48 Han Fei's Present

 

An actor ran into a con artist, they both pretended to know each other and continued this ‘unexpected reunion’ inside the corridor. Han Fei chatted for half a minute with the ghost behind him.

He acted more natural and sounded more at ease but he still did not turn around. There were a few times when his head almost looked behind him but every time he stopped at the last moment. Gradually, it wore down the ghost’s patience. ‘We’re already on such friendly terms but you still refuse to even look at me, you’re toying with me, aren’t you?’

The familiar voice faded away. Han Fei though kept up his act. He called after the ‘friend’ but got no response. It was then that his expression shifted, ‘I got found out?’

At that moment, Han Fei’s ring emitted a piercing chill. The ghost behind him had shed its disguise. The chill continued to intensify and that made it difficult for Han Fei to gauge the ghost’s ability. His body moved forward to put some distance away from the threat but the ghost stuck close to him. To make things worse, Han Fei could feel a rising weight dragging down his body. It was like something heavy had been draped over him. As the chill surged through his body, Han Fei was assaulted by a rancid smell. This was the first time he encountered this stench, it smelled like decomposition. A whiff of it and his stomach started to churn with disgust.

Tik tok, tik tok… The sticky liquid dripped onto his back. Han Fei felt something wound around his neck. After the ghost realized words were unable to trick Han Fei, it decided to opt for brute force. Air stopped in his throat. Han Fei’s face turned red. Deja vu overwhelmed Han Fei. Something felt very familiar about all this. When he first logged into Perfect Life and was scared witless by his roommates during the Sleeping Mission, he ran out from Room 1044. He escaped all the way to the first floor. At the time, the voice-activated lights at the first floor suddenly went off, submerging the corridor into darkness. Then something emerged from the darkness to strangle Han Fei. Now Han Fei realized it was not his roommates who came after him that day. The culprit back then should be this ghost who was behind him at this moment. It was again trying to strangle Han Fei!

‘Why is it so important for this ghost that I turn around? Am I going to take its place once I see its face?’ The more Han Fei thought it, the more concrete the supposition became. During his first gaming instance, he logged off instantly once he got the chance. He was too frightened to think of the consequence. He had logged off right in front of a ghost! Something that he was clever enough not to do later. ‘If this ghost behind me is really the ghost from back then, then it most likely knows that I am a living human. In that case, the chance of it to take me down as its scapegoat is very high.’

His neck was twisted out of shape but Han Fei’s mind had never been so clear. ‘It knows that I am a breathing human and it has witnessed me log off the game, so no matter what, I’ll have to deal with this ghost eventually. Why not now then?!’

Even though Weep had seen Han Fei log off the game before, Weep was just a child and Han Fei perfectly masqueraded his disappearance with his acting skill.

To deal with this kind of extremely cunning ghost, the best solution was to feed it to the other ghosts. Han Fei was unable to move backwards so leading the ghost back to Room 1044 was out of question. Furthermore, Han Fei did not forget that small detail. Before the ghost came after Han Fei, it closed the door to Room 1044. That meant that it knew about the danger within that room so it would not have willingly followed Han Fei into his safehouse. Since Room 1044 was not an option, Han Fei had to rely on the other ghosts in the building. While he still had some strength in him, Han Fei moved upstairs. His breathing became more difficult. Han Fei used everything he had to reach the 5th floor, he intended to plead for help among his neighbours on this floor.

“Xu Qin…” Stepping on the trail of blood, Han Fei stumbled towards Room 1052. He gripped the door handle and croaked out Xu Qin’s name. Xu Qin was unfamiliar with Han Fei so the chance of her coming to his rescue was very low but Han Fei had no better choice. Han Fei knocked on the door repeatedly, it made a lot of noise but the voice-activated lights appeared to have malfunctioned. They did not light up at all. This once again proved Han Fei’s speculation. When he first logged into the game, he had encountered something similar.

The cold twined around his finger. Han Fei realized he had underestimated the ghost behind him. Based on the chill coming from the ring, the ghost was as powerful as two jigsaw case victims. But the scary thing was the cold was still growing in intensity.

“Is someone home?!” Han Fei slammed on the door. Now was not the time to be polite. If he did not raise a ruckus, he’d die. Normally, he wouldn’t have done something like this but now his aim was to muddle the water. He wanted to attract the attention of other ghosts to help share his literal burden. He made a loud commotion on the 5th floor but none of the 5th floor tenants showed up. However, the sound of lock clicking did come from the other floors.

Han Fei’s airpipe was closing. At the last moment, his eyes wandered to Room 1051. There was a black figure that originally stood before the door but it had disappeared. However, the door to Room 1051 remained open. Moving swiftly, Han Fei nudged towards Room 1051. The room was too dark to make out anything. The space gave off a surprisingly thick warning of malice. It was so obvious a trap that the trapper did not even make any effort to disguise it.

‘Meng Si did not mention Room 1051 to me in her description of the building, so this place shouldn’t be this scary!’ This was a point of confusion but Han Fei did not have time to take things slowly anymore. He moved towards Room 1051. Just as half of Han Fei’s body leaned into Room 1051, the ghost behind him screeched. Its 10 pale fingers latched onto Han Fei’s neck like fish hooks as it tried to drag Han Fei out from the room. Pain bloomed around his neck. Just as Han Fei thought his neck was about to snap, the jade pendant that swung around his neck cracked and shattered. An icy burst of air erupted from the pendant. The fingers that gripped Han Fei’s neck were temporarily forced back and Han Fei successfully entered Room 1051.

Darkness swallowed everything. As Han Fei entered Room 1051, the darkness appeared to have thickened as if it was a living thing that could consume all the light. The ring pulsed with chill. A pair of blood red eyes opened inside Room 1051.

Han Fei shivered as he stared at the eyes in the dark but he waved at it and said in a friendly tone, “I live just below you. This is my first time coming to visit. I feel so bad to come empty-handed so I carried a ghost with me.”

A strange balance was formed. The ghost behind Han Fei did not leave but it did not lurch into Room 1051 either. The thing inside Room 1051 did not make immediate move towards Han Fei because it appeared cautious of the ghost behind Han Fei as well.