I Play the Horror World as a Simulation Game

The quiet campus was filled with a decaying atmosphere, as if it had been abandoned for a long time, even though it was bustling with the sound of books during the day.

In the deathly silent campus, the gradually brightening moonlight spilled over, and at the center, a weathered statue with an indistinct face was shrouded in shadows, resembling a small giant sitting cross-legged.

"The school at night is just a bit more eerie, nothing significantly different," Qin Nuo glanced at his watch. It was 2 a.m., and he had arrived half an hour early to explore more areas.

In the corridor of the teaching building, the moonlight couldn't penetrate, and the end was pitch black. Qin Nuo moved through the corridor with a flashlight.

The glaring beam swept across the doors and windows of the classrooms, but the terrifying atmosphere didn't affect Qin Nuo's mood. His mind was full of questions he could think of.

"The clues mentioned strange noises in certain corners at night, but I've been walking for so long and haven't heard anything except my own footsteps."

"Or do these things only appear after 2:30 a.m.? Most likely, the noises are from ghosts. Do ghosts really clock in for night shifts on time?"

As he pondered, Qin Nuo suddenly stopped. The beam of light in his hand rested on the corridor ahead.

There was a chair with a puppet doll sitting on it.

Its jaw seemed to have been struck, and its face was painted with exaggerated makeup, poorly done, making the puppet's face even more horrifying.

Seeing such a creepy puppet doll in the eerie atmosphere of a ghost school at midnight, one could easily imagine various horror movie scenarios unfolding.

The light shone on the puppet doll, and Qin Nuo imagined it turning its wooden head to stare at him with a smile.

Disappointingly, it just sat there, motionless.

"Which mischievous kid put this here to scare people?"

Qin Nuo walked over and examined the puppet doll closely, finding nothing special about it.

He didn't pay it much more attention and continued walking with his flashlight.

As Qin Nuo walked away, the corridor was swallowed by darkness again.

The clouds covering the full moon drifted by, and the faint moonlight shone down once more, gradually dispelling the corridor's darkness.

In a classroom, a palm-sized light figure darted out of the window and quickly rushed onto the puppet doll in the corridor.

Crack.

A few seconds later, a crisp sound echoed in the corridor, the sound of wood colliding.

The joints of the damaged puppet doll's body moved, and its wooden head slowly twisted, looking in the direction Qin Nuo had left...

...

At this moment, Qin Nuo arrived at another corridor, the one in the complex building.

The complex building housed classrooms for practical courses, with many miscellaneous items piled up inside, even in the corridor.@@novelbin@@

Some skeleton models were scattered among the clutter, stimulating the eyes like a pile of corpses.

The flashlight shone into the classroom, revealing several shadows standing there, seemingly facing Qin Nuo. Upon illumination, they turned out to be just a few human models. 𝘙𝖆Νŏ฿Ęʂ

"This place is simply a perfect movie set. There's no need to deliberately use camera angles or background music to create a horror atmosphere. Just standing here, everything is perfectly rendered."

Qin Nuo was used to this; as a seasoned player, words like horror didn't even exist in his dictionary.

He thought he might not be at that level yet, but what lay before him was rather mundane.

"I smell a familiar scent," the Blood-Eyed Ghost suddenly spoke.

"What familiar scent?"

"A curse."

"Another curse?" Qin Nuo's eyes flickered. Curses were troublesome, intangible, and the most terrifying.

Qin Nuo took out a pack of cigarettes.

Naturally, they were Constantine's Cigarettes.

This ghost item, besides pulling souls back from hell, also had some immunity to curses and could sense approaching curses, though only against simple ones.

It was a ghost item specifically opposed to curses.

Lighting a cigarette and placing it at the corner of his mouth, he didn't inhale. The flame burned the tobacco, releasing wisps of gray smoke.

"Cigarettes can ease tension, relax nerves, and inexplicably calm the mind. I must say, it's a good thing. Taking a puff or two occasionally is no harm."

Qin Nuo wasn't addicted to smoking; he smoked when he felt like it, usually when he was in a bad mood.

Checking the time again, there were about fifteen minutes left until 2:30 a.m.

Qin Nuo didn't plan to linger and started heading back, but just then, he suddenly heard some sounds.

"Sounds like... a radio?"

Who would be playing music in the school at this time?

Qin Nuo followed the source of the sound.

As he moved, the music became clearer.

The music came from the top floor, the fourth floor. When Qin Nuo reached the fourth floor, his eyebrows twitched.

The cigarette in his mouth suddenly burned faster!

He hadn't even taken a puff.

As Qin Nuo walked down the corridor, Constantine's Cigarette burned rapidly, as if being inhaled by a hairdryer!

Ashes kept falling, and the tobacco turned to ash in the flame.

In less than half a minute, the cigarette burned to the end!

Qin Nuo looked at the ashes on the ground, then ahead, his expression turning serious: "The scent of the curse is so strong?"

"Wasn't there supposed to be movement at 2:30?"

The sound came from a room at the end. Qin Nuo placed his hand on the doorknob, hesitated for a moment, then pushed the door open.

The room was spacious, two classrooms connected, filled with rows of seats from bottom to top, and at the far end was a brightly lit stage.

Several students were on stage, performing a skit.

The students were around eleven or twelve years old, performing with enthusiasm, completely ignoring Qin Nuo.

"The source of the curse?" Qin Nuo asked.

"No, just targets of the curse," the Blood-Eyed Ghost replied.

Qin Nuo blinked and walked down to sit in the front row.

There were three children on stage, moving back and forth, their faces lightly made up.

Beside them, a radio played soothing background music, with a simple melody.

The three children were deeply engrossed, but soon seemed to have a conflict, leading to an argument.

The child in blue, the smallest, looked very aggrieved, loudly complaining, "Why am I always the horse for you to ride? I'm not doing it anymore! Unless you let me ride you as a horse once!"

The other two children, a boy and a girl, were clearly one or two years older than the child in blue.

The girl in red crossed her arms with a bossy demeanor, "Who told you to act so poorly? Don't be picky. It's already good that we let you join."

"Being a horse is great. It really tests your acting skills. I think you play it so realistically, you're perfect for playing an animal!" the chubby boy laughed loudly.

The boy called Agai was so angry his face turned black, he threw his headpiece on the ground, his face flushed, "I'm not doing it anymore, whoever wants to do it can do it! Boohoo, it's so unfair!"

The bossy girl glared at the boy in yellow, then turned to comfort him, "Don't cry, next you'll play the dad, I'll play the mom, and Dafu will be the one being ridden."

"Who's going to play the son?"

"It's Yanan, but who knows where that guy ran off to."

The bossy girl looked around, her face full of helplessness.

At this point, they noticed there was an audience member sitting below the stage.

"Is it an adult, a teacher?" Dafu whispered.

Qin Nuo smiled and said, "I'm a teacher. Which class are you from? You're performing very well."

This was no lie. Despite being children, their skit didn't feel like child's play. Their control over expressions and emotional delivery was spot on.

It was clear they had some acting skills.

"Teacher, we're from Class One, sixth grade Class One!" the three children said, grinning widely at the praise.

Sixth grade Class One?

Qin Nuo thought to himself, isn't this the class I teach? Why don't I remember these little rascals?

"Teacher, we're missing a role here. Are you interested?" the bossy girl asked with a playful smile, showing a small canine tooth.

Qin Nuo shook his head, "The teacher will just watch. You perform, isn't it better to have an audience?"

The three children were about to speak when the classroom door suddenly opened, and a disheveled, dirty child with a runny nose ran in.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm late. I had a stomachache, went to the bathroom, my legs went numb, wiped my butt and rushed over!" The child spoke with a rustic accent, wiping his nose on his sleeve, revealing uneven teeth with a silly grin.

The whole person looked silly, and Qin Nuo thought the name "Goudan" suited him perfectly.

The three children clearly disliked the boy, the bossy girl looked at the door and frowned, "Atu, your acting is terrible, didn't we tell you not to come?"

"We're looking for Yanan."

"Yeah, you're so sloppy, you'll ruin our performance, you should go back."

The children spoke bluntly, not caring how Atu felt.

Atu scratched his head, showing no signs of being upset or discouraged, "Yanan couldn't come because of something at home, so I came to replace him!"

"Don't worry, I'll do my best, I won't be worse than Yanan."

The three children exchanged glances, having no choice but to let him replace Yanan.

"You sit below the stage, when it's your turn, come up."

"Don't mess it up, or we'll beat you up!"

Atu seemed very happy, obediently sitting below the stage.

The bossy girl looked at Qin Nuo, smiling, "Teacher, watch our performance, and later give us scores to see who performed the best!"

Qin Nuo smiled slightly, "Sure."

Nearly 2:30 a.m., coming to a ghost school's stage room to watch a few little ghosts perform.

A strange time, strange people, strange events.

Everything seemed pre-arranged.

Where did these little ghosts come from? Why were they here in the middle of the night?

Could the main clue's target be these little ghosts?

Various doubts seemed shrouded in a layer of black fog, making it hard to uncover.

Qin Nuo, though puzzled, felt that following these little ghosts' lead might reveal something.

Atu came down from the stage, sat next to Qin Nuo, and grinned, wiping his runny nose on his sleeve, "Teacher, did you come specifically to watch us perform?"

Qin Nuo didn't answer directly, instead asking, "Why are you called Atu?"

"My dad named me. He's not very educated, and there are several brothers at home. They wanted a girl, but I turned out to be another boy, very disappointing."

"My mom was digging sweet potatoes the day I was born, and I fell right into the dirt, so my dad casually named me Atu."

Qin Nuo nodded thoughtfully.

"Why didn't Yanan come?" Qin Nuo asked.

"Teacher, Yanan is a boy. He had something at home, so I came instead. Otherwise, I wouldn't even be on stage," Atu said happily.

At this point, the performance on stage was about halfway through, Agai gestured to Atu, who quickly went on stage.

Qin Nuo also focused entirely on the so-called skit.

To his surprise, the skit's content was very adult, depicting a family full of conflicts, with parents having a fierce argument due to a third party, causing the once-happy family to break apart.

Hmm... it reminded him of Li Xiaoming's family.

Four little ghosts, one play.

With only Qin Nuo as the audience, they all performed with great effort.

What surprised Qin Nuo even more was that Atu, despite looking sloppy and not very smart, performed vividly, with few lines but already outshining the other three children.

His acting talent was evident.

The performance ended quickly, and Qin Nuo clapped his hands. The little ghosts eagerly asked, "Teacher, how did we do? Who was the best?"

"You were all excellent, but if I had to pick the best, it would be him," Qin Nuo pointed at Atu.

Atu jumped up joyfully, proudly saying, "See, my acting is no worse than Yanan's. The teacher said I was the best!"

"You can't say I'm bad anymore!"

The three little ghosts were clearly displeased, glaring at Qin Nuo, pouting, "Teacher, your judgment is terrible, how are we worse than Atu?"

"Yeah, you have no taste!"

Qin Nuo smiled slightly, "Everyone has different opinions. I'm just giving my personal impression, it doesn't mean you're worse than Atu."

"It's just my own view."

Qin Nuo thought he had put it gently, but the three little ghosts' faces turned even darker.

Dense corpse spots spread across their faces, ghost aura enveloped them.

It was as if saying Atu's acting was better was a great insult.

The bossy girl's dress turned a vivid blood-red, she tilted her head, revealing her smile with a canine tooth, but this time it wasn't playful or cute, it was more horrifying and dangerous.

"Teacher, we're missing someone to play a corpse, how about you?"

"We think you'd be perfect!"