There Must Be Something Wrong With This Game!

Although his father, Sun Jianguo, had already decided to head down the mountain, fate had other plans.

The snow started at midnight. Flakes as large as goose feathers fluttered down, blanketing the world in white.

By the time Sun Jianguo woke up, he saw the snow outside had stopped.

But a thick layer of snow had already piled up in the courtyard. The path down the mountain was hidden beneath it, and heading down rashly would be extremely dangerous.

He reported the situation on the landline. The construction site on the other end said this was the worst snowstorm in forty years and told Sun Jianguo to prepare to be stationed there for the long haul.

The snowfall was too heavy for rescue personnel to make it up for the time being. Everything was up to him now.

Hanging up the phone, Sun Jianguo stared outside, his brows furrowed even tighter.

His son wasn’t right, his wife was still in a vegetative state, and he was the only one he could rely on in this entire place.

But as a man who had seen his fair share of storms, Sun Jianguo’s momentary daze lasted only a second before he suppressed the confusion in his heart and began to plan for what lay ahead.

He took out a notebook and, with his excellent memory, began to record their current supplies.

Four hundred kilograms of frozen meat.

Five hundred kilograms of Napa cabbage.

Two hundred jars of his own pickled tomatoes.

One diesel generator, with more than enough fuel.

...

After listing all the supplies and confirming they could last for a long time, Sun Jianguo let out a long breath and prepared to go down and clear some of the snow.

But when he got downstairs, he found that a small path had been cleared from the courtyard to the gate. His son, Sun Yu, was sitting to the side, panting heavily, his face flushed from strenuous activity.

"Sun Yu, what time did you get up? Did you clear all this?" Sun Jianguo asked, frowning.

"It wasn’t me, it was Uncle Zhao. Uncle Zhao got up before dawn. He shoveled all of this."

"Then why are you so sweaty?"

"I was having a snowball fight with Duan Someone and Jing Someone. That one older sister looks all mature, but she plays like a crazy monkey. Duan Someone got so scared he went to take a shower."

The snow on the ground was piled up like mountains; there was no way a child could have done that much work.

Looking at the panting Sun Yu, Sun Jianguo rubbed his head, feeling a headache coming on.

The migraines were a side effect of a past car accident. They would flare up from time to time, causing him unbearable pain for a few seconds.

Fortunately, the attacks weren’t frequent, and he could endure the pain for now.

Clutching his head, Sun Jianguo once again fell into a state of confusion.

He had always suspected something was wrong with his son, that he was constantly seeing illusions.

But strange things kept happening that made him feel something was off.

For instance, the cleared pathway.

The food that appeared out of nowhere.

Or the television that had been broken during the day but was working again by nightfall, when his son couldn’t possibly know how to fix it.

What frightened him even more was what happened a few nights ago.

That night, after taking care of his wife, he went to check on his son as usual, only to find he wasn’t in his bed.

Then, the shriek of a wild animal reached his ears, reminding him that wild wolves sometimes appeared in the area.

He rushed downstairs and saw his son standing alone in the security booth. Just outside lay the corpse of a wild wolf.

An iron spike was embedded in the top of the wolf’s head, its sharp tip having pierced the skull and exited through its chin.

Examining the wound, Sun Jianguo found the wolf’s body was still warm. The one who did this was cold and decisive, felling the wolf with a single blow that carried a certain cruel, cold beauty.

Seeing Sun Jianguo come down, Sun Yu said excitedly, "Dad, you should have seen how the security uncle killed the wolf just now! His moves were so cool."

"Where is he?"

"He went to take a dump. Dad, what should we do with this wolf?"

"...I’ll handle it."

In the end, Sun Jianguo buried the wolf.

For some reason, the wolf’s corpse filled him with a sense of dread. Something unnatural was happening here, threatening to swallow him like a tsunami.

Recalling all these past events, Sun Jianguo realized it was impossible for a child to have accomplished any of it.

Maintenance, security, cleaning, cooking... all these tasks would require at least four people.

’If nothing is wrong with Sun Yu, and those people really exist...’

’Then who is the one with the problem?’

Clutching his throbbing head, Sun Jianguo managed to wait for the pain to subside before getting up. "Go eat breakfast first," he said. "After you’re done, you can go play in the snow for a while."

"Okay! Can I play with Mom?"

"...You can."

Watching Sun Yu skip away, Sun Jianguo stood up and walked into the basement.

In the musty-smelling basement, Sun Jianguo searched carefully and soon found a list of the apartment’s former employees.

He picked up the yellowed staff roster and flipped through it page by page, constantly recalling the people Sun Yu had mentioned.

Besides his amazing memory, Sun Jianguo also had an excellent ability to make connections; he could form a rough mental image of someone just from a description.

Uncle Peng, thirty years old, skilled in maintenance...

Sun Jianguo found the man’s name in the employee directory and then read his file.

Uncle Peng: a bit superstitious, chief electrical designer for Rose Apartment. Went missing three years ago while performing maintenance on the apartment, whereabouts unknown.

Security Guard Xiaowang: went missing three years ago while on duty. His body was later discovered frozen in a pool on the back mountain, in water no deeper than thirty centimeters.

Uncle Zhao: janitor, died of cardiac arrest two years ago.

Granny Liu: Chef, died in a gas explosion one year ago.

All four were dead, yet Sun Yu claimed they were still working here. The discrepancy sent a chill down Sun Jianguo’s spine.

His head began to throb again.

This time, the pain lasted for an unusually long time. The intense agony felt as if someone were pressing a red-hot branding iron into his eyes, causing his eyeballs to melt, twist, and deform like butter.

Clutching his eyes, Sun Jianguo had to wait a long while for the pain to fade before he came back to his senses.

He was about to go back to his room to rest and then continue his investigation when he suddenly noticed a piece of paper in front of him.

It was a blueprint of Rose Apartment, and the side facing him happened to be the basement.

He glanced at it casually, but then suddenly felt something was wrong.

Based on his memory and a look at the blueprint, he realized there should be an extra room here.

Grabbing a hammer from his toolbox, he walked a few laps around the basement and finally zeroed in on a specific spot.

He tapped it lightly and discovered the wall was hollow behind it.

The discovery confirmed his suspicions. He raised the hammer and swung it down with all his might.

Once, twice, three times...

As he kept striking it, the wall in front of him finally broke open, revealing what had been hidden behind it.

Inside was a small shrine, with an idol hidden within.

What was even more shocking was that despite being sealed, the space was spotless. There were even incense sticks burning before the idol, looking as if they had been placed there not long ago.

Besides the shrine, there was also a skeleton, its hands pressed together in a gesture of devout worship toward the shrine.

From the skeleton’s clothes, he could tell it was none other than the missing Uncle Peng.

In addition to that, he saw the walls were covered with photographs. Every single photo was of one of the "tourists" Sun Yu had mentioned before.

And now, without exception, all of these tourists were posed just like the skeleton before him—hands pressed together in an act of worship.

The object of their worship was the shrine right in front of him.

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