Due to his interactions with Spider, Han Fei knew that once Butterfly targeted a person, it would go after their psychological weakness first. Butterfly was a master at manipulating one’s mind and dreams. Han Fei had no idea if there were ghosts in the real world or not but he knew Butterfly had been doing its best to convince him that there were and he should fear them. The meat packing factory living compound where Spider once stayed was filled with altars. The older generation who still lived there had deep beliefs in talks of the supernatural, that was probably Butterfly’s doing. To deal with Spider, Butterfly had infected the whole building. In Butterfly’s eyes, everyone was a usable pawn. Humans were nothing but toys. When Han Fei left the game and thought subconsciously of Butterfly, it could only mean that Butterfly had targeted him. Based on what happened to Spider, Butterfly would next enter Han Fei’s dream and become an inescapable nightmare.
Theoretically speaking, that should happen but when Han Fei woke up in the late morning, he realized he hadn’t dreamed of Butterfly at all. ‘Butterfly didn’t appear in my dream but Xu Qin did. Could it be that the black box can prevent Butterfly from infiltrating my mind?’ But then no one could really alter another person’s dream. Han Fei was confused. He decided to pay attention when he slept again that night.
‘When Butterfly fought with Spider, Spider sank into the abyss with it. In the end, Spider used his 9 personas to trap Butterfly in his mental world. My situation appears to be the complete opposite of Spider, it looks like the Butterfly cannot enter my dream.’ Han Fei and Spider each had their own ways to deal with Butterfly so the easiest target for Butterfly would be Huang Yin. ‘Butterfly might manipulate Brother Huang to his side. Brother Huang is mentally weak and has a cowardly heart. He needs further training.’ Han Fei believed he was being too gentle around Huang Yin. He was hindering the man’s maximum growth. ‘Being trained by me is still better than losing his life to Butterfly.’
Since Han Fei planned to go purchase the gaming hub that day, he would drop by to visit Huang Yin. After a quick shower, Han Fei reported his schedule to the police and then departed for Xin Lu’s intelligent city. It was only a few days until Perfect Life’s OB, their s could be seen everywhere. They were everywhere you looked. Hearing the excited discussions of the people around him, Han Fei was frankly quite envious. Perfect Like was a perfect social game, it was designed for plays between friends and families. For most players, Perfect Life would be their sanctuary.
Everyone looked at the heaven-like trailers with anticipation, only Han Fei felt slightly offended by the company’s PR. If there was heaven, there had to be hell. But most people only were given glimpses of heaven. In hell, the Butterfly was flapping its wings and a storm which could take down the whole city was brewing.
Taking the high-speed train, Han Fei arrived at the intelligent city in about 10 minutes. As he took in the buildings along the way, he was overwhelmed by a sense of surrealism. There was a great technological gap between the old city and the intelligent city but that didn’t seem visible to most of the citizens. Most people just had good hope regarding the continuously forward push of technology. After he exited the station and took in skyscrapers and virtual screens, Han Fei who had visited the city before was still impressed. Based on the intelligence GPS, Han Fei easily found the concrete shop for Perfect Life. The shop was situated inside a gigantic mall. There were so many types of technological products that they blurred his eyes. Personal butler who knew more than 77 languages, robot partner that you could be legally married to, a virtual garden, a medic bot and so on. There were things Han Fei had not heard of, much less seen of. This was not Han Fei’s fault, after all, if one had the ability, who wouldn’t want to enjoy the best of the best?
With Han Fei’s meagre income, he had to skimp for years before he could afford the latest gaming hub. And that was when he was still single, he didn’t need to support a family. Technological advancement needed money and the companies were not doing charity. People like Han Fei who lived at the bottom layer of the society would only enjoy the eliminated or obsolete products.
“Hello, I wish to purchase a multi-function gaming hub.” Han Fei searched for a long time before he found a salesperson.
“Sir, all your needs can be completed online. We will install the gaming hub within 24 hours.”
“It’s like this, I need a gaming hub that can be connected to a gaming helmet.”
“What version of a gaming helmet is it?”
“Erm…” Han Fei’s gaming helmet was rather unique. It had injected something into his brain so it was probably altered. Just as Han Fei considered how to answer the salesperson, an imposing middle-aged man walked out from the elevator. He was dressed in a three-piece suit. When the sales people saw him, they all stood up straighter and smiled brighter.
“Is there a problem?” The middle-aged man saw Han Fei and the salesperson. Normally speaking, all the shopping could be done online now. The intelligent shopping companion could handle everything so rarely would a person require the aid of an actual human salesperson.
“Our customer wishes to purchase a gaming hub that can connect to an external gaming helmet, but he cannot remember the model.” The salesperson said with the perfect smile.
“Then give him one that can be adjustable to all external modules.” The middle-aged man helped Han Fei personally. After everything was done, the man dragged the salesperson to the side and they whispered among themselves. Han Fei was not purposely eavesdropping, his hearing was just better than most. When the middle-aged man stepped out from the elevator, Han Fei already recognized him. The man’s name was Kong Tiancheng, Han Fei had met him at Perfect Life’s release press conference. This man was giving a speech on stage when Meng Changan was arrested.
“All the information about Prototype Zero has been sealed, the company will view your contribution seriously. Are you sure you won’t consider my previous offer?”
“CEO Kong, this is not the issue of money. The risk of neurological operation is too high, I still have a family, I don’t dare to risk it.” The salesperson smiled politely but the smile was straining under pressure.
“It’s just a small surgery. There are no side effects, we’ll just inject…”
“Sir, please find someone else. There are a few other workers who were on the job with the crazed employee. Right, there’s someone called Feng Ziyu who is good friends with that employee, you can go find him.” The salesperson gently rejected Kong Tiancheng. After the salesperson left, two more people walked out from the elevator to join Kong Tiancheng, “Brother Kong, still no one agrees to it? Why don’t we just let it be?”
“Never! Our former employee butchered a whole neighbourhood in the game and that will forever be a thorn in my heart. As long as I don’t get to the bottom of this, I will not sleep well!”
“But haven’t we already handed in a reasonable investigation report? The fault was with the employee and he is already dead.”
“So the truth shall die with his death?” Kong Tiancheng glared at the man.
“The problem never returned in our recent testing and that proved that the incident had nothing to do with our game. It was the employee who had the mental issue.” The man grumbled.
“Don’t ever let your guard down, we mustn’t allow there to be any mistake. Remember that, no mistake!” Kong Tiancheng ordered. “Go and revisit that slaughtered neighbourhood, do not leave any data behind, we have to find that demon who caused our employee to go insane!”
“Brother Kong, you said it yourself, the employee was insane. Was there really a demon? Or was it just an illusion of a crazy person’s mind?” The man sighed, “We understand you will need to conduct the 7th CB but we don’t have any more time. Everyone has waited too long for the game release.”
“Illusion? Then answer me this, how did that employee’s illusion match so perfectly with the message inside Immortal Pharma’s director’s unrevealed will?” Kong Tiancheng demanded, “Jia Cheng, your dad sent you here to learn, so that you can one day contribute to the company. Don’t ever think that this is a holiday.”
“I understand. But we’ve spent too much time on the deleted map, Ziggurat. We still have too many things to do.” The man wasn’t a slacker. In contrast, he was very capable. He just had his own way of doing things.
“Ziggurat takes precedence over everything else.”
“Brother Kong, that undisclosed will might not even be trustworthy. The director was already incoherent by then, how could he possibly remember the face of the demon?” The man still didn’t believe that. “A mask-wearer wielding a bladeless blade, gathering the world’s misfortune and despair around him. That’s too general, they don’t mean anything.”
“You underestimate Immortal Pharma’s former director. He was the man closest to god before the technological explosion. It behooves us to carefully analyse his every word.” Kong Tiancheng’s eyes filled with admiration.
“No matter what, he’s no longer with us and we need to deal with the current director. We can’t waste company resource on meaningless things.”
“I can’t change the director’s mind but he will not change mine either. This might be an isolated incident for you but think about this, what if that employee wasn’t crazy, what if everything he said is real?” Kong Tianzheng shook his head. “The demon is real and I worry that Perfect Life is its Pandora’s Box and we’re going to open it.”
“Brother Kong, you’re overthinking this. Perfect Life is just a game.” The man couldn’t understand Kong Tiancheng’s worry, he couldn’t see the point.
“It is indeed just a game but it is a game that has no precedence. You do not understand its true meaning and power.” Kong Tiancheng didn’t explain. He turned and left. Han Fei’s eyes followed the man. He saw the warning sign the man passed. “Do not presume to be God, humans should keep their research target to themselves.”
Han Fei stared at Kong Tiancheng silently, he remembered everything the man said. He didn’t expect people from Deep Space Tech to be also investigating Ziggurat, the supposedly deleted map. ‘Could they have discovered something wrong about Ziggurat? Or is this another one of Butterfly’s doing?’
“Sir, are you satisfied with the product?” The salesperson returned to Han Fei’s side.
“Yes, please do deduct the payment from my account. I’m free today so can your people come over to my place to install it later?” Han Fei couldn’t wait to experience the new gaming hub.
“Okay, we will arrive at your place at 5 pm sharp.” The salesperson’s attitude was much better when he saw Han Fei bought the most expensive multi-function gaming hub without even a blink. When he scanned Han Fei’s citizenry info earlier, he was worried that Han Fei couldn’t afford the purchase. After filling in his address, Han Fei left the shop. He called Huang Yin and they promised to meet at Corner Coffee. He came to the 2nd floor and saw Huang Yin with heavy dark circles.
“I don’t get it, you game every night and have to make movies in the day, how did you find time to do all those things the newspaper said you did? Won’t you ever get tired?” Huang Yin was envious of Han Fei’s physical constitution.
“I’m just good at managing time.” Han Fei stared at Huang Yin for a long time before asking, “Did you dream of Butterfly yesterday night?”
Huang Yin was startled before he shook his head. “No, but I did have a very strange dream.”
“What dream?”
“I dreamed that I was a child again. I was playing by the lake with my mother, I accidentally fell into the cool lake. I struggled and cried for help but this time, my mother didn’t jump in to save me. Instead she stood quietly at the shore, watching me slowly sink and drown.” The despair was thick in Huang Yin’s voice. “But I suppose it’s not that bad. At least I’m the one who died and not her. It’s not really a nightmare if you think about it.”
“Brother Huang, you need to snap out of it. Your mother will not do something like that. She loves you the most, you have to believe that no matter what.” Han Fei sensed that Butterfly had already gotten to Huang Yin by going went after Huang Yin’s most precious memory.
