Chapter 163: The Unknown is the Most Terrifying
It was as if he was repeating the previous operation, slowly moving forward. But there seemed to be a slight difference. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but Leo always felt that the light in front of him had dimmed. He seemed to hear a hollow creak coming from nowhere, and a series of teeth-grinding creaks.
Walking down the hallway, Leo felt as if someone was silently following him, whispering in his ear: "There's a ghost in front, there's a ghost behind, there's a ghost above me, there are ghosts everywhere in this house!" "But I don't know when or where that ghost will appear."
The first half of the hallway was exactly the same as before, but upon reaching the radio, two cockroaches suddenly fell from the sky, which made Leo stop. The chandelier above his head automatically emitted a teeth-grinding creak without any wind. From there, he could see the second-floor railing. 'Could it be...?'
Leo suddenly felt goosebumps. He took a deep breath and looked up. However, the second floor was completely dark, only the railing was visible.
Seeing this, Leo breathed a sigh of relief, but his heart was still tense. For a moment, he even hoped to see a monster to have some peace of mind.
Slowly walking forward, he reached the door at the end, and reached out to open it. But it seemed locked. He turned the doorknob twice, but it only clicked and did not move.
"They won't let me go any further? Are they going to come back?" "Knock, knock, knock!"
Just as Leo was still thinking, a sudden knock came from the door around the corner. The sudden and violent knock in the silent environment startled Leo. But it was a normal human reaction.
Upon reaching the door, the monster seemed to notice someone approaching and stopped knocking. Silence returned.
"If you can knock on the door, you can open it!" Leo tried to turn the doorknob, but failed as before. Clearly, this was not the right way either. Leo was getting more and more nervous, and the subconscious murmur of the game's situations was the best proof of this.
Following the loop, Leo saw a photo that had fallen on the ground in front of his electronic clock, although it was blurry and undecipherable. He instinctively crouched down to get a better look, and three lines of text appeared on the previously blurry photo.
[Can you hear my voice?] [Can you decipher this message?] [If you come to me, I will always be waiting for you.]
"Crack..."
After reading these three lines and getting up from the floor, Leo heard the sound of a door opening. Remembering the words on the photo, his heart raced.
'The door opened! Could it be the same door someone had knocked on before? Had the monster inside escaped?'
With uncertainty in his mind, Leo mustered the courage to return to the hallway. However, the entire journey went smoothly, without any energy. But, just like before, the more the situation repeated itself, the more nervous Leo became.
The door around the corner did not open, only the one leading to the underground stairs. He continued walking and opened the basement door. As Leo expected, behind the door was the same long hallway as before.
But this time it was different. The entrance didn't look very different, but upon reaching the corner, a quick knock was heard on the door, and then, in the airtight room, a baby's cry was heard.
"No... don't tell me this door can be opened now!" Leo felt a tingling in his head.
However, upon reopening the game, it was still stuck. He advanced again and the cycle began again.
"Please, I beg you, please, let go of whatever it is! Just give me a scare!"
Leo was already trembling. Never before had a game depressed him so much. Even so, not a single uncomfortable scene had occurred. However, that fear lingered in his mind, unable to shake it off.
Technically, from the moment he entered the game, he had been running down that hallway, from the entrance to the end, over and over again. At most, there would be some different sound effects, but even this monotonous scene instilled an immense psychological pressure. It was a brilliant psychological trick, keeping you constantly terrified.
Imagine waking up alone in a strange hallway and experiencing a ghostly experience. But then, strange things happened, revealing that you were not alone in that room, or rather, that you were the only person. Surprising, right?
The most crucial point is that you don't even know what the people who share the room with you look like.
The human imagination is limitless, and that's precisely why the unknown is the most terrifying.
In typical horror games, the scare is like a bullet being fired; when it hits you, you scream in pain. But in the Silent Hill series, the terror is like a ticking time bomb...
What exactly does this game contain? Since the testers had to remain completely disconnected from the test content, they could only see Leo's data; the demo itself was completely invisible. Meanwhile, in another room, a group of designers, some of the more timid ones, had unconsciously gathered around the designers who were next to them.
Alex looked at Mark, who was sitting beside him, and discreetly moved to the right.
At that moment, a designer in the crowd finally couldn't help but ask: "Could you turn on the lights? It's too dark and we can't see clearly."
Someone started the conversation, and instantly, the followers gathered.
"Yes! Turn on the lights! The room's lighting is too dim and it's bad for our eyesight." "Sure, sure, that makes sense." "Also, I think we could turn down the air conditioning. Are you cold?" "Yes, of course, it's only May, no need to turn it up!"
Watching the synchronized images of Silent Hill PT from the testers on the big screen, the designers in the room started the conversation. Mark, in particular, felt incredibly relieved.
'Luckily, this virtual reality device can only be tested by testers; otherwise, I doubt I would die of fear.'
The same goes for other game designers. There's something they have to admit: the Silent Hill PT in front of them can only be described as impressive. Obviously, so far, there has not been a single scary moment, but the atmosphere composed of the game's graphics, lighting, and sound effects has already caused a deep fear in people.
So, what will the image be like when the scary moment appears?
And just by observing, and it's not a virtual reality version, and they are doing it in a group, they can already feel fear.
So, what kind of feeling do the testers who experience it feel?
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