I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 237 - 237 236. Are you awake The training was very

Chapter 237: 236. Are you awake? The training was very successful_1 Chapter 237: 236. Are you awake? The training was very successful_1 “Director Lu, is this really necessary?”

Ye Cheng looked at the “will” Lu Ban had handed him, feeling puzzled.

To say it was for the effect of the show, Lu Ban didn’t seem to be joking, but to say it was real, Lu Ban surely wouldn’t put him in danger, right?

It should… probably not, right?

Ye Cheng finished writing the simple will and handed it to Lu Ban.

“You don’t need to be nervous, it’s just a precaution. Normally, it won’t be necessary.”

Lu Ban said, trying to reassure.

“Then what counts as an abnormal situation?”

Ye Cheng couldn’t help but be curious.

“If an abnormal situation arises, that would be an abnormal situation.”

Lu Ban replied earnestly.

“I see… wait, isn’t that saying nothing at all?”

Ye Cheng was utterly confused.

“Here’s the thing, I’m planning to create a terrifying atmosphere for you, to let you step into the shoes of fear, to achieve a perfect experience for embodying the character.”

Lu Ban put away the will and explained.

“How can I step into the shoes of that sensation?”

Ye Cheng didn’t understand.

“It’s not just watching horror movies again, is it? I feel like aside from your movies, Director Lu, other horror films just lack something. They aren’t scary at all.”

“Is that so? Then you must be very brave?”

“Are you kidding? I’m super brave!”

“That’s perfect. You can come to my house and see for yourself; my place is quite large.”

Lu Ban enticed him with a coaxing tone.

After dinner, Ye Cheng arrived at Lu Ban’s house.

Compared to his own grand mansion, Lu Ban’s house was evidently much smaller, and the first thing Ye Cheng saw was the large mirror behind the sofa.

In the mirror, Ye Cheng looked haggard, his face pale, not at all like someone who just had a meal.

Ye Cheng looked at the mirror for a while, and the him in the mirror waved at Ye Cheng.

“!”

Ye Cheng rubbed his eyes, and the him in the mirror also rubbed his eyes.

Nothing unusual.

“Am I seeing things?”

He saw Lu Ban leading him to the bedroom and pointing at the bed.

“Lie down.”

“?”

Ye Cheng was puzzled, a question mark floating over his head.

“Director Lu, we agreed there’d be no underhanded tricks…

“Who’s pulling any tricks on you? This is training.”

Lu Ban patted Ye Cheng on the shoulder.

“Lie on the bed, wait until twelve o’clock, close your eyes, and then count your heartbeat five hundred times before opening your eyes and looking under the bed.”

“Is this some kind of courage-test game?”

Ye Cheng didn’t quite understand; he hadn’t seen Lu Ban’s early videos, so naturally, he wasn’t familiar with the corresponding game.

“Just do as I say.”

They watched some horror videos for fun, and Lu Ban discovered that Ye Cheng indeed had a lot of nerve. Ye Cheng tended to not demonstrate any emotional fluctuations with short videos that would normally scare people. It might be precisely this reason that he couldn’t bring out his full acting potential and strength.

For the future of this actor, Lu Ban decided to step it up a notch.

At eleven fifty, Ye Cheng lay on Lu Ban’s bed, Lu Ban drew the curtains, turned off the light, closed the door, and went back to the living room.

Ye Cheng was enveloped in darkness.

He closed his eyes, only hearing some everyday sounds from the neighbors.

At twelve o’clock sharp, his phone chimed a reminder, and Ye Cheng began counting his heartbeats.

“One, two, three…”

At first, Ye Cheng could accurately count his heartbeats in silence, but gradually, he felt his heartbeat slowing down, far below the normal rate.

At the same time, the surrounding sounds diminished, a complete silence, as if Ye Cheng had been thrown into another dimension.

Creak—

Suddenly, Ye Cheng thought he heard the sound of a closet door opening, as if something was coming out along with the opening door.

At the beginning, Ye Cheng thought it was Lu Ban trying to scare him, but then he remembered, hadn’t Lu Ban already left the room?

So now, who, or what, was coming out of the closet?

Ye Cheng continued to count his heartbeats, but his thoughts couldn’t help but wander.

He thought of the horror videos he had watched tonight. Although they seemed fake at the time, just special effects, now, caught in such an environment, those things started to feel very real.

A tingling sensation came by his ear, like someone’s hair sweeping across his earlobe, Ye Cheng wanted to lift his hand to scratch it, but suddenly discovered he couldn’t lift his arms.

It wasn’t just his arms, but his entire body couldn’t move, as if it was heavily pressed down by something.

“Sleep paralysis?”

The thought involuntarily crossed Ye Cheng’s mind.

He felt the rhythm of his heartbeat becoming erratic. No, Ye Cheng realized, his heart had slowed to the extent it beat once every ten seconds or so. In a normal situation, he would probably be cold and dead.

A baseless terror rose in his heart, Ye Cheng felt he was trapped in a helpless and lonely situation, unable to even stop the game.

He struggled continuously, tried incessantly, but could only feel his body stiffening bit by bit, unable to resist.

In this prolonged torment, Ye Cheng felt he was about to break down.

He didn’t know whether it had been hours, or even days, but finally, Ye Cheng counted up to the five hundredth heartbeat.

It was unclear if it was for this reason, but the bindings on his body were finally released.

“Ah!”

Ye Cheng let out a shout, opened his eyes, and sat up on the bed.

Gasping deeply, he discovered his whole body was covered in cold sweat, his limbs felt weak, as if he were a severely ill patient.

Just about to ask for help from Director Lu outside the door, Ye Cheng suddenly remembered he had one last task left in his game.

“Look under the bed…”

What in the world was under the bed?

Ye Cheng swallowed, his recent experience making him feel panicked, unsure of what he would see now looking down.

But after hesitating for a while, he decided to look anyway.

Staying put was just torture—he might as well get it over with.

He steadied himself against the edge of the bed and looked underneath.

There, beneath the bed which was free of even a speck of dust, was a clown doll with a comical smile staring right back at him. As their eyes met, the clown’s mouth suddenly split open, the opening stretching all the way to its ears.

Ye Cheng couldn’t even scream. His vision went dark, and he immediately fainted.

When he woke up again, Ye Cheng found himself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.

“Where is this…”

Ye Cheng sat up, somewhat bewildered.

“You’re awake? The training was very successful, you should have mastered the skill of portraying fear by now.”

With a congratulatory demeanor, Lu Ban applauded Ye Cheng.

In an instant, all the memories flooded back. Ye Cheng’s expressions changed, his mouth twisted, his pupils dilated, the ultimate expression of terror appeared on his face.

This kind of expression showed unmistakable fear, unease, the look of someone who has seen something utterly horrifying and beyond comprehension.

It couldn’t be produced without decades of acting experience and a natural understanding.

“Don’t, don’t come any closer!”

Seeing his reaction, Lu Ban was very pleased.

“Maybe in the future, I could teach a course on horror film acting at some film academy, specializing in this skill. Who knows, it might even spawn an Academy Award winner.”

He believed Ye Cheng’s future was bright.

*

Please vote for recommendations, votes for the month!