As the saying goes, the best way to overcome fear is to face it head-on!
Let's do this!
Derek Su quietly psyched himself up.
He and Stella bought their tickets.
Under the guidance of a Mecha Girl dressed as a ghost nurse, the two of them walked into the lobby.
What gave Derek Su a bit of relief was that there were already two other teams of pilots and Mecha Girls inside. At least there were people around. Otherwise, he was genuinely worried he might get scared into a heart attack.
"Let me go over the rules first." The ghost nurse wore a gloomy expression and spoke in a harsh, menacing tone. "Violence is strictly prohibited inside the Haunted House. Most of our staff are robots or Mecha Girls. If you damage a machine, you'll have to pay for it. If you injure a Mecha Girl, you'll have to pay as well. To make sure your Mecha Girls don't use force, please follow me to apply temporary restriction protocols."
Stella and the other two Mecha Girls were taken next door to have the restrictions applied.
The remaining pilots had nothing to do, so they exchanged glances. When they noticed Derek Su, their faces immediately lit up with excitement.
"Hey, you're… that guy, right? What was your name again?"
Another pilot with a better memory quickly chimed in, "The Magician! He's The Magician! The King of Knox!"
Derek Su felt a little awkward and could only give a polite smile.
"The Magician! You're our idol!"
"Yeah, can we get your autograph after we come out of the haunted house?"
Derek Su forced a smile and exchanged a few polite words with them. Soon, he heard them start complaining about their own Mecha Girls.
"What's even fun about a haunted house? They could've just gone by themselves. Why drag us along?"
"Exactly. We're already tense enough after racing all day, and now we have to come here at night to get scared. I heard this place is rated at the highest level, Level 10. It only exists on this resort island. Haunted houses elsewhere don't even compare!"
Hearing that, Derek Su began to break out in a cold sweat.
Driver A said, "They say it takes two whole hours to go through the entire thing!"
Driver B replied, "What? That long? Wouldn't that scare us to death?"
Driver A shrugged. "What can we do? They insisted on coming. But then again, maybe it's only scary to us. A top-tier driver like The Magician, with all that racing experience and mental strength, probably wouldn't even take a haunted house seriously."
As they said this, both drivers looked at Derek Su with admiration again.
In their minds, dealing with unexpected dangers on the track was already terrifying enough. Someone like Derek Su must have been through countless situations like that, so a haunted house would be nothing.
After all, there were no ghosts in this world.
The dangers on the track were far more real.
Faced with their praise, Derek Su could only smile bitterly.
Mental strength was one thing.
Being afraid of ghosts was another.
When he was a child, he had too much energy and hated going to sleep. The matron at the orphanage would often scare him, saying there was a mountain spirit clinging to the window. If he didn't behave and sleep, it would snatch him away and eat him.
She also told him that if he refused to eat vegetables and only ate meat, he would turn into a "meat-man," and starving ghosts specifically targeted meat-men. They especially liked children because their flesh was tender and tasted better.
Those stories scared him badly every time.
They left a deep psychological shadow.
Because of that, even after growing up and knowing there were no ghosts in this world, he still couldn't handle horror movies or haunted houses.
Less than ten minutes later.
Stella and the other two Mecha Girls came back out.
The ghost nurse announced the final rule, "Two people per group. Every five minutes, one group goes in. That way the experience is better. I'll say it again, no violence allowed. That includes the pilots. Our staff won't make physical contact either. They will only scare you."
"Alright, you can go in now."
She lifted the curtain at the entrance, revealing a pitch-black passage.
A cold draft blew out from inside, carrying the sharp scent of disinfectant mixed with a faint hint of blood. The half-broken ceiling light flickered occasionally, letting out a harsh buzzing sound. The atmosphere instantly became terrifying.
Derek Su's body stiffened on the spot.
He instinctively glanced at Stella beside him, who only reached his chest. She gave him a sweet smile.
This was supposed to be a warm little cotton jacket. What kind of cotton jacket comes with spontaneous combustion?
He really should have brought Imperial Scale or Tunbao instead. One was as steady as a rock, the other as fiery as a storm. Either of them would have made him feel much safer.
But Imperial Scale had no interest in the haunted house and went off to play the claw machine.
Tunbao was even less interested. The moment they left the exhibition hall, he kept shouting about going to fight in the arena, and a bunch of Mecha Girls ran off to watch.
Purple Lightning had her mind set on that corn snake and ran off to stay at the reptile shop.
So now, the only one entering the haunted house with Stella was him.
And he couldn't even refuse her request.
The moment he tried, Stella would look at him with tearful eyes, like he was some heartless man who had wronged her.
No one could withstand that.
"If I don't go to hell, who will?"
Derek Su closed his eyes and repeated it three times. When he opened them again, his gaze turned resolute.
It's just a haunted house.
Easy.
What kind of storms had he not faced in his life?
The two pilots ahead, along with their Mecha Girls, gradually disappeared into the dark corridor.
Finally, it was his and Stella's turn.
"Master, you have to protect me once we go in, okay~"
Stella held onto Derek Su's hand, acting scared as she pressed her small body tightly against him.
Derek Su nodded, forcing out a smile that looked worse than crying.
He gathered his courage and stepped forward.
Darkness surged in like a tide, swallowing both him and Stella.
Before he could even take a second step.
A terrified scream from a Mecha Girl suddenly echoed from somewhere ahead, followed by a rapid series of footsteps.
It came from upstairs.
Derek Su sharply sucked in a breath.
His second step froze mid-air.
He wanted to go home.
...
If you'd like to support my work and unlock advanced chapters, you can follow me on p-@-treon.
p-@-treon/GhostParser (40 Chapters Ahead)
You can also follow as a free member to read a few advanced chapters.