714 Deal with Madness

 

99 deaths replayed themselves on Han Fei. He endured the pain and widened his eyes to observe these gory death memories. Inside the red orphanage, Han Fei completed the craziest deal with Mad Laughter. Fu Sheng wanted to revive through his body, and Dream wanted to take over his body. To ensure the body remained untouched, Han Fei and Mad Laughter decided to work together to consume the outside threat!

They would take down Fu Sheng, Dream’s lingering presence, the theme park, and even the whole city. This altar represented a painful past. Fu Sheng wanted to use this memory world to let Han Fei see the consequences of allowing the cryptic world and the real world to overlap. However, Han Fei and Mad Laughter only wanted to fix everything, to correct this tragedy from its source.

Han Fei’s consciousness dived into his mind. He stood opposite Mad Laughter with the gate of the orphanage between them. Their consciousness was wildly different, but it was undeniable that they had once lived in this body and could understand each other. Fu Sheng probably didn’t expect Han Fei would let Mad Laughter loose. He overestimated his understanding of Han Fei and underestimated Han Fei’s madness.

Dream and Mad Laughter’s appearance fully destroyed Fu Sheng’s plan. The future became chaotic like this murky pool. Everyone could see the pictures floating on the water, but they couldn’t tell how many despair and dead bodies were underneath.

The picture on the heart slowly fell. The death memories in Han Fei’s mind started to fade. He knew he had completed a deal with Mad Laughter, but he still couldn’t remember the core content of the deal. It had been taken away by Mad Laughter.

“After defeating Dream and Fu Sheng, I still need to face Mad Laughter in the end.” Mad Laughter was a scary ally and enemy. However, Han Fei didn’t lose his head over this. He would have to pay to gain something. That was how the deal worked.

The pictures fell around Han Fei. He remembered all the preparations he had done for this. At this point, the situation had cleared, and Han Fei needed to start to prepare for the final battle. Han Fei didn’t die 99 times for no reason. He had explored everything and completed all the altar missions he could find, and unlocked all the side quests. Many secrets of this city were hidden in his death memories. The pain of death tortured his nerves. In this despair, Han Fei sunk to the bottom.

The incomplete bodies were scattered about. In the middle of the mountain of dead bodies was a small altar. It was unclear what kind of material made this pure black altar. The altar doors were open. The threads around all the dead bodies’ ankles extended from the altar. Resisting the pain from his eyes, Han Fei glanced inside the altar.

The small altar had a premature baby inside it. Its body hadn’t fully matured. An early birth meant that he didn’t have the chance to experience this beautiful world. The altar was like the mother’s womb for the baby. It floated up and down. It was grabbing the thin threads that bound around the other dead bodies. There was a small metallic tag around his neck. The name was Han Fei.

In one of his lives, Han Fei discovered his adopted father’s secret. The turning point for the man’s craziness started with this prematurely-born baby. The baby was Doctor Han and his wife’s biological child. The child was lost. The already stubborn Doctor Han became an extremist. With Dream’s guidance, he became a demon.

When Han Fei saw the baby, the dead baby’s eyes twitched, and it suddenly opened its eyes.

It crawled towards the door and pulled all the strings. The scary face revealed a smile. “You still found your way to this place. After so many repetitions, you became the way I want.” An unfamiliar voice entered Han Fei’s ears. The baby crawled slowly, but it suddenly appeared beside Han Fei’s head.

The dead body wore Han Fei’s name around its neck. Its chest was sliced open, and a picture was embedded inside. “It looks like you’ve made your choice. You would no longer pick the path Fu Sheng has assigned for you! I will help you. I will unlock your body’s full potential.” The baby leaned on Han Fei’s chest. Its sharp fingers pierced through Han Fei’s ribs. The last picture touched Han Fei.

The memory of the 99th death appeared in Han Fei’s mind. Han Fei stopped before a door Fu Sheng made from dead bodies. The door was splattered with everyone’s blood. Han Fei hesitated at the door. He carried the black box in his chest. He didn’t choose to open the top of the box. This was seen by the giant eye on the maze wall. The eye colored with a butterfly pattern blinked with satisfaction.

“Since you’ve chosen the other side of the black box, then I’ll help you evolve into your new self. I’ll help you shake off Fu Sheng’s curse and become an unmentionable horror in the cryptic world!”

In that moment of hesitation, the door of dead bodies collapsed. Han Fei and the secrets were buried inside the theme park maze.

With this memory, Han Fei understood something crucial, why was Dream helping him.

Fu Sheng chose to open the top of the box. Dream wanted to open the bottom of the box. During his last death, Han Fei didn’t choose to open the top of the box. From Dream’s perspective, that could only mean that Han Fei would open the bottom of the box.

But only Han Fei and the old building manager knew the real truth. Han Fei was about to open both sides of the box!

This had fooled even Dream, the unmentionable.

“Dream uses my adopted father to collect my death memories. This is its seventh ritual. It will not be kind to help me regain my past. It is doing this for itself! Dream is slowly leading me to become ‘complete’. Its first seven rituals have been changed. Dream’s spirit had changed the past. Now, the first seven rituals are preparation for the eighth ritual! Its real goal is me. It wants to have its spirit reborn on my body! And I am acting along with its expectation. I even gave up at the last step last time to fool it!”

Looking at the baby on his chest, Han Fei understood everything. He had even used Dream to accomplish his final plan.

In this last life, he used the smallest price to get the biggest reward.

“Thank you for branding the maze map in my brain. Thank you for helping me awaken Big Sin. Thank you for helping me reunite with Fu Sheng’s kindness. Thank you for guiding me to another healing persona…” Han Fei’s consciousness cut through the pain of death. His fingers closed around the hilt. “As a thank you, I will personally kill you! I will decapitate you like how I did the Butterfly so that you’d never be reborn again!”

The baby realized something was wrong, but it was already too late.

“Rest in Peace!” Many hands grabbed the hilt with Han Fei. The blade cut at the dead baby and the altar behind it. The baby and the altar were split open!

The spirit within the dead baby was confused. Why would Han Fei betray it? Since Han Fei didn’t open the top of the box, he would open the bottom. It couldn’t figure out any other possibility.

The shining light cut through all the sins. The pictures stuck on Han Fei slowly fell. The death memories combined with Han Fei. To find a path to turn destiny around on this altar, he had used 99 deaths to acquire this final chance.

During his 100th life, he avoided all the mistakes he had made and combined all the forces available to him. He cooperated with Dream to lower Fu Sheng’s influence. He had Mad Laughter tie down the other managers. Then, he used the fastest speed to regain control.

Water splashed everywhere. Han Fei swam up to the surface. His eyes were different from before. The 99 deaths brought not only him pain but also a steely determination. Han Fei climbed out of the pool. The presence he radiated deterred the others from getting close. He was more terrifying than a ghost.

“There’s still a bit of time until the time I have to meet with Mad Laughter.” Han Fei turned to Captain Zhang and Worm. “Go and gather all the special citizens and players. Tell them I plan to start a rescue party and gather all the forces to clean up the city!”

“Clean up the whole city?” Worm was stunned. “Are we powerful enough to do that?”

“It doesn’t matter if we have that power or not. What really matters is that there has to be a new light to give people confidence and hope when the sun stops rising again.” Han Fei held the knife and walked out. The others subconsciously followed him.