Horror Game Developer: My games aren't that scary! novel Chapter 34

Chapter 34 - Painting [3]

"Wait, what?"

I saw the shock flash across Kyle's face as he turned to me. I couldn't blame him. Considering how much I hated anything remotely related to horror, this was definitely out of character for me.

But then again, I had done the same thing with the first trial.

"You're interested?"

More importantly, staring at Zoey and seeing the doubtful look on her face, I nodded.

"Yes, I'm interested."

This was actually a good opportunity.

Not only would this bring potential exposure to my game, but if I could do this well, then... I could also clear the optional quest. This was two birds with one stone.

"But I have a condition."

"Ho? You have a condition?"

Zoey raised an eyebrow, her lips curling into a half-smile. I could almost hear her thinking, I'm already doing you a favor, and now you're asking for more?

I ignored her look and just stated my condition.

"There's a certain museum that recently caught my interest recently. I'd like to visit it for some inspiration. It's an abandoned one, so it might be intriguing for your contact."

"...An abadanoned museum?"

Zoey frowned, seemingly not expecting such an answer from me.

Then—

"What's the name of the place? Let me see what it is first."

"Velora Art Museum."

"An Art Museum?"

Zoey appeared a little surprised by the answer, but soon typed up the place on her phone.

"No. 12 Ivory Hollow District?"

"...That's the place."

"Hmm. It says it closed five years ago because of a gas leak? But wait—here it says it shut down due to insufficient funds. No, wait..."

Rolling her finger across the screen, Zoey's eyes squinted.

"Ah, here."

Her finger eventually stopped.

"It says here the museum shut down five years ago after it was robbed of its most important painting—The Lady of the White Umbrella. After it disappeared, a string of unfortunate events followed: a gas leak, the sudden withdrawal of their main sponsor... and eventually, the closure."

Zoey's voice slowed down as she read.

Eventually, tearing her eyes away from the phone, she looked at me.

"This is the place that you want to visit?"

"...Yes."

Though I said that, I wasn't actually sure. I wanted to go, but would the system allow it? It did previously say that I couldn't do anything that would compromise or reveal it. Would something like this be allowed? _{freewebnσvel.cѳm}

And more importantly...

That painting that got robbed, it was none other than the one that was in my office, wasn't it?

"Hmmm."

Zoey tapped her arm thoughtfully, deep in thought.

And then...

"Let me see what I can do."

"Really?"

Kyle's tone rose. It usually happened whenever he was excited. He looked pretty happy for me.

However, I was anything but excited.

I knew her well enough to know things were probably not going to be as easy as they seemed.

"I'll get in contact with him. I'll let you know if they agree soon."

"...Thank you."

"Sure."

Zoey nodded before glancing at Kyle and finally moving away.

I stared at her back as she left.

'She might make things a little harder for me, but at least she won't go too far.' 

Zoey was petty, but she knew when to draw the line. I could only get myself ready for whatever she had planned.

In any case, I turned to look at Kyle. There were quite a few things that I needed to ask him.

"There's something that I wanted to ask you."

"...Oh, me too."

His eyes narrowed.

Oh, right. He probably wants to ask me about why I accepted the offer to livestream... I already had an answer to that.

"I want to improve my game—and for that, I need inspiration. I never had the chance before; I was always stuck in the office. But now that I'm free, I'm thinking of exploring new places to find it."

Kyle's mouth paused. He bought my words. In fact, he almost seemed happy.

'Well, whatever pleases him.' 

I took the chance to go straight to my point.

"Anyways, I wanted to ask you about something that I've recently overheard."

"Okay. What is it?"

"It's about something called order? First order? ...Second Order? Well, something like that."

'No, that's exactly what it is.' 

'So the Containment Vessel I've got now is just a basic node, which means I'm considered this... First Order thing or whatever.'