Chapter 282 Real Purpose
Chapter 282 Real Purpose
But Isabella was completely unaware of all this.
She had already lifted her feet and walked toward the eerie-looking Royal Peaks Manor.
[Isabella's streaming! So happy!]
[Isabella has such long legs! She's so pretty!]
[Can you not just stare at her legs? You're acting like a pervert, and watch out—Jonathan might get his lawyer after you!]
[Jonathan's fan? What, you think you're going to marry Jonathan?]
[Mind your own business! Fuck you!]
#Please keep your comments civil on this public platform! Otherwise you'll be banned.
[Oh my god, today's streaming location looks so familiar! I think I've been there!]
[Isn't that Royal Peaks Manor? I went there two years ago to check it out. It's an immersive haunted house, right?]
[What haunted house! Shit, that place is actually haunted! Isn't it supposed to be shut down? How can people still dare to go there?]
[Do you know some secret? Share it with us!]
[I'm not saying anything, I don't dare! You guys keep watching the stream. I'm out—I'm a chicken. Oh, and does anyone here know the streamer? I suggest you call them right away and tell them to go home. That place is seriously messed up! Don't go there to die!]
Regal City · Royal Peaks Manor
After Isabella and her group entered the manor, they discovered that it was much larger than it appeared from the outside.
The white building served as the manor's entrance and also as the hotel reception area for Royal Peaks Manor.
The cream-colored exterior walls were covered with dark green vines,
dotted with tiny white flowers among the vines, which at first glance seemed rather romantic.
But those flowers were blooming too vigorously, with their petal edges already turning black,
giving off an indescribably eerie feeling.
The glass door of the reception area was spotlessly clean, yet you could vaguely see reflections of figures behind the door, flickering and then disappearing, as if it were an illusion.
This place was specifically for receiving tourists from outside, but right now it was completely deserted—not even a cleaning staff member in sight.
Past the white hotel building and going further in, you'd encounter an archway built from dead wood.
That dead wood had been through who knows how many years—
the bark had long since peeled away completely, exposing gray-white tree trunks,
still wrapped with some dried vines.
When the wind blew, the vines made sounds,
like someone sobbing quietly.
After passing through the archway built from dead wood,
there was a row of single-story buildings with a somewhat strange decorating style—dark brown wooden structures,
with weird patterns carved on the eaves, those patterns twisting
like agonized human faces. They really didn't match the white exterior of the hotel, as if they belonged to two completely different worlds.
Charles and Dylan carried Isabella and Melinda's luggage to the hotel front desk, cleared their throats theatrically, and asked,
"Do you have any rooms available?"
Isabella raised an eyebrow, leaned against a nearby pillar, and watched Charles and Dylan's performance with interest.
At the front desk sat an old wooden table with a thick guest register on it, along with a somewhat dated computer, its screen flickering with a faint glow.
And sitting behind the front desk was actually a very sweet-looking young girl.
She had her hair in a ponytail and wore a faded blue work uniform,
looking like a college student doing a summer job.
Melinda walked up, surveying the empty lobby, and joked,
"There aren't even any cars parked at the manor entrance, so obviously there are no outside guests.
And you're still asking her if there are rooms?
Plus, you two are the owners yourselves,
can't you just open up five rooms directly?"
But Zola, standing at the front desk, seemed to actually think about it.
Her fingers slowly tapped on the computer keyboard, then she flipped through the guest register in her hand,
looking through it page by page very carefully, cross-checking with the computer for a while,
before finally looking up with a somewhat stiff smile and saying,
"You're so lucky—we happen to have rooms available today! How many rooms would you like?"
Charles proudly lifted his chin, puffed out his chest, and said to Melinda,
"Melinda, you don't know—even though our place has all these ghost stories hyped up online, our rooms are still in high demand.
It's just that we haven't made back that three million dollars yet,
because, you know, relying on room fees alone, it'll take many years to break even.
But that doesn't mean our hotel's business is bad.
Anyway, Dylan and I have been here twice before, and the hotel was fully booked both times, no rooms available."
"Really?"
Melinda was skeptical. She looked around the empty lobby—it didn't look like a thriving business at all.
But Zola nodded, her eyes serious as she confirmed what Charles said.
She pulled out two key cards from a drawer, handed them to Charles, and said,
"Mr. Tudor, there are only two rooms left. You'll have to figure out how to split up.
Fortunately, one of them is an executive suite, and the other is a twin suite, so if we're talking about beds, there should be enough for all of you to sleep."
The key cards were black with the Royal Peaks Manor logo engraved on them, and felt ice-cold to the touch, as if they'd just been taken out of an ice cellar.
Charles took the key cards, nodded, and pointed toward the dead wood archway, saying,
"Are all the checked-in guests over at the haunted house?"
When Zola heard the words "haunted house," her body visibly stiffened. She unconsciously licked her somewhat chapped lips.
She quickly glanced at Charles, her eyes darting around uncertainly. After a long while, she slowly said,
"Yes, they went early this morning."
Her overly evasive gaze seemed a bit strange to Isabella.
Isabella's eyes fell on Zola's hands and noticed her fingers were trembling slightly, causing the pen in her hand to draw a crooked line on the paper.
But Isabella didn't think much of it, just assuming Zola was timid and afraid of mentioning the haunted house.
They had already spent over four hours driving from Eltheron to Regal City,
and after such a bumpy journey, they were honestly pretty tired
and didn't have the immediate desire to explore the haunted house.
Plus, ghost hunting required being in good spirits and having the physical stamina to keep up—otherwise it wouldn't be people catching ghosts, but ghosts catching people. After all, that kind of "failure" meant death.
Only Sophie was in great spirits, showing no signs of fatigue at all.
She held up her selfie stick, camera pointed at herself, an excited smile on her lips, and jerked her chin toward Charles, saying,
"Charles! Is that haunted house you mentioned the one inside there?
Can I bring my streaming equipment in?
I could give my fans an immersive adventure livestream."