Darkness filled his sight, and there wasn't a single sound around him.
At the same time, Gery felt a wave of cold air.
The half-closed game pod had its own cooling system. Players could choose to turn it on or off, and in some games, it could adjust automatically.
'Be careful, that gap in the door… it's another parallel reality.'
'I am me. But are you sure you're the only you?'
Two lines of text appeared in front of Gery, leaving him a little confused.
But before he could think too much about what those words meant, the game screen appeared.
The game began with the main character waking up on the cold ground. Paired with the cooling effect of the VR pod, Gery shivered without meaning to.
And as he shivered, the game screen also shook slightly.
A very lifelike cockroach crawled past in front of him, making the corner of Gery's mouth twitch.
Even though he was a tall guy at 1.85 meters, cockroaches, spiders, and bugs like that always made his skin crawl.
It wasn't that he was scared—it was just that they were too disgusting.
At that moment, the tightly shut wooden door in the room suddenly creaked open by itself.
Gery didn't feel much about it.
After all, this was just the beginning of the game, and this kind of scene wasn't rare. So he stayed calm.
He looked around. The starting point of the game was a pitch-black room with bare cement walls, like an unfinished building. Directly ahead was a wooden door slightly ajar, and above the doorway hung a single light bulb.
But the light it gave off was weak and pale.
He didn't rush forward. Instead, Gery tried a few controls first.
He found he could only do basic actions—walking, moving his hands for simple motions, and crouching.
Things like crawling, jumping, or running didn't work, which clearly meant the game didn't include those features.
There was no UI or system prompts either, but Gery wasn't surprised. After all, this was just a demo for testing, not a finished game.
He hoped the later parts would be more intense and interesting.
For now, he was still relaxed.
Pushing the door open, he stepped into a narrow hallway.
It was only wide enough for two people to walk side by side, and there were light bulbs on the walls and at the far end.
But the reach of the lights was strangely short. Where the bulb hung, it was bright.
Everywhere else was very dim.
The sharp contrast between brightness and darkness made the whole scene feel eerie.
Gery also noticed the murals on the walls. Some were clear, while others were made to look so blurred that he couldn't tell what they were supposed to show.
And thanks to the big jump in performance of the new VR hardware, the game's realism was much higher than before.
With graphics this real, paired with the creepy setting, the tension immediately shot up.
But as a carefully chosen tester, Gery had seen a lot of big scenes before. He only paused for a moment, looked around, then kept moving forward.
Halfway down the hall, on the right side, there was a small alcove with a table inside.
On top sat a digital clock showing the time—23:59.
Above it on the wall were several blurry pictures. One of them seemed to show a U-shape with a black dot in the middle. It looked very strange.
Next to the table's corner were piles of empty liquor bottles, hinting that the owner of the place was a heavy drinker.
Nothing seemed especially important.
But still, there was something unsettling about it.
Mostly because it was way too quiet.
Every step he took echoed on the floor, sounding like it was hitting directly on his chest.
That silence, broken only by his footsteps, made the whole experience feel oppressive.
After making sure the digital clock wasn't special, Gery kept moving along the hallway.
Soon, he reached the end of the hall, where it turned a corner.
Past the corner, there was still another narrow hallway.
On the left side stood a wooden cabinet, messy and cluttered.
There was a broken-looking phone, what seemed to be a photo of the house's owner with his wife, and a table covered in white pills.
It was a complete mess.
Just like before, Gery didn't notice anything unusual and kept walking forward.
At the corner was a locked door that couldn't be opened. Up ahead, a big door stood wide open, leading down to what looked like a basement. On the left side was a coat rack, and on the right were a photo of the couple who owned the house, a radio, and a pile of cigarette butts.
Above him, the second floor hung a dimly lit chandelier.
As he got closer, a burst of static came from the radio, which slowly turned into a clear voice.
It sounded like a news report.
"The day of the murder, the father walked to the trunk of his car, pulled out a shotgun, and shot his wife, who was cleaning the kitchen after lunch."
"When his 10-year-old son came to check on the noise, the father shot him too."
"His 6-year-old daughter smartly hid in the bathroom, but reports say the father told her it was just a game, tricked her into coming out, and then shot her in the chest at point-blank range."
"The wife who was killed was also pregnant at the time."
"When police arrived after neighbors called, they found the father sitting in his car listening to the radio."
"Days before the murder, neighbors said they often heard the father loudly repeating a string of numbers, almost like he was chanting some strange spell."
"Last month, in the same state, there was another family shooting, and one in December as well."
"A man killed his whole family with a shotgun and a meat cleaver. In every case, the killer was the father."
"State police say these family tragedies seem unrelated, though they might be tied to common problems like unemployment, raising kids, or other social issues."
Standing still for a moment, Gery picked up a lot of key information from the radio.
Could this house be the same one from that murder case? And was he playing the role of the killer father?
Gery glanced around. Same as before—nothing strange at all.
Still, he couldn't shake a nervous feeling inside.
It felt like something might jump out at him any moment.
But so far, nothing scary had happened.
He remembered playing Lucas's Outlast back then, which gave him plenty of jump scares.
But those were just sudden shocks.
This demo, Silent Hill PT, gave him a totally different kind of fear.
It wasn't only because it was in VR, but because of the heavy, suffocating atmosphere of the whole game.
Taking a deep breath, Gery tried to push aside all those distracting thoughts and focus on the test in front of him.
He moved forward step by step, slower than an old man strolling in the park.
He passed through the open door, went down the stairs, opened another door—and froze.
What he saw looked way too familiar.
It was the same hallway from the start of the game.
He… had come back?
Two lamps stood one behind the other. The blurry painting still hung on the left wall, and the digital clock read 23:59.
Was this… looping?
A chill ran through Gery's whole body.
So far, the game's entire setting had been nothing but this hallway.
Other than the cockroach at the start, nothing else had moved. Yet it already filled him with a sense of pressure and creeping panic.
(End of The Chapter)
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