Chapter 162: Circular Corridor
Only darkness was visible, and not a sound could be heard. At the same time, Leo felt a chill. The semi-enclosed gaming chamber also had its own cooling system, which players could turn on or off, and some games even auto-regulated upon activation.
"Careful, that opening in the door... it's another parallel reality." "It's me. Are you sure you're the only you?"
Two subtitles appeared before Leo, leaving him a little confused. But before he could understand the meaning of those two phrases, the game screen appeared.
At the beginning of the game, it was evident that the protagonist was waking up from the cold floor. The cooling effect of the VR game chamber was activated, causing Leo to involuntarily shiver. The game screen also trembled with this shudder.
A very realistic cockroach walked past him, making Leo's mouth twitch. Although he was 1.85 meters tall, cockroaches, spiders, and other insects made him a little squeamish. It wasn't fear, just nauseating.
At that very moment, the wooden door of the room, which was tightly closed, suddenly opened with a creak. Leo remained completely unfazed. After all, he had just started the game, and this kind of scene was not uncommon, so he remained calm.
He observed the room. The game began in a completely dark room, surrounded by concrete walls that resembled a rough house. In front of the room was a wooden door, barely ajar. Above the door frame was an incandescent light, but it only emitted a faint glow.
Without rushing, Leo experimented with the controls. He discovered that he could only perform basic actions, such as walking, controlling his hands with simple movements, and crouching. Crawling, jumping, running, etc., did not work at all, which clearly indicated that the game lacked a relevant action system.
The game lacked interface prompts, which did not surprise Leo. After all, it was just a demo to test, not a real game. He hoped that the rest of the game would be more thrilling and exciting.
Leo was still quite relaxed. He pushed the door, revealing a narrow hallway. It was barely wide enough for two people to walk together. Incandescent lights illuminated the walls and the end of the hallway. However, the range of the light was strangely limited: it was incredibly bright where the lights were, while the rest was dim. This stark contrast of brightness and darkness gave the game's graphics an unsettling feel.
Leo also noticed that, while some murals on the walls were clearly visible, others seemed deliberately blurred, which prevented him from discerning their content. Additionally, the performance of the new virtual reality headset had improved significantly, making the game experience even more realistic. These realistic graphics, combined with the unsettling atmosphere, instantly increased the tension.
However, as a carefully selected tester, Leo had seen many spectacular scenes before, so he simply stopped, took in the situation, and continued on his way.
Halfway down the hallway, on the right, there was a recess with a table inside. There was an electronic clock that read: 23:59. On the wall above the electronic clock, there were several very blurry paintings. One of them seemed to be a U, but there was a black dot in the middle, which looked very strange. There were many empty wine bottles piled up next to the corner of the table, as if suggesting that the owner of the house drank often.
It didn't seem special. But it was a little strange. The main reason was that the environment was too quiet. With every step he took, the sound of his footsteps on the floor seemed to be stepping on Leo's heart. This silence, where you could only hear the sound of footsteps, made the entire gaming experience a little depressing.
After confirming that the clock was nothing special, Leo continued down the hallway. He soon reached the end, where it turned a corner. Beyond the corner, another narrow hallway opened up. On the left, a wooden closet lay in disarray. There was a broken-looking phone, photos of what appeared to be the owner and his wife, and several white pills on the table: a complete mess.
As before, Leo found nothing and continued on.
In the corner, a door seemed firmly closed, unable to be opened. In front, a door that seemed to lead to the basement was open. On the left, there were coat hangers, and on the right, a photo of the owner and his wife, a radio, and numerous cigarette butts. Just above, was the second floor and a dimly lit chandelier.
Upon approaching, a loud noise emanated from the radio, which slowly became clearer. It sounded like a news report.
"On the day of the murder, the father reached into the trunk of his car, pulled out a shotgun, and shot his wife while she was cleaning the kitchen after dinner. When their ten-year-old son came to investigate, the father also shot him. Their six-year-old daughter cleverly hid in the bathroom, but reports indicate that he told her it was just a game and lured her out, where he shot her in the chest at point-blank range. The father's wife was pregnant at the time. Police arrived after receiving a call from a neighbor and found the father in his car listening to the radio. In the days leading up to the murders, neighbors reported hearing the father repeat a series of numbers out loud, describing him as chanting strange incantations. Last month, another family in the same state was murdered, as well as another one in December. A man murdered his entire family with a shotgun and a butcher knife. In both cases, the father was the culprit."
"State police claim that this series of family tragedies do not appear to be related, although they could be part of the broader social challenges that ordinary families face, such as unemployment, childcare, and other social problems."
Standing there for a moment, Leo gathered a lot of crucial information from the radio. 'Could it be that this house I'm in is the same one where the tragedy happened? Am I playing the murderous father?'. Leo observed the place privately. As before, nothing was happening. However, a sense of uncertainty persisted. He had a lingering feeling that a monster might appear and scare him. But so far, there didn't seem to be any particularly dramatic scenes.
He had played Alex's Outlast and had been similarly startled by various elements. But this simple demo, called Silent Hill PT, had given him a completely different experience. It was not only because it was a virtual reality game, but, above all, because of the overall atmosphere.
Taking a deep breath, Leo forced himself to ignore those distracting thoughts and focus on the game at hand. After all, he still had to test it. He slowly advanced, slower than an old man strolling in the park.
Upon crossing the open door, going down the stairs, and opening it again, Leo was stunned. Everything in front of him was familiar. It was the hallway from the beginning of the game.
'It's back? Two lights were on, one in front and one behind. The blurry painting on the left wall was still hanging. The digital clock read 23:59. A ghost, a ghost?'
Leo suddenly felt a chill. Until that moment, the entire game had been set in the hallway. Apart from the cockroaches at the beginning, no other creature had appeared moving, but he already felt an oppression and a growing panic inside him.
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