270 Pet Shop

 

“Have we met?” Huang Yin’s mind was blank. He was becoming more and more impressed by Han Fei. He managed to thrive at a place filled with monsters and ghosts, that was crazy.

“It doesn’t really matter now. You’ll have more chances to get to know each other in the future. Let’s head back to Building 1 first.” Han Fei waved and then moved to help the weakened Huang Yin stumbale back to the other building. He used the key left by the previous manager and opened the door to Room 1041. “Brother Huang, this will be your room from now on. You can place all the mission objects here if you want.”

“You’ve found me a room?” Huang Yin just arrived and he was already given real estate, he was shocked by Han Fei’s generosity.

“See if you find this place comfortable, if you don’t like it, I can find a new place for you.”

“This place is alright.” Huang Yin entered the room and opened his inventory which was maximized to store infinity items. “I’ve wrangled some nice skill books for you from the surface world’s black market, you should be able to use them.” Then he handed the books to Han Fei.

“Intermediate Rock-climbing, Tips and Tricks to scuba diving, Introduction to lock picking, Wilderness Survival Manual—How to Thrive in Extreme Environment, Basics of Wireless Communication, Strategies of War and Amphibious Warfare…” Browsing through the skill books, Han Fei believed Huang Yin had learned from his previous lessons. He didn’t purchase anything related to the occult or religion but it seemed like he planned to turn Han Fei into some kind of super soldier. These skill books looked useful but only to a certain extent. For players of Perfect Life, whenever they wanted to learn a new skill, they had to unlock the beginner’s level through actual training and application first, only then they could rely on skill points to level them. After some consideration, Han Fei settled for skill books related to emergency rescue, rock-climbing, diving and manufacturing of basic tools.

After reading these books, he would need to attempt a lot of things before he could unlock the actual skill in his skill tab. In this world, practice really did make perfect. However, compared to players in the surface world, Han Fei had a unique advantage. There were a lot of missions available in the cryptic world and there was no one else to steal them away from him. The missions also often offered great rewards so it was not hard for him to come into skill points. In the future, he might become an actor proficient in various skills.

While Han Fei perused through the skill books, Huang Yin was like a busy bee, unloading the various mission objects from his inventory. He was a very cautious and detail-orientated person. He had already categorized all the items before he arrived. After Perfect Life entered OB, with these items, he would level up quickly. He could even skip through some of the mission tedium. Even a professional gaming studio wouldn’t be able to compete with him. Han Fei didn’t disturb Huang Yin seeing how busy the man was. He left the room and gathered all the tenants who were willing to leave the neighbourhood. He planned to go for another outing.

The Doctor had amassed a lot of outsiders at Cattle Alley. Most of them resided around Cattle Alley. Now that they were injured, this was the perfect time to ‘visit’ them. Han Fei was under great tension. He needed to infiltrate the Ziggurat in 7 days and during this period, he needed to help Xu Qin mend her wounds and find as much help as he could. After everyone was present, Han Fei took out Cattle Mask and Rest in Peace from his inventory and returned to the 4th floor. “Brother Huang, are you ready? I’m supposed to send you back now.” Huang Yin shivered when he heard Han Fei’s voice. He knew Han Fei meant him no harm but still he couldn’t control his body. His eyes leaped behind Han Fei and took in the neighbours who stood behind him. Huang Yin’s face twitched, he had a hard time imagining Han Fei was a popular celebrity in real life.

‘Is this what we call a true actor?’ Many idol artists put on shimmering outfits and strode down red carpets. They were surrounded by screaming fans with banners and lights. They were always surrounded by the cacophony of their fans calling their name.

A real actor wore a mask, held a knife and stood in blood. He was surrounded by monsters of varying nature. Everyone was pale and ghastly as they tried to suppress the madness and bloodlust within them. Forcing a smile, Huang Yin’s legs shook. No matter how many times he experienced this, he couldn’t get used to it. He had no idea whether he was the abnormal one or Han Fei was.

“Before the game enters OB, you should bring as many useful items as you can from the surface world, we might not have this chance anymore in the future.” After saying that, Han Fei closed the door and used the Resurrection skill on Huang Yin. When the menu returned to normal, Huang Yin was gone. The tired Han Fei took a deep breath, put on the mask and left the room.

“Let’s go.” They moved out from the building. When they exited Happiness Neighbourhood, Han Fei had Weep pull the vet out from the urn. The vet was charmed by the Doctor and attacked Xu Qin at Cattle Alley. His talent was to control sewn together pets, he was a rather special Lingering Spirit.

Before the vet could speak, he already saw the army of ghosts. Instantly, he lost the will to fight.

“Where is your home?” Han Fei’s icy voice came from under the mask, it sounded scary.

“I own a pet store. But if I go back now, I’ll be killed.” The vet was still quite rational and he answered Han Fei honestly.

“You’ll be killed?”

“I did own the shop but the shop is now controlled by a monster pieced together by pet carcasses. It has gotten too strong for me to control and it likes… to turn humans into pets.” The vet shivered like he was reminded of something horrible. “It was not easy for me to escape from there.” When Han Fei headed towards Cattle Alley the first time, he passed by the pet shop. At the time, both Drake and Weep warned him from going near it.

“It was you who created this new owner?”

“Yes.”

“Does it have any weaknesses?”

“The thing…” The vet thought for a long time before he said, “I did leave behind a failsafe mechanism when I worked on its heart. It has a tough exterior but a very weak heart. Once you destroy its heart, it will weaken tremendously but it won’t be easy to kill it due to how intensely vital it is.” The way the vet described the monster piqued Han Fei’s interest. With a plan made, Han Fei had all the neighbours enter Weep’s urn and then he walked down the street alone hugging the urn.

“We’re all situated on the same street but I can’t say I know the other business owners. I should try to befriend some of them on this trip.” Walking down the street with Weep’s urn, Han Fei felt comfortable. He fitted in perfectly with the dark and gloomy city, it was like he was born here. After dealing with a few curious ‘pedestrians’, Han Fei finally arrived at the pet shop. The windows were pasted with various pet pictures, they looked cute.

“Is the business open?” Hugging the urn, Han Fei entered the shop. The interior was much bigger than it looked from the outside. Most of the partitions were knocked down. The few doors had their locks removed. A lot of animal fur was left on the ground and various cages sat at the corners. However, the cages were all empty. It felt weird stepping on the carpet of fur. Han Fei moved into the shop and towards the door that led to the back of the storefront. A weak dog’s whimper entered his ears. But when Han Fei turned to the sound, the eyes under the mask narrowed. The cage contained not animals but fading spirits.

Han Fei pulled away the black cloth that covered the cages. The meowing and barking surrounded his ears but there were no cats and dogs, instead there were only lingering spirits and animated regrets. They were locked inside the cages. Their minds were so muddled that they really saw themselves as real kept pets.