“The weakness in your nature is being targeted by that monster. He will not help you. He will only…” Before Han Fei finished, he was cut off by the man in the school uniform, “But he can allow me to be another version of myself! The version that I wouldn’t even dare to imagine in the past!”
The man’s state was very strange. He couldn’t stop laughing, but his tears kept falling too. He complained about the world through his laughter.
“That is not an excuse for you to kill them.” Han Fei took out Company. “Let him out. I want to talk to him.”
The bloodshot eyes almost exploded. The blood capillaries gathered at the corners. The man laughed until his lips almost split. The expression on his face was completely different from before. The volume of the maddening laughter increased. Han Fei could hear clearly that the laughter didn’t come from the man’s mouth but his stomach. The terrifying laughter was like the devil’s baby, slowly climbing up the man’s intestines. The laughter from the stomach turned shriller. It slowly replaced the man’s laughter. At that moment, there was no more pain and regret in the man’s eyes. There was only the flame of madness. Chaos, death, despair, those were the things he wanted. He liked total destruction.
“It looks like you’re the person I’m looking for. I am really curious what you look like.” Han Fei in the mask extended his hand toward the man. “There is a voice guiding me to approach you, consume you, or be consumed by you. I’m sure you have the same feeling too.”
The man glanced at Han Fei’s hand. He saw the red threads bound on Han Fei’s finger. The torn lips bled. He didn’t want to shake Han Fei’s hand. The red threads were connected to the paper doll inside Han Fei’s clothes. Once they shook hands, endless curses would gush out. Xu Qin’s body was almost shattered. Her power couldn’t be used that many times. Therefore, Han Fei would only use it to deal with the most difficult enemies.
Han Fei’s acting was very natural. His plan was actually very simple. If he had the chance to kill Mad Laughter, he would make a move. If he failed, then they would talk about cooperation. His reason for selecting Mad Laughter was also very simple. Of Xu Qin’s 99 Deaths, none of it was caused by Mad Laughter.
The man’s rationality had been consumed. His negative emotions exploded. Mad Laughter had taken over his body.
“I’m curious. How many people in this city are under your control?” Han Fei hadn’t seen Mad Laughter’s real form. He could only communicate with him through his victims. Hearing Han Fei’s voice, the man stared at him and then walked past him. He signaled for Han Fei to get on the bus with him.
Han Fei contemplated for a while. He requested Lee Guo Er and the rest to do something for him. He needed them to drive along the route before the bus did. He wanted them to cleanse the souls at all the stops before the bus arrived. This was very simple. The taxi was possessed by nine victims. They only needed to drag the passengers on the bus stops into the taxi, and then with Xiao Yu’s mother’s help, everything would be solved. Dealing with these normal ghosts would earn them points and make the taxi and Xiao Yu’s mother stronger, so this was perfect.
After the taxi departed, Han Fei got on the bus. There were only four people on the bus, the driver, Han Fei, Mad Laughter, and a middle-aged man in the theme park uniform. Neither of them had the fare, but they didn’t mind. Han Fei stood beside the driver, and the man in the school uniform walked toward the worker in the last row. “Why are you two not paying for the tickets?” The worker was pressed down by the man in the school uniform just as he tried to stand up. The laughing face leaned close to the worker. Without any warning, the sharp knife from the school bag stabbed into the worker’s neck. In the blink of an eye, the worker collapsed. That man controlled by Mad Laughter was crazy. He had lost control of himself, dominated by negative emotions.
“All the normal people oppressed by negative emotions can be Mad Laughter’s vessels. They would turn into killing machines at any moment. This city is very dangerous.
“Normal people can turn into laughing murderers. Various monsters hide in the dark. There are ritualists performing strange rituals. There is an unknown force who is trying to seal up the cryptic world, and finally, there is the theme park that has turned death into a game.
“I not only have to survive in this place but also to kill all of them.
“This is a very hard challenge. Has someone done this in the past?” Han Fei hadn’t fully recovered all his memory. He had only seen Xu Qin’s 99 deaths. He didn’t know if this was his real self, but he didn’t dislike himself.
The driver was just an icy puppet. His arm was strung with red threads and a name tag from the morgue. He didn’t care about the things happening on the bus.
The man undressed the theme park worker and stole his work Id. After getting everything he wanted, the man removed the school uniform, put on the worker uniform, and threw the dead body out the window. He didn’t even clean the blood. The man took the spot the worker previously occupied. He patted the seat beside him, asking Han Fei to join him.
Lee Guo Er and the rest had dealt with all the passengers at the stops. Han Fei and the man controlled by Mad Laughter were on a single boat, slowly drifting towards the deep sea.
It had been some time since Han Fei opened his eyes to this world. He had never had this experience before. He sat beside the most dangerous madman and looked at the city crowded with ghost stories. The quiet bus formed a great contrast to the streets that echoed with screams. It was like they were not occupants of this city but just a visitor.
The body had been disposed of. The warm blood pooled on the ground. The man dipped his finger into the pool. He wrote down the following on the seat, Fu Sheng, cryptic world’s manager, first-generation ghosts, and my theme park.
Han Fei didn’t quite get it until the man raised his knife to cut through Fu Sheng’s name.
“Other than you and me, there are four more choices?” Han Fei looked at the man. He looked back at Han Fei. Their eyes hid a madness that only they would understand. “One person will deal with two? That’s fair.”
This city was a microcosm of a time in the past. Mad Laughter hated Fu Sheng intensely. He wanted to kill Fu Sheng more than Han Fei. So his first choice was to kill Fu Sheng.
For Han Fei, his interest lay in the cryptic world. The words appeared to awaken something within him. Han Fei pulled out Company and cut through the cryptic world’s manager.
Then, the man slashed through my theme park.
“Are you leaving first-generation ghosts for me?” Han Fei picked up the knife and cut through the last option. The seat lost its support and collapsed. Han Fei and Mad Laughter were good at making choices. After eliminating all the answers, they didn’t need to bother about which choices were correct. The bus was still moving. No one got on the bus. The bus drove all the way to the destination, the theme park. This was the first time Han Fei got so close to the theme park at night. The theme park looked livelier than it was in the morning, but there was no one to be seen.
When the bus stopped at the last stop, there was a knocking on the window. Xiao Yu and Xiao Jia gestured wildly at Han Fei.
“It’s my stop.” Han Fei stood up and wiped away the blood on his shoes. “You can’t stop smiling, and I can’t smile no matter how hard I try. I really have no idea which of us is luckier.”
Han Fei got down from the bus and watched the bus drive into the theme park. The theme park was larger at night. The bus was soon swallowed by the laughter. It disappeared into another world.
“Han Fei, how did the cooperation go?” Xiao Jia opened the taxi door. He looked at Han Fei in the suit and felt a sense of familiarity. “You remind me of my former leader more and more. He would look like this when he was done discussing a deal too.”
“This is not the first time you said that. You should bring me to meet him when you have time.” Han Fei sat in the passenger seat. He didn’t let any suspicious detail slide.
“I don’t think that’s possible. He was dismembered by his girlfriends. He didn’t even leave behind a full body.” Xiao Jia didn’t notice Lee Guo Er’s face darken, and he continued, “We even made a game together. It was inspired by his life story.”
“A game?”
“I have it on my phone. Do you want to play it?” Xiao Jia passed his phone to Han Fei. “The phone version is the simplified version. There are only 15 endings. The official version on the PC has 99 endings. It’s quite popular.”
Han Fei opened the game, and the first thing he saw was that the game was based on true events. To protect the privacy of all the characters, their names have been changed.
“The game is quite boring.” Lee Guo Er started the car. “You almost followed the bus into the theme park at night. Do you know how dangerous the park is at night?”
“Do you know who the theme park is built for?” Han Fei clicked on the game. The starting scenario was the male lead sleeping in the bedroom. He heard something coming from the living room. He slightly opened his eyes and saw his wife standing at the bedroom door with a knife.
This simple scenario caused Han Fei’s brain to pulse with pain. It was like he was the one lying in bed.
“There are my memories mixed into this game?” “Huh?” Xiao Jia leaned forward. “Are you a player too? I always took you as someone loyal in love.”
“Do you have the official version on your PC?” Han Fei didn’t waste time. He felt like he had stumbled upon a crucial trail.
“Of course. This is a game developed by my department. I’ve cleared all the death endings.”
“Death endings? Does this game have no good ending?” Han Fei frowned.
“There is one, but only my leader knows that ending. Until now, not one player has solved it.”
“We’ll go to your home now. I need to see this game.” Han Fei lowered his head and continued to play. The more he played, the greater the ripple in his mind.
Xiao Jia was happy when he heard Han Fei say he want to go back home. He didn’t want to deal with ghosts and monsters anymore. They returned to Xiao Jia’s neighborhood. Like last time, they evaded the cameras and sneaked into the building. Han Fei dragged Xiao Jia to the computer.
“Don’t worry. This game has many endings. It’ll take up a lot of your time.” After Xiao Jia opened the game for Han Fei, he sat beside him quietly, “Even the hardest womanizer can’t survive for more than 30 days. There was a psychologist and his students who studied the game. They barely survived a month.”
When Xiao Jia spoke, Han Fei already survived to the second day. The robotic choices on the computer felt so lively to Han Fei. He made the choices based on his instinct and soon, he came to the fourth day. He didn’t die but had raised his wife’s affection.
“Focusing on one person is pointless. The wife can’t protect you fully. Plus, if you have too high of an affection level with her, you’ll attract enmity from others. It’ll be hard for you at the company.” Xiao Jia had been bullied by Han Fei for a long time. He wanted to show off his skills, but he soon realized Han Fei cleared the game faster than he who developed the game.
“What the?” Xiao Jia was shocked. “When did you raise the colleague’s affection level?”
Lee Guo Er walked in. She saw the choices Han Fei made. Han Fei had amnesia. He forgot everything from the past so this was his first time encountering this game. Without knowing the correct answer, he made the same choices as that man. Lee Guo Er was reminded of her first encounter with Han Fei on the street. This man knew that she was only faking it but he still chose to help her.
“They are not the same person. Why is it like this?”
Han Fei, who was submerged in the game, didn’t notice the anomaly beside him. He had survived the first week and the lock on his memory loosened.
1 comment:
thank you for the chapter, Lonelytree!
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