Chapter 1

The night, a sudden light appeared in the thick fog.

A wobbly small boat was slowly rowing from the pitch-black lake.

There were a total of three men and four women on the boat, seven people in total.

However, ten minutes ago, there were eight people here.

The people on the boat had numb, tired, and silent expressions, with their thoughts showing on their faces. But one emotion was common among them all—panic.

It seemed that they had just experienced a terrifying event.

The small boat kept rowing until it stopped at the old dock near the shore.

Everyone looked up and saw a hotel, resembling one from the last century, gradually emerging from the thick fog.

As soon as they got off the boat, the lights in the hotel rooms started to turn on, one floor after another, until the top floor.

Fireworks started going off in the pitch-black forest in the distance, one, two, three...

There were seven fireworks in total, and there were exactly seven of them.

After the fireworks ended, the small boat slowly left the dock again, the small light hanging at the bow flickering until it finally disappeared into the thick fog.

However, the seven people's faces became even more terrified.

Because this small boat had no boatman at all, the boatman's position was replaced by a strangely shaped scarecrow.

They stood in front of the hotel, looking at each other, none of them willing to take the first step.

Although they were surrounded by the dark forest and behind them was the pitch-black lake, the hotel in front of them was the only source of light in this area.

But everyone's expressions twisted in unison, not knowing what to do next.

"Let's go in."

"Do we have any other choice?"

A man's voice broke the damn silence. It was the man who looked like a college professor, with gray hair and a pair of calming blue eyes.

"But, but who knows what the hell is in there."

A trembling voice came from the beautiful blonde woman.

She kept twisting her beautiful hair, looking nervous.

"What if, what if there's danger?"

Silence fell once again.

At first, everyone was excited about this adventure, secretly calculating how much prize money they could get.

But when they got on that small boat with only a scarecrow, everyone suddenly realized that this was not a treasure hunt at all.

It was more like a hunting game!

And they were the prey in this hunt.

"If you don't go in, are you going to swim back to the other side?"

Charles Brown took several deep breaths, forcing his heart rate to return to normal.

His heart was beating so fast, it felt like it was about to jump out of his mouth.

Charles raised his wristwatch, the clock had stopped working.

But he clearly remembered that from the moment he received that mysterious invitation letter to appearing in this place, it had been less than an hour.

"Have you forgotten about that brave little man?"

Hearing someone mention the little man who left early, the blonde woman screamed and then squatted down, hugging her head tightly.

Yes, just ten minutes ago, there were still eight of them.

Including Charles, a total of eight people received an invitation from the organizers to participate in a mysterious adventure with a huge prize.

Then they were all drugged, and when they woke up, they found themselves on the small boat.

Among them was a thin and agile little man, John Wright, who kept cursing and complaining that the organizers had drugged them and kidnapped them onto this boat.

John originally wanted to take out his phone to contact the police, but he found that all his communication devices had no signal, and even his watch had stopped working.

John believed this was a carefully planned kidnapping, and the kidnappers wanted to kidnap him to threaten his family for ransom!

He even leaned out, trying to disperse the thick fog, and then bent down to stir the water in the lake.

Finally, he muttered that he could swim and would swim back to the shore, then jumped into the water.

Everyone saw him swimming away quickly without looking back and didn't pay much attention.

They thought maybe with one less person, they could get more prize money.

However, not long after, a piece of floating wood suddenly drifted from the distant lake, which was very conspicuous on the calm lake.

But as the small boat got closer to the floating wood, everyone was horrified to find that it was not a piece of floating wood at all!

It was John's corpse.

No limbs, no head, just a torso.

Blood was constantly spreading from the five severed parts, turning the already dark lake into a dark red color.

The boat kept moving forward, and the smell of blood became stronger.

John's left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg, one by one, appeared in their sight as the boat moved.

Until John's head appeared from the bottom of the lake with bubbles,  everyone saw his eyes were wide open in terror, his mouth in an O shape, his expression twisted beyond what a normal person could achieve.

Charles just glanced at it and clearly realized that John must have experienced extreme terror before he died.

Finally, someone on the boat couldn't help but vomit, the vomit mixed with the smell of blood, finally making everyone realize that this was no joke.

Just mentioning John again, the sound of vomiting rose from the crowd, one after another.

"Behind us is the lake, around us is the forest, besides the hotel in front of us, do we have any other choice?"

Charles took another deep breath, trying to keep his voice steady.

He was scared too.

But whether it was the limbs floating on the lake or the lingering smell of blood, he always maintained a calmness different from others.

Because he was always concerned only about that invitation letter.

What kind of secret was hidden by the person who organized this event?

Charles walked in front, and the others followed him, pushing open the golden iron gate wrapped in spider webs.

But as soon as everyone entered the courtyard in front of the hotel, the iron gate behind them suddenly closed with a "clang," breaking the silence around them.

Someone in the group ran to the iron gate and pushed it, but it didn't budge.

And the thick fog outside the iron gate condensed again, making the fog even thicker.

It was too eerie, everything was too eerie.

For safety, everyone huddled together and slowly moved towards the hotel door.

At the door, Charles stepped up a few steps and reached out to knock.

The hotel's door was wrapped in intricate patterns, densely packed like some kind of totem.

While Charles was thinking, hurried footsteps came from inside, and everyone retreated in fear, leaving Charles alone at the door.

A small hand struggled to open the door, and Charles, in his surprise, quickly pushed the door open.

What appeared in front of them was not the monster they had imagined.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why are you so late? Too slow!"

The one who opened the door was a little girl, about fifteen or sixteen years old, her voice clear and filled with laughter.

She wore a light blue plaid dress, with two brown braids on her shoulders, and a big bow tied at the back of her waist.

The little girl stepped forward to pull Charles's arm, smiling at the group of people at the bottom of the steps.

"Come in, what are you standing there for?"

Charles was pulled inside by the little girl, and the others were still standing there, unsure whether to follow.

"If you don't want to come in, do you want to go back into the thick fog?"

After pulling Charles in, the little girl stood at the door with her hands on her hips, pointing at the crowd.

"I'll count to ten, and after ten seconds, I'll close this door. Then you'll all go back to that lake."

"Starting the countdown, 1, 2..."

Although the smile remained on her lips, her voice became cold and cruel, and the indifference reached her eyes.

At the mention of the lake, everyone recalled the corpse that looked like floating wood.

Returning to the lake meant certain death!

So everyone scrambled to rush into the hotel.

The hotel lobby was very spacious, with a decor style reminiscent of the last century, and the crystal chandelier reflected light into everyone's eyes.

In front of them, the reception desk had two mannequin doormen, and to the side was an old-fashioned sliding elevator, with symmetrical staircases on either side of the lobby.

The left hall had a fireplace, with three large leather sofas and a recliner arranged around it.

The little girl hopped onto the recliner and waved everyone over.

When they got closer to the sofas, they saw four people slumped in the sofas like mud.

Their eyes were vacant, staring at the crackling fireplace flames, looking soulless.

No one spoke, and silence fell again, even though they were near the fire, the temperature felt colder.

"I say," Charles thought, breaking the silence first, "where are we?"

"And how did you get here?"

"Did you also come through a fog on a boat?"

Charles asked three questions in one breath.

But the answer was still that dreadful silence.

The people slumping in the sofas didn't even move.

"Are you all mute?"

A loud voice boomed from behind Charles, echoing in the empty lobby.

The voice belonged to the burly, bearded man Jeffrey Perez.

Seeing no one move, Jeffrey stepped forward, ready to explode.

But the next second, a man who looked like an elite, sitting in a single chair, straightened up.

And he said, "Even if you have many questions, you have to complete the task first."

"When you finish the task in the room and return here alive, all your questions will naturally be answered."

After he finished speaking, everyone became alert, a sense of foreboding growing.

"Room, what room?"

Charles asked, remembering a mysterious call he had received before he passed out.

The elite man raised his hand and pointed, and everyone followed his gaze to the second floor.

"There's not much preparation time left," the elite man looked at his watch, "In less than three minutes, the passage to the rooms will open, and you will enter the horror world through the rooms to complete the tasks assigned to you."

"After completing the tasks, the small boat will reappear to take you away."

After he finished speaking, Piper Phillips, a petite woman with red-framed glasses, asked, "What if we don't complete the tasks?"

"What do you think will happen? Of course, you'll die!"

The elite man sneered, as if he had heard a ridiculous question.

He raised his head, his expression slowly turning cold, and stared at Piper.

"You'll die very, very horribly!"