It felt like repeating the same actions as before, moving forward bit by bit.
But this time, something felt different.
Gery wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but the lights ahead seemed darker.
And there were faint scratching noises echoing from nowhere, along with a sharp creaking sound that made his teeth hurt.
Walking through the hallway, Gery felt as if someone was silently following him, whispering right into his ear.
"There are ghosts ahead, ghosts behind, ghosts above… ghosts everywhere in this house!"
"But no one knows when or where one will jump out."
The first half of the hallway was still exactly the same. But when he reached the radio area, two cockroaches suddenly fell from above, making him stop in his tracks.
The chandelier above creaked loudly on its own, though there was no wind.
From here, he could see the railing of the second floor. Could it be…
Goosebumps ran over his skin. Gery took a deep breath and slowly looked up toward the second floor.
However...
The second floor was pitch-black, with nothing there except the railing.
Seeing this, Gery let out a breath, but the tight string in his heart didn't relax at all.
For a moment he even wished a monster would show up—then at least he'd have something to go on.
He walked forward slowly to the door at the end and reached out to open it.
But it seemed locked. He twisted the handle twice, and it only clicked without turning.
"Not letting me go any further? Do I have to go back?"
"Thud, thud, thud!"
While Gery was still thinking, a burst of door-banging came from the door around the corner.
The sudden loud banging in the quiet made him jump.
That's a normal reaction.
When he walked up to the door, whatever was inside seemed to sense someone at the entrance and stopped hitting it.
Silence returned.
"If you can bang the door, then open it if you dare!"
Gery tried the handle again, but just like before, it wouldn't open.
Clearly this wasn't the right path. He was getting more and more nervous, muttering under his breath as he faced these game moments—proof of his tension.
Heading back along the loop, he found a photo on the floor in front of the digital clock, but it was so blurry he couldn't read it.
He instinctively crouched to see it clearly, and then three lines of text appeared on the once-blurry photo.
[Can you hear my voice?]
[Can you read this message?]
[If you come to find me, I will wait for you forever.]
"Creak..."
Right after he finished reading and stood up, he heard the sound of a door opening.
Thinking of the three lines on the photo, his heart began to pound fast.
The door opened!
Could it be the one someone was banging on earlier?
Did the monster come out?
With that guess, Gery braced himself and headed back down the hall.
But nothing happened along the way—no jump scare at all.
And just like before, the more nothing happened, the more nervous he felt.
The door at the corner wasn't open; only the door leading to the basement stairs had opened again.
He went forward, opened the basement door, and as he expected, behind it was the same long hallway as at the start.
But this time was different. Up ahead it looked much the same, but when he reached the corner, a rapid knocking started, and then from the shut room came the cry of a baby.
"D-don't tell me this door can open now!" Gery felt his scalp tingle.
But when he tried it again, it was still locked.
He moved on, starting yet another loop.
"Please, I'm begging you—whatever you are, just come out already! Give me a jump scare if you must!"
Gery was already spooked. No game had ever made him feel this stifled.
Up to now, not even one truly disturbing scene had appeared.
Yet the fear clung to his heart and wouldn't go away.
Strictly speaking, since he entered the game, all he had done was walk this hallway—run from the entrance to the end, then repeat.
At most there were some different sound effects in between. But this kind of extreme monotony brought heavy mental pressure.
It's a very smart kind of psychological suggestion that keeps you scared all the time.
Think about it: a strange hallway, you're the only one awake, and you're stuck in a loop like hitting an invisible wall.
But then strange things slowly happen, letting you know you're not alone in this room—or rather, that maybe you're the only human. Surprised? Caught off guard?
The key is, you don't even know what those "people" with you really are.
Human imagination is endless; that's why the unknown is the most terrifying.
In most horror games, a scare is like a bullet already fired—when it hits you, you scream in pain.
But in the Silent Hill series, the fear is like a time bomb covered with a cloth.
You can hear the ticking, but you never know when it will explode. It pushes your limits step by step, makes your blood pressure rise, and your heartbeat speed up!
......
Outside the research lab, the technicians were watching Gery's data in real time.
"Heart rate and blood pressure are rising again!"
"There's still some distance before the safety limit."
The tech staff and medical team kept monitoring his physical data as it came in.
Beside them, Quinn and Felix looked at each other and swallowed hard.
As test staff, they also knew what those numbers meant.
It's only been a few minutes?
Has it even been ten minutes?
How did he get this scared already?
What's in this game?
To keep the tester unfamiliar with the test content, they could only see Gery's data. As for the test demo itself, it was completely hidden from them.
Meanwhile, in another room, a group of designers were sitting together. Some of the timid ones had unknowingly huddled close to others.
Lucas glanced at Marcus sitting next to him and quietly moved a little farther away.
At that moment, one of the designers finally couldn't hold back and spoke: "Can someone turn on the lights? It's too dark, I can't see clearly."
Once someone spoke up, the others joined in right away.
"Yeah! Turn the lights on. This dim lighting is bad for our eyes."
"Right, right, he's got a point."
"And can we turn off the AC? Does anyone else feel cold?"
"Yeah, yeah, it's only May, we don't need the air conditioning at all!"
As they watched the live feed of the Silent Hill PT test on the big screen, the designers kept finding small things to talk about.
Especially Marcus—he was extremely relieved right now.
Good thing the VR gear was only for the tester. Otherwise, he wasn't sure if he'd survive the scare.
The other designers felt the same. They all had to admit one thing: the game Silent Hill PT could only be described as stunning.
So far, there hadn't even been a single real scare, yet the atmosphere—the visuals, lighting, and sound—had already pulled everyone deep into fear.
When the real scares appear, what will it be like?
They were just watching on a screen, not even in VR, and in a group, and they already felt waves of fear washing over them.
So what must the tester be feeling right now?
(End of The Chapter)
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