“Grade D unique butcher’s knife.” Rest in Peace in the past could cut through Pure Hatred, but it appeared to have gotten sharper. The mirror that connected Buildings Seven and Eight was shattered. All the beauty of humanity was absorbed by Rest in Peace. The precarious balance was tipped over. The trapped souls rushed forward with resentment. The building made from dead bodies collapsed. The rotten bodies fell from their positions in the walls. It was raining dead. The souls filled with negative energy flew past Han Fei. They took over every inch of the hospital. They left behind curses and resentment until their bodies dissipated.
Han Fei led the others to exit Building Seven. He once again was greeted by the severe consequences when the cryptic world infiltrated the real world. The accumulated resentment would explode in the real world.
“Fu Sheng created Perfect Life so that the game could be the ‘mirror’ between the two worlds?” Perfect Life had a heavy feature on Iyashikei and the beauty of the human world. It was like the mirror between Building Seven and Eight. Everything matched. “Perfect Life is the buffer zone. Fu Sheng’s real goal might be to use it to heal the cryptic world.”
The idea was great, but it was too idealistic. Lured by giant profit, even Fu Sheng’s biological brother, Fu Tian, had turned on him. Things had reached the most horrible state. If it were not handled properly, it would lead to the worst results. The chaotic and gory city was not imagination. It was happening for real. Everything in the memory world was based on real events. Han Fei glanced at the emergency room swamped by the souls, and he called Yan Yue over. “You said Butterfly had prepared eight vessels. Where are the other six of them?”
“There’s one at Happiness Neighborhood Building Four. It’s an orphan.” Yan Yue’s mother pointed at her daughter’s stomach wound. “I’ll tell you the other five later.”
Happiness Neighborhood was a special place for Han Fei, so when he heard Yan Yue’s mother mention that, his brows twitched, but he soon returned to normal. The doctors among the player used the medical tools at the hospital to dress Yan Yue’s wounds, and then they took a cab to Happiness Neighborhood.
“At first, Happiness Neighborhood is used to place those orphans. That neighborhood is the saddest place in the city.” Yan Yue’s mother became chattier once her daughter’s condition improved, “The theme park wanted to find its managers from the most despairing people. However, most of them couldn’t reach their requirement. Therefore, one of the Humans came up with an idea. Using charity as a front, they opened a private children’s home to collect these abandoned children and babies. He used his formula to cultivate children of despairs. He injected them with different negative emotions, manually creating the monsters.”
Everyone in the car had a gloomy expression. They thought Dream was the worst among the managers, but Human was not much better.
“Each child was given their own persona. The workers cultivated them until they were old enough to be sent to Happiness Orphanage where they would be paired with suitable parents.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The kids have no right to choose their parents. To cultivate the persona that the workers wanted, they would select the parents who had severe deficiencies and move the orphans into their homes. They would grow up twisted,” Yan Yue’s mother knew many things. Brain listened quietly. His fists were tense.
“My home is at Happiness Neighborhood. Did I grow up in that environment too?” Han Fei still couldn’t remember his childhood memory. It had been taken by Mad Laughter.
“You once lived at Happiness Neighborhood?!” Yan Yue’s mother was shocked. She stared at Han Fei for a long time and said in a different tone, “I know you hate them, but we need to focus on the big picture. We need to focus on dealing with Dream and not drag in the other managers.”
“Don’t worry. Someone else will deal with the theme park. All we need to do is to clean up the ghosts in the city and destroy Dream’s ritual.” Mad Laughter wanted to deal with Fu Sheng and the theme park. Han Fei trusted him. In a way, it meant that he had self-confidence. The black taxi zoomed down the road. After saving Fu Sheng’s lingering soul, Han Fei had a renewed perspective of this city. Even if certain people only existed in memory, they deserved a chance at salvation. Han Fei would help if he could. This helped Lee Guo Er gain some points, and the group supporting Han Fei grew bigger. In this chaotic city, Han Fei gave people hope. The black taxi became a ghost story everyone wanted to encounter.
“Han Fei, aren’t we being a bit too high profile? If this continues, we’ll be targeted by the bigger ghosts.” Xiao Jia looked at the cavalcade behind them. Many people had escaped from home. Ghosts could appear anywhere, so their homes were not safe anymore.
“Mad Laughter is responsible for creating chaos, and I’m responsible for maintaining basic rules. We can send these people to Happiness Neighborhood. I want the neighborhood to live up to its name.”
Along the way, Han Fei ran into many different ghosts. Some hid in the shadows, some disguised among the humans. Thankfully, Han Fei was very experienced. He managed to save a lot of citizens. Han Fei’s live demonstrations impressed a lot of players. They had no idea a horror film actor was such a good ghost catcher. They finally understood Han Fei was not acting in the movies. More people followed Han Fei. They were all rescued by him. Han Fei didn’t force them to follow him. The citizens voluntarily followed behind the black taxi.
The sky brightened slightly around noon. The ghosts temporarily retreated to the shadows. The city was swallowed by crying. The survivors finally had the chance to mourn. But they had no idea the calamity was only starting. Han Fei reunited with the police that descended into nightmares yesterday night, and they came to the Happiness Neighborhood.
“Don’t run away. Let me clean these few buildings first.” Happiness Neighborhood was very special to Han Fei. He didn’t want his home to be corrupted by outside ghosts. He wanted to turn this place into a sanctuary. Han Fei never underestimated the power of ghosts, but he would never underestimate the power of human adaptation. With so many citizens gathered together, he would find special talents like Xiao Yu, and they would bring him hope. This path was difficult, and many people would die. Han Fei wouldn’t dare to attempt this in real life, but thankfully, he was inside the memory world. He didn’t need to care about others. He only needed to risk his own life.
He entered Building One with Rest in Peace. Han Fei noticed all the citizens with the surname Fu had moved away. They seemed to sense the imminent danger. “They sure run fast. I was planning to lock them inside the ghost tattoo.”
There were only some small fries left. Han Fei fed them to Xiao Yu’s mother and the black taxi. Xiao Yu’s mother consumed a lot of ghosts and had evolved into a Lingering Spirit. Actually, Xiao Yu’s mother was very similar to Yan Yue’s mother but they had a different understanding of protection, so their ending was different.
Building One and Building Two…
When Han Fei walked to Building Four, the cat in his backpack hissed. The red string also tightened. “It looks like a scary existence is presiding here.” Han Fei didn’t forget the many things that happened when he last visited Happiness Neighborhood. The dark corners were hiding scary monsters made from despair.
“Last time, I was concerned about Xu Qin and hurried to find her. Do you think you can scare me off?” Han Fei held Rest in Peace and entered Building Four. Xiao Yu, Yan Yue and the other players followed him. The corridor was dark. Light twisted in this space. The smell of burning lingered in the air. Many burnt yellow papers were scattered on the ground.
“These are not paper money. They are talismans.” Brain picked up one of them to study, “Take a look at the pattern on it. Doesn’t it look like the pattern weaved from the dead’s hair at the hospital?”
“Will these talismans really work on ghosts?”
“I don’t think so. Or else they wouldn’t be burned off like this.” Brain tossed the paper away and looked down the corridor. “Dream’s ritual appears to be different at every location. He turned Yan Yue’s into vessel to obtain the maze map, he turned Fu Sheng into his vessel because he was chosen by the other managers. I wonder what is he after in this building.”
“Every building here corresponds to an orphan. The building number is the orphan number. Dream is probably after Orphan Four.” Yan Yue’s mother frowned. “There is a presence here that makes me uncomfortable.” Xiao Yu’s mother sensed it too. She hissed to warn Han Fei.
“It’s a presence that every ghosts dislike.” Han Fei held the red string tightly and walked ahead. There was no one living on the first floor. The second floor was empty too. When he reached the third floor, he saw an old lady kneeling in the middle of the corridor.
“Is it a living person?”
The granny looked around 80. Her body was curled up, and she knelt in the corridor.
“Granny, do you need me to call an ambulance for you?” Xiao Jia took out his phone to record as he approached the old lady. The thin old lady appeared to have a weak hearing. She mumbled something and didn’t respond to outside stimuli. Xiao Jia walked over with hesitation. Just as he was about to touch the old lady, the old lady suddenly raised her hands to grab Xiao Jia’s shoulders. “Don’t block the way! You’ve blocked the Demon God’s path!”
A scary face was hidden under the unkempt hair. Her face was covered in sutras. She seemed to be biting on a piece of bone in her mouth.
“Granny, did something happen to your family?” Han Fei thought the old lady was special. Everyone had left, but she stayed.
“Move! Don’t stop the path of the Demon God!” The old lady was agitated. She picked up the ash from the urn to pelt them.
“Calm down. From the way you act, it looks like someone in your home is possessed. I am born with spirituality, so I know a thing or two about these things.” When Han Fei said these things, his presence changed. His acting was very natural. As the old lady’s attitude softened, Han Fei took out the items for resurrection from his backpack. “If you don’t mind, I can help you take a look.”
The two looked at each other. The old lady let go of Xiao Jia and climbed up from the ground. “My grandson is possessed by something. I want to chase that thing out of his body.”
“Can you bring me to see him?”
“Yes. But only you can enter the house.” The old lady shuddered as she went up the stairs. Han Fei signaled for the others to stay. The more he ascended, the thicker the oppression. Yellow talismans could be seen anywhere. Copper bells were strung on the banister, and urns were placed at every corner.
“Did you prepare all these?”
“Yes.” The old lady said. “When you see my grandson, don’t be too shocked. He’s still a human. He is merely possessed.”
The old lady’s reminder made Han Fei nervous. “You mean he doesn’t look like a human anymore?”
The wind blew, and the talismans fell to the ground. The old lady didn’t say anything and led Han Fei to the fourth floor.
They didn’t move much, but it felt like they had migrated to another world.
1 comment:
thank you for the chapter, Lonelytree!
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