139 The Dead on the Phone Lines

 

Han Fei shut the venom-filled eyes of the guest inside Room 302 and her body disintegrated into paper. As her soul faded away, the system suddenly announced, “Notification for Player 0000! Your employee, Drake Ying has been heavily injured! Please find him soon or the mission will fail!”

‘There’s a time limit to this mission?’ Han Fei initially planned to stay to search for clues in the room but after hearing the notification, he did not dawdle. He picked up the box of razors and turned to the door. There was no one in the corridor. The other tenants appeared to have gotten used to hearing strange voices coming out from Room 302. ‘It’s too unusually quiet.’ After the death of the guest in Room 302, something changed at the hostel.

Out of concern for Drake’s safety, Han Fei hustled down the corridor as he reached into the urn to take out the key to Room 304. The key eased into the keyhole and just as the door opened, the phone inside Room 304 rang. The silvery tingle shattered the hostel’s silence. It echoed throughout the whole building. Han Fei slipped into Room 304 and picked up the phone sitting at the bedside table. Weak breathing came down the line. Several seconds later, two words were heard, “Hurry, leave…” Despite the softness of the voice, Han Fei recognized the caller as Drake, “Where are you now?”

“End this call and leave!” Drake seemed to be struggling with the last bit of his strength. When he gave that directive, the sound of wound tearing also came down the line. Through the call, Han Fei understood there was someone else close to Drake. Said person was probably the one who forced Drake to make this call to Han Fei. Han Fei immediately cut off the call. He studied the red phone line that was embedded into the wall. The line looked like a blood capillary.

‘There has to be a reason why Drake told me to end the call. Probably a conversation with the person on the phone will enable them to put some kind of spell on me.’ Han Fei reacted quickly. The moment he stepped into the hostel, he already suspected the phones. Now with the confirmation from Drake, Han Fei confirmed there was a huge problem with the phones at this hostel. Han Fei took out a razor and tried to cut through the phone line but the red thin line was much more resilient than he expected. The razor was unable to slice through it. “Weep, do you think you can bite through it?”

At that moment, the door opened and a ghost with a dark red face stumbled into Room 304. He was holding a bottle of alcohol and could barely walk in a straight line. After he got into the room, he suddenly picked up speed to charge at Han Fei. His red skin cracked with blood. Weep jumped to defend Han Fei. Weep was a Lingering Spirit while the drunkard was just an Animated Regret. It only managed to do little damage on Weep while suffering a lot of damage in return. It was only a matter of time before the drunkard was killed but Han Fei felt this was too easy. The drunkard was in a state similar to Drake when he was under the paper doll’s control. His consciousness was not there. Despite the obvious losing battle, he still attacked Weep relentlessly. Just as the drunkard was about to die, the system rang in Han Fei’s head again, “Notification for Player 0000! Your employee, Drake Ying’s consciousness is about to collapse! Please locate him immediately or you’ll fail the mission!”

Han Fei narrowed his eyes at the dying drunkard. ‘When the notification first came, it was right after the woman in Room 302 was consumed by the paper doll; now this second notification came right about this drunkard is about to die. This cannot be a coincidence!’ Han Fei’s eyes swept the phone behind him and a thought appeared in his mind. ‘The real owner of this place can transfer damage between their corrupted guests?’

Han Fei immediately had Weep stop his attacks. Han Fei yanked the phone line forcibly out from the wall. The connection port bled and when the line pulled out, Han Fei saw that it was connected to something that looked suspiciously like a human organ. “Just leave the drunkard! We need to get to the 1st floor now!” Han Fei remembered that when he entered the hostel, the boss was also on the phone. The phone line of the phone at the front desk extended right to the ground. ‘If the phone is the cursed object that connects everything at this hostel, then the heart that controls it must be hidden under the building!’

With that in mind, Han Fei carried the urn and escaped from Room 304 with Weep. As they ran down the stairs, all the phones inside the hostel rang at the same time. The previously closed doors slammed open. The guests shuffled out of their rooms like they were sleep-walking.

“Run past them!” The shrill ringing tortured Han Fei’s eardrums. He gritted his teeth and rushed to the 1st floor. When he arrived, the boss in the raincoat was standing there waiting for him with a smile. The wooden stairs creaked. Footfalls came from upstairs.

“Dear guest, I’m sorry but your check out time is not until tomorrow.” The boss took off his hoodie. A large crack split his skull. “If you insist on leaving early, then I’ll have to charge your rental in advance.” The hand that was hidden under the coat slowly pulled out. It was holding a sharp axe. As more guests made their way down the stairs, Han Fei knew he had no other choice. “Lee Zai!”

“Is it time for dinner?” A dark shadow billowed out from the cracked urn. A tall man peeled back his stomach to reveal another face hidden inside it. “Get your younger brother out! Quick! I need him to slam through this floor!” The situation was getting more dangerous. The tall man nodded. “You better stand back.” He bent his body into an impossible degree and extended his head right into the open mouth of the face inside his own stomach!

This horrifying vision startled even some of the guests. Han Fei did not expect this would be the way the two brothers exchange their personas. The mouth clamped over the tall man’s neck. The bone snapped noisily. Rationality was consumed and what remained was madness and despair. The shadow grew twice as big. The large Lee Huo slammed on the floor like crazy. The 3 storeys building trembled. Lee Huo soon smashed out a hole through the hollowed floor. Wooden splinters showered everywhere. A horrible stench drifted out from the hole. Han Fei held his hand over his mouth as he peered into the hole. What he saw sent a chill down his spine. There was a mass grave under the hostel!

Carcasses were sewn together with red phone lines. Their bodies were entangled together by phone lines. Some of the lines threaded through their skin and buried deep into their bodies.

“Drake?” The single-eyed employee was bitten in place by his surrounding carcasses. He used his body to shield a boy and a woman’s carcass. The woman looked kind and friendly. Her eyes were closed but she had a satisfied smile on her face. Her body though was punctured through by multiple phone lines. Drake was at his limit, his consciousness was fading. His single eye filled with pain.

“Help, help me…” Drake did not expect to see Han Fei. An emotion that he did not recognize appeared in his murky eye. The rare emotion lent him another surge of energy. His only movable arm grabbed the boy in his embrace and threw him out from the mass grave!

Han Fei caught the boy. Lee Huo who lost his mind jumped into the hole. He tore and dragged at the underground bodies. But all the damage appeared to have been transferred onto Drake. ‘The phone lines are the connection, the curse can transfer the damage taken from one of his puppets to another. The only solution now is to bring down the curse maker!’

Lee Huo was uncontrollable and Weep had to stay guard beside Han Fei. Han Fei’s only hope was the paper doll. He reached into his inventory to take out the red paper doll. Blood dripped to the ground. Han Fei needed the doll to crawl into the grave but the paper doll merely smiled gladly at him. The doll’s consciousness had been broken, it was now just a shell.

Thinking back to what Xu Qin had said, the soul-wrenchingly beautiful face appeared in Han Fei’s mind. When the face overlapped with that of the paper doll, a thick scent of blood pooled around Han Fei. “Dig deep into the graves! Find out what the layers of carcasses are trying to protect!”

The bleeding doll seemed to understand Han Fei. It teetered towards the hole and the smile on its face grew more feminine and seductive. This was the first time Han Fei tried to control the red paper doll. His brain felt like it was being pierced through by thousands of needles. The red doll’s own horrific memories surged into Han Fei’s mind, eclipsing the man’s memory. Han Fei finally understood the utility of intelligence. Thankfully, he had a rather high value in intelligence or else he would not be able to control the doll for so long.

Since the appearance of the doll, the atmosphere inside the hostel changed.

The smell of blood overwhelmed the smell of decay. The thing inside the grave could not move. It could only watch helplessly as the paper doll squeezed through the gap between the carcasses and dug its way deeper into the monstrous pile.