The light slashed like a flower in the dark or a comet cutting through the night sky. The hospital director’s body was pierced through easily. Before he could react, the layers protecting the head fell, and the cocoon deep inside his brain was cut into two. Even though Big Sin was scary, Han Fei had the sharpest knife. He only needed an opportunity, and he could cut through any ghost under the rank of Pure Hatred.
The injured hospital director was consumed by Big Sin. The stomach monsters were held back. Han Fei steadily pushed his way in. He not only wanted to get stronger, but he also wanted to teach the special citizens how to get stronger too. When two worlds collided, there would be new rules.
Han Fei took over Dream’s organ factory in less than three hours. He found the details of all the patients in the director’s office. Dream sewed part of its body inside the patients and had them hidden around the city. It was very difficult to kill Dream, but Han Fei had his own solution. He shared the details with all the survivors and water ghosts. He would use them to ‘heal’ these patients.
“The water ghosts can work together with the survivors. Coexistence is possible.” After inspecting the factory, Han Fei entered the birthing room under the morgue. The mothers looked at Han Fei with alert. They would do anything to protect their children. “I can recognize him! He’s a fugitive!” A mother who was sent here a few days ago pointed at Han Fei and shouted. She grabbed the knife beside her. Han Fei didn’t deny anything. He looked at the lock on the door. The mothers were sent here over the past few weeks. The hospital director had provided them with the best environment and the latest medical gadgets. The whole room was very comfortable. The organ factory outside was creating evil and gore, but the newborns and mothers were living in heaven. The mothers probably didn’t even know about the hell that was happening outside.
“I’m here to save you, but you point a knife at me? Is that how you treat a good guy?” Han Fei didn’t explain because time was limited. He entered the room with the butcher’s knife and checked every baby with Soul-depth Touch. “Dream has taken away the good memories of so many patients. It should have created its best body by now.” All the babies were fine. He glanced at all the mothers. When he met one of the mothers’ eyes, she glanced towards the side.
“The dresser?” Han Fei knew that the dresser was a very unique piece of furniture. Butterfly’s childhood memory was locked inside a dresser. Han Fei’s best friend, Huang Yin, was killed many times by the Butterfly inside the dresser. Han Fei was about to move to the dresser when a mother who had recovered somewhat moved to stop him, “What are you doing?”
“I’m just trying to save all of us.”
As conflict was about to happen, Uncle Ying, who was buried deep inside the organ factory staggered over. His body was covered in wounds, but strangely enough, they were healing rapidly, “Please! He is really here to help us!”
Han Fei hadn’t even met Uncle Ying before but the latter kept vouching for Han Fei. “The hospital hasn’t been protecting you. The director wanted to create the perfect baby. Other than that baby, the rest of you are just tools. Once you lose your value, you’ll be tossed into the organ factory. Didn’t you notice that all the mothers who left never returned? They didn’t leave the hospital but leave the world!” Uncle Ying showed them the evidence that the survivors found at the factory.
Even with the evidence, some of the women refused to believe it. They were stuck too long in their dreams.
“Move out of the way.” Han Fei walked to the dresser and cut it open. Inside the big dresser was a pale woman. She was hugging a very cute baby. Different from the other babies, this baby had butterfly wing patterns on the back of his head, neck, and spine when he was born. He was beautiful, like God’s personal creation. The natural beauty stunned even Han Fei.
“The butterfly wings opened from the back of the head and spread down to the spine. What is this child’s relation to Butterfly?” Han Fei stared at the woman. The woman was weak but she hugged her child tightly. Her maternal love was showing.
“Dream has collected every patient’s happy memory to create this child? From the result, he appears to have succeeded.” Han Fei noticed the document beside the woman’s feet. The hospital wanted to raise the child with the woman. They planned to send the child somewhere else, and they named him No. 3.
“Is No. 3 Butterfly? But the Butterfly I killed was extremely ugly. He was born as a monster and was hated by everyone. In contrast, this child is so cute and handsome. The butterfly patterns are quite scary, that’s all.” Fu Sheng’s memory world contained many secrets. Exploring this city was equal to exploring the background of the cryptic world.
“This child is perfect but innocent. He is just a vessel Butterfly had prepared for itself.”
Han Fei knew about Butterfly’s past. If No. 3 were Butterfly, then Dream would have possessed all the perfections when he was reborn in Butterfly’s body. After Dream completed the ritual, No. 3 would become the scary monster. Dream had once stolen all the perfections from Butterfly. Later, Butterfly mimicked Dream and started to steal goodness from others, continuing this cycle of despair.
“The best solution is to kill him now.” The knife raised. Everyone, including Uncle Ying, rushed over to stop Han Fei.
“Hey! Don’t act too recklessly!”
“He’s just a child!”
Han Fei aimed to kill but really he didn’t even use half of his strength. Rest in Peace cut through the back of the child’s head. The blade didn’t harm the baby but shattered the butterfly tattoo. A scream that didn’t belong to a baby echoed. The butterfly tattoo crushed. The memories with human goodness scattered everywhere, forming a pair of giant butterfly wings in the air. Normally, Big Sin wouldn’t like something like this, but the memories contained traces of Dream. It opened its mouth to engulf everything out of habit. Big Sin was extreme evil. Its existence was a tragedy. Every day Han Fei walked by the edge of death. However, after it consumed the beautiful butterfly, its soul started to gain color. This wasn’t enough to change its nature, but it allowed it more possibilities.
When Han Fei swung the knife, everyone’s heart raised. They sighed in relief when they realized the baby was still alive. Xiao He and the other survivors went to help the mothers. Han Fei stared at the baby inside the dresser. In this memory world, Han Fei had destroyed Dream’s rituals, but in real life, Dream had succeeded. Han Fei wondered which ritual Dream used.
Han Fei had a bad feeling. The process was too successful. Even though he had encountered obstacles like the water monster and stomach monster, Han Fei had vanquished everything. “These eight rituals don’t feel like something Dream has prepared, but something someone else has specifically prepared for me to experience.” Han Fei called Yan Yue over and examined her with Soul-depth Touch again. He could confirm that Yan Yue and the other souls within her were normal. They were not planted by his side by Dream. But it was undeniable that Han Fei was dragged into all these because of Yan Yue.
From the first to the sixth rituals, Han Fei had regained many things. Some of the rituals only he could solve like having Fu Sheng’s soul exit the mirror. He slowly moved through the rituals and reached stage 9 of the mission. But the closer he was to the end, the more uneasy he felt. Dream’s resurrection shouldn’t be this simple.
“No. 4 said that Dream has the power of the Unmentionable. It can affect the flow inside Fu Sheng’s memory world based on Fu Sheng’s memory of it.” Unmentionable was scary. They would sense you even if you mentioned their names. Their power was beyond Pure Hatred. Han Fei now suspected that the Dream in this memory world would be his first time fighting a real Unmentionable.
“Tell me the location of the last two rituals. We can’t wait any further.”
“I’m not sure about the location of the seventh ritual. But I know a coroner once entered the theme park at night to discuss with Dream. The seventh ritual might be his workplace.” Yan Yue’s mother was vague.
“That could be many places.” Han Fei’s adopted father was a coroner. “The workplace at the police station, the brain surgical room at the hospital, the medical lab at the university, the many crime scenes, and so on.”
“That’s all I know.” Yan Yue’s mother looked at Han Fei openly, “The eighth ritual might be inside the theme park. Dream hasn’t revealed any details about the last ritual.”
“It’s fine.” Han Fei’s eyes changed. “I believe Dream’s rituals revolve around me. I was brought by Fu Sheng into the cryptic world. I was valued by Fu Sheng. Dream and Fu Sheng are nemesis. If Dream knows about my presence, it will come after me.”
If he was back in the cryptic world, Han Fei’s only solution when encountering the Unmentionable was to log off. But he was currently inside Fu Sheng’s memory world, and he only needed to deal with Dream’s projection.
After cleaning up the underground hospital, Han Fei called Uncle Ying to his side. He noticed many strange things about Uncle Ying. The dead Uncle Ying still had warmth in his soul like a living person. Most ghosts were afraid of the sun but based on Xiao He’s description, Uncle Ying was walking around freely when the sun came up yesterday. Furthermore, when Uncle Ying climbed out of the factory ruin, he was heavily wounded. However, in just an hour, the wounds on his soul had fully healed. This ghost had a powerful self-recovery system.
“Uncle Ying, do you want to help more people?”
“Of course!” Uncle Ying nodded without hesitation.
“Then, can you tell me why your soul is so special?” When Han Fei approached the old man, there was an indescribable resonance.
“I can’t tell either. When I was trapped inside the mental hospital, the diagnosis said that I was a healing persona. I would get joy from helping others…” Uncle Ying looked at his hands. “But I never really went out to do anything. I was only following my heart and my life passed like that.”
“Do you really also have a healing persona?” Han Fei’s eyes moved from the elder and saw the patients behind him. In a way, the two were very similar.
1 comment:
Thank you for the chapter, Lonely tree!
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