170 Fu Sheng and Ziggurat

 

After removing the helmet, Han Fei felt his body thawing. He tried to raise his arm but even that simple action took a toll on him. His skin was startlingly cold. It was not until moments later when his blood circulation returned to normal that the chill faded away. ‘My body can’t stand this much longer if this state continues. I’ll have to purchase that gaming hub as soon as possible.’ The gaming hub would be able to help protect the body and relax the mind while the player was in the game. Take for example, Huang Yin. Even though he too played the game deep into the night like Han Fei, in fact his gaming hour was often longer than Han Fei, Huang Yin was able to wake up energized the next morning, that was the benefit of the gaming hub.

‘Pouring Yin energy into the ghost tattoo can temporarily increase all of my attributes and decrease the damage I take. After I obtain the Midnight Butcher profession and have my own blade, then survival should be much easier. I hope that the gaming hub will be able to lessen the pressure on my physical body, so that it will not be so taxing after each gaming session.’ There was no player like Han Fei who would spend all of his money and put his life on the line just for the sake of a game.

Turning on the heater and curling inside the comforter, Han Fei took out his phone to search for the name Fu Sheng. The biggest reward from his latest gaming session was the acquisition of the previous manager’s name, but sadly the search came up with nothing… Han Fei slowly drifted off to sleep as the words danced before his eyes.

At 9 am, Han Fei was woken up by the vibrating phone. He looked at the caller id, it was Huang Yin. ‘I keep hearing from this brother recently... Is it because Perfect Life is going to end its 6th CB soon?’

Before Han Fei could speak, Huang Yin’s voice blasted out, “Brother, are you free today? I just gained contact with a former employee from Immortal Pharma, there are things we should discuss.”

“A former employee at Immortal Pharma?”

“Do you remember that madman whom I told you about? The tester who accidentally got into the cryptic world during testing and ended up butchering a whole neighbourhood.”

“I remember him! Has he been released from the mental hospital?” Han Fei jumped up immediately. He wanted to meet that tester more than anyone else.

“No, unfortunately he has died.”

“He’s dead?!”

“Yes, the cause of death is still unknown, the police have opened an investigation into it. The employee that I’ll have you meet today is the former colleague of that man, he knows a lot of secrets.”

“I will be there in a few minutes.” After hanging up, Han Fei took a quick bath and hailed a cab to get to the intelligent city. One hour later, Han Fei arrived at an underground alley. After scanning his id, he entered an inconspicuous coffee house, the place was appropriately named Corner Coffee. The smell of coffee permeated the small space. The first floor was empty other than an aged barista manning the counter. “Han Fei?”

“Yes.”

“They’re waiting for you upstairs.”

Han Fei needed to scan his id again. This time he had to use facial recognition before he could enter the 2nd floor. Compared to the first floor, the second floor was more retro-inspired. There was no high-tech device in sight, it was like a time capsule from the past.

“Han Fei, you’re finally here, let me make some introduction.” Huang Yin pulled Han Fei to the table and pointed at the man who sat at the corner. “This is Feng Ziyu, also known as Absurd Mask on the internet. He’s one of the earliest testers from Immortal Pharma to participate in the Perfect Life project.” Then Huang Yin gestured at Han Fei, “This is the man I told you about, Han Fei. He’s an actor.”

“I’ve seen him on the news before, he has helped the police with cases and has even personally apprehended a fugitive.” The man stood up to shake Han Fei’s hands. “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Pleasure. So… why are we here?” Han Fei sat down at the table. He studied Feng Ziyu casually. The man was only 30 but he looked like he was in his 50s. He was in quite bad shape.

“I own this shop so there is no worry that we will be overheard.” After making that declaration, Huang Yin took out his phone and projected the information given by Feng Ziyu onto the wall. “The tester who died in the asylum was Brother Feng’s senior. When the tester slipped into the cryptic world, Brother Feng was beside him and he witnessed everything.”

Huang Yin signaled for the man to speak. After some hesitated, Feng Ziyu finally uttered, “I still feel the chills thinking back to what happened that day. At the time, Brother Zhang and I were testing out a mission, everything was fine at the start. But when we entered Funereal Street next to the neighbourhood for a supernatural side mission, an accident happened.”

“What kind of accident?” Han Fei memorized the location name, Funereal Street.

“The side mission was called Ghostly Encounter. It was about an old man’s memory of his dead wife. On the day when the Gates of Hell opened, he ran to the Fourth building in the neighbourhood and called his wife’s name. His wife was killed there by a petty thief. After he got home, he felt a strange weight on his shoulders and he felt weirdly exhausted. He died not so long after that. Based on the mission description, the old man failed to call his wife to return but instead had unwittingly summoned a wandering soul.

“After the old man passed, the ghost took over his house and started to go after the old man’s family. The old man’s son, daughter-in-law and daughter all felt under the weather. In the end, it was the youngest granddaughter who saw the ghost. She said it was not grandma but something else living with them. The mission required us to use various items and aid from the little girl to dispel the ghost that no one else could see.

“As a Hidden Mission, Ghostly Encounter was understandably hard, scary and exciting. In fact, we did this test mainly because we wanted to see if it would be too traumatizing for the players. Technically speaking, many tests have already been done on the mission and there shouldn’t be any accident. But as we followed the mission’s trail, we noticed there were small changes here and there. I assumed at the time, it was just the programmer trying to add flavor to the story.” The incident still affected Feng Ziyu to this day because other than confusion, there was barely-concealed fear in his voice. “With the granddaughter’s help, we finished the mission and the family returned to normal but the completion rate given by the system was very low.

“I did not think much of it, I merely wanted to get off work and go back home. Brother Zhang though, felt something was off. He reset the mission and did everything by the books but the system still gave a low completion rating. I urged Brother Zhang to move onto the next mission but Brother Zhang told me that there might be some bugs with this mission and he would need to fix it.

“It was like something came over him. He kept repeating the mission, on the 14th instance, he murdered the youngest granddaughter at the start of the mission. I could not even describe what I felt back then. But to make things even more shocking, we got the system notification that the mission had been completed after the girl was killed.

“Do you know what this means?

“The ghost was not following the programmed plot. It had possessed the granddaughter! The ghost had been playing along with us and repeated the mission at least 10 times!

“But that was not all. After the mission was supposed to be over, Brother Zhang’s expression changed. He’d look normal one moment and then started to giggle like a little girl the next. I persuaded him to leave the game but he did not seem to realize there was something wrong. He was still resetting the mission. In the end, I had to force both of us to quit. Back in the real world, Brother Zhang returned to normal. We compiled our reports and planned to send it to our supervisors the next day. Since my home was in the old city, Brother Zhang told me to get off work earlier like usual.

“But when I came to work the next day, I realized Brother Zhang had gone back into the game. A bad feeling surrounded me then. When I entered the game, it was already too late.”

Feng Ziyu took a very long pause. “Brother Zhang has killed all the NPC in that neighbourhood. He was covered in blood and his mental state was highly unstable. He kept talking to himself like there were different personas inside him.”

“That was the last time you saw him? Did he tell you anything else?” Han Fei stared at the man.

“I have never told anyone this secret before. I hope that you will live up to your promise of bringing me with you to the cryptic world after hearing this.” Feng Ziyu pursed his lips before he made the decision to reveal, “At the time, Brother Zhang was already half crazy. It was like he was under some kind of hypnosis. He kept shouting something about the cryptic world. I tried to approach him but when he saw me, he raised the knife and plunged it right through my chest. He screamed into my face—Have to kill Fu Sheng! Have to kill Fu Sheng! Have to kill Fu Sheng!

“I didn’t even understand what he meant but I realized now Fu Sheng might be a code or a name. I looked online for information. After years of digging, I finally found out Immortal Pharma’s CEO, Fu Tian had an older brother when he was young. The little-known brother’s name was Fu Sheng!”

After hearing that, Han Fei’s heart was raging. During the previous manager’s Manager Mission, Han Fei met the manager’s family. The previous manager had a younger brother who was well-loved by ghosts.

“Brother Feng, do you remember that neighbourhood’s name?”

“It doesn’t really have a name. In the mission, it was called the Ziggurat but the map where the neighbourhood was located has been wiped out from the system. It is impossible to enter the cryptic world through it now.”

“Ziggurat?” The name struck a bell. The red paper doll and the bride were headed to the Ziggurat that one time.

 

 

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