Chapter 164: All Evil Has Its Culprit, and I am Not Your Husband!
Leo didn't know if the others were scared or not. At that moment, he was paralyzed. He had just entered a new cycle. In the locked room around the corner, a baby's cry grew louder.
"Woo-wah... woo-wah..."
But upon reaching the wooden door at the end of the hallway, the previously open door slammed shut by an unseen force. The baby's crying abruptly ceased. The only sound in his ears was the agonizing creak of the chandelier hanging from the ceiling. And just then, a creak came from behind him.
'The door behind him, where the baby's cries had come from, seemed to have opened!'
With his gaze fixed on the wooden door in front of him, Leo didn't dare to look back. He had already developed some theories about the game, based on the radio broadcast he had activated while walking down the hallway. The baby's crying in the game probably corresponded to a murdered child. Could the sound of the door opening at that moment be that of the pregnant wife murdered by her husband? Was she already behind him at that moment?
'What did she look like?'
The idea sent a shiver down his spine. He stood there for about ten seconds, took two deep breaths, and turned around abruptly. But everything was completely silent, not a single movement.
Seeing this, Leo relaxed a little.
"Alright, we're moving on to the next stage. Can I go into this room?"
Looking at the slightly ajar door, Leo slowly approached, his mind filled with speculation. The moment his hand touched the doorknob, a white figure suddenly emerged from the crack, its pale, ghostly face fixed on him. He slammed the door shut with a loud bang.
"Good grief!"
Just like a startled man, the terrifying atmosphere of the previous Silent Hill PT had left Leo deeply apprehensive. He even felt that if he saw a ghost, it would be fine; at least he could die consciously. But all of a sudden, seeing this, he couldn't take it anymore. His innocent vocal cords also bore the excessive pressure.
"Does this mean I can still play? Am I that strong and mentally brave?" Leo swallowed, watching as the game continued.
In the past, during testing, some players had been interrupted and rested for some reason. Back then, Leo considered it a sign of weakness. But now, he had to admit, he had never felt so much like being weak.
The pressure this game had put on him was simply excessive. From the graphics to the sound effects and lighting, Alex had crafted the game's terrifying atmosphere to perfection. Leo simply couldn't understand why such a sinister game existed in the mortal world! Was this a game a normal person could create?
Looking at the closed bathroom door, Leo took a deep breath. The door at the end of the hallway, which had been locked, opened again; the meaning was evident. This meant he could continue to the next reincarnation in the hallway.
But the only good news was that Leo could now determine that the female ghost in the game was the victim from the radio before.
Passing through the basement door again, the scene behind the door was exactly the same. But the careful Leo noticed that there were more cockroaches in the house. What made him feel even stranger was that the previous baby's crying was replaced by a woman's voice.
'Hehe... uh... ah... wuwuwu... um... ah'.
An extremely strange voice, it was unclear whether she was laughing or crying, and it was accompanied by a strong bubbling vibrato. It was as if someone was drowning in their throat, with saliva trapped in their throat and groaning.
As they advanced, the lights dimmed and the woman's voice grew louder. In the corner, Leo's body trembled. Because under the distant light stood a tall, faceless female ghost. At that moment, Leo felt as if a giant hand was squeezing his heart.
Taking a deep breath, Leo gritted his teeth and looked ahead. The unknown was his greatest fear. Why had he been so scared before? Wasn't it because he didn't know that a female ghost existed? Wasn't it because he didn't know what she would look like when she appeared?
Now that the female ghost was in front of him, what could he fear?
But the moment Leo took a step forward, his heart sank like the sudden turning off of the lights in front of him. A surge of energy, then weakness, finally exhaustion. The female ghost retreated into the darkness once again. The courage he had mustered vanished before he could use it, and the previous fear of the unknown returned, even more intense than before. He knew that a female ghost was in the room, but he had no idea where she was hiding, watching him.
Behind him, above him, behind him, in the closet, in the bathroom stall... it seemed like he could be crossing the street with the old woman. Leo advanced in short steps, while the ghost's bubbling voice continued, sending shivers down his spine. It wasn't until he reached the spot where the ghost had been that the lights came back on.
The instant they came on, countless cockroaches scattered, sending shivers down his spine.
Swallowing, Leo went through the basement door again. Now, he had finally understood some of the implications of the Silent Hill PT demo. With each reincarnation, the hallway seemed to undergo strange changes.
So what would change this time?
The first half of the hallway remained exactly the same, but upon turning the corner, Leo noticed that the bathroom door, which had previously been closed, had opened. Taking a deep breath, Leo entered the dark bathroom and found a flickering flashlight on the floor. Clearly, in that dark bathroom, the only way to see what was going on was with the flashlight in front of him.
Swallowing, Leo controlled his character to slowly crouch down and pick up the flashlight from the floor. As soon as he picked it up, he heard a thump behind him. The bathroom door slammed shut, and at that very instant, the baby's pitiful sobs resonated again. Following the sound, Leo shined the flashlight in the direction of the sound. In the sink, a deformed, underdeveloped fetus lay. The moment the flashlight touched it, the sobs suddenly turned into a loud wail.
"Dong, dong, dong..."
Just as the sobs began, Leo clearly heard the sound of high heels outside the door. He didn't even have time to react.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The doorknob was frantically pulled, and even with the female ghost's tugs, the bathroom door kept opening, a gap through which he could even see the pale figure outside. In the darkness, the flashlight, which was always on, flickered again. The metallic sound of the doorknob being pulled outside and the baby's crying immediately broke Leo's psychological defenses.
"Stop pulling! It has nothing to do with me, please, let me go!" "All evil has its culprit, and your husband is not me!" "I didn't kill you, or the child, stop pulling!"
In the game, Leo controlled his character and crouched in the corner of the bathroom, venting his fear by shouting incoherently, with a slight cry in his shouts. At that moment, he swore that he had never been so scared in his life.
'Why hadn't his connection to the virtual reality console been forcibly disconnected?' 'Was this function broken?'
Leo had started having crazy thoughts, but just when he felt he was about to collapse, everything finally stopped. The baby's crying ceased, the female ghost outside the house seemed to have disappeared, and the bathroom door, which had been closed, was ajar. Taking a deep breath, Leo peeked his head out and everything seemed to have returned to normal. He waited for a while, but there was still no movement. The only thing that remained unchanged was the door to the next reincarnation.
A common door, but the feeling it gave Leo was like the bloody mouth of a beast.
"Prosperity, democracy, civilization, harmony, freedom..." he said after a moment of hesitation.
At that moment, Leo silently recited the core values and followed his own steps.
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