Thursday 12 January 2023

690 What Level Am I?

 

The memory fragments crashed in the flood of blood. Every fragment reflected the image of the past. The different emotions glowed. Han Fei, who woke up from the nightmare, changed tremendously. He no longer looked so lost.

“This place is Fu Sheng’s last memory altar!” Endless memory floated in his mind. Han Fei saw his past and knew many things. However, he hadn’t assimilated those memories. He was more like an outsider, watching his life.

“Han Fei! Qiang Wei is holding back F. You need to leave. F wants to kill you!” Worm raised his wounded arms to try to pick up Han Fei. However, he was glared at by the paper doll. Just a glare, and Worm was frozen to the spot.

“I need to leave because he wants to kill me?” Han Fei’s mind and body had aligned. He looked at the 99 wounds on his arms. “I’ve remembered many things, but I’m only at Stage Nine. The last remaining part is probably taken by the man in the red orphanage. It’s a shame that I have no idea what he has taken.”

Han Fei picked up the paper doll. He was not worried at all as he walked to the tape player.

“Han Fei, if you don’t leave now, it’ll be too late!” Worm resisted his fear of the paper doll and grabbed Han Fei’s hand. “You’ve saved me twice. I’ll always remember that.”

“I’ve saved you more than twice.” Han Fei glanced at the masochist beside him. For some reason, he was very respected by mentally-unstable people. Han Fei placed the tapes in his backpack. “This is the best present I’ve ever received. They’re like childhood videos taken by parents.”

“Han Fei, we don’t have much time left!” Worm urged Han Fei to leave. At that moment, the entrance of Room 444 was kicked down, and the temperature in the room dropped.

The sounds of guns, singing, pleadings, and wailings entered the room.

“Move away from the door. Be careful of stray bullets.” As the center of the chaos, Han Fei was very calm, like he was already used to everything. He picked up the ugly kitten, which was still absorbing the black cocoon. He inspected the nine black stripes on it.

“The black cocoons might not always give birth to butterflies. Sometimes, death, tragedy, and Big Sin will come out of it.” Han Fei tickled the kitten’s chin and used Soul-depth Touch to hear its inner voice. “Don’t worry. I’ll take revenge for what Fu Sheng did to you. He has killed me 99 times. He wouldn’t be mad if I made him into a ghost tattoo, right?”

Han Fei walked towards the entrance. He saw Thousand Nights hook his chains around Qiang Wei’s neck and slam him towards the banister. The players had split into two camps. A small part sided with Qiang Wei, and most sided with F. However, the majority hesitated. They would side with the winner.

“In my impression, your goal of destroying the cryptic world is to protect the living, so why are you killing your allies now?” Han Fei looked at Company in his grasp. “Right. I almost forgot. You’ve abandoned even your three children to accomplish your goals. Do you hear that song? The kid is crying while hugging the music box you have given to him. Even during his death, he still couldn’t understand why his respected father would abandon him without hesitation.”

“Han Fei…” F in the white mask stood on the other side of the corridor. His gaze had never been so scary.

“I don’t know whether to call you F, Fu Sheng, or the old building manager.” Han Fei walked forward with the knife. “In the first manager mission, I’ve died 40 plus times. In the second manager mission, I’ve died even more times. Each death means my soul will be torn. Do you know how painful that is?”

“Don’t come over! Be careful!” Qiang Wei grabbed the banister as support and screamed. Before he could say anything else, he was kicked down the corridor by Thousand Nights.

“No matter how great your initial goal is, your chosen road is wrong! As long as the orphans from the orphanage and I are alive, that is the most direct evidence!” Han Fei’s eyes were bloodshot, “As the train called future trundled forward, five adults were tied on the original tracks, and a kid was tied on the other tracks. In that situation, you changed the train’s course without hesitation, killing the child, destroying his future.”

No decision was right, but Han Fei was the sacrificed child. His voice turned cold. When the blood-red orphanage’s gate was blasted open by the butterfly, the blood-red memories of the 31 children intertwined with Han Fei. They formed the taboo—Blood-red Night.

Of the first batch of 31 children, only Han Fei survived. Qiang Wei, the white shoes, Seaglass Cat, No. 5 and No. 11 were from the second batch.

“The worst scenario is here. It looks like I’m still too late. Even at a time like this, the butterfly still creates problems for me.” F couldn’t read Han Fei. He took out the black knife and faced Han Fei.

“No matter the time or place, the Butterfly must die. The things that I’m experiencing should be your former memory, the turning point in your life. I’m thankful that you’ve allowed me to see this. This altar will become the turning point in my life too.” Han Fei was in a strange state. It felt like he had recovered his memory but not fully.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I’m certain of one thing. You are not in the future that I see.” F didn’t hope for the other players to help. He never thought Han Fei could win him in a one-on-one.

“Soon, you’ll see. The last person who could predict the future chose to commit suicide when he encountered me. Guess what he has seen.” Han Fei charged forward. He pulled on the red threads, and curses climbed all over his body.

“What are you talking about?” F didn’t remember this happening in his vision. He stabbed the black blade into his palm. After the blade absorbed enough blood, it would morph into a giant black Malice.

“You have the power to predict the future and a blade that can consume ghosts. With such good conditions, how did you end up so poorly?” Han Fei’s voice came from the curses to disturb F. “I feel sad for you. What right do you have to take over my body and be reborn in it?”

Thousands of curses pounced at the black Malice. Han Fei didn’t think he could kill it, so his goal was to stop it. When Malice was trapped by the curses, Han Fei pulled closer to F and shouted a boy’s name. “Wang Sheng!”

The hilt started to tremble. Endless souls responded to Han Fei. The hilt had gathered all the beauty of humanity. They were like soldiers powering through the dark. No matter the danger or obstacles, when the light glowed, they would move forward. The hilt was filled with blood. With Han Fei’s summons, F could barely hold on to the blade.

“You want to be a hero that saves the human world, but you use your bloody hands to entrap the most beautiful part of humanity. Look at yourself. Is this the version of yourself you want to be?”

The blades clashed. The names on Han Fei’s hearts started to disappear. As Company and the butcher’s knife clashed, the name disappeared. In terms of material, the Company left behind by the clown was much worse than F’s butcher knife. However, Han Fei never wanted to fight the man head-on. The biggest reason he was doing this was to get his blade back!

Their physiques were almost the same. In terms of fighting capability, F was better, but not by much. Even F couldn’t tell where the problem was. The players previously standing behind F had retreated. They were made speechless watching the fight between F and Han Fei. They had shown skills that were not accessible to players of their level. Plus, their skills were clearly honed through massacres and murders. In an extremely short amount of them, both of them were bloody and injured. There was not a clear winner, but the biggest loser was the black Malice bound by curses. The Malice would only appear after consuming F’s fresh blood. Since F was too busy to control it, it dragged the player closest to it and almost sucked the player’s blood dry. As Malice struggled harder, F was more distracted. F had to take out its other trump card.

A picture fell out of his trenchcoat. A female student in school uniform appeared beside F. She had lost her mind after consuming too many ghosts. She would attack anyone she saw.

“Isn’t she the girl who accompanies you at school every day? She sees you as her only friend, but you turned her into a weapon without consciousness?” Han Fei didn’t tell Xu Qin to attack the girl. He was facing two enemies at once. “Fu Sheng, if you can see yourself now, you’d be so disappointed.”

“I haven’t seen the person you mentioned. I’m only doing what’s right.” F was covered in blood. Most of them were caused by Han Fei.

“Right? You don’t even have your own altar when you’re level 20. How can you protect what’s right?” Han Fei laughed. “There are endless you’s in this memory world, but this version of you before me should be the one used to replace me, right? I bet you never expected that I would enter your last altar when I was only 20 plus level!

“Is it because life is too hard in this city that you have to gather so many players for protection?

“Let me tell you. I’ve been racing endlessly in this extreme situation. No one gave me any spare time to breathe. I have to face the worst result you’ve left me! “Fu Sheng, you are too weak! Even when we’re at the same level and inside your own altar, you are no match for me!”

Han Fei moved faster and faster. He switched Company to his left hand and left his bloody right hand empty.

“I really didn’t expect you to reach this stage at your level, but don’t you think you’ve underestimated your enemy too much?” F’s voice was chilling. He gave a silent order. Thousand Nights hidden in the dark stabbed his knife at the back of Han Fei’s heart!

Being held back by Malice and the female student, Han Fei couldn’t evade the ambush, but the man didn’t seem like he meant to do that in the first place!

He leaped forward!

Han Fei closed the distance again. “Of course, I will not underestimate either of you. After all, like father like son!” Han Fei’s right fingers opened.

Thousand Nights’ knife cut through Han Fei’s cloth but was stopped by a paper doll. At the same time, Han Fei’s bloody hand finally grabbed F’s butcher knife.

“Rest in Peace!” The brilliant light instantly cut through the Malice. Arms reached out of the hilt and grabbed the blade with Han Fei.

2 comments:

ThabithTheYinglet said...

you can't de defeat him! thank you for the chapter, Lonelytree!

Anonymous said...

¡¡¡ESO ES HAN FEI!!! ¡¡¡SACATE LA PIJA PONLA EN LA MESA Y PARTELA!!!