122 Midnight Convenience Store

 

Han Fei sighed in relief after he completed the mission but the expression on his face was still as unapproachable as ever. He radiated tension and danger. The ghost of a smile hung on his face. His bloodshot eyes filled with non-human emotions. It was as if he was daring the ghosts to come attack him. One could easily imagine he was thinking about how to perfectly dismember a body, how to make a ghost toy and how to torment the wandering souls. In reality though, none of these thoughts were close to what was really in Han Fei’s mind. His heart pounded heavily. As he adjusted the micro-expression on his face, he planned his escape route. He missed the sense of security he had around Xu Qin. He wished desperately to return back to the Happiness Neighbourhood. After this, he’d log off, order a supper, and a six pack to celebrate his survival through another day.

After using Resurrection, Han Fei was incredibly drained. He dragged his tired body to the opposite end of the street while making it look like he was moving slowly on purpose. The blood stain on the wall lightened. The ghost who could use sensory deprivation had gone into hiding. It was worth noting that there were some stores located at this side of the street. Their interior was dark. Han Fei did not notice how ‘good’ their businesses were earlier because the ‘customers’ had blended in perfectly into the darkness. The ‘customers’ now peered greedily at Han Fei. Knowing how the human-stained blood’s interaction with Han Fei ended, they controlled themselves and did not pounce on Han Fei. Han Fei’s perfect acting had worked in warding them off as well.

‘It’s time to leave.’ Han Fei could log off now but he felt like it would be much safer to do that back inside the Happiness Neighbourhood. He turned around and saw Xu Qin gesture wildly at him. She seemed to tell him to go hide. In less than 1 second, a sense of abandonment and loneliness descended upon Han Fei. The ghosts who were peering at him earlier had all disappeared. ‘The 10 minutes are up, something dangerous is probably coming!’

A strange song came from one end of the street. There was no other person on the road and it was too late for Han Fei to run back to the Happiness Neighbourhood. He did not want to attract the unknown threat into the neighbourhood. Without any hesitation, Han Fei ran into the closest store. After Han Fei made his move, Xu Qin also fluttered away. The street became so quiet that the song was made that much more pronounced. Han Fei had no idea what the song meant. He only knew that just as the song rang out, all the ghosts disappeared and the place became deserted.

Hiding under a display window, Han Fei did not dare to move. He closed his hand over his mouth to silence his breathing. The song slowly approached. Han Fei could not tell what the thing was singing. He did not move a muscle, he merely prayed that the thing would leave soon. When the song moved past his hiding spot, Han Fei held his breath. He looked up through the window. The song had wandered off to the 4 way junction. It was probably attracted there by Han Fei’s cigarette because the song had stopped around the junction. The song echoed down the 4 roads. The song was laced with the sound of laughing and sobbing. It started to move again and it came closer to the store where Han Fei was hiding. Han Fei swore the singer was coming towards him!

The landlord’s ring radiated an intense chill. As the song neared, an unprecedented frost crawled from his finger and then coursed through his body. The singer was much scarier than anything Han Fei had encountered so far!

A clink came from Han Fei’s hand. He widened his eyes as he turned to his ring finger. There was a crack on the landlord’s ring. ‘This is bad!’ The singing stopped and then the glass window shattered. A blood-curdling wail erupted above Han Fei. Blood leaked out from his ears. The shriek dulled his brain and his Life Point almost plummeted to zero. With the last remaining shred of consciousness, Han Fei pulled up the menu and chose to exit. The curtain of blood fell and the world was dyed red. When everything froze and Han Fei’s consciousness started to waver, something absolutely horrifying happened!

From the city frozen in red, a pair of arms reached out to grab at Han Fei!

His eyes burst open and Han Fei quickly yanked the gaming helmet off! He gasped hungrily for air as his heart raced! “What the hell was that? It could still attack me while I was exiting the game?”

Han Fei could not imagine what would have happened if he was grabbed by the hands. Perhaps his mind would be trapped in some twilight zone, treated as a collection by the singer. His back was soaked. Han Fei gripped the back of his chair tightly, “I was too careless. The ease from the past few days had lowered my guard. I should have known that Happiness Neighbourhood was just the beginning. It was technically the first stage, surviving it was nothing to be proud of.”

All this time, Han Fei treated his ability to log off the game as his trump card but he was just given a harsh lesson that it was not the case. “The things in the cryptic world have gotten so strong that they can violate the game rules?” Han Fei thought back to the choice the previous manager told him to make, “Cryptic world is not only filled with despair and pain but also pure madness.”

Just a shout from the singer dropped Han Fei’s Life Points down to almost zero. He had no idea how he was going to deal with this threat. “The darkest and most malevolent things in humanity have been percolating in the cryptic world, I shouldn’t be surprised to find such powerful sin there.” Han Fei turned to study the gaming helmet that landed on the table. Then he took out his phone to examine that strange picture. “At the time, I was the only one at home. Until now, I have no idea who is behind this. But if tonight is any indication, can this be the doing of something from inside the cryptic world? Something that has crawled out through the helmet into the real world?”

Han Fei’s fingers cracked noisily. The gaming helmet sitting on the table took on the appearance of a human head, a head which was looking at him with gentle eyes. His body was extremely tired but sleep refused to come. The next time he went online, he’d return to that store. There was no way of telling whether the singer would have left by then or not. “O well, there’s no reason to worry about things I can’t control. I should count my lucky stars that I manage to survive until now.” Han Fei told himself but even so sleep was elusive. Whenever he closed his eyes, he’d feel his eardrums trembling from the phantom wail.

Sunlight filtered into the room. Han Fei who slept not for a whit crawled up from bed and entered the bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror and put on a smile. The smile spoke of joy and kindness but Han Fei knew the truth. Because no matter how good his acting got, the only person he’d never fool was himself. After a quick shower, Han Fei hurried to set and threw himself into work. He personally enjoyed being in front of the camera because in the movie, he could shed his skin and be someone else. Those were the moments where he could clear his mind of his own problems.

The shooting was reaching its end. The earlier part of the script was mostly left unchanged. The biggest change was having Ah Cheng’s part cut out. The latter half was mainly Han Fei’s solo show. While the topic was still on Han Fei, the company began its promotion. Seeing the reaction from the public, there was literally no chance for this movie to fail. While most online movie platforms’ rankings were filled with romance and comedy, the horror-themed movie, Twin Flower sneakily found its way up to the list for the public’s most anticipated movie.

Han Fei packed up and left when the shot was over. He decided to go for a feast because it might be his last. Then he returned home. If he came online and the singer was still there, Han Fei’d be dead. He could only pray that the thing had already left. Han Fei set the alarm and tried to take a quick forty wink. When midnight came, he put on the helmet after a brief hesitation. The world before his eyes turned red. He felt bathed by a shower of blood, it soaked into every inch of his skin.

“Welcome to Perfect Life!” Han Fei waited for 2 seconds before he opened his eyes after the system gave its welcome notification. The display window was gone. Glass shards littered the ground and the street before him was empty.

‘It’s gone? I’m safe?’ His heart dropped back to its place. Han Fei crumbled to the floor. Opening the menu, Han Fei noted he only had 3 Life Points left and he felt incredibly sluggish. ‘The thing really left? But how come it feels like things have not returned to normal?’ Han Fei’s hands touched the ground and he instantly pulled them back because he felt not the solidness of the ground but something else. He turned to look and his eyes narrowed. The singer had eviscerated 3 stores worth of ‘individuals’ because it failed to find Han Fei. Instead of killing the ghosts inside the stores, the singer grounded up their bodies, mixed it with a curse and spread it on the ground. On a cursory look, the store seemed to be layered with mould and dust but the layer was actually a mixture of blood and flesh. The ghosts were stripped of a chance at final peace but instead they were sealed into the ground, living out an eternal pain and despair.

‘That thing sure is cruel.’

Han Fei took out Xu Qin’s knife. Wrapping the doily around the hilt, he stabbed the ghosts inside the stores. He did this out of kindness. An eternity of torment was too much even for the greatest sinner, plus they were in this unenviable state technically thanks to Han Fei. However, to Han Fei’s pleasant surprise, after he killed the few ghosts, his EXP increased by quite a bit.

‘I’ve used the knife to kill several non-locals in the past but I did not get any EXP. Only killing ghosts can bring me EXP? Or is it because I’ve helped them seek release?’ After dealing with all the cursed ghosts, Han Fei exited the store. He wanted to return to the Happiness Neighbourhood but on the other side of the street, the old man glared at him viciously through the brazier.

‘With the state I’m in, he’d kill me easily.’ There were two methods to recover Life Points, to rest or to eat. After giving it some thoughts, Han Fei turned his head towards the convenience store down the junction. The whole street was dark but a dim light emitted from the easily-overlooked convenience store.

‘The convenience store is not far from where I am but the singer spared it from its wrath, was it due to pure luck or the convenience store had its own secrets?’ Han Fei couldn’t be too careless since he only had 3 Life Points left. He decided to stay inside the cursed store for now. He’d recover his stamina first before he figured out what to do.