The situation was only to get worse for the hairdresser, he realized that. The eyes hidden underneath the hair darted about. The hairdresser glanced at the dumpling store he just exited. ‘I can’t go there, the boss there hates everything humanoid. If I go there in my current state, it’ll be the first to come out to kill me and make me the fillings in his dumplings.
‘Other than the dumpling store, the only place I can shake them off is via the Cattle Alley.’ The hairdresser’s eyes filled with blood. He had just escaped from that death trap, he did not expect to return to it so soon. The hairdresser swore to himself that if he survived, he would murder Han Fei and all the ghosts who helped him. The clothes of hair became dry and frayed. The hairdresser's old and ugly body was exposed. At his very limit, the hairdresser suddenly tossed the case at Han Fei. He already noticed that Han Fei who appeared the least like a ghost was actually the main commander.
The blood in the case rained down. Resentful spirits escaped from the wooden case. Han Fei ignored all of them, he only cared about the table knife inside the case. The knife looked normal but Han Fei could recognize it. Xu Qin had once loaned him that very knife. Seeing the layer of human skin sheath on the hilt, Han Fei was reminded of many things, ‘So she hasn’t removed the human skin doily after all.’
As the souls escaped from the wooden case, the hairdresser rapidly aged. He hid his lingering spirit inside the sea of black hair. “The woman you’re looking for is dead inside the Cattle Alley, you’ll never find her!” After leaving behind that awful curse, the hairdresser’s body was fully absorbed into the clothes. Then the clothes split open and black hair shot out everywhere. They slithered down different directions.
“Trying to leave?” If this was a normal situation, the hairdresser would have been able to escape but Han Fei had predicted this. He pocketed Xu Qin’s table knife and then turned his focus to the paper doll. During the fight, the paper doll inserted part of its body into the hairdresser’s soul. It was still connected to that shred of paper.
“Chase!” Han Fei’s ultimate goal was the Ziggurat. The Ziggurat would instantly separate all the ghosts that entered it but the rules did not work on cursed objects. Therefore, Han Fei needed Xu Qin. For all sorts of reasons, Han Fei needed to find Xu Qin!
Holding the knife by its hilt, Han Fei had the anaconda leave his body. Actually if the hairdresser continued to fight, Han Fei’s body would be poisoned by Yin energy. Unfortunately, the hairdresser was bluffed by Han Fei’s brazenness. The anaconda was within his body for less than 30 seconds and with all the stamina points Han Fei had gained, even though he had received some damage, it was still bearable. Han Fei and the other neighbours followed behind the paper doll and entered deep into the alley.
Before this, Han Fei would only stick to the shaded sidewalks, this was the first time he had travelled down the middle of a road. The alleys criss-crossed like a maze. There were bags of rubbish and they stink to high heavens. Mud stained with blood splattered everywhere. Mottled walls were painted with grotesque paintings. He would occasionally come across some closed doors. If not to search for Xu Qin, Han Fei would never enter this maze-like alleyway. The road split into more and more forks. Even with Han Fei’s impressive memory, he couldn’t help the feeling of being lost because all the alleys looked the same.
‘Where is the man going?’ Han Fei didn’t want to have to deal with extenuating problems so he wanted to kill the hairdresser while he could. To his credit, the hairdresser was clever. He kept changing his location as if knowing Han Fei was chasing him. The deeper they went into the alley, the stranger the environment became. It was cold, quiet and eerie. The deeper part of the alley appeared to be a different world from the outside city. This was quite similar to actual Xin Lu. The intelligent city centre was bright lights and human activities while the countryside was old and abandoned buildings.
After who knew how long, the paper doll suddenly stopped. They reached another fork in the road. The two smaller alleys led to different locations. The alley on the left had a stone lion which was missing its head. The alley was filled with the smell of blood, even the dirt on the ground was red in color. The alley on the right was suffused with the smell of decomposition. Something like a dead carcass was dropped at the corner and maggot-like worms crawled out from inside it.
Both of the alleys were not inviting, both led to incredible danger. ‘The hairdresser’s presence disappeared here, which alley would he choose?’ There was no footprint on the ground, the hairdresser left no trace. He had decided to hide at this place when he made his escape.
“Should we split up?” Drake asked with uncertainty. That was the only solution but it was very dangerous to do that in an unknown location. After giving it some thought, Han Fei shook his head. “What if there are more forks in each of the alleys? There is only one paper doll and we need it to find the hairdresser.”
All the neighbours stared at the red doll. The doll that had Xu Qin’s face stood for a long time before it moved towards the right alley which contained the animal carcasses.
“Follow it!” The paper doll contained Xu Qin’s curse. It seemed to sense something before making this decision. Darting ahead, Han Fei only cared about finding the hairdresser to shake Xu Qin’s location out of him. However, when he stepped into the right alley, a wall of stench hit him and it almost knocked out his senses. At the same time, the robotic voice announced in his mind. “Notification for Player 0000! You’ve unlocked the hidden map, Cattle Alley. You’ve triggered Grade F Hidden Mission—Cattle Alley!
“Cattle Alley (Grade F Hidden Mission): Human love, fear and hope is no different from that of animals. They are like the sun, coming from the same source. If you don’t believe me, I can prove it to you with the sensation of fear and death.
“Mission requirement: Survive.”
There was no time limitation, no specific goal. This Grade F Mission only required Han Fei to do one thing—Survive. When Han Fei heard that, a very bad feeling rose within him. He had never received such a succinct mission requirement before. This kind of direct mission often contained extreme danger.
‘I believe I heard the term Hidden Map, Cattle Alley is also a Hidden Map?’ Han Fei looked around and realized he was enveloped by the thick stench of decomposition. He only had the red paper doll with him, the rest of his neighbours had disappeared. Han Fei turned to look behind him, the original fork had vanished, instead it was replaced by an alley that seemed to lead indefinitely into the darkness. ‘It’s okay, at least I still have the red paper doll and Xu Qin’s pet with me. This is not yet the worst.’
Optimism was how Han Fei managed to survive for so long in the cryptic world. Only those who never gave up had the chance to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Holding the paper doll in the middle of his palm, before Han Fei could even open his inventory, he heard heavy breathing coming from the alley behind him. The sound did not appear like it could be made by humans. It sounded more like a hungry beast who had finally stumbled upon a prey.
Han Fei did not stay to find out the origin of the sound. His body started to move away from it. There was no hiding spot in the alley. It would be too late when he came face to face with the threat. Han Fei already reacted the first moment he could but he was still too slow.
Accompanied by a strong, acrid smell, a monster with a pig's mask walked out from the dark alley. It was much taller than a normal person. Its exposed skin was covered in wounds and bite marks. The terrifying thing though was the lower half of its mask was torn and the exposed chin had porcine features. There appeared to be another pig’s face underneath the pig’s mask.
The grinder used to mince meat was embedded into its back. The monster’s oil and blood-stained body were wrapped in chains. Its large palm was holding a bone-splitting cleaver.
“Meat, meat, meat!”
The eyes underneath the mask zoomed in on Han Fei. Like a raging boar, it picked up in speed to charge at Han Fei.
