Collecting Boss Cards in an Infinite Escape Room

My new no-romance novel, "The Asylum's Best Actor", is complete. Its blurb is at the very end.

Chang Luo wakes up inside a ventilation duct in an abandoned building. Before him are nothing but an eerie corridor, empty rooms hiding secrets, and locked doors.

At the end of the corridor, a bright red countdown keeps ticking.

[Escape, or you'll die after going mad.]

One escape room after another, one countdown after another.

The rooms have no rules and no set patterns,

only bosses brimming with resentment,

players who keep disappearing,

and new "items" that keep appearing...

While all the players are breaking down,

one person is skipping through the levels with the highest-level boss card in hand.

Chang Luo: Huh? The key clue was in that room? I happened to guess where the key was, so I didn't bother opening it.

Chang Luo: Huh? There was a boss locked in that room? I set it on fire before opening the door. There was nothing left but a card and a pile of ashes.

Other players: ???

The escape room designer: ???

Boss: ??????

* It starts with solo escape rooms, then levels up to multiplayer. But the protagonist often gets set up, so even multiplayer rooms end up feeling like solo runs.

* The protagonist starts out rather innocent and grows as he clears the rooms. Give him a little time.

* The rooms are connected, and so are the supporting characters. Keep an eye out and you might find a surprise (no promises, I'm a coward).

* Mild horror. Some scenes aren't suitable for reading while eating.

* "Escape Rooms" is the first volume in the [Human Ingenuity Project] series. Volume two, "No Surgery Allowed During the Dungeon Run", and volume three, "The Whole Star Sector Is Forced to Rely on Me", are both complete. Read them in order for the best experience!

New no-romance novel, "The Asylum's Best Actor"

Bai Tang is a therapist, and he has another identity no one knows about: he's an actor.

He's finally landed his first role, playing a spirit medium who hunts ghosts in Taiping City. Filming takes place at night, so Bai Tang can fit it around his daytime job.

It's a little tiring, but luckily, filming is almost done.

He doesn't know that his hospital file says:

Name: Bai Tang

Diagnosis: Severe delusional disorder

*

As a newcomer, Bai Tang didn't expect to get a good script. Still, when he saw his role, his eye twitched.

Someone who dies as soon as they appear is an extra. Someone who shows up without a line is a background actor. So what do you call someone who can't even make it onto the set as a background extra?!

But as a professional doctor who acts out scenes with all kinds of psychiatric patients every day, he decides to use his specialty to gradually increase his presence in the show.

Bai Tang: You make your own scenes.

Coming up:

#What happens when an actor works on multiple productions at once and the scripts get mixed up?

Confirmed scripts:

1. Playing Xi Yu, a spirit medium who catches ghosts, in a science-promoting film debunking feudal superstition. [Complete]

A string of deaths suddenly shatters the peace in Taiping City. Which side will solve the case first, the spirit mediums or the humans?

...Forgot to mention, this is a show that starts with the supernatural and then forces a scientific explanation at the end.

Xi Yu: If I don't want to be an extra, I'll take the protagonist's route!

2. Playing Xi Yu, the foil to the main cast who only knows how to dig, in a tomb-raiding drama.

Xi Yu: That's progress. I think I got a one-second shot of my back this time.

Xi Yu: ...Why is someone claiming to be a ghost-hunting spirit medium suddenly possessing me?

*The scripts get mixed up because actors are working on multiple productions at once. That's all there is to it.

3. ...The rest will be a mystery box.

1. A tall tale featuring ghosts, spirits, mysterious creatures, and traps. These are all elements the author likes. There are supernatural elements, and the horror level varies.

2. An anthology, a bit like quick transmigration.

3. There are everyday scenes in the real world featuring the asylum's "fake patient" and Therapist Bai. [Yes, there are.]

Theme: Cherish life.