Opening his eyes, paper dolls were scattered everywhere. The warehouse of Yi Ming Convenience Store was ransacked, the stock littered everywhere like a storm had blown through this place. Feeling the chill from the landlord’s ring, Han Fei slowly pulled out Rest in Peace. He lowered his body like a panther and slowly moved to hide behind the rack. Moving towards the direction where the chill came from, Han Fei navigated around the toppled shelves and found a dusty white candle at the bottom of the trash pile.
“You’re still alive?!” When his fingers touched the thing, the system identified it for Han Fei. This white candle featured heavily in Han Fei’s life. Seeing Han Fei, a sad face appeared on the candle, “Boss, you’re finally here!”
“Why? Why are you waiting for me?” Han Fei took out the lighter and interrogated the candle, “What happened here? And where is everyone else?”
“The Song returned to the street. It glanced into the shop.” When the candle thought about it, its face shook with fear.
“Just a glance caused such destruction?” Han Fei was incredulous, “Or did you attract it here?”
“How powerful do you think I am?” The white candle smiled sadly, “You’re still prejudiced against me.”
“If you didn’t do it, why are you the only one alive? Where’s the rest?”
“When Drake heard the song, he immediately gathered all the other employees, the most important items and ran.” The white candle grumbled, “I was abandoned.” Staring at the white candle, Han Fei’s interest piqued, “I’m curious, how did you manage to survive then?”
“Perhaps because I am too weak to appear on the Singer’s radar.” Compared to the Singer, the white candle was more afraid of Han Fei.
“I hope you’re not lying to me.” Han Fei still had his doubts about the white candle. He placed it inside his pocket and left Yi Ming Convenience Store. Han Fei crossed the room and noticed something had changed to the altar next to the neighbourhood gate. The thick black cloth was peeled off and something inside the altar was bleeding. When Han Fei got close to investigate, the black cloth moved on its own to cover the altar back up. ‘Is there really a guard spirit living inside the altar?’ Since the thing was not yet ready to meet Han Fei, Han Fei was not going to force it.
Worried about the safety of his neighbours, Han Fei turned and rushed into the neighbourhood. The ground was scattered with bloody soils and dirty laundry. Rusty gym equipment was twisted together. The vine that crawled on the walls had all wilted and the bodies which nourished them before had all been turned into skeletons.
‘The Singer has entered the Happiness Neighbourhood again?’ Han Fei’s heart jumped to his throat. Calling his neighbour’s name, Han Fei rushed through Building 1. Then he knocked heavily on the door of Room 1044. Several minutes later, the anti-theft door was open. Wei Youfu who had zero fighting capability and could be blown away by a wind appeared at the door, “Don’t worry, everyone is safe.” Wei Youfu already knew what Han Fei was going to ask, “Other than myself, everyone has gone hiding at the primary school across the street. Thankfully you’ve mentioned us to the spirits at the school before. They recognized Weep and Lee Zai or else we really didn’t know where to hide this time.”
Han Fei sighed in relief hearing that news. “The Singer hasn’t shown itself for a long time already, so why did it suddenly return? And it feels like it has gone through a more thorough search than last time.”
“The Singer’s goal should be Little Eight. The previous manager said that Little Eight is a key, a normal spirit would have no use for that but Unmentionables are different. Little Eight is highly valuable to them.” Wei Youfu explained.
“But Little Eight has been staying here for a long time already so why now? Is it because… I’ve separated the 8 of you?”
“Most likely not, I believe it has to do with the previous manager. To prevent Little Eight from being discovered, he had set up a lot of things around the neighborhood like the plants on the building walls and the altar at the gate. But after his disappearance, the things slowly lost their powers.” Wei Youfu sighed. “Little Eight’s presence will be harder to hide, Happiness Neighbourhood is no longer safe.”
“It’s okay, we can hide somewhere else. There’s always a way.” Han Fei felt the pressure as well. The victims of the human jigsaw case were Han Fei’s family in the cryptic world. When Han Fei was incredibly weak, they didn’t torment Han Fei but chose to accept him. Room 1044, which was haunted and should be avoided at all costs by others, was home for Han Fei. He had never experienced those feelings before. Memories of home, things that were commonplace for others, were incredibly precious to Han Fei. Because of that he empathized deeply with the victims of the case.
“The Singer will definitely return, we need to be as prepared as we can.” Han Fei told Wei Youfu about Cattle Alley and then told him about his plan to infiltrate Ziggurat. If Cattle Alley couldn’t stop the Singer, then they would lure it to the Ziggurat. The Singer was an Unmentionable. Han Fei was already planning how to weaken the thing and then find a chance to kill it once and for all.
“Huang Yin needs to deal with Butterfly in real life and the Singer is still searching for Little Eight, I don’t have much time to train my level.” Han Fei thought of going to Ziggurat when he was level 15 but now he had to change his plan. Starting from that day, he would start his exploration towards Ziggurat. Since there was no way back, he would have to proceed. He would do that while training his level.
“Rest here, I’ll go take a look at Yi Ming Private Academy.” Han Fei hurried to Yi Ming Private Academy. Once he entered the school gate, he saw Zhang Guanxing who was hiding at the gate. “Sir!” The young man ran towards Han Fei and he looked happy. Han Fei treated Zhang Guanxing as his own student and Zhang Guanxing found a lost fatherly love from Han Fei.
“Where’s the people from the Happiness Neighbourhood?”
“Everyone is safe. When the Song appeared, Jin Sheng had woken up. It eclipsed the whole school from detection.” Zhang Guanxing told Han Fei. Normally ghosts from Happiness Neighbourhood and Yi Ming Private Academy wouldn’t have any interaction but the appearance of the Singer made them understand something. Before Unmentionables, they were all on the same boat, going after each other was pointless before a bigger threat.
“Where’s Jin Sheng’s now?” Han Fei wanted to meet Jin Sheng. The boy who was covered in ghost stories was a unique existence. After the previous manager’s ‘treatment’, Jin Sheng was more like a cursed object than a ghost. If Han Fei could persuade Jin Sheng to join him at Ziggurat, then his survival chance would highly increase. After all, Jin Sheng was the manager of a hidden map, he had a manager talent.
“He’s still at the infirmary but Jin Sheng is in a curious state. You better be prepared before you go meet him.” Zhang Guanxing had fear and caution in his eyes.
