Han Fei was once an introverted person with social anxiety but after he started Perfect Life, he even got the courage to give speeches before a crowd of horrifying spectres. His sincere gaze, moving words possessed hope towards a beautiful future. Many tenants had not encountered such a building manager before, hell, they had not come across such a person before. After he shared his thoughts, intermittent claps echoed in the corridor and Han Fei officially became the temporary leader of the Happiness Neighbourhood Tenancy Committee. With that out of the way, Han Fei still did not leave. Using the excuse of getting to know the tenants better, he patrolled around Apartment 2.
An extended period of fighting meant that Apartment 2 was covered in gore. Many of the rooms were heavily damaged and most valuables had already been plundered. Han Fei eventually found the girl’s hands inside a larvarium made from flesh on the 8th floor. After handing in the mission, he added the rewarded skill point into acting. ‘Advanced acting is already quite impressive. I wonder what kind of effect masterful acting will have. A master actor at early 20s? That would not have been possible without the game.’
Supporting Wei Youfu, the duo exited Apartment 2. Even though there was only 10 metres between the two buildings, Han Fei was still very careful. Even so, accidents happened. When Han Fei was halfway through the journey, he heard someone call his name. Naturally, Han Fei did not respond to it, he pretended not to have heard it. The voice became clearer, but Han Fei still refused to respond. He entered Apartment 1 and closed the door, but to his consternation, the voice was still following him!
‘It comes from behind me?’ Han Fei glanced at Wei Youfu from the corner of his eyes. Youfu was trying his best to resist against the despair that infiltrated into his body. He was at the edge of madness and unfortunately was of no help to Han Fei. “Youfu, you better go home and rest first.” After dropping Youfu back at Room 1044, the voice became louder. The person appeared to be directly lying on Han Fei’s back, whispering into his ears. Acting like he was deaf, Han Fei hurried up to the 5th floor. He knocked on Xu Qin’s door. “Big Sister, I’ve some groceries for you.” The voice behind him called even fiercer, it appeared to have bought Han Fei’s acting of deafness. Poor thing had no idea the trouble it was going to be in.
The smell of rotten blood leaked out from Room 1054. Suddenly, the door opened. A harrowing voice trickled out from the inner recess of the room.“I just came back from grocery shopping, I’m a bit dirty. Give me some time to clean up.”
“Okay, I have brought an appetizer for you.” Han Fei entered Room 1054. Out of kindness, he locked the door close behind him. Calls of Han Fei’s name were still continuing. The sound only stopped when the beautiful Xu Qin appeared in the living room holding the table knife . “This is the appetizer?” Xu Qin wiped away the blood drops on her face. A smile lingered there. “But she’s just a child.”
“The young have the supplest flesh.” Hearing the conversation between the two, the thing behind Han Fei sucked in a cold breath. Xu Qin enjoyed Han Fei’s company. She strode languorously to Han Fei’s side. She leaned close to Han Fei and spoke to the space behind the man, “Do you want to get down on your own, or do you prefer I cut your hands off?”
The strange calls turned into a whimper. Han Fei felt the weight being removed from his back. The ghost who had been calling his name had descended. Turning around, Han Fei noticed a female student standing behind him. She was normal-looking and wore a dirtied school uniform. The uniform had the logo of Yi Ming on it. Being scrutinized by Han Fei and Xu Qin, the girl cried. It was already too late when she realized she had walked into a trap.
“When I came back from Apartment 2, someone suddenly called my name. I didn’t answer but the voice came closer and closer.” Han Fei explained to Xu Qin what happened. “Noticing my lack of response, she pushed her luck further until she eventually climbed onto my back.”
The woman’s icy gaze shot at the girl and the latter’s frame started to waver. Her eyes lingering on Xu Qin’s knife, the shivering girl uttered between sobs. “I didn’t want to do that, someone forced me to.”
“Someone forced you to?” Actually when Han Fei saw the girl’s school uniform logo, he no longer planned to serve her as dinner to Xu Qin. He merely kept up this charade to get the girl to be more honest, “Is it another student from your school?”
“No.” The girl hesitated before she said, “It’s a ghost hiding among the students…” The moment she said that, a trail of blood crawled out from her chest and punctured her skull. The speed was so fast that even Xu Qin did not expect it. When Xu Qin snipped the thread with the table knife, the girl student had already collapsed. Her body started to decompose and strange characters surfaced under her skin.
“She was cursed. The curse will be triggered if she did certain things. With her current ability, I don’t think she’ll survive this.” Due to her nature, Xu Qin was very familiar with curses. With a glance, she understood the gist.
“Someone cursed the students and forced them to infiltrate into our neighborhood?” Han Fei’s brain moved fast. “The child is wearing the uniform from Yi Ming Private Academy. Something horrible probably has happened at that school.”
“She mentioned there was a ghost hiding among students and then the curse was triggered. Looks like the ghost is behind this.” Xu Qin stood next to the girl. “Its manipulation of curses is masterful. In fact, it wields them better than I do. You need to be careful, I fear it has already targeted you.”
“Yi Ming Private Academy, I’ve been meaning to visit the place.” Han Fei took out the previous manager’s work id. “The manager’s memory might be hidden there.”
Han Fei was caught in a conundrum. He knew he needed to speed up his exploration but too much haste might cause his death. ‘I believe the previous manager said something about my level before he perished. I wonder what he was doing when he was at my current level…’
Han Fei had not been to the school but the school had already started its infiltration into the Happiness Neighbourhood. This concerned Han Fei. He suspected the enemy might have cracked the previous manager’s memory and knew the black box was hidden at Happiness Neighbourhood. Of course, he had to admit the chance of that was low but Han Fei had to prepare for the worst, he realized he could not sit idle anymore.
“The students of that school are in deep danger, I need to go and rescue them.” Through the map left by the previous manager, Han Fei knew where Yi Ming Private Academy was located. He moved to the window and looked out. Somewhere in the darkness, something appeared to be staring back at him. ‘Only by mastering the black box can I leave this despairing world and bring salvation to all my families and neighbours.’ Han Fei’s eyes chilled. ‘No matter what, I shan’t be forced off my path.’
Inside the dark room, a soul-captivating smile lingered on the pair of red lips as Xu Qin studied Han Fei’s back. Then she turned to the girl and placed her hands on the girl’s chest. The blood red curse crawled up Xu Qin’s finger. When the thread of blood was fully curled around Xu Qin’s finger, another flickering shadow materialized in her eyes. She sucked on her slender finger. She then gnawed on it until blood painted her lips and dribbled down her chin. “The best curses are those which have been soaked in despair.”
The student appeared to fare better. Xu Qin did not kill her but she did proceed to undress her.
“What are you doing?” Han Fei turned back to see Xu Qin modelling the school uniform before her.
“I’ve been meaning to visit that school myself but I haven’t got the chance.”
“Sis, you’re not… thinking about going there dressed as a student, right?” That was so out of place, Han Fei did not know what to think.
“Every building manager has their own rules. The school’s manager forbids outsiders from entering the school compound. So if you do not want to be discovered immediately, this is the perfect disguise.”
“We shan’t take this too fast. We better plan this further!” Han Fei quickly persuaded Xu Qin to cancel her plan before he returned to Room 1044. He checked on Wei Youfu and his other roommates.
Since everyone’s souls had been restored, the combination this time created a monster that was far more powerful in both despair and ability than any iteration they had formed in the past. That was beyond Wei Youfu’s expectation. After a long time taken for digestion, he finally regained his rationality.
“Youfu, are you alright?”
“I believe I’ve found the key. As long as we cancel the combination within 10 seconds, the impact won’t be so heavy on everyone.” Wei Youfu kept coughing. To keep his humanity, he really kept no power for himself. “That way, we’ll be more useful to you in the future.”
“You’re my family, not a tool. Please don’t push yourselves too much.” Compared to the horrifying red spectre, Han Fei rather had the rational Wei Youfu stay with him. After confirming his roommates’ status, Han Fei exited the game. Removing the gaming helmet, Han Fei tossed and turned in bed but couldn’t fall asleep. These thoughts bounced in his mind. ‘There are good and bad ghosts like there are good and bad people. If anything, the nature of a ghost is easier to spot than human beings. While there are still missions available in the neighbourhood, I need to ration them while I explore the nearby areas.’
Han Fei could only quit the game after he had completed a mission so it was wise to not complete all the available missions at Happiness Neighbourhood at one go, because then he’d be forced to take up missions outside of the neighbourhood just to quit the game. That was far more dangerous than the alternative which was to complete one mission inside the neighbourhood and then start exploring the world beyond it, essentially saving one neighbourhood mission for each gaming instance.
