Thursday 16 February 2023

715 Ghost

Every death in the memory world would cause people to lose their memory until the players became a part of the memory world. However, there was clearly a problem with Fu Sheng’s last altar. Dream and the other managers’ memory were not affected. They still influenced the progress of this memory world, each with its own plan and goal.

If the memory world was described as Fu Sheng’s brain, the situation now was like several personas in a schizophrenic patient’s brain fighting to be the main persona. When the main persona was selected, all the side personas would disappear. To become the main persona, all the side personas fought using various methods. Dream chose to help Han Fei because of its own considerations. From Dream’s perspective, Han Fei was the weakest party, but this weakest living human had successfully tricked it. It did a lot to collect Han Fei’s death memories, but as it was going to reap its reward, something wrong happened.

“Lee Guo Er, how many points do you have on your invitation now?” Han Fei left the lab building and looked around. The cryptic world started to affect the university. Previously, this place was untouched due to Dream’s altar, but that had changed.

“We’ve cleaned a lot of places and killed many ghosts, but the points stopped increasing at 70 points. I believe the last 30 points can only be gained by killing ghosts that aren’t controlled by the theme park.” Lee Guo Er handed the black invitation to Han Fei. The number was still 70.

The Malice was as powerful as the Large Lingering Spirit. Some of them even had a black flame of hatred. They were hard to deal with.

“Xu Qin needs black flames. We’ll focus on these scary ghosts next. Tell the citizens that they aren’t impossible to defeat.” Then Han Fei turned to Director Xu, “This university is not safe anymore. Staying here might mean death. If you trust me, you can lead the students to Happiness Neighborhood.”

Under Han Fei’s gaze, Director Xu’s lips trembled. He felt like he was being stared at by a demon that had just crawled out of hell. “Okay…” Before his brain reacted, his lips said the word. His instinct told him not to reject Han Fei. Han Fei also noticed the change in Director Xu. After he combined with 99 Death Memories, he was a lot stronger. The 99 deaths had caused a metamorphosis in him. “Currently, my memory is unlocked to stage 9. When the last stage is unlocked, I should gain everything back.” In his 99 lives, Han Fei turned over the whole city to complete all the altar missions and side missions. They accumulated a scary amount of rewards and EXP, but he hadn’t remembered all of them.

It hadn’t been that long since Han Fei started playing Perfect Life, but his growth was even beyond Fu Sheng’s expectations. His many deaths and rebirths in the memory world gave him more time to think and explore. Even Han Fei didn’t know how many powers he currently possessed. “When everything is ready, I’ll go to the theme park to complete the last deal with Mad Laughter.”

Han Fei flipped through the script and called over the blond at the back of the group. “You said you’ve encountered a man with a red umbrella?”

“Yes.” The blond nodded. He was like a gang member who was meeting the Godfather.

“Bring me to him.” Han Fei’s script recorded the stories about a few Malices, and the red umbrella was one of them. It was not a single person holding the red umbrella but a collection of consciousness. If they were not dealt with swiftly, more monsters would gather under the red umbrella.

Han Fei sent the students and survivors back to Happiness Neighborhood. Then, he chose a few special citizens to leave with him. When Han Fei found his death memories, he also discovered one detail. Many ghosts could be brought out of this memory world. Most of them didn’t originate from Fu Sheng’s imagination, but Fu Sheng had entrapped their souls in his memory world. Therefore, when Han Fei became the owner of this altar, Han Fei could bring certain special citizens with him to the cryptic world!

Han Fei’s influence expanded in the cryptic world, and he was severely lacking in manpower. The special citizens could help him make a city that was a sanctuary in the cryptic world.

“Do your best to consume so that your families and friends can become stronger. I’ll watch your backs.” The sky around the theme park had started to collapse. If the night sky was a dark sea, the spot above the theme park was like a whirlpool.

“I see him! The red umbrella!” The blond suddenly shouted. He pointed at the tall woman at the junction. The woman was holding a red umbrella. Her upper body was hidden by the red umbrella, and her two long legs were exposed.

“Leave this to us.” A woman’s voice came from the van behind the taxi. The woman’s name was Ah Hua. She was a very loyal friend and worked at a construction company. She was strong and kind. Her guardian spirit was her dead grandmother. She lived inside a jade pendant and provided Ah Hua was strength so that she’d face darkness without fear. The van stopped. Ah Hua opened the door and walked to the red umbrella. “Grandma said that our family has received kindness from many people, so when I grow up, I have to repay the society. Now, I’m helping everyone restore the order.”

The bandaged hand grabbed the red umbrella. Ah Hua looked under the umbrella. “Quite a lot of blood is required to dye the umbrella red.” The black hair fell. The woman under the umbrella had no face. The scream echoed as the woman’s fingers stabbed at Ah Hua’s face like daggers. Ah Hua didn’t avoid it. Black mist rolled out of the pendant around her neck. Then Ah Hua grabbed the woman by her neck and pressed her to the ground. Her mist-covered fists punctured the woman’s heart.

“Why is she so weak?” The black mist absorbed the resentment from the red umbrella. Even Ah Hua didn’t notice the blood capillaries popping on her fists.

“Sister Hua, be careful!” Zhao Gu’s young voice came from the van. Then, a few kids appeared to push Ah Hua to the side. A fridge fell from above and landed on the spot where Ah Hua was standing. She looked up, and there was a faceless man with an umbrella on the third floor.

“That was close! Thank you, Xiao Zhao!” Ah Hua gave Zhao Gu a thumbs up. “No wonder you’re a level 5 resident at Happiness Neighborhood.” The level was based on the special citizens’ power level. They were quite excited when they talked about this, but Han Fei thought they were playing house. The special citizens exited the van. They followed the taxi and turned the corner. Once they did, the citizens’ expressions became serious. There were endless people in red umbrellas moving around the streets!

“Thankfully, we’ve discovered them early. If we’re one step too late, there will be more red umbrellas.” Lee Guo Er asked Han Fei. “Shall we get down?”

“There’s no need.” Han Fei said faintly. “Run through the crowd and open the way for our friends.” Han Fei didn’t look at the red umbrellas. Instead, his eyes were focused on the small pavilion at the end of the street. Next to the pavilion fountain, there was a man under a red umbrella mumbling something loudly.

“Okay!” Lee Guo Er stepped on the pedal. The black taxi was like thunder cutting through the river of red. The nine souls in the car screamed. The special citizens were excited and shocked when they saw this. Then, they cheered as they joined the battle.

The red umbrellas fell to the ground. The taxi cut through a path through the crowded street. Han Fei exited the taxi and silently put the white smiling mask on.

“Who are you? Why did you harm my disciples? I see extreme sin and greed in you! Your sin needs to be cleansed!” Standing on the platform beside the fountain, the man with the red umbrella pointed at Han Fei, “You’re the reason why this world is so chaotic! You are the source of all tragedies!”

“You’re right.” Han Fei pulled out Rest in Peace. “And then?”

“I will take out your rotten organs so that your soul will become lighter. You’ll pay your penance in pain…”

“Stop wasting time. I have a shortcut that I can offer you to the new world.” Han Fei slowly pulled out his blade. “The world is pain, but thankfully the door to the afterlife has already opened for you.” At that moment, the fountain beside the red umbrella exploded. A giant creature crawled out of the ground. The thick death bit the man. Big Sin approached the target with Han Fei. While Han Fei distracted the man, Big Sin sneaked through the ground. When Big Sin came out to attack, Han Fei charged with his blade. Without using the power of Xu Qin’s curse, Han Fei used his living human physique to evade endless attacks and slice through the man and his umbrella from an impossible angle.

“You have sinned! You have sinned!” The man’s book fell to the ground. Inside the religious textbook, every page was filled with murderous thoughts. The man’s weak personality and twisted mind combined to turn the man into Malice. It twisted the evil thoughts inside others and invoked them. Through accumulation, a weak black flame appeared within the man.

After the man was attacked, all the red umbrellas went insane. Their sins were all exposed. Han Fei didn’t pay attention to them. He picked up the man’s red umbrella and injected Xu Qin’s curse into it. A few seconds later, a black flame lit up inside the red umbrella. All the sinful thoughts became fuel for the black blame. All the other red umbrellas were affected. They tried to stop Han Fei, but they were stopped by Big Sin.

“Big Sin and I are enough to take down a Large Lingering Spirit, but to kill them quickly, we still need Xu Qin.” The eyes under the mask were cold. Han Fei stared at the flame in the blood umbrella. The red eventually faded away. The curse returned to the paper doll, and Han Fei’s eyes softened. After consuming the red umbrella, Xu Qin’s black flame burned brighter.

“Han Fei, the invitation has gained another 10 points.” Lee Guo Er waved from inside the car.

Han Fei was about to respond when he felt a gaze on him. He stood beside the man and whipped his head around. At the corner, there was a man in the theme park uniform, and a ghost mask. His left hand was cut off, and his right hand was holding a butcher’s knife. The man was there to kill the red umbrella too but was too late.

“The broken arm is still bleeding. Even though he’s so heavily injured, he still wants to kill the Malice and maintain the order of the city?” Han Fei was reminded of what the previous Brain said. “Could this injured person be the manager, Ghost?” Among the managers, Ghost was responsible to slaughter ghosts and monsters to maintain order. “Is he still alive?”

In the blink of an eye, the person in the ghost mask disappeared. Han Fei looked at the spot and seemed to be deep in thought. The special citizens killed the remaining red umbrellas. Without their leaders, the red umbrellas weakened a lot.

“It’s time to move to the next place.”

Many ghosts and monsters had appeared. The show had reached its end. When the special citizens took care of all the red umbrellas, Han Fei took out his script and circled out the next target.

“I’ve found Big Sin and Xu Qin, but I see no sign of Little Eight. Her tapes are preserved inside Happiness Neighborhood, so she must have entered the altar with me. As the key, where would she be?”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the chapter!