The rain was still pouring down.
Gavin Moore wasn't exactly afraid—his emotions were simply tangled and hard to sort out.
It was already daylight. After searching online, Gavin discovered that the storm had sealed off roads everywhere. Flash floods had broken out, and no vehicles could reach the tunnel located at the intersection of the Jiang, Hu, and Han metropolitan region.
I just hope the tunnel hasn't been buried by the flood.
Unable to determine why his game had become reality, Gavin had no choice but to temporarily accept the absurdity of it all.
I don't know if it's still possible to delete those designs in time… Looks like I'll have to go to Nightlight Games Studio.
Back when he worked part-time as a game designer, Gavin had collaborated with Nightlight Games on numerous occasions, providing them with game concepts and ideas inspired by mystery and murder cases. Now he wanted to retrieve and destroy every single design he had submitted—hoping it might still undo the damage.
After a quick breakfast, Gavin packed the black-and-white photos into his backpack, put on his raincoat, and headed out. Once he made a decision, he acted without hesitation.
Rain washed over the city. Dark clouds smothered everything. Gavin took a taxi to the northern district of Han Harbor City.
Originally, after resigning from his job as a prison psychologist, he had planned to formally apply to Nightlight Games and become a full-time game designer.
The reason he chose this industry was simple: there were no horror games on the market that he truly enjoyed—so he decided to make his own.
At nine in the morning, guided by a cleaning lady, Gavin finally found Nightlight Games' office.
Nightlight Games Studio was one of many subsidiaries under Motu Tech, the largest game platform in the country. The studio specialized in suspense and horror games, but they were currently undergoing a forced transition. Business had not been good.
"Are you all insane?! Are you out of your damn minds?!"
Gavin could hear furious shouting through the glass door. He looked inside.
Several employees sat at their workstations. On the large screen in front of them played a game scene: an ordinary-looking male protagonist in a haunted house, performing a summoning ritual with his dead wife—while secretly watching a recording of his own death.
"The client asked for an innovative romantic interaction game!"
"And this is what you come up with after two weeks?!"
The studio director, Gordon Cole, stood beside the table with a blackened expression. His anger made his round belly rise and fall, and the wig on his head was on the verge of slipping off.
"Didn't you say you wanted something different from the usual dating sims?"
The office wasn't large. David Wei, seated near the door, looked like he was ready to flee at any second.
David was both the game planner and lead programmer—a hardcore fitness addict. Years ago, when management pushed him into a corner, he'd gone online searching for innovative ideas. That was how he met Gavin.
What started as a routine assignment ended with Gavin's design winning Best New Creative Game Award that year.
To his credit, David immediately told the company the truth. The competition organizers changed the listed author to Gavin, officially launching him into the gaming industry.
"I wanted something different from dating games!" Gordon roared.
"Not for you to crawl back to horror games!"
He ripped off his wig and slammed it on the table. The few remaining strands of hair on his scalp were soaked with sweat.
"Everyone's been working overtime for two weeks," Ethan Shaw said calmly, pushing up his frameless glasses. His smile never faded, as if worldly troubles had nothing to do with him.
Despite being thirty-seven, Ethan looked barely twenty. He was the studio's art director, an internationally awarded artist whose style was wild, surreal, and impossible for normal people to understand.
"Overtime my ass!" Gordon slammed the table.
"We already have barely any clients—are you trying to finish us off?"
"Innovation, strong interaction, emotional progression, sweet romance, love until death," David said, pulling up Gordon's original messages.
"I followed your instructions exactly."
"Sweet my ass!" Gordon grabbed his hair in despair.
"We're ranked forty-first out of forty-one studios! There's nowhere left to fall! If we keep this up, we'll be shut down and kicked out of Motu Tech!"
Unlike the others, Gordon had been dispatched from headquarters. Rumor had it he'd offended the wrong people and was forced to start over from scratch.
Bald, greasy, overweight—yet he was the most passionate person in the room. He was desperate to prove himself again.
"Three days!" Gordon shouted.
"I'll give you three more days! No matter what, you will give me a normal romance game!"
Grabbing his wig and his oversized thermos filled with goji berries, he stormed out—only to collide directly with Gavin at the door.
Seeing Gavin, Gordon's eyelid twitched. They had worked together many times. He knew Gavin's design philosophy all too well.
He still remembered the first time he read Gavin's proposal—three thousand words, seventeen explicit references to gore and horror. It had left a deep impression.
"Gavin… morning. You missed the interview the other day, so we hired someone new," Gordon said evasively.
"She'll be here later today."
Back when the studio focused on horror, Gordon and Gavin worked perfectly together. But now that horror games were being abandoned, Gavin's presence felt awkward.
"I'm not here for an interview," Gavin said gently, seeing straight through Gordon's concern.
"I've run into some… unexplainable problems. I need to retrieve and destroy every game design I've ever submitted to you."
"Destroy them?" David rushed over.
"Those designs would all be classics if finished! What happened to you?"
"I might never make horror games again," Gavin said, patting David on the shoulder.
"And one more piece of advice—try not to go out at night these next few days."
Hearing this, Gordon's enthusiasm returned.
"Gavin, I heard you resigned from the prison. Why not stay here for now? We trust your ability—you don't even need an interview!"
"I'll pass."
After careful discussion, Gavin finally convinced David to open the storage cabinets. Together they retrieved every game design Gavin had provided over the years.
Game development was a long process with heavy upfront investment. Many ideas never secured funding and had been sealed away.
Honestly, if Nightlight hadn't been abandoning horror, reclaiming these concepts would've been nearly impossible.
Patiently organizing his life's work, Gavin categorized his games into six danger tiers:
Criminal, Urban Rumor, Omen, Whisper, Urban Legend, and Out-of-Control Urban Legend.
Criminal games were based on real cases—danger came from people, grounded in logic and investigation.
Urban Rumors mixed murders with fabricated supernatural tales; the real threat was still human.
Omens introduced signs of horror—cracks in reality, curses, anomalies.
Whispers allowed the supernatural to truly appear.
Urban Legends meant entire areas became unsafe, rules warped, and legends spread and grew.
And beyond them all…
Out-of-Control Urban Legends—total despair.
"I designed those too," Gavin murmured.
"And those are the ones I came here to destroy."
"Thirty-six Criminals… twenty-five Rumors… five Omens… twenty-five Whispers… thirty-one Legends… and four Out-of-Control ones…"
He exhaled softly.
"I've really been… productive these past few years."