321 The Secrets of Room 1244

 

To be frank, Han Fei had underestimated this businessman’s gut. To get back his money, he would do anything. As long as there was a small ray of hope, even if it was up against a neighbour several times more powerful than he was, he would try his best again and again, it was quite inspiring. ‘What exactly happened to this man? His obsession is clearly money, he died for money and has returned in the afterlife also for money. For him, money seems to be the best medicine.’

Following behind the businessman, Han Fei saw many ‘tenants’ he had not seen in the cryptic world. He realized Ziggurat in the game and the cryptic world still had some differences. In the Ziggurat game, all the rooms were occupied but in the cryptic world, most of the tenants lived inside rooms with the number 4. Han Fei had a feeling a big cleansing had happened at the Ziggurat in the cryptic world and only the most key tenants were allowed to stay. It was the same at Happiness Neighbourhood. When the previous manager was around, there were a lot of tenants but when Han Fei took over, there were very few tenants left.

Carrying the red dress, and following the businessman, Han Fei carefully checked all the rooms inside Ziggurat and soon he noticed something. Following the trail of paper money, the businessman came to the 6th floor. When he saw the sleep-walking child behind the 6th floor safety door, the businessman hesitated before finally leading the boy to knock on the door of Room 1064. The boy’s mother stopped at the door. Han Fei saw her face and perhaps he was projecting, because he swore she looked just like the woman with the syringe on the 22nd floor.

To verify his suspicion, Han Fei controlled his character to run up to the 22nd floor. He found the boy with the bruises beside the safety door. The child was sobbing quietly while the woman with the syringe hid behind the safety door. Han Fei slowly approached before his character scooped up the boy and raced down the stairs. What happened next was similar to the events in the cryptic world. The woman with the syringe blasted through the door and chased after Han Fei. Through the screen, Han Fei studied the syringe woman’s face carefully, she really did look like the woman on the 6th floor, they could be twins.

But the strangest thing was when Han Fei’s character reached the 6th floor and planned to leave the boy with the businessman, the syringe woman stopped chasing after him. She didn’t come into the 6th floor corridor, she kept knocking her head against the 6th floor safety door instead. ‘The door is not locked, why did she stop?’ While Han Fei was confused, a loud noise came from upstairs, it sounded like window breaking. Then Han Fei saw a woman fall through the floors. ‘That’s the jumper woman!’ Han Fei glanced at the time. The jumper woman appeared about half an hour after Han Fei entered Ziggurat, it was the same as when he was in the cryptic world. ‘If the outsiders aren’t killed by the Death Curse within half an hour, the jumper woman will appear?’

Several seconds later, the jumper woman’s horrid cries came from the stairwell. Han Fei was on the 6th floor, he was dangerously close to the woman. Soon, the disfigured jumper woman appeared on the 6th floor. The corridor behind her was covered in blood and bones. Han Fei didn’t panic when he saw her, instead he focused on the woman’s barely recognizable face. ‘Wait a minute. This jumper woman, the mother on the 6th floor and the syringe woman have similar faces! Are they 3 personas of the same person? One consciousness has been forcibly split into 3?’ The more Han Fei thought about it, the more credible the theory was. This was because the jumper woman was completely dominated by hatred, she only had murder and death on her mind. She didn’t even have any human memory much less humanity, that was very unnatural.

‘Is it possible that Butterfly has split the woman’s consciousness into 3 separate parts to better control her? And these 3 women represent 3 distinct memories?’ As the jumper woman approached, Han Fei was reminded of something else. He put down the controller and allowed the jumper woman to tear his character into pieces. With Zhuang Ren watching on with confusion, Han Fei took out his phone and searched for the info of the female livestreamer who died 14 years ago. At the time, the issue was huge on the internet so info-gathering was easy for Han Fei. When he saw her picture, Han Fei’s eyes widened because his suspicion had been verified. The livestreamer who died 14 years ago looked similar to the female livestreamer who lived in Room 1084!

In other words, the red dress in Room 1044 and the girl in Room 1084 should be the same person. However, the girl in Room 1084 retained her curiosity and optimism that defined her life, that was probably the persona which was removed from the red dress. This proved that the manager was even more powerful than the red dress and the jumper woman because they could tamper with their memories. Their consciousnesses had been spliced. Han Fei didn’t know why the manager did that for now but he believed that if he wanted to help the red dress and the jumper woman regain control of themselves, he needed to help them reunite their memories first.

‘The girl in Room 1084 is very interested in what happened to the livestreamer in Room 1044, and she remembers some details of it but she thought it was another person’s story. She moved to Ziggurat out of curiosity and concern. The connection between the red dress and the livestreamer is clear but what is the connection between the syringe woman, the jumper woman and the divorced mother with the sleep-walking child?

‘Zhuang Wen died from falling, so it had nothing to do with the syringe. She was too young to have been divorced… But the two women’s children do have similar childhoods as Zhuang Wen.’ Han Fei believed there was a greater story behind the jumper woman. She was the scariest and strongest ghost at Building 1, a monster who failed to overcome her hatred. If Han Fei could get her to side with him, it would help increase his survivability at Ziggurat by a lot.

‘Perhaps this game can give me the answer.’ Picking up the controller, Han Fei continued the game. He was speed-running the game now. Soon, he once again reached the Ziggurat map. The earlier steps were the same as before but after he got the red dress, he didn't bother the businessman but instead hurried to Room 1084. The tenant of Room 1084 was the only person who treated Han Fei well. She didn’t harm Han Fei, she was just like that dead livestreamer, full of positivity and joy. That made Han Fei confirm his thought. He attempted to have the girl put on the red dress but the moment she did, she turned into a monster and strangled Han Fei’s character. ‘Why didn’t it work? What did I miss?’

Han Fei frowned but Zhuang Ren beside him was completely lost. He wouldn’t have thought to do these things Han Fei had done. Han Fei’s frame of thinking and this game’s design was completely unfathomable.

With the next retry, Han Fei planned to do everything at the same time. He first carried the child and lured the syringe woman to the 6th floor. While the syringe woman was held inside the stairwell, Han Fei carried the boy who hid behind the safety door on the 6th floor to the 8th floor. Calculating the time, just as the jumper woman was about to show up, Han Fei knocked on the door of Room 1084 and had the girl put on the red dress. While she was in the bedroom to try the dress on, Han Fei picked up the two boys and ran. After the girl turned into a monster, she chased after Han Fei to the 6th floor. At that moment, Han Fei knocked on Room 1064 but the divorced woman didn’t seem to want to leave the room. Just as she reached for her child, Han Fei leaped away from her and charged towards the syringe woman instead. The divorced woman rushed out to ensure that her boy wasn’t injured. At that crucial moment, the jumper woman joined the party.

Han Fei planned for the divorced mother, the syringe woman and the jumper woman to meet together and then something unexpected happened. The jumper woman who was dominated by hatred actively stayed away when she saw the divorced mother, the syringe woman and their boys!

‘I knew there was some kind of connection between them!’ The red dress arrived from the other stairwell. As Han Fei predicted, the red dress fought with the jumper woman. Han Fei put down the boys in the chaos and ran to the top floor. The door to Room 1244 was locked, he had to have a key. With no other option, Han Fei returned to the 6th floor. He wanted to see if he could get a chance to grab the key from the jumper woman’s heart, but whenever his character got close to the fighting ghosts, he would die instantly. After dying in the same manner for 3 times, Han Fei finally calmed down. Every time he died, he needed to start over. He had to enter the cryptic world again that night, he didn’t have that much time to waste.

‘There should be another way. The moment I get close to the jumper woman, I’d die but she won’t come close to the divorced mother and the syringe woman, perhaps they are my openings to get the key.’ Han Fei changed his tactics. He led the boy on the 6th floor to somewhere safe and then told the boy’s mother that her child had been captured by the jumper woman and kept in her room on the top floor. To save him, they had to have the key. The divorced mother agreed to help Han Fei out of concern for her boy. Then Han Fei led the red dress over. After the jumper woman paid a heavy price for killing the red dress, the divorced mother plucked the key out of the heavily injured woman’s heart. But the moment she touched the key, the black Death Curse appeared on the divorced mother’s body. The curse originally was only on the jumper woman.

They ran upstairs, but halfway there, the divorced mother suddenly stopped like she was ravaged by some scary memory. She was morphing into the second jumper woman. Han Fei reached for the key. The moment he held the key, his life already started its countdown. When the curse spread all over his body, he’d die.

Not wasting any time, Han Fei’s character rushed to the top floor. He pushed the black and red key into the lock and successfully opened the door to Room 1244!

The heavy black anti-theft door was pushed open. The back of the door was covered in blood red talismans. More strange talismans and carvings decorated the room. The walls were written in some kind of spell, pages of unknown scripts and eerie pictures littered the ground. There was also blood everywhere. Han Fei’s character neared the bedroom door. As if hearing his footsteps, crying came from inside the room.

He opened the door to reveal an old and ugly middle-aged man who was tied to the ground. Paper money as well as traditional ceremonial tools for spirit summoning sat around him. He kept mumbling his apologies and penance. Han Fei approached the man and the speech bubbles popped up. It was from them that Han Fei got to know the scary things that Zhuang Wen had experienced. Whenever she was sick, be it real or just imaginary, Zhuang Wen would be locked inside the storage room. The more pained and inconsolable she got, the more confident the man was of her state of being possessed. To ‘cure’ her, he forced her to drink various concoctions, draw symbols on her body and even tried to beat the ghost out of her.

Seeing the words that rolled on screen, both Han Fei and Zhuang Ren’s hearts chilled. After exiting the middle-aged man’s room, Han Fei entered the storage room. A single bed was squeezed into the limited space, it was dirty and messy. A shackle was left on the bed which was stained with blood and excrement. There were also needles and syringes in the room. The room used to trap Zhuang Ren was now the prison for the middle-aged man’s son and daughter. They were scared until their minds broke and all they knew how to do was to cry. Han Fei ignored the twins. He looked closer at the bedsheet and mattress. It was filled with curses, it recorded all the pain and despair Zhuang Wen had experienced. Just reading them brought Han Fei goosebumps.

Zhuang Wen hated everything and everyone, including her mother. Zhuang Wen’s mother used her as a bargaining chip to threaten the director of her movie, Zhuang Ren when she was very small. Not long after that, Zhuang Wen’s mother lost her mind. It was then that the seed of hatred was planted. Zhuang Wen hated her mother, Zhuang Ren, her adopted father. The whole world was an oppressive hateful black.

‘To use her child as bait, the syringe woman beat him up, the same thing happened to Zhuang Wen. Zhuang Wen’s mother also used Zhuang Wen to threaten the horror film director, Zhuang Ren! The divorced mother’s child was trapped at home, similar to how Zhuang Ren was trapped by her stepfather’s family. Her biggest hope then was probably to find the elusive key and run away forever! Similarly, the dream-walking boy could always find the key no matter where it was hidden, and escape from home!’ All 3 memories were connected. Han Fei’s hands that held the controller shivered as much as his heart did.

“How could a person be like this?” When Zhuang Ren saw his own name written in blood on the bed in the game, his hands couldn’t stop shaking. “It’s all because of this child? It was she who trapped my family inside Ziggurat?” Zhuang Ren’s tone was changing. He took rapid breathing. His hand pressed against his chest and his face grimaced from pain. He grabbed the pills on the table and tossed them down his gullet. Then his condition levelled out.

“Han Fei, please, you have to check the other rooms. My family might be inside this crazy house!”