687 Truth

 

Cooperating with Han Fei had a chance of bringing happiness to her daughter; if she refused, her daughter would be tortured to death. Yan Yue’s mother had done so much to revive Yan Yue, so she couldn’t allow her to die before her again. The blade in Yan Yue’s mouth radiated death and blood. Yan Yue’s eyes darted about. She realized she couldn’t read Han Fei at all. The man was insane. If she hesitated, he would plunge Company through Yan Yue’s neck.

A grumble came from the throat. Yan Yue’s mother and the souls inside Yan Yue’s body had come to a consensus. They stopped struggling. However, the butterfly pattern under Yan Yue’s skin continued to deepen. The pattern was made from blood capillaries. They looked like a pair of wings that was about to stretch through Yan Yue’s skin.

“Take a good look. Dream never wanted to help you revive Yan Yue. It merely treated your daughter’s body as a large cocoon. When the worm in your daughter’s body matures, it will consume everything within your daughter and escape from your daughter’s body with your husband’s maze tattoo!” Dream’s goal had been achieved. The maze tattoo was almost imprinted on the butterfly wings. “Only I can help you in this neighborhood. I will help you kill it!”

Yan Yue’s mother and the souls inside Yan Yue felt the changes in Yan Yue’s body too. The butterfly pattern consumed their power. Actually, Dream’s goal was very clear. He wanted to drag Han Fei and the previous Brain into a nightmare. When the two were trapped, he would find the chance to complete the metamorphosis on Yan Yue. He would obtain the maze tattoo and use that to search for the secret deep inside the theme park. However, he didn’t expect that once his butterfly entered Han Fei’s brain, he not only failed to trap Han Fei but had also caused Han Fei’s memory curtain to crack even more. Han Fei’s nightmare spiraled out of control.

Han Fei stood before Yan Yue and tried to persuade her.

“Dream is not scary. It is just a bug afraid of the light. Because of its ugliness, it has given itself the world’s most beautiful wings. You should understand this. The more one lacks something, the more one will be concerned about it.”

The blade twitched. Yan Yue’s mother was finally persuaded. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything about the theme park, Brain’s past, and Dream’s weakness.” Han Fei knew from Brain that his wife was also the theme park’s nightshift worker and knew many secrets.

“Humanity’s despair and pain percolated to form an invisible monster. No one knows how to describe it. Its body was connected to a world. The first batch of humans who saw that monster called it the first-generation ghost.” Yan Yue’s mother controlled her daughter to move away from the knife.

“What is the connection between the theme park and the first-generation ghost?”

“The invisible monster carries too many negative emotions. To stop it from growing, the people who could see it decided to build a city in the brightest place. They lured the monster to the city and then built a theme park and a school at the location where the monster’s despair was the heaviest.” Yan Yue spoke faster. “People came to the theme park to play. The laughter and joy slowly comforted the despairing monster. Everyone’s initial intention was good. However, humans were incredibly complicated. As the monster stopped growing, some of them started to have greedy thoughts. They wondered if they could control the monster.

“That was when the split happened. Some wanted to kill the monsters, while others wanted to make use of the monster. When faced with the unknown, some would respond with fear and others with greed.

“The final result was the people who wanted to control the monster had an accident when they tried to test the monster. They and the theme park were influenced by the monster. The scary thing was this incident was not discovered until it was too late.

“When the others realized something was wrong, the invisible monster had already engulfed the city. It was normal during the day, but things were abnormal at night. Everything was going crazy. The people who could see the monster were forced to gather again. They made a deal with the monster under the theme park.

“That was when the five managers were formed. Human, Ghost and Me are occupied by the most despairing humans. Dream is born from the monster itself, so it is closest to the first-generation ghost. Brain’s existence is the most unique. It is occupied by a normal living human. However, his main purpose is to relay the monster’s consciousness, so he has the right to obtain the monster’s deepest secret.” Yan Yue’s mother stopped to look at her husband. “Only the person with the strongest constitution and brightest mind could be the brain. Even so, all the Brains had terrible endings. When they retired, they would be turned into retards or madmen. Other than themselves, no one knew what happened during their retirement.”

Han Fei nodded. He combined all the info. “If a part of the cryptic world is the first-generation ghost, then the initial purpose of the theme park is to use the positive emotions to balance out the negative emotions. However, with the expanding cryptic world, a theme park is clearly not enough. Perhaps only a large world filled with positive emotions and healing effects can balance the despair of the cryptic world.” At that moment, a few words bubbled up in Han Fei’s mind, Perfect Life. The hotel confused Han Fei. The players there also felt weird to Han Fei. Those people didn’t feel like they belonged to this city. Han Fei had a crazy supposition when he connected that to the robotic voice in his mind.

“Since the players are here, I can use this chance to ask them.” The night was the stage for the ghosts. No matter how many people came to this neighborhood, it was pointless.

“I don’t know Dream’s weakness. All the other four managers have once wanted to kill Dream, but Dream is still there even after many rotations of the other managers.” The butterfly wing’s pattern became brighter on Yan Yue’s body. Her skin bled, and it looked ghastly.

“However, Dream senses the danger now because there are two strange creatures among this latest batch of managers.” Yan Yue’s mother looked at Han Fei. “Of the five managers, Ghost should be the strongest normally. He is responsible for the night. However, Human and Me’s power has surpassed Ghost. They planned to work together to seal up the despairing world.”

“I’m curious. How do they plan to completely separate the two overlapping worlds? As long as ghosts continue to exist, they can drag living humans into the cryptic world. It’s how I came here.”

“Only the managers know the answer to that, but I heard it has to do with a black box.” Yan Yue turned to look at the middle-aged man and the burnt scar on his body. “Brain has the most secrets on the first-generation ghost. My husband chose to work with Me and Human. However, he had forgotten about that too.” Yan Yue’s mother had a lot of opinions about her husband. She wanted to protect her family, but her husband had chosen to sacrifice everything. “He thought he was the worst Brain, but he is the only Brain who dared to stand up to the first-generation ghost. He is also the only Brain who is relatively sentient after his retirement.”

“I think I get it now. Dream is busy reviving himself, Ghost is heavily injured, the five managers’ voices united through trade and violence.” Han Fei knew he was a cog inside a big machine. The past and future changed at this moment. Someone in the city would bring about the change of an era. He had no idea who that person was, but he wanted to be that person. That was the only way to ensure that fate was within his control. Han Fei started to think after he found out everything. Based on Xu Qin’s 99 death, he might have died 99 times too. So what had changed from his 99 deaths?

“What is the ending that I want?” There was a sudden gunshot that pulled Han Fei back to reality. He opened the room door slightly and looked out. The song, which was suppressed by the siren, echoed again following the screams. The police at the back seemed to witness something as they accelerated and rammed into the guardhouse, blocking the neighborhood’s front gate.

The strange atmosphere expanded. The police responsible for people’s safety in the day had overlapped their boundaries. They not only had to face the monsters hiding inside the neighborhood but also the influence of the nightmare. Many sank into despair and saw Han Fei’s former fear.

Han Fei thought Yan Yue’s scream would attract the police, but now he realized his worry was unfounded. This family compound that represented the theme park’s past was very different at night. Many police officers who entered the neighborhood mysterious disappeared. The many doors were like giant mouths, consuming all the living humans.

Compared to the police, F and the players were more experienced. Their target was clearly Han Fei. F appeared to have seen the future again. He guided the players to avoid the part of the danger inside the neighborhood. However, he miscalculated the influence of Han Fei’s nightmare. Some of the players broke down and ran toward the dark. Their appearance was noticed by the police too. Ever since he antagonized Han Fei, F’s life had not been easy. He and Thousand Nights were Grade A fugitives, so it was unwise for them to appear before the police.

“We need to finish this quick. Follow me to Building 4!”

The family compound wasn’t that large, but the neighborhood was filled with danger after midnight. Han Fei’s decision for everyone to stay put was correct.

“F, did you see these giant ghosts in your future too?” Thousand Nights pointed at the center of the neighborhood. His voice was shaking due to fear. The player beside Thousand Nights turned over to look, but there was only darkness.

“What did you see?” “A giant tree! It is overgrown with hands and has a greedy face. There is a deep well beside it. I only glanced at it, and I felt like my soul was about to be sucked in.” Thousand Nights’ limbs were cold. He had always trusted F, but this time, he was very frightened. Both the giant tree and the deep well were not something they could handle. Thousand Nights was F’s right-hand man. The fear instantly spread.

“Why can’t I see the giant tree?” The player beside Thousand Nights sucked in a cold breath. “But I did see an old lady with bark-like skin inside the room closest to the corridor. Her body is shriveled, and her body elongated in segments. She is waving at me!”

“Don’t worry. That doesn’t exist in the future I see!” F said confidently. He glanced at the empty center of the neighborhood. “They are not ghosts from this city. They are the fear of an outsider. They are illusions! It’s Dream! Damn it! He has worked together with Dream!”

F rushed towards Building 4 without hesitation. The others followed him. However, just as the player was about to walk into the corridor, a dry arm twined around the player’s heart like an aged root. The bony fingers pierced into the player’s heart. The player wailed. The other players wanted to help, but the player had already been dragged into the room. The door slammed close. The scream came out of the room, but everything returned to silence 10 seconds later. The man died just like that. The morale was shaken again.

“Didn’t you say that is an illusion?” Worm was the first to stand out. “He is dead because of the future you see! You want to kill Han Fei, so you’re using our lives to pave the road for you?”

In the past, everyone relied on F to survive, but as more died because of F, many voices rose up against him. Worm was no longer alone.

“Have you forgotten how many times I’ve saved you?” F didn’t explain. He had to kill Han Fei as soon as possible!

“At this stage, we can only trust him.” Qiang Wei spoke, but there was no trace of trust in his voice. If anything, the suspicion deepened. F’s past was a mystery. People only knew that he was a player. It felt like someone had tinkered with their memories so that they forgot everything about F. Qiang Wei didn’t realize this in the past, but now he felt fearful of it. Compared to the mysterious F, he was more familiar with Han Fei. After all, he had seen Han Fei’s movie, so at least he could be sure he was a player.

‘Assuming that everyone’s memory has been tampered with, then Han Fei wouldn’t be any exception. Based on his reaction, he seems to have forgotten he is a player in a game.” Qiang Wei agreed with F on the surface, but he was planning something else. ‘When I see him later, I need to tell him his real identity. He is a very good horror movie actor.’

Qiang Wei recalled the various medals he found on the police's official website. Those were the things Han Fei had done in the real world. Perhaps it was too shocking, so he still remembered it.