The pale fingers tightened angrily around the table knife. As Xu Qin sauntered into the room, Han Fei quickly hurried over to hold Xu Qin back. “Please calm down, this is just a misunderstanding!” Han Fei had no idea what happened to Huang Yin. The man was good at his timing. He could have vomited sooner or later but he had to empty his stomach right before the person who would mind it the most. “The man is not a ghost, he’s a living human. He was dragged here due to some unique reason.” After more persuasion, Han Fei finally managed to convince Xu Qin to forgive Huang Yin.
“We better leave this place first, it’s too dangerous here.” The landlord’s ring froze with warning. There were too many threats around them. Han Fei ran past Xu Qin and entered the room. He bent down to pick up Huang Yin but when his finger touched the man’s body, the robotic voice announced, “Notification for Player 0000! Your talent, Resurrection has been successfully triggered!
“Resurrection (Unknown level): Effect 1, if you run into a lost soul and provide them a safe passage back to their body, you will obtain the reward, 1 Malice Point Reduction!
“Effect 2, if you run into a lost soul and kill them, you can transfer your own consciousness into their former body and enter a somnambulant state! This unique state can only last for a maximum of 10 minutes! You will also obtain the reward, 1 Malice Point Increment!
“Divinity of Somnambulance (Grade X Hidden Mission): No time limit. After you have entered 100 somnambulant states, you will gain the title, Divinity of Somnambulance. The title awards 10 additional points to Intelligence and comes with unknown abilities.”
The string of notifications stunned Han Fei. The resurrection talent could help send the summoned soul back to their bodies, Han Fei was not that surprised to find that out, he was more surprised that he could kill the summoned soul and basically take over their body temporarily! Even though it was only for a short 10 minutes, it was still a horrifying ability.
‘After entering 100 instances of somnambulant state, I will gain the title of Divinity of Somnambulance. So far, I have been gaining 1 attribute point with each level increase. This would mean that nabbing that would provide me with rewards equivalent to a 10 level increase!’ Han Fei would be lying if he said he was not intrigued. Attribute points were hard to come by in this game. Even completing a hard mission might not reward the player with attribute points, so far the only way Han Fei could obtain them was through levelling up. ‘A 10 point increase in intelligence is alluring but…’ Han Fei soon calmed down. ‘The mission basically requires me to commit murders! To enter the somnambulant state, I will have to murder the summoned souls and take over their bodies but these souls belong to actual human beings who are still alive!’ To gain a title, he needed to kill 100 people, just the thought of it chilled Han Fei. ‘Furthermore, entering the somnambulant state will increase my malice points. It feels like this mission is purposely trying to lure out my sinister side.’
Han Fei did not plan to forgo the second effect of Resurrection but he would not harm any innocent to achieve his goal either. After giving it some rational thoughts, Han Fei came up with a solution that would not violate his own principles while enabling him to progress with the hidden mission. ‘The Divinity of Somnambulance governs the night, a fair god if employed correctly. If I only target demons that wear the coat of human skin, then it wouldn’t be so bad.’
Ming Mei’s father was a perfect candidate but unfortunately Han Fei’s Spirit Farer talent was too low, his success rate was not high. But Han Fei did not feel disappointed, after all his Perfect Life was only beginning. After knowing he had a confirmed solution to send Huang Yin back to his body, Han Fei felt more relieved.
“Big sister, it’s time for us to go home.” Han Fei picked up Huang Yin and turned around. When he saw Xu Qin, he noticed things were not right. Black fog surrounded Xu Qin’s red clothes while she stared up the staircase. “The people from upstairs are coming.” The sound of heart beating echoed inside the corridor. Xu Qin grabbed Han Fei by his hand. “We need to leave now!”
The two ran down the stairs but their path was blocked at the 4th floor. The fatty stood in the middle of the stairs. His beady eyes stared at Huang Yin and Han Fei greedily, “So he’s been brought here…” His mouth opened to reveal uneven teeth. The fatty then charged over with a growl. He raised the blade and a wicked laughter boomed from his chest. But before he could attempt any attack, a stained table knife already pierced down his throat. Xu Qin moved too fast for the fatty to even react.
His size worked against him in terms of speed but then it also made him incredibly hard to kill. The knife into the throat did not appear to even injure him, if anything, it only angered the fat man. Black blood oozed out from the scar. The fatty grabbed his blade and struck at Xu Qin. Xu Qin evaded it with ease and sliced off the man’s hand that held the blade. The curse from the table knife crawled into the fat man’s body. Earlier, after the curse intruded into the young man’s body, he lasted less than a second but the curse seemed to have no effect on the fatty. The puncture through his throat took away his ability of speech. Instead, he groaned and howled like a beast.
Eventually Xu Qin would slice through the fat man but the problem was the heartbeat from upstairs was rapidly approaching. She would not be able to dispatch the fat man in a short amount of time. The table knife stabbed into the fat man’s body but his folds of fat shielded his vitals from harm. While the fat man was distracted by Xu Qin, a human figure slithered up close and then ambushed the fat man!
“I will not spare any mercy on you non-locals!” Han Fei identified the man from his scorch marks. He remembered seeing this fat man in the group photo that the non-locals from Apartment 1’s 6th floor once showed him. Han Fei aimed to kill. This was the first time he used the ability, Soul-Depth Touch. When his hand landed on the fat man, a concentrated dose of anger and malice drilled into Han Fei’s brain. The non-local’s soul only had pain and desire for murder in it. These non-locals had no humanity left in them, their goal in life was to destroy.
During the moment of contact, both Han Fei and the fatty froze for several seconds. Xu Qin used this break in the man’s defence to make a clean cut across the man’s flabby neck. The man teetered off balance from the attack. Han Fei swiped the blade from the man and following the man’s falling momentum, plunged the blade right into his heart. The fight attracted the attention of two other tenants with burnt bodies from the same floor. They quickly moved to block the exit. Han Fei readied the blade to fight but Xu Qin signalled for him to retreat. “Keep moving!”
Xu Qin was not concerned about the two non-locals but the heartbeat in the stairwell. The heartbeat was like some ritualistic drums. Listen to it long enough and you’d find your heartbeat aligning with its rhythm. You might even think the heartbeat came right from your own chest.
