357 The Door Guardian's Blade

 

Han Fei checked all the corners in his home and took out the black box he inherited from Zhuang Ren. He checked every object carefully and then personally wrote down notes that corresponded to each item. Within the black box’s limitation, he wrote down as much info about the Butterfly as he could. If he died in the game that night, these things would be discovered by the police. Han Fei wanted to do everything he could to protect the peace of Xin Lu.

As he wrote, Han Fei felt like he was putting down his will. ‘Regardless, tonight I’ll turn Ziggurat upside down. Butterfly will not respond to anything else but chaos. Killing it directly will be showing it the biggest mercy.’

After finishing his ‘will’, Han Fei stood quietly beside the window and glanced at the intelligent city. The skyscrapers reached into the sky, the sight of it awed Han Fei every time. ‘I’ve not lived in an intelligent city before, even for once I wish to experience that feeling of sleeping among the clouds.’ Han Fei started to appreciate the beauty of humanity after he began playing Perfect Life. The beauty he talked about was nothing expensive or special, they were very common things.

Time ticked by. Before midnight arrived, Han Fei was already inside the gaming hub, making his final preparations. Last time, he logged out before Room 4044, at the time, he was in the middle of the Grade F hidden mission—The Soul Chaser. Before he solved that problem, he came face to face with the headless guardian of Room 4044. Han Fei was stuck between a rock and a hard place, he was forced to quit the game.

Thinking about the layout of the building around him, Han Fei closed his eyes. He decided to run straight down the corridor once he came online. He knew Room 4044 was important because Feng Ziyu might be inside Room 4044 but first and foremost, Han Fei had to be alive to do anything.

The gaming hub door slowly closed. The virtual screen outside the window started to change, the number 3 shifted to 2. Midnight had arrived, Han Fei put on the gaming helmet and his world was immediately dominated by red.

“Welcome to Perfect Life!” When his eyes opened, Han Fei planned to charge ahead but when he saw what was before him, his raised feet froze in the air. The headless door guardian of Room 4044 sat with his legs crossed before him. His body was bleeding but it looked like he was asleep. Before the guardian scattered many human heads. Each head had been brutally mushed to take on a certain shape. These heads were acquired by the door guardian. He wanted to make the heads into the one he remembered but no matter how hard he tried, he always ended up with a bloody, messy ball.

‘Is he a door guardian or an executioner?’ The heads of the Animated Regrets were crawling with small blood lines. One end of the line came out from the heads themselves, while the other end was connected to the headless guardian. The intersecting blood lines covered the corridor. Once someone entered the space, the door guardian would instantly be notified.

‘How am I supposed to make my escape now?’ There was no place for Han Fei to run. If he made too big of a gesture, he would brush against the blood lines. Han Fei was pouring in cold sweat. At this crucial moment, Han Fei’s luck came in useful again. There was a tingling from the end of the corridor. The Soul Bells jangled and something snapped through the blood lines in the corridor, charging towards Han Fei.

Han Fei scanned his mission interface and realized he was still in the middle of the Soul Chaser mission! He had 3 more minutes until the end of the mission! The professional Soul Chaser didn’t forget about Han Fei, and like the door guardian, he had been waiting for him to return!

The blood lines were torn and the decapitated heads opened their eyes. The eyes opened in their smashed-in heads as they stared around with resentment. An oppressive aura was gathering before Room 4044.

‘The headless door guardian is waking up!’ Han Fei’s luck could not have been worse. He saw as the blood flowed out from the guardian’s body and into the heads. The heads pounced on Han Fei. Any other person would have been frightened to death by this scene but Han Fei could still retain his composure. He guarded his neck and thought about lighting a cigarette. But his brain calculated that he wouldn’t have the time to do that. He had to choose between the Soul Chaser and the headless guardian. Not to choose whose hands to die by but to choose which of them would give him a greater chance of survival.

Han Fei’s mind calculated every factor possible. In the end, it was Han Fei’s body that reacted first. He charged forward and rammed through the heads. Pain jolted through his body as black teeth marks appeared on his skin. Due to the presence of Big Sin, the venom in the marks didn’t spread as fast as they should.

The headless door guardian slowly stood up and dragged out a giant guillotine knife from inside Room 4044. Without wasting any time on words, the guardian raised the blade and aimed it at Han Fei’s neck. Han Fei would have trouble avoiding such a quick swing under normal circumstances, much less when he was held back by a cluster of maddened heads.

“I know where your head is hidden!” In that crucial moment, Han Fei shouted out the above. The guillotine knife enlarged in his eyes as it came towards his neck. At the last moment, the blade stopped right above his forehead. It severed a few strands of hair. Han Fei’s legs weakened. At that moment, he really thought he was going to die.

“Your head is hidden somewhere very unique, you cannot approach it through conventional methods, you’ll have to go through Room 4444 to get there!” Han Fei was telling the truth. He knew the door guardian couldn’t go to real life so this was the leverage he had. The guardian’s blade stopped but the Soul Chaser didn’t.

Han Fei was so busy persuading the door guardian that he didn’t have time to mind the Soul Chaser. He could feel something rapidly approaching him from behind. The extreme danger pierced through his heart like a dagger.

Just as Han Fei hesitated whether to turn around or not, the guillotine knife above his head suddenly moved and slashed behind him. The door guardian’s blade caught something and Han Fei used this chance to look behind him.

This was his third time turning around. Han Fei saw a person in bloody clothes dragged out a semblance of Han Fei from the back of Han Fei’s head. The person’s bloody clothes were cut through, exposing the skin covered with Death Curses. Its speed slowed down as it dragged an expressionless Han Fei down the corridor and disappeared.

‘What did it take away from me? Was that my soul?’ Han Fei touched and patted his body. The fear was hard to describe. Without knowing it, something had been taken away from him but the scariest thing was, he had no idea what it was that he had lost. ‘I still haven’t gotten the chance to take a good look at the Soul Chaser’s face. But at least I can confirm it’s a man and he does have the same body frame as the tester from Immortal Pharma who went insane years ago!’

Han Fei had 2 minutes left to the end of the mission and 2 more times to turn his head around.

The headless guardian was quite angry that he didn’t manage to kill his adversary. His body slowly moved, causing all the Soul Bells in the corridor to ring.