9: Oops, the haunted house gets upgraded!

"Mom, why did you call the police for no reason?"

"How many times have I told you, be wary of online scams. Just because TikTok says I'm dead, you actually believe it?"

"What? Twerking?"

"Ahem, don't worry about that!"

Outside the Tianfeng Haunted House, Song Yang hid in a corner.

He held his phone, constantly explaining to his mother on the other end.

Captain Chen Chuan of the Jinling City Nanshan District Criminal Police Team watched this scene, shaking his head with a wry smile.

Turning around, he spoke to Li Zhou, "Sorry, Boss Li, we were a bit rash earlier."

Half an hour ago, the Nanshan District police station received a report from a middle-aged woman.

The woman claimed her son had been murdered, and the killer was the owner of a place called Tianfeng Haunted House.

Nanshan District had excellent public security; it had been many years since a murder case had occurred.

The police station did not dare to be negligent. After an investigation pinpointed the location, they dispatched officers immediately.

Then, there was the scene of a group of police officers barging into the employee lounge.

"It's fine, Captain Chen, I understand you all."

"You serve the people, after all."

Li Zhou waved his hand and smiled.

The moment he was pinned down by two police officers, he had a rough guess of the reason.

It seemed that calling Song Yang earlier had indeed been effective.

Even the police had been alerted.

"Since it's a misunderstanding, we'll be leaving now."

"But Boss Li, that dummy in your Haunted House really looks quite scary."

"Just a friendly reminder, while the probability of scaring someone to death is extremely low, it's not impossible."

Chen Chuan looked at the smiling young man in front of him, always feeling that something was off.

But what exactly was off, he couldn't quite pinpoint.

Shaking his head, he gave two final reminders.

Earlier, after entering the lounge, almost all the police officers' attention was on Li Zhou and his group.

The zombie was ignored.

However, when Li Zhou shouted, "Don't move!" all the officers instinctively tensed up.

The zombie returned to its original state, stopping its laser eye performance.

It was precisely because its eyes stopped flashing that the carefully created mechanical feel instantly vanished.

A wisp of terrifying aura emanated from its body.

At that moment, except for Li Zhou, almost everyone was startled by the zombie.

Even if it just stood still in place.

No wonder Song Yang's fans thought their Streamer had already passed away.

Chen Chuan asked himself if he were to suddenly see such a terrifying thing jump out in an environment like a Haunted House, he would probably be quite scared too.

"Don't worry, Captain Chen, I know what I'm doing."

"Young people nowadays have strong psychological resilience."

Li Zhou nodded, indicating that he would be mindful of the limits.

Seeing this, Chen Chuan said no more and left with his subordinates.

"Boss... we seem to have gone viral!"

Fang Xiaolu came to Li Zhou's side at this moment, her tone filled with excitement.

She held her phone, which was playing a demonic video.

Song Yang swayed his head, with a ghostly zombie illusion faintly visible behind him.

Li Zhou took a look, and the number of likes had already exceeded 500,000.

One must know, this video had not been posted long ago.

Clicking on the comments, Li Zhou just took a casual glance and saw the name of his Haunted House appear several times.

It really did go viral!

Suddenly, Li Zhou seemed to have thought of something.

He ignored the excited Fang Xiaolu, disregarded Song Yang who was still explaining to his mother not far away, and turned directly into the Haunted House.

Upon arriving in the owner's office, Li Zhou rubbed his hands together like a fly and said, "System, how much fright value do I have now?"

Earlier, because the system notifications were too noisy, he had directly chosen to block them.

He remembered that with the help of Song Yang's fans, the fright value had almost broken through 10,000 in just half a minute.

Now, how much... it should be tens of thousands, right?

After Li Zhou spoke, the familiar system panel appeared before his eyes.

[horror employee system]

[host: Li Zhou]

[Current Number of Horror employees: 1]

[Current fright value: 19884]

[Current Haunted House Horror Level: 0 (1,000 fright value required for upgrade)]

[Current Number of Available employees to Recruit: 0]

[Note: Tourists scared by the Haunted House can generate a certain amount of fright value. fright value can be used to purchase items from the shop, pay employee salaries, and increase the Haunted House's horror level.]

[Each time the Haunted House's horror level increases by one level, the number of available employees to recruit increases by one.]

Over 19,000 fright value?

Why is it so little?

Li Zhou was stunned.

However, he quickly realized.

The fright value had surged rapidly because of the zombie's sudden appearance.

But not long after, Song Yang's livestream room closed.

Over 19,000 was already quite good.

After all, judging from the system's previous reminders, a person being scared once seemed to give a maximum of only a dozen fright value points.

"System, didn't you say fright value can be used to buy items?"

"Where is it?"

Besides paying employee salaries and upgrading the Haunted House level, fright value could also be used to purchase items from the shop.

But Li Zhou looked for a long time and couldn't find where the shop the system mentioned was.

[The system shop will be unlocked when the Haunted House's horror level reaches Level 1.]

The system notification sounded.

"You should have said so earlier."

Li Zhou waved his hand grandly and said, "Upgrade me five levels first!"

[Ding, insufficient fright value, unable to upgrade.]

Not enough?

"Then three levels?"

[Ding, insufficient fright value, unable to upgrade.]

Still not enough?

Li Zhou didn't believe it.

"Two levels should be fine, right?"

[Ding, insufficient fright value, unable to upgrade.]

...Li Zhou was stunned again.

What's going on?

Upgrading from Level 0 to Level 1 only required 1,000.

Even if the fright value required for upgrading increased tenfold, 19,000 fright value should be enough, right?

"Then let's just upgrade one level first."

Unable to understand the situation, Li Zhou could only choose to upgrade one level first to see.

[Ding, 1,000 fright value consumed, Haunted House level +1.]

[Ding, number of available horror employees to recruit +1.]

[Ding, Haunted House level successfully reached Level 1, Beginner Shop unlocked!]

This time, the system finally changed its voice.

Three consecutive notifications made Li Zhou feel very comfortable.

He chose to open the system panel again.

[horror employee system]

[host: Li Zhou]

[Current Number of Horror employees: 1]

[Current fright value: 18884]

[Current Haunted House Horror Level: 1 (100,000 fright value required for upgrade)]

[Current Number of Available employees to Recruit: 1]

[Note: Tourists scared by the Haunted House can generate a certain amount of fright value. fright value can be used to purchase items from the shop, pay employee salaries, and increase the Haunted House's horror level.]

[Each time the Haunted House's horror level increases by one level, the number of available employees to recruit increases by one.]

How much?

100,000?

Are you kidding me?

Looking at the Haunted House level column, Li Zhou scratched his ears and cheeks.

It turned out he had guessed wrong earlier.

The fright value required to upgrade the Haunted House level indeed increased exponentially.

However, this multiple was not the tenfold he had guessed.

From Haunted House Level 1 to 2, it was one hundred times that from Level 0 to 1!