American Horror Story, Starting from Falls Town

Chapter 381 This is my professional habit
It's a real shame the helicopter landed safely in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

After disembarking, Henry and Claire transferred to a stretched Cadillac and headed towards the Rocky Mountains.

On the way, Claire suddenly frowned as she looked at her notebook.

Henry noticed his daughter's expression and asked her a question.

"what's going on?"

"The backend monitoring system detected some malfunctions in the game mechanics of the third level."

"Oh? Should we have the cleaner check it out?"

"The problem is, we can't contact the cleaners either!"

"I see. It seems Roy Black has found the game location. It was definitely the right choice to move ahead of time!"

Henry gazed intently toward the abandoned subway station.

"How did that guy find the game location? We didn't give him a single hint!"

Claire looked at Henry curiously, only to see a wry smile on her father's face.

“Those with superhuman strength can always ignore certain conditions and do things that ordinary people like us can never do. Claire, the game traps you designed are nothing to them.”

Upon hearing this, Claire fell silent.

Claire was undoubtedly dealt a significant blow when her father dismissed her meticulously designed puzzles and mechanisms as insignificant.

But these two bizarre father-daughter pairs don't seem to realize that so many people have been brutally killed by the dark web, and they are powerless against its power.
Those who kill will always be killed!
Since Henry and Claire have chosen this path, they are bound to suffer the consequences.

"Alright, let's just be spectators and quietly watch this grand performance."

Henry looked out at downtown Los Angeles, which seemed particularly lively tonight.

The scene shifts back to the underground beach, where the group works together to search through a pile of debris and successfully finds a metal detector.

"Wow! A metal detector! I used to play with these when I was a kid!"

The oldest priest present was somewhat excited upon seeing the metal detector.

Nidi quickly made a judgment while resting her chin on her hand.

"I think the metal detector is used to find anchors; that thing is definitely under the sand!"

"It's obvious, let me handle it. I haven't played with this in ages!"

The priest eagerly snatched the metal detector from the bald man's hand; it was quite heavy and required considerable strength to lift.

The round-faced woman next to her rolled her eyes.

"You wouldn't be happy to see a metal detector on the battlefield!"

Well, if metal detectors are used on the battlefield, there's only one possibility: demining soldiers are using them to detect landmines.

The round-faced woman finds it terrifying to even think about.

However, the priest did not pay attention and enthusiastically controlled the metal detector to search for the anchor's location.

During the exploration, a pair of dummy models of a mother and daughter were found on the beach. The daughter was kneeling on the ground, and the mother's eyes were covered by seashells, which looked very strange.

Nidi stared at the two models in surprise, completely forgetting about the others.

Ashley, who was standing nearby, realized that Neely had another inspiration. Sometimes Neely would forget to say what she thought of and would only tell someone when asked.

"Needy, have you thought of something?"

Ashley's voice made the priest in front of her, who was holding a metal detector, stop in his tracks.

"I've just thought of some things, but I'm not sure!"

Because of her social anxiety, Nidi was too embarrassed to say anything when she wasn't sure if her guess was correct.

The round-faced woman walked over and patted Nidi on the shoulder.

"Nidi, just say it, we can all take a look!"

"The 0526 in the first level, Sonia in the second level, the 'Blind Love' on the ship we just saw in this level, and these strange models—it all seems to be connected in some way."

The black woman looked thoughtful.

Do you think there's a hidden storyline in the design of these game levels?

Needy nodded.

"If we can figure out this hidden storyline, it will make solving the mystery much easier."

"So, have you discovered it now?"

Nidi pointed to the model.

"Look at this model of a mother. Don't you think of anything when you see the seashells on her eyes?"

Baldy scratched his head and answered Nidi in an uncertain voice.

"Blind love?"

"I think so—what are you doing?"

Before Nidi could finish speaking, she saw the bald man recklessly pry open the shell on the mother model's eyes. By the time she stopped him, the shell had already been pried open, revealing a plug inside.

"Didn't you want me to open it?"

"Have you forgotten what happened in the first level? Just pulling the ring would increase the voltage!"

Nidi rubbed her forehead. The reason she had guessed something but hadn't acted was because she was worried about triggering some mechanism. Who would have thought that Baldy would be so quick?

The bald guy could only give a silly laugh and apologize.

"I'm sorry, I really forgot!"

As soon as the words were spoken, it seemed as if some mechanism was activated, and the mother and daughter model began to sink rapidly, startling everyone.

"Quicksand! It really is quicksand!"

The round-faced woman and the priest looked at Nydia with astonishment; this blonde girl with black-rimmed glasses had already surprised them too much.

Niddy noticed that many areas of the beach had already started to flow, and they had only explored less than half of the area.

"Now is not the time to stand still. We must find the anchor before it is completely swallowed by the quicksand, or we will have no chance!"

This reminded everyone.

The priest immediately threw the rope and lifebuoy he was carrying to the others.

"Quick, tie everyone together with a rope, so that if one person gets stuck in quicksand, the others can save him!"

The three most proactive members, Round Face, Bald Guy, and Ashley, quickly put the ropes on everyone. Because the ropes were of limited length, they could only continue moving forward at an unsafe distance of about one meter between each other.

Finally, on a beach where quicksand had not yet appeared, the metal detector reacted.

"found it!"

The crowd quickly gathered around, some digging with their hands, others finding a plank of wood nearby to dig out, and soon they dug out the anchor.

But when the priest picked up the anchor, he found that a rope was tied to it.

Moreover, it seems that the priest's act of picking up the anchor triggered some kind of mechanism, and now the rope is tightening continuously.

It's obvious that there's a winch pulling the anchor under the sand.

Caught off guard, the priest was pulled down by the anchor. Luckily, the people were tied together with ropes, otherwise he would have been pulled into the sand by the anchor.

"Quick! Go find something to cut the rope!"

With everyone working together, they barely managed to control the anchor, but because the sand was not a good grip, the anchor was still being slowly pulled down into the sand.

The round-faced woman and the bald man behind the priest were doing their best to hold him back and had no energy to do anything else.

So the task of finding something to cut the rope fell to the three people behind them.

However, because they were restricted by the ropes, the three of them had very limited range of movement. They had no choice but to untie the ropes and risk searching their surroundings.

Fortunately, Ashley quickly remembered the ship in a bottle she had received earlier, which was a glass bottle.

Ashley quickly reminded the Black woman.

"A boat in a bottle!" The black woman immediately took the boat in a bottle out of her pocket, but the ground was all soft sand, so it was obviously impossible to break the bottle.

Ashley snatched the bottle from the black woman's hand and rushed to the nearest wooden fence, banging on it several times before finally breaking the glass bottle.

"then!"

The largest shard of glass was thrown out, and the priest quickly picked it up, cutting the rope first despite cutting his hand.

The rope finally broke, but most of the priest's body was stuck in the quicksand. It took the combined efforts of the remaining five people to pull him out.

"Ptooey! I'm never going to the beach again!"

The priest, who had nearly been swallowed by quicksand, spat out the sand from his mouth, clearly traumatized by the beach.

"On the contrary, all I want to do right now is lie down on Santa Monica Beach for a while."

The round-faced woman criticized the priest's words.

After a brief pause, the group took the anchor and prepared to open the door to the cabin.

But at that moment, the quicksand suddenly stopped flowing.

Although the group found it strange, they did not stop walking.

The anchor was placed on the door of the cabin, and the door opened smoothly, revealing a simple little dining room inside.

(Interior furnishings of the log cabin)
Everyone split up and searched inside the cabin.

The round-faced woman found a fairly clean towel and helped the priest treat the wound on his palm.

The Black woman noticed the most eye-catching blue refrigerator in the cabin, which had a picture of a lighthouse on it with the words "Have a pleasant journey" written on it.

Then, the Black woman pulled on the refrigerator door, only to find that it wouldn't open.

"Look, this refrigerator door won't open. I think this is the exit from this level!"

Ashley went around behind the refrigerator and found the minion power cord, but there was no plug.

"A plug, we need a plug here!"

The plug was in the bald man's hand. He immediately came over and combined the power cord and plug, and plugged the plug into the socket, but the refrigerator still wouldn't open.

"Fuck! Things aren't that simple after all!"

So far, the six haven't encountered any major dangers in this stage, except for the priest who was almost sucked into quicksand, so things are definitely not that simple.

"Could it be related to the lighthouse?"

The Black woman remembered the lighthouse photo she had just found.

Nidi walked to the window and looked in the direction of the lighthouse.

"But there's nothing around the lighthouse, and there's no way to climb up it!"

After treating his wounds, the priest noticed a lighthouse-shaped ornament on the pillar with a switch on it.

"Look here, there's a switch here!"

Baldy stepped forward and was about to press the switch when Nidi grabbed him.

"Wait a moment!"

"what happened?"

The bald man scratched his head, somewhat puzzled.

"I suspect that pressing this switch is the beginning of the final test of this stage, and we need to be prepared!"

Blackie agreed with what Nidi said.

"Nidi is right, please don't be so fast with your hands in the future!"

The bald guy looked a little embarrassed.

"Sorry, sorry! This is just a professional habit of mine!"

"Everyone, look around and see if there are any tools we can carry with us, so we can be prepared for the next level!"

After listening to Nidi's words, everyone began searching inside the cabin.

The bald man picked up a mop, broke off the mop head, leaving a wooden handle.

The priest remembered the broken glass bottle from before, broke one of the bottles, and used the remaining towel to make a glass dagger.

The black woman tore down the curtain; it could be used as a rope or as a temporary bandage.

The round-faced woman found a tiptoe brick under the boiler; it's one of the most amazing street gadgets.

Ashley picked up a pot; she really had nothing else to carry.

Finally, Nidi picked up a folding fishing rod, which was easy to carry and very functional.

"Alright, I'll count to 3, 2, 1, get ready!"

Everyone nodded nervously.

"3, 2, 1!"

Nidi pressed the switch, and the whole house shook violently.

Good news: the cabin has electricity now.

The bad news is that the cabin is clearly starting to sink, and the lights outside have turned from dusk to night. This switch is the final test of this level.

The round-faced woman standing next to the refrigerator quickly opened the refrigerator door. To everyone's surprise, a terrifying creature the size of a human and with features very similar to a dog rushed out of the refrigerator and pounced on the round-faced woman on the spot.

If Roy were here, he would recognize this monster as a ghoul.

"What is this!"

The few second-runner players, who were inexperienced in such matters, were stunned and momentarily forgot to help the round-faced girl fight the ghouls.

Fortunately, Ashley and Nydey had both experienced many supernatural events. Ashley immediately put the iron pot on the ghoul's head, preventing it from biting the round-faced girl.

Niddy noticed that there were still ghouls trying to rush out of the refrigerator, so she quickly slammed the refrigerator shut.

The ghouls kept attacking the refrigerator exit, so Nidi quickly called out to the second-playthrough player.

"Don't just stand there, come and help!"

The remaining three second-runner players finally woke up.

Baldy used a wooden stick to knock the ghoul over, while Blackie and Ashley held down the iron pot to prevent the ghoul from retaliating.

Finally, the priest used a glass dagger to slit the ghoul's throat.

Then, the group hurriedly moved various pieces of furniture to the refrigerator door to block it, finally freeing up Nidi's hands.

"What kind of blasphemous thing is this?"

The priest's worldview was once again shaken, but at this moment there was clearly no time for him to think, because the cabin had begun to sink and showed signs of collapse.

"Get out of the cabin immediately!"

The six people rushed out of the cabin and found that the lighthouse was lit and a row of ladders appeared that they could climb up.

"Let's go to the lighthouse!"

The refrigerator in the cabin is definitely out of the way, and the ghouls are still banging on the refrigerator door, so the lighthouse is the only place they can go.

The six of them climbed to the top of the lighthouse one after another. Nidi glanced at the telescope she cared about, and through it she could see the words "I can't see you".

However, the "SEE" in this sentence refers to the "SEA" of the beach.

Nidi immediately understood everything.

"Damn it, this lighthouse is for solving the puzzle of the power plug, which we already solved before!"

"What should I do?"

Everyone tensed up again.

They could no longer return to the cabin, and the correct exit, which led to the refrigerator, was blocked by some kind of monster. At this moment, the six people were clearly in a dead end.

(End of this chapter)