“Death Curse (Grade E Hidden Mission): You’ll die in a predestined way at a certain moment in time!
“Mission Requirement: Change that destiny and survive.
“Due to the player’s low level, additional hint is provided: Room 4444.”
The mission information was very short, compared to essays from previous missions, this was just several sentences, but that only made Han Fei more nervous. Grade F Mission corresponded to Level 10 to 20; Grade E 20 to 30 but Han Fei was only level 12. If not for the Singer, he would not have challenged this map so early. Speaking of which, even after entering the mist, the Singer still didn’t let Han Fei go, but their distance slowly widened. The black mist was like a maze, any people and ghosts who entered it would appear at different locations. As Han Fei continued to walk deeper, he realized the blood on his guard uniform was fading and so did his memory and consciousness. In his mind, the black mist wasn’t that big but Han Fei felt like he had been walking for a long time already. There was no exit, no light and no one else. The longer he stayed there, the fuzzier his mind. The black mist could transmute and consume memory.
“Where is the Ziggurat?” He was unable to tell his directions, but whenever he lifted his head, the tall skyscrapers would be around him. They were connected by walkways and death oozed out from them. Han Fei continued to wander inside the mist until the blood on the guard uniform had fully disappeared. Spirit of death inside the mist suddenly boiled and it solidified into a spear to lunge towards his body!
At the same time, blood red characters surfaced on Han Fei’s skin. The story Jin Sheng left in him was working. The blood melted into the death curse and surged towards his mind. His head felt like it was going to break. There was a voice in his mind giving him direction, pushing him towards completing the story. With nudging steps, Han Fei until he found a black door. He had no idea how long he had wandered in the mist. He pushed the door open and cold light showered on his face.
His body tumbled to the ground and the piercing pain in his mind abated. Slowly, Han Fei opened his eyes. His neck, arms, cheeks, basically body parts which were not shielded by the guard uniform were bleeding. The blood was black and thick with death. The Cattle Mask was unable to stop the infiltration of the mist. Han Fei did not look like his usual self at all at that moment. He tried to move and pain came from everywhere. If not for Jin Sheng’s story, Han Fei would be dead before he even entered Ziggurat.
With a spinning head, Han Fei turned subconsciously to his right arm. Big Sin was missing but a blood red pattern was left on his arm, it was similar to the pattern on Big Sin’s shell. ‘I can’t stay at a place for too long.’ Dragging his wounded body, Han Fei turned back to look. There was a steel door behind him. He was now currently on the first floor of the Ziggurat!
‘If the Ziggurat here reflects the Ziggurat in the game, then the bride’s room should be on this floor, Room 3 to be specific.’ With his hands on the wall, Han Fei planned to move forward when he heard frantic footsteps coming from the stairwell. ‘There’re 2… no wait, 3 people coming this way!’ Han Fei had no idea who was coming. He was so wounded that he could barely walk, much less fight. Staring at the door of Room 3, Han Fei gritted his teeth and tried to move as fast as he could. His wounds tore open. When he came to the door, the few footsteps also arrived at the first floor corridor.
“Is anyone home?” Han Fei tried the door but it didn’t budge. There was no answer to his knocking either.
“Who is there? Don’t move!” Rays from flashlights fell on Han Fei. He raised his hand to shield his eyes and leaned against door 3 weakly. The footsteps approached and Han Fei looked through the gap in his fingers. 2 men in guard uniform stuck to each other as they moved nervously towards him. ‘Security? Ziggurat’s security?’ Han Fei’s brain made up the solution in seconds. He slumped even weaker down the wall.
“Didn’t I warn you not to move? Where did you come from? And why are you wearing our neighbourhood's guard uniform?” The 2 guards stopped 2 metres away from Han Fei. Their voices were loud but it did nothing to hide the shaking in their voices.
Han Fei didn’t look like he possessed the energy to speak. He opened his mouth and blood leaked out.
“Brother Hwa, I don’t think he’s going to make it.” The younger guard moved forward with concern but he was held back by the middle-aged guard.
“Don’t go near him! It’s currently very dangerous in the neighbourhood, there are so many missing people cases lately and we mustn’t let our guard down around strangers.”
“So we just leave him to die?”
“Have you forgotten about the things that happened on the first floor? What did your senior tell you before he disappeared? Do not go downstairs after midnight!” The middle-aged guard grabbed the other guard by his clothes. He shone his flashlight firmly on Han Fei. “Currently we’re the only 2 guards at Building 1. Before the new guard comes to join us, we better be careful.” Han Fei heard the conversation. With dying breath, he used his finger to dip into the black mouth trickling from his mouth and wrote on the wall.
“He seems to be writing something.” The younger guard walked forward again to take a closer look at the uneven characters. “Do not go out? There is…. Outside…?”
Han Fei seemed to lose all his energy after writing those words. He collapsed in a pool of blood. With tears in his eyes, his black and cracked lips moved like they were going to say something. Seeing the state he was in, even Brother Hwa was shaken. He glanced at his wrist watch, and after a few minutes, said, “Bring him upstairs first!”
The young guard carried Han Fei while Brother Hwa stared closely at Han Fei’s face. He asked, “Why are you at Building 1 and wearing our guard uniform?”
“I… am the new guard assigned to this neighbourhood.” Han Fei said raspily, “There are ghosts outside. Can’t see clearly. Whenever a song begins, someone will die…”
“Ghosts? Is this building really haunted? The other disappeared guards were all captured by ghosts?” The young guard who carried Han Fei was fearful and shocked.
Han Fei was confused when he heard that. The guards here appeared to have their memory changed. They had forgotten many things and then inputted with new memories. Memory manipulation? Wasn’t that the specialty of Fu Sheng?
When Han Fei barged into the black fog, his own memory was touched as well. Thankfully Jin Sheng’s story saved him or else he would be like these guards, injected with new memories and turned into the Ziggurat’s puppets.
“It’s taboo to talk about these things after dark!” Brother Hwa scolded sternly. After glaring at the young guard, he turned back to Han Fei. “What’s your name?’
“My name is Bai Sinian. Because I was too afraid, I stayed very far away from the song and that was how I managed to survive.” Han Fei perfectly adopted Bai Sinian’s story. Not only that, he also inherited the young man’s personality, way of speaking, mannerism and personality. “By the way, I have something else to tell you.” Han Fei looked at the empty corridor and his heart jumped unevenly. “I heard 3 sets of footsteps coming down the stairs earlier but you were the only 2 that came into the corridor. I’m afraid there’s something else inside the corridor, watching us…”
