119 The 4-Way Junction

 

Huang Yin provided Han Fei with a lot of information about Perfect Life. They chatted for a long time and then decided to meet up in game after the OB started. Deep Space Tech had not officially announced the date for the OB yet but based on Huang Yin’s insider information, Perfect Life would enter global OB within the month. At that time, Perfect Life would become many players’ second life.

Humanity had great hope for the future. As technology advanced, people would reach closer to Godhood. Humans would finally do things that were previously limited to the domain of the divine, but they would not stop there, they’d eventually attempt things that even God would have not fathomed. Everyone appeared to be anticipating the arrival of that day, only Han Fei who had been living in the cryptic world was not that optimistic. He knew that once the bulwark between the surface and cryptic world shattered, Perfect Life would become the point of intersection between the living world and the after world.

Most people’s perfect lives were built on a foundation of idealism and excellence, there was no regret and malformation. Perfect Life’s surface world did not contain any negative emotions because all the dark, despair, pain and sin in humanity had been trapped within the cryptic world. When the two worlds collided, those trapped in sin and despair would have a field day pulling the world down into abyss. In the abyss, they would feast and feed.

After saying goodbye to Huang Yin, Han Fei returned to the set. He followed the crew to hurry to the convention centre, to shoot the scene between Meng Changan and Meng Changxi. Interestingly enough, Deep Space Tech expressed concern about Meng Changan’s involvement in Perfect Life as well as its influence on the game’s reputation. At the final minute, they turned back on their promise to borrow the film crew the venue. On top of that, the company manager even hoped that Director Jiang would remove Meng Changan’s character from the script.

With no other choice, Director Jiang thankfully managed to find a nearby available conventional centre and eventually completed the shoot. Han Fei finished his cut at 7 pm. He did not stay at the city centre but hurried home. He had a simple dinner and began to study. To get into the mind of Meng Changan, Han Fei read all the books the man had read. The literature ranged from neurology to brain anatomy. Some of them were only available in their native language. Han Fei had to painstakingly translate them term by term. The more he studied, the more Han Fei realized how ignorant he was. The most terrifying thing was the knowledge that the Butterfly would have known these things because it was the Butterfly who recommended Meng Changan these books. Time slipped away while he was enraptured by the books. Midnight soon arrived.

Han Fei washed his face with cold water and put on the gaming helmet. “Welcome to Perfect Life!”

Han Fei moved his body and realized Wei Youfu was sitting beside him. The latter appeared to have known Han Fei’s secret but he never once brought it up, perhaps that was what they called familial trust. “Are you feeling better?”

“I am feeling more like myself already. Now, I’m helping others with their journeys.” Wei Youfu was a good person. Of all the victims, he was the only one who was willing to believe the drifter. “It won’t take long for them to regain their rationality and then they can leave the bedroom.”

“That’s a necessary prerequisite for you to leave the bedroom?” Han Fei did not know that. He glanced into the innermost bedroom. So far only Wei Youfu and Little Eight moved freely around the house, the other victims rarely showed themselves.

“They are afraid of accidentally hurting you, after all, they can still lose control at any moment.”

“You guys are too kind to be ghosts.” Han Fei did not know what to say. He sat on the couch when he heard a clash from the kitchen. “What was that?”

“Don’t mind it. It’s just Little Eight trying to learn how to cook.” Wei Youfu smiled abashedly. He seemed to have gotten used to this.

“She’s cooking?”

“I wish to help her cultivate some hobbies.” Out of concern, Han Fei decided to venture into the kitchen. He saw Little Eight standing amidst a pile of trash, her expression colored with helplessness. “Perhaps cooking is not a suitable hobby for you. How about gardening?” Han Fei suggested as he cleaned up the trash. Then he extricated the bag of seeds Huang Yin left behind from his inventory. “Fill a bowl up with soil, and plant these. Water them daily and one day, they will bloom into beautiful flowers.” Han Fei had no idea whether these flowers would blossom in hell or not, he just wanted to find something else for Little Eight to do before she tore down the house. Little Eight seemed to have gained a little more trust in Han Fei. She reached out her hands to take the seeds and her face lit up with a small smile.

After leaving the kitchen, Han Fei walked to the window and looked out through the wooden gaps. “The situation at Happiness Neighbourhood has mostly stabilized. From now on, we should expand our exploration beyond the neighbourhood.”

“I’ll go with you.” Wei Youfu walked over to volunteer.

“Sure but I still have something else to do for now. You better stay to accompany Little Eight.” Han Fei left Room 1044 and ran up to the 5th floor. “Big sister, are you home? There’s something I wish to ask you.” When Han Fei walked towards Xu Qin’s room, the shadow in the room next door stretched lazily. It did not show any interest in Han Fei at all. Hard to imagine this room once threatened to claim Han Fei’s life.

“What is it?” The door opened to reveal Xu Qin holding a dripping knife. A normal person would be frightened by this but Han Fei thought it was very normal. “There is a mirror on the 7th floor, what do you know about it?”

“I’d advise you to stay far away from it. The mirror and the spectral dog from Apartment 2 are the oldest tenants in this neighbourhood. At least they’re already here when I moved in.” Xu Qin rarely dispensed rational advice so this also showed how dangerous the mirror was. “Is there anything else you wish to know?”

“Other than the mirror, there appears to be a haunted graffiti on the landing between the 7th and 8th floor. When I first walked past it, it almost stole my soul away…”

“The tenant on the 8th floor has tortured and killed too many ghosts, the Yin energy of those dead spirits accumulated and gathered on that wall. It eventually formed a malicious mural that preys on the weak. You shouldn’t face any problem from them now.”

“Wait, but isn’t there only one tenant on the 8th floor? You’re saying that little girl has tortured and killed many ghosts?” Ying Yue appeared in Han Fei’s mind.

“Don’t be fooled by her appearance. The girl’s house is filled with many eyes, each of those eyes represent a ghost that she killed. After she murdered those ghosts, she kept their eyeballs as souvenirs. She’s a real crazy person.” To hear Xu Qin call another individual a crazy person was quite surreal.

After he got the information he needed, Han Fei came to the 8th floor. His initial plan was to implore Ying Yue to remove the dangerous canvas from the stairwell wall to ensure that there was no longer any security threat inside the building. However, when Ying Yue heard that the haunted mural almost took Han Fei’s life, she stomped out of the room. Han Fei hurried after her as she moved towards the landing between 8th and 7th floor. Facing the wall, Ying Yue’s closed eyes slowly opened, then a mist of darkness oozed out of Ying Yue’s sockets. The mist billowed against the wall. Shadows were yanked out from the mural and consequently dissolved by the black mist. When the last shadow was pulled out, Han Fei suddenly said, “Wait, that’s the man who tried to stop me! If he had succeeded, I wouldn’t be able to share the secret of the aquarium with you!”

The black mist thickened. The shadow caught in the mist shivered in fear. When he saw Han Fei’s face, he almost cried. The ghost did remember Han Fei. When Han Fei walked past the landing, he glared at Han Fei. That was a mistake that he regretted deeply now.

“Ying Yue, do you mind handing him to me? After all, I have unfinished business with him.” Han Fei had helped Ying Yue found her most precious treasure. Ying Yue had been figuring out how to repay Han Fei so when Han Fei said this, the eyeless sockets slowly turned towards the man and Ying Yue nodded. The black mist rolled around Han Fei. When the mist faded, Ying Yue’s eyes were already closed. The girl looked pale and exhausted.

“Notification for Player 0000! You have obtained a Grade G Blood Red Item—Ghost Tattoo.

“Ghost Tattoo (Grade G Blood Red Item): A tattoo painted with ghosts’ blood, pain and despair. A dead soul is trapped inside the tattoo. Feeding resentment into the tattoo will make it glow brighter. Forsaking the tattoo for too long and it’ll eventually fade away.”

Han Fei admitted he had taken some creative license when he told the story, but he did not expect Ying Yue would obliterate the guy and used his remains to paint out a tattoo on his body. The light red tattoo extended from Han Fei’s back down to his arm. Han Fei could hear a barely discernible wail from inside the tattoo. It felt like he was a walking cage. The tattoo-painting process must have exhausted Ying Yue greatly. After teaching Han Fei how to use the tattoo, she shuffled back to her room.

“Feeding resentment into the tattoo will make it stronger? This thing even has a growth spurt?”

Ying Yue had gone out of the way to help Han Fei. Han Fei’s determination to bring the family of three into the game grew stronger. With experience from last time, Han Fei would be more prepared.

Han Fei left the 8th floor and dropped by to visit each of his neighbours to try to trigger a mission. Unfortunately, even after 3 hours and moving back between the 2 apartments, there was not one mission to be found. None of the existing tenants needed Han Fei to do anything for them. The non-locals at Apartment 2 had all been taken care of by the Spectral Dog. In fact, the tenants of Apartment 2 had gone ahead to entrap and consume the monsters and ghosts who dared to lurk around Happiness Neighbourhood. They took the warning given by Han Fei seriously and Happiness Neighbourhood was indeed safer than before. This was something worth celebrating but Han Fei couldn’t bring himself to be happy about it. He needed to complete a mission before he could log off or else he’d be trapped forever in the game.

“It’s already 3 am. I need to finish a mission soon.” He pulled up the mission interface. After he became the building manager, the system stopped giving him missions inside the neighbourhood. Instead all the missions had to be done outside of the neighbourhood. The system was purposely pushing Han Fei out to explore.

“Grade G Main Mission: The 4-Way Junction

“Mission Requirement: Walk past the 4 way junction in front of the neighbourhood entrance.

“Grade G Main Mission: Convenience Store Worker

“Mission Requirement: Apply for a temp job at Yi Ming Convenience Store, survive through the night.

“Grade F Main Mission: Your first Profession!

“Mission Requirement: Seek out your first employment in the city! A perfect profession is an important step towards a perfect life!”

“Grade F Main Mission: Yi Ming Private Academy.

“Mission Requirement: Become a teacher at Yi Ming Private Academy. Provide the correct guidance and encouragement to the students!”

Based on the names alone, this sounded like a normal mission interface of an Iyashikei game but of course things were not that simple.

Han Fei glanced out the neighbourhood entrance. After a brief hesitation, he chose the first main mission.