again: “Having realized the dark secrets behind the circus, Charles decided to keep the paper for future use.”
Everyone exchanged uneasy looks. No matter how they thought about it, that piece of paper seemed like a death flag.
But since Charles—Wen Xia—was specifically named, he had no choice but to accept his fate and hold onto it.
“By the way, what took you two so long?” Xiao Ma asked, oblivious to the significant point he had stumbled upon. “Was the task difficult? I heard a lot of loud laughter from the office, and your decibel meters went off, right? It sounded like the ghost stayed there for a while.”
Stayed… It wasn’t that long.
Wen Xia glanced at Lin Fengqi and smoothly lied, “Yeah, you guys should be careful during your tasks. The ghost might double back; we barely avoided getting caught.”
Everyone nodded, both worried and impressed.
Next up was a solo mission, assigned to one of the two high school girls—the same one who had been with Wen Xia earlier.
Unfortunately, she was caught by an NPC and locked in a cage.
The controller announced, “You now have fifteen minutes to find the key to the cage and rescue your teammate.”
Xiao Ma tugged at his hair. “How are we supposed to know when fifteen minutes are up—”
Wen Xia cut him off, “Just move as quickly as possible.”
Rescuing someone was a high-risk task because, according to the rules, the NPCs would be in a frenzy during this stage. Not only that, but there was more than one NPC, and they would be swarming the area, hunting the players, all while another player had to complete their solo mission.
Fittingly, circus music blared through the speakers, red and blue lights flashing in sync. Everyone’s decibel meters began to go off nonstop, creating a chaotic and intense atmosphere.
Time was of the essence, so they quickly divided the work, each person heading to a different area to search for clues. Wen Xia had barely stepped out of the dressing room when he felt a hand grab his sleeve.
He was forced to stop and turned around. “What’s wrong?”
Lin Fengqi reached up to brush some wood chips off Wen Xia’s hair. “You’ve got some wood dust.”
It was from when the NPC had slammed the wardrobe door in the office, shaking it loose.
The memory of that cramped wardrobe suddenly came rushing back, making Wen Xia instinctively glance down.
Noticing Wen Xia’s gaze, Lin Fengqi paused, then said in a low voice, “I’m not scared anymore.”
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