Horror Game Developer: My games aren't that scary! - Chapter 621: Escape [1]

Chapter 621: Escape [1]

“What do I do? What do I do…? She’s gone! Where is she…?! We need to look for her! We need to look for her immediately!”

Rowan’s panicked shouts echoed through the empty space, his eyes darting in every direction. He looked nothing like he had moments ago, his face pale, his voice unsteady as he rushed toward me.

“Seth! Seth…! Help me find my sister! We need to look around! We need to—”

“Your sister is likely fine.”

I answered calmly, speaking over Rowan.

“We’re currently inside a Gate.”

Rowan’s lips pressed shut, and he came to a halt, staring at me. The silence that followed felt heavy, his gaze unsettling as it lingered. Then Zoey’s voice broke through.

“How do you know that? How do you know that we’re inside a Gate?”

“Think about it,” I replied calmly, glancing around. “How can so many people disappear at once? Without warning? How is it possible that we have no signal with the outside world? It’s obvious… we’re inside a Gate.”

“That makes no sense. Do you think Gates can just spawn randomly like this? That makes absolutely no sense.”

“…But a Gate is the only way to explain the current situation.”

In truth, I didn’t know what had happened to Rowan’s sister. However, as things stood, I couldn’t afford to have Rowan in his current state.

’Things are already bad enough with Zoey acting like this. If I lose Rowan too, things are going to get a lot more difficult for me.’

I couldn’t afford that.

“That’s why I believe that your sister is safe.”

I pressed my hand onto Rowan’s shoulder, making sure to look at him straight.

“The most important thing right now is getting out of this place. Once we’re out, I’m sure we’ll find a way to see your sister.”

I then turned my attention towards Zoey.

“I’m sure you understand how serious our situation is. If you have questions, we can deal with them later. For now, we need to focus on getting out of here. This isn’t the time to panic or turn on each other.”

“….”

Zoey remained quiet, but I took her silence as tacit agreement. Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief as I scanned my surroundings.

The place was completely deserted, not a single sign of life anywhere. The lights above flickered unsteadily, casting shifting shadows across the floor. The benches stretched long, warped silhouettes that curled and twisted at odd angles, making the empty space feel even more distorted and uneasy.

’Judging from the quest description, this is most likely an artificial Gate, one created by the one I was just speaking to. That means my earlier assumption was right… I’m not the only one with a system.’

Honestly, I wasn’t surprised by the current situation.

I had long suspected I wasn’t the only one with access to the system, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I became a target. The fact that I was a game designer wouldn’t go unnoticed by those paying attention, and with my fame reaching a global scale, this situation was almost inevitable.

’…But I’m surprised they’re connected to that strange cult. And instead of dealing with me directly, he just threw me into a Gate. I’m sure that there are faster and more efficient ways to deal with me. Why…? Why would he do that? Is he just playing with me, or…?’

Ah.

Suddenly, it hit me.

The answer was so obvious that it only just crossed my mind.

’He’s wary.’

Right, he was wary of me.

He didn’t show it, but he was certainly wary of me.

And it wasn’t like I couldn’t understand why. On paper, my record made me look like a monster. Not just the Congress, but Malovia too. What I had shown back then had probably exaggerated my strength in their eyes.

That…

I could play with that.

“Where do you… think we should go?”

With Rowan having calmed down a little, he began looking around. Keeping my knife hidden, I scanned the area as well, finding nothing around us. With nothing there, the answer was obvious.

“We find the exit.”

The goal of the scenario was to escape.

That was one of the first rules of the Gate. An exit existed, and we just had to find it to escape.

The real question was, ’Is the exit downstairs going to be the real exit or is the exit hidden?’

Honestly, there was no way to know with the information I had. Because of that, our best option was to head for the main exit we were familiar with.

“Let’s go.”

I led the way, heading toward the elevators. Rowan followed close behind, with Zoey just a step behind him. The echo of our footsteps rang out in every direction, bouncing off the walls and growing louder with each step, until it felt like the sound was pressing in on my mind.

Trying my best to ignore the sound, I moved through the dim corridors, my eyes scanning the area as I kept a firm grip on the knife. As we walked, my gaze kept drifting toward the walls, where several newspaper articles had been pinned up, their edges curling slightly under the flickering light.

Catching a glimpse of the articles, my steps slowed down.

Breaking — [Seth Thorne! Super Rookie that conquered the demon of Malovia! Who is he and how did he rise to such levels?]

Breaking — [Unprecedented Rank! Seth Thorne ranks in the top 100 in the new rankings!]

Breaking— [New MVP for the World Congress! The meteoric rise of Seth Thorne. Just who is he, and how did he appear from out of nowhere? Is there a secret to his rise?]

The articles…

They were all about me.

’Just what sort of game is he playing?’

Was he trying to throw me off my game with some mind games? Was this what he was trying to do?

’…No, it doesn’t feel like this is the case.’

Was he really just my fan?

’No, I doubt this is the case either…’

Then?

“We’re at the elevators.”

Zoey’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I lifted my head to look ahead. Sure enough, several elevators stood lined up in the distance, their metal doors dull under the flickering lights above.

The weak glow cast uneven shadows along the floor, making the area feel strangely confined despite its openness.

I glanced around once more, searching for any sign of movement, but there was nothing, just the same empty silence pressing in from all sides. I pursed my lips, my throat feeling drier than ever, and stepped forward, raising my hand toward the call button.

I half-expected something to happen, some hidden mechanism or sudden resistance, but I was able to press the button without any problem. It gave way too easily beneath my finger, almost disappointingly so.

Even more intriguing was the fact that the elevators actually worked. Shortly after pressing the button, I heard the soft hum of the cables stirring to life, the faint metallic groan echoing through the shaft.

Turning my head, I glanced toward Zoey and Rowan. Both stood rigid, their eyes fixed on the display above the doors, watching the numbers shift as the elevator crept closer.

One, two, three…

The elevator kept climbing. With each passing floor, the air seemed to tighten, like something was waiting for us on the other side of the doors. I said nothing. Just stood there, bracing myself, eyes fixed on the numbers as they crept higher.

And soon—

Ding!

The elevator came to a stop. After which, the doors slid open slowly, dragging out the moment, while the lights above us flickered with a faint, unsteady pulse.

But the moment the doors slid open, I was met with a completely empty elevator. The polished interior reflected my image back at me, my own gaze staring straight into mine.

Thinking back to my experiences with mirrors, a sense of unease crept in almost instantly, and I grew wary.

’Damn mirrors.’

Still, I stepped forward, my hand tightening around the knife, but I felt nothing out of the ordinary. Even so, I stayed on edge as I entered the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby. The others followed in behind me.

“I don’t feel anything…”

“Me too, but it feels too easy. I’m not getting a good feeling about this. Should we just take the stairs?”

At Zoey’s suggestion, we all paused.

However, thinking it over carefully, elevator or stairs, what was the difference? If something was going to happen here, it was probably going to happen there.

“Maybe we should just jump out the window.”

At my suggestion, I got weird stares from both Rowan and Zoey.

“…Let’s just take the elevator. Remain alert.”

In the end, perhaps realizing that taking the elevator or the stairs wouldn’t make much difference, Zoey stepped inside as the doors slid shut. A stifling silence followed as the elevator began to descend, the low hum of the cables echoing faintly from above.

At first, everything seemed normal.

Our gazes remained fixed on the monitor above the doors, watching as the numbers ticked down one by one. The steady motion of the elevator felt almost reassuring, the only sign that anything was still functioning in this place.

But just as we reached the fifth floor—

Flick!

The lights in the elevator cut out, plunging the entire chamber into deep darkness. It happened in an instant, so fast it felt like the span of a single blink. One moment, there was light; the next, there was nothing.

The hum of the elevator continued, the only thing anchoring me as the darkness pressed in.

Then, just as suddenly, the lights flickered back on.

Flick!

“…..”

The space looked exactly the same.

Except it wasn’t.

The quiet hum lingered as I slowly turned my head to the right, then to the left, only to realize that both of them were gone.

Ding!

The elevator stopped.

Turning my head, the doors slowly opened as I muttered, “Maybe we should’ve taken the stairs…”

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