After closing the wooden door, Sean—using the night vision on his camera—pulled the lever down.
With a mechanical grinding sound, the engine kicked on.
Sean carefully backed into a corner.
He waited for about six or seven seconds, but nothing happened.
"Bro, why are you still hiding? Come on, I told you this would work. Hurry and get out of there before the lunatic actually shows up," Mike said from beside him.
"Hold on, I'm freaking out. Give me a second to breathe," Sean panted, but he started moving. After checking the room and finding nothing useful, he got ready to open the door.
Meanwhile, Mike kept chatting with him: "Relax, man. It's not like the monster's gonna spawn right at the door."
Just as he said that, the doorknob slowly turned and pushed open the wooden door.
And right then—a pale, horrifying face appeared out of nowhere.
"AHHHHHH!"
A scream loud enough to scare off Pavarotti burst out of Sean's mouth.
He fell back into his chair, completely limp.
That psycho's face had been right in front of his—basically nose to nose.
It came out of nowhere, and the scare was so bad that he even knocked the webcam off position.
In the game, the madman raised a spiked plank and swung it at him.
"I'm not dead! I'm not dead yet!"
Even though he was scared stiff, Sean quickly pulled himself back to the screen when he realized his character was still alive. He moved the chair forward and started running in the game.
The music in his headphones turned into a high-pitched, creepy orchestral theme. Combined with the night vision and the chase scene, his heart was pounding and his back was drenched in sweat.
"Damn it, damn it, where am I supposed to run?!"
"Come on then! Damn it! If I had a weapon, I'd beat the crap out of you!"
Controlling his character, Sean ran around the dark basement like a headless chicken.
As soon as he saw a path, he ran into it. If he saw a box, he jumped over it.
Sitting in front of the computer, Sean was sweating, and his usually small eyes were now wide open.
Even the hand holding the mouse was shaking a little.
Because this game was just too scary.
The setting, the atmosphere, the pacing—how the hell could a horror game be this terrifying?
Hearing the heavy footsteps of the mental patient behind him, Sean didn't even dare to look back.
Right now, he had only one thought in his mind—run.
As for anything else?
He didn't have time to think about it.
In the game, Sean was running purely on instinct. He didn't even know where he had ended up.
And just then, after turning a corner and hopping over something like a step, he heard a sharp electric noise.
The red battery bar at the top right of the camera flashed twice, then the night vision flickered and the screen went dark.
He had kept the night vision on the whole time and didn't even notice the battery was almost out. And now, it had finally run out.
"Shit! Shit! Why's it out of power?!"
"What's the button to change the battery?!"
Sean totally panicked. For a moment, he even forgot how to change the battery.
The hallway was pitch black, and in this state, he had completely lost his sense of direction.
What made it worse was that he could still hear the growls and footsteps of the mental patient getting closer through his headphones.
Finally, with a click, Sean managed to put in a new battery.
But right after he turned the night vision back on, he let out a scream that could rival Pavarotti's high notes.
Because right in front of him, the mental patient had already rushed up close. Under night vision, the guy's face looked like a freaking ghost, scaring the life out of Sean.
"Get the hell away from me! Get away from me!"
At that point, he didn't even know what he was yelling anymore.
He just turned and ran in the opposite direction. At the corner, he saw a wooden door and dashed into it without thinking.
Inside the wooden door was the final switch, but Sean wasn't even focused on that.
Because aside from the switch, he also saw two lockers in the room.
It was like a dying man in a desert spotting an oasis, or a starving wolf seeing its prey.
Seeing those lockers, Sean was overjoyed.
He rushed forward, triggered the locker interaction, and hid inside.
Right after that, *bang! bang!* came the sound of the door being slammed.
As the wooden door burst open, the mental patient walked into the room.
Just like before, he wandered around for a bit, opened the locker next to Sean's, mumbled something, and left.
Sean let out a deep breath, leaned back in his chair, and covered his chest with both hands.
Then he quietly saved the game and quit.
"Alright, alright, that's it for today. That's enough."
Sitting up again, Sean covered his face.
"My heart can't take it anymore… That was embarrassing."
He wasn't making excuses—he really felt like he couldn't take it anymore.
Honestly, he'd never had much courage to begin with. And while the game was indeed scary, if you really thought about it, it was mostly jump scares and monster chases.
That kind of stuff wasn't rare in other games either.
But in Outlast, it was completely different. The sound design and atmosphere were just way too well done.
The night vision feature on the camera made the game nonstop intense.
Tying the scariest thing—darkness—to the night vision meant that players always felt on edge. And since they had to explore unknown areas to find more batteries, they couldn't avoid going into creepy places.
The game also wasn't dark all the time. In fact, a lot of places were pretty bright.
This constant switch between light and dark kept the pressure on and made players start doubting themselves.
That tension, combined with the game's jump scares and creepy atmosphere, was what made Outlast truly terrifying.
And now that Sean realized he'd eventually have to finish this game, only one thought crossed his mind: despair.
But he wasn't the only one feeling this despair.
(End of Chapter)
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