This was the second time Han Fei encountered the female hostel manager at Yi Ming Private Academy. Before he started the manager mission, he met the manager in the cryptic world already. At the time, Han Fei did not think much of this hostel manager, but now that he thought about it, there was something strange here. In the case of the Foretold Deaths, the hostel manager was not one of the victims!
When Jin Sheng died, the hostel manager was still alive or else she would not have appeared in human form here. Probably like Ma Manjiang, she also faded off the public eye only years after the incident at the school. ‘Did the hostel manager know the truth? Is this all an act to fool Ma Manjiang? Or she was slowly driven insane by Ma Manjiang?’
The fact that she had appeared in Jin Sheng’s memory world meant that she was a key character in this case but Han Fei found little information on her. The police barely mentioned her. ‘At the cryptic world, Ma Manjiang’s sons wanted to kill her and even wrote cursed letters to her and hid needles in her food. From that, it’s observable that at the very least, Ma Manjiang’s sons are not on good terms with the hostel manager.’
Han Fei had Chuxia and Zhang Guanxing stay inside the bedroom. He eased the door open and sneaked out. The hostel manager in thick make-up stumbled her way down the corridor. She sang an old song from decades ago, her hands gesturing along with the tempo. However, one thing that caught Han Fei’s attention was when the hostel manager passed Room 204 on the 2nd floor, she would snap back to normalcy. With light movement, she leaned on the door of Room 204 to listen to sounds from inside.
‘What is she doing?’ Jin Sheng’s original room was Room 204 but he was transferred to Room 104 after complaints about him were made by his former roommates. Jin Sheng kept telling ghost stories to scare them. Just as Han Fei watched the hostel manager in this strange behavior, the door to Room 204 suddenly opened!
A tough and brawny arm reached out to grab the hostel manager by her neck. It then slammed her heavily on the floor.
‘Ma Manjiang? That bastard is hiding inside Jin Sheng’s bedroom!’ When the arm shot out, Han Fei flinched. After he saw Ma Manjiang’s sons downstairs, Han Fei assumed that Ma Manjiang had gone to patrol around the school. Who would have thought this cunning monster was also inside the hostel?! If the hostel manager did not step on the trap on his behalf, Han Fei would be the one in Ma Manjiang’s grasp!
Han Fei quickly calmed down and analyzed the situation. ‘Ma Manjiang did not go for the kill but instead aimed for the neck. He wants to keep his prey alive to shake them for information!’ The thought of this chilled Han Fei. If he fell into Ma Manjiang’s hand, even death would be a luxury. Han Fei silently retreated.
The hostel manager collapsed on the ground. She shook her head like crazy. Touching the heavy paint on her face, she kept apologizing to Ma Manjiang. A growl emitted from inside the bedroom as if sending the hostel manager away. After getting Ma Manjiang’s permission, the hostel manager finally broke into a smile. The man had just heavily injured her and blood was oozing down her face but she chortled heartily. The hostel manager probably did something similar in real life. She walked into Ma Manjiang’s secret but only managed to escape the monster’s viciousness by acting a fool. The door to Room 204 closed again and it was then that the woman stopped laughing. Instead of wiping the blood off her face, she waddled towards Han Fei’s hiding place while still in her crazy persona.
When she passed the bedroom where Han Fei was hiding in, the hostel manager shook her head dumbly. She stopped and danced around without much reason or sense. When she came close to the door, she whispered, “The person that you’re looking for is in the bedroom but he’s not inside the cupboard but inside the stomach.”
Almost the same minute the statement was uttered, the door to Room 204 was shoved open. The 3 metres tall Ma Manjiang crawled out from the room with deep resentment!
The face on his chest was dark with cruelty. The 3 mouths on his head yelled at the same time, “I’ve got you now!” This Ma Manjiang was controlled by the blue butterfly, it was harder to deal with than the original Ma Manjiang in Jin Sheng’s memory!
With the blue butterfly’s memory, Ma Manjiang knew the hostel manager was not really crazy. He pretended to go along with her act and the woman fell for his trap. The hostel manager wanted to give Han Fei the hint but had inadvertently exposed Han Fei’s location. The 3 mouths growled. Lowering on all fours, Ma Manjiang rushed towards the room where Han Fei was hiding!
Han Fei made a decision in that instant!
Chuxia and Zhang Guanxing moved too slowly so he could not escape with them, the best solution was to use himself as bait to lure Ma Manjiang away. Pushing open the door, Han Fei raced down the other side of the corridor. Once he was out of the room, he kicked the door close behind him. Ma Manjiang ran at his fastest speed but to Han Fei’s consternation, when the monster reached the bedroom Han Fei just vacated, he stopped. “If a person is hellbent on escaping, he wouldn’t have cared about closing the door. This means that… There are other people inside this room!” Ma Manjiang’s face grinned wickedly. He gave up chasing after Han Fei and rammed into the bedroom door!
“Motherfucker!” Han Fei stopped moving. Ma Manjiang was the most difficult creature he had ever met ever since he started this game. The man could read all of his thoughts. His intellect was far higher than a normal ghost. ‘Is this the influence of the blue butterfly?’
Based on the hostel manager’s earlier hint, to prevent Han Fei from meeting Jin Sheng, Ma Manjiang had swallowed the young man whole! How does one fight against an enemy like this?
Seeing as the hostel door was about to be broken down, Han Fei placed the shard on his neck. ‘I can’t let Ma Manjiang discover the scissors inside Chuxia’s body, that is my only chance to win!’ Ma Manjiang had all the advantages, but Han Fei had the ability to reload the game, but it came with a hefty price.
…
His eyes flew open. Han Fei charged out from the infirmary cupboard. Shattering the cup, he carved down 3 lines and his own name on his arm. Then Han Fei went to open the curtain and window. Just as he attempted to leave through the window, Han Fei felt chill run up his spine. He turned his head up to look and Ma Manjiang’s scary face was looking out from the 4th floor of the same building!
This time Ma Manjiang did not charge towards the infirmary, but waited at the window for Han Fei to appear.
‘He knows that I’m going to leave through the window! His memory has not been reset?! Is it because the blue butterfly is an outsider as well?’
This was the worst possible outcome!
In the manager missions, the natives in the manager mission would lose all of their memory and reset whenever the player died. In contrast, when an outsider died inside a manager mission, they would lose only part and not all of their memory. ‘Ma Manjiang remembers the details from all my previous loops. As my death count increases, he’ll be more familiar with my available tactics!’
Due to the appearance of the blue butterfly, the difficulty of this manager mission had reached a new height.
Han Fei who leaned on the 2nd floor window ledge shared a look with Ma Manjiang who was controlled by the blue butterfly on the 4th floor. They saw the unbridled desire to kill in each other’s eyes!
