359 A Child of Nightmares

“Night of Resurrection (Grade E Main Mission): Today is the 14th April 4th after the new manager took its post at Ziggurat. It has waited for this night for 14 years, it has finally found a suitable body, it has seen that blurry figure in the future.

“Mission Requirement 1: Currently, you are a living undead, you need to find your 3 missing souls before dawn. Move immediately, they might have been invited into certain rooms at Ziggurat. The moment you lose one soul, you’ll be trapped inside this game forever.

“Mission Requirement 2: Stop the ritual. If its soul is successfully summoned, you’ll be the first to die.

“Mission Requirement 3: On this special night, the border between living and dead is incredibly blurred. You’ll dance at the edge of death to witness death at work. Please find as many living humans as you can inside Ziggurat before dawn.

“Mission Hint: Killing it is very difficult because it lives inside the human heart. As long as humans live on, it will not die.

“Warning! Due to the player attempting the mission at too low a level, additional hints will be provided—Butterfly.

“I know I was born with a special power. Even without closing my eyes, the world is always dark.

“I know I was born with a disfigured body, one that is disgusted and hated by my biological parents. They left red patterns and black scars on my body, claiming they will make my appearance easier on their eyes.

“The painting continues day after day until the black flower blossoms on my protruding forehead. They stand before me, discussing how to deal with my dead body. I tried to endear myself to them, to forget the conversation that night but my effort only garnered me abandonment. Now I know how much they wish to rid me of them.

“The broken body fell down the cliff. I tried my best to open my tattered wings. Bones, blood, flesh splattered about. I turned my head as best as I could. I wanted to show them the wings that I have grown.

“I fell into the abyss of nightmares. The demons and ghosts looked at me without saying a word. They are curious why haven’t I called for help, I am curious why they would have such a question.

“Aren't all children in the world like me? Trapped inside a cocoon since birth until one can break open with wings?

“Warning! This mission is one of the most important missions at the early stages of the game! The player must pay special attention to it!

“The Butterfly is a monster cultivated by nightmares, it has a suffocatingly ugly soul. Due to its spiritual and physical disfigurement, it has to paint on the brightest raiment to disguise its ugliness.”

When the system notification echoed in his mind, Han Fei paid attention to it, the more he listened to it, the more shocked he became. The first mission hint was on how to kill the Butterfly and the second mission hint was about the origin of the Butterfly. When Han Fei studied the second mission hint closer, he realized each sentence contained a lot of information. But Han Fei didn’t have the time to slowly process them now because something more important had grasped his attention. “Wait, if I lose one of my souls, I will be trapped here forever?”

If there was something scarier than death, it was to be trapped at Ziggurat forever. One of the biggest reasons Han Fei always had hope was because he could go offline at any time. As long as he didn’t die in the game, he would always have a second chance.

“I can control my own actions, but I can’t control what my souls are doing!” Han Fei didn’t even know what those souls were. Personally he didn’t feel like anything was missing. If the souls were crystalized memories, then what memory did those 3 dragged out souls represent? “Regardless, I have to find them as soon as possible!”

As soon as that thought appeared in his mind, a chill came from the back of his neck. He turned around and the sharp guillotine knife settled before his eyes. If he had taken a step back, the blade would have slices through his flesh.

The headless door guardian stood beside Han Fei. The decapitated heads on the ground stared at him with bulging eyes. The blood vessels crawled through his ears into his brain without warning!

“Warning! Warning!” The system screamed. Then Han Fei lost the rest of what the system said because his sense of hearing suddenly failed him. He fell to the ground. He closed his hands over his ears and blood oozed out from between his fingers. Resisting the pain, Han Fei stared at the door guardian, his hands holding Rest in Peace. He was afraid, compared to the door guardian, he was weak but he was not going to give up.

Suddenly the door guardian’s body trembled before he took several steps back. He stopped beside the door to Room 4044. It felt like he was reminded of something horrid. The heads around Han Fei slowly backed away. Their expressions were indescribable. They were filled with hesitation and greed, before all their faces turned up with smiles.

The blood vessels leaked out from Han Fei’s ears. The door guardian appeared to have found the things he wanted. The Soul Chaser’s bells had all shattered. As his hearing returned, Han Fei could hear the dirge. Something was coming up from downstairs.

The door guardian stood beside Room 4044. When the last blood vessel returned to his body, the door to Room 4044 opened a gap. All the blood and human heads on the 4th floor corridor rushed into the room, until a single human head remained on the ground. The human head looked very similar to the one Han Fei remembered the door guardian had. The head was pieced together by flesh and smashed into place by brute force, it looked like a macabre piece of art.

After Han Fei stared at it for a few seconds, the door guardian picked up the head and screwed it on its neck. The blood vessels that crawled out from Han Fei’s ears now climbed into the reconnected head. The face slowly took on Han Fei’s resemblance.

Han Fei was flustered by this strange development. He was trying to figure out if this was a chance for him to escape. However, the mere sight of the large guillotine blade told him that was a bad idea. The guillotine knife was more than 3 metres long, so the door guardian could have sliced Han Fei into half before he had the chance to escape.

“Do not be afraid, I just want to confirm that you didn’t lie to me.” The mouth on the broken head suddenly moved. To prove his sincerity, the door guardian put the weapon away.

“You’ve sneaked a look into my memory?”

“I was going to but I sensed a very familiar and scary presence on you. It was that presence which decapitated me in the first place so I believe you aren’t lying.” The door guardian looked at Han Fei through the bloody visage. It was disconcerting.